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

Chiapas Week #2

It was another great week in San Cristobal. On Monday, Brad Olson came for an eight-day visit. Brad is an RCA missionary, secunded to the United Bible Societies. Brad is one of the main computer programmers for the translation software Paratext 7.
The first two days Brad was here, he and Brian worked together on various issues of Paratext. On Thursday, the four Ch'ol translators came to San Cristobal to work with Brian and Brad for a couple of days. One of the translators had had dengue fever just a few weeks ago, but was feeling well enough to come. Soon after he arrived, however, he got a phone call that his wife was running a high temp and was possibly coming down with dengue as well. So Thursday morning he caught a bus back to Palenque to be with her.
Brian and Brad worked with the other three translators for several hours on Thursday, getting Paratext 7 installed on their computers and teaching them how to use it. The Ch'ols already have the Bible in their language, but they are in the process of revising the text and adding introductions for each book of the Bible. The translators are all full-time pastors and do the translation work in addition to their pastoral responsibilities.
Friday the translators returned for another day of training. Unfortunately, Brad came down with a bug of some sort during the night and was unable to work with them. In fact he was unable to do much of anything for two days! Brian worked with the team quite a bit, with the plan being for us to make a follow-up visit to Palenque at some point in the next month to continue the training.
Friday evening we had a very interesting meeting. Two employees from the Mexican Bible Society, as well as a man from the Norwegian Bible Society and a woman from the Netherlands Bible Society came to meet with the Ch'ol translators. Both Norway and the Netherlands are huge contributors to translation work being done in the Americas. The two individuals had come to visit the Ch'ol and Tojolabal translators to investigate the possibility of providing support for both projects. It was a unique and interesting conversation as they discussed with the Ch'ols their language usage and translation needs. We found out that the man from the Norwegian Bible Society had lived for several years in Canar, so it was exciting to relay to him the good news that the Quichua translation was now completed.
The original plan was for Brad and Brian to go to San Pedro on Sunday to work with the Tojolabal translators for a few days. But since Brad only started feeling better Sunday morning, that didn't seem like a wise decision. So on Sunday we went to a Presbyterian Church here in San Cristobal, then did some walking around and resting in the afternoon (and Brad did a little shopping, as you can see in the picture). We continue to appreciate your prayers as we work with various translation teams here in Chiapas. God bless! Donna

First Week in Chiapas

It was a very good week here in San Cristobal. The first few days we unpacked, did a little furniture rearranging, set up our bedrooms, school room and office, and just plain got settled in. Rachel and I are in a pretty good routine with school and spend most of the days studying together. We also have gone for lots of walks around the city to figure out where the grocery stores, tortillerias, taquerias, and bread stores are (as well as the best places to buy candy!)
Last Tuesday was a little like Christmas in November. Before we left for Acapulco, we had three of our big suitcases shipped to Chiapas. We didn't want to take them with us to Ecuador, Peru, Cheranastico and Acapulco. And it was a lot cheaper to ship them ($23) then to pay the airline's extra baggage fee. So last week Tuesday, Brian went to the shipping company office, and there were our suitcases! It was fun seeing what we had packed and having a few more changes of clothes, books, and some kitchen goodies.
This past weekend seemed somewhat strange, and at first we couldn't figure out why. Then we realized that it was the first weekend since September 5 that we hadn't been traveling! So instead of packing, checking out, catching a bus or plane, checking back in, unpacking, and getting accustomed to a new place, we were free to do something else! So Saturday morning Brian and I went to the market. Now that was the San Cristobal that we remembered! What a reminder of years ago as we walked past stalls selling tomatoes, papaya, avocado, chayote, several variety of bananas, as well as chickens, spices, rice, beans, and hundreds of other things.
Then for lunch we grilled ribs, chorizo and beef with the family that is living in the basement of the mission house, Rogelio and Becky. Actually Rogelio did the grilling and we did the eating! After lunch Rachel and I went to the movie theater at the shopping plaza (not the San Cristobal that we remember from before!) and saw "New Moon". I have to admit that I am not a Twilight fan, but Rachel is and I was curious to see what all the hype was about. The movie wasn't too bad, but I don't think I'll run out and read the books anytime soon.
After a little shopping at the mall, we got home in time for tamales. On Saturdays in San Cristobal, various people make tamales in their homes and then sell them in the evenings. You can tell who has tamales for sale by the red light they hang outside their house. So we went to a few different "red light" houses and picked up tamales de mole, azafran and de bola. Yum. We made sure to buy plenty so we'd have leftovers.
Rachel already wrote about Sunday and our visit with Vern and Carla Sterk to Nuevo Zinacantan. This Tzotzil village is made up entirely of displaced Christians. Vern said that there are 50 villages throughout Chiapas for Tzotzils who have been forced from their own villages because of their Christian beliefs. It was amazing to worship with the people and see the Sterk's reconnect with friends from the years that they lived here.
Now as we prepare for Thanksgiving, we are reminded of how thankful we are. Thankful to God for being so loving and faithful; thankful for this opportunity to serve Him in the area of Bible translation; and thankful for family and friends who mean so much to us. We pray that you will all have a very meaningful and blessed Thanksgiving! Donna

Sunday morning

   We had a very fun day Sunday! We went to a church with Vern and Carla Sterk. They were missionaries  for several years in Chiapas. They are now retired, but they come down here a couple times a year. The church service was in the Maya language, Tzotzil. It was very interesting going to church and singing some of the songs in Tzotzil. They had some familiar hymns like "Holy, Holy, Holy" and some other ones that my parents knew. Almost all the people were dressed in their traditional clothes. Also, they were seperated by men on one side and women on the other during the service.

  After a while my mom and I got to go to Sunday school with Carla, which was really fun. We sang "Jesus Loves Me" in English to see if anyone knew it. There were about 35 kids there, and they were sitting on long wooden benches. The benches were quite tiny and close together! The lesson was about Muslims and different facts about them. For example, they are called to prayer 5 times a day and they don't pray on their knees, but on the ground. The kids thought it was really funny when Carla acted that out. (We knew those facts, of course, because we had been in Turkey.)  We could pick out some of the stuff Carla was talking about from the hand motions she did, but otherwise, she talked all in Tzotzil. It was very cute after Sunday School because all the kids wanted their picture taken.

  After church, we went to two people's houses because they were sick and wanted to have someone pray for them. On the way back to San Cristobal, we stopped and got some wood for our fireplace. All in all, we were gone from "home" for 5 hours. Even though we didn't understand Tzotzil, we could still interact with each other. Of course we stood out with our height and our clothing. But we were also very welcomed.