Update on Zeke.

We received this email a couple of days ago.  Thank you for praying for and supporting this family, if you did so.  Illness, suffering and death are such a sad reality.

Dear friends and family,

It is with much sadness and a heavy heart that I tell you that Zeke lost his battle last night and is now with Jesus...absent from his body and present with the Lord.

On behalf of his family, I once again want to express their gratitude for each one of you for your prayers and your support. The love that has been poured out on their family has been an amazing example of the body of Christ coming together from all over the world to show them the love of Jesus.

Your donations will enable them to bury their son and to have a little time to grieve and will supply daily needs until they are back to work and get another paycheck. I'm sure Crecencio will return to work right away...probably as soon as Monday. I am in the US taking care of some business ( and visiting my kids) so I will miss Zekes service. There will be a wake at his home overnight tonight probably and a graveside service tomorrow. Because in our area of Mexico we do not embalm, his body will be buried right away.....in a simple wooden box. His wake will be a really special time of neighbors, friends and family coming to pay their regards. There will be lots of flowers (all grown in peoples private gardens) and probably part of our worship team from church will be there to lead people in worship. Fernando, Zekes uncle, will probably  also lead some worship in their native tongue,Triqui and will translate the service at the graveside into Triqui as well.

Sending our love and appreciation from Mexico,

rita

Prayer for Zeke in Mexico

Hello,

We are moving today (this morning actually) so for the sake of time I think I'm going to cut and paste an email exchange that has happened over the last couple of days between us and a pastor's wife in Mexico regarding a little boy who is in the hospital, and who's family is in great need....at the end of the email I will provide information for anyone who'd like to send money to this family, via the church's fund....here goes, I hope you can follow it.......please pray for this boy and his family.....

Dear family in Christ....prayer partners,

We are asking you to please intercede for one of the young people in our fellowship. Ezekiel (or Zeke) is 14 years old and is on life support in an Ensendada  government hospital. He has been fighting for his life for  a few days now after being diagnosed with cerebral tuberculosis. It has taken several weeks to diagnose his illness and now it has become very grave. He was having seizure like activity off and on for a while and was treated for ear infections ( Ken took him to our Dr here and he had pus running out of his ears so we, too, thought it was a serious ear infection)  Yesterday afternoon we got a call that Zeke had passed away so we went right away to his home where his 3 siblings and Mother and other family had already begun to gather to await Zekes body and Crecencio ,his Dad to arrive from Ensenada. We had been there about an hour when Ken received a call from Juan Vasquez, his assistant pastor, who told him that Zeke was still alive !!! I cannot tell you the shock we were all in.....it seems Crecencio had not understood the Drs and thought that Zeke had passed away. Crecencios family are Triqui Indian and speak limited Spanish so he misunderstood the Dr. Talk about a turn of events.....from a grieving family to shouts of joy and hope renewed !!! I just pray that these parents don't have to go through the same heartbreak twice. We heard today that Zeke's Dr. is a Christian and he told pastor Juan that his condition is very grave but not to give up on expecting God to perform a miracle!!! Now that was great news. I'm hoping that means they will keep him on support and not give up too easily on him. 

PLEASE intercede with us for the Lords will and for Zeke's family. His family are among the poorest of the poor here so pray for all their needs to be met. Pray for a miracle for Zeke !!!

On Sunday one of our youth came to Ken and said the youth want to donate the money they had been earning and saving for a missions trip this next week to the C.C Bible college in Ensenada. They cancelled their trip and gave the money to help Zeke's family. Our hearts are touched beyond words at their sacrificial offering. This trip was like an extravagant vacation for these kids who don't go anywhere ever!! Their others-centered love and esteeming Zeke's family above their own wants blesses my heart so much. What an example they are to us all.

Thank you for your prayers and love for our flock here.....we are humbled by your faithfulness.

Sending our love,

Rita for the Marrs

Hello,

My name is Erica Melicharek and I received a prayer request from Cheryl Brummet regarding Zeke. This morning, during my Bible-time with my kids, I was already going to teach them about the commandment to love God with all your heart, soul and mind, and to love others as ourselves....and then I got your email.  So I told my kids the story along with the teaching and they really want to do something to help.  So that is why I am asking.  My kids prayed for healing for Zeke, and also that the family would have the money they needed and that the other kids could still go on their trip....we will continue to pray.  If you can, please tell the kids who gave so sacrificially that they have ministered to us in their giving.  Can you give me some information regarding how we can make a contribution to the family?

Yours in Christ,

Erica Melicharek

Hi Erica,

My name is Rita Marr and my husband is the pastor of our church  Calvary Chapel ( Capilla Calvario) Vicente Guerrero Mexico. Any help that we can get for Zekes family will be greatly appreciated. They  have been out of work for a couple of weeks taking Zeke back and forth to the hospital so they are in great need of just daily food and keeping their other kids in school etc. Plus Zeke is 3 hours north of us and his Dad has been there with him all this time so please pray for him too as he must be exhausted. We are all helping as much as possible but any extra help is appreciated.

Here is the account info: 

Shepherds Staff Missions Facilitators  Marrs 

account # 4006 (earmarked for Zekes family)

PO BOX 53640  Albuquerque New Mexico  87153

Blessings to you Erica.

In Christ,

Rita

Alright, hope you followed that and that your hearts are as touched as ours were to hear of how the youth in their church sacrificed their own special trip that they'd been working for in order to give to this family in need....and that the Lord will impress it upon your hearts to something as well.  

It's Official!

It's official! We are scheduled to move into our new home on March 1st, this coming Thursday.  Getting to move into a home, also means that we will be receiving our clothes, be able to do our laundry at home again, can begin cooking, etc.  Although, we have not been suffering in our current situation by any means, we have been well cared for and rather spoiled.  Thank you for praying for us in every regard, we are always so encouraged and blessed to know that we are being prayed for!

The home that we are moving into is the one that is just down the street from the church plant, and we are now part of the 'core-group' of this church.  This is something we are very excited about, and looking forward to seeing what the Lord will do there.

Also, in regards to your answered prayers, I wanted to mention that the Lord has been bringing many, many people into our lives to share the truth of the Gospel with and also to minister to.  I don't like putting too many details about these things on-line, just to respect the privacy of the people we talk to, but there have been quite a few instances of people walking up to me and just starting a conversation about spiritual matters -Here are two of them.  First, the Church secretary that I mentioned in an earlier post, has begun a year long reading plan of the Bible and really hopes to continue it.  I hope and pray that I can continue a relationship with her, hopefully helping her find the answers to the many questions she had.

Another man that we met right off the bat, is a German local who works with Anthony.  He is very interested in spiritual matters and wants to continue meeting with Anthony to talk about the Bible, God, etc.  He has many doubts, but we are grateful for the opportunity to share truth with him and hopefully see Him experience the grace of God in the redemption of his soul, and the forgiveness of his sins.

I mention these people because I'm positive that many of you have been praying for the the Lord to bring people into our lives who we can share the Gospel with so I want you to know that the Lord is answering your prayers.  It is always encouraging to know that your prayers are being answered.

So thank you for your prayers, we are so grateful for and needful of them!  This last week, I especially have been made aware of my many weaknesses, faults and downfalls.  I praise God that He is faithful and that since He did everything in saving me, He also does everything in keeping me in His Kingdom....because trust me, if I could loose my salvation....it would have been lost a looong time ago!  So praise God! One of my favorite verses to lean on is, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, His grace is sufficient for me, and His power is made perfect in my weakness!  How liberating!

As far as what we've been up to, we were able to visit my cousin, Heine and his family.  They live close to Munich which is 4 hours south of us.  We had a wonderful time getting to know them better and also to meet and get to know their kids.  Their kids, Eric and Clara are similar ages to our kids, and they had a very nice time together.   It was really nice to be with family, and they are wonderful hosts.  We hope to see them soon!

Here's a few pictures to share....today we spend the day doing laundry  :-) We have to do laundry at the laundrymat on base, and since we don't have a car this weekend, we walked.  It's a couple of miles one way, and so it took a while, little people walk slow and look at many things along the way....and Anthony was pulling an over-stuffed large duffel bag of clothes behind him....if our family drew attention to itself before, adding a large duffle-bag being pulled along cobblestone streets only added to the attraction  :-)  but we had a nice day and are VERY happy to have clean clothes!!!

Ok, here's a few pictures as of late...

 How the kids have been getting their energy out while we stay in the hotel....

Essie having some tea

 The girls all bundled up!  We're not in San Diego anymore!

 Cute bath-time pic.

 Cousins.

 Malachi turned 6 this week!  He got some special treats from the hotel...including this plate of chocolate marble bread for breakfast, and a tray full of fancy mixed-juice drinks for dinner.  He also fulfilled our strange family tradition of getting a fat-lip for his birthday, I'm not sure why this happens to my kids, but they often get fat lips on their birthdays....makes for great birthday photos don't you think?  This time, a large easy chair with three kids on it landed on his mouth....I still can't figure out how it happened, but it's starting to go down now....poor guy.

 It didn't stop him from enjoying his birthday drinks though....

The laundry-mat....which ended with a loud round of bumper-laundry-carts....since we had the place to ourselves for most of the time we were there.....oh, just want to clarify that Simeon was NOT in the cart during the bumper-cart game....that would have been too dangerous....but he was pushed around a bunch in a cart before the game began.....which I think he enjoyed....

well, tomorrow is Sunday - I hope you have a worshipful day, celebrating all the blessings the Lord has bestowed upon you, and reveling in His abundant grace!  His Grace is sufficient!

Erica