| Ministry News Dear Friends,We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas season! We celebrated Jesus’ birth with our old teammates in Texcoco, and New Year’s here in Tecámac with a friend from our mission.We were able to get permission to open up our ministry center, although we did have to pay for it, which we did not expect. At least we are legally able to operate now. In November, we continued canvassing the area, and we also had two weeks of an open house where people could come ask questions and sign up for different activities. We started doing the activities in the beginning of December. December isn’t the best month to start as everyone is busy with the end of the year activities, but we didn’t want to wait. We’re happy to have help from a local church which is about 30 minutes away. Two ladies, Adriana and Andrea, helped a lot with the open house and canvassing. Adriana will be starting a weekly cross stitch class this month. We also have a young man, Adrian, who wants to be a missionary who is helping by teaching a guitar class. There are about 6 taking this class. Since Bryan doesn’t have any experience teaching ESL, Silvia came one day to teach one of the classes and help Bryan learn how to more effectively teach the English classes. Because of initial interest, we started three adult English classes. In January, we are going to combine them into one class. We also are doing 2 children’s English classes. In total, we have about 15 in the English classes. Susan gave a baking class and a craft class, and will continue those in January as well. The purpose for all of these activities is to develop relationships and help the people with needs that they know that they have so that we can give them the gospel. Bryan also gave a parenting class in December. We were happy that 9 people showed up. In this class we use the Bible. After the class, they asked if we could make it a weekly class! I told them that this was our plan starting in January. One lady who came with her husband asked about our church. We told her that we don’t currently have a church, but we do Bible studies. She said that she would like a Bible study. A lady next to her said, “I’ve never been to a Bible study, but I’d like to go to one as well.” Wow, we weren’t expecting that. The funny thing is that she was in a Bible study(parenting class) when she said this. We hope that they will come to a Bible study that we are starting this month. Bryan was able to get into one school to give parenting classes starting in January. This is the same thing as we are doing in the parenting classes, but we can’t openly use the Bible. He is still waiting to hear back from the principal about a schedule. There have been a few people who have come for counseling as well. One lady and her husband came because of marriage problems and she has OCD. In our second meeting, they both trusted Christ as their Savior! Before leaving she said, “Now I don’t have to be afraid anymore. I can just trust in God!” In February, we hope to have a medical caravan come including a dentist, a few doctors and nurses. We are very thankful to God for what He is doing here, and look forward to what he has planned in the future! Family News Susan and/or the kids have been sick for the past 2 months with colds and strep throat. Nathan has teeth coming in, so he’s been very uncomfortable. Bryan just got 4 stitches in his head on New Year’s Eve. He was texting and walked into a metal box sticking out of a wall. He gets the stitches out later this week. Mexico News Please pray for Christians in Pahuatlan which is in the mountains about 3 hours from us. They have been arrested and persecuted for their faith. A printable version can be downloaded here |
