Hello everyone,
8 Years completed!
This past August we began our ninth year serving here in Mexico. Its hard for us to believe we've been here for that long. It seems like just yesterday we packed up that old blue van with everything we owned and headed to Plan de Ayala, Mexico to help Linda Ayers with the orphanage. To the right is a photo of Monica and Melena helping me that first year.
Now after eight years, we have an established ministry with a definite vision. We give God all the glory for getting us to where we are now. He has protected us, closed and opened doors with perfect timing to get us to where we are now. We are thankful to announce that we now have our FM-3 resident visas that allow us to live and work here legally in Mexico year round. For eight years we had been using tourist visas looking and praying for the right opportunity to get the correct ones. We decided since we are now doing more in the communities and gaining a lot of local attention we should probably have the correct documentation if we were ever asked. We had always heard that it was a difficult process to acquire the type of visas we needed , but thank God it wasn't that bad. We did have the help of our ministry partners, the Rodriguez family to help us and the Mexican Civil Association M.A.R.A.C that was formed here to do the water projects.
Yaguirachi Water Project
The water project for the village of Yaguirachi is progressing. There are now five homes, a small school and kindergarten hooked up to the water system. We are looking for more support to help buy the water pipe that will connect all the houses to the centralized water tank located on a hill overlooking the village. A couple of men of the village, one in particular that has really taken an interest in this project. It is our vision to train him on how the system works and to be able to maintain, repair and make improvements to it in the future.
Feeding Ministry
We recently were made aware of a sad situation where an elderly Indian widow died from starvation in the village and have decided to start a food bank to prevent this from happening again. The hunger situation here is very different than in the United States, in the states there are programs in place to prevent this sort of thing from happening. In the mountain villages it is like going back in time hundreds of years, no transportation, no communication and no feeding programs. Because we are stretched to the limit now, we are looking for sponsors here in Mexico and the U.S. to help finance this new feeding outreach. We have had a few people from the states that have already begun to give, which we are so thankful for. Special thanks go out to Barak and Cassandra Stafford, Mike and Sandy Green, Nan and Brian Whitehead, Sylvia Askey, Bob and Linda Ludwig for seeing this need and responding. Because of these recent donations, Shelly, the girls and I were able to go to Chihuahua City this week and buy food in bulk to continue this ministry. There are so many opportunities for people to help. We look forward to Bob and Linda Ludwig from Lifepointe Church of Amory Ms. coming in November. If you would like to get involved, please click here or contact us directly.
Sewing Classes and Building Project
One of the outreach programs we have started is a sewing class for the women of the village. This outreach serves several purposes, one is that it is a way for us to get the women involved with us, gain trust and be within listening distance when we have our Bible classes with the children. This outreach will also provide them with a way to supplement their family's income with dignity and not have to resort to begging. We started them out embroidering kitchen hand towels. Now they are making beautiful embroidered doilies. We have plans to begin a quilting class soon with scraps from donated clothing that the Indians do not wear. The items that they are making, we plan to sell and in turn use the money to pay the ones that need cash and food to the ones that would prefer to be paid with food. If anyone is interested in the doilies, pine straw baskets and other items that they make, please contact us. We have plans to put them on our website soon for people to see.
After over a year of working in Yaguirachi in the sun, rain, cold and praying for a warm, dry place to have our services, the village agreed to do something for us that is very unusual. They agreed to give us a piece of land to build on. This is very unusual because we are "outsiders", and for them to give us a piece of ground in the center of their community can be only explained by God's favor. This month we
finally had a chance to get most of the village together and decide on the piece of land that they are giving us to put the building on for our weekly services there. The building will be multifunctional, it will serve as a place to have our weekly services no matter what the weather, a centralized place to store water supplies and also for our future vision of training the men of the village basic carpentry skills. They will be able to sell or trade the things they make without having to leave their village to look for work in other parts of the state leaving their families for long periods of time. To the right is a photo of the first service on the piece of land the village gave us.
This building project will also provide many opportunities for visiting short term groups and churches that want to help reach the lost, disciple converts and empower them to become self sustainable. A group has already contacted us wanting to come in November to help begin the foundation and also do a medical outreach. We welcome any who would like to get involved with this project. A little goes a long way here.
We are still looking for financial support for our native pastors, Pablo and Adriana Rodriguez. If you would like to donate to help support this vital part of the ministry we do here, please contact us. For more info on how to do this please click here.
Keep us in your prayers for our continued safety and that we could accomplish everything that God would want us to do.
Feel free to forward this newsletter to anyone you feel would be interested in this work.
Onor u’ami micuirsa (God bless you, in Tarahumara)
Your servants in Mexico…
Ryan, Shelly, Monica and Melena Maness
Highways and Hedges Ministries
662-415-4837
