Sights of a Village Ministry Center (1 of 3)

Sights, Sounds and Smells of a Village Ministry Center

Part 1: Sights

San Vicente, the sprawling village of 3000... we’ve been working here for over a decade... quite interesting being here, your senses... uniquely filled...

Sights...totally normal sights: horses trotting down the main cow-path dirt roads... pickup trucks filled with people in the back, flying down the road... roads in the center of the village clogged with make-shift booths (PVC pipe, blue tarps, plywood tables) on ‘Market Days’ (called Tianges)... dozens and dozens of dust-covered field workers walking home, 5-gallon buckets slung over their shoulders... nothing like a Baja Mexico sunset over the mountains, cactus in view... the vehicles klunking down the road, 30-40 yr old rusty hunks held together with duct tape, ‘chica-nada’ metal repairs, bondo-and-bailing wire... like last night, darkness (the city transformer blew, no power for about 10 hours)... clouds of dust, blowing right at you... every 3-4 months, there is a roving ‘kid’s carnival’ that comes to town, and we both cringe at the rickety-barely held-together rides they put up... driving north, you can see the ruins of the original San Vicente Mission, established in 1780... at night, when filling water buckets at 2am, the Screech Owl flying overhead (he buzzed me once, took me a few minutes to breathe again)... with a small, rural village, one beautiful sight: on a clear night, before the garbage fires, you can see the Milky Way overhead, and the orbital satellites criss-crossing the sky...