A Very Present Help in Trouble

Hey friends,

As some of you know, this month was a very full month with many emotions. It started with the blessing of being able to watch our nephew get married and spend time with the family there before heading back on the 20 hour drive to our home in Sinaloa, Mexico. The girls started their school year online, Cyrus started kindergarten (online), and the girls started attending orchestra at an after-school program offered in the local city here. Virtue chose the flute (though she’s still not very excited about it), Jasper chose the saxophone, and Jubilee the violin. In just two weeks, Jasper has already learned a song well enough for the teacher to allow her to join in the concert this Friday. It is a great source of blessing for our kids to grow their music talents and ability to use them hopefully one day soon, for the Lord.

Sundays

Ryan continues to teach the word on Sunday mornings (in English with Daniel translating in Spanish), Sunday evenings, and Wednesday evenings. Though attendance has been small, we press on. We continue to do the live feedings via facebook.

Baptism

We’re working on a day (and container) for holding baptisms. We’re hoping to find something that will work well to do the baptism inside our church building. Speaking of the church building, we had a lot of rainfall this past month, and unfortunately discovered the church leaks horrendously. We had fungus growing like a science experiment! The owner said she’d be willing to pay to get it fixed, but we’re still trying to figure out the best way to do so.

Thursdays

As Ryan and Daniel still go out Thursdays to share the gospel, they were able to join us this past Thursday at the cultural center where the girls attend orchestra. We baked a large tray of brownies and handed them out with our Sweet Ever After gospel tracts. We realized between the cultural center and the large playground and river walkway outside, the place makes a great outreach. We are waiting on the Lord to guide us.

Fridays

The Friday nights in Palos Verdes are sweet to be part of. It’s so good to see and hear Kevin round up the kids and teens and do bible studies with them. We still cook dinner and bring it, and play with them after. Jump rope, ball, skating, and some horseback riding (for Jasper), it’s a blessing to be there and let them know God loves them and so do we.

Virtue's Situation

Just as we were trying to get a routine schedule down for this new school year, we were hit hard. One morning after I had woken up the girls and went back to reading my bible and coffee, I felt uncomfortable with the noises I was hearing from the bathroom where I knew Virtue was, I decided to walk over and check on her. With arms behind her back, she fell headlong, nose first on the tile floor, half a step lower. I bent down and sat down to roll her into my arms, only to see blood on the floor, and blood on her face, with a large swollen nose. Because of her convulsing, and face twitching. All of sudden I remembered she had mentioned of feeling like a demon had attacked her weeks earlier. Full of terror, I screamed and rebuked at whatever evil spirit was there and yelled at Ryan to come.

The crazy thing is he normally would have been on his way to Tamazula but he went to bed with a super sore throat the night before and knew he wouldn’t feel well enough to make the trip for bible teaching so he had canceled the Thursday class. Jubilee ran over to see the commotion and I yelled at her to go get Ryan as I was in pure panic mode. When Ryan came he rebuked the demon and then called her name, and all of a sudden she gained consciousness and stopped shaking and convulsing. The tears hit her when she started seeing blood around her and felt the numbed nose. Ryan did great at wiping her face before she had a chance to see it.

We walked her to the sofa and it wasn´t long before her stomach began hurting. She had two episodes of vomiting the blood she had swallowed, and it took a few days for her stomach to stop cramping. We took her to the Red Cross the next day. The bloodwork nor the head x’ray revealed any cause or injury. Last week we took her to a doctor that we've been to before who uses a radio frequency device to check for over 300 conditions (apparently ever disease has its own frequency much like every human has their own unique fingerprint). The results showed she had the Epstein Barr virus in various parts of her body. Related to the herpes virus, it can cause seizures in children. He loaded us up on the medicine he had, gave a diet for her (no pork, no candy/chocolate, and plenty of carefully washed fruits and vegetables).

The next day (this was 9 days from when she had fainted and fell) she was in the bathroom getting ready (I had already gone with her that morning and decided it would be ok to go get other things done) she had a seizure. But this time, she was aware of what was happening and stayed on her feet. Jubilee was yelling her name like an alarm, Ryan was able to run over and stabilize her. I can’t explain it, but I felt the presence of God’s angels, and I felt His peace.

The whole day I was just in awe of God’s goodness and his protection over her, and over us. And yet by nightfall, by the time it came for us to climb in bed, it felt like a cloud of anxiety hung over me. The thought that all it would take is one more fainting with a brutal hit to the head and all my rejoicing in the Lord would be gone repeated over and over again. The devil is a cruel mind attacker. I wish I could say something happened to relieve me of those thoughts, but I suppose much like soldiers in a battle trying to get some sleep at night, my body and mind fell asleep tense, easily awakened at the smallest sound. In fact, the same cloud stayed over me the following night. I woke up with dread as I made my way into the kitchen for the 6am praying meeting I join in on zoom  Monday mornings. And yet, at the end of the prayer meeting, I felt the Lord strengthen me. Even today, fatigue hit me hard. Feeling the need to stay vigilant with Virtue (staying right by the door when she uses the bathroom) and keeping an eye on her or staying within earshot is exhausting. It’s a whole other ball game of learning to trust the Lord. And yet, as I thought about many “what -ifs” I realized that even in those, God is searching out my heart.

You see, even if He ends up allowing dire circumstances to continue unfolding, what will we do? It’s in those mind games, those attacks that we MUST hold fast to our commitment. If we vow to our spouse, that in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer we will love and be faithful to them, how much more does the One who bled and died for us deserve?

Grateful

We’d like to say, that this month more than ever, we are so thankful for the support of you all! May the Lord strengthen you in your faith, and cause you to keep producing fruit even in the midst of tribulation and trial.

May He comfort you with His peace, and bring joy in the midst of brokenness. He is a very present help, indeed.