MEXICO

This January marks 20 years since I left my birth country to come to Mexico. Although the last six years we have been labouring in Springdale, Arkansas, at this moment we are in Ixtapa, Puerto Vallarta Mexico for the next five months.

Harry & Rebekah Rodriguez and family

There is an assembly in Springdale that was formed about three years ago. We are thankful to the Lord for his help and support during our years in the Springdale area. The assembly is small, but the believers are eager to learn and have an exercise in reaching others. One lady was received last month in fellowship, and three young men want to be baptized. Prayer will be appreciated for the preservation of the assembly.

We arrived in Ixtapa three weeks ago and just brought some basic things that we could pack in a van, including our son's therapy apparatus and the dog. We have the exercise to help as much as we are able in the work in Mexico. We love this country, and every time we have the opportunity we drive down. Ixtapa is on the outskirts of Pto. Vallarta, but close to another assembly (El Coapinole). The assembly was established several years ago, and many people have worked hard in this area since the beginning of the work.

This time, we had in our heart the small assembly in Ixtapa, since they are struggling a little. We know most of the believers here; some of them keep being faithful but others have been discouraged for different reasons. Our goal is to visit around and encouraged the believers, have a gospel series, as well as to help in the small Sunday school and work among the children. Roads are very rough here, but my kids seem to enjoy them. We are living close to the hall which gives us the opportunity to pick up an older couple. He is 85, and she is 83, they are in fellowship and in spite of their age they take the bus ( not a safe experience) to go to the meeting. We are very grateful that we found a school for the kids not very far from home, and we are so thrilled that they accepted Noel with his problems, which is not easy to find here. They allowed me to built a ramp for his power chair, and that was great.

We already have seen Marta, Orlando, and Angel starting to come to the meeting. They identify very much with us, and us with them because Angel has cerebral palsy as does our son Noel. Angel is very cheerful, and we enjoy spending time with him. Curiously we realized that there are a lot of people in this town in wheelchairs and our hearts go out to them because this is not a handicap oriented society and on top of that, most of the streets are not paved but built with little stones. We were glad to see a family of ten kids coming to Sunday school; they came back for the gospel meeting with their older sister whom already has a baby. They probably were drawn by the generosity of the believers in Ixtapa (they serve food for visitors every Sunday) especially our sister Gaudencia, who has been helping this family for a while.

Some of the believers here come from San Pancho, which is one hour away, others come from Talpa whenever they can, which is about two hours away from here. It is our exercise to help a little in the assembly in El Coapinole also since it is close to where we live. We are having Bible readings every Thursday and are going through the book of the Acts. I am enjoying this meeting very much, hopefully, they too. We are happy to help and to be helped here, to encourage and to be encouraged, we are thankful for your prayers and appreciate them so much.

Spring 2016

Written by Harry & Rebekah Rodriguez - MEXICO

harrysrod@hotmail.com