Update on Vianey!

Some of you may remember that this past July, one of the ladies in our church was in the hospital. She went in for a simple surgery, but the doctors messed up, sliced her intestines, and poked her liver. She ended up being in a coma for a month, and was so close to death -- the doctors said she had a 1% chance of survival. But we have a miraculous, awesome God that has come through for Sis. Vianey and has helped her and the family through this hard time! After almost 4 months of being in the hospital, she finally came home a couple weeks ago! Under the supervision of her family she has slowly been working her way back to good health. Sadly, while she was in the hospital, they had to put in a tracheotomy. It had been forever since we had heard her voice, until just a few nights ago when she motioned for her son to cover up the tube of the tracheotomy. She struggled for a while, obviously straining to say something. Tears came to our eyes as we finally we heard her voice, rusty from unuse, say "Sigue orando por mi". (Keep praying for me.) It was such a precious moment.Thank you Jesus for progress! 

Here is Pastor and Vianey's daughter Jasmine at her bedside on the night that she 

said her first words to us.

Last night Pastor brought some pens that he has been working on to show them to Vianey.

^^That is a baby doll in the right hand corner. Not Vianey! LOL^^

Salma, Vianey's granddaughter, was quite excited and enthralled with the pens!

This is Salma's favorite pen, because "it looks like it has glitter in it!" :)

This is my favorite pen as of late. Its a special one... But I'll save the details for another post!  

Please keep Sis. Vianey in your prayers! She is getting better, but she still has a LONG ways to go... Because of being laid up in bed for so long, she lost all muscle. She just now can barely move her hands and can wiggle her feet a little bit. Let's pray for God to heal her, and also bring her family back to the Lord! 

*Nicole*

New Stairs & Construction!

A couple weeks ago, we began the construction of our church school on the 3rd floor of our property. First we had to put in stairs, and then just this past Monday we got started on the building itself. Thank you so much to all of our supporters and those who donated specifically to this school building project. We are so thankful for your sacrifice! 

We'd like to send out a special thanks to the Bray family for helping buy these stairs! 

Thankfully the man we used to make the stairs is our next door neighbor. They were so big that the men had to pass them over our walls instead of carrying them through our property. (They wouldn't fit through the gate). 

You can see by all the "smiles" that these stairs weighed a TON. (Or two)

The semi-finished product! 

(At this point we still had to fill the steps with cement.)

Our neighbor and welder, Miguel, painting the stairs.

On Monday the supplies got delivered, so the guys started carrying everything up to the third floor! 

Each of these bricks weigh 36 pounds. And for most of the time the men were carrying up 2 at a time so that equals out to 72 POUNDS per trip, up two and a half flights of stairs!! (I did some more math and on average, the men made 69 trips up and down the stairs!!) Needless to say, they were worn out and sore by the end of the day.

One time Valentin took up THREE on his shoulder. We only saw this happen once. Hahaha I'm sure he was dying by the time he made it up to the roof.

Every time someone would make it down to the block pile, Jack would climb up it, with his rope, like he was king of the mountain and offer his toy to whoever was trying to load up with blocks. He wanted to play so badly. :))

The block on the roof

One of our workers

Dad took these pictures, so I'm not quite sure what this is, but just look at that skyline! We're going to have the best view in the whole colonia! Also, a perfect view of our volcano, Popocatapetl. 

A different view of what the roof looks like right now. Piles of sand, gravel, and blocks.

Here is Jack trying to look cute. If I were a stranger, he might have me convinced. 

But alas, I know him too well. He is a TERROR.

Click here to read some reasons why we don't really love Jack at all.... :))

We'll keep you all updated on the progress of the building! Thank you all for your prayers and support. We appreciate you all so much.

*Nicole*

New Family & Good Church

A couple weeks ago, Elder Wakefield's assistant pastor, Bro. Mario, came to preach for us. We always look forward to this, as we love the Garcia family, and so does our church! Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of him preaching, but here are the few we took from that Sunday...

Dad taught the Sunday school lesson to the kids - see our new decor?

Beatriz fell asleep in Sunday school and when Nicole picked her up, she started kicking her leg like crazy, signaling she wanted her shoes taken off :P 

Elissa clapping and hollering :)

Austin and Bryan praying

Jerameel almost got the Holy Ghost that Sunday, and again was soooo close last Sunday! 

She just cries and cries and is so sincere...it is so touching! 

This is the family I talked a little about last week. They started coming because of Sunday school outreach. Their mom would come with them and stay for Sunday school, then they would all leave right after and not stay for the regular service. One Sunday, I asked Carmen (the mom) about her background. Turns out, she had previously attended some sort of Pentecostal church in the past and she and Jerameel had been baptized in Jesus' name! I asked her if she'd ever received the gift of the Holy Ghost and she sort of hem-hawed around and said she wasn't really sure. After that, we both went inside to start service. (By this time the family had started staying for the main service).

During the song service, Carmen really started worshiping. She was very demonstrative, waving her arms all around, shouting "Yes, Lord! Thank you, Jesus!" It was so awesome to see!! Dad went over to her and as soon as he put his hand on her head, she burst out speaking in tongues and shouting in the Holy Ghost! It was the most exciting thing we had seen in a long time! It was so real and she had such joy and Holy Ghost fire in her!

After church, I went over to her and asked, "What happened to you in the service?!!" She replied, "I wasn't sure if I had the Holy Ghost before, but tonight I got my confirmation!"

Now, Carmen is the church firecracker. It is not uncommon for her to bust out speaking in tongues in the middle of the preaching, and she is always at the altar praying with her girls. We could not be more happy for them! Pray that they continue to grow and learn and get roots in this church! Carmen's husband isn't interested in the things of God so pray that God would get a hold of him. I am sure that in a service very soon, Jerameel will get the Holy Ghost. When she does, I will let you all know!

~Bethany~

School Update and New Student

Good morning, blogger friends! It is a beautiful day today! It's been pretty rainy over the weekend and very gloomy, but it looks like it's cleared up just in time to start a new school week. 

I just wanted to do a little update on the school. We've finished our first 9 weeks of class and of course, it feels like time has flown! The kids are doing extremely well this year. We couldn't ask for better. They are doing awesome on their weekly exams, no one has had to redo a lesson. They are plowing ahead in math and English - we are a couple of very happy teachers! 

Maestra Nicole teaching English

Another fun bit of news - we've acquired another student! Our very own Mr. Austin! He'd been homeschooling before, but the decision was made that he'd join school to be on our schedule and be with the other boys. He's being doing really well and lately, has been pretty motivated in his work. We finally got him a uniform a couple weeks ago and that was one part he was not very happy about! However, he looks pretty sharp and I think he's adjusted to the white shirt and slacks thing. 

A little side note - Austin has now surpassed all of us girls in height. It's crazy! He's bigger, stronger, and oh boy, does he love hearing this! His voice has completely changed. Sometimes he'll answer the phone and I'll think it's my dad. (Just a few months ago I was confusing his voice with mom or Nicole's - lol!) He's very proud of all these changes...very proud! 

Fabby - this is a smart little dude. He sure did get the short end of the stick when it comes to family life, but if he just keeps going good in school and coming faithfully with his grandma to church, I think everything is going to be just fine. He's got a tender little heart - I have to remind myself of that on days when he's giving me a hard time - haha! We are praying this boy will get the Holy Ghost soon! 

Bryan - our intelligent and self motivated student. He's is a very easy student to work with! 

Austin - he's really spiced things up since joining the school. Sometimes it's a little to much spice...he got me laughing so hard during school the other day - I couldn't control it. I think because he is my little brother he can give me the giggles easier than anyone else. 

Every Wednesday, the kids read an assigned Bible story and make questions. They quiz each other the next day are able to give out candy for correct answers. They love trying to come up with complicated questions to try and stump each other! If they can accomplish this, they themselves get the point. 

Fabz

Austin is a part of this as well and does so well with his Spanish! He writes his questions in English and translates them into Spanish as he goes. 

Eddy - he's our baby. He's in 4th grade, but I don't know if he will ever escape this "stigma" - lol! When we met this little guy, he was 2. He looked like a little baby monkey with his big eyes and low hairline. He was adorable!
I usually have soft music playing in the background while the kids work, and the other day I caught this little guy scratching his thighs to the rhythm of a very upbeat gospel song that was playing. So funny! 

~Bethany~

Jerameel Is the Winner!

We finished up with another quarter of Sunday school last week. Every quarter, we do some kind of competition. This time, the kid who invited the most visitors would get 4 tickets to a zoo here in town called Parque Loro (Parrot Park). 

During this past 12 weeks of Sunday school, a new family started coming! The mom's name is Carmen and she has two girls, Jerameel and Ana Belen. They started coming about halfway through the quarter and Jerameel ended up winning the contest! 

That Saturday, they took their trip to Parque Loro. 

Since Jerameel won 4 tickets, they invited one of their little neighbor friends along with them.
Carmen is the mom, Jerameel is the tall girl in the back, Ana Belen is the one in the jean dress.  

A funny little goat

I think this is a lemur  

The Sunday after, Pastor asked Jerameel if she'd like to testify about her trip the day before, and to our surprise, she said yes!
She is the sweetest girl...we are hoping this family KEEPS coming!

We have been pretty busy lately - there's been a lot going on! I am a little behind in my blogging so if some of the next weeks' posts seem out of order...it's because they are! I'm trying to get current, but also blog the most important stuff first, and things have gotten a little mixed up. 

I'll be blogging more about this new family next week. We've had some pretty exciting things happen so stay tuned!

~Bethany~

New Pastor in Mexico City

Such awesome news! For the past month or so, this has been in the works and it is so exciting! Bro. Isai (Elder Wakefield's piano/drum/bass/guitar/sound man) and his family have moved to Mexico City to assume the pastorate of the church there. We are so very, very excited for them and the church! We love this family so much - Bro. Isai Garcia and his wife, Elvira, have been a huge help to my grandparents for the past 4 years. They are hard workers and prayer warriors. They will be missed and their absence will be felt, but I am happy they are only moving about an hour and half away! (Instead of across the country or something!) 

Saturday was their installation and ordination service. A bunch of us went over to show our love and support. 

Elder and Sis. White from Burbank, CA were so thoughtful to send an arrangement of flowers for the pastor and family! 

The Garcia family

Cheyenne and Eliana (the little escapees from the previous post!)

Nicole and Abner and I did the music -
Things were very squooshed up there. I was scared Abner was going to accidentally toss one of his drumsticks while he was playing and hit me in the eye. Thankfully, that did not happen and everything flowed smoothly! 

Elder Wakefield preached - The new pastor's responsibilities, the pastor's wife's responsibilities, and the responsibilities of the saints. It was so good! He had us laughing one second....

Telling the story of a crazy man he met in an insane asylum

...and the next second, I was bawling my eyes out. 

He pulled a bag of dirt out from under the altar and dumped it in Isai's hands. 

When people talk badly of you, when there are problems, remember - you're just dirt. Made from dirt and will return to dirt. You don't need to defend yourself, just defend the Word of God. 

Isai was anointed with oil..

...and the preachers gathered around to pray for him. 

After that, the new pastor got up and talked to his people. 

The new pastor and his wife and the former pastor and wife!

After church, we wiped our eyes and put on brave faces - it was time to eat and fellowship! 

The church in Mexico city had prepared a delicious meal. They served us as we sat around the table and made googly eyes at Elissa. 

At one point, Elissa's stomach decided it was not happy with the chicken it was being fed - resulting in an oufit change and a lot of "oohs" and "ahhs" over Elissa's soft, chubby little thighs - lol! 

Elissa had the time of her life watching the little kids running around. She was jumping and hollering, having so much fun being around her cute little cousins. 

Just a fraction of the Garcia family. All of the men in this picture are preachers! Pretty amazing! 

Congratulations to the Garcia family! We are excited to see the things God is going to do in Mexico City! 

~Bethany~