Loving on the single parents

Dios es Amor has a high percentage of single parents in the congregation. Every story is different, but the common element is that these parents work extremely hard and often have little or no rest. Many months ago, Abraham and I decided to plan a night of pampering for them, a time when, for a few hours, they could be kings and queens.

It turned out to be a wonderful night, and not just for the parents. Looking at the faces of the many volunteers, I saw smiles, smiles, and more smiles and laughter. Everyone enjoyed the time.

Although we'd been planning for months, most of the actual footwork began on Thursday afternoon. Dan, another missionary teacher at PCS, drove Abraham and I to La Central de Abastos, a several-blocks-square market with the lowest prices in the city. The market opens at 3 a.m. so we arrived when many of the individual stores were closing, but we still found the ingredients we needed, and for astonishing prices.

Returning to the school, we stashed the food and began putting together the small gifts we'd gathered from donations. That done, we went home, and I pressure cooked two kilos of garbanzo beans to prepare them for the next day's opening course of garlic garbanzo soup.

As we surveyed all that had to be transported to the church, we realized it would be impossible to go by bus. Pastor Manuel agreed to pick us up at 2:30 on Friday, so that we could begin cooking and set-up by 3. The problem was, less than a mile away from the school, the pastor got into a fender bender. No one was hurt, but because he had to wait for the insurance agent, he couldn't pick us up.

Another missionary came to get us, and we arrived at church with only 1 1/2 hours to prepare. I cannot say enough about the volunteers that came. They were the best! They kept up cleaning and chopping fruits and vegetables, washing dishes, seasoning, egging, and breading chicken, clearing counters, setting up and decorating tables, figuring out the chocolate fountain, and more, always more and always asking as soon as they finished, "How else can I help?" And just before 5, a small army of beauticians arrived to set up their make-up, hair styling supplies, and facials. There were no complaints - on the contrary, as mentioned before, the volunteers seemed to be having as much fun as the guests.

When the first guests arrived, Abraham left off helping in the kitchen in order to start the games. We had decided to begin with Spoons, since it is an easy game to explain, and new comers can easily join as they come. Once it looked like everyone had arrived, Abraham divided the group into teams for some Bible questions and other games.

After some game time, the parents went with the beauticians who gave facials, hair cuts, manicures, and makeovers. There was one giving neck and shoulder rubs as well.

As the treatments came to an end, we began to dish up the soup, followed by green salad and chicken kiev. Of course there were refried beans and tortillas as well. When dinner ended, the chocolate fountain tempted our guests to try chocolate covered strawberries, black berries, bananas, and marshmallows.

Although we had planned to end at 8 p.m., at that time there were still gifts to pass out. One student at the seminary had donated bracelets for every parent, to add to the other donations we'd received. Two of the pre-teens circulated among the parents, passing out the bracelets and other gifts.

At 9:00, once the last parent had gone, there were still dishes to wash, tables to stow, and food to divide among the participants, so we did not leave church until 10. It was a long day, but so very worth the work!

And it would seem it is now an established tradition. We heard many comments of, "Next year..."

summer for one of us

The Puebla Christian School year ended on Friday, and now most of the teaching staff has returned to the United States or will be returning soon. Summer has begun for the P.C.S. staff and students.

Abraham and the other seminary students continue in school for two more weeks, and these weeks are the hardest ones, with various projects and group work due and some exams to study for. The end is in sight, but it still seems far away.

This Friday night, with the help of many volunteers, Abraham and I are putting together an event for the single parents of Dios es Amor. We plan to have an elegant dinner and fun games for the parents to enjoy. Some of our volunteers will give shoulder and neck massages and manicures, some will care for the children while their parents relax, and some will help prepare and serve the food. We hope the parents leave the event feeling like kings and queens, knowing that their often unremitting work has been seen and is appreciated.

On Sunday afternoon in Huejotzingo, several children that infrequently attend Bible class decided to be there. As we arrived, we also passed one child who had suddenly stopped going to Bible class after his family moved away in December. Abraham stopped to talk with him, and the boy said he would attend this coming Sunday. His family life is very difficult: his father is an alcoholic who lost one wife and some children to divorce but does not know how to change his life-style in order not to lose the family he has now.

Don Ezekiel attended the Bible class again and spoke at length with Abraham afterward. He said that by Wednesday, his nightmares and dark thoughts had gone away, but the pain from the colitis had returned in full force. Please continue to pray for him.

There is a family that recently moved to the neighborhood near the place we rent for Bible class. In the small house live Oscar and Michelle and their three young children, Michelle's mother Silvia and grandmother, and Michelle's sister. Another of Michelle's sisters, named Danna, does not live with them, but Silvia has told us about her struggles with depression and her two suicide attempts. Danna's anti-depressants cost about $70 every two weeks which is terribly expensive for her. Please keep her and the family in your prayers.

We continue to pray for funds to buy land in Huejotzingo. We would like to be able to work full time there instead of only two hours a week.

News of Huejotzingo

The school year is almost over, and therefore AWANA is drawing near to a close as well. Here is a short video of the kids playing a relay where they have to carry plastic eggs on spoons in their mouths. In two weeks we will have the final ceremony, and the club will end for the summer. Meetings will soon begin for the week-long VBS that will be the second week of July.

The people of Huejotzingo, specifically the children, need your constant prayers. Recently I was talking with a man who works, together with his wife, teaching children how to protect themselves against sexual abuse. I mentioned that Abraham and I are praying about moving to Huejotzingo to work full time with the people, and he said, "That's a difficult area. There's a lot of child prostitution there." This unwelcome news made me consider again how unprotected the children who go to Bible class on Sunday are. Many of them wander around almost completely unsupervised, because their parents either work long hours or are in the States.

I also immediately thought of raising our own children there. We will of course protect them as much as possible, but parents cannot be with their children all the time. I have begun to pray already for their protection, even though they aren't born yet.

Other unwelcome news came from Don Ezekiel, a man that I have mentioned previously as having bouts of extreme pain in his abdomen. It seems he has colitis. He is also under attack from the spiritual realm.

On Sunday he talked with Abraham and told him that he has begun having horrible nightmares about killing people. He said also that there are times during the day when he is walking down the street, and he sees someone and begins to think how he could kill the person. One time someone had tools of his and claimed he hadn't taken them, and Don Ezekiel felt an overwhelming urge to kill the man and even felt as if he were being pushed from behind toward the man.

Don Ezekiel is a powerful man, and he is physically capable of giving in to these dark thoughts. At this point he is not a Christian, although he reads the Bible and believes in the existence of God. He doesn't want to give his life to Jesus, because he is afraid he will mess up afterward. He has not been able to hear with his heart that perfection isn't necessary. Please pray for him. Satan does not want to let him go.

Huejotzingo

This is the land available in Huejotzingo. It is 20 X 20 meters, and the owner is asking 200,000 pesos up front.



Yesterday Abraham went to visit a family where at least some of the children usually come to the Bible class on Sunday afternoon. None of them had come, and he went to take the birthday dessert to one of them. When he arrived, they were just getting ready to leave to take flowers to the Virgin of Guadalupe. Several of them have professed faith in Jesus as their Savior, but at this point they do not see that this means they do not have to offer flowers to the virgin anymore.

Later, Abraham asked another girl what she thought of the virgin. This girl has also professed faith in Jesus, and her response was, "Well, she's an idol, isn't she?" Our prayer is that everyone can realize the same fact.

Land in Huejotzingo

Lord willing, Abraham and I will be moving out to Huejotzingo to work full time there after Abraham graduates from the seminary. We are looking for land to buy, so that we can construct a house close to where the mission work is.

Two weeks ago, the owner of the rooms we currently rent for the Sunday meetings in Huejotzingo told Abraham about land for sale. The owner has two empty lots side by side which he is selling together. The land is 20 X 20 meters, and he is asking 220,000 pesos for it (roughly $17,000). He wants all the money in one payment, and we do not have the finances at this point to buy.

Please pray with us that God will let us know his plan. Also, if you feel you can give toward buying land, the area available now or other land later, please send checks written out to Newport Mesa Christian Church. Include an insert in the envelope saying that the funds are for Rachel and Abraham Lechuga for land. The church's address is: 2599 Newport Blvd. Costa Mesa, CA. 92627
Thank you so much for your support!

The Joel competition, our first first anniversary, and the Sierras

Wednesday was the Big Night of the junior high and high school youth group competition on the book of Joel at Dios es Amor. Abraham and I had been working for several months with the junior highers, reading the book of Joel, discussing the meanings, and learning a whole lot about locusts. The format for the competition was baseball, with the 'pitcher' reading a question with a value of 1 - 4 bases to the 'batter.' The game went a bit overtime, but in the end, the junior highers won 16 - 9. They, and their parents, were very pleased.

On Thursday Abraham and I stayed home from work and school to relax together and enjoy a day celebrating the anniversary of our civil marriage a year ago. We slept late, and then Abraham made breakfast for us. After that, we went to a theater to see Date Night (funny but rather crude in spots). It was late evening when we returned home, and Abraham began to prepare a deluxe dinner.

One of the reasons we decided to take time off on Thursday, aside from celebrating our anniversary, was that we knew the weekend would be far from restful. A church in the Sierras had planned a youth conference and had called our pastor asking if anyone could speak at the conference. Abraham accepted the invitation, so Friday after school, we boarded a bus for the town of Zacatlan.

After three hours, we arrived in Zacatlan, and a young man came to pick us up for the 1 hour drive to the clinic where we'd spend the night. The roads wound and snaked through the mountains, leading generally upward, sometimes on paved stretches and sometimes on rutted and potholed stretches.

We reached the clinic at 11:30, and ate with several of the clinic staff. By about 12:30, we finally went to bed. Our sleep was cut very short, however, by the cacophonous ring of church bells at 5:15 a.m. The ringing was replaced by recorded songs, and then the musical interlude gave way to bells again at 6:15 when we had to get up anyway.

The youth began to arrive, trickling in in two's and three's. Finally, about 35 people had gathered, and we divided up between two very overloaded trucks for the 1 1/2 hour drive to the church where the conference would be held. After about 1/2 hour of driving, we stopped to pick up five more youth before continuing.

Most of the youth from other areas had already eaten when we arrived, but the ladies cheerfully served us beans, salsa, and homemade tortillas. Once we'd eaten, everyone gathered in the sanctuary for the conference. After singing - this group seemed very musical - it was time for Abraham's first message. He spoke about real liberty, the kind that comes only from serving God.

When he finished the message, we had games outside for awhile. By this time the heat and humidity had increased oppressively, and midges kept raising welts on exposed skin. These difficulties didn't dampen most spirits, and when we returned inside, the singing was as enthusiastic as before.

Abraham preached a second time, this time speaking about living abundant lives in Christ. He involves any congregation in his preaching, but in the Sierras, it is extremely challenging, because the culture as a whole is reticent and also most of the teens' first language is Totonaco rather than Spanish. Some of the more citified teens willingly answered questions and participated in illustrations, but some of the girls especially wouldn't even answer direct questions.

Once Abraham finished, the kids broke into four groups for a variety of games. They had sword drills, dramatized Bible scenes, sang Bible verses, and sang songs containing certain words. By the time games ended, the teens were tired and hungry, and the heat felt like a physical weight.

Abraham had chosen, rather than to preach again, to tell a simple Bible story, ask some questions, and then repeat the story. After that, he broke the youth into groups of 3 or 4 for them to retell the story, ask the questions, and then discuss the answers. This was a method he had learned at a conference a few weeks before, and it was moderately successful with this group. The extreme shyness of some meant that not every group participated. One of the teens with me wouldn't speak even one word.

This activity ended the conference. We ate together, and then groups began to leave. It was time for Abraham and I to go back to Zavaleta to catch the bus back to Puebla. We finally reached home at 10 pm.

The weekend

This weekend we were hardly home. On Saturday, Abraham and I went to church mid-morning for an activity with the junior high youth group that we began leading in January. It is a small group with only four regular members, although sometimes others stay after OANSA (AWANA) on Wednesday for the youth group.

One day, the high school youth group and the junior high youth group began talking about having a competition. Abraham and I talked with Mario, the high school leader, and arranged a competition from the Bible book of Joel. From then on, we've been studying with the junior highers, and Saturday was the final preparation for the competition on the 28th.

Of course, it wasn't all study. When we arrived, the musicians were still practicing for Sunday worship, so we went to the kitchen to teach the kids how to play Mastermind. They all enjoyed it, although at first some of them were also frustrated.

After some time of playing, we broke out the snacks and began studying. We don't know exactly what kinds of questions there will be, but the kids have been (supposedly anyway) reading Joel every day since we planned the competition, and we've been practicing together. Have you ever seen a video of a plague of locusts? It looks awful!

Once we had gone over all the questions, the musicians had finished practicing in the sanctuary. We set up the projector and started the movie G-Force. Only one of the group had seen the movie, and they all enjoyed it.

At 4:15, as soon as we finished the event with the junior highers, we caught two buses to visit my brother-in-law in the hospital. Six called us at about 1 in the morning to say he had been admitted because of a kidney stone. When we arrived in the afternoon, I met one of our nieces and one nephew for the first time. We stayed at the hospital until night, and then went downtown to eat a late dinner. It was after 10 when we finally returned home.

At Dios es Amor, one of the recently married young ladies had her baby two weeks ago. He was born three weeks early, but he is healthy. The doctors had to do a cesarean section because Nathan was breach, and unfortunately, Jasmin's stitches became infected. She only recently returned home from several days in the hospital, and the doctors had to perform a hysterectomy on her. Please pray that she continues to heal well.

SAT testing and a kermés

My students at PCS are submerged in SAT testing. For them, this means three days of back-to-back tests, filling in scantron bubbles and trying to stay focused. Tomorrow is their final day, and in the afternoon we'll make Mother's Day projects for a break.

On Saturday a team came from the United States to help out at church. They have a smallish budget, but they wanted to do a carnival for the children. Our pastor's wife suggested that, rather than try to make the budget fit the larger crowds at Dios es Amor, they set up the kermés in Huejotzingo instead. April 30th is when Day of the Child is celebrated here, so we decided to have the kermés be an early celebration for the Huejo kids.

The Sunday previous, Abraham and I went with a group of eager helpers to distribute fliers in the neighborhood. We hung posters on light poles and pushed smaller invitations under doors or handed them to passersby. Two of the kids couldn´t quite get the name right. Rather than ask for more 'invitaciones' to pass out, one of them requested 'habitaciones' (rooms) and the other 'decisiones' (decisions). However, whether they knew the right word or not, the kids were a great help in spreading the word.

On the rainy Saturday before the carnival, Abraham and I returned to put up more posters and pass out more invitations. We stuck bunches of balloons with the posters. When we passed by the posters on our way to return home, we saw that not a single balloon was left. The kids simply love balloons, and having them stuck to the posts was too much of a temptation to bear.

Sunday was bright and clear. The U.S. team, along with many people from Dios es Amor, packed game supplies and prizes into four vehicles. When we arrived in Huejotzingo, children and some parents were already gathered, ready for the fun.

And fun it was. Throughout the afternoon, more people arrived. They played pin the tail on the donkey, tossed beanbags through a target, made wordless bracelets, and much more. After an hour of play, everyone gathered inside to hear the meaning of the wordless bracelet from Abraham. Three of the U.S. team members also gave their testimonies.

After the brief message, some people went back to the games while others lined up for their deluxe hot dogs. After another hour of play and food, it was time to pack up the vans and head back to church.

Please continue to pray for the families in Huejotzingo. Also continue to pray that, if it's God's will for Abraham and I to live there, he will provide the finances to buy land and construct and also let us know when the right time is to move.