It's Been A Year

It's been a year.

A year since I stepped way out of my comfort zone and my steady life in the States.

I jumped feet first into life in Mexico.

Unlike some of my former roommates who are much better about blogging (I'm looking at you Tacha and Ellen), I haven't made a new post since May of last year. Some of that is because blogging seemed slightly lower on my priority scale than getting settled into college, but honestly some of it had to do with my lack of something to say.

I've been so busy doing so many things that I haven't stopped to reflect on how to explain how much life has changed for me in a year. So here it goes:

I flew back to the States.

I very slowly adjusted to things like public water fountains, driving while actually following road signage, hearing English instead of Spanish, and not getting Taco Tuesday.

I worked for the summer.

I moved to Athens.

I got three new roommates.

I started college at UGA. Go Dawgs.
Sorry, Jeff and Liesa. I know the disappointment is acute.

I found a new church.

I took way too many classes my first semester.

I started taking Farsi/Persian which is a completely new language to me.

I finally finished that awful first semester.

I got to go home for three precious weeks at Christmas.

I started a second semester.

I made new friends.

I went on a mission trip for spring break.

I calculated how many classes I have left before I graduate. It seems like too many and not enough time.

I applied for and got turned down for an internship I really wanted.

I started to think about what happens after college. This is a novel thought for me.


But in everything that's happened over this year, one remaining theme has been glaringly evident to me.

Me.

Almost every single one of those sentences started with I.

College has made me pull into myself and become more introverted than I've ever been. And that's made me more self-centered than I've ever been. I don't want to be self-centered.

I want to be Christ-centered.

This is something that's been heavy on my mind after spending my spring break supposedly helping others. I noticed on the trip that I kept putting everything in terms of what I wanted or how it was going to affect me. In Mexico, it was easy to be Christ-centered. I was in an unfamiliar places with new people and nothing was normal to me. That made me lean more on my relationship with Christ than on my ability to do things. In the States, I feel back into self-sufficiency and self-placating habits. That's not Christianity. Christianity is about others. Helping other people, sharing Jesus with other people, loving on other people, and being Christ to other people.

So here's my new plan:

I want to be interested in other people. How they feel, what they are looking for, what hurts them, what makes them laugh, and anything else they want to tell me. I want to be a listener and not a talker. That's going to be hard for me. I like to fix things and make people feel better by giving them advice. I can't make that my goal anymore. I have to listen.

My life verse is Micah 6:8 - "He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

For me, this has my life plan in it:
Justice- My career aspirations.
Mercy- The things I need to work on as I go through life. Because anyone who has met me for even a short time knows how little mercy I have most days.
Walk- My daily walk with Christ and how important and influential it is.

So my listening? That's loving mercy. I don't love easily, nor am I merciful. The Lord has been showing me and working on me about this for several months now. I want to be teachable when I'm not falling under what the Lord requires of me. I'm going to heed His direction to listen to be more like Him and less like me.

My year has been hard. There have been times I've been angry about moving to Athens and dealing with new places and people. Times when I wanted to throw my hands up and say I'm done with this. Even so, my focus needs to shift. I'm not focusing on me now. I'm focusing on other people.

That's what this year is about. 

Seasons

Seasons.

Time.

Most people have heard the verse in the Bible that says there is a time and a season for everything. I have experienced seasons in my life, but I have never experienced one like this. Ecclesiastes 3:1-14:

There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:
2     a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3     a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,
4     a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5     a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6     a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7     a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8     a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace.
9 What do workers gain from their toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13 That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. 14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.

I've had my times of laughing here.

I've had my times of weeping here.

My time in Mexico has been marked by times of great happiness and profound sadness. I have learned much about myself and my relationship with my Savior. My life has been forever changed by the things I have learned here from people I've met, places I've been, and things I've done. This season of my life is closing.

I don't want it to end. I want it to keep going. But verse 11 tells me that my time here is ending but my mission does not. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Every day I am being made more beautiful to Him and to others because it in His time, not mine.

Though I am leaving "the mission field", internationally at least, I am not leaving my calling: to tell others about Jesus. The next part of the verse says that He has set eternity in the human heart. How can I not tell others about Him, knowing they already have a longing in their human hearts? As a follower of Christ, I am called to share Christ with everyone I meet. I have taken satisfaction with the work I have done, but I am not yet done.

We've had team in this week from Ole Miss, and it's been wonderful to get to know them and make new friends. But they too have a mission field of their own back in the States, though we've been working along side each other for the Lord's Kingdom this week. I mourn for them leaving, but I rejoice in the work that has been done through and in them here because they too will have seasons in their lives.

Something else I have learned through all these seasons is how sufficient God is. I have had some difficult moments where mission life was not fun. It has been hard a few times. It has made me want to quit. But then I remember 2 Corinthians 12:9: "But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me."

In those times when I am weeping, He is my Comforter. When I am laughing, He is smiling along with me. When I am worrying, He is my Peace. When I am hurting, He is my Healer. His grace is sufficient for me in all that I do. When I mess up. When I succeed. His grace makes me perfect in my weakness in all the seasons of my life.

The Christian life is seasons. Seasons that are awesome. Seasons that are hard. Seasons that are failures and seasons that are successes. Christ did not promise seasons. But His grace is sufficient and made perfect in my weaknesses. So, I choose to remember that His grace is sufficient. That I am less, and He is more.

Huatulco

I apologize in advance if this post incites jealousy. It just might.

I have been incredibly blessed to work with some awesome people during my time here. The H's, Natasha, Ellen, Jennifer, the M's, and many others have enriched my life and changed it irreparably. I hope that I have left a small mark with them as well because they have been so influential to me. But our team retreat to Huatulco will probably be one of the time that I hold dearest about my time here. Between the company, the views, and the teaching I was able to sit under, I can safely say that I will never forget my time there.

Here's what happened: We loaded four children under the age of eight, two teenagers, four hands on, and two married couples into two vehicles. Then we drove seven hours on some of the windiest roads I've ever been on over the mountains to the south of Oaxaca. After seven hours in a car with very few stops, we reached.... Huatulco, Oaxaca, Mexico. I've never seen anything like it. It was mountains, and then suddenly, beach!

This is the beautiful house that we stayed in, Flor d' Mar or Flower of the Sea!

The view our of our "front door". Though there was no door.

The view form the palapa or roof hang out area.

Part of the house.

There were beautiful flowers everywhere!

The palapa in the top right of the picture, along with Natasha and Ellen's room to the left and Haylee's to the right.

The view from my room. Every morning. I didn't want to leave.

The beautiful picture window in the main house.

The main house.

Our view

Was this place not amazing?!? Props to Jeff for finding it and thanks again for allowing us Hands On girls to tag along! But, we didn't just look at the beach....

We went to it!

First day, first beach!

Day Two on the completely deserted beach. Amazing.

Then we came home. And kind of made Jackson sit in the floor most of the way home.

Not that you can tell by this picture, but we got pretty carsick... Ugh.

Our team. :)  The Fantastic Four.

What a beautiful place with such wonderful people. It was an experience I will never forget. I learned so much from my leaders who poured into us and into each other. Things I had never thought about, but once I heard them, I was convicted to change things in my life.

These people have all changed my life in some way. I can never forget them or my time here.

Forgiveness

Forgiveness.

This word holds both deep meaning and much learning for me, yet I am still continually amazed at how often I forget its importance. As a follower of Christ, this word has a meaning to me that I cannot even put into words, yet I still sometimes neglect to remember what exactly forgiveness has done for me.

Psalm 130:3-4

"If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you."

Acts 10:43
"All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."

Acts 13:38-39
 "Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. 39 Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses. "

Do you see what all of these verses have in common, along with forgiveness? Sin. Sin requires the presence of forgiveness in order to move on and have a right relationship with anyone, but most especially with my Savior. The verse in Psalms is a balm to my soul in those moments when I am mired in guilt over my sin-sick flesh. With Him there is forgiveness, and an opportunity to serve Him with reverence. How merciful and gracious is our Heavenly Father who not only forgives my unpardonable sins, He also allows me to participate in His Kingdom's work! His forgiveness means everything. And what has this forgiveness done for me? It has changed me. It has challenged me. It has taught me. It is still continually doing all of these things and more to me as I grow in faith.

If my perfect Father can forgive me of all my sins, what gives me the right to hold on to silly grudges that will count as nothing in eternity? This is an especially hard lesson for me to learn because I am a proud person who does not like admitting defeat or being wrong. And saying sorry is even more difficult to me. Yet I know that as a follower of Christ, I am obligated to follow all of His commands, not just the ones I find easy to follow or the ones that I like. Jesus' words are not a store where I get to pick what I want to follow. He demands all or nothing.

I love the verse in Acts 13, where it says that we have been set free from every sin. Every sin. Is that not good news and cause for rejoicing? Every sin that so easily entangles me has no hold on me! It does not mean that I never sin. It simply means that sin no longer has a grip on me. It cannot bind me. It cannot enslave me. I am still daily battling with my flesh and my sin, yet I know that when I do sin, He is forgiving. He does not remember my sins, nor does He hold them against me. For that alone, I should forever worship Him, but He still goes beyond that. I am a redeemed sinner who is a work-in-progress, and my Holy God stills wants to guide and direct me so that I may tell others about this forgiveness that covers everything. There is nothing, no sin, no thought, no deed, no wish, no desire that God cannot forgive and use for His glory.

So because His forgiveness is all-encompassing and forever in use, I am required to show the same forgiveness and the same love to everyone around me. It's quite easy with those people that I love and enjoy being around. But His Gospel requires people to be uncomfortable. Forgiving can be quite uncomfortable, can't it? Especially with those people that annoy us. Or those people that we feel we deserve something from, like an apology or understanding. But Jesus requires us to show forgiveness to everyone, regardless of what emotions they make us feel. Unforgiveness oftentimes hurts the grudge-holder more than the person the grudge is against. Why? Because unforgiveness can hinder our relationship with God.

Jesus even spoke about this in the parable He told Peter in Matthew 18:21-35.


21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”
22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.
29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’
30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.
32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

The servant's unforgiveness reminds me so much of the times I have held onto my anger and my hurt over things that have happened, some of them that I should have had reason to want an apology for. Yet I still want full forgiveness from a holy God when I sin against Him. I cannot have it both ways. I must forgive, and I must forgive all.

And did you catch those last three words? From your heart. God knows quite well that giving lip service to forgiveness means nothing if our hearts are not behind it. He promises heavy retribution against His followers who do not forgive. Is it because He is unmerciful? Angry? Uncaring? Mean? No. It is because He has shown His followers the greatest example of forgiveness in all of history, and He has commanded us to follow it. How can I follow His command to love my neighbor, yet not forgive them when I get my feelings hurt or when I am angry? I must shed the worldly thoughts of grudges and revenge and put on the right thought of forgiveness. I cannot be a true follower of Christ and not conform to His image without always forgiving those who have wronged me and seeking forgiveness from those I have wronged.

So my dear friend, will you continue to hold on to unforgiveness and neutralize your ability to be used by our constantly forgiving God? Or will you make it a point to forgive readily and seek forgiveness whenever necessary? I choose forgiveness because I want to be a usable tool in the hands of my Master.

Wait

Wait.

Hold on.

There are so many verses in the Bible, but in Psalms especially about waiting on the Lord.
Ps. 37:7- Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.
Ps. 27:14- Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.
Ps. 38:15- Lord, I wait for you; you will answer, Lord my God.
Ps. 40:1- I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry.

All of these verses speak about waiting on the Lord for an answer or to hear my cry. The Christian life does not mean that I get all of my answers when I am saved or at some magical moment when I trust God more. He requires me to wait on Him, to seek answers for those questions that I wrestle with deep in my soul.

Did you see that? To get an answer, I must wait on the Lord. This doesn't mean He is ignoring me or that He doesn't care. It means that an all-mighty God who knows everything is gently trying to teach this broken sinner that everything in my spiritual life isn't easy. That I must wait, even for those answers that I am agonizing over.

He doesn't do that to me because He enjoys my pain over something that has happened to me, nor because He just wants me to sit around because He's God and He can do that. He does it so that I may be more patient. So that I trust Him more. So that I depend on Him more.

And why would I not willingly wait on my all-knowing God to give me the perfect answer I seek? Because I still fight daily with my sinful flesh. I care more about what it wants than about what God requires of me.
Romans 8:5-8 describes this.
5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

The reason why I don't want to wait patiently and why I often argue with God over waiting? I am too busy living according to my flesh. Verse 7 is even more convicting. When I am more concerned with my flesh, I cannot submit to God, and that includes waiting on His answers. How gracious is my God, that He does not cast me off when I am more concerned with my flesh than with His commands!

And so, even though I am highly impatient, I will wait on the Lord. I will wait for His answers to my burning questions. I will wait for His wisdom. I will wait.

Village Day!

Fair warning, this is another long post! But it is my favorite one so far, I think. It was a new experience for us and something we learned so much from.

On Saturday, we headed out to a local village to see what it's like out there. It's very different from the city that we live in, but it was still great fun. John and Jenny live in a village about twenty or so minutes outside of the city, and Jenny planned a whole day for us to experience village life! We did all sorts of fun things, and we learned so much about the indigenous people that we have come to love since living here.

For our first adventure, we attended Jenny's English class in her village! There were about 18 or so kids there, and we heard lots of phonics and sounds. It was very lively too!

Jenny's class

The next adventure was definitely one of my favorites! We made tortillas BY HAND!! How cool is that?!? Jenny's sweet next door neighbor, Mary Magdalena, taught us how to make them and let us practice in her kitchen. It was probably the neatest thing I've been able to do.

Getting it all ready!

The metal bucket originally held corn, and earlier that day, Mary Magdalena had taken it to the market to get her corn ground and made into the white stuff. The white stuff on the stone is called masa and it's what we made the tortillas out of. 

So, here's the process in pictures:

Natasha was the guinea pig. Step one: Pinch off masa and check with  our teacher to ensure we had the right amount, not too much, not too little. 

Step two: After rounding, then flattening the dough, place it on the presa de masa (tortilla press), and  make sure the dough is correctly placed between the two pieces of plastic.

Step three: Close the VERY heavy press and squish! Use those muscles, Natasha!

Step four: Very carefully peel back the plastic on one side, then flip it over and repeat.
Step five (not pictured): Carefully flip the super flimsy tortilla onto your dominant hand and head toward the comal.

Step six: Quickly and very gently kind of roll the tortilla onto the comal (that super hot looking cooking surface with the fire under it) while trying not to wrinkle it or burn the snot out of yourself.

Step seven: THE SCARIEST STEP. You gotta flip that tortilla....barehanded. That's right. We picked up hot tortillas and flipped them with nothing between us and the hot comal. You would let the tortilla cook for a minute or so and then Mary Magdalena would point to a spot and you would have to take the tortilla there and flip it. Talk about new experiences. My mama always taught me to stay AWAY from hot surfaces and never touch them....

Needless to say, the whole process was pretty amazing, and we greatly enjoyed it. Once you go over the I-think-I'm-about-to-burn-myself moment, it was such fun. Mary Magdalena was an awesome teacher, and she knew exactly how to teach us white girls all about tortillas. And because it was much more difficult than it looked, we all cheered when someone got it right. Even our sweet teacher smiled and congratulated us as we achieved our goal of A) not burning ourselves and B) successfully working with the tortillas.

Sorry for the video not being great, but I thought I'd show you how it goes!

Forming the dough

Putting the toritlla on!

My first tortilla!

Check out these mad tortilla skills!

Hot, handmade tortillas with a little salt makes the best breakfast!

Even John got in on the tortilla making! And, just so you know, typically men do not make tortillas by hand in the villages. Sometimes, you'll see men in town working at tortillarias in town, but most of the time, the handmade ones are done by women. And it's quite obvious that they have been doing this their whole lives!

A better look at the peel and flip step.

John tried to make a tlayuda-sized tortilla. It didn't go well.

So, we girls were making normal sized tortillas, then John came in and wanted to outshine us girls by making a tlayuda-sized one. Tlayudas (pronounced just like it's spelled. Tly-u-da.) are basically the Oaxacan version of a pizza. They're considered to be a dish representative of the state, particularly of the city of Oaxaca. It's a tortilla with beans spread on it and then piled with quesilla (cheese), lettuce, tomatoes, avacados, meat, and whatever else you want. The only difference is that tlayudas are MASSIVE. They can be bigger than a foot in diameter in some places. So, you can imagine that if we were having issues with the little ones, the tlayuda-sized ones are even more difficult! Mary Magdalena's press wasn't big enough for John to show off that much, he still made bigger ones than us girls.

Everyone was freaked out by getting THAT close to the comal with our not-used-to-the-ridiculous-heat fingers.

A normal tortilla on the left and a tlayuda-sized one on the right. 

The tortilla-making group!

Mary Magdalena also makes tapetes or rugs. Sometimes they're used as wall hangings and sometimes they are used as rugs. Unfortunately, she didn't have any made that I could take pictures of, but she did show us her loom!

So complicated! And I later found out that this was a SIMPLE setup! She weaves with cotton, and some other people in her village use wool.

She uses this to spool out what she's weaving with.

After our amazing lesson with Mary Magdalena, we headed over to another villager's house to get ready for the next adventure! John and Jenny attend the local church and their pastor and his family make tapetes as well. They were sweet enough to let us in on the whole process and feed us lunch! Macedonia, Namacio, Flor, Cenon, Marianna, and a few other people from their artisan's group came in to show us the whole process.

This was lunch! Entomatadas are the reddish section, frijoles (beans) are the brown stuff, and the last thing is verda lago (It's eggs mixed with a spinach-y flavored herb).

We also drank horchata. It's a rice/water drink that I liked more than expected to. It has sugar and  cinnamon in it. It tasted kind of like Christmas to me. 

And this is how horchata is made. The rice is ground into a paste and then the paste is dissolved into a pitcher  with water, sugar, and cinnamon. I liked it but some of my table-mates loved it. 

Macedonia hard at work on the horchata.

After lunch, we went out into the yard to see how they make these beautiful tapetes. Here are just a few of the ones they had up for us to look at. I wanted to buy them all. They were so beautiful. 

Look at the artistry of these things! (And see those adorable wallets down there? Yeah, I couldn't resist. A few went home with me.)

After we checked out what they had up, we gathered around for the first step....

Shearing the sheep! And yes, they did it right there for us! Sadly, we found out that this cute sheep was headed for the barbacoa (I'm sure you can guess what that is...) after it gave up the wool...

Now on to step two!

Washing the wool. It came out super dirty the first time, so Marianna rinsed it twice. (Side note: Check out her beautifully braided hair! A lot of the village women here do it, and I think it's the coolest looking thing ever!)

Then step three: Plop it on the ground to dry!

Step four: This one looked rather painful! Mariana picks through ALL the wool and gets out all the sand-spurs and plant fibers that she can. As she picks through it, she sorts it into colors to help with the dying process

Sorted wool.

Step five: Beat the tar outta the wool. This loosens the fibers and makes them more stretchy.

Step six: Carding the wool between those two paddle-looking things.This gets the fibers aligned into the same directions for spooling.

Then you take off this fluffy stuff and head over to....

Step seven: Spindling!

The spindle! Just like in Sleeping Beauty!

Macedonia showed us how it worked for a few minutes. You hold the wool in one hand, then you spin the wheel, which turns the spindle, and it spins the wool into yarn!

 Step eight: Then you wind the yarn into these big loops for dyeing.

Step nine: Then you wash, wash, wash again!

Then step ten: Dyeing! We headed over to their dyeing area to see how it's done. They use only natural dyes found in plants to dye the wool. They have a vast number of colors that they can make by combining things or using one particular plant. It was amazing to see even the artistry in how they dyed everything.

This is Flor grinding up the cochineal bugs to make red.

These bugs are pretty expensive because they're difficult to harvest. They come off of a certain cactus plant. They grind these up to make a beautiful deep red color.

The dyeing area.

They have to set the red color with lemon juice, so Macedonia was squishing the lemons!

This is Cenon. He was really sweet, and he lived in the States for a long time, so he spoke good English! That was awesome when this guerra had a bunch of questions about the process. He's holding the flower they use to dye the yarn yellow. After much discussion among all of us there, we determined that we think this is a marigold. 

The red dye bath on the left, and the yellow on the right. 

They showed us how you can dye different colors of wool to get different colors of yarn. The one on the left was originally gray and the one on the right was white.

Aren't these colors beautiful?

And all of that was step eleven!

Now for step twelve: Winding the wool onto the loom and weaving!

This is a hand-built loom that they use to weave the tapetes.

See all those knots? Yeah, those are hand-tied. All four hundred and something of them. 

This is made of bamboo, and it helps keep the yarn straight.

Cenon and Namacio were winding the yarn onto the loom for us. It looked very difficult.

Cenon was keeping them straight while Namacio wound it on and fed the yarn in.

This sweet guy whose name I cannot spell, showed us how they actually weave. It was very complicated. He had these pedals he stepped on, while making sure that his yarn was straight, and keeping it all very tight. This was just a one-person loom. But then they showed us....

The three person loom! Look at how big it is! They said that it can take them up to two weeks working eight hours a day to make a tapete on this loom!

Namacio and Flor showed us how to do it. They said that they can work this loom with just the two of them though.

Namacio and Flor joked that it kept marriages in the village together because if you work on a loom together, you have to talk and work with each other a lot!

All in all, we had probably my favorite day since coming here, and we learned so much. It was neat to learn about the tapetes and for them to show us the process. They were so excited to explain it all to us and teach us about their livelihood. And we were so thrilled to meet some Zapotecan believers. That just made the day even more exciting and memorable.