Photos

April 13, 2009
At last we are back in Mexico, but sans truck. Our vehicle is still being repaired at the border, but since this was the week of our Pastor's Conference, we decided to come back, even without the truck. The insurance company from Mexico sent us to the body shop on March 2, with a green light to repair the truck to the original standards. They then began a game of cat and mouse between us, the body shop and themselves. They sent two doors from a wrecked truck (which we expected) but from the wrecked side of that truck! The doors had been damaged, repaired, damaged again and were being sent as replacement parts. The body shop (Ford dealership) refused to use them and the insurance company knew that from the beginning. They kept trying to force the body shop to accept the doors no matter what. The doors had been repaired with body putty, so the true damage could not been seen without completely removing the body putty (hours of work at no pay for the body shop), plus they could not warranty what they could not see. From March 2 - April 2, we made almost daily contacts with the two entities. The insurance company would contact the body shop saying we needed to make a final decision; when we contacted the insurance company, they stated that the body shop was holding up things. Their idea was that the body shop should accept the doors no matter what the condition and if they waited long enough, someone would give in. We finally convinced the insurance company that we had a written contract stating that they would fix the truck to original condition, hinting that our next move was to enforce the contract legally. The next day they surrendered and said they were sending the check. They made many untrue statements ("we have not heard from the offices in Mexico") when we had been told less than 24 hours before that the check had cleared from Mexico. Anyway, the truck should be waiting for us at the border when we return this week.
The conference for the pastors was a wonderful success. Several years ago, we prayed about the need of getting the deaf pastors together on a regular basis for fellowship. Most of our pastors are about twelve hours away from each other. Recently, they have established communication through the use of web cams, not available a few years ago. However, we deal with problems they are having, give encouragement and plan the upcoming national deaf camp. Roberto Palma travels 24 hours by bus every time he comes. Most travel at least 12 hours. We try to rotate the location so no one pastor is bearing all the burden, but Roberto always has the greatest distance, yet he is always faithful to come. This year they asked for a few more days since they have to travel so far. We extended the meeting to five days, which always coincides with Holy Week, since they have the week off. Pastors and workers attended from Ciudad Juarez (next to El Paso), Monterrey, Tampico, Colima, Mérida and Guadalajara. David Peach, from Mérida, is missing from the picture. We heard great challenges from the Word of God and were greatly encouraged by the time of fellowship together.
Saturday was the Quinceanos (15th birthday celebration) of Maria Consuleo, a third generation Christian of our church in Guadalajara. One hundred seventy invitations went out and the crowd was between 160 and 170, of which about 150 were deaf!! We now know the capacity of our church as it was packed! There were a few more chairs which could have been added to the aisle, but we wanted to leave room for the processional. As life is in Mexico, the celebrant and her family arrived 65 minutes after the ceremony was to start. One hundred sixty people waiting more than an hour for the main person was a little trying. We were packed inside the church and it was warm. The actual service was nice and Armando preached about an hour. Doesn't sound much like a service Stateside, does it? After the service, everyone stayed for dinner on the grounds, served outside in the court yard. Even our courtyard was full to the brim. There were 150 chairs for more than 160 people. There were many deaf we had not seen for years and some new ones for us. It was a good time to share our faith, hope and lives with these not accustomed to Christian values.
Sunday was a spectacular day, since several of the new deaf from Saturday returned for a regular service, including several unsaved. Once again, they heard a good message, the story of Easter and the importance of it. We do not have the Easter bunny here, but they do have many religious traditions that are just about as illogical. The church was very comfortably filled with at least 75 in attendance. Usually, the Holy Week service are not very well attended since EVERYONE flees Guadalajara for the beaches. This year, it appears that many stayed home. Pray for the new ones, including Angel, the unsaved husband of one of our ladies. It was his second time (Saturday, then Sunday) to attend. he was captivated by the preaching.
Thank you for continuing to pray for the ministries here. God is alive and well and certainly working among the deaf. Pray for peace in Mexico. Are the problems real? YES. At times, things are pretty dangerous, but we continue on with the ministry knowing our lives are in His hands. Pray as we look forward to a move to Tepic upon our return to Mexico. We must locate a good church, a new home and a place to meet. As far as we know, there are NO Christian deaf in Tepic. We hope to see tha Lord cahnge that! Thank you for caring and giving.