Joshua, God´s Warrior

At first, we planned to do VBS live this year.  We had worked out how to transport children from Huejotzingo to our house, so that the VBS could be outdoors.  However, just after we planned, the Delta wave of Corona virus arrived, and we decided that it would be imprudent to have a large group of children at our home during the week.

Back to the drawing board, we created the list of supplies we would need to give to the children who signed up for the VBS by whatsapp.  We cannot assume the children have any of the craft supplies necessary for the activities.  We also made worksheets and activity pages for each day, careful to plan for activies that the children could do without much supervision.

Prepared with 25 packets of activities for the older age group and 25 for the younger, as well as bags of pencils, scissors, glue and other supplies, we drove around our immediate neighborhood to sign up the local children - and some teens.  Two days later, we printed out another 30 packets, since we had nearly run out in our neighborhood, and drove to Huejotzingo to sign up more kids.  We also had to purchase more supplies.  By the end of sign-ups, later on in the week, we had more than 100 children and teens enrolled.  We have no way of keeping an exact count, because some people from out of state received the videos, and some who enrolled never sent back photos of their activities, so we do not entirely know who participated and saw the videos we sent out.

Doing the costumes and make-up for the videos is always an adventure in creativity.  Using wigs, tape, headbands, hair clips, and face paint, we did our best to create realistic Biblical characters for each day´s message.  Our theme was Joshua, God´s Warrior, and every day one person from Joshua´s life talked about his walk with God.  Moses started out the week, sharing how God used Moses to teach Joshua and how the two of them learned to love the Israelites through God´s strength.  Caleb shared his story on Tuesday, followed by Rahab, then a woman from Gibeon, and then Joshua himself shared his story on Saturday.

The week´s verses were John 15:12-16, and as each Bible character spoke about Joshua, they also spoke about God´s love and desire for relationship with us.  Besides the monologue videos, Abraham and I also made videos explaining the day´s crafts and clarifying the Bible message.

We sent videos of songs and the youtube links as well, so that the children could learn them and sing along.  Abraham kept busy all day, receiving messages from participants and responding to their questions.

Once the VBS week ended, we gave the participants another week to finish their packets and send photos of their pages.  For those who sent evidence of their completion, we printed diplomas and gave prizes of notebooks and fashion dolls or a catching game with mitts.  The children were excited to have their prizes and one family requested more videos
for the kids.  We will send them whatsapp videos of Walk Thru the Bible OT.

Thank you for your financial support and your prayers.  While doing VBS remotely is not as personal as doing it live, we believe God´s message is still spread.  Please pray that those who watched the videos will understand and remember God´s word for them and that those who have not yet watched the videos would watch them.  Pray also that we can continue to have outreach among our neighbors and the people of Huejotzingo.

Construction again

 Three years ago, when we moved from Huejotzingo to San Miguel, where we now live, a friend moved into the house we had been renting.  She, also a Teach Us to Pray missionary, helped in innumerable details with the classes we still held at the Huejotzingo house.  However, slightly less than a year ago, she also moved to San Miguel.  The owner of the Huejo house raised the rent to more than double, and then an Alcoholics Anonymous group moved into the area where we had taught classes and Bible studies.

Due to the pandemic, we had suspended the majority of the classes anyway.  Still, the contacts we had made over the years live primarily in Huejotzingo, and although our house in San Miguel is only about 10 minutes away by car, hardly any of them have cars, so they cannot easily attend any classes we might have in San Miguel.  Abraham and I began discussing with my dad about whether we could build a center on our property in Huejotzingo.  Don Ezequiel, the same man who directed the building of our San Miguel home, agreed to put together a construction team, and soon the new center was begun.

Once again Abraham and I are reminded of all the details that go into planning a new building.  Where to put the windows?  What size?  If we want it to be wheel-chair accessible, where does the entrance ramp go?  How steep and wide will it be?  How many light switches and where should the lights be?  Also, Abraham and Don Ezequiel must constantly check prices of the necessary materials when more ordering is needed.  Many prices have soared since our house building.  

The Huejotzingo center will not be ready in time for this summer´s Vacation Bible School, but we probably have to do it via whatsapp again anyway, since there are reports of higher covid infection rates recently.  The VBS theme is of the life of Joshua.  We have five actors ready for their parts.  Abraham will write their monologues, and we will record the videos to send out, as we did last year.  We also have most of the craft materials to bag up and distribute to participants, and the prizes are ready for the end of the VBS week, which will be August 17-21.

On a more personal note, Leilani continues to love her ballet classes in Huejotzingo.  She participated in her first recital last week.  She does not suffer from stage fright and enjoyed the experience.  Her teacher plans to prepare the girls for presentations every three months.

Both Abish and Lani have a few weeks left of their homeschool year with me.  We are all taking a vacation from studies for the next two weeks while my sister is visiting us.  These weeks will be more about playing and going out and about.

Please pray for us as the construction goes on.  Pray for health and safety for Don Ezequiel and his team and for Abraham and I as we make all the decisions.  Pray that the finished center will be a great blessing.  Pray also that the VBS will be a wonderful outreach even if we cannot do it live and that we will be safe and well throughout the planning and running of the program - virtual VBS is somwhat easier but still requires significant work.  Give thanks with us for Lani´s teacher and her class and her joyful dancing spirit and also for my sister´s visit.

During the pandemia

I can´t say that the covid-19 pandemia slowed down much of anything for us.  Certainly we have fewer outside classes, but work at home and some home Bible studies have continued.

We have not yet resumed English classes, the young ladies´ classes, tutoring, or Sunday afternoon kids´ club.  We do not know whether VBS will be virtual again this year, or whether we will be able to have live meetings. 

We never suspended certain in-home Bible studies, due to the needs of the families we study with.  Our church in Cuautlancingo has yet to open the services to live attendance.  For some time, we watched the virtual services on facebook, but our internet is iffy at best.  Last October, therefore, we began to hold our own church services at home with only our family and the neighbors who live on the same property. 

Within a few months, however, we welcomed other neighbors and moved the services to my mother-in-law´s patio as a health precaution.  The neighbors are young in the faith, and requested a weekly Bible study as well.  Now Abraham teaches on Tuesday or Wednesday nights from the material Hasta Que Todos Lleguemos by Ken Hanna.  Our neighbors would like to be baptized, so the classes are specifically focused on baptism.

In February, we began to look for ways to bless our community.  Our first gifts to neighbors were homemade cookies and plants divided from our garden.  The following month, we made key-holders from used packing pallets that we sanded and painted with verses.  In May we made two neighborhood visits, first with chicharines (fried snacks) for the kids to celebrate Children´s Day, and then with candy bags for the moms on Mother´s Day.

School for Abish and Lani did not change when Mexican schools closed, because we homeschool anyway.  However, Lani has had the wonderful opportunity to begin ballet classes in Huejotzingo.  She mostly loves it. 

Meanwhile, work on the house and garden continue.  Ever since we moved in, the roof has leaked during rainy season.  The best option for stopping leaks was to tile the roof area.  That project is now almost complete.  Once the rains properly start - hopefully this month - we will find out if the solution worked.  Another urgent project is the cleaning and deepening of the well.  The three families living on this property depend on the well for all our water, since there is no municipal water supply in this rural area.  However, the well began to only give water for bursts of 20 minutes, with about 2 hours´ time to recuperate in between.  The men who originally dug the well are currently working on the cleaning and deepening.

Please pray with us that the home church will be a blessing to us and our neighbors.  Pray also for the gifts that we give to the community, that they will help us get to know our other neighbors.  Pray that we can organize our time wisely.