Painting & "Pacto con Sangre" & Thankyou

Hello all-

We have had an interesting end to our week. Starting Thursday evening and going until Saturday evening was an event called "Pacto con Sangre" (Pact with Blood), that was put on and coordinated through the Mexican Baptist church here in Vallarta. We were excited to go and be a part of something in Spanish! It turns out that the event was geared more toward Jr. High/High School aged kids...needless to say, we felt really out of place and a little uncomfortable. It was similar to a "Buck Creek Weekend" for those of you Sumner Pres. readers. There were youth groups that came from Mexico City, Guadalajara, etc. They were really pumped up and excited.

The guy who was the speaker on Thursday night was from Bolivia. He gave his testimony on how God has called him to deliver Bibles to "Christianity forbidden countries," namely heavily Islamic, middle-eastern countries. His story was AMAZING! The first time he felt God was calling him to go into a particular country, he felt like God was asking him to bring in 300 bibles...yes, THREE-HUNDRED Bibles all by himself! He was for sure he was going to be sent to jail. He made it through customs ok and couldn't believe what a miracle it was that the guards actually saw all the Bibles and still let him through. Over the years, he has delivered over 15,000 Bibles, and has a different story for how the Lord has gotten him through customs every time. We were pretty amazed! He wanted to show kids that life with God is NOT boring and that nothing is impossible with God.(Leslie and Joel before "Pacto con Sangre")

(Leslie and Joel after "Pacto con Sangre")

We went again on Friday morning and decided to leave when they invited a loud and crazy Christian punk rock band to the stage to perform...nothing against punk rock music, but an afternoon spent in an auditorium with wild and crazy Jr. high and High schoolers just isn't our thing...It would be totally different if we had our own group of kids...Anyway, you know what I mean.

Tuesday, we had gone over to Vera's to start painting her ceiling white. Let me take a moment to tell about Vera: Vera is a woman in her mid-80's who has lived in Vallarta for over 30 years, serving the people in the dump. Her story and testimony are amazing. She spent the first half of her live living in places like Bethlehem and Israel, and leading tours through the Holy Lands, Europe, Central and South America. For the last half, she has lived here, working with the kids and the families...She's like Mother Theresa in Puerto Vallarta! Anyway, she is currently in Sumner recovering from a knee replacement, and hopes to be back within the month. So, we started painting her ceiling on Tuesday (Well, Joel did...) and we took the opportunity on Friday afternoon to get a little more done...we decided not to go back to Pacto con Sangre. While Joel has been painting, I have been dusting and cleaning at her house...it's FILTHY...not because she's a bad housekeeper, but because she's been gone for almost two months and it's sooooooo dusty here!

(A Picture of Vera's ceiling before and after. Joel put on 2 coats of fresh white paint. It's hard to tell a difference in the pictures, but her ceiling looks a lot brighter and makes the downstairs look a lot brighter too.)

We spent Saturday in Sayulita and as always, had a really nice time. We came home on Saturday afternoon, and went back to the closing of Pacto con Sangre, which was being held in the park right below where we live. It was really fun to see more people from the community stopping by and checking it out. The band that was playing was a Mexican Christian Ska band...who would have thought? And to top it off (again for you Sumner Pres. readers) they were doing the songs we used to sing with the kids in Ensenada, but with a wacky ska twist...I know!...who would have thought?

Today, we went to church and have spent the rest of the afternoon painting Vera's ceiling and dusting and cleaning her downstairs. We are happy to help her out and know that she will appreciate coming home to a nice, clean house. Tonight, we will be going to the Baptist church for a Spanish service. Our neighbor, Armando is coming with us, and we're excited to see if he'll be able to get plugged in. The service we're going to is geared toward people in their 20's, so hopefully it will be a nice chance to meet some people our own age and start building friendships.

We are looking forward to going back to school as we head into this week. We miss the kids a lot and can't wait to see them!

Lastly, as we've been here for almost two months now, we really want to say "Thankyou" to all of you who have supported us with encouragement, with money, with prayers, supplies for the kids, etc. Here is some encouragement from us to you:

" As it is written:

'He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.'

Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!" (2 Cor. 9:9-15)



We feel that we are the "gifts" God has "scattered abroad for the poor." You all are "he who supply seed to the sower..." Because of your generosity, we and the people we serve down here give so much thanks and glory to the Lord. We pray that as you've given to us and have supported us, that your store houses would overflow with abundance and that you would continue to give God glory for that and continue with your generosity! We would never have been able to do this without all of your support and are so blessed by the Lord to have you! God has provided for us in amazing ways through your generosity of prayer, finances, thoughtfulness, time, etc. We love you all so much and thank the Lord for the "indescribable gifts" that you are!

Love,
The Kellners