Like so many, we are coming to the end of the school year. For over a week we have been dealing with a cold that is being past around. With any kind of sore throat and cough now, it makes you wonder is this covid? It is not.  Jessie and I have not gotten sick as of yet. We hope it stays that way. It is not easy to keep the wheels moving with this family, school, gymnastics, bible studies and birthdays not to mention feeding everyone.

Local elections 
There is an election in the coming day. We will be glad it is over with so much campaigning going on. There was local rally for different parties every evening of the week it seemed like. There were political parties walking down our street inviting people to come and participate in the rally. There were fliers in your mail box everyday. Just yesterday, I took a look at one just to see I recognized anyone participating in that political party and sure enough I knew a few people in the photos. That is when you know you have lived somewhere long enough. We are permanent residents of Mexico, so we are not allowed participate in anything political.
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Water problems
When you live in a 3rd world country, the problems you face are just normal everyday life. The city maintains various wells in town. The well pump that supplies our area was down for over a week. Every Mexican home has at least one tank for water at the base of the home and usually one tank on the roof. Where we live, it was designed for groups so our lower tank is fairly large. We have yet to start our rainy season so we water our plants two or three times a week. With a family of 11, there is at least 2 or 3 loads of laundry everyday. Now as you can see from the picture above at the top of page, we have 5 young ladies ranging from the ages of 14 to 17. There is a lot of showering that goes on with so much hair. (My showers are pretty quick with no hair to shampoo.)  So in the middle of the week, we ran out of water. The tank on the roof was still half way full, but would not have lasted a day of showers, flushing the toilet, and laundry. So what do you do when that happens you may ask, you have to call a tanker truck who will pump water into your tanks for about $15 dollars. But when will the tanker truck arrive? Everyone else is needing water as well. I found a guy who would bring some water the next day at 11 AM. So no showers for the evening. We were relieved to be able have the tanks full again. We were concerned how long it would last. Praise the Lord, the city fixed the well so we are back to having our tanks filled from 8 AM to 12 PM everyday. 

For the those who have not seen our latest video update here is the link. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS_EWoM7j_o&ab_channel=SustainingGrace
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Our last post was from 2019! What??? Has it been that long? Is there anyone who still checks this? If you do, we would love to hear from you. I am going to try to get back into the swing  of posting on here. 

For many of us who have had a great deal of change from the time the Covid virus hit last March, life as we know it has changed. Our family has grown to 11 in that time. We are blessed!

Jessie and I had talked causally about how we were going to home-school our Spanish speaking kids before the virus arrived. The resources were not so readily available compared to those that are in English. When our world stopped a year ago, we were forced to do home-school. Such a change but truly a blessing for the Lord. I became a home-schooling dad. Jessie and I worked out a schedule to figure out how and what we were going to try to teach our kiddos. It is Bryan, Levi and Kianna who need the most hands-on ages 12,10, and 11. So Jessie and I trade off-and-on the classes we teach them. From 9:30 AM - 2 PM everyday, we are "in" school.  Only recently, we have changed the hours so that I can get some more time to do things like this. We have to be organized that is for sure. 

One of the biggest challenges is food. What do you feed a family so big? When you have this many mouths to feed, you have to plan out meals. My loving wife Jessie has been gifted with organizational skills. She has a list for everything. She spends so much time working on a menu to help us know what we are going to be preparing and eating through out the weeks. This has taken time to perfect but takes the stress out of trying to figure out what to feed, 5 teenage girls from the ages of 14 to 17. Anyone can tell you that teenagers are funny about food sometimes. For example, we will serve up something like spaghetti one week which they absolutely loved to the point of having two helpings. And then two weeks later, serve it again and they turn their noses up at it saying "Can I have something else?"  There are few meals that everyone is completely happy with. We make it work. 

Read an update on my (Andy's) health, click on the newsletter link below. 
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Newsletter 

This past week has been a bit difficult for me. Back in April, we sent out a prayer letter with a request for healing for a dear brother and pastor in Autlan who had inoperable lung cancer. Over the past few months, Luis was waiting to die. He had pain in the right side of his chest where the cancer, but was controlling the pain with morphine. I spent at least couple of months I visited him weekly, just sitting with him and talking for over hour each time. The last time I visited him in his home, he said he had tremendous pain through out the night and finally went to sleep at 6 AM. Towards the end of our time together it was clear, he was exhausted, falling asleep in the middle of sentences. I prayed again for healing but for God's will to be done. I came home and told Jessie, it wouldn't be long. Sadly, I was right. Last week, they admitted Luis into a local hospital to make sure he was comfortable. With this type of cancer, he had little use of one of his lungs and partial use of the other. It was hard for him to breath. On Thursday last week, I went to visit him there at the hospital. He was awake but weak. I was able to pray with him and his family. I said I would be back the next day to offer any help I could. Friday morning, when I arrived, they had sedated him due to boughs of coughing fits. I sat and talked with his wife, just hoping to pass some of the time during these final moments. His breathing was labored while he was sleeping. I prayed again with his wife and one of his sons. I left late morning. By 3 PM he was gone. As a family we were celebrating Thanksgiving, but had to change our plans to attend the funeral. Friday evening the funeral started at 9 PM. Some of the extended family are Christians but about half are Catholics. But being that Luis's wife Soyla was able to decided before hand what she wanted for the service, there were three different services for the funeral. The first started at 9 PM on Friday evening. The second at 11 AM on Saturday. Then one final one at 4 PM, then everyone travel to the cemetery for his burial. At each service the gospel was preached. I was asked to pray at the end of the first service. I shared Philippians 1:21 " For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." Luis had gained eternity with Jesus. Before sharing this, I counted 12 pastors from Autlan and surrounding areas. He was a brother in Christ. I will miss him dearly. But as believers, we do not mourn the same as unbelievers. Our hope is in Jesus who is the author and perfecter of our faith. He is our treasure. We continue to pray for Luis's family members, those who are saved and those who are not that they would come to salvation. Please pray with us. ​

One the very necessary things in life is your wallet. You don't fully grasp as how important it is until you don't have it. Not only bank cards but a Minnesota licence is hard to get replaced when you live over 2000 miles away. I drove on my scooter from a local restaurant where I had lunch with a gentleman of the church. I checked my wallet to see if I had change just before taking off back home. Upon arriving home, I reached to my back pocket to where it is suppose to go and it was not there. For men, it is a normal thing to have. Everyday you start your day after getting dressed by making sure you have your keys, watch and wallet on you, so you can get to work. To find one of these items not there, your stomach sinks. Then your mind races to think about when you last remember having it. I drove all the way back to the restaurant with no luck. It was gone! Now to call the bank to get cancel the cards that were there and have new ones sent all the way to Mexico. This is not an easy task when you are dealing with a phone service that is not the most reliable as we have come to find out on long distance phone calls. So after 4 hours of being on the phone, I am now done with making all the necessary phone calls. Hopefully, the cards won't be "lost" in the mail. I even have a snowbird packet coming to replace my Minnesota driver's licence. It is not like I need it being in Mexico but having it as a from of ID, often comes in handy. If I present it here, often times they accept it. Actually when I asked someone about us ever getting into an accident, our US licences would be more valid, (not sure what that actually means?) Knowing the system of getting your licence here is much less work. You have to answer 10 questions. That's it. Then they check your paperwork and then they give you a driver's licence. 

Needless to say, it is frustrating to have to replace all the important things you carry with you on a daily basis. I have learned my lesson on riding my scooter that is for sure. Making sure everything is secure and with no possibility of falling out, I will be more vigilant it checking. Now to prepare for youth group in an hour. Hope your day is going well. 

To the right of this post, we have a new link to our latest newsletter.  If you do not receive our newsletter via email and you would like have it sent to you, please feel free to send us your email at:
andyjessiec@yahoo.com 

Have a great day. 

From one of our past newsletters, we announced that a dear friend, another pastor in town named Luis Oscar Madrigal, has an inoperable cancer in one of his lungs. He is slowly dying. He is losing weight and looks much thinner. I have made a point of visiting him at least once a week. Just sitting with him and talking about different things. Yesterday when I visited, he shared about his oldest son Luis. I have heard bits and pieces over the years. In a nut shell, when his son got to the age he could rebel, he became rebellious in every way. In many different ways but one for example, when Luis (the son) starting looking for a girlfriend, he started dating a Jehovah Witness, then a drug addict and so on, you get the idea. Luis (the father) still has hope that his son will submit his life Jesus. He knows the truth yet to leave behind the sin that so easily entangles us is a hard but worth while battle. I am encouraged by our time together. He told me the same after I prayed for him and his family. I continue to pray for his healing and for strength for his wife Soyla and daughter Lucia.