Sharing In His Love

As I look back over the past month, I am in awe of all that the Lord is doing! While some months have been more marked by anticipation of what the Lord has in store, I feel that this month He has given me a glimpse of the immensity of His plan and care for the world by letting me in concrete ways, see how He is working in the lives here in General Cepeda. Thanks be to God, our missionary community here has not only been able to dive more deeply into ongoing ministries here, such as our open-door hours and weekly home visits, but has also been blessed to enter into life alongside more amazing individuals and families here through deepening relationships and concrete projects.

Soon after moving here, Faith, Leeann, and I reconnected with a man named Hugo, whom we had met during short-term mission trips to Mexico. He often rides his bike into town from a village called Guelatao (about five miles away) to wash cars and do odd jobs to earn a living for his family. As we got to know him more, we learned that he provides for not only himself and his wife, but also one adult daughter who is blind—he greatly helps his other daughter and her children, who live with them for half of the year. Despite the many challenges his family faces, he always has a smile on his face and is ready with a friendly greeting.

We have had many opportunities to pray with him, often for the health of his family, especially his daughter, who is in need of surgery. Eventually, we learned that he was also working on getting materials to add a room to their house so his daughter and her children could more easily stay with them while her husband was out of town for work.

While we do not currently have a car for him to clean, we wanted to be able to offer him some work to support him and his family. We realized we could really use a bookshelf and side tables for our living room, and so we asked him if he knew how to work with wood. He said he did, and within a couple of weeks, he not only built these sturdy furniture pieces, but also nicely finished and stained them! A few weeks later, we got to have dinner with his whole family at the Caldwell’s house, the other missionary family we serve alongside. Like him, his family was loving, friendly, and joyful. Just this past Tuesday, I joined some of the Caldwells and Marcos Cisneros to head out to his home in Guelatao to help build the next room on his house, for which the Caldwells had arranged to provide supplies.

While I expected to go and work on the project, I soon realized God had other plans. Upon my arrival, Hugo invited me to sit and visit. I soon found myself helping the five-year-old granddaughter catch their pet duck, which she then promptly handed to me to hold! Hugo’s wife and daughter soon generously served fresh-grown corn, boiled in a pot over a flame next to their house, with the traditional toppings of cream, hot sauce, and cheese, which her mother had homemade from their cow’s milk. 

As we shared this afternoon snack together in the fresh air of their porch overlooking the yard flourishing with large cacti and zucchini vines and a breathtaking mountain landscape, we were able to laugh together, share about family and traditions, cultures, and discuss more serious topics as well. I was humbled by their hospitality, thoroughly enjoyed our visit, and look forward to continuing to grow in friendship with this amazing family.

We were also able to help fix the roof of a woman we met on a home visit, which the Lord, in His perfect timing, arranged. Don Tonio, our community leader, had chosen for us to visit her house one week. We noticed when we were there that her roof was about to fall in due to the recent rain, which compounded the existing issues. The Cisneros family, another missionary family we serve with, has a ministry of helping with roofs, and this was an urgent need. A professional project leader from town and his crew had completed the beginning steps of removing the old roof, and laying new wood and dirt for insulation. We went to help add the cement layer to the top, which is the last step before the sealant, and calls for more hands. Getting to help with this, working together on the fresh, though warm, September morning was rejuvenating (and great exercise!). Before leaving, we got to visit with her for a moment, meet two of her grandchildren, and pray together.

While these were bigger projects that happened this month, these stories still hardly scratch the surface of the ways the Lord has arranged encounters and opportunities to come alongside brothers and sisters in Christ and both share with and learn from them. From conversations around town and trips to the pharmacy, to visits at the ranchos, and time with neighbors, the Lord has continued to show me how He leads and cares for each person by bringing us together to share in His love.