And THEN...

Dear friends,

It is my understanding that one of the versions of the Greek Old Testament has been nicknamed the “kai ye” or “and then” version, due to the translator’s proclivity to stick very closely and literally to the Hebrew (Biblical Hebrew often begins sentences with something like “and then”).

So for this update, we’re gonna zip through chronologically ordered vignettes. Additionally, we’re gonna do precisely what we were instructed as kids in creative writing class not to do: “Don’t begin every new sentence with AND THEN!”

Nov. 5th, Sunday
We moved in to the apartment in Dainzú. Without a fridge. And without a stove. But we were very happy to have our own space.

Nov. 14th, Tuesday (a mere 9 fridge-less and stove-less days later)
And then we got a small used stove + oven! And it worked and we could cook with it! And it had no serious issues. (This is a form of foreshadowing in which the stove acts as a literary foil to the fridge we would purchase soon after, both in the sense that stoves heat and refrigerators cool AND in the sense that the stove worked and the fridge[s] didn’t.)

Nov. 15th, Wednesday
And then we bought a used fridge from a guy named Cándido, who helpfully came to drop it off.

Nov. 20th, Monday (a mere 5 days later)
And then the fridge started making weird sounds and would only very slightly lower the temperature of the food inside, but not really.

Nov. 22nd, Wednesday
And then Cándido came back to replace the fan on the fridge at no extra cost. He said that was surely the problem. And then he also fixed the screen door to our apartment. And we were grateful for both of those things.

Nov. 28th, Tuesday (a mere 6 days later)
And then the fridge started not refrigerating again, and doing miscellaneous malfunctiony things. I texted Cándido about it. He said he would switch it out for another fridge, this time a more authentically refrigerational one.

Dec. 1st, Friday
And then Cándido brought us a whole other fridge and took away the large, fridge-shaped, merely ornamental non-fridge furniture item. And then there was much rejoicing.

Dec. 3rd, Sunday (a mere 2 days later)
And then this second fridge didn’t fridge either, nor did it freeze. This time I told Cándido maybe it would be best if he just gave us our money back. But he said “Wait, I’ve fixed fridge #1 and now it’ll definitely work!”

Dec. 5th, Tuesday
And then Cándido brought back pseudo-fridge #1 and took non-fridge #2 with him.

Dec. 6th, Wednesday
And then the fridge refrigerated for a few hours and then it turned off. Forever. I told Cándido “Look man, we’re grateful for all the follow-up, but we really need a working fridge and to get a fridge we need our money back.” He agreed to reimburse us.

Dec. 7th, Thursday
And then we went fridge shopping in Oaxaca. We checked prices at a total of 7 department and furniture stores. What we found was that we could get the best price for a model we liked by purchasing it online through the Bodega Aurrera website (which got us an additional discount) and having it shipped to us. And then we went to a bank to exchange some cash USD for pesos. And then we placed our order. The store attendant who helped us place the [online] order assured us it would arrive within a week even though the tracking page said “delivery scheduled for Jan. 11th, 2024 (a mere month+ down the road). We weren’t sure who to believe.

Dec. 8th - 13th
And then we waited
and waited
and waited
and sometimes checked the tracking page
and waited
and all the food went bad
and waited
and waited

Dec. 14th, Wednesday
Days elapsed w/o reliable fridge: 39
And then we checked the tracking page at ~10:00am. It said our fridge was still somewhere called Cuautitlán Izcalli, which sounded made up even to us. And then we dragged ourselves through melancholy family devotions and prayer. Fer began to pray, “Lord, give me patience in this situation… wait Lord, no, I don’t want patience. I want my fridge! Lord, please make my fridge get here soon!!” And then I went to the city. I met up with a friend to have coffee before work, during which coffee I regaled him with our tale of fridge-woe, relating our angst over how soon or late we would be getting our latest model of refrigerating gear. Add to that the nagging thought that it might not work even when it did arrive… And then I went to work. I was able to leave a little early that day. And THEN as I was arriving in front of our neighbourhood I got a call from Fer: “FedEx is here!!! Where are you? Well, get here now! RUN!” Our fridge had arrived! And then we let it sit for 12+ hours before plugging it in.

Dec. 14th, Thursday
And then we plugged it in, and it effortlessly cooled stuff below and froze stuff above. And we were so happy.

Dec. 15th, Friday
And then Fer took a pregnancy test (without my knowledge).

Dec. 16th, Saturday
And then Fer told me that that pregnancy test was positive!!! And there was MUCH rejoicing! 🚼

Dec. 20th, Wednesday (a mere 4 days later)
Days elapsed w/working fridge: 6
And then our landlady called to tell us that she was selling the apartment and that we wouldn't be able to renew the contract after the 6 months were up (May 2nd, 2024). This made us very sad. We really liked Dainzú and had even talked about staying for a couple years.

It’s hard to convey just how hard of a punch in the gut this news was. We’d been displaced from our previous home for 5 months before renting this apartment, so it felt SO special that we finally had this place. We had even begun to imagine the future in optimistic hues: what it would be like to welcome our second child into our home in Dainzú, how long we might live there, maybe start a children’s choir with the neighbourhood kids… but no. 😭

In spite of it all that, we had a lovely Christmastime with friends from Dainzú, friends in Oaxaca city, and my sister Johanna and her family (the Schwabs). Tim and Johanna Schwab and their three lovely kids spent the holidays in Mitla before heading out to their new permanent ministry assignment in Tlaxiaco.

Jan. 4th, (2024) Thursday
And then it was my 31st birthday. 🎂🎈

Jan. 6th, Saturday
And then it was our 6th anniversary 💞

Jan. 8th, Monday
And then Esmeralda was waking up SO many times during the night to nurse. Fer was fraying at the seams, exhausted from nursing baby #1 while simultaneously baking baby #2.

Jan. 9th, Tuesday
And then Esmeralda was up for MOST of the night of the 8th-9th and we slept almost not at all. And then we said, “We need to sleep train this baby and wean her from nighttime feedings RIGHT NOW.” The problem now was that the old lady living on the other side of the wall from Esmeralda’s room would bang on the wall if we let our baby cry for more than like 2 minutes. Which is terrible, but let’s keep moving. I contacted our friends Paul & Hope Towne about living temporarily at their house in Mitla, which wasn’t being used at the time. They generously agreed. We quickly packed what we needed for what we thought would be just a few nights and we headed out. Now we had a more private place where our baby could cry all she liked without the neighbours creating a hullabaloo.

Now, being at the Townes’ house in Mitla meant we could see Tim and Johanna and the kids far more frequently. We stayed a few extra days to spend more time with them. And then it was Friday, Jan. 19th …

Jan. 19th, Friday
And then Esmeralda was sleeping wonderfully through the nights and we felt like we'd been born again again. It was time to return to our lovely little apartment in Dainzú. We began packing, hoping we could clean the Townes’ house and get back in time to put Esme down for a nap back at home. And then the landlady called. She said we had to be out by February.

For context, the first time she had suggested we move out was a mere 6 days after we moved in! She continued to make strange and even hostile comments during our tenure there. It would take too long to explain why and how quickly our relationship with the landlady soured, so we’re going to skim over a lot. If you want details, just ask. I’ll summarise: it became obvious that her actions amounted to premeditated malevolence in order to con us out of our our security deposit. The situation was becoming impossible and we decided we’d be better off putting distance between us and her. We were kicked out well before the end of the lease. No, we have no intention of suing her. We don’t have the time or stomach for that. Believe me when I say that Jesus’ words to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” have been weighing heavily on me these days.

Jan. 20th - 31st
And then we had to move. Fast. Again. Without really knowing where to go. Well, for starters we contacted the Townes again to say something along the lines of, "We don't really have a place to live... Can we continue to stay at your house?" Paul and Hope have been so gracious to us, letting us live live in their house while they're away (they plan to return in April).

26: the total number of days we enjoyed our brand new fridge after 39 grueling days without one.

If you’ve been doing the math you’ll notice that Fer’s pregnancy weeks 9, 10, and 11 (1st trimester = fatigue, nausea, vomiting) were spent boxing up our clothes, dishes, books, and other belongings, all while continuing to live as refugees in the Townes’ house. Don’t get me wrong; we are SO grateful that someone could simply lend us their whole house and at the drop of a hat! It’s just that all these other things added stress upon stress, and after a while we began to realise that we’re getting used to living constantly at a stress level that is too high for us to be well. Our cherished fridge is now sitting silent and unused inside our old trailer, which functions as a storage unit.

Now time for something fun. When we found out in December that we were pregnant, we concocted a plan to surprise Fer’s parents with the news by showing up at their door unannounced. Providentially, we found very inexpensive tickets to fly to the new AIFA airport, relatively close to Pachuca (Fer’s hometown).

Feb. 1st - 6th
And then we flew to Pachuca to visit Fer’s family for a long weekend. We successfully pulled off our plan to surprise them, and there was much rejoicing. And then we flew "home" or whatever.

Feb. 15th, Thursday (tomorrow)
And then we’re going to go on another trip to see the Mixtec market town of Tlaxiaco (and the Schwabs).

That should bring you up to speed. Just today I was asked by an old friend, “Where do you live?” to which I replied, “That’s the million-dollar question!” We know we'll move at the end of March, so time is short. Given everything that’s transpired between May 2023 and now, we feel that the Lord has closed many doors to us here in Oaxaca (sometimes literal apartment doors). We feel his prompting—sometimes gentle and sometimes urgent—to lift up our eyes and ask where else he may have in mind for us to live. Two cities are currently on our radar: Tlaxiaco (Oaxaca state) and Puebla (capital city of Puebla state). The aforementioned trip to Tlaxiaco is really an exploratory trip to see what God may or may not show us while we’re there. Lord knows there’s a lot of need, and a lot of need for music education, and a lot of need for discipleship. In Tlaxiaco we see a place where we could potentially do lots of ministry in lots of ways, and hopefully be a lot of help to people out there. In Puebla, however, we see a place where we could live in community, get counselling, and hopefully heal a bit from the ongoing misadventures of life over the past year. That’s not to say being in ministry isn’t in our vision of life in Puebla; in fact most of the friends we know there are in various different music ministries including church music, music education, and Valsecamp (music camp where Fer and I met). In summary, we face a choice between continuing in ministry in which we are mostly giving while running on fumes, or going somewhere where we can receive and be fed even as we give of ourselves.

We feel confident that we're called to be in ministry, maybe even full-time ministry. What we're asking ourselves is whether we're ready, or if maybe we need some more health, maturity, and stability first.

Till next time, God bless.
Isaac (on behalf of the four of us!)

Please pray:

• that we wouldn't panic (rather, that we would feel God's indescribable peace)
• that we would be sensitive to God's voice as we make a big decision as to where to go next
• that God would provide abundantly for this move (financially yes, but especially in the form of lots helping hands)
• that we would have the strength to finish the myriad tasks and to-do's before April arrives (e.g. sell the car, get the trailer road-worthy, get rid of more stuff, eat as many tlayudas as possible)
• that Fer would feel strong and well all through this pregnancy, and that we will find good pre-natal care
• that we won't scar our daughter too deeply by moving her around all the time (4 moves within a year) 😬
• that we would say the necessary goodbyes and have good closure to our years in Oaxaca 🥹

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