Kuira! I hope this newsletter finds you well! Thank you so much for taking the time to read this newsletter and for your prayers and support!
We started up school again on the 8th of January. The children were all eager to return to classes and continue to learn. We received 3 new students and now have 17 students in school. Our one room building is definitely getting fuller and at times it feels like the teachers are having a contest who can teach the loudest, as each one tries to ensure that their students can hear them. We are so grateful, though, for the building we have to teach each one of these beautiful children!
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In December Cande returned from Sonora to spend Christmas with her family. She had very much missed her family and was so happy to see them, as well as her friends at youth group. A few days before school started up again, our teacher, Martha, shared that the doctor had instructed her to go on bedrest, as she is expecting. Cande was more than eager to take Martha’s place as a helper in the school. It’s been a lot of fun to watch these 2 sisters, Cande and Sandra, teaching in the school. It brings me back to 2017, when Amelia and I started teaching, trying to figure out how to teach effectively… and the children testing their limits, seeing what they could get away with. Cande and Sandra were some of our first students when we opened the school in 2017. They didn’t speak Spanish well; also they weren’t used to attending a school and respecting another authority figure other than their mom. I remember saying to them, “I hope one day you get to be a teacher and have students just like you girls!” Now, not only do they get to experience what we experienced, I get to watch them every day loving on these kids, enforcing class rules, and dealing with students who struggle to see others in authority. I am so very proud of these girls, and I love to see their determination and joy as they work with their students. Please keep Sandra and Cande in your prayers. Also, please pray for our teacher, Martha, for her health, as well as a healthy baby.
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At the beginning of January I also had the opportunity to take my sister, Pollyanna, and her 2 friends visiting from Canada, to the mountains to visit Ana Cristina. It was a huge blessing for Ana’s family, as well as the students at her school, to have visitors. It is not very often a mountain village gets visitors, so it is definitely exciting for them! We stayed there 2 nights, then on Sunday we went to Guachochi, a town about an hour away, where we attended church, went to see a waterfall, as well as a lookout to the Copper Canyon. It was a time of encouragement as I heard from Ana Cristina, how the Lord has been working in her heart, as well as her family. Please keep Ana Cristina, the school, and her community in your prayers.
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Here is an update from Ana Cristina: Greetings brothers and sisters, how are you? I want to share with you this month of January 2024 what God is doing here in the community. This New Year God has given the parents of the children encouragement to send them to school and I am very grateful to God.
SCHOOL: Back to school: we started with 11 children. It is a great blessing to see that God has encouraged her parents to send their children to school with us. One student says she is very grateful to God for having brought more children and feels very encouraged to continue learning more about Jesus. It's a blessing.
DISCIPLESHIP: My discipleship study, it has helped me a lot to give me encouragement and strength to continue fighting against my problems and fear and resist the temptations; I am very grateful for the wisdom and strength that God has given me.
I had visitors this January. Sister Amanda and her sister Pollyanna and their two friends. My family is delighted to receive visitors, learn more about the love of God through them. I am very grateful and it gives me encouragement to continue this mission.
FAMILY: Thank God we are all healthy. At Christmas we get almost the whole family together. It's been a while since we’ve been together. God has worked a lot in my family and my other brother and my sister-in-law are very encouraged to continue learning more about God and it is a great blessing.
I am so thankful for God’s provision in every area of this ministry. I ask for your prayers for my family, community, the school, and for myself.
Thank you very much for your prayers and for your support of this work for God. GOD BLESS YOU
FROM: Ana Cristina Gonzalez Espino
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Thank you so much for all your prayers and support! We couldn’t be here without you and, Lord willing, hopefully one day you can come and see what the Lord is doing here in Chihuahua Mexico! God bless! Amanda.
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