Attack of the killer plants!

A refresher on the past week of my life, since I haven't written for over that long. Last Friday I climbed "La Mula" a mountain close to Ixtlan. No, not alone. A small group of us left at about 10:00 and it took about a half an hour to climb through the jungle the rainy season produced. It was super peaceful at the top and it was calming to just sit there and relax.



Here is the mountain. Intimidating, eh? We went to the top of the ridge on the left. There is a cross at the top that you can see at all in this picture. My dear family will be horrified to hear that I got really worn out at first. I don't know what my problem was, but I had to stop and rest. It was rather embarrassing. I will put your worries at ease, though, and say that I was doing fine at the top and had my normal mountain climbing vigor back.



This is the view from the top. The city is Tecamatan. You couldn't really see Ixtlan from the top. It is weird to look around up there, to see nearly 20 towns, if not more, and realize that there is only one Christian church in all of them.



The mighty cross at the top of the mountain with Spencer at the top. The view from there was spectacular. Yes, I climbed up there too. Don't tell Grandma P. (I don't have a cell phone down here or maybe I would have tried to call her.)



Here are the results of the killer plant. It didn't show up until the sunday after our climb. The really dark spots actually blistered. Whatever the plant was must have had poisonous juices. Spencer has a small spot on his arm too. We don't have a clue what plant it was, but I think it makes me look pretty tough. At Bible study today Lupita and Lupita said it looked like I got in a fight with a cat. You should see the cat...


In other news, I spent Monday through Wednesday in Guanajuato with Juan, a friend of our family from the states.

It was a crazy three days of meeting his family and friends. Eating (and making) some pretty tasty food. Meeting more family. Touring the countryside.

I also got a chance to spend time with some kids he is mentoring which was really fun. We worked mainly on reading and writing. It was a lot of fun to get to know them as well as the rest of the family. Pray for them all. There is a lot of work that God can do there in Juan's family and in his town. Sorry, no pictures. I didn't want to be a tourist...and I always forgot to take my camera with me.

Coming soon...THE SCHOOL DESKS ARE HERE!!!!