Huejo

Yesterday in Huejotzingo, the kids learned, in Spanish of course, the song of "Joshua fought (fit) the Battle of Jerico" and they heard the story of it from the Bible. To go with the story, Abraham had created a craft where paper walls were glued to a cardboard base with a hole in the middle. The walls had strings attached, and the strings fed through the hole so that when the kids pulled the strings, the walls collapsed. He prepared the walls and bases so that the kids could put them together after hearing the story. We also made sure to leave one small section, strengthened by a toothpick, for Rahab's part of the wall. The Bible tells us that she was spared, along with her family.

It was a special treat to have Jacqueline back visiting. She had moved away when her parents returned from the United States, but she returned to see her grandparents and cousins and as a result, she was able to be with us too.

A few blogs ago, I wrote about four of that same family who had left for the United States. We have since heard that both Irene and Lina arrived safely with their parents, but the two older ones could not get through and are therefore returning to Huejotzingo. Thank you for your prayers for them.

Today at school, we had an all-day field trip to a kibbutz-like community that is also located in Huejotzingo. One of my students lived there briefly with her family, and her father had told me about the place last year. On Saturday a week ago, Abraham and I visited to see if it would be a good field trip place and concluded that it was. It is a very different way of living out the Christian faith. On the hectacre live nine families and a few single people who share almost all their material possessions in common.

The compound has a school, several cabins, a dining room, and a soy production factory. It has been in existence for 22 years, with families coming and going constantly. My students heard some of the history of the place, visited the school, ate breakfast, heard about soy production, and played happily. When we returned to school, they had a huge amount of questions, and they are likely to have more tomorrow, since the dismissal bell interrupted them.

Please continue your prayers for Abraham and I in the various ministries we are involved in. We continue to pray for a place to live in Huejotzingo, and we may be moving there even before the school year ends, as the seminary is selling the apartments where we currently live.

Walk Thru

Abraham is teaching Caminata Biblica in Huejotzingo to the kids, and I am learning from him and teaching it in English to my students at PCS (in English it's Walk Thru the Bible). Both groups of children are learning and reviewing and enjoying as they learn. My students eagerly ask me, "Are we having Bible class today?" They listen with fascination to the stories from the Old Testament and ask about a million questions. In Huejotzingo, Abraham is teaching the Caminata as a review, because we had just finished going through important stories in the Old Testament. Even the really little kids are learning the key words and corresponding hand motions.

Abraham has been able to spend almost all day every Thursday in Huejotzingo, and in this way he has been able to talk with the parents and other relatives of the kids who come on Sundays. This last Sunday, the great-grandmother of four of our regular attenders had just died, and many family members had gathered for her wake. As a result, we had several extra kids with us in the afternoon which was a wonderful opportunity for us to share God's love with them and invite them to return.

On the other hand, however, Abraham said sadly later that night, "It happened again." When I asked what, he said, "Another person died without Christ, and we never shared with her." This is part of the reason why we feel God is leading us to move to Huejotzingo, so we can invest much more time with the people. Abraham has heard story after story of tremendous need, and by ourselves we cannot meet all the needs, but we can reflect and point to the One who can. Please continue to pray with us that we would find a place to live there and that God would show us what he wants us to do.

gaps in knowledge

My fifth and sixth grade students write journals every day, first thing in the morning. Their responses from one journal topic made me wonder and write a follow-up journal topic with the question, "How does a person get to heaven? Support your answer with verses from the Bible." They all answered some form of the response that a person must believe Jesus is the son of God and ask forgiveness for sins in order to go to heaven. Only one of the students confidently found and wrote verses. The other eleven exclaimed in dismay, "Do we have to read through the whole Bible? Where will we find verses?" - and this response from students who are, the majority of them, children of missionaries and pastors. Also, the majority of them have been attending PCS since first grade. I cannot assume they know things about the Bible simply from osmosis.

Here they are struggling to find verses. After some time, I asked those who had found verses to share them with others who were still looking

In Bible class, I am teaching the students Walk Thru the Bible and am telling the Bible stories that connect with the WTtB motions. The students are loving the lessons, and it seems they are learning well. Abraham is teaching the same lessons to the kids in Huejotzingo, and they also enjoying the method. For the Huejotzingo children, it is a review of the stories that they learned over the past year in the Bible curriculum from Source of Light.


Please continue your prayers for the families in Huejotzingo. Pray that we can move there in God's timing and know what it is that we should do to best minister to them. We may be moving sooner than we had anticipated, because we recently found out that the seminary is selling the apartments where we currently live. If they sell soon, we have to move, and it makes sense to go straight to Huejotzingo rather than look for another place until the end of the school year. At present it's all up in the air.