October 2008

Happy Thanksgiving!  I am elated to be so rapidly approaching this holiday!  As we do, I can’t help but think about all the things I am grateful for.  You are one of the many many things that come to mind.  Thank you for the part you play in our lives and ministry.  I don’t even want to think about what our lives would be like without you!

I’m sorry this update is so slow getting out to you.  We left San Cristobal on Nov. 1st and have been traveling like crazy people ever since!  Right now we are in Sonoita , AZ visiting some great friends and a few precious churches.  We’re walking out the door for the airport in about a minute… headed for CO!!!

The month of October was so busy… mostly for Nathan!  He was all over Chiapas last month.  He spent 1 day out in Ch’ol country getting some things ordered and ready for the building of Joel’s house.  He was able to visit a Ch’ol area radio station on that trip and set up a daily Bible broadcast in Ch’ol… from the audio CDs he Joel and Gregorio have been recording!  He was so excited about that. They will be broadcasting the same chapter twice a day on weekdays. Please be praying that God’s word will be heard over the air. The next week Nathan and Gregorio recorded Galatians and Philippians.  Then Joel came and they did Romans and Colossians!  At the same time Josue Cruz was here from the Zoque jungle revising the script for La Esperanza that Amin translated several months ago.  So I was feeding three jungle boys and our usual crew. After that crazy week, we needed a little family time.  So we went to the zoo down in Tuxtla!  The girls had never been before and absolutely loved it! So it is our new favorite get-away.

Nathan spent an awful large portion of the following week messing with lawyer stuff and paperwork for the donated land in San Fernando .  God is providing means to build a house/mission base there, but the technicalities and red tape and paperwork and fees are just a little ridiculous! Praise the Lord that the day before we left for the USA the final papers were signed and now we just wait for our titles to be processed and delivered!  Both of our girls and Kaihla were sick that week (just a nasty cold!) so it wasn’t our favorite week of October.  ;)  We survived it though!

The last big project in October was building Joel’s house.  So many people came to help… it was great!  I actually should say so many people *went* to help.  Because the house site is about 6 hours from our house!  Nicky Rider, Lance Keeling, Reece Terrell (Nathan’s brother), and Nathan were the Americans on the job.  There were about 20 Mexican guys there too!  The jobsite had 4 languages being spoken and included Christians from 4 different denominations. They got an awful lot accomplished in just 3 days. Joel’s home now has walls and a roof. We are waiting for God to provide the funds for the rest of the work to be done.  Once they were back from that project, we all cracked down and got ready for our trip to the US !  Now we are here and… can you believe it… still sick!  I am sure this is due to the immense amounts of traveling, and not sleeping well.  But we would so appreciate your prayers!  Gabi is cutting 4 teeth as well as battling this nasty cold.

Our youngest poured a smoothie on our laptop so it will be awhile before we can recover the pictures to put on the website. When we do we will let you know. We will be returning to Mexico the first week of February. December and January will be spent working in CO, and visiting friends, family, and churches. We will update you again in February when we arrive in Chiapas .

God bless you this holiday season… please keep in touch!

Julie

(for Nathan, Cloe, and Gabi too!)