| Ministry News Dear Friends,
This week, in Mexico, people will be celebrating the Day of the Dead, which is a national holiday. This is a Mexican holiday where people put out bright orange flowers to help the spirits of their dead family members find their way back to their home or cemetary. Waiting for them is an offering on an altar with their favorite food along with other things. It’s believed that they eat the spiritual essence of the food. The sad part is that many Mexicans believe this, and practice this. The people are lost and need the gospel. You can read more about the day of the dead here. It seems like we have been in hurry up and wait mode ever since returning. We do one step, and we have to wait for someone else so we can continue. God is teaching patience. We have now found a place to rent for our ministry activities. Like with finding a house to live in, this was also a challenge. Most people didn’t want to rent to us to do ministry. We did find a place to rent, and so we started to canvas the neighborhood with flyers and a survey, but just a few days before signing the contract, the owner called to tell us that he can’t rent us the house because of a family member who needs it. So, we went back out to find a new house. God had another house for us in a different area of the city. Last Saturday, we were finally able to get the house after two weeks of waiting for it. Bryan has been taking a survey of the community, passing out flyers about our ministry. The response has been very positive. Some of the community has even offered to help meet community needs! We plan on trying to meet people’s needs that they know they have(i.e. family issues), so that we can meet people’s need that they don’t know they have(gospel). Bryan met with a local government official to find out the needs of the community and to try to get into some schools for ministry. They asked for a letter explaining what we want to do. Last week, I took the letter to the office, and now we are waiting for a response from the local president. A neighbor of where we are renting also went for us to find out what legal papers we need for our place of ministry. The local government official wasn’t happy about us being here. We probably won’t ever hear back from the local government, but we shouldn’t have any problems ministering here. We just have to wait for them to give us permission to open, which should just be a formality. The house we are renting is very close to a couple of schools. Bryan is going to go to both schools offering to give school for parents on child rearing, and also offer to help out a little bit with English. We are waiting for two letters of recommendation before we go so that there is a better likelihood that we can get in. Please pray that God opens this door. We have one group coming down next summer. If you are interested in coming to Mexico on a missions trip, we would love to have you! Give us a call or send us an email. God can use whatever talents and gifts He has given you in Mexico! Family News Bryan is getting to know the police in the area. He has been pulled over 8 times since August. Most of the time it’s because of not having a front license plate since the car is registered in Indiana. They are always looking for a bribe. I haven’t had to pay anything or get a ticket yet, but it does take up time. The longest stop was 45 minutes. It’s mostly in a neighboring city to where we live. We found a house, thanks for your prayers, and are now pretty much settled in. We still have a few things to do like putting a new roof on the back porch, fixing the front gate and a few windows, but we are pretty much settled. Bryan’s liver is getting back to normal. The doctor said that he believes that the problem was just a reaction to the medicine that he was taking for reflux. He’s doing much better. Susan is doing well. The kids have started school. Josh is in 7th grade, Caleb in 4th, and Abby in 1st. Aaron just turned 4, and he likes to pretend to do school. Nathan discovered coughing, and likes to cough at us. A printable version can be downloaded here |
