Praise God!!! Victor is free

Hello everyone,

I wanted to update you all on a situation that I informed everyone about many months ago. Back in September I sent out an email and asked everyone to pray for a fellow brother in Christ named Victor Hugo Velez Ruisanchez. In all reality he was kidnapped back in September and until last month he was being held in prison (without proof and without any hope...the police and judge had been bought off). When I say without hope I mean without any human hope for as we all know, there is always hope when belong to the Lord God, maker of heaven and earth. After all, the Apostle Paul does tell remind us in Romans chapter 8, ´if God is for us, who can be against us´. Well, Victor has been released and is a free man today. I will not go into any specifics about his release, but I will just say that God was working true miracles in this situation....in the courtroom and in the prison and in the lives of many people...amazing things that had no explanation!

Below, I have included some photos of Victor and his family along with Sarita and me. We visited them a few weeks ago and i was asked to share a word with the family and other friends from their church. The Lord blessed o9ur time greatly and since this time we have been able to visit with Victor and his family 2 more times. The man that bought off the pólice and judicial system has vowed before that if Victor did not remain in prison (he was facing 17 years) then he would go after his family, so in reality, he is not totally ´out of the woods yet´ as we would say. Please continue to pray for this family; specifally that this man and his family will continue to keep their eyes on the Lord Jesus as their only hope of making it through this trial. Also pray that they would have peace each and every day as it must be difficult to not worry about what may lie ahead as it concerns this evil man.

I have included the email that a friend of ours sent out back in September giving a few details about the kidnapping. If you want to know more then please read.

The Vélez family

Victor Hugo Vélez Ruisanchez, is a man, Christian, married with Martha de Vélez, his children are Yasmín 11y Victor 9 and Yaquelín 7, lives and his job dedicated on sale of sausage and ham in the city of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, in the Southern state of Chiapas in Mexico. Last Agust 27,he was captured illegally (without apprehension order) with the purpose of extorting to its family requesting money by his rescue. The plan from the kidnapers was frustrated then they took him to the jail of Torreón in the northern state of Coahuila with an order of apprehension with false accusation. (Chiapas and Coahuila are to 2,000Km. of distance) Accusing him to sexual abuse a woman on day 8 January 2007 and taken in opinion with false tests, where, supposedly it was found guilty. At the moment he is prisoner in the jail of Torreon. Day 11 of September will ask for the intervention of a federal Judge so that it analyzes his case.

Thanks to God he is not more directly into the hands of their detectors. Now he faces false demands and, apparently, the judge is accomplice of all that defamation.
Victor never has been before in the state of Coahuila, place in where is accused, and one of the many tests that it has to demonstrate his innocence is the following one:

Day 5 of January of this year, his wife lost a baby of 3 months of pregnancy, and needed that they did a surgery to her, Victor signed the authorization so that she had a surgery and he himself in the evening signed the discharge of the same surgery day 8 of January. In addition there are witnesses who know that Victor took and gathered (8a.m and 1:30 p.m.) to his children to the educative center of the church where are studying his children.

During this situation, between his detectors, Victor detected an accustomed man to make damage to that considers its enemies. A long time ago he made businesses of transaction with him but they were not well, then when it retired and he did not want to sell plus his nutritional products, the man swore to take revenge itself in the future of Victor. Martha and Victor adjudge all this badness to that man.

It has been difficult to face our friends these difficult moments of uncertainty and pain, but, Thanks to God, Martha and Victor recognizes the sovereignty of God in these circumstances and knows that it is a good time to know God of one more a more real form. Victor every day shares the love of God to his companions in the jail and the other prisoners respect him and request advice counseling every day.

Dear brothers and friends we requested to you in the name of our Lord Jesus who you cry out in pray so that justice in our Mexico is a reality for all the Mexicans.
To federal judge accepts this case and judges with justice.
So that Victor, its family and friends who we surrounded to him we pruned to see and to make the will of our God.

It is very easy to coldly judge from our position outside a jail and often to do judges to us and to say that it is “the consequence of some sin”
Nevertheless we do not have to forget the Jesus words: Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

We requested to you in the name of Jesus take in pray these requests and you share with other this testimony, which we it Marrero family we have been direct witnesses of the way that God has been the Vélez family.
We thank for so many families who have been united in action and pray to this case, friends inside and abroad.
Thanks because God has heard our requests and has frustrated the plans of the malefactors. Psalm 3

In Jesus

Ramiro y Elisa Marrero

Sarita and I with Victor and his family outside of his home in Tuxtla...












photos of us all gathered together at a little reunion in Victor´s house...










me and my friendly translator José...











nothing more for now...

Tabasco Flooding

hello everyone,

a few posts ago i showed some photos of the orphans and sarita and i picking up some items for the flood victims in the states of tabasco and chiapas here in mexico...(but i didnt get around to sending out this blog)...there was a big cold front that moved in a few weeks ago and it caused very heavy rains which continued for about 7 days...another factor that caused such flooding was that the damn way up stream of were the heaviest flooding occured had to be opened up and when coupled with the rain, it was way too much water to handle for that area...the water reached 18ft in some places and at one point the water rose 6ft in 30 minutes...dr. ramiro and i drove to villahermosa (a six hour drive from teopisca) about a week after it stopped raining but as you can see from the photos, there was still flooding going on and the cleanup had just started...dr. ramiro just went back to villahermosa this week to continue his efforts...he wanted me to go with him but i could not go due to other commitments...there are still over 1/2 million people affected...please pray that dr. ramiro and others that go to help this area are a great blessing to the people...

this is a link that shows a bunch of the damage that occured....it has way better photos than i took...


http://www.terrelltimes.com/villahermosa.html



the lords blessings on you today and everyday...

lance and sarita

we came back the same day and dr. ramiro took me to a restaurant that served this mexican specialty...i think that you can say that i am now a true mexican as i eat about anything down here now...well not everyting...i still dont like mole'...

Orphans - helping out flood victims with food

Hello all,

I wasn’t going to share these photos or this little story but after writing Monday’s 5 Minute Message about the Lord being well pleased with those who share, I decided to make a short blog post and show you guys some photos of the orphans sharing with others.

There was recent flooding in the states of Tabasco and north Chiapas here in Mexico and we wanted to involve the orphans in helping out the affected children and families. (this flooding was basically about the equivalent to the flooding in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina…it has been about 3 weeks after the flooding and there are still about ½ million people affected). For three days, there was a food drive here in Teopisca and we took the children up to the market to buy beans, corn, and rice to take to the food drive. We gave two bags t0 each child and they took them to the food drive and had the women at the food drive explain to the children why it is necessary to help out those in need. The children, at least those that could understand, were very excited to help out others that were not as fortunate as them. It was a good day and one that I believe we can build on as we try to continue to teach them the ways of the LORD.

That is all for now...dont fall over at your computer because this update is so short...i will make up for it later :)

May the Lord bless you all today,

Lance and Sarita





at the market getting the beans, corn and rice....

































taking the goods to the food drive....

This same day we took the orphans to see our little widow friend Emellia...

oh, and Ricardo got cold so I let him wear my pullover...just a little big dont you think!

Dappen Family - Casa de Misericordia (house of mercy)

Hello everyone,



(((pics below)))

I thought it was about time that I updated you guys on what Sarita and I have been up to down here in south Mexico. We have been very busy as of late…actually since we have returned from Dallas we have been on the go more than usual. A few weeks ago, we went and spent time with the Dappen Family. I think that I have mentioned them before but just incase I have not; I will introduce you to them right now.

The Dappen family came to Mexico from the U.S. over 30 years ago to begin their work as foreign missionaries to Mexico. Around 1977 the Dappen family was only 4 strong…today they are 19 strong. The two oldest children live in the U.S. full time and one other is living in Dallas, TX to learn a trade and then will return in the near future. The “original” Dappen family included 10 children and Mr. and Mrs., but over the last decade the Dappen family has adopted 8 Hispanic children. Many of these children have birth defects or other illnesses and frankly were not wanted or claimed by their maternal parents…two of these children have Cerebral Palsy. Mr. Dappen went to be with the Lord last year, very much unexpected, which left Mrs. Lynn Dappen to care for the remaining children. Actually, there are 4 “original” Dappens 19 years of age or older living here in Mexico, so I should say that these 5 are caring for the remaining children…the 5 would be Lynn, Matthew (28), Susan (26), Bobby (23) and Jimmy (19)…Joey (20) is in Dallas.

Praise God that the year before Mr. Dappen went and joined the great cloud of witnesses before him, he was able to see the completion of his vision (at least the first part). The Dappen family spent many many years developing a curriculum for teaching Hispanic children how to read in the home. Actually, the curriculum is not only for children but also for adults; for there are sooooo many adults that can not read or write here in Mexico. The difference in this training material and others, is that this material is biblically based. For each letter of the Mexican alphabet, there is a biblical character, a character quality, a story, the pronunciation, a song, and photographs (there may be more, but I only saw the cd for about 10 minutes…we have one but not with me at the moment). For example, the first letter of the Mexican alphabet is A…so when you click on the “Letter A” you will see the following:

Abraham
Abraham Agradecido (which means “Thankful Abraham)
A short story about Abraham explaining the characteristic that he possessed
Associated audio for how to pronounce the letter A
A song using words starting with the letter A
And photos and pictures of various items and articles that begin with the letter A: such as avion (plane), agua (water), azul (blue), armadia (raft), alabanza (praise) etc.

(Maybe a verse but I can’t remember)




As you can imagine, this material is greatly needed in this culture for teaching children at home (in other words – home schooling). I mean, how can a parent that can’t read or write themselves, teach their children how to do so. But most importantly, the material is so greatly needed as it incorporates the word of God into each day of instruction. What a great tool, and how gracious is our God to allow Mr. Dappen see the finished product!

The Dappen boys all desire to continue the legacy and vision of their father and it has been such a great blessing for Sarita and me to have met them and to have been able to spend some time with them. The Dappen family just recently moved from the Mexican state of Guerrero to Chiapas state. They live in a city about the size of San Cristobal de Las Cases but 1 hour in the opposite direction. BUT, they must pass through our town of Teopisca on a weekly basis as they travel into San Cristobal; so we should be seeing much more of them in the near future…and on a regular basis.

Two weeks ago, Sarita and I (along with the Dr. Ramiro Marrero family-good friends of ours) went to visit the Dappen family in their new home (a rent house with only three rooms…meaning all the 10 boys are in one room and the girls split into 2 other rooms…can you say cozy!!!…but as the apostle Paul would say, “all for the sake of the gospel.”

The photos below document some of the things we packed into ONE Saturday!




I don’t have photos of our first 2 ½ hours on Saturday with them, but we (meaning the men and boys…all of them) got up a 3:30am and met about another 15 men from their church in a field of corn at 4:00am. They meet Monday – Friday at the church at 5:00am before the men go to work and on Saturdays at 4:00am because many times there is more work to do on Saturday than the rest of the week. We had a great time out under the dark dark skies of Mexico, with only those billions and billions of God’s creation sparkling and illuminating our way…what a glorious morning with my brothers.





These pics are of the Dappen family, the Marrero family and the Keeling family in morning devotions. Every morning, for many years, the Dappen family has gathered for morning devotions before breakfast. Currently they are in the Gospel of Luke. I believe that I understood Matthew to tell me that they usually cover one verse a day. What a blessing it was to be in a room with 26 or 27 or 28 people singing hymns, reading Scripture (particularly the proverb of the day with each person taking a turn to read the next verse) reciting memorized Scripture, listening to the teaching of the word, and of course prayer.

Blessed be the name of the Lord!







































These photos show us unloading a flatbed FULL of bricks. Directly after breakfast, about 9am, we left the house and headed for the church where they are constructing a second house on the grounds of the church. Man, when I saw the flatbed truck pull up, I started looking around for the forklift that “normally” accompanies the truck…but then I had to rethink again and remind myself that we are not in America anymore. About 45 minutes into unloading this truck, Bobby Dappen got this BRIGHT IDEA (yeah right!!!) to start throwing the bricks up directly from the truck onto the second story building…well guess who ended up on the truck tossing up these bricks…yep, you got it….yours truly. It wouldn’t have been so bad but I didn’t have any gloves and in order to get the brick up to the second story I had to really give it a heave...and even after trying every conceivable way so as not to rip my fingers up, I finally decided that messing up one of my thumbs we better than the other 4 fingers…so I just had to let ‘em fly and not worry about the consequences…until later!!! (still got some skin missing) ok…enough of the whinning right!

By the way, I can write this about Bobby’s idea being real bright because he is already a good friend of mine.





































Below you will find pictures of our next task. We got finished unloading the bricks around 11:30am or so and headed out of town about 2 miles to a piece of land that the church owns. The church is building several structures there for a project called “Casa de Misericordia” (translated “House of Mercy”). This House is going to be used for rehabilitation of alcoholics. Eventually this House will be able to accommodate 24 men but right now they want to finish up the first dormitory which will house about ¼ of that…but they are working fast and furious so it shouldn’t take too much time to finish this entire project. Although there are places such as AA in most cities in Mexico (because alcohol abuse is so wide spread), this place is different because the word of God will be preached and proclaimed and shared with all the men that come through there. Let us pray that this project is completed soon!


remember...there were about 10 boys (ages 8-14) that were working on this project this particular Saturday...all of which had been up since 3:30am that morning for prayer...a little different philosophy for the younger ones here in Mexico than in America don´t you think! And i don´t mean just standing around...they were digging, hauling, cutting (with a skill saw...yeaks), hammering, leveling, measuring...you name it and pretty much, they were doing it...














































































BREAKTIME for lunch!!!! mmmmmmgooood!
































can you say....things that you should not be doing!!!



































a little of the finished project...finished at night so the photo is not good!














the whole gang!!!!















nada mas