Greetings from the island!
Lalo and I are getting excited as the days grow closer to the arrival of Baby
Diaz- only 6 more weeks!  We are nervous and excited for the time to
come.  Meanwhile, we are waiting for Roger to come visit us and bring some
things for the baby from friends and family in the states- thank you all so
much!!  We are so excited to see what all is coming for the baby, along
with a visit from Roger, Andrew, Juana, and the new couple at the orphanage,
David and Cristina.

Saturday night, we enjoyed a night off the island because the brothers from San
Pedro invited a former wrestler/singer/movie star to give his testimony of how
God saved him and changed his former lifestyle.  About 30 of us left the
island in a big boat(we were a little squished) and slowly made our way there
at about 6p.m.  We arrived as the service was starting, and about 45
minutes later, the winds and the rain started.  Soon it was raining so
hard we all had to squish in a small room, with some of the people standing
outside and looking in through the windows and door to finish listening to his
testimony.  They also showed a short film with parts of his former life as
a famous wrestler, part of one of his films, and a video of his singing
group.  After the film he sang some of the new songs he has written about
how his life has changed because of Jesus.  He finished with an invitation
for all who wanted to accept  Christ and praying for the healing of those
who are sick.  It was amazing to hear his story and to see the power God
has to completely change lives, all for His glory.  As we headed home late
into the night, we were guided only by flashlights, and thank goodness the rain
had slowed to a slow drizzle.  However, the boat ride home was anything but
uneventful!  We almost collided with another boat because they did not
have any flashlights to signal other boats with, but thankfully one of the men
in the front saw the other boat in time.  Then as we were getting closer
to home, our boat ran ashore on one of the small islands that was just under
the surface of the water level and were not able to see.  After pushing
off there, we arrived safe and sound to the island only to find the electricity
had gone out!  It was quite an experience, and even though we were all
glad to have gone, we don´t anticipate any more night trips in the boat from
now on!!

Thank you for all your prayers and support as we continue serving the Lord on
the island.  Please continue to pray for the ministry in Arroyo
Tigre.  There are 2 families that are very interested in having weekly
teachings if possible.  One of the families, the husband is a
teacher.  Lalo had left a kid´s Sunday school booklet with the man´s wife
the week before that explained the Bible, starting in Genesis and ending with
Jesus dying on the cross.  He read the booklet, and was waiting for them
to come back.  He told them the message was beautiful and wanted to learn
more.  It´s so exciting to see the ways that the Holy Spirit is working
there, please pray for the work in general there, as well as these families:
The teachers name is Felipe and his wife Guillermina, the other woman
interested in teaching is named Carmen.  Also please pray for Lalo, the
baby and I as in 2 weeks, I will be living here in Tuxtepec with Lalo´s family
until the birth, and Lalo with be traveling back and forth to continue
ministering.  God Bless!

Lalo and Michelle

Hi everyone-
 Hope this letter finds you all well. I figured it was high time for an update, since it’s been a couple of months. A lot has been happening lately, both on the Island and in my life, and I will try and catch you all up as best I can.
   So I guess the biggest news, for those of you who didn’t know, is that I am engaged to be married to a wonderful young lady named Juanita Carbajal! Juana and I have been dating almost two years, and a lot has changed in both our lives since December 2007, but it’s been for the better. Juana is from the Island, her parents are Maximo and Andrea Carbajal (Maximo was a sort of witchdoctor before he became a Christian this spring). She was a student this year in Dayspring’s DMT missionary program, and she did a wonderful job with that. We became engaged May 30, and right now she is on the Island with her family, helping us work in the church. She is a wonderful person, I love her so much, and I hope all of you get a chance to meet on down the line. We are looking at getting married next April, I will hopefully a real date soon.
  So, after we got engaged, I went home for a month in June, and I got to see some of you then. It was nice to be able to spend time with my friends and family and get geared back up to head back to Mexico. I was invited to go to Honduras with Pastor Sandy Shaw in July to do some ministry there, but it didn’t work out due to all the political problems Honduras is experiencing. Th trip has been postponed until January, but I am praying that we are able to go.
   So when the trip got cancelled in July, I was sort of stuck. Dayspring had a missionary meeting planned for August, which I wanted to attend, but I also wanted to be back on the Island. I did take a ten-day trip with the DMT students and the summer staff down to the Island, but I decided to pass the summer in Dr. Arroyo. We brought several youth from the Island to help out in Arroyo, and I believe it was an excellent experience for them; we saw a lot of positive changes in their lives. Lalo, Dennis and Elda also came up for several weeks. The summer ended up being great, even though we only had a few groups, we also had a youth camp and a big pastor’s meeting. It was a good chance for me to practice translating, and I also made quite a few new friends, especially the “Seattle 5″ who came down for summer staff ( I miss you guys!); overall, it was a great month.
  After the missionary meeting on August 12, I headed to Texas for a day, picked up a van, then drove to Reynosa, where I picked up a load of donated goods from Dale Achey and Pastor Shaw. From there, Lalo and I headed down and picked Juana, her little brother and sister, and Mike Burkett, a summer staffer from Fort Wayne, Indiana. Mike was going to stay with us for a couple of weeks to help and get a feel for ministry on the Island. From there we headed back to Oaxaca.
   We found some significant changes when we arrived back on the Island. There were elections in July all through Mexico, and the current “Mayor” of Isla Soyaltepec was voted out in favor of a new guy. This new guy does not like us at all and had apparently been stirring up the people of Soyaltepec against us and the Church. Several families had left the church due to all the threats and trash talk. On Isla Agua Escondida, the church has continued to grow in spite of the persecution they face there. Threats have been made against the lives of the people in the church in Agua Escondida, and yet they are firm in their faith and continue to preach the gospel. They impress me a lot.
   The first week we arrived, Lalo was still with his family, so Mike, Juana and I ran the services. Juana preached several times in Mazoteco, I lead worship and Honoria, Juana’s little sister, had services for the kids. We bagged up all the beans and pasta that Dale and Pastor Sandy had donated to us, and we went around and passed all of it out to different families. It was a huge blessing to the people. I had been praying that God would show us how to reach out to the people who were not in the church, to our enemies in the community, to really be able to demonstrate God’s love for them. One day the Soyaltepec soccer team came to me and asked me to take them to a soccer game on the mainland in the van. I said yes, and found out later that the soccer coach is actually the son of the new mayor! Being able to help out the soccer team has been a huge opportunity for me to get to know a lot of the youth on the Island. Teenage guys can be a hard group to reach in Mexico, but the guys have opened up to me a lot; I hope I can continue working with them.
   Last week I travelled back up to Texas with Mike so he could catch his plane, and then I travelled back down again. It was a lot of hours in a bus. Juana, Lalo and I worked a lot this past week both on Soyaltepc and Agua Escondida, doing a lot of visitation and prayer. We are hoping to do more work in the fall in the mountains; there are whole Mazotecan communities that are completely unreached there. Having the van is an important tool that will allows us to do a lot more visitation and really help us expand the Kingdom here. I also want to begin ministry on another island, Isla Malzaga, and am praying for an opportunity to head there soon.
  Saturday night Lalo’s dad was in a bad accident in Tuxtpec, so Lalo and I came here yesterday morning to check up on stuff. His dad is okay, he just owes a lot of money to pay for all the damages. Please be in prayer for the whole family. Also, be in prayer for Juana, as she is headed off to Mexico City Friday to visit her sister there. Pray that she will be safe as she travels. Dennis and Elda have moved off the Island and are now living in Dr. Arroyo, waiting for Elda’s papers to come through, though now it looks like that she won’t be able to pass to the United Stares until next year. Please keep them and the baby in your prayers as well. And especially be in prayer for the Church in both Soyaltepec and Agua Escondida, that God will continue to protect them and raise them up.
   Thank you again for all your prayers and support. God bless.
In Christ,
AndrewJ. Pratt

     Hello all, this is Dennis again. The students left the other day to go back to El Higo except for Eliud. He stayed here with us. I’m hearing rumors that Chely & Michele are going to return soon as well. Andrew went home to Indiana for a while and now it looks like he’s going to be in the Honduras in July, so we probably won’t see him back here until August. For now that leaves Lalo, Eliud, Elda, me and the baby. Otherwise the ministry continues as usual. With the rainy season here it’s not so hot anymore, just muddy.
    

     I posted a picture set of the last half of the students’ time here. Eduardo & Andrew took them all on a sort of side outreach to Tuxtepec and our friend Pastor Pascual’s area in El Fortin Chiltepec (about 20 miles south of Tuxtepec). They got to visit several of Pascual’s missions in the mountains and they also had a free day in Tuxtepec. It’s all documented in the pictures.
    

     I’m posting the needs list again. Thanks to everyone for your prayers and support and we’ll talk to y’all again next time.
01. The most urgent need right now is to get a thatch roof up on the new structure before the students get back here in mid-April. It will take Maximo and his sons 2-3 weeks from start to finish and cost about 2000 dollars.
02. We’re looking at a property on the mainland in the town of Pescadito. There is already a partially built structure there. This would serve as a staging area to launch boats from and provide a place to park vans and boat trailers when we’re on the island. There is also an open door for ministry there and a small community of Christians there with no church. We have been visiting them when we’ve been able and this property could also serve as a church and enable us to work with these people more often. The property is going for 100,000 Pesos. At the current exchange rate that’s only about 8000 dollars.
03. Boats. The boat that we had was a small fishing boat and could only transport 8 people. With the students on the island plus ourselves and school staff there will be 20 of us in April & May. Add to that the fact that our ministry is expanding to other islands faster than we can keep up with it. By next summer we could easily be having services on more than one island at the same time. This means we need more boats. We can buy a boat down here that can carry 15 people for about 5000 dollars. They may be a lot cheaper in the states in the winter time where things like that are more seasonal. Down here it’s summer all the time and boats are like gold here.
04. A second bathroom. With 20 people here at once the bathroom is gonna be packed all the time. We can put up another bathroom with a concrete floor for 1000 dollars.
05. Sound System. A speaker system for services with several people to enable everyone to be able to here the message. Also for praise & worship. A 250 amp Fender Passport system runs for about 1000 dollars. I’ve found them on ebay and amazon for 450 dollars.
06. Projector. We’ve been wanting to eventually start having a movie night where we show a different Christian movie every week. We’ve done this before in other areas of Dayspring’s ministry with very positive results. A projector costs about 600 dollars and would be used in conjunction with the aforementioned sound system.
07. Keyboard. We’ve got no real worship team at this time on the island. Eduardo plays keyboard and can lead worship very well himself. He has an old one that doesn’t work very well, but he’s looking for a new one. I don’t know what they cost, but I’ll ask him what he’s looking for and we’ll post it here next time.
08. Bibles. We need bibles badly. Reina Valera version in Spanish. Whole bibles with old & new testament. We need as many as we can get. There are lots of people down here that need one.
09. Computers. We could use a couple computers. Right now my laptop is all we have. Andrew & Lalo both use it to write sermons. Lalo also is organizing worship songs on the computer a lot. Also for storing the photos that everyone takes. We hope to eventually have internet here and maybe a cyber café (a place where the local youth can come and use internet). This would be very helpful in starting a youth group ministry here. Right now a couple hand-me-down laptops for Lalo & Andrew would be good and several desktops for a cyber café next year.
10. Appliances. We could use any kitchen appliances that still work. Refridgerator, Microwave, toaster, etc.
God Bless
Dennis

     Hello everyone, this is Dennis. The students are here with us and they have been for over a week. There has been a lot of stuff going on. The ministry is continuing as usual, but now we’re having lots of children’s services and work projects to keep this many people occupied. Joel and the guys put up a fence with a gate across the front of our property. They also moved several boulders around to make a retaining wall to keep our land from eroding away any more than it already has. The fence will keep the larger animals out (horses, cows, burros) and hopefully we can get some grass to grow here now.
    

     Andrew & Lalo have been taking the students along with them to their weekly services. That includes Sunday services in our church on top of the mountain here, Wednesday night bible teachings there as well, and Saturday bible teachings on the island of Agua Escondida. Also on Saturday some people (Chely, Tyler, Eliud) went with Lalo & Andrew to the mainland after they were done in Agua Escondida. They visited the brothers in San Pedro and then went on up into the mountains to San Felipe for a church service. Since then we’ve had a few kids’ services here on our property as well.
    

     Saturday the rainy season returned 3 weeks early. It has rained almost every day since then and will continue this way until December. Normally the rainy season doesn’t start until the first or second week of June. It cooled everything down real nice, so the terrible heat is gone for this year, however, we traded the heat for the mud. Personally I’d rather have the mud.
    

     Joel left today to take a bus out to Texas. He’s going to Wade’s wedding and then he’ll return around June 3. Shortly after he returns he and the students will all leave again for other parts unknown (unknown to me that is). I’ve heard rumors that some or all of them will be back for part of the summer, but we’ll see. We got a big picture set up and we’ll get another one up covering the second part of the time they’re here. We fixed “Pineapple Pollo Asado” here last night. It was a theoretical recipe we thought up and have been wanting to try and it turned out great. The best barbecue chicken in the world and you can only get it here, on La Isla Del Viejo Soyaltepec. Something to look forward to for when we can start bringing mission groups here.
    

     I’m posting the needs list again. Hopefully we can start marking some stuff off of it soon.
01. The most urgent need right now is to get a thatch roof up on the new structure before the students get back here in mid-April. It will take Maximo and his sons 2-3 weeks from start to finish and cost about 2000 dollars.
02. We’re looking at a property on the mainland in the town of Pescadito. There is already a partially built structure there. This would serve as a staging area to launch boats from and provide a place to park vans and boat trailers when we’re on the island. There is also an open door for ministry there and a small community of Christians there with no church. We have been visiting them when we’ve been able and this property could also serve as a church and enable us to work with these people more often. The property is going for 100,000 Pesos. At the current exchange rate that’s only about 8000 dollars.
03. Boats. The boat that we had was a small fishing boat and could only transport 8 people. With the students on the island plus ourselves and school staff there will be 20 of us in April & May. Add to that the fact that our ministry is expanding to other islands faster than we can keep up with it. By next summer we could easily be having services on more than one island at the same time. This means we need more boats. We can buy a boat down here that can carry 15 people for about 5000 dollars. They may be a lot cheaper in the states in the winter time where things like that are more seasonal. Down here it’s summer all the time and boats are like gold here.
04. A second bathroom. With 20 people here at once the bathroom is gonna be packed all the time. We can put up another bathroom with a concrete floor for 1000 dollars.
05. Sound System. A speaker system for services with several people to enable everyone to be able to here the message. Also for praise & worship. A 250 amp Fender Passport system runs for about 1000 dollars. I’ve found them on ebay and amazon for 450 dollars.
06. Projector. We’ve been wanting to eventually start having a movie night where we show a different Christian movie every week. We’ve done this before in other areas of Dayspring’s ministry with very positive results. A projector costs about 600 dollars and would be used in conjunction with the aforementioned sound system.
07. Keyboard. We’ve got no real worship team at this time on the island. Eduardo plays keyboard and can lead worship very well himself. He has an old one that doesn’t work very well, but he’s looking for a new one. I don’t know what they cost, but I’ll ask him what he’s looking for and we’ll post it here next time.
08. Bibles. We need bibles badly. Reina Valera version in Spanish. Whole bibles with old & new testament. We need as many as we can get. There are lots of people down here that need one.
09. Computers. We could use a couple computers. Right now my laptop is all we have. Andrew & Lalo both use it to write sermons. Lalo also is organizing worship songs on the computer a lot. Also for storing the photos that everyone takes. We hope to eventually have internet here and maybe a cyber café (a place where the local youth can come and use internet). This would be very helpful in starting a youth group ministry here. Right now a couple hand-me-down laptops for Lalo & Andrew would be good and several desktops for a cyber café next year.
10. Appliances. We could use any kitchen appliances that still work. Refridgerator, Microwave, toaster, etc.

Thanks for all your prayers and support. We’ll talk to y’all in a week or two.
Dennis

     Hello again, this is Dennis with a quick update to let you know what’s up. Right now I’m in Tuxtepec again. I needed the internet to send off documents and make an appointment with the United States Embassy in Mexico City to get a CRBA (Consular Report of a Birth Abroad) for my little girl. We got the appointment made for June 3, so we’re heading back to the island tomorrow and we’ll stay there this time until it’s time to go to Mexico City.
    

     While we were here having a baby last time, Eduardo & Andrew found a good sized house on top of the mountain to use as a church. They started renting it for 500 pesos a month and we’re using that for our church services now. Saturday Roger, Joel and Pastor Sandy (a friend of Roger’s) came with a huge tent. On Sunday morning they all went up the mountain to visit the Carbajal family and to have the first church service in the new building. Elda & I stayed down below and made pollo asado (barbequed chicken). When they all got back we set up the tent over the structure. It’s gonna serve as a roof for the students since we were unable to come up with the money for a thatch roof. We don’t have lot of pictures, but I put up a small set of what we do have. It’s basically a few pics of the inside of our cabin, 3 pics of the church service (there’s something wrong with Andrew’s camera, so those 3 aren’t real good), and us cooking and putting up the tent. The students come tomorrow and I plan on being there for a while this time so next time we should have a bunch of pictures of the students participating in our ministry here. 
    

     I’m posting the needs list again. It remains virtually the same. If someone felt led to help with church rental, it’s about 40-50 American dollars per month. Thanks for everything and God bless. We’ll try to get some more stuff up here in a week or two.
01. The most urgent need right now is to get a thatch roof up on the new structure before the students get back here in mid-April. It will take Maximo and his sons 2-3 weeks from start to finish and cost about 2000 dollars.
02. We’re looking at a property on the mainland in the town of Pescadito. There is already a partially built structure there. This would serve as a staging area to launch boats from and provide a place to park vans and boat trailers when we’re on the island. There is also an open door for ministry there and a small community of Christians there with no church. We have been visiting them when we’ve been able and this property could also serve as a church and enable us to work with these people more often. The property is going for 100,000 Pesos. At the current exchange rate that’s only about 8000 dollars.
03. Boats. The boat that we had was a small fishing boat and could only transport 8 people. With the students on the island plus ourselves and school staff there will be 20 of us in April & May. Add to that the fact that our ministry is expanding to other islands faster than we can keep up with it. By next summer we could easily be having services on more than one island at the same time. This means we need more boats. We can buy a boat down here that can carry 15 people for about 5000 dollars. They may be a lot cheaper in the states in the winter time where things like that are more seasonal. Down here it’s summer all the time and boats are like gold here.
04. A second bathroom. With 20 people here at once the bathroom is gonna be packed all the time. We can put up another bathroom with a concrete floor for 1000 dollars.
05. Sound System. A speaker system for services with several people to enable everyone to be able to here the message. Also for praise & worship. A 250 amp Fender Passport system runs for about 1000 dollars. I’ve found them on ebay and amazon for 450 dollars.
06. Projector. We’ve been wanting to eventually start having a movie night where we show a different Christian movie every week. We’ve done this before in other areas of Dayspring’s ministry with very positive results. A projector costs about 600 dollars and would be used in conjunction with the aforementioned sound system.
07. Keyboard. We’ve got no real worship team at this time on the island. Eduardo plays keyboard and can lead worship very well himself. He has an old one that doesn’t work very well, but he’s looking for a new one. I don’t know what they cost, but I’ll ask him what he’s looking for and we’ll post it here next time.
08. Bibles. We need bibles badly. Reina Valera version in Spanish. Whole bibles with old & new testament. We need as many as we can get. There are lots of people down here that need one.
09. Computers. We could use a couple computers. Right now my laptop is all we have. Andrew & Lalo both use it to write sermons. Lalo also is organizing worship songs on the computer a lot. Also for storing the photos that everyone takes. We hope to eventually have internet here and maybe a cyber café (a place where the local youth can come and use internet). This would be very helpful in starting a youth group ministry here. Right now a couple hand-me-down laptops for Lalo & Andrew would be good and several desktops for a cyber café next year.
10. Appliances. We could use any kitchen appliances that still work. Refridgerator, Microwave, toaster, etc.

Dios les bendiga
Dennis

     Hello everyone, this is Dennis. I got a picture set up to go with Andrew’s newsletter. The photos consist of Andrew & Lalo’s weekend visit to the mountain village of San Felipe that Andrew spoke about in the blog post prior to this one. Andrew sorted out the pictures and named them before he and Lalo headed back to the island. I added some photos of the new baby at the end of the picture set.
    

     Right now Elda & I are in a hotel in Tuxtepec, Oaxaca. Elda and the baby are fine. The doctor said we can head on back to the island anytime. Since she had a C-Section she’s very sore and can’t move around real well, so we’re going to stay here for a few days until she feels ready for the boat ride back to the island.
    

     I know many people have been asking for details about the baby, so here they are. Her name is Katia Rachel Kramer (Katia is Katie in English) and she was born at 1:10AM Monday April 27 at the Clinica “San Juan Bautista” (St. John the Baptist Clinic) in Tuxtepec, Oaxaca. She weighs 2.42 kilograms (5.3 pounds) and is 45 centimeters (17.7 inches) long. OK, I think that’s all I have right now. I’m kind of swamped here with stuff to do and no sleep, so I’m gonna go. Thanks to you all for your prayers and support and praise the Lord for new life and new Christians in these far reaches of Mexico.
Dios les bendiga
Dennis

Roger here….

This morning around 5:30 Pacific time (I am currently in Seattle) I received a call from Dennis telling me that Elda had given birth to a little girl that morning.  Her name is Katia Rachel Kramer.  Elda had her water break on the island and they had rushed to Tuxtepec where she gave birth via a c-section.  Katia came about three weeks early and was very small so she was receiving a little extra care but mother and daughter were both doing great.   We are waiting for more details from Dennis and hopefully a picture soon.

I also received a great update from Andrew and wanted to share it with everone that reads this blog.  You will find it below.

Roger–

Greetings everyone-

   Well, this past month has flown by. I’ve been keeping plenty busy here in the state of Oaxaca, and at the same time I’ve been fighting to keep cool. On the Island, April and May are the hottest months of the year. In June, the rainy season will start and keep it plenty cool, but for now just about every day is a scorcher, with temperatures well into the hundreds. Fortunately, the cabin I’m living in has a palm roof, and it stays pretty cool throughout the day. It’s also been extremely dry here, and all the natural springs on the Island have been slowly drying up, as has the lake itself.

   Ministry here has been going extremely well. The church, which started with around five people, has now grown to a group of over thirty. But what is impressive to me is not the numbers, but the level of commitment and love these people have for Jesus and for one another. They are faithful in meeting together even when Lalo and I can’t be there with them, and they are committed to learning from the Bible. Lalo and I now hold two weekly teachings and a general service on the Island alone, along with our weekly service on Isla Agua Escondida.

   We have also been working to build relationships with people in more distant areas of the Island. There are several neighborhoods that we have not visited much in the past, and the  last couple of weeks Lalo and I have spent a lot of time in those areas visiting. One day, we went to visit a guy who had told us before that he wanted to come to his house. He ended up not being home, but then another man came walking up and asked us to go pray his uncle. His uncle, Lorenzo, has some sort of disease that has left him almost skeletal and bed-ridden for six years. We prayed for him, and shared a little with him from the Message.

   We went back last week to visit him again, and when we arrived he was out of bed, dressed, and looked a lot better! He said that after we prayed for him the other week, he had a dream that God had come to him and washed him with water. He said that the next morning, he felt better than he had for a long time. It was pretty amazing. Even though he’s far from completely recovered, it’s amazing to see God work like this in someones life. Lorenzo and his wife both received Jesus that week, and his wife has been attending all our teachings since then.

   Last Thursday, while Lalo and I were on our way to visit another family, we passed an old man carrying a big burlap bag. We said hi as we passed, but the guy kept staring at me, so I turned and asked him how he was. He smiled, pointed to the bible I was carrying, and reached down into his bag and pulled out a handful of Gideon New Testament bibles! He couldn’t speak Spanish, but one of the youth we were with translated for us. It turned out he was from a village called San Felipe Tilpan, a town on the far end of the lake from the Island. He said his son was a pastor of a church there, and that he himself had come to the Island to pass out bibles to the people. He was super-excited to learn we were missionaries, and invited to come and visit his church as soon as we could.

   So, last Saturday, Lalo and I, along with one of youth from the Church named Xavier, set off with our backpacks for San Felipe. We tried to take a shortcut to get there, but naturally it backfired. We rode across the lake to a town called Benito Juarez, and from there we hiked several hours until we reached a country road that led into the mountains. From there, we rode in the back of a truck until we reached San Felipe.

   San Felipe is on the side of one of the mountains facing the lake. The people there speak another form of Mazateca, but fortunately our friend Xavier was able to understand. The mountains to the west of the lake receive tons of rain every week, so everything there is a lot more green and tropical. We found the pastor once we arrived there, and spent our first evening visiting with him and his family. The next day, there was service, and we were able to meet the rest of the Church. Lalo preached, though they translated his sermon from Spanish to Mazateca. Overall, it was an amazing trip, and Lalo and I are looking forward to visiting again soon. The pastor told us that there are many villages higher up in the mountains that are completely isolated and unreached, and we hope to be able to visit there and preach in the near future.

   Well, just a couple of quick things. There’s apparently a big scare with this crazy Swine Flu going on in Mexico City, though I only heard about it for the first time today. As far as I know, there haven’t been any outbreaks around here, but I know the symptoms and am playing it safe. Just be in prayer that it doesn’t reach our area.

  The second thing is that my friend Dennis’ wife, Elda, just gave birth to their first baby last night. Her water broke yesterday on the Island, so we had to rush her to the city of Tuxtepec last night. They ended up having to do a C-section, but it went fine, and she’s fine, and the baby (it’s a girl) is healthy. Be in prayer for them, that the baby will continue to be in good health, and that Elda will recuperate quickly. Lalo and I will be heading back to the Island again tomorrow morning.

   Well, thank you all so much for your support and prayers. Know that you all are also in my thoughts and prayers; I hope you all are doing well. I will let you know if anything changes with this Swine Flu situation. Thanks again, and God bless!

-Andrew J. Pratt

     Hello all, this is Dennis again. I’m in Texas again so I threw together another little picture set. Elda’s grandmother died the other day and I had to bring her back to Veracruz to be with her family for a while. Since I was halfway out anyway, I brought the boat along with me and parked it here at the guesthouse. In case you hadn’t heard, the motor on the boat seized up on it’s first trip across the lake. We made it about two thirds of the way to the island and then we were adrift. A passing boat came by and gave Elda & I a ride to the island while Andrew stayed with the boat. We got our friend & neighbor Antonio to come with his boat and tow us to the island. The next day he towed us back to Temazcal where we had a mechanic look at it. He said it was bye bye motor and that we’d either need a new motor or get this one fixed in Veracruz City. So, here we are again with no boat.
    

     The picture set shows the pictures of the whole boat incident. It was April 3 when all that went down. I threw a few more pics on the end of Elda & I making a bed frame. Other than all that the ministry here is still rolling. We get a few more people in our services every week. We were hoping to start weekly bible teachings on the island of La Pochota, but with no boat it’s not gonna happen for a while. We might get this boat back this summer if we can find a motor, so we’ll see what happens.
    

     I’m posting the “Needs” list here again. It’s still the same as before, except now the boat need should probably be a little higher on the list.
01. The most urgent need right now is to get a thatch roof up on the new structure before the students get back here in mid-April. It will take Maximo and his sons 2-3 weeks from start to finish and cost about 2000 dollars.
02. We’re looking at a property on the mainland in the town of Pescadito. There is already a partially built structure there. This would serve as a staging area to launch boats from and provide a place to park vans and boat trailers when we’re on the island. There is also an open door for ministry there and a small community of Christians there with no church. We have been visiting them when we’ve been able and this property could also serve as a church and enable us to work with these people more often. The property is going for 100,000 Pesos. At the current exchange rate that’s only about 8000 dollars.
03. Boats. The boat that we had was a small fishing boat and could only transport 8 people. With the students on the island plus ourselves and school staff there will be 20 of us in April & May. Add to that the fact that our ministry is expanding to other islands faster than we can keep up with it. By next summer we could easily be having services on more than one island at the same time. This means we need more boats. We can buy a boat down here that can carry 15 people for about 5000 dollars. They may be a lot cheaper in the states in the winter time where things like that are more seasonal. Down here it’s summer all the time and boats are like gold here.
04. A second bathroom. With 20 people here at once the bathroom is gonna be packed all the time. We can put up another bathroom with a concrete floor for 1000 dollars.
05. Sound System. A speaker system for services with several people to enable everyone to be able to here the message. Also for praise & worship. A 250 amp Fender Passport system runs for about 1000 dollars. I’ve found them on ebay and amazon for 450 dollars.
06. Projector. We’ve been wanting to eventually start having a movie night where we show a different Christian movie every week. We’ve done this before in other areas of Dayspring’s ministry with very positive results. A projector costs about 600 dollars and would be used in conjunction with the aforementioned sound system.
07. Keyboard. We’ve got no real worship team at this time on the island. Eduardo plays keyboard and can lead worship very well himself. He has an old one that doesn’t work very well, but he’s looking for a new one. I don’t know what they cost, but I’ll ask him what he’s looking for and we’ll post it here next time.
08. Bibles. We need bibles badly. Reina Valera version in Spanish. Whole bibles with old & new testament. We need as many as we can get. There are lots of people down here that need one.
09. Computers. We could use a couple computers. Right now my laptop is all we have. Andrew & Lalo both use it to write sermons. Lalo also is organizing worship songs on the computer a lot. Also for storing the photos that everyone takes. We hope to eventually have internet here and maybe a cyber café (a place where the local youth can come and use internet). This would be very helpful in starting a youth group ministry here. Right now a couple hand-me-down laptops for Lalo & Andrew would be good and several desktops for a cyber café next year.
10. Appliances. We could use any kitchen appliances that still work. Refridgerator, Microwave, toaster, etc.
Thanks and God Bless
Dennis

     Hello everyone, this is Dennis again (finally, right?). Sorry it took so long. It’s been an entire month since our last blog post. I don’t know what held us up exactly, we’ve just been real busy. I posted a set of photos that cover the first half of March. The last half of March we’ve been held up on the border. All four of us left on the 17th and came north to the school. We had several purposes for that. One was that Eduardo was the teacher at the school the following week. The second reason was so that we could attend Mary’s wedding in Apodaca on the 22nd (she was a student last year, remember). The third reason was to pick up our boat, which my parents brought down to the guesthouse for us. We had planned to be away from the island for only about a week, but we ran into a few problems. My pickup broke down three different times while we were in Texas. Then when we finally got all our papers in order for ourselves, the pickup, the boat and the trailer we headed in to the school on Saturday the 28th to pick up Elda and her mom (Elda’s mom came up with us). The next day we made it to the city of Victoria and the cable that holds the boat onto the trailer broke. During our pitiful attempts at fixing it, we managed to snap off the eye bolt from the hull of the boat. We had to send Elda and her mom on home to Veracruz on a bus while Andrew and I returned to Texas to fix the boat and trailer.
    

     As I write this it’s April 2 and Andrew, Elda and I are in a hotel room in Tuxtepec, Oaxaca. Eduardo stayed back to teach one more week at the school. Tomorrow we go to Temazcal to put the boat in the water and haul ourselves and our stuff back to the island. We will have been gone almost three weeks and we’re anxious to get back and get things rolling again.
    

     The picture set shows most of the events that transpired before we left. The DMT students came for a few days and put up the columns and trusses for a new structure. This structure is 60 feet long. One end of it will be a kitchen and the rest will be student quarters/church. The students will hang their hammocks there when they come back for their outreach and we’ll have our Sunday services in there as well. Several of the students also had the opportunity to do some visitation on our neighboring island of Agua Escondida. They also did some visiting here on Isla Soyaltepec and put on a children’s service up at Maximo’s house on their last day here.
    

     The week after the students left, Maximo and his sons finished putting up the walls, doors and windows on the second cabin. Elda & I have gotten moved in there and now Andrew & Eduardo are settled in the first cabin. They’re still a little cramped since they still have the kitchen in their cabin as well. Honoria is living in the second cabin with Elda & I also. We hired our neighbor, the concrete guy to come and build a footing around the new structure. He got started on that the day before we left and you can see his progress in the last four pictures. When we get back tomorrow we expect to see that finished and hopefully doors on the bathroom, too. We just have a couple weeks to get some kind of roof on the new structure before the students return.
    

     As a final addition to this blog, I’m posting a list of needs at the end. We have received several requests from people wanting to know what our needs are and since there are so many, with differing levels of urgency, we’re going to try to keep posting them here. If in the future you see that a need is no longer here, then that means that need was met (or I messed up). I’ll try to put them in order so the most urgent needs are on top. We greatly appreciate any help any of y’all out there may feel led to give and we will make sure to continue to follow God’s leading ourselves as we go forward with the ministry on these islands.

01. The most urgent need right now is to get a thatch roof up on the new structure before the students get back here in mid-April. It will take Maximo and his sons 2-3 weeks from start to finish and cost about 2000 dollars.
02. We’re looking at a property on the mainland in the town of Pescadito. There is already a partially built structure there. This would serve as a staging area to launch boats from and provide a place to park vans and boat trailers when we’re on the island. There is also an open door for ministry there and a small community of Christians there with no church. We have been visiting them when we’ve been able and this property could also serve as a church and enable us to work with these people more often. The property is going for 100,000 Pesos. At the current exchange rate that’s only about 8000 dollars.
03. More boats. The boat that we now have is a small fishing boat and can only transport 8 people. With the students on the island plus ourselves and school staff there will be 20 of us in April & May. Add to that the fact that our ministry is expanding to other islands faster than we can keep up with it. By next summer we could easily be having services on more than one island at the same time. This means we need more boats. We can buy a boat down here that can carry 15 people for about 5000 dollars. They may be a lot cheaper in the states in the winter time where things like that are more seasonal. Down here it’s summer all the time and boats are like gold here.
04. A second bathroom. With 20 people here at once the bathroom is gonna be packed all the time. We can put up another bathroom with a concrete floor for 1000 dollars.
05. Sound System. A speaker system for services with several people to enable everyone to be able to here the message. Also for praise & worship. A 250 amp Fender Passport system runs for about 1000 dollars. I’ve found them on ebay and amazon for 450 dollars.
06. Projector. We’ve been wanting to eventually start having a movie night where we show a different Christian movie every week. We’ve done this before in other areas of Dayspring’s ministry with very positive results. A projector costs about 600 dollars and would be used in conjunction with the aforementioned sound system.
07. Keyboard. We’ve got no real worship team at this time on the island. Eduardo plays keyboard and can lead worship very well himself. He has an old one that doesn’t work very well, but he’s looking for a new one. I don’t know what they cost, but I’ll ask him what he’s looking for and we’ll post it here next time.
08. Bibles. We need bibles badly. Reina Valera version in Spanish. Whole bibles with old & new testament. We need as many as we can get. There are lots of people down here that need one.
09. Computers. We could use a couple computers. Right now my laptop is all we have. Andrew & Lalo both use it to write sermons. Lalo also is organizing worship songs on the computer a lot. Also for storing the photos that everyone takes. We hope to eventually have internet here and maybe a cyber café (a place where the local youth can come and use internet). This would be very helpful in starting a youth group ministry here. Right now a couple hand-me-down laptops for Lalo & Andrew would be good and several desktops for a cyber café next year.
10. Appliances. We could use any kitchen appliances that still work. Refridgerator, Microwave, toaster, etc.
Thanks and God Bless
Dennis