November 2019
Greetings to all! Was wonderful to see so many of you in August of this year during our time in New York, Maryland, Mississippi, and California. We were blessed with good travels and wonderful times of fellowship in several churches and with very enjoyable times of visiting with our families and friends.
September and October have been focused more on activities here at the missions base and in the base clinic, getting cranked up for another school year. The schools all started up again on September 6th (Spanish School, Bible School and Music School, Multigrade School, and Preparatory School). That is always an exciting time of receiving new students and reorganization for the new year. There were lots of changes in the Multigrade School and Preparatory School this year, which has required a good bit of time and attention from Dave since he is serving as the superintendent of those schools. That has meant lots of meetings and planning and communications, but the changes are very positive and the schools are going well.
To the right is a picture from the Multigrade School’s graduation this past July. The kids put on a great program which included a dance typical of the area complete with the girls´ fancy dresses the guys’ mariache suits. They also recited and added hand motions to an impressive amount of Scripture — Scripture memorization is a part of their curriculum in the Christian Multigrade School. Their characters are being molded and shaped by hiding God’s Word in their hearts!
Graduation We had planned a clinic and Spanish School outreach during the first part of October, but because of weather conditions we postponed that outreach until Nov. 12th – 14th, so we just did that outreach last week. The outreach was very successful — lots of patients seen, children ministered to, and many new converts whose names were left with the local pastors for follow-up. We will give a more complete report on that outreach in the next newsletter.
We would like to go back and report on a couple of summer outreaches that we didn’t get into a blog yet. We were very blessed to receive a team from First Presbyterian Church of Corinth, Mississippi, led by Pastor Waring Porter, June 30th – July 6th, who visited the town of Santa Lucia Teotepec in the mountainous Chatino region about 3 hours above Puerto Escondido. The church blessed the town with medical and dental consults, children’s ministry, and putting in a cement floor for their new church that is under construction. The trip was extremely productive in all areas. As well as the construction project being accomplished, there were 182 patients attended, and 89 patients prayed to receive Christ! The fields are ripe for harvest! I did not get a count on the children ministered to, but a large group of children received much love and attention and teaching from the Word, and they thoroughly enjoyed it! The youth from First Pres did a fantastic job working with the kids!
The productivity was not without some sacrifice, though. I lost count, but I think it was around 30 of us in the group that shared the home of a family of believers in the town. There was enough floor space that everyone found a place to sleep, but we all ended up sharing one bathroom, which was a bit of a stretch! ? The mountainous roads make for an interesting trip there and back, also. The surroundings are beautiful — mountains and valleys covered with trees, very green and lush — but the roads can be challenging. To the right is a picture of our caravan of vehicles stopped on the road, because they were repairing the road with heavy machinery and had to stop all traffic for a while to get the repair done. There is no way around it, so we waited.
By the way – If you would like to see the photos better to the right of the page, they can be made larger by just clicking on them. And by placing your mouse on the photo you can see its content. We hope that you enjoy them!
A little further along, we realized one of the vehicles might not make it back because it kept stopping and requiring time to cool down, so we reorganized, and sent the other vehicles on ahead. That vehicle made it, but about 4 and a half hours later than the others! We had a few hours break on the side of the road while waiting for the car to be repaired. Long story how it all happened, but God was faithful and provided a place for us to wait, a meal in the evening, and a safe arrival home! He is always faithful — along the highway, in the middle of the mountains, or wherever we find ourselves! We are even more aware of His faithfulness when the trials and tests come!
Again, to the right are some picture highlights of the trip to Santa Lucía Teotepec:
The other trip we want to report on was the visit of a group from Church of the Harvest in Kansas City, Kansas on July 8th – 15th. They also worked in the low Chatino region, the same region where the First Presbyterian group worked, but took the medicine and children´s ministry to some other towns in the region while their construction team finished up pouring the floor for the church in Teotepec. The construction project was successfully completed — praise the Lord! Pouring a floor might sound easy, but working with the equipment that is available here (involves carrying and pouring a lot of cement) and doing it in the kind of heat we have in July is not an easy task! But it was successfully completed, and Pastor Genaro was very grateful for all the help and support the groups brought for his church!
The other towns we visited were Temexcaltepec, Cerro del Aire, and Atotonilco. Each town has an established church, which was the place we worked from, and all three towns received us very well, and many patients and children received ministry. In the consulting area, 236 patients were attended, and in spiritual care 59 patients prayed to receive Christ. Again, I did not get a count on the children who attended the children´s ministry, but there was a large group, and the team members had great activities prepared for them and both demonstrated and taught them about the love of Christ. The children are good soil! There were also many healings in the prayer room as each patient was prayed over.
One lady came in with very poor vision, so much so it was difficult to distinguish faces across the yard. She was prayed over, and the Lord did a restorative work in her eyes, and she left with much clearer vision! She actually returned the next day and was able to recognize the team members from across the church yard, which was a great accomplishment! Others were freed from pain, and at least one patient’s ears were opened. God is so faithful to work if we are just willing to go and allow Him to take control!
There are a few more photos to the right of our time in Temexcaltepec, Cerro del Aire, and Atotonilco.
We are very grateful to the First Presbyterian Church of Corinth, MS and Church of the Harvest of Kansas City, KS, as well as to each of you, our supporters, for making all of the above possible! We are extremely grateful to all of you for your continuing prayers, financial gifts, and hands on service that are helping to advance the work of the Kingdom here in Oaxaca, Mexico!
May God bless each of you greatly! You are appreciated!
We will write again soon to give you a report on our trip last week to Pinotepa de Don Luís! Please continue to remember the Corban Clinic, the Roca Blanca Spanish School, the Multigrade and Prepa Schools on the base, and the overall ministry of the Roca Blanca Missions Base, including the 3 year Bible School and Music School and village outreaches in your prayers! There are needs for more provision in several areas, for protection for the missionaries and staff and the students in traveling and sometimes entering difficult areas, and for God to continue to open wide the doors for reaching more towns and more people with the Gospel in Southern Mexico. Thank you! Blessings to each one of you!
In His Love,
Dave and Laura Nelson
