By the time you get this, summer will be in full swing.  When we were in grade school they taught us there were four seasons: summer, fall, winter and spring.  Since living in Mexico, we have learned of at least three more: wet, dry and hurricane.  We are in the beginning of the hurricane season.  Some 25+ hurricanes are expected to make their presence felt during the next six months.  No one pays much attention, unless the hurricane picks up speed and heads toward the coast.  When this happens you can see people taping windows, securing lawn furniture and any other outdoor items which could become airborne.  We've experienced some pretty stiff winds since living in Tampico, but garbage cans, buckets and odd containers rolling down the streets, flooding of low areas, and broken tree limbs have been the extent of damage here thus far. 

On the way home from the Thursday Bible Study.  I asked if it was just my imagination or if it really is hotter this year than the previous two had been.  Yes!  They assured us the Lord had been gracious in allowing us to adjust a bit to the heat here, before He turned the thermostat back up to "normal."  It is 95 to 100 degrees by 8:00 a.m. with 95 to 100 relative humidity.  The clean, salty, humid air has been a terrific blessing to my (Jim's) health, but the extreme heat has proven detrimental to computers.  We just picked up another hard drive replacement in Texas, and I am working on getting our E-mail along with everything else up and running again.  We are thankful for the new 1 1/2 ton air conditioner the Lord provided for my study.  What a difference! Instead of hovering at 100 degrees, my study is now the coolest room in the house.  A very pleasant 80 degrees.  Hopefully this will keep the computer clean, cool and working - me too! 

Typhoid Fever, Cholera and Hepatitis are once again nearing epidemic proportions in our fair land.  Lupita came down with Typhoid Fever last month.  She spent two weeks with us so she could get the rest and care she needed.  It was a joy having her in our home.  She is so yielded to God's will, that even while ill, her example was a marvelous encouragement.  She is also almost as big a fan of the Chicago Bulls as Peg is, so they enjoyed watching the NBA playoffs together 

We also praise God for His care of Cinthia last month.  She had had a cold which got progressively worse and finally became bronchitis.  She went to the doctor at the government (socialized medicine) hospital, and he prescribed four different medications.  Her parents had to rush her to the emergency room Sunday night.  She was experiencing extreme tachycardia, weakness, and paralysis.  The doctors began an I V treatment to flush her system.  It turned out that one or two of the medications would have been O.K., but the four together produced violent reactions.  Those in charge of the E.R. said that one more dose would probably have caused a heart attack.  She had prayed and told the Lord that whatever He wanted was fine.  She would be glad to see Him face to face if He had no further task for her here.  It was up to Him. 

Peg's Teacher's Certificate from Cambridge University, London, England should be arriving this summer.  She enjoyed studying and putting into practice the practical helps offered in the course.  Her professors have encouraged her to send her paper on "Discerning Individual Learner Needs and How to Meet Them" in for publication to an international teachers' magazine.  Peg especially enjoys accompanying the area director of the courses on teacher observation appointments.  We are getting to know more and more of the teachers in Tampico - another opportunity for the Master!  We don't know exactly how He is going to use all this, but we know He will. 

We made a quick trip to Mom Hosken's to celebrate her birthday last month.  What a nice surprise to find Bob & Wanda McRae (my sister and brother-in-law) there from Guatemala.  Sister Vicki and family live next door to Mom, so we were set for a mini-family reunion.  Then to add whipped cream to the already delicious dessert our daughter Merilly, son-in-law Stephen and gorgeous grandkids, Amos & Hosanna, showed up to surprise Grandma for her birthday too!  Fantastic! 

We are planning on taking Chrisritian, Nestor and Carlos to Queretaro for Christian  camp  this summer.  El Tlacote is the nearest to us and involves a ten hour bus ride through the mountains to get to Queretaro.  This will be their first camp experience as well as the first time to travel by bus through the mountains.  Peg will be going with them as Queretaro's altitude is beyond my limit.  She also wants to plan a short "missionary" trip for them in conclusion of their study of the life of Paul.  They will pass out tracts, talk to other youth their age in the market, etc.  We hope to avoid Paul's prison experiences and shipwreck though...  Both Nestor (10) and Christian 12) have new Bibles with all kinds of neat "helps" in them - maps, cross references, devotional thoughts, concordance, dictionary, etc.  They are so excited about learning to use them.  Each Sunday as we read a passage, they will stop and look up the cross references.  As we study the life of Paul in Acts, Nestor has assigned himself the task of reading Paul's letter written to the place mentioned in the lesson as devotional reading. 

Of the students who gather at our house on Saturday afternoons for English practice, four are now actively participating in the Sunday church meetings and/or weekly Bible Studies.  Others come sporadically to get counsel, ask questions, or just to visit 

The little red Nissan God helped us get seven years ago now has over 125.000 rough miles on it.  We would like to get something a little bigger, sturdier, yet comfortable for use on the not too well-maintained (understatement) streets, roads, and highway's in our area.  We currently have $l,5OO set aside towards this project.  Since we are legal residents in Mexico, we cannot purchase a car in a foreign country (The U.S. is a foreign country here). It seems that the car prices here go up faster than we are able to put money aside, so we aren't any closer to being able to get another car than when we had $500.00 in the fund.  We want to keep the Nissan for short, local use so we both can make and keep ministry commitments without juggling the schedule around the one available car. 

If Diego (Jim) hadn't gotten sick, then you wouldn't have moved here and the seed of faith wouldn't have been planted in my heart and my mother, sister, sister-in-law and I wouldn't have accepted Christ as lord and Savior and my husband wouldn't be reading the Bible now.  This run-on sentence preceded the anxious question, "Is it all right if I thank God for Diego's illness?  And are you my spiritual mom and dad?" 
        What answer would you Give Maribel? 

Last week a Mexican who had been on death row for 13 years was executed by lethal injection in Texas.  The young man was from our area of Mexico and signed what he supposed to be (according to his testimony) an extradition agreement.  At the time, he was 17 years old and didn't speak or read English.  The document was actually a confession to a murder he swore to his dying breath he didn't commit.  I don't know if he was guilty or not.  I don't know if there were irregularities in his trial or not.  Evidently the governor of Texas didn't feel there was sufficient cause to yield to the Mexican governments request for a further delay, and Irineo Tristan Montoya died.  Protestors blocked the international bridges between the U.S. and Mexico.  Others marched in front of the state capitol.  Some groups are demanding that President Zedillo establish capital punishment as a viable option in Mexico so that American prisoners in Mexican jails could receive the same punishment.  There are currently 75 U.S. prisoners on various charges (mostly drug related) in the state prison and the warden had to put them in isolation for their own protection.  What's next?  We don't know.  The situation in Tamaulipas and Veracruz is volatile.  The semi-orderly demand that the government do something about the "injustice" by providing harsher punishment to American lawbreakers could easily change to something violent and ugly.  We are praying that somehow God's love and mercy will shine through and He will be able to use us and other Christians to help defuse this keg of dynamite. 

Recently I assigned some of my English students the task of analyzing their own errors.  They need to examine their own work, find the errors, correct them, then assign themselves homework designed to help them change their speech patterns before the error fossilizes and cannot be changed.  That really isn't such a bad idea for us in our spiritual growth either.  Paul said we should examine ourselves daily.  David sincerely asked the Lord to examine him and reveal any wrong thing.  After that, what?  Too many times we agonize over our errors or sins, but never assign ourselves any corrective "homework".  Maybe if we did, we wouldn't have to spend so much time weeping and asking forgiveness for the same, never-changing, unacceptable attitude, action or life-style.  Think about it! 

We are finding out what a tough job translation is.  We have spent many hours pouring over dictionaries, researching idioms, etc., then many more revising each completed chapter after Paco goes over it with a fine-toothed comb for grammatical errors and culturally oriented "faux pas."  We managed to keep one step ahead of the study group using the book - but just barely.  We are currently working on a second book which we believe will be a blessing to the study groups here. We put our rough draft on the disk as we make the first translation.  Paco takes a copy home and returns it all marked up.  It is so much easier to make corrections and revisions with a computer than with a typewriter.  I remember having to type and retype whole pages for one line or even one word corrections.  While "things" are never to he worshiped, they can be appreciated.  I really appreciate our computer. 

Where's Oscar?  He's gone home.?  I met Oscar Gaytan last year at the Christian Youth Congress in Cuernavaca.  He was in my "D" group (Discipling).  Such a delightful young man: 21 years old, tall, good looking, sincere and lots of fun.  He had the type of personality that drew everyone to him.  Since he was a natural leader, I was glad he was so earnest & helpful.  He participated fully.  The questions he asked were sincere - questions many had but couldn't always express.  The last thing our D- group did last November was pray together for each other and pledge faithfulness to the cause of Christ.  We hugged and parted.  Oscar kept his promise for six months, then an auto/motorcycle accident took his life.  I thank God for allowing our lives to touch.  Age doesn't prepare us for death.  Knowing Christ does.  It will be good to hug him in heaven. 
 
 

--Upon the amputation of his grandmother's leg, a certain young man consoled his mother saying, "Don't worry Mom, they can probably fix Gramma up with a prostate." **Now, that's exactly what she needs!** 

--Amos:  I need some privatsy. 
   Mom:  Why, Amos? 
   Amos:  Well, we're s'posed to worship God in peace.  And privatcy means quiet and peace. 
   Mom:  (wondering where all this was going to take them) You're right Amos. 
   Amos:  So, I need some privatcy. Will you please stop talking? 
 
--Pati: Grandma, next time you and grandpa get some money, could you please send us some more cookies? 
  Grandma: Sure, Pati.  What kind of cookies do you want us to send? 
  Pati: Round and delicious. 

--Grandma said, "Ask grandpa to tie your shoes so they'll stay tied." Others undoubtedly have said "Oh, you're learning to tie your shoes - what a smart boy you are!" Grandson's logical conclusion - "Grandpas know how to tie shoes and grandmas don't because grandpas are smart and grandmas aren't." 

--Another thing worth repeating is Jesus Christ loves you and so do we!  Señor les bendiga!