Change of Plans

So this mini saga continues...

Yesterday we woke up in Amarillo, TX, happy as could be that we'd have a relatively short drive ahead of us and we could take it easy and enjoy a bit of Amarillo.

Some went to breakfast; some went to Starbucks; some went to Wal-Mart. We also skyped into both church services at Kaw Prairie to pray with and greet the church there (which kind of reminds me of Paul writing letters to the churches. I bet if he'd known about Skype he'd be jealous). That was a really cool thing.

We could see the church worshiping, we laughed with them, and we prayed with them. It felt a little like being on Oprah, but I liked it way more.

So we head out of town and head for Cadillac Ranch, a little piece of land just west of Amarillo where they buried a line of old Cadillacs in the sand and allow people to come by and spray paint them. That was a totally amazing experience and we had so much fun finding poses for pictures in and around the cars.

I'd be showing you pictures of all this but the 13 people who brought cameras knew they wouldn't have a computer to download their pictures to so none brought their USB cables.

I guess they hadn't heard a Mac was coming on the trip :)

Well, the really exciting stuff is what comes next.

As soon as we were done at the Ranch, we got a call from our partners from Wichita saying to us that Amor Ministries was recommending we do not go to Ciudad Juarez. In the days leading up to this there had been a shooting there, which I'm sure you saw on the news, that killed three Americans.

The most relevant reason, however, why they thought we should not come through, was because just down the street from our camping site, a fight had broken out at a party on Saturday night and a Mexican national had been shot and killed. No harm has come to anyone with Amor, and the violence at this party had nothing apparently to do with the overall conflicts going on in Juarez, but with an incident that close to the camp, they thought it best to send us elsewhere.

This, by the way, is one of the reasons we trust Amor, their attentiveness, and their judgment when it comes to looking after the teams.

So we had a few options, but really only one possible one: to go to Arizona, cross over at Lukeville, AZ, and head to Puerto Peñasco, Mexico, and build a single unit there.

This morning we woke up at the Super 8 in Flagstaff Arizona. What we thought would be a short day of travel yesterday turned into a 9-hour road trip which we are now recovering from (the waffles at the Super 8 really help with that).

Later this morning we'll be going to Lukeville, crossing in to Mexico, and heading right down to work as soon we can get to it. Long live the concrete volcano.

After we leave this hotel it will be harder for me to blog, but I'll try to get on here as often as I can.

You'll see tons of pictures when we get home, or you may see some sooner if we can get our hands on a USB cable :)

Thanks again for your partnership, support and prayers.