A year later

Running on the cistern - the yard visible behind her

Well, not quite a year.  We moved onto this property Oct. 2, 2017.  We ended up staying in Six´s house until December, when our house was sufficiently finished for us to move into it.  What a lot of progress has been made in this year!  Six´s house is complete, except for the flooring which has been bought but not installed.  Our house is done, except for the second story bars on the windows and perhaps flooring on the second level.  Don Ezekiel put the finishing touches on the front building where we will have classes for our neighbors once the electricity and plumbing are complete.

What lacks in our house is furniture and railings on the stairs.  When my dad visited in July, he helped us buy some items, but we will need to make shelves and other storage spaces, in addition to closets and kitchen cupboards.  At present, the top part of the stairs is protected by boxes of mostly books.  We plan to install bookshelves there.

Since starting school in February, Abish has almost learned how to read in both English and Spanish.  He is also comfortable counting in both languages from 1 - 100 and can do single digit addition and subtraction.  He and Lani are both fascinated by learning about famous landmarks, and are thrilled when they recognize one outside of school.  We have chosen the Sonlight curriculum for Abish´s first grade year, which he will start early 2019.

A few days ago, Abraham and I talked over our plans to start home churches in Huejotzingo.  Although we have lived in this area for a little more than 8 years, there has not been progress in raising up new leaders.  People we have done Bible studies with have not grown as we hoped.  Some have moved and stopped having Bible study.  Therefore we will be trying a new idea.  We hope to have a church-type service in the house where we continue to teach English, do crafts or cooking with the girls, have kids´ club on Sundays, and do math tutoring.  We plan to model the church service on the kids´ club, but invite adults for a monthly Saturday afternoon service and then have a time of talking and playing games afterward.

Please pray for us as we try this new service.  Pray also for those we do Bible study with, that they
would grow and learn and that those who have moved would once again want studies.  Pray for us as we go about finishing the details in our home.