Greetings!
It has only been a month since our last update at the end of june but it seems like it has been a year! Where do we even start? Well in our last letter we mentioned we were planning on spending a quiet 4th of July in Missouri with my parents but the Lord had other plans. Mary’s parents were at the border in Laredo, TX after spending a week in the States and her dad had some heart pains. Due to his history of heart problems they felt it wise to remain at the border for an extra day so that he could get some rest. The Lord opened the doors for us to go and meet them in Laredo to help them drive down and to help with some work around the children’s home that needed to be done so her dad could rest. We left Mississipi on Wednesday evening after church and drove overnight arriving in Laredo around 9am Thursday morning. We parked our Jetta at the hotel and headed out around 10am. We made great time for the first few hours until we ran into Tropical Storm Alex! So much rain had fallen that there were several mudslides / flash floods across the road. It took us over 21 hours to drive that 5 mile stretch which meant we spent the night parked in three lanes of traffic in the pouring rain! It was a memorable experience to say the least! Thankfully the Lord allowed us to arrive safely in Jerez on Friday evening. While there we were able to spend some time with the kids at the children’s home while helping with the cooking, cleaning, etc. We removed the carpet from and cleaned up the guest quarters at the children’s home which had been damaged from leaks in the roof during the recent rains and were beginning to mold. We also tore up an old concrete pad and dug the footing for an addition to the boy’s dorm which a mission’s group from Alabama has since started work on. Sadly the time came for us to head back to the States and so we took a bus back to Laredo, picked up our Jetta and headed for Missouri. We are excited for the day (156 days to be exact, but whose counting?) when the Lord will allow us to remain in Mexico peaching the Gospel!
We were excited to be the missionary guests at the Vacation Bible School at New Hope Baptist Church in Missiouri. We also taught the 6-8 year-olds and we had a wonderful time with the kids. The Lord allowed two young boys to ask Christ into their hearts as their personal Lord and Savior. As goes the theme this month however, every blessing came with it a problem! On the first night of the VBS I was in the field with our group for games when one of the boys decided that he could beat me in the barrel race. I, of course, couldn’t let a 6 year-old boy show me up so I took of my shoes to race him. Unfortunatly for me there was some glass hidden in the grass and I ended up with a nice and deep 5 inch gash running the length of the back half of my right foot! Needless to say, he won.
The next Sunday I preached at New Hope on Sunday Morning and we were scheduled to present in Branson West that evening but during the afternoon while we were eating dinner at my grandparents house little Sam started running a fever and having seizures. The seizures began to increase in severity and frequency so we took him to the pediatric ER at Cox Hospital. Shortly after we arrived he started to seize non-stop and they had to give him medicine to stop the seizures. He continued to have frequent short seizures and was admitted to the hospital so we rescheduled our church that evening for Wednesday night. The following morning they performed an EEG when he was not running a fever and he had 8 seizures in 20 minutes. He ran a fever of up to 104.8 and continued to have seizures through Monday and Tuesday. Due to the frequency and type of seizures the neurologist determined that he has an underlying seizure disorder which was previously undiagnosed and the fever lowered his seizure threshold enough that we could notice them. He started Sam on an anti-seizure medicine and the seizures began to taper off. Sam will have to see a neurologist every two months for a while until they sort out everything but he will be on the seizure medicine for at least a few years until we can see if he ourgrows them. Please pray that we can find his medicine in Mexico for cheaper because it is very expensive here in the States!
We will be leaving friday evening to head to Lakeland, Florida were will will be presenting in a church this coming Sunday. We will be in Florida until about the 20th of August after which we will be headed for Indiana to present in churches there. Please continue to pray for our safe travels and that God would be glorified in our ministry. Once again if you are interested in having us present at your church please contact us with you pastor’s information or have him contact us directly. We are presently scheduling primarily for the fall. Also don’t forget you can find us on facebook at, stanley’s2mexico, and at our website: www.stanleys2mexico.com. On our website you can find a list of prayer requests and the most recent issue of our kid’s blog which is a great way to get your kids and grandkids excited about missions. If you would like a prayer card or bookmark email us your address and we will get one right out to you.
In Christ,
Nathan, Mary, & Baby Sam
“Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us.”
Psalm 62:8