The First Apparition
A little over two years ago in early 2016, I started feeling under the weather. Since the flu bug was making its rounds through our high out-back villages, I assumed I had caught the bug and resigned myself to a week or so of misery. However, vertigo, blue lips and fingernails started telling another story. We suspected pneumonia. A doctor’s visit and an X-ray allayed that suspicion. So, what do I have? A specialist suggested insufficient heart function exacerbated by high altitude. It was not a pretty picture! So, we packed the family up and went down to almost sea-level at the Texas border. We helped at a local church and focused on getting my health back to normal. Then, we took care of a newly planted church on the island of Aruba while my brother Matt and family had to be gone for 2 months. Then, back home to Mexico.
The Whirlwind called 2017
From August 2016 to to end of 2017, we ministered up and down the mountains of our home region in north Mexico. I was pastoring a small church that doubled in size in the 17 months we were there. Also, on our list:
Andrew
- Bible Institute director
- Full-time teacher in Jr. High & Bible Institute
- Preached 14 revival meeting all over Mexico
- General director at Campamento El Faro (4 camps in July)
Egla
- Full-time teacher in Christian school
- Housewife
- Weekly ladies’ home Bible studies
The Return of Low O2
I started using an oxygen tank to supplement the low Oxygen. Lower altitudes alleviated the hypoxemia but our main ministries were in the lovely 8,000 ft. high valley of San Antonio de las Alazanas. The oxygen tank became more and more a constant companion as vertigo and blue lips continued to slow me down. After 17 years of teaching Systematic Theology, I couldn’t remember terms like “Redemption” and “Substitution”! That is, until the supplemental oxygen started to flow bringing temporary relief and the return of my theological lexicon. We stayed through the end of 2017 serving with tank in tow. But we realized a change was coming.