The Ruiz Family
Serving the Lord in Tixtla de Guerrero, Mexico
September October 2024 Update
Dear Praying Friends,
Another two months have slipped by. I feel like writing prayer letters is our “faithfulness check”—makes me have to take a step back and look at our lives and see if we have been advancing Christ’s cause. The Lord sent us 4 days of straight rain at the end of September causing Tixtla to flood again, as it did 11 years ago, forcing 4 families of our church out of their homes. Since Tixtla is a valley surrounded by mountains, its lake tends to fill up to overflowing and seep into the homes surrounding the lake. About a quarter of the homes in the center of Tixtla were affected by the flooding and have been out of their homes for about a month. The water is slowly going down, and presently 2 of the families have been able to return to their homes. Our church was able to take advantage of the people’s physical and spiritual needs at this time. God used sister churches to provide us with the money needed to make hot meals and deliver them with our soul-winning team in the shelters. We would give out the meal and then personally witness to each person possible, sometimes as a whole group, sometimes in small groups, or individually. I praise the Lord for putting ladies in our church with a giving heart to make the meals and others to help us witness. We saw many saved and others simply interested in the gospel. We also helped distribute canned goods with the gospel in many of the “camps,” temporary meeting places closest to the affected people’s homes.
Tixtla was not the only place affected by hurricane John. Many of our state’s roads were washed out. Some homes lost their roofs due to the high winds. Other homes were completely buried by mudslides. Three of our fellow pastors in our state had major damage to their homes.
In Acapulco, a huge area, very close to where our mission was previously located, got completely covered by a landslide. Homes where we had witnessed many times are now non-existent. There is now a large gulley with a stream flowing down to the ocean in its place. That one event really made me consider my husband’s constant reminder to us to witness now, because we may never have the chance again.
The mission has been growing in Acapulco though, thanks to the faithfulness of a small group in our church who go every Friday and witness and hold a service with the believers there.
At the beginning of October my husband and I flew to Guatemala where we visited one of our church’s missionaries. It was a huge blessing to see what God has been doing in this young couple’s lives and ministry. They lost their second child, a nine-day-old baby, last year, but God’s grace has used that trial to strengthen families in their church. We were blessed with easy traveling and safe border crossings which was a big answer to prayer due to the many border related crimes and unrest between Mexico and Guatemala. The Lord also took care of my kids and niece at home in Tixtla while we were gone.
God chose to use one of His dear children to bless our family with a large economic gift, enough for us to add on another room and bathroom upstairs. So presently, we are living in a construction zone, and eagerly awaiting another bathroom with two sinks! Having my niece live with us has brought on some unique challenges. One of them being the lack of privacy, especially with my girls since the 5 of them share one large room. You can never get alone when you live with such a large family. This addition will, Lord willing, give my girls some more personal space. We are asking the Lord to help us to use His money wisely so that we might be able to finish the entire upstairs, which would be a total of 2 new bedrooms and bathrooms.
The church’s building project had a small setback due to all the rain in September, flooding part of the road which heads out to the church property. But things are getting back to normal, and now we are waiting for the cement beams to set firmly enough to get the roof and floor in, Lord willing, before Christmas.
Thank you for your faithful monthly financial support and some extra gifts to help us reach the hurricane victims. Thank you for your prayers for our safety. Thank you for praying for souls to be saved. We are so thankful for each one of you.
May God bless you!
Laura and Efrain Ruiz and crew (Samuel, Hannah, Grace, Lydia, Laura, Mark, Ava, Ruth, and Benji)
