Mexican vanilla & mission...

MOLAMCO 2009 just completed this year's short term mission trip to the Texas-Mexico border where we worked with Southwest Good Samaritan Ministries. SWGSM is involved with political and religious refugees from Central and South America. It also provides various opportunities of service and outreach among the working poor in Texas and Mexico.

Missouri Ozark Lakes Area Mission Cooperative, (MOLAMCO), led by my husband, has evolved over the last 5 years. The request of a teenage girl in my husband's congregation started the ball rolling when she asked, "Can we make a short term mission trip before I graduate?" From that initial group of adults and youth, nine in all, the annual mission trip has mushroomed. This year thirty-three of us went from three different congregations of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)in southwest Missouri. We ranged in age from 8 to 70 years. The youngest, a boy, on the service mission trip with his mother, worked side by side with his grandfather and grandmother--three generations on mission together. Does it get any better than that?

One afternoon after the two "casitas" were built, some in our group had the opportunity to visit a Mexican market. Being aware of the good reputation of Mexican vanilla, several of us wanted a bottle of it to take home with us. Since I didn't go to the market one of the women in our group volunteered to buy a bottle for me. And boy did I get a bottle of vanilla!

Think about it this way, for the last 27 years we have moved our household several times. (I calculate 27 years because we returned to the States in 1982 from living abroad for 16 years. I reckon that I bought a new bottle of vanilla upon arriving in the States. Remember my husband was a minister before I was ordained so our life has been a "moving" adventure for the last 45 years.)

With each stateside move I have carefully packed my little 3 oz bottle of imitation vanilla--and this little bottle, after 27 years of baking, is still half full. In other words in the last 27 years I have used 1.5 ounces of imitation vanilla. Quick, tell me, how long it will take me to use 33.8 fluid ounces of pure vanilla? Mexican vanilla comes in one liter bottles, 33.8 fluid ounces! Now I will have to rewrite my will to accommodate this new treasure because I know I will not live long enough to use it all.