Christmas in Mexico

Saturday was the big day for a few colonials in Mexico. We ate a more substantial breakfast, thinking we would be there until at least mid-afternoon. We met with the other people going to transport and distribute the items at 8:30. We left close to the planned time and drove the 7 miles to the Rio Grande River. Our entire convoy of 14 vehicles is allowed to cross the bridge without paying the usual entrance fee, but must pay the $2.15 to get out of Mexico. We drove more than 5 miles farther south than usual and treated 3 smaller colonials than the one we treated last year. The people are always very appreciative and friendly, but we receive the blessings of sharing the love of Christ. We came home back through the small border town of Neuvo Progreso. We had noticed a line of cars trying to get across into the U.S. as we went south. We had heard that people had spent more than 2 hours waiting earlier this week and remembered the 21 ½ hours we had waited last year. Sure enough, the line was long as we entered the town about a mile from the bridge. I was led to go to the east to find one of the sides streets out. We moved right along, knowing that we would have to rejoin the line eventually. We met a long line of cars waiting to get back to the main street and found someone who would let us in. Evelyn took a couple of dollars to him as a thanks. That paid for his exit. As a result of this, we took only 40 minutes to get across the bridge and through customs. What a blessing! We were home before noon. I don’t know if anyone will believe us. We had lunch and then rested until 3:00 when we left to go to the grocery. We went to two stores and bought more than we needed. We bought some things we had not had before and discovered we didn’t like them. We also found a bargain price on sodas and bought some for the future. We returned home and had supper of snacks. Evelyn mopped the tile floors, and I worked on practicing for tomorrow’s service. We have Holy communion tomorrow so we had to go prepare it on our way home from the grocery.