Major changes

[BrotherTony]

On 6/4/2022 at 10:30 PM, OLD fashioned preacher said:

Much has happened in the last two years. We were in E. TN. during the Covid crunch - rare to find a church open yet the Lord gave us a church to park at for 7 months and provided 6 new supporting churches. Nicaragua had an election which Daniel Ortega won (after arresting all his opponents for treason), he has shut down over 20 NGOs because they receive funds from the USA.

Currently we can only get a visa for 3 months per year and the plane tickets are around $4000 per person. As a result, we are going to spend 6 months (Aug - Feb) in Mexico continuing Spanish language learning while praying Nicaragua will open up soon.

As far as I can determine, only 2 IB missionaries are currently in country -- they both already had permanent cedulas. Even they are required to make a trip to the immigration office in Managua every 6 months for "renewal" of a 5 year visa.

I've noticed that (unlike younger missionaries) I don't have people whining to me about how "I'd go, but I'm too old"

My wife and I had considered going as missionaries to either Mexico or El Salvador in the 1980s. We were in our 20s then and it was something we had prayed about often. We were, as Paul said, hindered by the Spirit, as the Lord had started to open the doors for us to start a church in Spencer, Indiana. But, as we had started looking for apartment or home rentals there we were again hindered with several serious physical challenges. We continued to pray and were led to give what money we had collected to help two different missionaries finish raising their support to go to Mexico and Brazil.  

[OLD fashioned preacher]

           Don’t automatically trust Google Maps   

 

     First day after arrival in México I decided to go to the Plaza Aluminio. In this shopping center is a bank. We didn’t have groceries but the shopping center had a bank and a grocery store ( I had no phone service, insufficient Spanish, less than $70 in pesos, and it was a Friday).

     Google maps showed only a 2 mi walk on paved and dirt roads including a railroad track to cross. Having drawn the map in my notebook, away I went. After a quarter mile I went from pavement to dirt. In another 400 meters I’m sharing the mud road with dogs, a couple of motorcycles, three buses, and a truck. Where my dirt road is supposed to continue North is jungle without trail and the road goes West.

     I follow the road(I have plenty of time and it’s just a little detour.) After a while I’m back on pavement amongst apartment complexes that look identical. Please realize there aren’t any street name markers and there are many roundabouts (traffic circles). Several streets ended at an apartment complex gate.

     I knew roughly where I was but didn’t know how to get out and don’t have enough language to find out. I finally get back to familiar territory but can’t just go back home because I don’t know if the bank is open on Saturday. I walk another 1 ½ miles and get a taxi.

     But wait, there’s more! The bank wouldn’t exchange my money, I needed to go to a Casa de Cambio in the center of town! The Casa de Cambio only accepts cash and I didn’t have much, I wanted it to come out of my bank account. I walked and prayed finally deciding to get what few groceries I could and we would ride out the weekend, then I would go to the money changers and figure things out after that.

     As I head toward the checkout line, I see ——— ATMs!!! Now armed with Mexican Pesos, I buy more groceries, get a taxi and head home. It only took about 5 hours (most of it in the sun) and 5 or 6 miles of walking. Oh yeah, we went on the overpass above the “railroad tracks”, it was a major stockyard with 7 parallel tracks and fenced on both sides.

     Nope, can’t trust Google Maps but you can definitely trust our Savior.

[BrotherTony]

1 hour ago, OLD fashioned preacher said:

 

           Don’t automatically trust Google Maps   

 

     First day after arrival in México I decided to go to the Plaza Aluminio. In this shopping center is a bank. We didn’t have groceries but the shopping center had a bank and a grocery store ( I had no phone service, insufficient Spanish, less than $70 in pesos, and it was a Friday).

     Google maps showed only a 2 mi walk on paved and dirt roads including a railroad track to cross. Having drawn the map in my notebook, away I went. After a quarter mile I went from pavement to dirt. In another 400 meters I’m sharing the mud road with dogs, a couple of motorcycles, three buses, and a truck. Where my dirt road is supposed to continue North is jungle without trail and the road goes West.

     I follow the road(I have plenty of time and it’s just a little detour.) After a while I’m back on pavement amongst apartment complexes that look identical. Please realize there aren’t any street name markers and there are many roundabouts (traffic circles). Several streets ended at an apartment complex gate.

     I knew roughly where I was but didn’t know how to get out and don’t have enough language to find out. I finally get back to familiar territory but can’t just go back home because I don’t know if the bank is open on Saturday. I walk another 1 ½ miles and get a taxi.

     But wait, there’s more! The bank wouldn’t exchange my money, I needed to go to a Casa de Cambio in the center of town! The Casa de Cambio only accepts cash and I didn’t have much, I wanted it to come out of my bank account. I walked and prayed finally deciding to get what few groceries I could and we would ride out the weekend, then I would go to the money changers and figure things out after that.

     As I head toward the checkout line, I see ——— ATMs!!! Now armed with Mexican Pesos, I buy more groceries, get a taxi and head home. It only took about 5 hours (most of it in the sun) and 5 or 6 miles of walking. Oh yeah, we went on the overpass above the “railroad tracks”, it was a major stockyard with 7 parallel tracks and fenced on both sides.

     Nope, can’t trust Google Maps but you can definitely trust our Savior.

I totally agree that google maps cannot be trusted. After my wife broke her humerus bone a month or so back, there was an appointment set up in Tullahoma, Tennessee for her to see a surgeon. We took the directions google maps gave us after we input our information for the "from" and "to" listings. The crazy thing drove us right past the point where we were supposed to be and all the way on the other side of town. It also took us on some "back way" to try and avoid heavy traffic (there was no traffic) and so we were going 22 miles out of the way.After we finally called the doctors office and got directions again from THEM, we found we were only a block away from their office. After my wife's appointment, we went to the main road and back home. The total mileage to the doctor? 72 miles! The total mileage home? 31. NEVER trust google maps. 

[Jim_Alaska]

i don't have those problems with MapQuest, but do have them with GPS.

[BrotherTony]

We used GPS in our old vehicle, and it was great! Always liked using it in our Cadillac. In our Hyundai, it wasn't so accurate all the time. Like "google maps" it led us on long side ventures, and we just didn't care for the extended approach to our trips. We tried "TomTom" and weren't really fond of it. My BIL has used it for over ten years and loves it. 

[Jim_Alaska]

My GPS did this, and this is only a mild example. Drove for fourteen hours, needed a motel badly. Searched for a motel and the GPS said there was one nearby. I followed the voice instructions until it said, "you have arrived".

The problem was that there was  no motel, or even any dwelling at all, I was looking at an expanse of forest with no sign of civilization of any kind.