Laynes' Line

     Well, week before last we had no Internet. That finally got fixed and so I doubled up on the devotionals for the deaf. It takes several hours a day by the time I fix the visuals, video it and then send it through the channels to be ready for them. As you well know also, things which took minutes now take a long time. So after a good week with classes there has been a few developments. The mother of one of our faithfuls was diagnosed with cancer, so we are praying especially for them. One of our deaf men said he was really strained at only getting half pay. I shared with him that he should be praising God for that half pay since most in the world are not even getting that. He changed his attitude,      This week I started so wiped out that I was late getting started on our devotional. Several dominoes started to fall and suddenly we were without a good connection again. We got that back yesterday only to have it start sputtering again befor...

     No, we have not disappeared! We live in a foreign country and when something happens, it goes by clout. We live along side of a four lane highway that connects with the coast. Nearly every double trailer arrival comes through here. They often park beside the highway in front of our house. It has not been prepared for that, but they use the area anyhow. Through the years we have lost Internet MANY times because the double trailer carries sea boxes that are a little higher than a normal trailer. Usually when they leave, if they have parked closer to the wall, they will take something with them: our wires; electricity, cable, telephone, anything. Now, living outside of the city limits normally mean we are put on the bottom of the list for repairs. During this crisis there is no one answering the phone, only a recording. Anyway, we are now connected again (until the next truck).      We are doing fine here as far as the virus. I read before th...

Praying Friends,      God gave great blessings yesterday in a little different service. Several months ago we noticed that the roof over our baptistry made of glass blocks had started to crumble due to the tropical sun. Relatively large chucks periodically fall directly into the pool. We have had several deaf that were waiting to be baptized until we could repair (replace) the roof. One of our ladies again offered the use of her sister's country retreat equipped with a small pool. The church decided to have our service at the retreat and baptize while we were there.       The pool was filled a little more than half way. All the deaf assembled a little late after one car got lost trying to get there. Fernando preached a message and we all moved to the pool. One of our deaf who desired to be baptized was not able to come due to the untimely hospitalization of his grandmother on Sunday. Fernando was baptizing for the first time and was clear...

“…and how shall they hear without a preacher…?”   Romans 10:15 Dear Praying Friends,      First, we wish to thank you for your patience with us. As you can see from our earlier letter, things got a little wild with health, church and computer. Most things have settled down now and we have a new drive in our computer. Gary’s health is much better and God does continue to bless the church. However, the American embassy still has a warning out concerning travel to many areas of Mexico. Some areas are forbidden areas due to a lot of activity there. In our city, it seems that things are relatively calm, but we do still receive reports that make your skin crawl.      The church has been going through a period of change as we see many of (us) the older folk relinquishing the things we used to be able to do and trying to teach the younger ones the skills that it took us decades to learn. We are thrilled that God has given us a third, you...

Dear Praying Friends,      What a battle we have been through! I have blogs and a prayer letter I  have been trying to get out since the first of April. My main computer's hard drive started acting up so I made sure to make backups of everything. I searched and searched for what was wrong and Jonathan finally diagnosed it as a really weird physical problem with my drive. If it is straight up and down on edge, it will work. In any other position it won't. So we started working to get an old computer working in case of total failure. Well, the failure came and only at that point did we realize that the backup drive would not read as well. We still have no idea what happened to either of them. They both have been turned inside out for malware, spyware, viruses, errors, etc. I have worked for weeks trying to recoup files from older versions and make something work. Jonathan got me a new drive for the old machine and we started trying to rebuild all of the files....

February, 2017 Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints .   Psalm 116:15 Dear Praying Friends,      Many years ago when we were in Illinois, we saw the Graham family pass through many difficult moments with the loss of family members and yet they joyfully sang “Heaven’s Sounding Sweeter All the Time.” What a tremendous testimony through great times of loss.      When we received word that our dear friend had passed on, our thoughts immediately went to that song. Susie “Sue” Curtis Henson passed on to Gloria on January 27, 2017at age of 93. When both of us attended Tennessee Temple University, both learned the sign language from Sue. Her husband, Ronald, was the pastor to the deaf at Highland Park and the church offered classes every Sunday evening. If you were to meet Sue for the first time, you would be impressed with her sweet spirit and depth of character. She was the very significance of “a teacher.” ...

Dear Praying Friends,      This afternoon at 1:30 PM, Heaven's Gate opened wide to receive Susie Henson, wife of Ronald Henson. Sue was first of all a Christian, wife, mother, teacher, hostess, the lady of Proverbs 31 and most of all a Friend. The Hensons taught both Ann and I the sign language at Tennessee Temple, then took time to tutor us in the deaf ministry. They trusted us with the watch care over their ministry there one summer while they traveled starting new deaf ministries. Then God called them to Mexico and they obeyed immediately. When they arrived, they learned that several deaf who gave them counsel about the deaf community in Mexico were wrong - sign language is NOT the same. They discovered they could not communicate with the deaf or the deaf with them. Then in their 50's, they set about learning two new languages, Spanish and the Mexican sign language. They then set out to record each sign and develop them into the first published sign language b...