The students we don't have and some we do

Soon after moving to Huejotzingo, Abraham, my mother-in-law Six, and I started teaching classes out of our home.  Abraham began general tutoring, Six taught sewing, and I offered English and drawing.  We started the classes just as school let out for the summer, and we had a variety of students for awhile.

After some time Abraham began to teach one of the girls who also came on Sunday afternoons how to read.  She is 10 years old, doesn't attend school, and doesn't know how to read.  Using a curriculum called Mas Luz, Abraham taught her syllables and they practiced using the Bible verses in the book.  Dulce continued for a few weeks, and she, her sisters, her cousin, and her nephews attended every Sunday afternoon as well.

Then she and her family stopped coming on Sunday afternoons, and she also stopped attending reading class.  We found out that when her cousin Natalia participated in her first communion through the Catholic church, she was then forbidden by her father from coming with us anymore.  We suspect that the other girls have also been forbidden from coming on Sundays and that probably Dulce is no longer allowed to come for reading.

As for the English classes, I had some students who came faithfully for several weeks and then stopped coming.  Some of them stopped because of work or school and some because of lack of interest.  New students continued to come, but usually only after other students had stopped attending.  Last week two new ones came who were born and lived in the United States for eleven years and therefore are bilingual.  Their mother wanted them to continue practicing English in order not to forget.  They came twice, but now they haven't returned.  Now three days have passed without a single English student.

In the drawing class and in Six's sewing class, we each have one student who has continued to come faithfully.  The sewing student is the mother of the drawing student, and they live around the corner from us.  Just this last Sunday, the mother and her husband also started a piano keyboard class with my brother-in-law Ken.  These neighbors are actively practicing Jehovah's Witnesses.

Where are the other students?  Please pray with us that we can minister in this neighborhood, both with the mid-week classes and on Sunday afternoons.  Pray that those who have been forbidden to come will either be allowed again or that they hear of God's personal love for them in another way.  Pray for Dulce, that she will be able to learn how to read somehow.  Join us also in thanking God for the Alameda children who returned on Sunday afternoons after several months of absence.  Their catechism teacher had forbidden them from coming, but although they continue studying for their first communion, they decided to return with us as well.