Mexico Mission July 2009 Update

July already! And the end of July to boot! It's hot in Sinaloa, with daytime temps here in Las Glorias well above 100 Farenheit, nighttime cooling down to a balmy 90 or so, and the humidity staying put at about 75%. Lovely. We praise God every day for our fans and for the electricty we have to run them. The extreme temps make us remember our friends and fellow Christians in other parts of the world where famine, disease and drought seem to prevail and electric fans are few and far between. We truly are blessed and thank God that He has allowed us even a glimpse into how the larger portion of the world lives. But, as the Apostle Paul said in Romans 8:18

...I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

In other words, someday the heat, humidity, drought, famine, plague and pestilence will be behind us, and we will be praising God. Oh, I can't wait!!!

This photo was taken last weekend as we returned from a birthday party in the neighboring city of Guamuchil. We didn't realize how close the storm was, how quickly it was moving or how strong it would be until it caught up to us. If we had, we might have changed course!

We weathered the storm, but it was a very interesting and prayerful trip home! You can read some of the details at Sarah's blog and see photos on Rebecca's blog. God used the events of that weekend to touch several people and to glorify Himself. How can we complain?

With summer officially here, several families in the church are taking vacations. Pastor Ricardo and his family have traveled to southern Mexico to visit family and also to attend the annual pastors' conference in Queretero. Sergio and his family, along with Luz and Annette (two other young ladies from the church), are on tour with ADAPT (Advanced Discipleship and Pastoral Training) teaching evangelism seminars throughout the Mexico City area. These families are missed in our small community! Pray that God would be glorified through each of them and that they would return home safe and sound...and soon!

We've suspended our weekly parenting class until after we return from our fall trip to the States. All four couples, us included, are learning a lot from these studies and we are deepening our friendships with each other as well. Pray for these young parents as they learn to apply Biblical priciples to their parenting. Some of these concepts are so foreign to them that it's hard to even know how to begin to apply them.

We've hosted two mission teams from the States this summer. We had a fantastic time with both groups. From a kids' festival complete with bounce-house and facepainting to a quiet morning making tamales with the sisters the missionaries were a blessing and an encouragement to us and to the church in Boca.

Please continue to pray for the three young men from Doug's discipleship class: Aby, Esteban and Eduardo.

From the time that they began to participate in the discipleship class, they began to be persecuted for their faith. Being called what would amount to "preacher boys" and "goody-goodies", the other young men of the village wouldn't leave them alone. A couple of weeks ago, Aby finally told Doug that the pressure was too great, and he just couldn't take it anymore. The three boys decided that the class was too hard, and the cost of following Jesus is too high. After praying and talking with them for a while, Doug decided to back off and just let God do what He has planned.

Caleb continues to seek the boys out and draw them into church activities and invite them over to hang out at the house -- which they are beginning to do again. Pray that God's will would be done in these youths' lives. Being a "teen" in today's world is hard. Pray that our young men would continue to shine their Lights and be examples -- proof that Jesus is really worth the fight.

We received a gift last month which enabled us to build a little more on the upstairs of our house. We're excited as we see the kids' rooms begin to take shape! The custom in our part of Mexico is to save money until you have enough to purchase the materials you need for a section or room and then build the room. When you run out of materials, you're done with construction and you begin saving again. I guess we're building according to custom! You can read more about our building plans and see more pictures by clicking here.

Here are Andrew and his friend Maicol (pronounced Michael) watching a crop duster swoop down over Las Glorias. Funny thing, that. Where the plane is swooping there are no crops. It took a couple of days to figure out what the man was up to. The owner of the local hotel hired him to fumigate for mosquitos. While I'm not so sure about the chemicals they're using, it certainly is a blessing to not be plagued so badly by those horrid insects. From late July until October the mosquitos here are usually insane. There was talk earlier this summer about outbreaks of dengue fever, too, so we are really thankful that Gustavo is taking the initiative. We won't think about which insecticide he's using.

And finally, we are making plans for our fall furlough. This trip will only take us as far north as Riverside, California and we'll only be gone a month. If you'd like to meet up with us along the way or send a package or letter, send us an email, and we'll make arrangements. Here is our tentative schedule as it stands today:

August 20 -- leave Mexico, arrive in Tucson
August 23 -- at Saguaro Canyon EFC, Tucson, AZ
August 30 -- in Riverside CA (with Grandma)
September 6 -- at CC Rancho Santa Margarita, CA
September 8 -- return to Tucson
September 13 -- at Saguaro Canyon EFC, Tucson
September 15 -- cross the border to return home

So that's our past month in a nutshell. As always, you can read this update letter online at our ministry webpage and you can read more about our family goings-on throughout the month at Sarah's blog, Rebecca's blog and The Coult Family blog. Feel free to post this letter and our prayers and praises wherever folks might see and pray for us! If you would like to support our ministry financiallly, visit our Give! page at our ministry website.

Prayers and Praises:

• Pray for the young couples in our parenting class as they learn to apply Biblical parenting priciples in their homes.
• Praise God for the parenting materials He has supplied.
• Pray that God would make Himself real in the lives of the youth of Boca del Rio. Specifically in Aby, Esteban and Eduardo.
• Praise God for the mission teams which came down this past summer.
• Pray for the teams God is raising up for this winter and the coming spring.
• Praise God for His protection during the storm last weekend. Pray that we would have another opportunity to reach out to that family.
• Pray for God's protection and provision during our trip to Arizona and Southern California this August.
• Praise God for the walls we were able to build on the upstairs of our house.
• Pray for the church of Boca del Rio. July and August are the toughest months financially in the village. Fishing season doesn't start until September.
• Pray for safe travels for all the church members during this summer vacation time.
• Pray for health for our family. We've been passing around our first-ever ear infection for the past few weeks. With all the herbal and home remedies we have, we're muddling through, but it's just no fun to have a heating pad on your head when it's already 100 degrees.