La historia de Cristo 1

Latest news!

Let me open my heart with you for a moment.

Just a short time ago we seemed to be walking though the valley of the shadow of death.  Pastor Carlos and his two young children recovering from his wife's’ death and Lonnie recovering from a kidney transplant and accompanying physical disabilities.  Not to mention the tremendous emotional repercussions for all involved.

At times it was so hard for everyone in Baja Compassion to continue the work that had to be done, we were not even able to write.  A good friend pointed out how absolutely essential  it was to let you - the people who love and care about us - know how desperately we needed prayer.  We did.  Plus - we KNOW there are those who never STOPED praying and supporting us - even through our silence.  

We write today to tell you GOD HEARD, HE ANSWERED and HE IS GOOD! 

And we are IMMEASURABLY GRATEFUL!

With Virginia’s death (Pastor Carlos’s wife) we lost a huge pillar in the deaf women’s ministry.  Now we have started up a deaf women’s bible study that meets every Tuesday afternoon in a small cafe in Ensenada.  For several months it was just me and Rita, a lady that I would like to see rise up to take a leadership role among the deaf women.  And we continued in faith - and now we have two more that regularly attend.  

Antonia - a deaf lady that never had any scholastic training, does not read or write, and came to know Christ through our first deaf women’s retreat we had  in 2007.  Margarita is in her 50’s and she too has had no prior schooling and - in fact - is still grasping the hang of communication in sign language with a limited but growing vocabulary.  It makes the teaching of this bible study a slow but - oh so - blessed time!

And we do not shy away from the deep truths. :-)

One more HUGE answer to prayer has been Gaby Suarez, with her precious 3mo old little girl, joining us at Baja Compassion!  She is wonderfully qualified to help us in the office and in the ministry.  She knows both Spanish and English, has 3 deaf siblings (Pastor Carlos being one of them!)  so she signs very naturally both ASL and Mexican sign language and knows her way around a computer.  SO PLEASED are we to have her here for the summer.   

At the moment Gaby is seeking supporters for ministry here.  If you feel lead to support Gaby at Baja Compassion Ministries just make a note of it somewhere with the gift, and we’ll make sure that it gets to her.  The same goes for Pastor Carlos.

Ever Thankful for YOU!

OH! I almost forgot - Lonnie is doing SO much better - we are more than overjoyed!  Keep praying for him!

In spite of me.

As I write this I'm sniffling and sneezing.  My eyes itch, my nose is running, my skin is crawling, my head feels painful and heavy - and I'm running a low grade fever. A bad case of allergies.

I certainly didn't want to go and lead our deaf women's bible study.  I wanted to stay in bed.  But Rita (deaf) and I have been meeting for about 5 or 6 months now and just recently we've been joined by one more deaf woman - Maragrita.  So I prep lightly and head out, praying that God use me- in spite of myself.

Wouldn't you know we had two new ladies show up!

And it was tricky - out of the 4 deaf ladies there only one can read a bit.  Two have had no schooling whatsoever so even their sign language vocabulary is limited.  The third had been taught a type of pidgin american sign language and only knew a limited amount of mexican sign language.

As you can imagine the lesson went slowly - and I had a couple of times where I would go into defining an idea (like - who was moses, what is a Pharisee) and lose my train of thought- COMPLETELY! So again, I just pray that God was able to use me - in spite of myself.

Funny side note: I was sneezing before we started, and as soon as we closed in prayer I started sneezing agin.  But all during the lesson I didn't have to use a kleenex, not once.

I hope the ladies were blessed and went away with something and I pray they did.

It's in God's hand now.  I'm just thankful I didn't give in to what I wanted but went anyway.

How about praying for these ladies that attended today?  Thanks.

From Pastor Carlos

Dear family and friends. 


Praise God! Our family is very good and I thank for your prayers for us. Please continue to pray faithfully to God as he works in my life. My children grow taller and continue well in their schools.  Leilani, she is 8 years old and Jeremiah is 5.

Our ministry with Calvary Chapel deaf Horizonte (Calvary Chapel Ensenada). Deaf people continue to respond to God's words. Their hearts grow spiritually. We average approximately deaf 20 on Sundays, for Bible study and some deaf by Wednesday where we are currently studying 1 John. Even some hearing people have been attending our services. They learn both about deaf culture and the preaching of mine.


I teach Mexican Sign Language (LSM) on Tuesdays. Our interpreters, Michelle Pfingston, Yesenia Beckman and Elvia Gaxiola love singing with sign language. Michelle, Yesenia and I meet on Friday to go over and discuss interpretation for the worship songs. My hearing friend, Jose Michel, who is a student of the LSM class is interested in helping the deaf. Jose has been video recording my teaching of LSM. If you are interested in seeing these videos please see our website: www.sordomudoyciego.blogspot.com (also www.cchorizonte.org) Pray for God touches the hearts of some more hearing to join with us minister to the deaf.


Blessings to you all!
Carlos Suarez

About Lonnie

The good news is that God answers prayers!

Amen?

AMEN!

You all prayed and the surgery was a success!

8 days later Lonnie was able to attend my brothers long anticipated wedding with no problems.


He looks better, feels better and let me tell you - the kidney is doing a great job because he's having to take potty breaks more often than our own little ones!


Thank you all for praying.

December's newsletter

Moving forward

I’m taking our worn down mini –van down the dirt and rock road, on my way home from interpreting at a bible school for our deaf Pastor Carlos. I bottom out a few times, but it goes with the territory and my mind wanders to the bumpy road it’s been since our last letter to you in May. *whew*

Like the road, it’s been rough. It’s the first anniversary of when Carlos lost his wife-my best friend- and he was left with his two young children and a small but growing deaf congregation—Many people ask how he is doing. He is moving forward and keeping so busy that he is perpetually exhausted.
Then, during our summer trip, Lonnie got so bad, he was continuing to lose weight and had no strength or energy—It got real scary, and he was hospitalized a couple of times -so we had to look at some serious questions about whether or not we could move forward too.

Before

Out of necessity, the deaf ministry was scaled down during this time so we could focus on family,-but the ministry continues. When we are not at doctor appointments we’ve been busy with interpretations, Sunday worship, continuing to meet with Pastor Carlos on a weekly basis and being a help to him as much as possible, and we’ve set a tentative date for our next deaf women’s retreat for April.

After

The good news is God answers prayers and on January 9th Lonnie is scheduled to receive a kidney from his brother Kerry from Missouri. We anticipate at least three months of recovery—but after that everyone expects a full recovery and Lonnie will go back to being “normal” again—at least as normal as Lonnie ever was. ;-)

Lonnie’s brother is sacrificing more than his kidney. So Lonnie and I are raising funds to cover some of his lost wages—if you’d like to help- please make a check out to Baja Compassion with a note or memo indicating that it is for Kerry.

We ask that you cover Lonnie and the family- extended and otherwise -in prayer during this time!

Thanks all!

A baby boy born.

OK - I'm cheating since I didn't think to pull out my camera the last two times Rita came by with her new baby boy (Born August 6) - but little Nelson looks very much like his sister pictured here.

And Rita looks just as happy!

She went to church on Sunday (amazingly, and against all the cultural norms here! A mere 4 days after her boys birth) and then she came over afterwards and I had the honor of teaching her how to nurse her baby.

This is her third baby and she formula feed her others. She said that she tried to ask the nurse in the hospital for help but they couldn't do it. They tried, apparently, and failed. But, really, they were quick learners and the baby latched on with just a few adjustments.