Dear Praying Friends,
Quite a week. :-)
Mikey and I ended up leaving on Tuesday morning at 4:30 AM for Texas. We arrived at Jack and Mollie Lee's house in McAllen, Texas 12 hours and 15 minutes later after 717 miles.
Wednesday morning was taken up with trying to get different things taken care of: insurance, driver's license, mail, etc. Then Mikey and I went to Wal-Mart from about 2:00 PM until 6:30 PM, went to supper for an hour and went back until 11:00 PM. WOW. Mikey said, "Man, I sure wish Mom was here to do this. That would be much better." :-) We tried to get the whole grocery list for Faith for the whole year. As an example, a can of Cream of Chicken or Mushroom soup here in Mexico costs about $1.50 USD. We found the same soups for 50 cents a piece at Wal-Mart, so we bought about 40 of each, as well as many other things that we either can't get or are much more expensive to buy here. It was a long, long day at Wal-Mart.
That night Mikey began to feel pretty bad with a headache and sore throat. On Thursday, we unloaded the whole van, cleaned it all out, packed everything back in, and we finally finished after 5:00 PM. Jack and Mollie took us to eat and then we left at 6:00 PM. We got across the border and then the checkpoint that's 15 miles into Mexico with green lights. A red light means you might have to unload your whole vehicle for them to inspect your cargo. We made it to the Zartmans in Monterrey, Mexico by 9:30 PM. Mikey was unable to speak and his throat was terrible. I was able to buy him an antibiotic and after 12 hours of sleep, he was doing better. We had a nice visit with the Zartmans and had to leave on Friday morning at 11:15 AM. We are not able to drive in Mexico City on Fridays from 5:30 AM until 10:00 PM due to pollution, so we didn't want to arrive at Mexico City before 10 PM on Friday night. We made it all the way from Zartmans to the toll booth at the outskirts of Mexico City by 9:40 PM and crossed into the city at 10:02. The traffic was still unbelievable at that hour and we made it home at 11:25.
Saturday was spent studying to get ready for Sunday. Faith had a ladies' meeting and she said that the ladies participated wonderfully and it is very obvious that the Lord is working and teaching them many things.
Saturday night I had a discouraging moment. I went to our little local store for some bread and when I walked in I saw a man from our church behind the counter. It was very obvious that he had been drinking. He didn't notice me at first but when I said hello to him, he was extremely shocked to see me, said something in very slurred speech to his father, and then disappeared into the back room. I went to his house Sunday morning with a cup of black coffee, hoping to encourage him with his need to be in church anyway and to try to sober him up. His son said that he wasn't there so I walked to the store again to find him. His parents said that they hadn't seen him since Saturday night. I am not sure, but believe that the son lied to me and that his dad was still there at home so I went right into their house (don't try this at home), walked upstairs, and knocked on his bedroom door. His son opened again and I said, "Please give this coffee to your father." He took the coffee, said, "Ok," and then shut the door again. So then I just had to leave.
There was only one family absent from church Sunday (our neighbor man's family) along with the two older ladies, Sras. Gloria and Maria who are fighting some sickness. After church, Teresa asked if she could talk to me about some serious family situations. When we left, Faith and I were the only ones left with Cherith and Caralyn. We had been invited over to Alejandro and Guilles' for dinner. We had to park a little ways away and walk due to a street market. We found Alejandro waiting for us in the street and he said we were going to his son Memo's house. He horded us into a little walkway and when I opened the door, I was greeted with a huge shout of "SURPRISE." The whole church had gotten together with Faith while Mikey and I were gone last week and organized a surprise 40th birthday party. They were absolutely thrilled because that is the first time in 12 years here that they have been able to really surprise me. I have always picked up on different things they've tried in the past. Yesterday, Sunday, I had no idea that the surprise was coming. They all enjoyed that very much. I enjoyed it too.
Thank you for praying for Faith last week as she held down the fort at home with the rest of the kids. Praise the Lord that right now everybody is doing fairly well. She had to deal with one lady who refused to talk to another lady last week. Praise the Lord that Faith was able to use the Bible and the other lady is biblically working through the situation now. Pray that the Lord will give her victory.
Thank you so much for your faithful prayers and support.
In Christ,
Mike for all the Goldfi
PS--I was just able to talk to the man from church. He feels the weight of his sin before the Lord, has asked the Lord and his family to forgive him and is planning on talking to his parents who own the store since he has really been trying to witness to them. He is feeling greatly that he has betrayed his Saviour which is a good thing. Please pray for him to get back up and continue walking and for our Saviour to continue to uphold him day by day and keep him from sin. He recognizes his weakness and his great need of walking with Christ day by day. Oh that we all would feel our weaknesses in the flesh in the same way and strive to maintain that constant communion with Christ. Thank you for praying.
No comments:
Post a Comment