Christmas Letter 2009

Dear Friends and Family,

Merry Christmas! What an exciting time of the year this is as we celebrate the birth of our Savior! As always, the past year seemed to fly by and was filled with a number of exciting events.
On August 7, David McAlpine joined our family as he and Amy were wed at Carmel Church. What a privilege and blessing to welcome another member into our family.
On Father's Day, we found out that our family will be growing again! Alec and Becky are excitedly expecting a child in February. Amy informed us that now we are officially old, but we can't wait for our first grandchild.
In 2009 we had three daughters and two sons-in-law in college. In June Lori received an Associate's Degree in Accounting from Colorado Tech University and will receive a Bachelor's Degree in December, 2010. Amy finishes this month at Central College with majors in Linguistics and East Asian Studies. David also completes his degree this month, with a major in Banking from Iowa State University. Alec is attending Northwest Iowa Community College in Sheldon for Computer Science, and Becky is studying photography through the New York Photography Institute.
In the spring we began to make plans for Rachel and I to travel with Brian for a year. I received a leave of absence from my ESL responsibilities at school, and we left home in August. So far our travels have taken us to Alaska, Spain, Turkey, Peru, Ecuador and Mexico. It's been an incredible experience to work with so many translation teams as they work to put God's Word into their own languages.
Because of our travels, I'm home-schooling Rachel for her 7th grade year. We enjoy incorporating our travels into our studies, learning about Alaskan landscapes, Muslim beliefs, and Peruvian history. Since we're based in Chiapas, Mexico for 2 1/2 months, Rachel is able to experience where our family lived for five years before she was born.

Although it will be strange not to be "home" for Christmas this year, we can still celebrate the Reason for the Season - Jesus's birth. May you be filled anew with awe and wonder of this miracle. Brian, Donna and Rachel

Guadalupe Day

Today, December 12, is Guadalupe Day in Mexico. I have to admit I knew very little about this holiday before coming here. I knew that the city of San Cristobal had been preparing for it for several weeks, but the actual history was not something I was familiar with. But in school this week Rachel and I have been doing some research and study on what some consider to be Mexico's most important religious holiday.

In 1531, an indigenous man named Juan Diego had two separate visions of the Virgin Mary in a remote area outside Mexico City. After the second vision, during which the Virgin Mary instructed Juan to build a Catholic church in her name, the Catholic officials demanded proof of the visions. When Juan gathered roses in his blanket from the spot of the visions and then showed it to the church officials, there was an imprint of the Virgin Mary on the inside of his blanket.
Since San Cristobal has a church named after The Virgin of Guadalupe, there have been a number of festivities the past few weeks. The area surrounding the church is filled with vendors selling churros, fried bananas, pizza, other foods, toys, and CD's. The church itself is decorated and lit up for the hundreds of people who come to visit it each day and night and worship there.
Another aspect of the celebration includes parades. Several times a day there are a variety of small parades throughout the city. Last Saturday we saw a parade made entirely of candy and potato chip delivery trucks. Other parades include torch runners, replicas of the Virgin de Guadalupe, and musical groups.
A final part of the celebration is fireworks, which have been going off at all hours of the day and night for over a week now. Unfortunately, these are not the fireworks that explode in a colorful shower of lights. These are the fireworks that simply make a loud bang. Hearing these fireworks during the day isn't a huge issue, but at 2:00 A.M., we're not particularly enjoying this part of the festivities!
It's been very interesting learning first-hand about this part of the Mexican culture. Especially since Guadalupe Day is considered to represent the essence of Mexico, the fusion of Catholic Spain and indigenous Mexico.

Misc!!!!

   Random things we have learned the past weeks in Chiapas........

-We can walk one block and get freshly made tortillas. :) Yum!

-Coke is very popular in Mexico; Pepsi not so much. You very, very occasionally see Dr. Pepper and 7-Up, and never Mellow Yellow, Mtn. Dew, or Mr. Pibb.
-Sunday brunches happen a lot here, but they do not start until 1 or 2 pm.
-You can find a lot of places selling tamales on Saturday night.  Some of the kinds are mole, azafran, chicken, pork, frijoles, and many more. My favorites are azafran and chicken.
-Occasionally there are loud bursts of fireworks going off, and it scares me a lot!
-The streets and the sidewalks are not even, and so it makes walking very difficult.
-There are a lot of bakeries selling all different kinds of bread. A bread that is very popular here is Pan Coleto, a sugary, cookie type of bread.
-Most of the streets are one way because they are quite narrow. If there is red arrow, then the cross street has the right of way. If there is a black arrow, then you go first.

-There is one big grocery store, a couple medium sized ones, and a lot of little ones, including lots of fruit and vegetable stands.
-If you hear a clanging sound going by, it's the gas truck. It goes by several times each day.
-If you hear the "Mission Impossible" song, it's the water truck selling big containers of drinking water. It also goes by several times a day.
-If you hear a cow bell, it's the garbage truck. This goes by only once a day, and it's in the morning.
-Graffiti is on a lot of the houses and stores around here.  I'm not very observant, but my mom thinks there's more graffiti every day! 

-

Voces para la Paz y la Fraternidad

Last night we had the privilege of attending a concert entitled "Voices for Peace and Brotherhood". As many of you are aware, there has been a great deal of unrest in the state of Chiapas the past several years, coming to a head with the Zapatista uprising in 1994. Since that time, various churches throughout the state have united to heal some of the divisions that exist. One result of these efforts was last night's concert. For the past nine years, a number of Chiapas churches have worked together to put on an incredible musical concert. For two hours, we worshipped with groups from Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Baptist, and 7th Day Adventist Churches; groups ranging in size from three to 96; groups accompanied by piano, guitar, marimba, and violin. There was Christmas music, praise songs, English hymns sung in Spanish, and songs that we were hearing for the first time. (The picture is the choir from the Presbyterian Church here in San Cristobal.) Each group was talented and brought a meaningful message, with the final group being a fitting climax to the program. This all-male choir of almost 100 included boys as young as seven, three men playing guitar, two playing trumpet, 32 boys and men playing violin, and the rest singing. The entire concert was an incredible example of different denominations working together for a single purpose - raising their voices in praise to God.

One of the blessings of the past few months has been getting to know people from so many different countries. That thought struck me last week as we met with the Ch'ols and individuals from the Mexican, Netherlands, and Norwegian Bible Societies. It also struck me last night when we went out for dinner after the concert. Just yesterday we met a young couple from the Netherlands who are teaching at the John Kempers Seminary in Berriozabal. They had come to San Cristobal to hear their friend Rogelio sing in the concert. (Rogelio and Becky live in the basement apartment of the house we're staying in.) At dinner there were 14 of us sitting around the table with Spanish, English, Tzotzil, Tzeltal, and Dutch all represented. What a great time of fellowship we had over tacos, chalupas, and tortas. Our prayer is that wherever you live, whatever language you speak, and whatever foods you may be eating, that you find fellow Christians who can encourage and uplift you in your faith. Take care! Donna