Our friend Cesilia

The first person interested in hearing Bible stories was our friend Cesilia. She accepted Christ a little more than a year ago. Since then she has tried so hard to live her life the way God would want her to. Her husband's name is Juan. He left her with 2 small children 7 years ago. (2 girls who were ages 6 and 6 months) He left promising to go to the United States and make money so that she could have a bigger home and nicer things. He sent her money about a month after he left and that was it. He never called or even let her know that he was alive.

Since the day she accepted Jesus, she has been praying that he would come back home and support his family. Each week she would ask us to pray for Juan. She said she had forgiven him for the way he used to beat her. She said he had a problem with alcohol and she had forgiven him for choosing alcohol over them. Cesilia truly believed that one day he would return to them and her life would be perfect.

Last night we decided to have all of our friends over to watch the movie "Facing the Giants." We had a great time and everyone loved the movie. Cesilia said, it really is true that nothing is impossible with God, isn't it? I assured her that yes, it really is true. As I got ready to take Cesilia and her daughters home they asked me to take them by a relative's house for a second. So I agreed to do so and took them. When we arrived at the relative's house they had just gotten word from Juan's cousin (who is in the U.S. too) that Juan had died. We wanted to make sure this was true so I contacted the hospital in Los Angelas. They gave us the bad news that yes, he did die.

Please pray for Cesilia, Lupita and Annie as they are mourning the loss of the husband and father that they had hoped would one day return to them. Please pray that their faith will stay strong and they would find strength in Jesus. Cesilia is so poor and is always struggling to put clothes on her girls and food in their mouths. She sells candy at the elementary school and probably makes about $10 a week. Pray that God will provide for her every need and she will not feel as if He has abandoned her.
Thank you for your prayers!!

J and A in front of the aqueducts

This was taken at the end of the aqueduct, right before the water would have gone underground.

Field trip pictures

This is Jerod, Alex, and Annie in front of the aqueducts in city near us here in Mexico.

Field Trip!

One of the great things about what we do is that we ALL are together ALL the time. Many people would probably see that as a nightmare, but thankfully, we really like being together! Today we took a field trip to a city that is about 2 hours away. We have been studying aqueducts that were used in Rome in the 1800's, and they built one in this city around that time too. So, we took a trip to see how they worked and the structure of them and what not. Next week we will be building our own aqueduct, I will let you know how that goes, it should be fun!
I will try and post some pictures I took today while there.

I was struck by many thoughts today. As we traveled the 2 hour trip, Annie went on her own trip. She went on a trip down memory lane. She was talking about her nurses. She now wants to be a nurse and thinks they are great people. (which I agree with) Ya know after the trauma she experienced I am really kinda shocked she has any good memories, but she does. I still have some sense of panic when we talk about or even think about that time in our lives. However, thankfully Annie has been given a gift from heaven, the gift of good memories! She was reliving every moment as if it were yesterday. She remembered each nurse and the things they said such as, "ouchies." She just kept on and on about different things and then said, " That was so fun." Okay, call me crazy, but if you look at the pictures, she doesn't look like someone who was having fun. ;o} That is when it hit me that when I look back and remember the pain, she remembers all the ways that God was blessing her. He blessed her through GREAT doctors and nurses. They are the people who she remembers and of course we will ALL remember the comfy couch house! That gave us more comfort and safety from the storm we were in than anything else. It is quite fitting that the comfy couch house didn't experience any damage during hurricane Ike! I just had to share this with you! So.... if you are in the middle of a storm in you life, just remember that with God's help, we can see that storm through rose colored glasses and one day that storm will pass and you will only remember how He helped you through it. Our God really is big!!

Psalm 55:22 Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.

Picture of Rosa and Missy

This is a picture of Rosa, please pray for her. I am very concerned.

Please pray for Rosa

Hi everyone, I wanted to update you on my visit to the doctor on Tuesday. This visit we actually did get to see the Dr. and he was really great with my friends. Many times our friends are the victims of prejudice. Some Mexicans look at them as dumb or just as lesser people because for one they don't speak Spanish very well and for two, they aren't considered "Mexicans" they are Indians. So, prejudice is everywhere!! Anyway I took my 18 year old friend, Rosa to see this Dr. She has been married for 4 years had a baby about 3 and a half years ago and that baby died at 8 months old. She has had a few problems since then and has been to her Dr. about 6 or 7 times. Each time her Dr. would do a "woman's test" and find everything was normal. Well, her pain persisted and she told me of her symptoms. I am not a Dr. but immediately knew something was wrong. So, my Dr. had to give her the news on Tuesday that this wasn't just an "infection" but it was pre-cancer. If she waited much longer it would be an aggressive cancer. So.... we are going back today and next week she is going to have surgery. Luckily she can still have children. I am very sad for her and she is of course is a little sad and scared too, but please pray that they don't find anything else to worry about in her check-up today. Thanks for your prayers!

Go Vote!

I wanted to find a great picture to put on here and couldn't find one. Well, all I can say is .....GO VOTE!! I know I put the poll on here a while back, and we know who one that. I won't get too political on here, but I hope that poll was accurate! :o) Our kids are voting today. They don't vote for the person because we know they would vote for who we would vote for. Instead we have laid out Plan A and Plan B and they vote for the plan. They then vote for the person, Person A and Person B which describes what the person believes, they put those together and they decide who they want to vote for. After all of that they find out who they voted for. We shall see who wins the J, A and A Christian Academy voting.

Enough on politics, I am getting kinda tired of it anyway. Please pray for us today as I take my friends back to the doctor. Another hour there and another hour back an hour of waiting and an hour of being seen. Can't wait! :o) I am just hoping they can be seen and that they don't have anything serious. Thanks for praying!