A quick update

Mountain side just near our house.

We are doing well here. We are seeing the weather changing. Last night we had our first rain fall in 10 months. Jessie and I jumped out of bed late last night when we thought we though we heard it falling. Autlan is incredible dry and dusty right now, not to mention really hot! Rain was such a great sight to see. It was only for a short time but it was so refreshing. With this change comes humidity. We are beginning to feel the heat more intensely during the days. We have been told that we are in the midst of the hottest time of the year. It is dry heat right now. While we are on furlough, we will miss half of the rainy season, which is when the heat goes down but the humidity goes up.
My foot is healing nicely. Last Wednesday, I got my stitches out. Looking at my toe now, doesn't bother me any more but before I could hardly look at it. Looking at how big the cut is on my toe, I am sure glad that I was wearing tennis shoes and not sandals. I would have lost the whole tip of my toe along with my toe nail. I am grateful to the Lord that I am not in a lot of pain.
It couldn't have happened at a better time (if you can plan on breaking your toe). With the swine flu, La Roca has been shut down as well as all the English classes and many are not attending our bible studies. We are also preparing for furlough. It takes a lot of work to get everything ready for 6 weeks. So it has been helpful to sit down and work on planning.

Dia del Nino

La Roca church (our church plant) put on a big event for children's day. It is the same as Mother's day but for kids. We had it at a local park. Here are some of the pictures of the event. Jessie, Aletta, and Lillian were still sick during this time which was about three weeks ago.

Here is some pictures of the puppet show we had as well as the music
we started the event off with.

John, Daniel and Carlos barbecuing some hot dogs. A lot of hot dogs.
You can't have a party without a pinata.

A picture of the amount of people who were there which was around 100 people.
The second is of a short drama that I was apart of.

The older kids had to walk as a group from one place to the next. Not an easy task with each one of their feet tied to the person next to them.







Nothing like a parachute to through water bloons up in.

We had a good day for the kids. They all had fun. After the games there was a swimming pool that most of the kids enjoyed before lunch. We were blessed to have so many people there in the midst of the swine flu. God be the glory for what went on. We have planted some seeds in these kid's hearts. We pray that God would open up the hearts of the people in Autlan.

Our first experience at a Mexican hospital.

Today, Andy dropped a heavy piece of plywood on his foot and broke his middle toe. The wood severed his toe nail off but the Dr. ended up sewing it back into place because without it his bone was completely exposed. Poor Andy was in so much pain! He is now on crutches and will be off his feet most likely for the next week or two while he heals.

Strange times..........

First let me say that we are well! Yes, me(Jessie) and the girls got sick with colds and the flu. I was sick for about three weeks. First it was a cold, that turned laryngitis, that turned into a terrible cough. Then, just as I was starting to feel better, the girls got sick with the flu and I, of course, got it as well. No, this was not the swine flu, at least we have no reason to believe it was. We must remember that most cases of the flu are still just the common flu we are used to. All that to say, we are all feeling better now and almost fully recovered.

No cases of the swine flu have been reported in our state of Jalisco but that does not keep this small city of Autlan from remaining calm. Everything is shut down, all schools are closed, and even businesses, that has not been asked to shut down, have closed their doors. The American Consulate as even urged us to stock pile powered milk and non perishables foods! I would say about half of the town is wearing surgical masks. Many are choosing to stay home. Even the cultural hand shake and kiss greeting has been reduced to a simple head nod. This is all drastically effected our ministry. We feel like life has taken a pause. Almost all of our ministry events have been canceled, because no one will attend. As of today the Coffee house (La Roca) will closed down for the next week. For us, this is a time of prayer! We thank all of you who are praying for us.

Something that we do need at this time is hand sanitizer. We are being advised to wash our hands whenever we come in contact with people. This is not easy to do when you are out shopping or in the downtown market. Autlan is completely out of hand sanitizer and we discovered yesterday that Guadalajara is as well. I was also told that hand sanitizer is shipped from Mexico City, so we should not expect to see it any time soon. All of us missionaries (us, Rogers, & Bruggermans) could use some and if anyone would like to ship some to us, we would greatly appreciate it.

Andrew & Jessica Clark
Gavilan 78
Fracc. La Paloma
Autlan de Navarro, Jalisco
Mexico c.p 48900