Mexico Update
This past week I made another trip down to the small farming village in Mexico that my team has been working in this year. This was our third trip down to this particular village this school year. It was a slow week because of constant rain and cold weather, but we were able to get out a little bit.
We drove down on Monday and setup camp that evening. The next morning Will and I rode around with Juan, a believer in the village, to inspect his crops. Juan and his son planted sorghum at the end of January on 475 acres. They are just starting to sprout so he was checking on their progress.
In April they have to weed the entire crop with machetes and hoes. Each person weeds about 4 1000 meter rows a day until they are done. This results in their harvest in June where people from all over Mexico come to this region to buy sorghum for use in animal feed. Sorghum is a drought and heat resistant grain that grows well in the mostly arid climate of northern Mexico. Mexico is the fourth largest producer of sorghum in the world and it shows when you drive down from Matamoros and all you see is sorghum fields for miles and miles.
Back at the school, the ladies on the trip were able to share some bible stories and make some crafts with the kids after they got out of class.
The tent in the background is where Will and Lauren slept. This was one of Lauren’s first trips into Mexico and she didn’t want to sleep in the tent outside so they brought the tent inside…
This trip was fairly low key, but we are just continuing to build relationships with people in this village hoping that through our continued presence God will allow for more opportunities to not only share the gospel but to urge the existing believers to meet together regularly and one day become a beacon of the gospel in their community.
PNG Bound
Wednesday morning our team will leave for Papua New Guinea. Myself along with six others will be spending the next 25 days in PNG. This trip will be my first time to visit the region of South East Asia and hopefully God will use this trip to give our family some clear direction as to where we will be serving long term.
The first week we will be helping with a LRI training session with a group of Bena pastors outside of Goroka. This will be the third training session they have had in this program which focuses on training national pastors to be able to inductively study the bible and then apply that to their local culture. I will be doing a demonstration sermon out of 2 Timothy 3 so please keep me in your prayers.
The second week each of us will be staying with a different pastor in his village. We won’t have any translators although some of the pastors speak a little English. We’ll be joining in with their families and get a taste for life in the bush. Here is the information about the pastor that I will be staying with:
Jeremy will be staying with Pastor Albert at Maganasefa. Pastor Albert is a hard working pastor that will be sure to keep him busy. 🙂 Pastor Albert and his family are very excited that Jeremy will be staying with them. His family was a little concerned that Jeremy might not be able to handle the work load, but I assured them it wouldn’t be a problem, and that they should just carry on with life as usual while he is there. Most of the time he will shower using a bucket there by the house. Sometimes he will go down to the river. I didn’t get a picture of the out-house, but it is close by. I don’t think that the drinking water will be an issue. Jeremy will have the furtherest to go to get water, but as far as I know it will be clean. I was going to get a picture for Jeremy, but I didn’t really feel like walking that far. 🙂
And here are the pictures Alex sent:
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| Pastor Albert |
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| His goats |
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| View of the church |
The final week we will be helping the construction teams who are there working on a second missionary house next to Alex’s house. This house is slated for the Faulkner’s when they return from the states (they are currently headed back to Atlanta for Belinda to have back surgery). You can follow the construction progress over on Alex and Kelley’s Facebook page.
During this trip there are many things we would like for you to be in prayer for:
- We have 3 different itineraries to get to PNG with 4 different legs. Pray all of our travels go smoothly.
- Pray for Kandy and the kids who will be by themselves for 25 days.
- Pray for Pastor Albert and his family whom I will be staying with the second week.
- Pray that our construction work is productive and that no one gets hurt.
- Lastly pray for clarity about whether PNG is somewhere God would have us to go long term. We hope to make a decision shortly after I get back.
Jeremy, Kandy, Sam, Olivia, and Everett
Sanders Party of Five 