School has come to an end and vacation has begun.

Now I have time to catch-up on the more paperwork that needs to be processed for the loss of my Van.  Before I am able to import an American car I need to pay 25,000 pesos (around $2000) in the cost to make a car Mexican, taxes etc.   Thus, I have chosen to wait (maybe it WILL show up) and buy a Mexican car.  

I am now a proud owner of a Chevrolet Sonora (SUV), which was owned by the wife of my friend Sabrina’s brother.  It is the same age as my Van but it has been well taken care of and will still carry the kids and animals etc. here in the village. A benefit is that I will be able to get permission to cross back and forth through a tollbooth just up the road with out paying.  (A person needs to own land near the tollbooth and have a nationalized vehicle.)

How are things going with the investigation of my van?

While I was working on more paper work for the insurance, and had to go the Central Station of Investigation.  The attorney, working on the case of my van, came by and was happy to let me know he got the names of the women and now needed to go and get the addresses.  He had to search several receipts because the timing on the videos and the cash registers were not in sink t.  He just went to the video of them pushing their carts out the door and used the items in their cart to compare with the receipts.  Well, I have to give him a hand that he is still working on the case as well as manyothers.    I know it is slow, but in a society were people do not trust each other and all work is sent to a central place, I am glad he is doing the little that is being done. It is only a mater of prayer to get things done here.  I am glad we have a BIG GOD and we can rest in HIM.

My plans for this summer is to catch up on a thousand and one projects.

It is 107 degrees outside and I am in my one air-conditioned room trying to get a few things done on the computer and maybe even read some books for a change.  I do not plan to travel this year but catch up on cleaning out drawers, my storage area, organizing club materials and maybe get my slides from my adventures in the olden days and put them into my computer by taking a picture of each one on a screen.   This is going to be my mini-vacation of catching up on life.  When I travel, teach school or involved in activities, my house, storage area and projects get put on HOLD and never get done.  This summer I am cleaning out the drawers, finishing my personal projects and not planning crafts for others, lesson plans, school projects.  NO this is going to be a summer of staying home (which I have not done yet!!!! but I am hoping…) Pray that I can get a lot of details done around here.   And get all those details done for my new vehicle – insurance, registration, new tires, and have a physical for the suv at the mechanic. And maybe this summer I can get more exercise and drop a few pounds – that would be an added plus.

• Oh yes, I am going to have lessons on how to do things on my website.  I am sorry but that has been a sore spot as I do not understand why what I do does not work.
• Then I need to get a prayer letter out for those poor soles who do not have computers or are not receiving these updates.
• And I would like to get some thank you notes out for those who keep me going here on the field – bless your hearts.
• Plus, one day a week I will try to have more help in my Spanish.  It is a slippery slope for me to learn a language, but it won’t hurt to help my neighbors by saying things correctly.

Women’s Bible Club is still going but earlier in the day while the children are in school.

Changing the time started out with only 2 women, then 3 and this week 6.  They are learning to do cross stitch.  I am learning that these women have not learned to think so doing a lot of these projects are hard for them.  I play games at night with different people that come to visit.  Last night one mother was struggling playing Skip-bo.  It took her so long to realize the numbers were going in order.  So doing these craft projects has been a challenge for the teachers, but I think it is a good thing to help the women “Think!”.

• Pray that next year we can get a Bible Study started for the men.  It will take a lot of prayer as this is a big battle for them to trust God in their lives – to even attend.
• Pray for more school supplies and craft items.  I am looking at what I have and ordering things that will put some of the mixed crafts together to make enough for 30 children.

I want to thank all of you for your prayers this past school year.  It has been full of events and your prayers have been my strength.

Pray I can get the rest I need to start again in August (teaching first and second grades) and that I get caught up around the house.

Barbara Russ

In 6th grade, I am teaching Spelling, Science and History/Geography. It is interesting to me, a challenge for some students and easy for others. It is a challenge to review enough for some and not bore the others. But atleast I am enjoying the class and the material.

Many of the older boys need a program for them. Pray that the LORD will open up a door to reach them. 

But in the mean time we are seeing these mother’s learning and that is a blessing, too. 

The LORD is Good!

Saturday, September 19th, I celebrated my 60th Birthday with an evangelistic emphasize. I invited a Christian Ranchero Music group to entertain us. A Mexican family provided a pinata and candy for 100 children. My Mexican and mission friends helped with food preparations and some of the ingredients for the food. I invited my unsaved friends and neighbors to the party – a birthday is a great excuse to get people together.

The event went well. The music was fabulous and the food was delicious. My friends had taken organizing the food and serving over 140 people. The pinata was a delite to both old and young. I for sure wanted to hit it and so did some of my friends.

Then the time came for a Mexican friend to give a devotion. The black clouds began to roll in. We had prayed for months to not have rain. Clouds would be fine to keep the people shaded, but no rain. I began to pray furiously. People began to leave. I felt disappointed. It really never poured but the drizzle forced people under the trees and into the covered patio area.

I would have to be content  that the music had a Gospel message and they all listened to that.  Later I heard that many people in the neighborhood were sitting outside of their houses listening to the music. The words could be hear all over the village.

Well, the party continued under the cover of the patio, from home made cakes to opening gifts.  The band kept playing for another hour.  It was a fun time but the rain still concerned me.

The next day another missionary family that lives in the village was talking to a neighbor.  She was told that the rain brought me good luck.  They believe that when you have rain at a Birthday party that the person will have good luck for the next year.  Well, that put a new light on the subject.  What I thought was bad, God was using for good

In the afternoon, I am working on my Spanish.  I have a lot to learn.  I have a large vocabulary but I am not using the verbs tenses correctly nor the pronouns.  I am working with a good teacher one hour three days a week.  My brain is adjusting to the learning.

After my Spanish class, I return to school to  help one of our third graders with the Davis Program.  His parents are Spanish speakers so they are not able to help him in anything concerning English.  It is great because as we make clay figures for the English Trigger words, I discus these works with his parents to learn the Spanish equivalent.  It has been a great experience.

The first day we had 30 children but 10 of them where from the workings.  Now we have 42 and expect more tomorrow.  Here are a couple of our new boys.

The children have crafts and food along with the lessons about Jesus.  It is challenging for the teachers to teach children who have no knowledge of God’s Word. 

Pray that out of this group we have some new ones attending our Kids Club in the fall.  Pray for a person to teach the older children.

I got a team of children on Wednesday, July 1st. to clean up the rubbish that accumulates because of the wind but mainly because people through trash in this entrance without realizing people live in this neighborhood. While at  the other entrance, the trash often overflows and spreds into cracks and cranies of the the entrance walls

The children do not last past an hour, so I have an incentive at the end of pizza and coke.  This seems to help them go for one more hour.   But that is the end of their stamina.  After the pizza, they ask,”When are we going to go again.”  I just smile and say, “I will let you know.”

Pray they learn the culture of cleanliness and work.

My church here in Mexico will help me teach the classes and with all the activities.  The crafts will be simple as they can not afford the ones we use in the United States.

One of the crafts will be a piggy bank made from plastic drink bottles for pops, sodas and water.  I told the kids to save some for me and the next day they came with a wheel barrow load of over 75 bottles.  So I put them to work to clean them. 

Pray that the Lord will meet these children where they are in their new relationship with Him.  Help the kids to grow in the Lord and for the once who do not know Jesus, to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus.

Pray I can get more help to help us as well.

Pray also that we can find all the things we need to do the art projects.  Most are recycled products like juice containers.  We have plenty sodapop bottles.:-)

Thank you for your prayers.

Your prayers have been answered. At out Kids Club, Beth shared the Gospel via scriptures and relating to the Bible events that we shared this past year. Then she asked the children who believes that they are sinners and Jesus died on the cross for their sin and want to accept what Jesus has done. Eight children accepted Jesus today. We had three new children here as well and two of them accepted Christ as their savior.

This was our last meeting for the year because our Mission school has only one week left and we will doing other things. I will still try to do things with the children during the summer. But their school is not out for a month and maybe longer as the schools are thinking of adding a couple weeks to make up for the weeks lost from the Swine Flu closing the schools.

Please pray for these children to grow in the Lord. Pray that over the summer, we can do things together. We had planned to toss water balloons today. Ten kids showed up at my house yesterday to fill the balloons. But we had heavy rain today and it is cold. So we only did simple things with part of the balloons so people would not get wet. I told them to return Thursday, June 4th if it is HOT and we will have a water balloon party.

Also in July the little church, I am attending,  will have DVBS and if I can get help we can take a bunch of children to the activities.
Thank you so much for praying. What a great team I have and thank you so much for being on that team.