By Pastor Tyler Pease
Greetings to our friends and family back home. We appreciate your prayers for us as we continue to work in Puebla, Mexico. This is going to be a quick update so it may have a few grammatical errors! It has been a privilege to see the ministry here and be invited to be part of the work. Our sightseeing has come to the end (though there is no end to new sights) and we have now shifted our time to ministry-specific elements. Jacob gave some insight into some of our first interactions in the Nueva Puebla neighborhood on Saturday. This was a really special time for our team and helped us appreciate the importance of the Glessner’s ministry here.
Church
On Sunday we were fully immersed in the Glessner’s ministry as we spent the entire day with their church, Pueblo De Esperanza. We had a good time worshiping with them (service goes for about two hours). After church, we shared a meal and then began setting up for VBS in a party rental venue next door. This process took us several hours as we cleaned up from a wedding that had been held the night before and then tried several different layouts for the VBS. During this time, one of the things I noticed is that the church here is a wonderful group of people whose heart for God and for people is immediately apparent. I look forward to telling you more about them. For now, I’ll just say that it really is a privilege to be invited to join them in their outreach to this community.
VBS
Sunday ended pretty late and Monday began a slightly earlier schedule with the start of VBS so we all were pretty tired but excited to see what the day had in store. It turns out that numbers were down due to unusual morning rain. For us who are used to rain and have the convenience of cars, it didn’t seem too bad but for a community that only experiences morning showers 15-30 times a year and walks everywhere, rain can be very disruptive. Very few moms are going to walk three or four kids in the rain and risk getting children sick. Because of this we had about 25 kids though we were expecting about 60. We are praying for a better morning as 60 to 100 kids is not overly-optimistic. Despite the low numbers the VBS went great and the women of the local church did a great job. They have a real heart for the families of this community. As I watched them, it was incredibly evident from their demeanor and preparation that Christ’s love is present and overflowing in their lives. I have no doubt that this community will be greatly impacted by this relatively young church.
Our Team
It has also been a big privilege to lead this team. It really is neat to see our team members jump right in and interact with both children and adults. Despite tiredness and other physical issues, our team has been enthusiastic and outgoing. There have been plenty of opportunities for everyone to be flexible and they are doing really well.
Prayer
Here are some things that you can be praying for:
- Pray for better weather and more children. We would love to see club hit 60-100. Even with our smaller numbers, more than half the kids were not from the church, and some hadn’t been involved with any other church outreach programs.
- Pray for the women of Pueblo De Esperanza as they do the bulk of the teaching. Pray that these kids would respond to the gospel and that new Bible studies can be started with their parents.
- Pray for some of our other upcoming tasks. Our guys are hosting a guys night and our ladies are hosting a ladies event. Pray that both of these would be encouraging. Pray for some work we are doing on the church’s ministry center. One project in particular requires some ingenuity on Dan Davenport’s part. We’re sure he’s up to the task! Pray for our tech team as they consult with some of the worship and tech crew at the church.
- Pray that the remainder of our time would be encouraging to the Glessners. It’s a lot of work to host a large group!