Saturday, August 18

Dear Praying Firends,
      Thank you so much for praying for us during our trip to Las Vegas. It was a tremendous blessing and challenge. Before I get into details, let me explain that I sent an update last week, except that the Internet we "borrow" (at a fast food place) simply was not connecting right and it appears that all was lost. I do apologize, but I imagine things won't get much better until we get out of Texas and get established in WV. We used to have a number of places where we could connect, but the majority have shut down their public access due to abuse.
     Las Vegas held up to its promise to deliver hot weather. We arrived with the temps at 105. By the time the Expo started, it hit 107 and remained between 106 and 107. Due to the humidity levels at 8%, it wasn't as bad as I imagined, but bad enough. Expo states that there were "more than 16,000" registered for the week. We passed out almost 16,000 "Welcome to Las Vegas" fliers that David Bennett had printed. The front was a list of places to visit in LV (thoroughly edited to include only family activities). However, the back of the attractive flier was a Gospel presentation. On Sunday evening, we went to the center of attraction which was a light show. Our uniform shirts read, "Las Vegas (with the skyline embroidered), Deaf World Expo" and below "SWMI Team." Some read the last part as SWIM team. Many people suspected that we were official welcomers to Las Vegas. Again, we passed out the"Welcome" flier/tract. Through the week, two of our teams manned booths inside the Expo, while two others roamed the streets giving out fliers and tracts. I really appreciate the emphasis on making sure the deaf would understand salvation, not just a quickie presentation. During the week, we saw 36 deaf ask the Lord to save them. We saw and witnessed to several deaf we knew from Guadalajara many years ago, who had since moved Stateside. One family was with us in camp a couple of years ago, and several sought us out because they knew we would be there.
     We talked with people from Italy, France, England, China, Japan, Mongolia, Philippines, Columbia, Peru, Mexico and several others. We had tracts from almost every major language group, so if we got stuck, we simply started holding up bundles of languages. By the final day, almost everyone we met knew us and had already received one of our packets. We were very happy with the results overall and the privilege of serving the Lord through this outreach.
     Thank you for praying and making this opportunity possible. I believe there will be eternal results that we will not see in this life. We are praying that many who took the "Welcome" tract will take it home and  study it closer at a later time. We are presently in southern Texas (temps at/around 100+ degrees) trying to unpack/pack for our trip home. Again I apologize that our connections are not trustworthy. We are looking forward to seeing you all again soon and reporting on God's blessings.
     Several have asked about "retirement." What is that?
Gary and Ann

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