"For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit"  (Jeremiah 17:8)

It is good to be back home. I was sharing with the girls yesterday about the importance of putting the Lord first in our lives, spending time with Him in prayer and in His word. I read to them this list of things and told them how we can go to the Lord and exchange all these 'our' things for what He has for us:

Our tiredness for His strength, our weakness for His power, our darkness for His light, our problems for His solutions, our burdens for His liberty, our frustrations for His peace, our unrest for His calmness, our hopes for His promises, our afflictions for His comforting balsam, our questions for His answers, our confusion for His knowledge, our nothing for His grandeur, our emptiness for His fullness, the temporal for the eternal, and the impossible for the possible.

Wow! Don't you just love this! I do!

On our way back, while in the bus from Tucson to Cd. Obregón, we had these two people in their early 20's that just happened to meet in the bus, sitting in the seat behind ours. They started talking and sharing with each other, their experiences in jail, and so forth. They were both loud, obscene and obnoxious. I was feeling pretty sick so Daniel asked them to lower their voices because we really would like to sleep since it was 2AM...Anyway, to make a long story short, Daniel really had a chance to share with these two lost souls, Amanda & Diego. He told them he wasn't any better than them, that he, in the past, had had the same kind of vocabulary and that really they reminded him of himself, but that he was now changed. Not better but very different, he told them.  The Lord Jesus Christ had changed his life. They listened, especially Diego. We pray the Lord touches their lives. From Cd. Obregón to Navojoa, I had the opportunity to share with this older lady named Lupita who was on her way to Michoacán. She has a brother in San José CA that has cancer. Three of Doña Lupita's old brothers and a sister in law all went to visit this man and they were on their way back. A very, very, very long bus ride for them. 

    

We arrived home from TN on Tuesday morning (just two days ago). Our dear sister in Christ Doña Cuca, passed away the day before our arrival. Her relatives waited for us to bury her, so we had the honor to be with them there in Mocúzari and share with them the glorious hope we Christians have. We were truly rejoicing for our dear sister, she was 88 years old and she loved the Lord. She lived a hard life, but then her last 12 years here on earth, she lived them for the Lord. What a great example she was to all of us!

   

It was very hard to say goodbye for now in TN, we were missing everyone as soon as we left. But it was also good to be back and see other members of this wonderful family the Lord has blessed us with. Aaliyah turned 3 years old yesterday, the twins will be a year old this month (24th), Obed is 6 months. How time flies!  

Lupita & Trini

The Lord works in mysterious ways, that is for sure. Here we were wondering if we should take more girls in, or not, and these two girls just showed up asking to stay here. This happened last Friday when we were still in TN. Roshon called us and asked what she should do about it. We instructed her to take the girls to DIF Alamos (social services), since they are the ones that have to decide about situations like this. Roshon told DIF we would be back on Tuesday. Well, on Tuesday, when we hadn't even been home for two hours, DIF Alamos showed up with the girls. This lady in Alamos, Lupita's aunt, had kept them till we came back.

They are both from Mocúzari. Trini is 13 years old and her mother is mentally ill. We have known her family for a while, but we really didn't know Trini was being mistreated. Lupita, 12, had been coming to our Bible studies in  Mocúzari on Thursday nights, but then she stopped coming and we didn't know why. Her birth mother abandoned her when she was little. Her father lives with this lady that supposedly mistreats Lupita, DIF said. Anyway, they both seem to be quite content here with us, although Lupita was quite upset this morning because she has to learn Roman numerals.

Things are for sure changing fast around here, but will write about that later.

We love you all so much. We thank God for each one of you, and praise Him for His faithfulness to us in bringing you into our lives to share together in this amazing work of proclaiming His wonderful and marvelous gospel of reconciliation, He has called us to share. You are all such a vital part of this ministry! We ask that you would please continue to pray for us, we more than anything in this life want to live for Christ, we want to lift His name up high for others to see.

Daniel & Ana