Three Kings

Happy New Year!  Our Christmas decorations are now packed away, and home school resumed today.  We had a couple weeks off school for Christmas and for my sister's week-long visit, but vacation is over.

On Jan. 6, Abraham and I visited our neighbors with Christmas and Three Kings gifts.  To prepare, we drew up a simple design of a Christmas tree as a cross.  While in Puebla, we had the design printed as window stickers.  We bought pamphlets called Chicks with a message of God's salvation.  On Jan. 5, Abraham and my mother-in-law Six visited the kids in Huejotzingo from the Sunday afternoon kids' club, Huellas de Cristo (footprints of Christ) to deliver candy bags, stickers, and Chicks, while I baked a double batch of cookies and bagged them. 

In the morning of Jan. 6, Abraham and I made a short video about the magi and their purpose in traveling to visit Jesus.  As always, we improvised to make the scenery and costume for our magi video, using hair clips, bathrobe, painted Burger King crown, a wig, and other unrelated materials.  Once the video was ready on whatsapp, we gathered cookies, stickers, and Chicks and began knocking on neighbors' doors. At some homes, we had longer conversations, while other visits were very brief.  Several neighbors agreed to receive the whatsapp video. 

Last week Abraham and I went with the contractor of the new Teach Us to Pray building in Huejotzingo to see the final results.  Before we can begin activities, the building still needs electricity, plumbing, windows, and security bars installed, but hopefully everything will be completed by the end of January or beginning of February.  People have been particularly asking about English classes.  We also have a friend with a library ministry who has offered to donate books and shelves for Huejotzingo.

Please pray with us that this new year will be a blessing.  Pray that the church at our home will attract the people who need to hear of God's love for them and that the building in Huejotzingo could soon be ready for classes, the library, and Bible studies.  We need a family living in the upper story of the building for security, as thievery is unfortunately common in the area.  

Please pray also that we can have good relationships with our neighbors and for friendships for all of us, since this is an isolated place.  Thank you for your support!

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.   

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?