July, 2022
Now then we are ambassadors
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead,
be ye reconciled to God.
Dear Praying Friends,
For a good while, we have known that both Ann and I had cataracts. Ann got to the place where her ophthalmologist was no longer able to bring her vision into the parameters needed and suggested that she get her cataracts removes as soon as possible. We found a wonderful doctor here that uses laser-assisted cataract surgery. While chatting, he mentioned that mine were not as serious as Ann’s, but was causing greater problems (serious double vision). After detailed explanation and sharing with family members, both Ann and I had cataract surgery on July 7th. We feel like we traded a late 1960’s TV for a new LED model. We both will require reading glasses, but have excellent distance vision. We can see details that we were not aware we were not seeing. I have developed an allergy (possibly to some of the medications used in surgery), which is being treated, so I am battling that while waiting for our eyes to completely stabilize for new glasses in about a month. I have been wearing glasses for more than 30 years, so an occasional use of reading glasses is no problem. Otherwise, no glasses are needed.
Our deaf folks are really battling with returning to regular services. Some have new jobs that are not open to scheduling like before, others are having trouble financially in just making ends meet, and some have become lazy after almost two years of no services. Some of our leaders have become discouraged with an attendance of about 10 instead of the 30-40 we are used to. Please pray for a spiritual revival that brings all back to the importance of being faithful to the Lord.
On top of the above difficulty, our computer has decided that it will not allow connections to almost all of our add-ons (camera, recording software, editing, etc.) making it almost impossible to keep up the videos we post to keep the deaf energized. Our son, Jonathan, is an accomplished computer tech and he has worked with us on trying to straighten out the problem. Since we are in a less secure connection situation, we first thought “virus.” We have thrown every good virus detection tool at it and found nothing. We have checked all drivers and renewed any that were old. We have even “thrown” some things at it that I do not understand, but we can find no reason for the problem. Please help us pray for wisdom (James 1:5).
COVID is making its way back through here just like in other places. The main difference seems to be that many have a lighter case than those earlier cases. There are still deaths here, but not like before. Please continue to pray for the deaf community and safety for them as many are forced to ride the public transportation – therefore are more exposed.
This coming January, 2023 we will celebrate more than 50 years of full-time service in the deaf world, and start our 40th year here on the field. One of the early lessons we learned about the Deaf world is that those who were born Deaf, normally have no desire to be hearing. Their world is a wonderful world and is not thought of as a “handicap.” We strongly agree. Perhaps those who once heard might feel differently, but the Deaf world is THEIR world. There will not be room in a letter to explain all of this, but their world is different, but not lesser than the hearing world. After hearing the habits of some of our hearing acquaintances, we sometimes wish we could “un-hear” the hearing world. The Deaf world is RICH, deep and exciting. We thank God He called us so many years ago to reach this Deaf world with the Gospel. We approach the teaching of the Word of God in a simpler manner, but it is due to vocabulary, not intelligence. I shudder sometimes when I realize how feeble our attempts were in those very early days. Yet the Deaf world was very compassionate and have allowed us into their world.
Thank you for standing with us and
allowing us to be ambassadors for the Lord and your ministry.
For DEAF souls in Mexico,
Gary & Ann Layne
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