Thank you to White Sands Baptist and Union Baptist

We thank our Lord for being so good to us and we thank you all for praying for us and for sacrificing so that we can be here to, one by one, win the lost to Christ in Veracruz.  We thank you, Bro. Charles and Bro. David, Marsha and Heather for coming down to visit us and to participate a little in the work here in Jáltipan.  I am so sorry that you had such a rude welcoming to Mexico when robbed of your bags.  May God replace all things lost and then some!  Don’t let the devil get the victory and discourage you from missions or another trip to the mission field.  May God bless you and keep you all.

Manuel baptizes his daughter

On Saturday night we had our first ever men’s event for fathers.  It was mostly an evangelistic event rather than just for the fathers in the church.  We invited a whole bunch but only a few showed up.  It reminds me of the wedding feast that was prepared and none showed up but had a good excuse as to why. 

Bro. Charles has pastored for forty-two years!  I asked him to speak to our men’s Sunday morning class.  It was very edifying!  He then preached the first service.  It was my first ever to translate.

Mario and Manuel preached the evening service.  They are the two men in the church who are called to preach so I preach them.  After the service Manuel had the privilege and joy of baptizing his own daughter, Perla who had recently received Christ as her Savior. 

The well has been dug!!

I want to thank the Lord first and those that gave through White Sands Baptist Church for the $2200 that paid for the well, pressure tank, motor, UV light water filter and etc.  We weren’t able to completely bring in the well as some complications arose with the actual finishing of it due to the depth of the well.  In order to assure that we had adequate water pressure entering into our “artesian” well we had to take some extra measures that required more time.  I really wanted to be able to finish the well for Bro. Charles and his church back home so that they could return home with that “job accomplished” feeling.  We greatly appreciate their sacrifice for coming and that of those who gave for this project.  We will be finishing it ourselves as soon as we possibly can when we get back to Jáltipan.

Bright colors on the walls

Marsha Hayes and Heather Yates painted several walls.  Don’t hold them responsible for the color of the paint, for that matter, don’t blame me as well!  The paint sure looked different on the paper before it was mixed!  Could it have been mixed wrong?  Anyway, Mexicans like bright and loud colors so they shouldn’t mind it too much.  

Making the best of things

Because of the theft of Marsha’s and Heather’s passports a couple of days ago, we had to take a thirty hour trip by bus to Mexico City and back in order to obtain emergency passports at the U.S. Embassy.  That was a long trip and we were very tired afterwards!  While we were gone Bro. Charles and David built us some much needed screens for all of the windows in our church building and for one of the doors as well.  The rainy season is here and Dengue Fever gets to epidemic levels in the months to come so we really appreciate the screens. 

Setback for our visitors

Pastor Charles Burnham and David Lee from White Sands Baptist of New Hebron, MS and Marsha Hayes and Heather Yates from Union Baptist of Raleigh, MS visited to help with the well project.  Within the first few hours of Marsha’s and Heather’s arrival, they were robbed while we were at dinner.  While we were eating, some professionals literally popped the lock out of the door of the van, entered, and stole four backpacks.  The contents were two passports and newly obtained Mexican tourist visas, a laptop, I-phone, two cameras, around $700 USD, and some prescription meds.  This happened around 11:00 PM.  We had to go to the Justice Department to fill out a report and a warrant in order for Marsha and Heather to have some type of documentation in hand as to why they no longer possessed a passport or visa.  We finally arrived at our home in Jáltipan around 5:30 Wednesday morning.

               

This set us back on the whole agenda for the trip but we still got a lot done and the group was a real help to us.  The ladies scraped and painted some walls and were able to put on a program telling the story of Genesis with balloons in the afternoon Bible club that we have recently started in our garage.  The kids really had a good time!

Pictured here are:

David Lee from White Sands Baptist, Marsha Hayes from Union Baptist, Pastor Charles Burnham from White Sands Baptist, and Heather Yates from Union Baptist

Plans to dig a well

A group from my home area in Mississippi will be here the 14-21 of this month to do some work with us.  We decided about two weeks ago to dig a well ourselves.  The holding capacity that I added last year just isn’t enough for our family, church, garden, and critters.  From the time that we first mentioned this to the group and how much it would take to put in the well it wasn’t very long at all until God had raised the $2200 needed for everything to do with the well.  God is good!  We are also hoping to put in a drop ceiling in the building that we use for our services.  When we stepped out on faith almost two years ago to remodel and extent this building God moved in a big way and brought in all of the needed funds.  We will be using it like a multipurpose building (minus the basketball court) and we’ll have church services, English classes for two groups of thirty people each, and the classes for the Bible Institute.  The last two weeks have been in the 100’s in the shade.  The roof is a laminated asbestos and it gets really hot, like and oven inside especially when you have lots of people.  The drop roof estimate for materials is around $1300-$1400.  This is an area 7x15 meters plus the bathroom.  It is very easy to put up and we can do it easily while the group is here if we have the funds.  If anyone would be interested please give me a call on my Vonage phone 601-724-5155 and it will reach me here in Mexico.  

God is looking for you!

On Sunday, May 29, around 3:00 PM another man knocked at the door.  Twenty-five year old Roberto from Costa Rica was passing through and looking for some help along the way and knocked on our door.  He had spent five years in the U.S. as a young teen and spoke English really well.  I was blown away.  I really didn't know what to think.  I didn't believe his story and I told him so.  I told him that I didn't know what to think but as I went inside the house for a moment I asked God to guide me and take control of the situation.  I didn't necessarily believe his story but I knew that since God brought him here that He wanted me to witness to him.  So another three hours and another person ready to be saved that got saved.  It was truly amazing.  As I told both of them, “You can knock on probably every door here in Jáltipan and you won't hear what you just heard at this door, God is looking for you".  He stayed all week and worked with us on the well.  I downloaded some really good sermons off of sermonaudio.com and he heard some good preaching all week long while we worked.  We baptized him Sunday evening and he left on his way yesterday.  God is good!