BACK TO SCHOOL & OTHER THINGS

Three weeks from home & two weeks here at the ranch & we are so blessed by all we come in contact with. The Slushers were here for a few days on their way back to the states & we enjoyed visiting with them. They had been in Culiacan, a town south of here, working with a group out of southern CA providing the gospel to indignant workers from the Mexico City area. We went into Alamos with them Friday night to have dinner at a restaurant run by Ana's sister-in-law. It was an enjoyable time seeing old friends & sharing what God was doing in their lives.

We have settled into a routine here, more or less, in the last week. Jerry has been working on things around the ranch including the diesel bus used to transport people to bible studies in Tesia & Rosales. Since the Conners(the teachers from the states) have gone back to their home in Florida, the responsibilities for teaching the girls on the ranch are being shouldered by Ana, Roshon, Marilu & Carla. I am planning to teach English classes while we are here & when we return in the fall I hope to add a Science class to the schedule. So I will be looking for primary grade reading books & science books for intermediate grades. The girls are very eager to learn English, especially the new younger ones as their English language skills are very meager. Vanessa & Maura do very well with English but Trini & Lupita know only a few words. Teaching them will certainly try my Spanish language skills but will definitely be good for me.

Trini & Lupita both come from homes where they were abused & beaten by their fathers. They are cousins & both of them are 12 years old. In Lupita's situation her mother had died and her father remarried. Her step-mother would tell her dad stories regarding things she had supposedly done (although they were not always true) and he would beat her for them. Trini had a mother but she had psychological problems & beat Lupita quite regularly. Both girls seem to be adjusting to life here at the ranch & are very much in need of the loving & caring christian environment they have here.
It has been such a pleasure to be here helping out while Dan & Ana are gone to the states. God has truly blessed us with this opportunity to serve Him. I continue to be amazed at the dedication of the believers here. Most of them have to depend on others for transportation, either the vans from the ranch, walking, riding their bicycles or trying to catch a ride with a neighbor who is going by where ever the teaching is being held. Those who have cars can't always afford the price of gas yet they somehow find a way to get to the teaching. We feel truly blessed to be of service to them as well as humbled by how easy we have it in the states and yet so many of us find excuses not to go to church. I do lunch for the girls on Monday & Friday and dinner on Thursday so I will close for now since it is almost 12 noon & I need to start lunch.
May God bless you all & thank you so much for your prayers & support.
In Him,
Jerry & Jo