Dear Friends,
We made it safely back from Lajas and so we're thankful for your
prayers. Not all of of the the trip was uneventful. An hour out of Lajas we came across a downed tree across the road. It had been raining heavily and the bank on the top side of the road had given way, bringing the tree down with it. We were on a downhill slope with no axe and the possibility of having to back up perhaps half a kilometre, in order to turn around to go back to the last house we had passed. We tried pulling the tree out of the way with the truck, but it was too muddy to get traction. Before long we heard voices, and two Tepehuan men stumbled up the road toward us. They had been drinking and were quite excited and animated about our predicament. One offered to take a shortcut through the woods to try and find an axe. I was dubious as he stumbled his way up the steep hill through the trees - I wasn't sure he would make it there and back without first falling over a cliff. In the meantime we set about removing the smaller branches. Within about 40 minutes our man was back with an axe, and 20 minutes later we had cleared the road and were on our way again. Seems to me that was an answer to your prayers!
We had a good time in Lajas and plenty opportunities to speak and learn more Tepehuan. It seemed we had visitors 24/7, and at times it was a little overwhelming. One morning we had only just woken up and Julian really needed to go to the bathroom. I told him to head behind the house to the trees. We opened the door and 6 Tepehuan men had just walked into the yard. Julian said all of a sudden the urge was gone. That day we had visitors till 10:00p.m. at night.
I gave Severo (the man with a serious tooth infection) a full series of antibiotics. I went to visit him the night before we left and it seemed he was slowly on the mend. Pray for a full recovery, he still looked pretty rough.
One afternoon a guy I hadn't met before, stopped by for a talk. He
mentioned how that people are still trying to get us kicked out of the
village. He said that people don't really know why we want to live there and so are suspicious. I told him that we are very open and honest, but folk don't understand why we are here. I went inside the house and came out with two Bibles, one in Spanish and the other in English. I explained that we had God's book in our language, and the Mexicans had it in theirs. This book tells us about God and life and how to live in order to please God. I told him we would like to teach him what God wants to say in Tepehuan so all can hear and know. Unfortunately, he didn't seem to get it and moved onto another subject. Pray for our move into the village, for God's will to be done, and pray that the Tepehuan's mind and hearts will be opened to their need of knowing God through Jesus.
Later on that day the Lord made it possible to hang out with the governor and another leader. I was able to dispel a few of the myths floating around about us.
As a team we've had a good opportunity to help Victor ( the guy who wanted to kill me a few years back). He is in town with his family and a sick son. Barry has had opportunity to help him out financially with our team fund, which we have set up specifically to help folk with food and medicine. Barry had opportunity to explain to Victor that the money we use to help him and others is our own money that we set aside for this purpose. Pray the Victor will realize our kindness towards him in spite of his previous threats. Pray that he will see that it is the love of God working in us and that it will create a hunger in his heart to know God's love personally.
I head out to Lajas again on Monday with Kevin and John to pour our floors. I'll let you know about that later.
Joseph, Madeline and Julian all started school with Candy this week. Pray for them to adjust back into school after a long summer break. Pray also for Candy as she takes on teaching Julian as well this year. He can be a challenge on the best of days.
We just had some professional family photos done, so keep an eye out
for our up and coming prayer card. We may not have everyone's current
mailing address, so if you want to assure yourself of a prayer card, drop us an email with your current mailing address.
For Jesus,
Andrew and Anne Marie
...
August 2006 update
