Wednesday, November 25, 2015


 
Greetings from Mexico
We know that many of you are beginning to experience winter weather but here it is still quite warm. A lot of exciting things have been happening here in Cofradía and in the mountains.


Visas
Our visas have turned out to be a good news/bad news situation. We were planning to continue with our current Temporary Resident visas but were forced to apply for the Permanent Resident visa instead. The Permanent Resident visa has a lot of advantages, the biggest of which is that we will not have to deal with immigration again. However, it turns out that once we receive the new visa we will not be able to have a foreign vehicle. That means that the truck that we now own will have to be parked until we can take it to the border. In the mean time we need to purchase a vehicle we can drive here. I have been looking for a smaller truck and have found a couple of good candidates. First we will need to come up with the money. We will need about $4500 in order to purchase the truck and to cover the cost of changing the title and getting new plates.

Mesa Del Nayar
I have been able to make a number of trips up to the Mesa to begin exploring ministry opportunities. So far we have been focused on the boarding school that was founded by our good friend Padre Pascual Rosales who passed away 2 years ago. I first met Pascual through our friends Tom and Collette Beytien who were working at the school at the time more than 10 years ago. After Pascual passed away a group of former students joined together to keep the school going. It has been very difficult for them since almost all of the resources for the school disappeared once Pascual was gone, largely due to the negative influence of the Catholic bishop in the area. This year Tom and Collette returned to the Mesa to help the school by teaching classes, taking care of projects and maintenance, and helping out financially. Now our good friends Dave and Isabel from Cofradía have joined the volunteers working at the school. They have a lot of gifts that are a blessing to the staff and students at the school, but have a challenging road ahead as they adapt to the new culture and figure out how to raise the necessary

finances.  During my recent trips we have been able to help out by making shelves for the dormitories, fixing some of the vehicles, and fixing one of the carport gates. I have been very encouraged by the openness of the leadership and students of the school and have been invited a number of times to share during their devotional times. Also encouraging has been the enthusiasm of a number of brothers here in Cofradía who have accompanied me to the Mesa.

Recently our friend Macedonio Diaz and I took a reporter and camera man from Channel 10, the government station, up to the Mesa. They spent the day interviewing the director of the school and some teachers as well as capturing images of the school and students.  We are hoping that the resulting news story will generate interest in the government and among individuals that will translate into support and resources for the school and its staff. As soon as the TV spot is done we will add subtitles and add it to our blog.

Plans
I am still trying to make the trip over to Cangrejo to get started there. I want to reconnect with friends there and begin forming listening groups with families. In the listening groups we will using the recording of the New Testament in their dialect of Cora that was produces by the Faith Comes By Hearing ministry.

Family
We are very excited that Isaiah will be joining us for Christmas! Thanks to the generosity of some friends we were able to get a round trip ticket for Isaiah using air miles. He will be here from December 20th until the 10th of January. To have the family together for Christmas is an amazing gift. With the arrival of Isaiah we will have a pretty full house since our friend Violet Lanahan is with us and Juan Luis and Pola's daughter is now staying with us during the week as she goes to high school.

Gratitude
We want to express our gratitude to everyone who has shown interest in our work here in Mexico. We appreciate your emails, prayers, financial support, and visits. We thank you for giving so that we can be here following the vision God has given us.

Needs

These are our current needs;

  • $4500 for a truck
  • Increase of $400 in our monthly support
  • Prayer for God to continue to open doors in La Mesa and Cangrejo
  • Prayer for our family

 God Bless,
Jay, Faith, Elisabeth, Kai, Violet, and now Yulisa from Arrayanes!

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