Editor’s Note: For security reasons, this missionary’s name and ministry location are not being shared.
¡Muchas Gracias! Wow! I cannot believe it has already been almost two months of living here in Mexico. I have typed and retyped this newsletter countless times because I have no idea where to even start! I wish I could transplant you all here to Mexico for a week so I could show you all the amazing things I have been learning and experiencing. It would surely be more entertaining than the few pictures included with this article. But, nevertheless I will continue to do my best to make it come alive for you! This article would be 10,000 pages long if I wrote down all the amazing things God is doing here. Since I know you and I don’t have the time to read or write a 10,000-page newsletter, I have tried my best to summarize it into a bullet point list.
Before I share the list, I just want to express my gratitude and appreciation for all of you. Thank you for allowing God to use you in supporting me through prayer, finances and encouragement. The following are things that my senders have allowed me to experience the past several weeks:
• Practice pronouncing 40+ International Phonetic Alphabet symbols for the sake of future language learning and Bible translation.
• Sit through 30 hours of classes on the Pentateuch and Foundational Bible Teaching from well experienced and educated professors.
• Spend quality time with workers who are in the midst of church planting efforts in places like Laos, China and Chad.
• Learn about Spiritual Disciplines, Church Planting, Biblical Relationships and Business for the field in our daily classes.
• Experience the freezing cold waters of the Pacific Ocean with outings to the Playas with other students.
• Find my favorite coffee shop in “Centro” where I like to go and study.
• Stay up late with local friends to celebrate Mexican Independence Day, such an interesting experience!
• Learn about border life, immigration and the economic situation that affects so many of our local friends and their families.
• Try new foods and snacks with local friends. I’m learning that Mexican food is a lot more than just tacos, burritos and fajitas!
• Spend 80+ hours in culture and language acquisition. We try to get 20 hours a week!
• Increase my Spanish ability greatly. I’m so excited to take our oral proficiency interview in a couple of months to see how far I have come in learning Spanish.
• Get invaluable training in so many areas of life that I truly believe will help me tremendously on the field.
There is so much more! I would love to hear from you — getting letters in the mail is one of the highlights of my week! If you would like my mailing address, please contact me at arkslp@protonmail.com and I’ll share it with you.
Prayer Requests & Praises
• For the health of our campus. We have quite a bit of sickness going around at the moment.
• Pray for the ability to build meaningful relationships with local friends.
• Pray that I will be able to discern teammates, a place and people group to serve among long term.
• Pray for time management skills as I balance all the responsibilities asked of us.
• Praise God for the invaluable training that I am being given here.
• Praise God for supporters who have allowed me to be here.
If you or your church are interested in supporting me on this journey, please contact me at arkslp@protonmail.com or contact the Mission’s office at (501) 455-4977. Support can be mailed to BMA Missions, P.O. Box 878, Conway, Ark. 72032 or given online at www.bmamissions.org — select “Designate my offering” and choose Amanda (AJ). You can also set up bill pay with your bank to automatically send a check to the BMA office address with AJ in the memo. Contact your bank to set it up.
