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?

Silent auction

There is a family connected to Puebla Christian School which has struggled with health problems for a few years.  First, the mother - the current secretary at PCS - was diagnosed with lupus.  Shortly after that, the youngest son of the four sons began a two-year battle with non-hodgkins lymphoma.  While the family does have health insurance, it did not cover all the options they explored to cure Aaron.  As a result, the family incurred significant debt with the banks and through personal loans.   The PCS community put together Gofundme pages twice to help with medical costs, but even so, the debt grew. On November 5, 2018, Aaron´s cancer battle ended with him leaving for Heaven at the age of 15.  A few months later, his father began the process of dental surgeries which he had postponed during Aaron´s treatments.

Now Abraham and I are organizing a silent auction online with the hope to diminish (or eliminate!) the family´s debt.  We have sought donations from friends and also from businesses near the school.  People at Dios es Amor church have contributed as well, and now there is a smorgasbord of goods and services available for auction.  People have been very generous and helpful.  The sale begins November 8 on the googledocs https://forms.gle/kgkbpWuAzCx9CifN7 and will last until 8 pm on November 16. 

There will be an event in the evening at the school to end the auction.  People from the community around the school, as well as from Dios es Amor, and from the school itself are invited to presentations given by many of the school´s class groups.  Several ladies have offered to sell food at the event, with the money gathered to be donated to the family.  The auction will be totally online, but there will be computers set up and students ready to help with bids at the school.

Please pray that all will go smoothly with the auction.  Pray that each item or service sells well and that the debt can be significantly reduced.  Above all, pray for the comfort of the family Esparza Espinosa as they move forward without Aaron.  They know they will see him in Heaven, but naturally, their hearts are broken here on earth.

VBS 2019

game time

Moses, humble liberator, VBS 2019 has ended.  Vacation Bible School in Huejotzingo is always an intense time of hard work and constant activity.  The work begins a few months before the actual VBS dates, with choosing the theme and then deciding who the principal characters will be who tell the daily stories.  We add the verses, crafts, worksheets, and theme snacks, and Abraham writes the monologues for each day.  Once the rough draft of the week is ready, we go back over the plans to see what needs to be changed.

at work on Moses mini-book

The VBS week approaches, and we go on shopping sprees to buy the supplies - food, scissors, colored pencils, end-of-the-week gifts, and more.  The house where we will be is cleaned and many items moved to storage to leave space for the expected group of children.  We find volunteers to play the roles of Jocabed, Zipporah, Aaron, Miriam, and Moses.  Dios es Amor church loans us costumes and game supplies.  Monday is a flurry of final preparations as we print out Tuesday´s worksheets, make name tags and attach their strings, decide on last-minute changes to the snack, and write out the verses and song lyrics on posters. 

the littles make their book

When Abraham and I returned home from shopping and general preparation in Huejotzingo, we found out that Abish had been suffering from an intense headache all afternoon.  Although he had been drippy with a cold, he had not actually felt bad until then.  He slept on and off in the early evening, between doses of his homeopathic medicine, but by bedtime, his headache had not diminished and he had a fever.  We looked for paracetamol in our house to help him, because he could not sleep for the pain, but we could not find any.  Abraham stayed with Abish, cooling the fever with wet towels, and in the very early morning, Abish finally slept well, fever gone.

Not long after that, Lani left her bed and climbed into bed with me.  At about 8, Abish bounced

proud of her work

into my room, waking Lani and I to cheerfully proclaim, "I feel fine!  I can do VBS!"
However, over breakfast Lani began to wilt, complaining of a headache and refusing to eat.  She gets headaches when she´s hungry, tired, or dehydrated, so her discomfort disappeared after we obliged her to finish breakfast.

Jocabed telling about leaving baby Moses in the Nile

Aaron

Typical of most first VBS days, we were running late.  We arrived hurriedly at the house where we used to live in Huejotzingo, and everyone got out to hang the shade tarp on the patio, put up string to hold the song posters, print out the registration papers, and set out the snack.  I left the bustle of activity to drive ten minutes away to pick up two kids and their great-grandmother who would be helping with food prep and clean-up.  Once I dropped them off, I drove the opposite direction to get six other kids.  Chauffeuring is normally my dad´s job, but he was unable to visit this year due to medical issues.

On that first day, 20 children learned songs and verses and ate a snack and did crafts to reenforce the story told by Jocabed about how God takes care of his children.  Day 2 saw a slight increase in attendance, as the children participated in activities related to Zipporah´s story of how God hears.  Aaron arrived day 3 to tell 34 children about how God acts on behalf of his people.

morning review

When we returned home late afternoon on Thursday, day 3, we found out someone had tried to break into our property.  They had cut the chainlink off the front gate, pulling it back half-way.  We do not know if they didn´t enter because our dogs scared them away, or what else might have prevented further entrance.  However, for the next two days, my brother-in-law, who had been the VBS photographer, stayed at home to discourage would-be thieves.

Miriam

Moses

On Friday, Miriam was played by a young lady from church.  She told how God saves, recounting the story of the Red Sea.  Finally, Moses came on day 5, waiting to tell his story until the end of the day, when the parents came for the finale.  We had decided to rearrange the day´s activities so that the parents could see how their children had been learning throughout the week.  Seven parents attended the finale, including two new ones whose sons had joined mid-week.

the littles with their teachers and diplomas

the biggers with teachers and diplomas

Five days of Moses.  Fewer than forty kids.  Some volunteers working daily, and some just once.  Some kids staying the whole week, while others attend one day.  Is it worth it?  We pray that the time spent with the kids will change their lives and touch the lives of their families.  At least eight of the children who were with us most of the week have mothers who work as prostitutes.  Those same children, and other children in the group, come from families where drug and alcohol abuse ruin lives.

Would you pray with us that the stories and activities would help the children and their families learn of God´s longing for a relationship with them and that patterns of destruction would be broken?  Would you pray that the children will continue to attend on Sunday afternoons so that they can learn more?

they won the week´s posters by memorizing all 5 verses