Greetings, September, 2001

Tomorrow we will again be driving in Tijuana. Even though this city of two million is in a constant flux some things are predictable. Painfully predictable. Like the afternoon headlines on the local papers. Tomorrow we will likely be looking at another headline heralding a violent crime and unlike our papers, the papers in Tijuana show in graphic detail the criminals and their victims. Drugs, anger and frustration seem to combine during the night into a full page of afternoon gore. Indeed lives here are very cheap. I show here just a sample of headlines to remind you of the reality of our world and our appreciation of you who do pray for us and our safety as we work in Tijuana. It's been over twenty years now and none of our people have been hurt. There have been close ones, that's for sure but no one seriously hurt, now that's a miracle! Thanks again for you folks who remember us in prayer!

We have chosen to work in the kingdom of darkness so nothing really surprises us. Just when you think you have heard them all someone comes up with another. One of the teenagers was telling us about the penitentiary here in the city. He had been sent there and when they found out he was only seventeen he was brought to the CMI or Tijuana juvenile facility. Almost too casually he described the bad conditions including the time that an inmate had his head cut off with a machete and they used it as the ball in a brief game of soccer. Keep praying. Thank you too for your gift this month, it isn't just money it's a vote of encouragement.