Finished and Still Going

 Yesterday and today, Abraham and I delivered most of the diplomas and prizes to those who completed their pages and watched all the videos during this past week.

The kids were, of course, excited to receive the dolls or soccer balls and notebooks. They also were pleased to show the work they had done on the pages.

VBS 2020 has not ended, however. Today, as we visited homes to give out the last prizes and diplomas, twelve new children signed up. In addition, Six and Abraham will be going around tomorrow to our neighbors to see if any of them would like to participate, since the ones who already finished were from Huejotzingo where we used to live, and not San Miguel where we now live. A few Huejotzingo children also experienced technical problems, so we will be going to their houses to show them the videos on Abraham´s phone.

Ongoing VBS

 Doing VBS by whatsapp means that there is no definite end to the classes. Certainly, the children who started on Monday will finish their videos, craft, and work pages today. Abraham is sending out a review and some questions for those participants, and they will receive their prizes and diplomas tomorrow.

However, several children have enrolled throughout the week, and we plan to invite our immediate neighbors starting on Monday. The advantage to doing everything virtually is

that we don´t actually have to have met those who are participating. Today, for example, Abraham and I passed some hours in San Martin buying the prizes we still didn´t have. Because of the large number of soccer balls we purchased at once, the store owner asked us if we are coaches. Abraham explained what the balls are for, and she asked if her grandson could have the classes. He will be the youngest participant so far, at 2 years old.

Two families that are signed up did not have telephones. Through mission funds, and with the help of my brother-in-law who knows where to find good used phones, we were able to provided cell phones for those families.

The week has been busy. We have learned quite a bit about what goes on behind the scenes in video shoots, now that we have had to find creative solutions to varying problems. We have been encouraged by the positive response of participants, and we are likely to include virtual VBS from now on, even as we pray to also be able to have live VBS in following years.

Thank you for your prayers. Please continue, as we also continue inviting families to join the VBS.

Whatsapp VBS day 2

 While Abraham and I are not nearly as busy with this year´s VBS as in previous years, there are still several tasks to complete during the day. We started out with printing more work pages for the older group of kids, since we gave out all of the pages we had with us yesterday. Abish helpfully arranged the pages in order and stapeled all of them. With those ready, Abraham and I began the work of transforming Abraham into the elderly Biblical Abraham. That turned out to be more time-consuming than we had anticipated, since attaching the

beard and mustache involved a lot of creative thinking. We ended up using a face mask, masking tape, three hair clips, and clear string to arrange everything. With face paint, we aged him to somewhere around 100 years old.

Filming concluded and sent out, we left home for Huejotzingo to both do grocery shopping for the week and give pages and supplies to children who signed up after we left yesterday. We had purchased supplies for 40 children and ran out, so shopping also meant adding a few more supplies.

While Abraham went one direction to buy groceries, I stopped at the Bodega Aurrera for the VBS supplies. As I walked to the other part of town to meet Abraham, I ran into some of the Alamedas - one of the families we have known the longest in Huejotzingo. We have only had minimal contact with them in the past few years, but this afternoon, I talked with them for awhile and offered the VBS packets to the two children. They gladly accepted, but the difficulty is that they have no cell phone and therefore can´t access the whatsapp materials. We will probably loan them my phone for a few hours tomorrow and Friday so they can catch up.

I arrived with Abraham, and we were going to return to the Alamedas to give the children their pages and supplies. However, when Abraham turned to key in the ignition, the engine only clicked. The battery had drained. While I walked back to the Alamedas, Abraham looked for someone to jumpstart the car.

It seems perhaps God decided to keep our car from starting. The man who jumpstarted the car has two small children, and he welcomed Abraham´s offer of the VBS. We had not met him or his children before, but now they will be joining others learning about the armor of God.

We know that there are more than 43 people signed up for the VBS, but we do not have an exact count. We hope that those who are enrolled are sharing with others.

Please continue praying for us. We appreciate your support.

Virtual VBS Day 1

 Day one of VBS, the Armor of God, is now fading into night. During the morning, Abraham and Rachel finished printing out the pages that they planned to hand out to children in Huejotzingo. Abraham also recorded the three songs from youtube onto whatsapp. With the pages ready and stapeled together and divided by age, Abraham put together his costume so he could appear as Paul, the first presenter. After experimenting with various styles, he found a convincing ensemble and it was time to make the videos for the day.

Rachel climbed out an upstairs window and stood on the overhang in order to film into the house, through the window bars, to make the video appear as if Abraham, as Paul, were in prison. Once that video was finished, they made a welcome video, an opening prayer, and a video to explain the craft page for the week.

With everything ready, they set out to Huejotzingo to give children their VBS packets and supplies for the week. When they set out, not many children were signed up, but they visited the houses of families who had participated in previous years, and many children joined the whatsapp list. A little after four hours of dropping off supplies and enrolling new children, Abraham and Rachel returned home. By then, many of the children had already completed their work page and sent in the photos of their answers. A few other parents wrote to enroll their children, and those participants will receive their materials tomorrow.

While the count is fluid, what with people still signing up by whatsapp, there are so far eleven children younger than 6 years, and 24 older children signed up.

Continue to pray for the Lechuga family and for all the children - and their families - who are taking part in the VBS. It is a very different VBS from previous years, but has the potential to reach even more people than the live VBS´ of other years. If you would like to see the materials and share them with others, please leave a comment with whatsapp information.

Virtual VBS

 Covid-19 has dramatically changed how people all over the world interact.  We are no exception here in Puebla.  This year, we cannot do live vacation Bible school, so we are opting for VBS through whatsapp.  We chose whatsapp since many children do not have ready access to the internet.

The theme is of the armor of God, found in Ephesians 6.  As we have done in past years, we will be teaching the theme using monologues, written by Abraham, and based on Biblical characters.  This time, we will have to make videos of the monologues and send them to participants.  On Monday, Abraham and I will go to the house we used to live in in Huejotzingo to give printed copies of work pages to the children who have signed up.  We also decided to buy basic supplies to provide to the children, since we cannot assume that they have at home what they need in order to do the crafts and work pages.

Also using whatsapp, we will send three songs for the kids, and hopefully their parents, to learn.  Each page we give the participants will have the verses from Ephesians printed.  

On Friday, Abraham and I will return to Huejotzingo to present the children with their diplomas and prizes for the week.  

While doing a virtual VBS is new to us and not ideal, it does provide a way for us to spread the message farther.  Children who do not live in Huejotzing will have the opportunity to participate using their telephones, and we pray that their parents and older siblings will overhear the classes and help with the pages we send home.  Please join us in praying that this situation turns out for the very best - for more people to be reached through the virtual VBS.  As always, pray for us as we work on the details and as the VBS is in session next week.

No guarantees

On Sunday, January 26, headlines worldwide announced the death of basketball legend, Kobe Bryant.  He was a young man with a family.  No one expected his sudden demise in a helicopter accident.  Several other people died along with him, although their names were not famous.

There was another death that day, closer to us.  It was anticipated by the family and friends of Eduardo, the man who died.  He had been diagnosed with advanced pancreas cancer in June.

Three of his teen-aged children had been to many of our vbs´s.  They also sometimes attended English class and math tutoring.  When they abruptly stopped coming to classes, we didn´t think much of it, since their previous attendance was somewhat spotty.  However, a few months after their disappearance, we drove passed a bus stop and saw the man and his wife exiting the bus.  Once a tall, strong man, Eduardo was almost unrecognizable, having lost half his weight.

Abraham and I decided to visit the family to see how they were doing, although at the time, we didn´t know the cause of Eduardo´s change.  When we arrived at their house, Rosario, Eduardo´s wife told us about his diagnosis and the subsequent hospital stays and ineffectual surgery.  She told us that, less than three months after surgery, Eduardo returned to work as a long-haul truck driver.  Because of his work, he was not home when we visited the second time, either.

Early in December, we finally found Eduardo at home.  Abraham conversed with him at length about his life and inevitable death.  Abraham clearly emphasized that none of us know the day of our death.  Although Eduardo was the one with cancer, none of us is guaranteed another day´s life.

Eduardo was a fighter.  He had crossed into the States and worked in Los Angeles for years.  He trucked long distances through California, and then returned to Mexico where he married, had children, and continued trucking.  He had no use for God, because he felt himself to be strong and capable on his own.

Our family left for a three-week visit with family in the States, promising to bring back the sunflower seeds from the 99 ₵ store that Eduardo remembered with fondness.

On January 26, we returned to Eduardo´s home with packages of sunflower seeds.  Although Eduardo had been very thin when we last saw him, the change of a month was drastic.  Now we found him in bed, with the appearance of a skeleton.  Rosario helped him with the shivers from sudden low blood sugar by briskly rubbing his chest.  As she rubbed, she filled us in on the month´s happenings.

After some time, Abraham offered to take over with the massage.  As he rubbed Eduardo´s chest, Abraham asked him, "You are very strong.  Do you want to keep on fighting?"  First, Eduardo said yes, then changed his response to no.  Abraham asked whether he wanted to ask for forgiveness from God.  With complete lucidity, Eduardo replied that he did.  He asked Abraham to help him pray, and in that moment, surrendered his life to God.  After singing Amazing Grace in both English and Spanish (Rosario sang along in Spanish), Abraham and I left to go to kids´ club at Marina´s house.

As we prepared to sleep at about 11 pm, Abraham´s cell phone rang.  Eduardo´s oldest son called to say Eduardo had ended his earthly fight.  We visited the family twice the following day.

We will continue our visits and prayers for the family.  Will you join us in praying for them?