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.