A Busy Week

We’ve had some rain this week, and some windy days but it’s starting to warm up here in Tepeyac, and today is a nice day for hanging clothes on the line, with a little breeze, and the birds chirping all around.

Last week, Blas brought a boy named Alejandro, one of Paula’s nephews, over to dig the new outhouse hole and the boy invited his friend. We’ve been talking about it for awhile but are finally getting it done. Guillermo spent the day with us, had breakfast, and hung out with his friends while they worked. We served them drinks, lunch and sugar cookies I baked, and they listened to their MP3 player while they dug the hole. They completed the job and as soon as we can get some help, we will move the outhouses over the new holes.



Alejandro (on left) and his friend digging the outhouse hole for us.

One of our beautiful sunsets thru electric lines...

 

This week, we have been collecting things for the men in the prison. We have handed out all the New Testament Bibles we had but look forward to next month when Greg will be bringing some down from Aspermont Community Church.  

One man has a wife in Eagle Pass who just had a baby by C-section. He asked me to call her and find out how she’s doing, and I’ve tried calling several times and finally spoke to her on Saturday. Señora Magda Gonzales and her baby boy, Alan, are doing fine, but mom found out she’s anemic and is taking vitamins. He was born February 3^rd and his mother plans to bring him down for a visit this coming weekend.

Saturday, we were invited to have dinner with Samuel Villaroja, the previous dentist of Jiménez and his friends in Dolores, across the bridge from there. We had chicken taquitos and grape Jell-O for dessert, and before we ate, they asked me to pray for our meal. Bill and I shared about our lives and what God was doing in Tepeyac and at the prison. They invited a neighbor over, David, who is from Connecticut. We had met him in November when I painted at the store in Jiménez. He is retired military and has lived there for several years. The home belonged to a young woman who is the librarian in Jiménez, and since we asked about it, they told us a little about the children’s home there in Dolores. It was enough to peak our interest.

After we left their house, we drove to the children’s home, (Casa Hogar,) Rancho Jovenes Del Rey (Youth of the King Ranch). The director, Geronimo, was very nice and told us that he and his wife, Stella, and their two children are moving this week to the Casa Hogar in El Moral, on the way to Piedras Negras. Both homes are supported by the ministry we visited in Quemado, Bob King Ministries. The home in El Moral only has girls and the home in Dolores has boys. At present, there is only one 15-year-old boy residing there who is autistic, and has lived there for the past 5 years. A couple from Piedras Negras is moving in to replace Geronimo and his family this week. We hope to spend more time with these ministries and see great blessings there for the children in their care. We asked Geronimo where the children come from that live at the home, and he said DIF brings them, which is Mexico’s version of Child Protective Services. As it is in the states, they are an understaffed group of government workers and need lots of prayer as they make decisions for the children on their caseloads.

Maria and Socorro and the kids stayed after church and Blass helped them clean up the back area and burned most of the brush and old cactus. It looks so good now. I made a big meal of chicken spaghetti, cornbread and un-frosted cupcakes and we enjoyed a sweet time with all of them. We took them home about 5 p.m. so it was a full day of fellowship.

We’ve had a surprise this week when we received our electric bill. Our electric bill was over 2,000. pesos, (almost $200. US.) and although it’s for two months, it was much more than we thought it would be. When we received our last bill, we unplugged our big refrigerator and just use the little fridge in the trailer now. We saw other people’s bills that had the same amount of kilowatt hours, but cost a tenth of ours. After talking to our local electrician, we found out that the electric company charges 10 times more for churches and businesses here than for residential customers. Needless to say, we’re disconnecting the majority of our appliances, even though we don’t use them much. We can cut back a lot but we need to get moved to the house we’re going to repair to live in. It’s a long way from being livable but in the meantime, we can do a lot to lessen our usage at the church. I thought it would go down when we disconnected the fridge, but apparently that wasn’t the problem.

Bill did some patching on the roof of the trailer Monday with ”cold coat,” a sort of rubbery paintable liquid to seal the holes around the vent. The sunny day made it a great time to get that job done.

I have been doing Beth Moore’s Study on Queen Esther. It’s so good, and has been a real eye-opener for me. I have enjoyed it very much.

Thursday we had a visit from Manuelita and her son, Christian, who live in Tepeyac. She is Guillermo’s cousin, and she came to see if we could help her with her son’s need for diapers. He was born with a birth-defect called “neurogenetic bladder” and has had a catheter since he was 2. He has had surgeries and she showed me his scars and catheter, and said she wondered if we could help with diapers as they are very expensive and he has to use two to go to school. He attends kindergarten, and was one of the children who received a Christmas box when Greg and Robin came down in December.

If anyone has a desire to help with this need, please contact us or Greg Goza. We hope we can help Manuelita and her son with this need. His diaper size is 5, and I am not sure if that's the same in the US. He is an average-sized 5-year-old boy., as you can see in the picture below.

We’ve had several kids come over this week to paint. One girl, Samantha, had an art project she needed to do and her painting was an abstract design. She needed paint so came by to paint her picture at our house. I asked her where she got the fabric (it looked familiar) and she said her mother cut up the inside of a bedskirt, the fusing part, to make her canvas. Pretty smart, actually. She covered a piece of wood with her “canvas” and painted a nice abstract.

I have been sick most of the week with a bad cold that has gone into my chest, and I am finally feeling a little better, but still coughing a lot. I appreciate your prayers for our health.

We thank the Lord for you and your interest in the ministry here in Mexico. We want to see many souls come to a saving knowledge of Christ and hope to be a part of the solution here.

Walk with the King and be a blessing!

In His steps,

Toni and Bill

Manuelita and her son, Christian