Praises!

First of all, Happy Birthday Erv!

We are so thankful to everyone for all of your prayers...particularly over Ralph's health. The anti-parasitical drug made him very ill for two solid days and nights, but what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right? In this case it was true. He's been better every day and feels like his old self again, getting back into the swing of things. You just don't realize how much being sick all the time affects you until you begin to get well again, my what a wonderful difference! Praise the Lord!

Praise also for so many generous gifts in recent weeks. We now have all of our ministry supply needs met at this point! We have Bibles, New Testaments, Gospels of John, tapes, CDs and tracts and we are thankful to have them and to be able to get them into the hands of the folks who are so hungry for them. Thank you all for heeding God's call and getting these gifts to us!

We are also thankful for your prayers regarding our adjustment to the ever increasing heat and humidity! We are doing so much better, now we can hardly tell that it's 99 but feels like 108 because of humidity! We have the energy to get out and get things done and are thankful for that. If you ever want to see what our weather is doing you can go to http://weather.yahoo.com/forecast/MXSA1944_f.html and check it out. As I write this at 10:45 a.m. it's 88, but feels like 95!

We are also praising God that our water situation has improved! We have gone from having water two days out of every nine to having water every day again! What a great blessing that is, particularly for me!!

The weather has brought out a new fashion accessory: the sweat towel/cloth. Must have for outings during the day or you will just drip sweat all over the place. We wondered why people were carrying these towels all of a sudden, but now we know. Never have we lived in such humidity that we actually drip sweat, even standing still or sitting down.

We are drinking a ton more water and I've also made a big jug of jamaica and have at least one glass of that every day! You can buy the blossoms at the fruiteria for $20 pesos and it's enough for about 4-5 gallons. If you buy an agua fresca at the plaza it's $10 pesos for a regular size cup. We still will treat ourselves when we are downtown because it's a good resting point and a great people watching spot, but it's nice to know I have a big cold container in the fridge whenever I want it!

I've also been experimenting more with Mexican cuisine and really enjoying it. This past week we've had pork in adobo sauce, chicken tostadas and chicken in a spicy/peanutty sauce. So far, that's my personal favorite. Ralph loves them all. This week we'll be having meatball soup, with green olives inside the meatballs and another pork dish. It's certainly a yummy way to learn about the culture.

We spent last evening visiting with about a half dozen families in the neighborhood, testing the waters to see if there's a group interested in doing a neighborhood Bible study. Lots of positive response, but no firm commitments yet. We'll keep praying and visiting and seeing what God will do with all of these folks. Please pray with us about this.

Humor of the day...Ralph followed Tom into a bar today in front of several witnesses. A scandal would surely follow except that it was a bright blue metal bar holding up the awning at Pollo Will where the guys stopped to pick up lunch after doing the faxing. It gave everyone at the restaurant a good laugh and Tom is none the worse for wear...perhaps a small bump on the head!

And last but not least, please keep our immigration issues in prayer.< style="font-weight: bold;">immediately fax copies of our unexpired FMTs to RA in Mexico City. Of course, we turned them into immigration in Mazatlan on the 6th and no longer have them and they are no longer "unexpired" at this point. I had copies of only the unpaid version (I stupidly copied the paid version for immigration, not keeping a copy for us!) and I only had the front, not the front and back as requested by Lupe and RA. So off we go to Tom and Lidia's to gather Tom's stuff and get it all faxed. We decided to fax what we had of the FMTs and the copies of the new application showing immigration had received our documents for the FM3s on 7/6. The guys ran off to Miscellanea Letty's to fax the stuff. We were to wait 30 minutes and call RA to make sure they had what they needed. When we called they told us to call back at 4:30, and when we called at 4:30 no one would answer the phone! So we are still having great difficulties with this process, trying to stay legal. We'll try the phone again tomorrow and keep you posted. We are rapidly closing in on our grace period and aren't sure what we'll do if we can't get the letter from RA by the early days of August.

Thanks for your prayers.

Love and Blessings,

Ralph & Chris