A FAMILY EVENT AT THE CHURCH

Bellem is raising her hands and worshiping the Lord. It's automatic for her even if she is only two years old. Celino who is a member of her family, watches her proudly.

Many people participated in a family event which included a wiener roast at the church in Nuevo Progreso on Saturday. After a time of praise and worship, specific prayer requests were taken and everyone committed to pray for each other. There are many needs among families in Nuevo Progreso because so many are without jobs.

We all need to be as trusting as Bellem when we bring our needs to the Lord.

"HE'S MY PRODIGAL BROTHER!"

"He's my prodigal brother," Marcelino said about his friend Apolinar. "He went away for a long time, but now he's here working with me. He was lost and now he is found!"

Apolinar was glad he could work on the church building again and Marcelino was saying how close they had become and how well they worked together.

Marcelino has changed dramatically since his conversion last fall. He talks about the Lord and about the church a lot while working and he keeps the radio on a Spanish Christian station. Apolinar admits he is interested in Marcelino's experience and because he has so many problems to face in his life, he is leaning more and more toward God. Marcelino is sensitive and caring. Just a word of encouragement here and there, understanding that Apolinar needs to come to a decision on his own. What he needs most right now is a friend.

Apolinar went away from his family and was in the United States for four years. He has never seen anything wrong with drinking and partying; and on his return to Mexico he left his wife and family and took another woman. So Marcelino's words had double meaning. Apolinar really has been the prodigal brother.

We're sure that with continued prayer and Marcelino's good influence, Apolinar in time will completely surrender to the Lord and be saved. Marcelino's words held so much feeling when he said, "He's no longer lost, my prodigal brother has been found."

How many people do we know that are lost and without God? One day we'll rejoice and say that our prodigal brother has been found!

The photo shows Marcelino on the left and Apolinar on the right with Lloyd between them.

SOLEDAD

Soledad was walking along the dusty gravel road outside Nuevo Progreso on a very hot day. She looked old and tired and she carried a small heavy bag in each hand. Lloyd suggested we stop and offer her a ride to wherever she was going. She was headed out of town and had to be going quite a long distance on foot.

The friendly little woman gratefully accepted our offer and with a little help climbed into the back seat of our Jeep. "Where are you going?" we asked. "To Rio Rico," she answered in Spanish as she proceeded to tell us that Rio Rico was a little settlement to the east of Nuevo Progreso.

Soledad told us that she started out early that morning and walked all the way to town to buy medicine for her son who is crippled. She thought it took two hours to walk the great distance from Rio Rico to Nuevo Progreso. Soledad is seventy-nine years old!

In Rio Rico we met Soledad's husband and her son who is about forty years old and cannot speak or walk. Then she was proud to tell us that there are three churches in the tiny village and two of them are near her house. She took time to show us around her yard which was bare dry ground with many pots of plants and flowers. She told us they had lived on that place for thirty-four years. We wondered how many times during those years Soledad had to walk the four miles one way to Nuevo Progreso.