The Ruiz Family
Serving the Lord in Tixtla de Guerrero, Mexico
May June 2023 Update
Dear Praying Friends,
Here I am again. First of all, I want to thank each of you who really takes the time to read these prayer letters and pray for us. I also thank each of you who takes the time to send a personal note. I always enjoy hearing from you, and it is very encouraging to know that we are being prayed for. Thank you.
At the beginning of May, I was able to take a small group of ladies to the yearly ladies’ conference in Cuernavaca where the Lord worked in my own heart and those of the ladies who accompanied me. I taught two of these sessions and my older girls sang as well. Thankfully we had an uneventful trip back home to our anxiously awaiting families.
We were able to renew two of my girls’ passports though we have not received them through the mail yet. Efrain was also granted his visa last Tuesday (Praise the Lord!) except that it is also to be sent through the mail in 8 to 12 weeks. You can help us pray that the Lord will get the passports and visa to us quicker than the estimated waiting time. I was hoping to give you some exact dates for our trip to the states, but honestly, without these most necessary documents we cannot enter the U.S. Once we get them, then we’ll see if we still have enough time to travel to the states in August. If not, we’ll just have to accept that the Lord has a different plan regarding the timing of our trip. I love planning and dates and schedules so waiting must be something the Lord wants me to work on this summer. Pray for my own heart to be submissive and for the Lord’s provision for our trip in His perfect timing.
May and June are our big birthday months around here, but we had a wave of sickness hit our home that kind of complicated the joy of the birthday meals. One after the other came down with high fevers and terrible coughs, leaving us without energy. Many think it was a version of COVID, but thankfully we are well again and back to our normal activities. Unfortunately, Efra and I missed the couples’ retreat due to my health, but we were able to send another pastor and his wife in our spot. I know that Lord had that special blessing in His plan for them.
About a month ago, Efrain had the desire to go visit a new national pastor starting a work in another part of our state, about 7 hours from here. Because that area is so heavily controlled by cartels (and it isn’t our normal “home zone”), the pastor suggested that our church not go and evangelize the area. Efra asked if we could help in any other way, and the pastor commented that any dry goods would be a blessing since all of the commerce is completely controlled by cartels, making the prices of everything go up. So, our church willingly got together lots of dry goods for the little church there. However, we were not able to communicate with this pastor since the cell phone coverage had been down in his village. So with much prayer and faith, my husband and the team (14 soul winners) took off for this town to personally deliver the goods and be a blessing to this pastor. To make a very beautiful, long story a bit shorter, after an extremely long, hot trip, the team made it to this town without being stopped by a single person. Not one of the many check points were manned, much less armed or threatening. The pastor was speechless when my husband showed up, without any warning, especially with a van load of brothers and groceries. They had a special service with the few brothers in this remote town. The pastor asked to accompany my husband on out to a larger town about an hour away. He was shocked that at each normal checkpoint, there wasn’t a soul. Once they made it to the larger town, the pastor just kept repeating that he had received the biggest lesson in faith ever. I rejoice to be a part in the prayer team and see God’s protective hand over His people and His work. Thank you for praying for our safety. God hears and answers.
Yesterday and today, the men from church have been compacting the ground inside our new church building so that, Lord willing, they can start pouring the cement floor next week. I think we will go room by room, based on God’s provision. Slowly but surely the work continues. And slowly but surely our church is growing, pushing us out of our present location. Growth is a great “problem” to face!
Right now we are in plans for our Vacation Bible School (VBS) to be held the last week of July. Praise the Lord we were granted use of the school near us again, and our brothers are already working hard organizing transportation and food for so many kids. Our goal is 500 this year. I think we only made it to 380 last year, our first big VBS after COVID. Pray with us that the Lord would be glorified in every aspect of this giant event.
Thank you for your faithful support. We appreciate you all so much.
Love in Christ,
Laura and Efrain Ruiz (and Samuel, Hannah, Grace, Lydia, Laura, Mark, Ruth, and Benji)
