June 2020, part one

Greetings! Hope this finds all of you well.

Corban Clinic News

I am sure that everyone is wondering how the Covid19 pandemic is affecting the Missions Base and the ministry here. Wanted to give you an update and a short report on things that have happened in the ministry here since we last wrote. God is faithful!!! We are very thankful that all are well here at the Missions Base. We have had to make lots of adjustments as I am sure that all of you have also, but we are finding ways to continue on in the midst of the pandemic.

Our area has been under a quarantine since the end of March with about the same restrictions as I have heard from different areas in the States — schools closed, churches closed, no mass events nor large gatherings allowed, and social distancing in work places that are open. For those of you who know our area, the beach area that is about a mile from us, Roca Mar, that usually has about 10 or 12 restaurants open, was totally closed down for about 2 months. Some of those restaurants began to reopen this past week, but a case of Covid19 was discovered in a town about 15 min from here last week, and now one case has been confirmed in our local town of Cacalote, so we hope that the restaurants will be allowed to remain open. This has had a big economic impact on our local town. Even though many of the men are fishermen and were able to continue to fish, and some harvest and sell coconuts and were able to continue this work, many families in town depend on having work at the restaurants at the beach to have income. Also the months of March and April around their Easter break is one of their two busiest seasons in the year (Easter and Christmas), so a number of families were without income because of the restaurant closings. For a few weeks, our local town of Cacalote decided that they did not want anyone coming in to our town from the outside to protect our residents from the risk of exposure to Covid19, so they assigned all the men in town to take turns guarding at the entrance to the town. They blocked off all entrances except the one that was guarded. We as residents were still allowed to go out of town for necessary errands.

The clinic is still operating during this time, even though the schools on the mission base (Bible School, Music School, Multigrade School, and High School) all had to close for this time. However, the children from the Multigrade School are continuing their studies now at home under their parents’ supervision, and the High School, Bible School, and Music School are now doing online classes for their students. What a blessing the online options have been during this quarantine time! Dave is giving a second year Bible School missiology class online once a week now.

In the clinic, we have had fewer patients since people are trying not to get out, but still have some, and some of these patients have great needs. During these last 3 months, we have only seen 364 patients, many less than normal, and have seen 14 salvations among those who have come for consults. We were able to purchase some food, and some of us from the clinic distributed it to the families we felt were in most need of help in our local community. The economic crunch is very real and the families were very grateful for the assistance!

Our main evangelist for the clinic, Bro. Jesus, has had to be out of the clinic because of health problems, and then a need to travel to another part of Mexico with his wife to care for their grandchildren while their daughter (a military nurse) is on duty in a military Covid Hospital out of state. Would appreciate your prayers for them and their daughter. All are currently doing well, praise the Lord. Gricelda (a nursing and dental assistant) and I (Laura) have had the privilege of sharing the Gospel with patients and praying for them during this time that Bro. Jesus is out.

It has been good to see the openness of the people to the Gospel during this time. Not all have made a commitment, but they are very open. One family who came a couple of weeks ago are a couple from here in town whom we have known for quite some time. The wife was very concerned about her husband´s health and convinced him to come in to see Dr. Enver. I shared with them, and really expected the wife to be open and the husband possibly resistant, but it actually turned out to be the other way around. The husband was ready to give his heart to the Lord. He is a coconut harvester who has had an alcohol problem for some years. His health problems have helped him make the decision to let go of the alcohol. He was ready, but his wife was resistant to make a commitment. However, they had a follow-up appointment, and at that point Gricelda shared with the wife, and she was ready and also prayed to receive Christ as her Savior. Diego (assistant pastor of the local church here) visited them at their house the following week, and had a good visit and set up times to do Bible Studies with them in their home. I believe this is a real direction the Lord is taking us, the small groups in homes.

Spanish School

In the Spanish School, Dave has been able to continue teaching the 7 students who were already here before the pandemic began, but has to teach them in homes. Our home houses 2 classrooms, and another home nearby houses 2 other classes. A few new students will be arriving in a few weeks for the next session of classes.

Past Reports

I never reported on our medical brigade in November in the towns of Pinotepa de Don Luis and San Juan Colorado. We had a great outreach offering both medical and dental care to the people. Below are some photos of the medical consults and the children´s ministry.

During the 3 day campaign, we saw 223 medical patients, 45 dental patients, and there were 88 salvations during the 3 day campaign. Many children were blessed by the Spanish School students who went with a number of Bible stories and activities for them.

Oral Roberts University Leadership Students here in January/February

It was wonderful to have the ORU Leadership Students here again from mid-January to mid-February. We had 7 students who reached out to two local villages with their community project and health teachings, and also served in the local clinic offering their knowledge and skills to help with the care of patients. Their project was a very practical teaching and demonstration to the local people of a way the people could use a local resource, the Neem tree, to produce a natural insect repellant. This was very pertinent because of frequent cases of Dengue fever and other fevers transmitted by mosquito bites this past year. The members of the two communities visited were very interested in learning. They perceived the need and stated that they would begin to make and use this instead of the traditional potentially toxic and much more expensive preparation which some were purchasing.

During these outreaches, a total of 108 patients were treated, and 59 persons prayed to receive Christ as their Savior. The students also ministered to many patients at the local Clinic during their month here.

A Personal Note

Another very exciting occurrence since we wrote last is that Dave’s daughter and son-in-law, Hannah and Ben Clark, and their 4 children have moved to Cacalote!!! They felt a call to come to Roca Blanca as full-time missionaries, which of course thrills us to have them here! Ben and Hannah are no strangers to ministry, having served for 15 years as youth ministers in the US and having done numerous missions trips with youth, and each of them having done longer term international trips as singles. We are certainly blessed to have them here and excited about all that God is going to do through them here in Mexico! They have a blog you can see here, https://rocamission.com/clarksformex/ .

Below is a video clip with a little sample of the fun of having 4 of Dave’s 14 grandchildren here so close by!!

There are too many things to write about for this blog post! We’ll be sending another soon with more of what our Lord did in these last months.

Thank you all so much for your faithfulness in praying for us and in giving. We recognize that giving is probably more sacrificial right now, and we greatly appreciate your faithfulness! God is continuing to work in southern Mexico! We are having to find alternate ways to accomplish the same goals, but we push on!

We love you all and thank you so much for being co-laborers with us in Oaxaca!

Love,

Dave and Laura