Year's beginning

 We didn't have the Christmas celebration we would have wanted.  Around Dec. 20, my mother-in-law and both kids began with coughs and fevers.  The kids slept a lot and lay around on the couch downstairs, too tired and listless to do much of anything.  My mother-in-law grew steadily worse, adding vomiting to the original symptoms.

By Christmas Eve, we thought it best to try getting intravenous rehydration, but since she is diabetic, our doctor recommended we get her blood sugar tested first.  Abraham drove her to get the test, and that turned in to a three-day hospital stay, because her levels were close to 700.  With antibiotics and insulin, her condition improved.

However, because of the kids' illness and her hospital admission, we canceled the Christmas Day church service. Abraham stayed the night of the 24-25th at the hospital, an unpleasant experience, since extra blankets are not permitted into the hospital, nor are there beds for care-takers.  He returned home to sleep several hours while another family member stayed at the hospital.  In the following days, various siblings took turns at the hospital.

My mother-in-law is seemingly fine now, although she can no longer rely on diet alone to control the diabetes.  She needs blood sugar tests every morning and an injection of insulin. Doctors have not been very clear about how to proceed with treatment, and she firmly dislikes medication of any kind. 

As we are now all healthy, Bible studies and church services are back to normal.  I drive to three homes on Sunday mornings to pick up around 17 people, and Abraham returns
them to their homes after service, snack time, and play time.  

This past Sunday it was evident that there had been fights in all three houses, since the kids and teens arrived out-of-sorts.  Once the service ended, three of the teens had separate, tearful conversations with Abraham and another church member.  I am thankful that they feel the confidence and security here to have such discussions.

Please continue to pray for us.  As the building in Huejo is just about finished, we hope to begin classes in English, tutoring, and online schooling there.  Abraham might offer tae kwon do and Lani's ballet teacher also may give basic classes.  Those two classes require that we install a proper floor and mirrors.

Christmas season

 This Christmas season we have enjoyed working with the church members to create different decorations for their homes each week after the service.  Instead of dividing the children from the adults for a separate class during the sermon, we stay together for the whole service.  Abraham's sermons have, naturally, been about Jesus' coming to earth.  

On the first Sunday, we made yarn stars.  The teens tired faster than the younger kids of winding the yarn around the cardboard base, but everyone finished, and their bright stars were ready for the next week's decoration.

Near our home, there is a family business buying and selling used pallets.  Abraham and I loaded up on pallets, and then he and another young man worked together to make the example pallet Christmas tree

 The kids and teens threw themselves into the activity on the second Sunday.  One young lady in particular, hesitant at first to use the power saw, soon cut the measurements with confidence.  Other children also took their turns cutting. Another two worked steadily, attaching the "branches" and reinforcing the "trunk." The youngest kids swarmed the finished trees to sand off splinters and rough patches.  

On the third Sunday, two younger boys helped me cut branches off my over-grown rosemary bush.  With the fragrant branches, wire hangers, wire, and lots of ribbon and pinecones, the church members created wreaths.

Next week, we will make a simple manger scene and then have lunch together with the church family.  Because of various schedule constraints of family members, we will then return the kids to their homes (a feat which often involves piling 17 or more people in our 7-person car - good thing most of them are slender!), and then welcome relatives for a second Christmas celebration in the evening.

May you have a blessed Advent and Christmas.  May this season be a time when you recognize that Jesus came to this earth for all the joyful, the hurting, the lost, and the lonely. Please pray for the Christmas preparations here and particularly the celebration on Sunday.  The majority of those who join us can spend a few relaxed, loving, fun hours here, but then return to painful situations at home.

Two Years

church group

Last Sunday we celebrated two years of having church at our home.  We originally started as only family inside our home.  After some months, a few neighbors joined us and we moved the service to my mother-in-law´s patio.  A little over a year later, some children and teens that we have known for many years also began attending.  I

pick them up on the morning, and Abraham returns them after church service, snacks, and some hours of play.  Occasionally, vistors from the church Dios es Amor come for a Sunday service.

Speaking of those kids, we still go to one family´s house for mid-week Bible study.  As usual, Abraham leads a study with the adults, and I teach the kids and teens.  Abish and Lani participate in the classes, and then enjoy playing with the kids afterwards.  We have studies with another family and also with Abraham´s sister and some other family members who live about 20 minutes from here.

We continuously hear of the difficulties in each family.  One teen works in a jeans factory at night and is exposed to the bleaching chemicals used to distress the cloth.  Worse than that, he is faced with the drug and alcohol use of the other employees, and although he is only 15, struggles with smoking and alcohol use himself.  There are countless other stories.  

This coming Sunday we have planned a festival of life.  During this time when the days of the dead are celebrated, we wish to honor the God of life by showing the kids and adults the blessing that is life. We will have games, hot dogs, face painting, and story-telling.  Members of the house church have volunteered to help in the event.

Please pray with us that each person who attends church here and/or studies with us will lead the life that God has for them.  Pray that we can be a blessing to them and to their families.  Pray also for the event on Sunday, that it will go smoothly and be wonderful fun.  As the construction in Huejotzingo nears completion, pray for us to know who should live in the upstairs apartment, for the library that we have been loaned for the kids' use, and for the classes we will begin to have there.

The Fruit of the Spirit

learning songs

During the third week of August, we held the annual week of VBS.  The theme was the fruit of the Spirit, from Galatians 5.  For the first time since 2019, we had it live.  Although the Teach Us to Pray building in Huejotzingo still didn't have running water, any electricity, or all its doors, it was ready

signing in

enough that we could have the VBS there. 

teen volunteers lend a hand

We provided transport for two families, which meant packing eleven kids - sometimes more - into our car for the short trip.  Throughout the week, 36 children attended, along with a total
of 12 volunteers.  Three of the volunteers were teens who had participated as children.

changing from games to snack

We told stories of Bible characters who demonstrated love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.  Old Testament Joseph, Paul and Silas, Abigail, and Ruth represented the first seven fruits, and on the final day, Abraham told of how Jesus embodied all of them, while emphasizing Jesus' gentleness and self-control.

Each day we opened with review and some songs, and then the smaller kids went upstairs for their snack.  The older group enjoyed games for that half-hour, and then the two groups changed places.

craft time with the smaller kids

During the middle of the time, both groups joined to hear the Bible story and sing more songs, and then the smaller kids stayed downstairs for their review page and craft.  The older kids did their activities
upstairs.  Throughout the whole time, we worked with the kids to memorize Galatians 5:16, 22-25.

the final craft

snack

finale with parents

On Friday afternoon, all the parents were invited to attend the finale so that they could see what their children had learned during the week.  Without us asking, four different families offered to buy treats to share with all the people who had participated in the VBS.

one family bought a cake for everyone

In our neighborhood, there are few children, so we felt it more prudent to continue VBS the final week of August by Whatsapp for those children.  We recorded the videos, prepared packets of review pages and crafts, and filled bags with the necessary supplies for each activity.  Twelve children and teens signed up.  They have until September 4 to send photos of their completed pages.

Thank you for your prayers for us.  Please pray that the lessons learned by the VBS participants would draw them closer to God.  Pray also that the construction in Huejotzingo could be finished quickly and well, and that God would guide Abraham and I in how best to reach out to the community there and in our neighborhood.

 

Holy Week and Before

Midmarch, Leilani´s ballet class finally had their many-times-postponed recital.  It was Lani´s first, and she was quite excited.  The week before, the class had extra rehearsals, so she and I were out of the house most evenings.  Saturday was the actual performance, and the rented hall soon filled with friends and relatives of the dancers.  While Lani´s participation wasn´t perfect - nor did we expect it to be - we enjoyed the show and felt proud of her hard work and all she had learned. Her ballet class has been a blessing for me, too.  Ever since Lani began attending, I stayed during the hour-long classes the three evenings a week.  Not long ago, some other mothers also began to stay, and we have struck up friendships.  Now we also converse outside of class and plan other activities together.  

Speaking of long-posponed, in March we also finally had the Puebla Annual Ladies´ Retreat after canceling twice due to covid restrictions.  Sixty-three ladies attended, about half of them first-timers.  The theme was "Be Still," with Exodus 14:14 and Psalm 46:10 as the key verses.  It was wonderful to meet old friends again and make new ones.  One lady I met for the first time lives very close to Huejotzingo, and has children near Lani and Abish´s ages. We plan to get together soon.  

During Holy Week, Abraham led services at our home church on Thursday evening, Friday afternoon, and Sunday morning.  Some neighbors who had expressed intrest in joining us on Sundays came for the services.  On Sunday we had extra guests, because five people chose to be baptized, and their family members, although not Christian, wanted to be with them on their special day.  Once the service ended, we celebrated with a potluck meal, and the kids happily spent all afternoon in the pool. 

Abish and Lani still do homeschool with both Abraham and I.  When one studies in English with me, the other has classes in Spanish with Abraham.  We alternate days.  It can be difficult to complete the studies, what with the other activities we do.  I continue to teach art at Puebla Christian School once a week, and our kids love going, but I may need to step down from that when this school year ends.

Thank you for your prayers and support.  Please pray for us as we lead Bible studies, go daily to treat the leg ulcer of Doña Agripina, have the house church, teach our kids, and do day-to-day life.  

We are planning a día del niño fun fair at our home for May 1st.  Quite a few adults and teens are signed up to help and to bring snacks and candy.  We will also celebrate Abish´s birthday the week after that, and Mother´s Day follows immediately afterwards.  Please pray those activies will be of blessing.

Daily doings

Marina, a Teach Us to Pray missionary who temporarily lives in the school room at the front of this property, takes health promotion classes.  Part of what she has learned, we have been putting into daily practice for about a month.  Agripina, an 88 year-old woman in a nearby pueblo suffers from an ulcerated varicose vein on her leg, an open wound she has had for 2 years.

Agripina listening to the Bible

Each day, I drive Marina and my mother-in-law, Six, the 20 minutes to Agripina's home.  Once there, I become nurse's
assistant while Marina cleans the injury, applies, antibacterial creams, and re-bandages the leg.  Six reads a chapter from the gospel of John, and then we return home.  Healing of the ulcer is very slow, and there have been some reverses, but overall, Agripina's leg seems to be improving.  Abraham took her to a specialist a week ago, and he will take her again shortly for evaluation.

the kids studying their verse

Two of the Bible studies Abraham and I teach are usually on Friday.  They are studies with families we have known for many years.  Our own kids enjoy the chance to be with other children, and also learn from the Bible studies.  In the first study, Abraham reads and explains a chapter of Mark with the great-grandmother of the children that I teach.  At present, I am teaching stories from the Israelite kings.  At the second study, we just began the book of Proverbs.

Because we home-school, Abraham and I have to fit our kids' classes in and around the differing hours each week.  It can be quite the challenge to finish each week's assignments!  

This week's schedule was a bit shaken up by a minor accident.  On Saturday morning, a misstep at the top of the stairs ended with me skidding to the bottom.  For the first day, I could barely bend my swollen knee, the only injury I suffered besides some bruises.  In the next few days, both Abraham and Marina did gentle massages and bandaged the affected area.  By Monday, my knee was much improved, but walking was still uncomfortable.  When improvement plateaued, we decided I should go to a huesero (similar to a chiropractitioner) whose services friends and family members had already used.  The treatment is painful while applied, but very effective, and already I feel more relief.  We have a follow-up appointment on Wednesday.  

Lani continues to enjoy her ballet classes.  She will soon be dancing in her first recital.  Lately, I have chatted with a few other mothers who also stay at the studio during class.  This past week, I discovered one mother, with a daughter in ballet slightly younger than Lani, is our neighbor.  We plan to set up play dates for the kids, something that both us mothers will also be glad of, since friends are somewhat scarce for us in this area.

Thank you for your prayers for us.  Please pray for complete healing for Agripina and for her to know Jesus as her Savior.  Pray that Abraham and I can manage our very fluid schedule well and that the Bible studies will be of blessing.

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.