Happy in Montana: Jusibampo

Adrian sent this for the kids: Hi guys: When Logan and I checked on our baby gecko last night, we were amazed to find TWO baby geckos in the jar! We were stunned and could not guess how it had happened, until Jorge got back and told us he had caught another one! They are almost the cutest thing I have seen down here (the ninos are cuter!) I don't know where they are coming from...I assume they were born recently nearby, and have slipped inside because it is cooler and safer, with plenty of bugs to eat!

I received these details of their Thursday from Adrian via email this morning! He reminded me that we only have 1 week left til we get to see each other again! I am missing his strong arms! For hugging, and for doing the heavy work around here! :) To give you clues as to the characters in this story ~ smile~ David is our pastor from here, Dan is an New York native missionary who owns the Ranch and has lived in Mexico with his Mexican wife Ana for 30+ years. Ana speaks more proper English than Dan. :) Dan has a pilot's license and flies an ultralight plane into drug territories to share the gospel with Bible studies. Amazingly, the drug lords will clear their runways (otherwise filled with boulders and guarded by machine guns) for him to land. Of our team, Jorge is 20 I think, and Logan, Kirsten, Emma, Rachel, Emily and Ella are the teens from our church on the trip. Adrian prepared a 10-15 minute message before he left that he is sharing at each of these villages about Jesus, the Light of the World (John 8.12) Some of the photos are from before they arrived in Mexico, but I will post them anyway! Here's a photo of Dan y Ana I pulled off a newsletter:
Image result for rancho maranatha

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Thursday morning:
David had the opportunity to fly with Dan into the Sierras this morning to a small village in mafia country. They left around 6:30 am and returned around 11:30 am and I guess it went great, with David leading a study on Luke 19 and Zaccheus. The rest of our team ate breakfast at 7 and then Brian (Dan/Ana's son in law) set us to work on cleaning out a tool shed that was pretty messy. It was a lot of boxes of mixed tools and supplies, combined with tons of spiders and rat droppings. Oh, and dead, dried up lizards...we found lots of those. We also found and removed four large iguanas and several smaller lizards. One of the smaller was a gecko, who promptly jettisoned its tail when Jorge tried to grab it! The little gecko ran off, and it's tail went crazy in the dust behind him, flipping, dancing, and jiggling for about 5 minutes! I successfully grabbed the first iguana and carried it outside, but the second one I grabbed a little too far back on its body, and it was able to spin around and bite my finger through my glove hard enough to bleed! We didn't touch them after that.

So we pulled all of the stuff out into the hot sun, swept out the shed, and then cleaned, sorted, and put stuff back. After about two hours we were finished, hot, sweaty, and ready for some A/C. We refilled our water bottles, had a snack, and headed out again. We cleaned and set up some benches in a screened-in worship area outside, and swept and cleaned an outside pool, and began filling it with water for an obstacle course Brian is setting up for a teenage outreach on the ranch Friday/Saturday.

Then we ate sandwiches for lunch and showered and rested, getting ready for our evening outreach. I am working on my message, trying to add more Spanish each time....so I am going to read all my scripture references in Spanish this time. Please keep praying for the Light of the World to shine through me unhindered, and for seeds to be planted that will bear fruit and not be plucked away by our evil foe.

"La luz vino al mundo, y los hombres amaron más las tinieblas que la luz, porque sus obras eran malas." -Juan 3:19

Love!

Adrian

Thursday evening: This evening was really special. Jusibampo is a tiny town, about 20 homes, about 20 minutes away from the ranch. When we arrived around 5:30, temperatures were cooling down from the 100's earlier in the day, and a little breeze really helped the humidity. As we set up for the crafts and puppets, there were only about 3 kids around and a handful of adults...so our teens headed out into the town to invite more! They spent about 20 minutes, during which time Pepe played his guitar and Poncho sang. What a treat! Poncho is a man in his 50's who has an amazing voice and an even more amazing story. His history includes professional bull riding, dancing champion, and professional singing with his own studio and radio station. He has left it all behind to share the Gospel of Jesucristo. He was also involved in drug trafficking and flying drugs into America for years. He was a dangerous man in a dangerous job, and showed me the scars of 5 bullet wounds in his body when rival traffickers tried to kill him. When he was led to Jesus by a neighbor of his, he turned himself in and went to prison for a few months, where: "I was more free in prison with Jesus than I had ever been outside!" He led over 30 fellow inmates to Christ before he was released.

Kirsten, Emma and Ella did the puppet skit entirely in Spanish, after practicing for hours with Ana! They did amazing. Then, I shared my message, adding a little more Spanish than I did before, and with Ana translating the rest. Then, our kids teamed up with local kids and handed out tracts. I am so proud of our teens! They are having an excellent time, enjoying the kids so much, and not letting the language barrier stop them in the least! During that time was when I spent time talking to Poncho, who speaks English very well from his previous occupation. He taught me a couple of things:

Él que esta en Cristo, nueva creature es. 2 Cor 5:17

Dios the vendiga, mi hermano! (God bless you, my brother)

He promised to speak better English and I promised to speak better Spanish when we next meet.

We ended with Jorge and Logan playing some balloon stomp with the kids, which was a huge hit. Have I mentioned that after talking with los niños about la Luz del Mundo (the Light of the World), they each get a tiny lámpara (flashlight) and stickers to decorate them with? Since we were leaving at dusk tonight, it was awesome to see the kids playing with their little flashlights. I pray they will think of Jesucristo, la Luz del Mundo!