The last week

I haven't updated in a few days, things have been really busy here. I had a fruitful weekend, and saw God do some neat things.

First of all, I want to ask for prayer for my neighbor and friend Veronica. They are neighbors also of my teammates Ron and Zina Allen, who live across the street from me. Ron and Zina have a deep friendship with them and have worked to disciple them and share the gospel with them over the nearly four years they've lived there. Veronica recently accepted Christ (in the past half year). On Wednesday night, her dad died of a cardiac attack. Veronica is 22 years old with a small three year old girl. She is also going through very difficult problems in her marriage. Please pray for this family. She is the only Christian in her family, besides her mother who did make a decision several years ago, but has not been discipled. The funeral was on Friday and we attended, but it was just so sad to see so many hopeless people chanting the rosary to their dead loved one, in hopes of securing his eternity. Veronica, as a new Christian, coming out of the catholic church, also told Ron and Zina she thinks her dad is with Jesus and Saint James. She still does not understand that he is not in heaven, however much she loved him, because he did not trust in Jesus as his savior. We will be starting a Bible study with her in the next weeks, with Zina and Darlene and myself as well. Our prayer is that through studying a systematic study of the word, she will learn and grasp all of the truth of the Bible.

On Saturday, we had the first ever youth conference at our church. Seven other churches were invited, and six came. We had over 70 people in attendence. The goal was to allow Christian teenagers get to know and be encouraged by other Christian teenagers in the churches that surround us (of like doctrine). We had one church come from the south of the city, from an area called "Churribusco")...they traveled over 2 hours to cross the city and come. Each youth group prepared several worship songs to sing and share, and we all sang along. The night consisted of several praise and worship times, broken up by games, sharing times, testimonies, and a sermon given by our new youth pastor/leader, Leonel. Afterwards we had hot dogs, and other refreshments.

In the morning we had a ladies meeting with the daughter church and I attended. I didn't have to do any part in the planning, except bring a cake! I was encouraged by the message on being united as women in Christ and becoming a group of women serving together, rather than just a bunch of women, all on different pages, but in the same church. We had fun with the games Darlene had us do, and there were many women who came. We had a gift exchange for Valentine's day, and my gift was a beautiful cross-stictched towel made for me by Sixta, a 70+ year old women, the mother of my friend Esperanza who is in the Valentine's day pictures.

On Sunday, we had church services, and the chance to dedicate and offficially send off missionary Esperanza (her mom is Sixta mentioned above). She is leaving this Friday to go serve in the highlands of Chihuahua. Pray for her ministry to the "Tarahumara" people of Chihuahua. (An inidigenous group). She is a dental surgeon and will also work in the hospital there, established by missionaries.

Yesterday I taught my friend Josefina Rodriguez English. She is the mother of my friends Aide and Kike who live here near me in Cuautitlan Izcalli. Her husband is Zeferino, one of the church's deacons. They have really befriended me as we live close by and invited Darlene and I to their home many times. Their kids are my age (22 and 29), and part of the youth group and praise and worship ministry. Aide goes to swim class with Darlene and I as well. Josefina told me she wants to be an encouragement to me and a prayer warrior. Yesterday we had a really sweet time of prayer together after class, and I left very encouraged by her prayer and her words of advice/encouragement. Thank you God for Hermana Josefina!

Today/this week I was supposed to be in the La Guacamaya the entire week, but the schedule got changed (very typical here in Mexico...you have to learn to go with the flow). We are now going to go Friday only. Pray for us this Friday as we do a day-long program there.

On Saturday, I have a great opportunity to visit my mom's brother and wife and kids, Uncle Dave, Aunt Donna, Meghan and Jack. They are coming to Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico, about four hours from here. Darlene, Rocio, and I will take a weekend trip to visit them and help in their ministry to an orphanage there! I'll return early Tuesday morning, in time for a week of meetings with our regional director Rich.

Thanks for your prayers, I hope to get out a prayer letter soon!

Bethany

ps...Sorry for the lack of pictures. Three weeks ago my digital camera broke (after five years of serving me well!!!). It refuses to charge the battery, even though I just replaced the battery in November. To buy a new battery or charger, would be around $50 each, so it is hardly worth replacing them again, when the camera is already nearly five years old. Pray that I'll be able to find a good deal either here soon or at home in May for a new camera, as this is really important for sharing with people back home.