Greetings!

 As of today we have been in Mexico for 21 days!  We have been so busy for the last 21 days but we could not be happier to finally be on the field.  I wanted to give a quick update on the Jetta for those of you who have been praying for that situation.  It turns out the when we turned off on the road towards the church the ruts were so deep that the oil pan hit a rock in the road.  The rock punched a four-inch gash into the oil pan and all the oil ran out within 100 feet.  There is still a nice little oil trail in the dirt road a week and a half later!  Thankfully the engine was not damaged as we feared and it took a relatively cheap repair of a new oil pan and four quarts of oil to get us up and running again!  We are very thankful that it was such an easy repair and we are grateful for everyone of you who took the time to pray and write words of concern and encouragement. We’ve come to the conclusion that this poor Jetta is just not meant for driving on Mexican roads as this is the fourth oil pan that has been replaced between this year and our trip last year to Mexico. We have been praying for a vehicle that will be better suited for these road conditions, and we are currently working with our church for a possible answer to this prayer request!

 

As I mentioned the last few weeks have been very busy!  We are out at the Children’s Home 24/7 from Tuesday night until Friday evening.  Having 36 kids to take care of, all but one of which speak basically no English, is definitely proving to be a great way to learn Spanish in a hurry!  Just the cooking and the laundry for 36 kids is enough to keep us hopping and that is just the tip of the iceberg!  We have a great time on those days and love every minute we get to spend showing Christ’s love to the kids.  Church services here are on Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday so on the days we are not living at the home we are usually at church, helping at the home, or working on getting our house cleaned out and set up.  I have had several opportunities to preach over the past few weeks!  Lord willing one of these days I won’t need a translator!  Please continue to pray for our language skills.  Now that we are here the next step on our road to Oaxaca is to be able to learn Spanish.

 

Please be in prayer for a family that are great friends of ours, Josh and Brittany Roberts.  They are trying to work out plans to come down and help us for most of the month of February while Mary’s parents are gone and we have the children’s home by ourselves.  Please pray that God will supernaturally supply their needs and work out any obstacles that might arise.

 

Thanks again to each and every one of you who support us either by praying for us and the ministry here, supporting the ministry financially monthly or through one-time gifts, and by writing us words of encouragement.  We hope you know how much of a blessing you all are to us!

In Christ,

Nathan, Mary, Sam, & Jack