Dear friends, (no photo this week)

Gerberto, Christine and their family received their new home.

Mariela, the one year old with the badly twisted foot, had an appointment with the surgeon today. Mariela's mom, Laura took off work today so she could also meet the surgeon with us. Jenny, Jesus, Laura, Mariela and I met with Dr. Gonzales at 11:00 a.m. this morning.  Dr Gonzales examined Mariela.  He stated that he performs the exact surgery Mariela needs about 20 times per month. He is very familiar with the specific surgery required for Mariela's little foot. He showed us indicators that her bones can support the surgery.  She will need at least one set of orthopedic shoes (maybe two sets), and a brace will need to be put on every night for six months while she sleeps to keep the foot straight as she grows quickly. Laura works 12 hour days Sunday through Wednesday, but is available to be with Mariela for the surgery Thursday - Saturday. Laura is very happy to think the surgery can be soon, possibly as early as next week.  Our schedule is very full until November 9th, but we’ll try to work out something sooner. 

The weather was perfect Thursday afternoon after the construction for a vacation Bible school at Pastor Miguel’s at Kilometer 30. We were expecting quite a crowd, and this was the first VBS at a church the First Avenue Baptist team from Hawaii had done. Fortunately, the team from Menlo Park was here the prior week and had left quite a lot of VBS supplies for another group to use some day.  A week later was that day! About 150 children and adults participated in a wide range of activities. After about 2.5 hours, we loaded on the bus, and I noticed Gerberto and his entire family had been present all afternoon.  Only Christine was present for the construction of their home in the morning as the children were in school and dad was working. The team hadn’t known they had spent the afternoon with their family until it was time to go home, as they had humbly blended into the crowd, not drawing special attention to themselves. It was a unique blessing.

Friday afternoon after the dedication of the home, the team quickly returned after lunch to Pastor Miguel’s church at 1:00 p.m. to a lunch for everyone.  They served hot dogs, chips, carrots, filtered chilled water, chilled lemonade and ice cream treats to the estimated 150 children and adults.  Everyone played and ate until about 4:00 p.m. when we called it an afternoon.

A large quantity of Bibles, tracts and children's Bible stories were divided and given to our Pastors last week. Pastor Miguel and his wife Elizabeth had them just in time for the crowd of visitors to their church on Thursday and Friday.

Team leader Bessie and her husband Bob, have made nine trips to Juarez in nine years from their home in Honolulu, leading teams from their home church the last two years.

Blessings from Juarez,

jeff and jenny