Anniversaries

Week of Mexico´s independence

Mayan math at school

October marks two special anniversaries for us. On the 17th, our home church turns four, and on the 25th our school will have been in session for three years.

All of the young people who attend school also are part of the church. On Sundays, a few more youth and adults join us for the church service and fellowship afterwards. We have known the families for enough years that some of the students in our school are children of those who used to attend Sunday afternoon kids´ club when we still lived in a rented house in Huejotzingo.

Over the years, the struggles remain.  Each family carries chains of abuse, addictions, abandonment and unfaithfulness.  Some of them are actively involved in witchcraft.  As we pray and work with them, we see progress, but the work is long-term, and progress often slow. 

Last month, the parents of three school and church children came to our church three Sundays in a row.  Before, they had only shown up once or twice.  The father struggles with alcoholism, among other problems, so it was encouraging to see them at the service.  Not so encouraging, however, was learning that he went out drinking last week and became involved in a drunken brawl afterwards, although three of his children were with him.  Please pray for breakthrough in his life and the lives of his children and wife. 

At school, there has been an overall improvement in attendance.  Little by little, the students have adapted to being at school the four days and on time.  There are exceptions, sadly, as a young brother and sister have been absent these past few weeks.  They live with their mother and grandmother, although the mother sometimes disappears for a week or two with no explanation.  Both mother and grandmother shrug off responsibility for the children with the hopeless statement, “They do whatever they want,” whenever they talk about the kids.

Their cousins live in the same household and are part of school and church.  They are of the original three who started school with us three years ago. Carlos, a child of 12, heartens us with his advancement.  In school, he now reads fluently, although he could not read when school began.  He knows many words and phrases in English and works hard in math.  Far more promising is his commitment to follow Christ.  He is still learning, but recently he told us that his boss – he works at repairing bikes after school and on Saturdays – asked him to work on Sundays, too.  Carlos declined.  He also said he doesn´t agree with dishonest things his boss does. Pray with us that he continues to mature in his faith. There are so many negative influences in his life.

In two weeks, we will be in the States for a visit with family. They paid for our trip in order to celebrate the 50th birthday of one of them. They are not believers, and our prayer is that we can demonstrate the love of God to them during this short stay.