The Italian Gringo

[Vince53]

Greetings, Gringos! Cold weather has set in, with night time temperatures dropping into the fifties. Things continue to go well our Neighborhood Bible Study averaging over twenty-five for some time now. And our new van has been chugging faithfully through the mountains, bringing in a load of kids every Saturday.

What is it like to go into the national healthcare system in Mexico?

Yesterday, we had to take Nancy to the hospital after a large dog knocked her over. She seems to have scratched her inner ear with a Q-tip, drawing blood,which stuck to ear wax, and then upset her sense of balance. When she was knocked over, she landed on her eye and was seeing lights and floaters.

At the Red Cross, ($8 for the exam) the doctor looked into her ear and said "Eww, I'm not touching that!" and sent us to the IMSS (National Insurance Plan) which we are on. The doctor looked into her ear and said, "Yuchh! That's disgusting!" and sent us to a hospital in Tlaomulco. We had to hire Myra Neighbor, a wonderful Christian, as a translator, and off we went into the Mexican boondocks.

The hospital was spotlessly clean, and the doctors and security guards were all competent and courteous. While exploring the hospital, I got lost, but they brought me back safely. After fixing Nancy's ear, the doctors sent us to a hospital in Guadalajara to an eye specialist.

Mayra navigated, but there was heavy night time traffic and no parking when we arrived. A guard asked for a bribe, and $5 later, we were parked in the staff parking lot. This is the same old hospital where I was operated on for my broken arm. It was spotlessly clean, and the entire staff were competent and courteous. There were three eye doctors, all of whom spoke perfect English. Nancy had jarred the coating of her eye, but a few sprays and pain-killers will have her fixed up in a coupld days. Total cost of the IMSS clinic and two hospitals, including medications? $0

We pay about $600 apiece to be on the national insurance plan. You are required to hire a translator if you don't speak Spanish.

We stopped for tacos on the way home, offered to adopt Mayra (her husband won't let us) and arrived home eight hours and 70 miles after we left.

Praise the Lord!

 

[Vince53]

NANCY'S BIG ADVENTURE


In order to encourage more of my American friends to retire in Mexico I'm going to explain how the Mexican medical system works.


THE best Red Cross clinic in Mexico is here in Chapala. They are open 24 hours a day and have an English-speaking doctor on duty at all times. It is not part of the IMSS national insurance plan. They have equipment for heart attacks and other emergencies (usually scorpion stings), and have even delivered babies there. They have more equipment than an emergency room, but less than a hospital. There are also two private clinics that are about as good.


We went there, and a very nice doctor looked into Nancy's ear and explained that she would need a specialist with more equipment. She sent us to the nearest IMSS clinic--we have IMSS insurance. Total cost for the Red Cross exam? An $8 donation.

 

[Vince53]

Greetings, Gringos! As our night time temperatures drop into the forties, we invite you all to retire down here.

And now it is time for part 2 of Nancy's big adventure. After you get onto the Mexican Health Insurances System (IMSS) you only have partial coverage for the first two years. Also, they will reject you if you are already sick. Nancy and I pay about $1200 US per year for the two of us. There is no deductible, and it includes all medicines. The hospitals are spotlessly clean. The doctors are better than American doctors. Everyone is very friendly and competent.

A couple in our church were paying $15,000 per year for both of them on a private US plan. A friend of our is paying $6,000 per year for Blue Cross and Medicare for himself. However, in Mexico, you have to bring your own toilet paper, your own pillow, and you have to have someone stay with you, even if the person has to sleep on the floor. If you don't speak Spanish, you must hire an interpreter.

When we took Nancy to two different hospitals to see an ear and an eye specialist, there was no charge. We spent about $110 US for the translator, gas, and parking. It took about 8.5 hours to drive to the hospitals in Guadalajara and back. For what we save per year, that was well worth it.

 

[Vince53]

Now that we're all full of turkey, it's time for part three of Nancy's Big Adventure.

When you save thousands of dollars per year on medical insurance, and the medical care is as good as in the US, something has to give. We were supposed to bring a rewritable CD with us when we went to the IMSS hospital. They would put all of Nancy's records on it, and then we were responsible for saving it. That's right--in Mexico, you have to keep your own medical records. Private clinics and hospitals will do it for you, but they cost a lot more than the IMSS hospitals.

We hired Myra Neighbor as our translator and navigator for 1000 pesos ($88) for every 12 hours, plus meals. Mayra brought blankets and a pillow in case she had to stay with Nancy, and off we went in our van. Mayra easily navigated to Hospital 120, a spotlessly clean, new hospital. The security guards were very nice and took us to the right area. I paid 88 cents to park my car for four hours and bought some coffee for all of us, including the security guard in the emergency room. In less than an hour, a very friendly doctor had examined Nancy's ear and sent her on to the specialist. I began exploring the hospital and got lost, but a doctor led me back to Nancy and Mayra.

Nancy had scratched her inner ear with a Q-tip, and the doctor explained that Q-tips ought to be banned and that you should never clean your ear with one. While we were waiting, Mayra and I set off on foot into a nearby community to buy the rewritable CD we were supposed to have brought with us. They put her records onto the CD and sent us on to the eye specialist at Hospital 89.

Now, I need to explain. In the US, doctors routinely perform thousands of dollars worth of unnecessary tests in order to prevent malpractice suits. They don't do that in Mexico. If you have a rare condition, they might miss it. You can't sue, because those expensive tests are not standard procedure. Yes, you can buy private insurance for a hospital that will do those tests, and it will still cost less than US insurance.

It was night time now, and we set off for Hospital 89.

 

[Vince53]

Greetings, Gringos! It's been a long time since I wrote, mostly because not much new was happening.

My wife Nancy is spending three weeks in the US with a sick friend. We were able to afford it because we babysat a neighbor's dog for 97 days. She's fattening him up, but sniff I miss her. Meanwhile, I'm keeping the house clean and eating gourmet meals that are prepared exactly the way I like them.

Our van is running well since we got the computer reformatted. I have named it "Born Again" because it has been transformed by the renewing of its mind. We had to move the Saturday service to another park because we have been locked out of the first one, but we had 27 kids last Saturday. Mayra Neighbor, our children's minister, was picking up eight kids in her compact car on Wednesday night, so we started using the van. Unfortunately, a big fight broke out on the van when I was taking the kids home, but we still had fourteen kids last Wednesday night. We had to cancel yesterday because Mayra was sick.

We lost two excellent workers when Larry and Gabriel moved to another part of Mexico, but Ally (whom I call "Ally Oop") has become a valuable helper.

The US has had a very long cold spell, and it has spread to Mexico. It has been cold for about ten weeks now, by far the longest stretch we have had in ten years. Daytime temperatures usually reach the seventies, but night times are often in the fifties, which is rough on an area where the houses do not have heaters.

Our new cat Phantom (short for "The Phantom Menace") has killed a bunch of friendly lizards, but she has also eliminated all cockroaches grasshoppers, katydids, and grub worms. She has figured out how to get onto the roof and into the front yard, so she now prowls the neighborhood.

Adios, Amigos!

 

[Vince53]

Greetings, Gringos! our cold spell has returned, with daytime temperatures only rising into the sixties.

A doctor in Alabama says that Nancy's thyroid is retaining a lot of water, so they have her on a two-week treatment. So she will be staying in the US for another two weeks. However, she lost 9.2 pounds of water in the first two days before becoming sick. Please pray that this treatment will work.

After one explosion while lighting our gas oven, I undercooked our seventeen pound turkey, but the outsides are still pretty good. Using my Hazardous Material training form the paper mill, I cleaned the oven yesterday.

Our Saturday Neighborhood Bible Study had thirty kids last week. Now, the Assemblies of God has drafted Myra for a week's training, so that she can train other churches how to run this year's Vacation Bible School. All this happened after we got run pout of the park where we had been having the Bible Study.

I am keeping the house clean and have put chicken wire over our kitchen window so Phantom can't get onto the roof. She leaped onto the chicken wire, it came loose, she fell to the ground, and now she leaves it alone.

See you next week.

 

[Vince53]

Greetings, Gringos! After five weeks in the United States, Nancy is back, minus 25 pounds of water. They have her on a plan to reduce her water retention by about a pound per week, and she looks much better already.

The legend of what a great cook I am has survived, as Nancy has been amazed at the excellent meals I produce with my expensive frying pan. I'll be cooking another fantastic turkey this week, and you're all invited.

However, the legend of how clean I kept the house.....she's been cleaning for two days now and still isn't satisfied.

We had a bad day at the Neighborhood Bible Study, with only 13 kids, about half what we normally have. A lot of them are gone for the week-end and we hope to do better next week. But the lessons went well and the kids behaved.

We've all met scorners, whose response to success is to mock and ridicule. But Proverbs 3:34 tells us that "Surely He scorns the scornful, But gives grace to the humble." God scorns scorners. Other verses tell us that God will not allow a scorner to have wisdom, and that the promises of God's blessings are usually not available to scorners. Stay away from scorners, Folks.

Aunt Elvia blew up her stove at the orphanage this week, but three days later, someone gave them a new one. There's two things to be learned here. One is that God will take care of us. The other is that if you smell gas, turn off the stove.

Adios, Vicente

 

[Vince53]

Greetings, Gringos! It's been a while, but we finally have some new events.

The Lord blessed us today with 31 Mexican kids on our van for Saturday children's church. We had taken a real beating in attendance, but God was good to us. If you quit when things get tough, then Satan will make sure that things do get tough. Difficulties are not proof that God is against you.

Aunt Elvia's Home is doing well, and we often have extra kids for baby-sitting. The kids like to play on my two Windows 8.1 laptops, and they now have a paid tutor to help them with their reading. I can help them with their math, but I still can't get the hang of speaking Spanish.

I can find no college of any type that is as despised by its alumni as Hyles-Anderson, from which I graduated. One scandal after another rocks a college and church that use slander on anyone who objects to their sins, arguing that they are defending their ministry. I have a permanent slander on my own transcript for the strong stand I had taken against the violent gangs that the college had permitted. I have recently been informed by one of my former professors that the staff were ordered to give passing grades to failing students who had large bus routes.

The problem here is "corporate repentance," which refers to repenting of the sins of your group (denomination, church, family, college, etc) even if you personally did not commit those sins. A few decades ago, the Assemblies of God was hit by simultaneous sex scandals involving Jim Baker, Jimmy Swaggart, and others. The AOG took a strong, solid stand against these sins, lost some major ministries, and is doing well today. HAC took strong, solid stands against those who objected to their sins, and the college continues in disgrace to this day.

Mexico's recent elections changed little, but it is good to see that the Communists dropped from 11% to 10% of the national assembly. Given a choice, people will usually vote for freedom.

I write a history thread on christianforums.com, which is one of the largest forums in the world. Registration is free. But you might not like my version of what really happened at the Alamo. http://www.christianforums.com/threads/the-second-millenium.7784060/page-30 The Alamo series begins in 1835.

 

[Vince53]

Greetings, Gringos! Nancy and I hope that all of you are doing well!

We just finished a successful week of Vacation Bible School, and on Sunday we brought in 49 visitors, including adults, in three vans. Four more of our kids arrived on their own. It was a difficult but successful week, and I'm glad to be able to serve God in a church that is doing something. Nancy will be teaching the Wednesday Bible Study for the next three weeks, while our pastor is off working on his doctorate.

Our beloved dog Anna died last week. We both cried, and then we accepted Hoover (who sucks up food like a vacuum cleaner) into our family. Hoover is a Bassador, a cross between a Basset Hound and a Labrador. The vet whom I used to walk dogs for has an animal shelter, and he matched us up. Hoover is a hit with everybody. Since he inspects everything like J. Edgar Hoover, we kept his name.

Abusers have a strong, solid doctrine: if their victims are suffering years later, it is the victims' fault. What often happens is that a person accepts abuse because he or she doesn't know any better. As the person grows over the years, the victim realizes that more and more of what happened was wrong. That's one reason why hurts continue for decades. Jesus commanded us to go back to people we've offended and make things right--abusers strongly reject that command. Jesus also stated that who have and keep His commands are the ones who love Him. If an abuser refuses to reconcile with his victims, he doesn't really love Christ. You need to stay away from that person's church or ministry.

And finally--is attending church a boring, drudging experience that you feel you have to endure? Go somewhere else! It is amazing how many problems Christian can solve by simply switching churches.

Adios, Vicente

 

[Vince53]

Greetings, Gringos! The rainy season is almost over, and we made it without our concrete roof leaking one time. In Mexico, you have to cover your roof with sealant to keep the rains out, but you can walk on your roof. An airborne blight makes it difficult to grow tomatoes in Mexico, but cherry tomatoes are easily grown. The kids from the orphanage enjoy picking them (with my permission) and eating them on the spot.

Our beloved dog Anna died five weeks ago, and "Hoover," who sucks up food like a vacuum cleaner, has become the most popular dog in town. Rescued from a shelter where he spent six months in a cage, Hoover is a "Bassador," a cross between a Basset hound and a Labrador Retriever. Bassadors are friendly to children, and the kids at the orphanage and the church van route adore him. The big lug gets me up every morning at daybreak for an hour-long walk that does us both a lot of good.

Several years ago, Nancy and I left the local Baptist church after a small group seized control against the wishes of the congregation. About half the church left, and we lost all our young couples. Later, of course, people from both sides reconciled, as Christians should, but two of the people who seized the church (and were later deposed) continue to fight reconciliation. I sometimes meet them when walking Hoover--now, I don't mind that they hate me, but hating Hoover is inexcusable. But everybody else loves Hoover.

I learned something decades ago. A church will have a split, and there will be hostility on both sides. Ten years later, the two churches are acting like Christians, working together in harmony. What changed? A small number of people moved on. The Bible tells us "Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man you shall not go, lest you learn his ways and get a snare to your soul." Stay away from Christians who love to fight.

God blessed us with 21 kids on the van last week. We often have two or even three vans picking up kids now, and it is good to see God blessing the spread of His Word.

Adios, Vicente

 

[Vince53]

THE ITALIAN GRINGO‏

Greetings, Gringos! I've been posting on Facebook, so I haven't sent out a newsletter in a while, but here's the news:

I moved my three laptops back home and Nancy and I started a ministry in our house. We have kids over almost every day for computers and DVDs. They behave pretty well and they have a good time. One of the orphanage kids decided that she wanted to move in with us (No chores, no homework, computer games and DVDs all the time), but we said "No."

And God blessed us with 19 kids on two vans in Children's Church today.

And now: the difficult theological question that is dividing God's people around the globe--Should you upgrade to Windows 10? Microsoft is offering the free upgrade until July 29, and they say that it will be the last Windows system. From now on, Microsoft will upgrade Windows 10, but there will never be a Windows 11 (Or so they say). So should you accept the free upgrade?

About half the computers in the world use Windows 7. I upgraded my Win 7 desktop (my main computer) to 10 with no problems. Everything you need is in the bottom left corner of the screen. The new Start button has two columns. The traditional Start Button is in the left column. The Metro Interface (tiles) from Windows 8 is in the right column. Don't like Windows 8? You can delete the tiles you don't want, but DON'T DELETE THE TILE FOR WINDOWS STORE! It gives you thousands of downloads, many of them free, that Microsoft has tested and approved.

A problem with both 7 & 8 is that they have weak search engines. But now, next to the Start Button is "Ask Cortana," a fancy name for Win 10's powerful search engine.

About 11% of all computers use Windows 8 or 8.1. Win 10 runs better on a machine designed for Win 8, because it is more powerful than a Win 7 machine. The pesky Charms Bar on the right has been eliminated--the functions are found in the lower left corner now. If you liked the Metro Interface, it is now the right column of the Start Button. The powerful "Settings" button above the Start Button lets you expand the tiles to the whole page if you want it.

Win 10 includes the new "Edge" internet browser. However, all of your old browsers will survive the upgrade, and they all work well on 10.

In fact, almost every program will survive the upgrade--Win 10 deletes the few that don't. Windows Gadgets don't work on 10 if you have a Win 7 machine, but they work on machines originally designed for Win 8. Third-party programs sometimes won't work on a Win 7 machine that has been upgraded to 10.

Your anti-virus program will survive the transfer unharmed. Win 10 also includes the free Windows Defender. All of them work well if you don't keep bank account numbers, credit card numbers, etc., on your computer. If you do, you probably should buy a more powerful anti-virus program.

And, last but not least, you have thirty days to go back to your original system if you don't like Win 10. My advice? It's an improvement over both Windows 7 & 8, and I advise the upgrade.

Adios, Vicente