HOW WONDERFUL IS THE MATCHLESS GRACE OF JESUS!   The results of JODI HOSKEN’S blood tests have been negative each time. We praise God for His loving protection of Jodi and for the strength he has consistently given to both Ken and Jodi as they have gone through this very difficult time. The doctors now say that the possibility of Jodi testing positive for HIV has been reduced to 10%. HALLELUJAH! Ken & Jodi’s second baby is due around December 10th. They will test both Jodi and the baby at that time. We are continuing to trust God with their health.

We want to thank all of you who sent E-mail messages of encouragement and prayer support. I don’t think we could even count how many prayer promises came through from all over the world. We thank Him for you.

Elena Gutierrez Vega arrived in August to spend approximately a year with us. We told you in the last newsletter that she had decided to take a leave of absence from her engineering studies, and deepen her walk with the Lord. We set up a special Discipling program to fit her needs, and began classes in September. The classes thus far for this semester are Learning to Learn, Teaching the Bible Creatively, Becoming a Person of Grace and English. Elena is an apt learner, and spends time reviewing, planning interactive lessons to be used in youth meetings, preparing challenging Bible School lessons for children, encouraging the young people and practicing English. Since she has learned how to recognize different learning styles and personality traits, she is able to help others develop effective learning strategies as well, both in the Bible school and University settings.

We opened the courses to all the church family, and several enrolled. However, most of them have dropped out or missed a lot of classes due to conflicting schedules, grand babies being born and health problems. 

We have begun a new course, Bible Geography , Wednesday evenings. This class is open to everyone and takes the place of the separate women’s and men’s classes formerly held at this time. We were surprised when they chose Bible Geography for the next study topic. They are eager to be able to link Biblical events with their geographical location.  We pray this class will be an encouragement to the participants and honor the Lord as well.

UN FUEGO ARDIENTE (A Burning Fire) was the theme for the Mexican CIY conference this year. The Tampico youth were all excited about going and 18 registered. The final headcount from here was twelve. Two couldn’t go because of their jobs. One couldn’t go because his parents left town and he had to stay and take care of the house. Two couldn’t go because their parents are totally against Christianity, and one couldn’t go because his mom was afraid of the road conditions. (The highways were in extremely bad condition due to the flooding in October)  We had prepaid registrations for 16, so we called Elena’s home church and made the four extra ones available to young people from their church. They had been praying there would be a way for more of their young people to attend. God worked it all out.

The young people who attended were challenged, encouraged, convicted and blessed. Our Christian kids came back more determined than ever to stand firm for the Lord, resisting the enemy’s darts. Several of those who went with us were first timers, who are just beginning to learn about God’s grace. Sergio, a young computer engineer, went with us and is very close to making a decision for Christ. Sergio was one of our English students at the University, and we have come to love him dearly...  Otilia is asking lots of questions. She is a strong Catholic , who has come intermittently for the past year or so to ask for prayer and discuss certain family problems. Her brother was one of the main priests here before his death, and the family feels very loyal to his memory... Veronica , a medical student, wants to follow the Lord. Veronica has been deeply involved with spiritism and is also battling the consequences of being sexually abused during her childhood by a close family member. Our hearts go out to her as little by little she opens up to the love of the Lord, and allows us to love her as well... Carlos, a high school sophomore, is waiting for parental permission to be baptized... Gilberto , a young professional who works with Elena’s mother, went to the conference on one of the scholarships we provided. He had been in drugs & alcohol , and generally caused his family a lot of grief. His father had talked with Elena’s mom about Gil, and she offered to take him to the conference with her. His father has always refused anything that has anything to do with Christ in the past, but was desperate. He not only agreed, but he offered his car for transportation. During the sessions and classes, Gil was under a lot of pressure from the Holy Spirit. He was stripped of all his pride, prejudices, hatred, resentments and tremblingly placed himself in the Saviors hands. He chose to be baptized before returning home. This young believer needs a lot of prayer and encouragement as he begins an entirely new and different way of life.

Peg & Elena were D·group leaders , and for several weeks before the conference, our house was filled with planning sessions, supplementary material preparation, memento gathering and prayer sessions for their classes. They left with very heavy suitcases - mostly teaching aids.

We missed having Lupita as a helper this year at the conference. She went to Tabasco to be with her daughter for the birth of another beautiful grandbaby. Though we rejoice with her, we hope she hurries back. There’s a gaping hole in our group when one is missing. 

SCHOLARSHIPS AND TRANSPORTATION EXPENSES -- It is an expensive proposition for our young people to go to the conferences, although the room and board is reasonable. Most of them do not have a source of income, and very few of their parents are supportive. The registration for 16 kids was US$510.00. The youth had managed to set aside $170.00 toward these expenses and Ken & Jodi Hosken provided scholarships to help cover the rest. Those who were working paid their own. That left us with transportation expenses. Round trip expenses amounted to $70.00 per person for those traveling from Tampico. Ozark Christian College took a special offering and sent $825 to help with these expenses. We praise God for Ozark and Ken & Jodi. Their love for the Lord, and their concern for the Mexican youth made it possible for 16 kids to be challenged in a very dynamic way. 

The weekend following the conference, Rick Haynie, from the Duplain Church of Christ in Michigan stopped by for a visit with us on his way to the wedding of another missionary in Aquascalientes. Rick shared in our Sunday meetings and fellowship time. When Paco and Irma learned he had never had tamales, Tampico style, they rushed home to make tamales. Everyone came back in the evening to share the tamales and visit with Rick.  The only complaint we have is that the visit was too short. 

THE HOUSE IS GONE! Yuri’s voice quavered as she told us of the results of the flood which ravaged her hometown in October. Her family lived in the high part of the town, but the flood waters rose, covering the entire town. Two walls of their one-story house were knocked out by the force of the water, then most of their belongings were carried away in the strong current. Yuri’s mom and cousin were able to get to a neighbor’s house, where they took refuge while the flood waters lapped the top step to the second floor. It was a frightening time for them and thousands of others throughout the southern part of the republic. Many areas, including Yuri’s, were cut off from the outside for many days. Roads and highways were wiped out or heavily damaged. Helicopters and boats were used to reach the affected areas. 

Paco & Irma took our congregation’s gift of clothing, water and money into the area, getting as close as they could by road, then walking through knee-high mud the last stretch. They were appalled to see entire families sitting under a piece of plastic, garbed in muddy clothing with nowhere to take shelter, trying to protect their children from the cruel, unending rain. There was a lot of immediate help sent into the destroyed areas in the form of food, clothing and water, for which everyone is grateful. However, what about tomorrow? The crops are gone... Places of employment were destroyed... How will they rebuild? Government promises are v-e-r-y slow at being kept - if kept at all.  If you would like to help Yuri’s family rebuild, you can send a gift to our forwarding agent in Columbus, Ohio, marking it “Flood Relief” and we’ll see that they get it. 

About three years ago, one of our supporting churches in Indiana sent a gift of $300.00 to begin a new car fund. That “seed” has grown over the past three years through special gifts and offerings, and we now have the funds to purchase a good vehicle. We are currently looking for the “right” one for our needs here. We also needed to see how to get the money down here, since anything over $10,000 dollars is suspected of being laundered money. We have everything worked out through a local bank now, so when we find the right vehicle, we’ll be all set. We are looking at something like a Dodge minivan, since they are higher and sturdier than most, yet get good mileage. This is important as we are always taking people with us to different events, and our little Nissan has had its undercarriage scraped and knocked to pieces on the “topes,” rough roads, unlevel railroad tracks, etc. It has also had to have work done on it due to flood damage. The mechanic said, “It’s a pretty good boat, but it was never meant to be used as a submarine.”   :-) 

We are not sure if computers are a curse or a blessing as we continue to have problems with ours. We had hoped to have pictures scanned into this newsletter, but just last week our new scanner decided to “act up.” Maybe we can surprise you with pictures in our first issue of 2000.

Another minor change: Due to switching to a new, and hopefully better, courier company there is one slight change in our field mailing address. What used to be “Suite 16-450" is now “PMB 16-450". All the rest remains the same. See the publishing information box on page two. This US courier address saves you the problem of dealing with higher foreign postage and gives us faster mail delivery. The additional cost is offset by savings in foreign postage rates on the magazines we receive.

GRANDKIDS SAY THE NEATEST THINGS: Our daughter keeps us current on what’s going on in their household by sending almost daily quips from the mouths of her children. Here are two recent ones:
   Amos was sick and running a high fever when he remarked, “When I get a chill, it feels like my hair is trying to get out of my head by itself, and the curls are going to go straight.”
   Hosanna seriously conversing with her mama commented, “When I was a little girl, I thought there were two Gods,  because Jesus is God and God is God. But now that I’m four, I know there is only one God because Jesus  is Lord, and the Lord is God and God is the Lord!”

We delight in hearing all of our grandkids’ voices on the phone. Matthew’s jokes are priceless. Sarah’s laughter turns our hearts to putty. Kenan and Timothy’s newly acquired vocabulary thrills us, and Luann & Stevie’s Spanish chatter fills us with joy. We are contentedly awaiting the arrival of two more grandchildren. One in December, and one in May! Our cup is full and overflowing with blessings! 
 

Even as we write this, our thoughts turn to the holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas. We are thankful for being part of His wonderful family! All of the things we are thankful for are tightly bound to the fact that Jesus came to earth, loving us. We thank Him for each one of you, rejoicing that we can share LIFE because of Him. May God bless you and fill you with a gnawing hunger to know Him more intimately. May He use this season of thankfulness to revive in each of us a true heart of gratitude for Who He is and What He has done!