April, May 2016
22 It is of the Lord’s
mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:22-23
Dear Praying Friends,
How true it is that we are not consumed by
the very holiness of God and it is only His compassion for us that keeps us
from being consumed! How wonderful are His mercies!
God continues to bless the ministry as we
learn His mercies daily. Our deaf are growing spiritually each week and we
trust that they are learning permanent lessons of how to walk with the Lord. We
were surprised Sunday with the arrival of three deaf we have known for more
than thirty years, but who have declined to attend. Many years ago when we
started, some in the deaf community passed around that we were Mormons, partly
due to the similarity in sign of “Bible” and “Mormon,” and partly because
anything new HAS to be a cult. We have worked hard through the years to get the
community to understand the difference and yet one of the men Sunday quoted
this old falsehood as reason not to attend. Again we explained the difference.
One other man had only attended once in
over thirty years. He came to see about helping with some of the projects we
have in the works. His wife came, accepted the Lord years ago, followed the
Lord in baptism and then slowly allowed her husband to discourage her from
attending. She passed away about ten years ago. Both of these men need to be
saved.
The third man was our old faithful
“Peter.” Those of you who have followed our ministry from the start will
recognize that with the work, the Lord gave us a Peter. He is either extremely
hot for the Lord or cold and quitting. He often talks about grandiose plans
that never come to fruition. He basically left when we turned the work over to
the deaf. He came bringing the other two to talk about the projects even though
it was exciting just to see that he came. After the service we had a good, long
discussion about the past ten years and it appears that he is ready to return
to serving the Lord. We praise the Lord His mercies are new every morning.
Our plant still seems new to us, but we
are realizing that it is more than 22 years old and in need of some major
fixes. Nothing is major or actual rebuilding, it is refurbishing things that
are falling into disrepair. As I mentioned in our blog, our younger generation
do not have the skills that the older men learned many years ago. They handle
an iPhone much better than a paint brush. We are trying to arrange time when
the older guys can get together to do repairs and invite the younger ones to
learn.
Sunday also returned to us one of our
deaf/blind friends. We have three who attend off and on, but none of them live
near any of our members who could help them attend faithfully. Obviously, they
need someone to be with them coming and going. They have the ability, but they
need a second person for security. They cannot hear or see what is happening.
Therefore, someone needs to accompany them any time they leave their house.
Pray for wisdom for us.
We are starting to feel that the years are
making a difference. Ann is still battling the essential tremor and needs to
change medicines (one of many that must be changed after a period of time).
Gary is battling a few problems physically even though he is still able to
maintain a full schedule. We do need your prayers for physical strength. Thank
you for praying and giving.
For
DEAF souls in Mexico,
Gary
& Ann Layne
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