January/February, 2016
“O sing unto the Lord a new song; for he
hath done marvellous things.” Psalm 98:1
Dear Praying Friends,
We must first apologize for the month’s
delay in updating our faithful supporters. Although this new year has been
exciting, we have started off poorly and been struggling to get the weeks back
we lost through sickness. Additional
details are in the following part which was actually part of the original
letter.
We are excited
to see the Lord continue to work wonderfully in this New Year. We ended the
year with a real bang. Our Christmas program/fiesta was a tremendous blessing.
There were more than 65 deaf there and it gave us a good opportunity to share
the Gospel with them. Several of them included deaf who had been faithful in
the past, but had disappeared from our services over the last several years. At
least four of them have been attending another Gospel church with an
interpreter. We are happy that they are seeking to continue on with the Lord,
even though they are not with us. This is the first time in more than thirty
years that there has been any other Gospel preaching church for them to go to.
We see that it is still the Lord who is doing the work. Roberto Palma came from
Ciudad Juarez where he is a deaf pastor to the deaf. He was our featured
speaker and preached a great message on repentance. We served tamales, a
traditional plate for here, and the deaf stayed until dark.
The
church planned their celebration of the New Year and decided on an all-night
party at Raul’s house. Since we would
not have had transportation to or from, we decided to celebrate at home. We
started the tradition many years ago when we realized that the streets would be
full of celebrants who had been celebrating since early. Both impaired drivers
and stray bullets led us to go to the church, stay all night and then return
home the following day. We did so for many years. For several years it has been
decided by the deaf that it would be better to cancel the program. We were
happy to see that they felt safe enough to go back to the special time
together.
Along with the good news, the New Year
also started off with a bang. Gary ate some tainted food from our own
refrigerator and it really made him sick. It took more than three weeks for all
of the contamination to clear his body. Almost immediately afterward, he was
confronted with a superbly strong strain of bronchitis that has sent him for
another bout of physical knockout for more than four weeks. Normally he can
shake off the viruses and sickness that go around. This time it took two
treatments of injections followed by strong antibiotics to get him back on his
feet. We started Ann on strong medication as soon as signs appeared with her.
Since we all ride buses weekly with 40-80 persons aboard, it is very easy to be
susceptible to anything going around. Gary is getting back to work although it
has been a real trial.
Our
Valentine Day’s celebration was another great blessing. We had more than 30
deaf with four new deaf that had never attended or had not attended for years.
We are still seeking to win new deaf and to teach them the depths of the Word
of God. It was especially exciting to see the deaf again plan and execute
everything on their own. We love to help and offer counsel, but it is even more
exciting when the deaf act completely on their own.
We
were unable to tape the class on deafness for pastors in Latin America last
Fall. We will attempt to tape the full twelve hours of classes for the seminary
so that this course can be offered to hearing pastors. Brother Gary Ellison
(Frontier Baptist Missions, Inc. near Harlingen, TX) had a deaf ministry and
church in his past pastorate and so he understands the need to reach hearing
pastors. So many of them look at a deaf ministry the same as the bus ministry,
nursery, etc. This class will instruct
them of the need to reach the deaf in their own culture and language. We
appreciate your prayers for this.
Thank you for loving, giving and praying
for us.
For
DEAF souls in Mexico,
Gary
& Ann Layne
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