It has been quite a full and busy summer. We praise the Lord for His safety, blessing and guidance throughout each activity, blessing and trial that He has brought our way.
We were very blessed to have Mike's mom visit in May. The whole family enjoyed her visit as it's been about 3 years since she got down to our neck of the woods. :-)
Also in May, a single girl in our church, Vanessa, was able to leave to go to a Christian university in Monterrey for 3 months. She just arrived back 2 weeks ago. We greatly missed her and her ministry to our church for those three months, but trust that the Lord has taught her many things that she will be able to use the rest of her life in our Lord's service.
Our new building has been a blessing. We have had several new visitors for which we praise the Lord. A wonderful blessing is that Pedro and Veronica have been attending almost every Wednesday night since we moved in. Pedro helped Mike when we first arrived in Mexico by correcting all of the grammar in his sermons. Please pray that the Lord would graciously save them.
For the first time, thanks to Rachel and Jessica, everyone was able to finish school in May. We were wondering if it would be a possibility to go to Houston, Texas to visit with Faith's mom and dad. Due to their schedule and ours, there was only about a 1 week window where it would work out for both of us. We were waiting for our Mexican residency papers to be renewed and were not sure if we would get them in time for that one week window. The Lord worked everything out and we were able to all meet in Houston (Faith's parents live in PA.) We were able to spend a very nice week with them. Greenwood Village Baptist Church in Houston has an apartment that they loaned to us for the whole week. It was wonderful and they were very kind to us. The weather was over 100 degrees each day, and the air conditioned apartment was perfect.
On our trip back down to Mexico City, we stopped in Monterrey and were able to visit Vanessa. That was a blessing for us and hopefully for her as well. As many of you know, the situation in Mexico with the drug lords and violence is very dangerous. The Lord allowed us to pass 6 army caravans all headed north as we drove up to the border and we were thankful for the added protection. On our way back down, we had an equally uneventful trip. We are truly thankful to the Lord for His protection.
Many of you may remember that we had major plumbing problems back in February. We were waiting to get the funds and helpful workers for a number of months to try to get that fixed. As soon as we arrived back home from Houston, we found out that the construction worker had been able to come. He had torn out the whole floor in our bathroom and about 1/2 the floor in the kids bathroom. One of the copper pipes had a fairly good sized hole in it--hence the gallons and gallons of water that poured through down into Mike's study for several MONTHS. After about 3 or 4 weeks, we were finally able to get the pipes fixed, the concrete repoured and new tile laid again. Thank the Lord that we are back to being able to use those two bathrooms upstairs after almost 6 months of them being out of commission.
On July 14, our three oldest, Mikey, Cristiana, and Carissa accompanied the team back to Mentor, Ohio for camp at Peniel Bible Camp. They were not able to attend last year, so they were very excited for camp this year and for the chance to see friends that they have made there throughout the years. It is great to have them back home again though.
Two weeks ago we had our VBS. We started on Monday with 22, Tuesday with 35, Wednesday with 37 and ended on Thursday with 43. It was great to be able to proclaim the gospel to our church children as well as a good number of children who had never heard it before. Please pray as we seek to follow up on the new families.
The last two Lord's days brought us a good bit of unwanted excitement. Last Sunday, during our Sunday school hour (and a half), a taxi backed right up to our van (out of sight of the church) and stole our full size extra spare tire--right out from under the van. Mikey and Elias walked out right as they had loaded the tire in their taxi and when they got down to look under the van, the taxi drove off with the tire. That's when they realized it was ours. This morning we arrived at church to find our offering box outside, broken into and ruined. Someone late yesterday afternoon or last night broke into the church and was obviously looking for money. There were a number of things strewn about but praise the Lord the microwave and our small sound system were still there. The thief or thieves made off with only about 20 dollars and the electric keyboard that the children's class uses. Please pray that the Lord would give us protection, wisdom in how to make things a bit more secure and faith and trust in Him. These situations have been very unifying for the church. I wish you could have heard Nico's prayer this morning as he prayed for the thieves and for ourselves to not become bitter. Mike also made us realize that we still have our salvation---and that, no one can steal away from us!
We praise the Lord for two school teachers again to help Faith this year. Lauren and Bethany have arrived and are all ready to begin the new school year with Faith tomorrow. I think most of the kids are even ready. :-) Pray for a good beginning to the school year and for our children to learn and be prepared for whatever our great God has for them to do.
We greatly appreciate and depend on your prayers.
In Christ,
Mike for all the Goldfii
