"Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life." John 6:27.

The work in northwest Arkansas started about seventeen years ago when Al Shutt and Will Trowbridge, from the Alpena assembly, decided to evangelize the Salvadorian and Mexican immigrants that were arriving in Huntsville and Springdale. Since then, many Spanish speakers have come and given help in the preaching of the gospel and several have professed to be saved. Many of these immigrants have gone to their homeland but others have stayed. The Sawords arrived several years ago to help in the little work and take care of some health issues. We arrived three years ago for the same reason.

We are happy to see the interest among the believers in Springdale. They are eager to see an assembly established. We have been teaching assembly principles and doctrine in the last years. In the middle of much confusion in the religious world, they are learning to appreciate, more and more, the truth of an assembly gathered to the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is encouraging to see someone like Antonio Polanco, reached by the gospel two years ago, completely change his wicked life and, as he would say, to follow the Lord. A couple reached last year, Hector and Veronica, have been of much joy to our hearts. They have brought many of their relatives to the meetings and are so happy to be saved. There are about twelve faithful believers that attend the meetings regularly, besides the missionaries and others.

The facility where we meet now has become a little small for the bible school. There are thirty to fifty children that attend this meeting. Most are bilingual, which is an advantage when we have a visitor that only speaks one language. If you want to help here among the children, it doesn`t matter if you just speak English or Spanish - do not be afraid. Of course, among the adults, it is another story because most of them speak only Spanish. We were glad to have our brother David Cohen and his family, from Valencia, Venezuela, stay for several days and gave us help in the work.

A piece of property was purchased last year for a hall, since we cannot, by law, have an official church at the existing facility. The property is an old warehouse that needs complete renovation. There is so much work to do but we are encouraged to keep going, with the hope that it could be finished this year. Kevin Procopio has been helping us with the project. He has travelled down a couple of times already, to help physically, as well as strategically, with the project. He is planning to organize some believers, in different parts, to bring them down to give us a hand with the building. We were glad to have Jon Nicol with us for several days and for the hard work that he did on the building. It is encouraging to see the local believers coming to help after long days of work at their own jobs. There is good atmosphere among the believers as they know that we need the building before we can see an assembly established.

Please pray for Mrs. Saword who has been very sick. Being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, this aggravates her condition, since she also has Huntington disease. Jack has been taking care of her but it is difficult for him to attend all the meetings. Your prayers will be appreciated.