Wednesday, October 12

      I feel like Noah today. Most of the night and all of the morning we have been inundated with heavy showers. Our driveway has been under two to three inches of water. It seems there are three major systems just off our west coast. The first was hurricane Jova that came ashore last night about 11:00 PM just about a hundred miles due west from here on the coast. Another hurricane is right on its heels expected to make landfall tonight and then head south. Just south of that one is a tropical storm that is also keeping things stirred up. The unusual thing about this is the number of disturbances, the closeness to us and the time of the year. It is usual for us to have two or three a year move up the coast, but off shore so we only get a little rain in August and September. Many years, the rainy season is completely over by October and we would see no additional rain until June. Guadalajara is located about half way across the Sierra Nevada range (Rocky Mountains) so it has to work hard to hit us this hard. We are thankful for the rain, plenty of it, and the freshness it brings. If you are

interested, here is a map of present conditions from Noaa.gov.http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/gtwo_epac.shtml
     This week brings a flurry of activities for the community. Today is the day of the race (meaning human race), Columbus' Day, the day they bring the Virgin of Zapopan back to her home church (between three and four million people watching the parade) and the beginning of the Pan American Games. That is just what it says: games of all of the Americas. It is quite like the Olympic games, but only for the Americas. Cheyenne and Lance got to see the dress rehearsal for the opening night last night for free (the real thing is Friday and will cost about $120 dollars per person). There are special lanes exclusively for the athletes through much of the city, so we are waiting to see how this will affect traffic. It takes us between one hour thirty minutes to two hours to get to church on time, so we are not sure what to plan for this week. Removing one of two lanes of traffic which is normally flowing at near capacity should make things interesting. They had threatened to fine any one in the wrong lane between two thousand and four thousand dollars per incident, but I think they have decided that was a little bit over-reacting. There should be 6003 athletes from 42 countries and MANY visitors.
     I thought I would just send a little bit of culture to you today. Pray for good services on Sunday and for souls to be saved.
Gary & Ann