July 12, 2009

Dear All,

Greetings to you from Tamazunchale! I have not had opportunity to write a formal update from home, so I will type something out here while I sit at a computer at my favorite Internet cafe!

These are exciting times in the Huastecas. This week we will receive a mission team from Westminster Presbyterian Church of Rockford, Illinois, which will be working with the Santisima Trinidad Church of Chapulhuacanito as we celebrate vacation Bible school. Classes will be Wednesday through Friday, with both morning and afternoon sessions in order to complete the five-day program in three days. Our kids don't get out of school until Tuesday afternoon. Swine flu caused a 10-day extension to the school year. The men of the church continue to donate their time Fridays and Saturdays to the kitchen/fellowship hall construction project, which is advancing nicely. Each week they spend down the church's treasury, but God keeps replacing it.

Also this week, the Santisima Trinidad Church of Frijolillo will pour a new concrete roof on their sanctuary. Seven weeks ago they tore down the existing roof and began the rebuilding. Since then, between 15 and 30 men of the church (with men from other churches in the community volunteering as well) have worked on the project five days a week. Several women have also donated their time and resources to provide lunch for the men all of those days. Many of the materials have been donated by the mayor of our municipality, though we still await the cement and gravel. He may or may not fulfill his promise but it appears that the congregation has raised enough money through their own efforts—and those of their children in Mexico City and Monterrey—to purchase the materials themselves if the mayor does not provide.

Please pray for the Frijolillo church. As it has expanded its evangelistic efforts, Satan has also stepped up his fight against them. Church leadership has had to deal with some very difficult issues over the past couple of months. Please pray for Pastor Abel and the elders, that they might face these challenges with both spiritual integrity and mercy.

One of our students at the Bible School for Missionaries in Mexico City graduated on July 4. She will do three months of mission service in Guerrero and then return to the Huastecas in October. Please pray for Carmela’s health and safety and ministry as she serves far from home, and pray for the presbytery leadership as they discern her best placement within the presbytery when she returns.

Our other three students (Madai, Sareth, and Abigail) are home and resting this week before doing itineration around the presbytery, assisting local congregations with vacation Bible school programs until their August 16-return to Mexico City.

I was in the United States for two and a half weeks in June, visiting Northeast Georgia Presbytery, First Presbyterian Church of Greenville, South Carolina, and Covenant Presbyterian Church of Charlotte, North Carolina. Wonderful visits indeed.

Since coming home I have had a series of foot, digestive, and back problems, but all seem to resolved now. I spent a good deal of time coming back and forth to Tamazuchale for tests and spent more money than was necessary, but at least all my tests came back negative and I am feeling better.

The week of the 19th I will be in Frijolillo teaching vacation Bible school. After a team cancellation, the church has now been blessed by the compassion of the presbytery’s three missionaries (read: female lay pastors). Sister Raquel, Sister Saret, and I will be the teachers for vacation Bible school this year. Stepping in with the program we are doing at their home congregations: “Moses, Called by God.”

The week of the 26th, a team from Castaños, Coahuila, and San Antonio, Texas, will visit the church in Huitzitzilingo to provide vacation Bible school for the 150 children there.

Other upcoming events are the Presbyterian Women convention July 31 and August 1 in Octlamecayo; Bible Institute classes in Frijolillo the August 5 and 6; and the presbytery meeting in Frijolillo the 13th through the 16th.

All are welcome to join us for our 25th Anniversary Service in Frijolillo the 16th. The work of the Presbyterian Church in the Huastecas is decades old, but we are celebrating these first 25 years as an independent indigenous presbytery here in the Huastecas. A united choir with voices from all of our congregations is preparing special music for the event. We will also be preparing the children throughout the presbytery so they can participate as well. Join us for worship, fellowship, and the best mole you have ever had! Please let me know if you are interested in attending this event, which is expected to draw 800 people from throughout our Presbytery plus a few Presbyterian “dignitaries” from Mexico City.

Last Sunday was election day in Mexico. It is amazing how quickly we allow politics to divide us as Christ’s body. May we all each day set our eyes and hearts upon the Kingdom of God, announce its presence among those ignorant of the love and grace and peace of Christ, and learn to rest in the sovereignty and grace of God in the midst of a very complicated and disturbing world.

I will write more soon. Thank you for your prayers.

Toteco metch tioxihuas,

Susie

The 2009 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 275