Rapture Practice & Other Firsts

“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God and the dead in Christ will rise first.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16

It was a Friday, past midnight and we were fast asleep. Fast asleep that is until the blaring of the Mariachi Band with their trumpets startled us wide awake. It sounded as though the party had entered our room. Peering out from the relative safety of our second floor bedroom window, I could see that about twenty-five people including band members had gathered at the door of our neighbor’s house for a fiesta surprise that continued on into the night. That was our first trumpet wake up call since we have been here as well as our first midnight rapture practice.

The “Firsts” were fast and furious for us in the beginning. But even after a year and half they continue to come. Here are some others we have experienced recently:

We had heard that it happens in Puebla; but the other morning while taking the dog out, I saw it for the first time. Our van was covered in volcanic ash. Coming inside I discovered it was also on our bedroom floor where it had fallen through our open window. Popo had quite a belch in the night.

While we continue to grow accustomed to our life here, it is nice from time to time to do something familiar. So, with family in tow, we gathered with friends for a Christian school Christmas program the other evening. The first came after the program when we joined friends for ice cream sundaes at an outside eating area. That was just a little tough for us to do in the past and was a nice first that’s destined to become a family tradition.

We awoke to the New Year with the temperature at a cool 32 degrees. It was our first time at the freezing point and wasn’t exactly what we signed up for when we came to Mexico. We have a small space heater we use to knock the chill off, but I’ve got to tell you we miss the central heating. However, it was up in the 70’s today. It felt soooooo nice!

A bit more important firsts we are looking forward to: first fruits of the harvest, first day of fasting and prayer as a team, first family vacation in Mexico; first friends to join us here, first big breakthrough…

(Pictures in this post were taken by Daniel on his recent ascent to Popo and Ixta.)