The Reimer Crossing: Gun Shots in Mexico

The caretakers of the camp we stayed at invited us over for supper last night. While the boys were outside playing soccer with their 7 year old son named Andrew (Andrew was pretty excited about that), Sandy was inside the house helping Chema get supper ready while I was chatting with Victor, her husband.

Suddenly a car pulls up (we had yet to eat supper and it was around 9:00 p.m. and pitch black out there in the country) and the people in the car inform our hosts that her father has been shot and they need to get to the hospital to help with his care. So they politely say goodbye and we are left to eat supper in their house alone as they take off into the night. Having given us a key to lock up their house after we were done, we ate, did the dishes and then headed off to the dormitory for night, praying that God would be taking care of this situation.

(Chema and Sandy at her house.)

This morning we go over to their house and learn that the ambulance had taken her father to Cuauhtemoc (a little over an hour drive), but he was already back in Santo Tomas in his own home. He was not the target of the man who was shooting (the shooter and he were actually in the same police car as they took them both to town 15 minutes away - the shooter apologized to her father saying that he didn't mean to shoot him - the bullets were meant for a couple of other men - how kind of him), but the bullet of one of his many shots ricocheted off a wall, struck him in the front part of his hip and came out his back end -Chema actually found the bullet in his cowboy boot at the hospital - it did not have enough energy to go out the back of his pants so it fell down into his boot.

Of course this morning it was the talk of the town as well as during the church service. Chema and her family were very thankful that it didn't turn out worse (it looks like he will recover just fine - they are concerned about infection) but were also praying that her father would think about this seriously and give his life over to the Lord.

Chema was to teach the children during Sunday School (all the kids are in one class) but she was taking care of her father so Sandy and I helped run the class and then later on in the service I preached. The kids did amazing once again as we arrived at the church at 10:00 a.m. and by the time the service was done it was after 1:00 p.m.

The church then had a lunch "disco" meal, which we enjoyed while the kids spent lots of time playing with the other Mexican kids - of course Olivia was the centre of attention with her very blond hair.

Some of the many pictures posted include a ride in the back of a pick-up truck out to Victor's pasture to look at his horses and "burros," which our three kids had a chance to "ride." We also went on an hour hike this afternoon along a dry "riverbed." The boys came across a skeleton of a small animal - Andrew thinks it might be a fox or a coyote - they were pretty excited. We let them keep the skull, much to their mother's delight.