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