Pilot Outreach

Monday morning, the beginning of another week.  An important part of our week as UIM pilots in Chihuahua is to meet with other Mexican pilots with whom we share our airstrip.  These pilots come from varied backgrounds and economic status.  But our share interest in aviation opens doors into their lives.  Each Monday meeting is an opportunity to share what God has recently done in our lives.  One Monday they were especially interested in how we were dealing with the matter of our airplane being confiscated and our pilot detained by federal police.  We gave testimony of God’s faithfulness to release our UIM pilot from jail.  It also gave us opportunity to seek their input on how best to recover our airplane.  A sense of trust and respect was immediately developed.  They could see our need.  Now they are open to sharing their needs with us.  Death of a spouse, economic downturns, and health concerns are issues we deal with in their lives.  Opportunities for spiritual input are numerous.  Pray that our testimonies and spiritual inputs will open their hearts to accept the Gospel.

Barbacoa

Looking for a good crock-pot, after-church recipe?  Look no further!  Your house will be filled with a tantalizing aroma when you come home to this meat cooking in the slow cooker!  Barbacoa can be served on fresh, corn tortillas with one, or a combination of these topping: chopped lettuce, chopped tomatoes, chopped cilantro, chopped onions, finely-shredded cabbage (instead of lettuce).  AND with some type of salsa (easy recipes to follow) and sour cream.  OR it can be made into a “torta.”

Now, from my understanding, all other latin american countries think of “cake” when they hear the word “torta.”  But in Mexico, a torta brings to mind a delicious, grilled sandwich on thick, fresh bread with some type of meat (barbacoa, carnitas, ham, etc), complete with melted cheese, avocado, tomato, lettuce and a pickled jalapeño pepper on the side. ☺

Whether you are in the mood for a true, mexican taco and go the tortilla and topping rout; or are in the mood for a true, mexican sandwich you can’t go wrong with barbacoa!

A cut of beef good for shredding (i.e. a chuck roast)

1 large stalk of celery

5-6 cloves of garlic

1 small onion

salt

pepper

especias surtidas (mixed spices that should be found in any mexican store)

Put 1 ½-2 cups of water in the blender.  Add celery, garlic and onion.  Blend well.  Pour over the cut of beef in the crock pot (add more water, if necessary). Add salt, pepper and 2 tsp of the mixed spices.  Cook on low until beef is tender and easily shredded.

Serve with corn tortillas and above mentioned toppings as tacos; or serve on grilled fresh, white buns with mayonnaise and above mentioned toppings, as tortas.

Tingas

This is a quick and delicious mexican meal.  I often serve guacamole and sometimes refried beans as well so that there are different topping options for the tostadas chips.

1 whole chicken breast (two breasts stuck together) with the bone or boneless, skinless

vegetable oil

1 onion, sliced

8-12 tomatoes, chopped

chicken bullion (for the authentic flavor, buy the mexican variety which comes in a bag in a loose form.)

1 can of mexican chipotle chile peppers or sauce – if using whole peppers, mash or blend in blender

tostada chips (the very large, round corn chips)

sour cream

Boil the chicken in water and some salt until it is cooked thoroughly, shreds easily and can be removed from bone.  Reserve broth.  Skin, debone and shred meat.

Meanwhile, sauté onions in a large skillet until onions begin to turn clear.  Add chopped tomatoes.  Cook and stir.  Add shredded chicken and chicken bullion to taste.  (If this mixture becomes too dry, add some of the broth from the cooked chicken.)  Add blended chipotle peppers/sauce to taste.  (At least 1 tablespoon)

Serve the mexican way:  Spread tostadas with sour cream, top with tingas.  If they sit a couple of minutes they soften a bit and are easier to eat.

An Appetizer

We do a very similar thing in the states using “pepper jelly.”  I love the smoky taste of chipotle peppers – which are really smoked jalapeños! – and apricot jam combo.

1 small can of mexican chipotle chile peppers

1 small jar of apricot jam

1 8 oz bar of cream cheese

crackers

Blend a cup of jam in the blender with ½ of a chipotle chile pepper from the can and a lot of the chipotle sauce from the can.  Pour over the cream cheese on a medium plate.  Serve with crackers.  Everyone who I’ve seen try this, loves it.  You can make it as spicy as you want – just add more chili peppers.  Save any leftover chipotle peppers and sauce in the freezer for the next recipe… one of our favorites!

Language blooper: “Ojo,” “ajo,” and “hoja,”  try saying those three fast!  (remembering that the “h” is silent in Spanish)  “Ojo” is eye, “ajo” is garlic and “hoja” is leaf.  Just imagine all the trouble we used to get into eating eyes and adding leaves to our food!

Horchata de Avena

This delicious drink is very popular in Mexican restaurants.  It is traditionally made with rice, but the only way my friend makes it is with oats, avena.  I am an oat-lover so this suits me just fine ☺

1 can of evaporated milk

½ tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract

½ + ⅓ C sugar

enough cold water to fill a ½ gallon pitcher

½ – 1 C ground oats (grind them in the blender.  They grind better if you do more at a time.)

a pinch of salt – my addition

Stir and serve immediately.

Ivonne makes a gallon of Horchata using the same amount of evaporated milk and doubling everything else but it isn’t quite as creamy.  This drink needs to be stirred before serving each glass.  The oats will be slimy by the next day – it is best served and drunk the first day or left unstirred after that.

Language blooper: I have a tendency to confuse the words “mollete” and “mollote.”  “Mollete” is a type of food (recipe to follow), “mollote” is a mexican word for mosquito!  Let’s not be eating mosquitos or be bitten by hunks of bread and beans!!!

Introductions

To start out, my name is Maria Van Wormer.  My husband and I are missionaries in Chihuahua, Mexico with our five children.  John is a pilot and I am a homemaker, piano teacher and music leader for the mission ladies’ meetings.

Just before arriving here, five years ago, to learn Spanish we lived a whirlwind!  Three weeks before classes began was the first we heard of the option to learn Spanish here in Chihuahua.  Within those three weeks we were living in a new country, studying a new language, making new friends and eating new food!

To make a wonderful story short, the lady who took care of our three girls while we were in Spanish study has become one of my closest friends during these five years we have lived in Mexico.  She hates English (unlike most of the Mexicans we run into who want to practice their English with you) and so our children were forced to learn Spanish from day one (praise the Lord).  She loves cooking and from her I have learned almost all I know about Mexican food and cooking.  This blog is very lovingly dedicated to my dear friend Ivonne.  I could have called it “Maria’s Mexican Recipes,” but they aren’t mine.  They are just being translated across the language and cultural barriers to your cookbook.  I hope you enjoy making some new things in the kitchen!!!

Less flying means more time with People.

Not only do missionaries have to be flexible, they have to be multi-faceted. There are still some mission flight programs where it is all the pilot can do to keep up with the flight schedule. He gets home from a full day of flying to try and get some rest for another full day that will begin in the morning, and this goes on 6 days a week. Well, our  flight program here in Mexico isn’t one of these. Sure, we have our times when it feels like the flights are back to back, even stacking up, but some months I can count on one hand the number of program flights I make. This makes our ministry look considerably different than the ministry of the daily flyer. It gives us more time to tinker on the airplane, pull weeds off the airstrip and do other flight program related chores. It also means that our flights can look different. Rather than dropping the missionary off in the mountains and running back to town to cover the next flight, we can afford to stay out in the mountains with him for a few days. This can save the missionary considerable money as we don’t have to make two round trips to get him out and back again.

It also gives us a chance to help missionaries in ways other than flying them out and back. One time, Michael and I flew a truck differential out to a missionary whose truck was broken down in the tribe. We stayed and helped him get it put in the truck. When we were done, Michael flew the airplane back to town while I drove out with the missionary in his newly repaired truck, just in case.

Often times, when we fly dentists out for dental brigades, the pilot gets to stay and help hold the suction tube. On the last two dental brigades I flew for, I realized that this wasn’t exactly my cup of tea. So instead I installed a new stove pipe in the missionary’s house and worked on the church-building remodel project.

On another occasion I flew a translation consultant out to the missionary station for a translation check. Also on this trip’s agenda was to get the missionaries’ kids given their annual school achievement tests. Unfortunately, there were too many children at this station for the one test administrator in our plane to finish during our short stay. And so after a little training, I was deputized and spent the next few days administering achievement tests.

When there are no flights, we can help in many non-aviation related ministries here in town. I know of one New Tribes pilot who was the field committee chairman. Here in Mexico our “secondary ministries” are quite varied. Dave and Michael serve on New Tribes Mexico’s contingency committee. Last year I taught a class at the missions MK school. After having to give several of my flights to Dave or Michael or find a substitute to teach my class for me because of flight/class schedule conflicts, I decided that a less rigidly scheduled “second ministry”  is preferable. One of my new ministries this year is administrating this website. This, I can easily do between flights.

Outside of the mission organizations, we get involved in our local churches and their outreaches as well as simply reach out to our neighbors. In fact, discipleship seems to be one of our stronger suits when it comes to non-technical ministries. Perhaps it is because we are members of church-planting missions and that is a focal point for such missions. Perhaps it’s just part of our individual gifting, I don’t now. I have noticed though that all of us here, if not discipling a recently converted neighbor or friend, are intimately involved in bettering somebody else’s life.Whether it is one of the missionaries’ kids, someone at church or even another missionary, I see that this group of technicians has not forgotten that missions is first and foremost about people.

Rubber Missionaries

Flexibility is a word that every missionary comes to know well. Plans are made, flights are scheduled, tickets are even paid for, and at the last moment everything changes. In fact, most plans go through dozens of significant changes from day to day, sometimes coming full circle. There are only a couple of for-sures when it comes to missionaries and our plans: 1) plans are never for sure, 2) God decides their outcomes.

We were planning on going to Venezuela to be part of New Tribes Mission’s flight program there. We came to Mexico to study Spanish while waiting for our Venezuelan visas. They never came. The flight program in Venezuela was shut down and we were left without a field to go to. While NTM’s Mexican field is quite large, it does not have an aviation program in Mexico because UIM Aviation has faithfully filled this need for many years. UIM Aviation had a need for another pilot/mechanic in Mexico and so I started flying for UIM Aviation while maintaining our status as members of NTM Mexico. I thought it was a privilege to be a part of one mission organization, now I get to be a part of two.

“A person plans his course but the LORD directs his steps.” Prov. 16:9

And we’re so glad he does.

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