Dear Valley Church family,

Our spring and summer days have been so busy serving the Lord here in San Luis Potosi, Mexico.  Without your prayers and offerings we could not minister to so many people in need of a Savior.

We show them Jesus through a food pantry and evangelizing our inner city neighborhood of San Miguelito.  We are able to teach adult church leaders how to be more effective in church services.  We provide activities for youth to learn to stay close to Jesus.  Also there are times to visit and encourage the rehab center around the corner.

We also want to thank you for helping us with an offering to help cover hospital costs when David had to have surgery almost a month ago.  In Mexico you can not leave until the bill is paid in full.  Thanks to your church and others who helped.  We had a down payment on ER & co-pay from insurance.

We want to thank you for standing by us and believing in us as we serve our Lord Jesus Christ in Mexico.

David & Sheri DeBolt

The provincial women’s and men’s meeting was held the first weekend of July. This year it was at a church quite near our home so we didn’t have to make a long trip. Although the services were almost entirely in Zulu we were impressed that most of the speakers seemed well-prepared with messages and lessons. It is always good to see people who come from other congregations. The fellowship is encouraging for all of us.

We are making progress on the efforts to hand over the mission property to the local church. We offered it to them and they accepted. We just have to work out exactly how it will be done. We can donate the property, but we understand that the government will impose a donation tax so we are trying to find out how much it is and who is responsible for that.

We have been spending most of our days this month sorting through papers, teaching materials, books and photographs that we have collected over the past 48 years! We are donating some of it and destroying a lot of it! It is not an easy task!

We have approached a real estate agent in regard to selling our house, but have been advised to do a bit of “de-cluttering” before we put the house on the market. We have been in the house for 35 years so there is a lot of accumulation to go through! We would need to sell our house before we could move, but we have looked at some houses in gated complexes that we would consider as a possible new home for us. Pray for the right buyer for our house and for us to find a home we can buy.

We have decided to make a short personal trip to the US from mid-August to mid-September. Michael’s niece, Amber, Duane and Kathy’s daughter, passed away in early July from complications from muscular dystrophy and an operation. Michael’s sister, Debbie, who lives in South Africa, decided to go to the US in mid-August. It is not often that all four siblings are on one side of the ocean so we decided that we will also go for a visit at the same time.

Pray for us as we make some huge transitions in our lives here and as we travel to the US next month.

For the third year in a row, we've expanded the Mobile Lunch Box program. As of this week, our Mobile Lunch Box has already served more free, fresh and healthy meals to kids than we did all of last summer - and there are still five weeks to go! 
 
With your help, we've invested in this program because we know our community leads the state* in the number of missed meals among children during the summer months, when they're unable to access free and reduced cost meal programs. In response, we're working hand in hand with ISD 196 and ISD 191 to identify the neighborhoods with greatest need and take food directly to the kids who need it most.
 
Our volunteers are on the road five days a week, making sure our kids have access to the fresh and healthy foods they need.
 
Please give now to support our important programs like the Mobile Lunch Box and help us raise $25,000 to finish our Summer Campaign strong!
 
Give before July 31 and your dollar goes further! Your generosity will be proportionally matched up to $4,000 by a grant from Open Your Heart to the Hungry and Homeless. Every $1 you give stays here in our community.
 
We need your help right now.  With your support, we can keep our innovative programs running and continue to fight hunger through access to healthy food.
 
With gratitude,
 
Jason Viana
Executive Director

"With constant streams of bills, my husband and I have found it difficult and frivolous to spend money on outings for the five of us. Even going to a movie would be more than we would want to spend. We also are concerned with germs and crowds. Most [HopeKids] events have sanitary precautions in place to keep all of our kiddos safe. It is so nice to meet other families who, although do not share the same medical condition, share a common understanding and certainly respect." -Melinda, Hanna’s mom
 
For families who have a child with a life-threatening medical condition, simply leaving the house can be a challange for a number of reasons. Aside from financial concerns, immunocompromised children have to take extra precautions to ensure they avoid illnesses which can delay vital treatments or worsen their condition. Many HopeKids events are private to provide a safer environment for families, like Hanna's.
 
Your support alleviates some of the challenges that these families face. Thank you for providing a safe environment through an ongoing calendar of free events!
 
With Hope,
Brian Anderson, Executive Director
HopeKids Minnesota
 
P.S. Join us on August 5th for The Coleberry Tournament. Sponsorship opportunities are available as well as foursomes. Register now!

My apologies! I completely missed sending an email in May.

Rebecca, our granddaughter, and Ruahn Beattie were married on the 4th of May. We had severe rain storms in April. Their wedding was supposed to be at River Valley Farm in a tent by the river. The storms destroyed the road to the river so less than 2 weeks before the wedding they were informed that they had to find another venue for the wedding! After looking at a few different places they were able to hold the wedding in the tent at a campground. In the end the wedding was beautiful and everything went well on the day.

While we were in the US last year Michael’s brother, Duane, said that he and Kathy were planning to go to Normandy about the time of the 75th anniversary of D-Day. He said they also wanted to go to Northern Ireland to see a place where some ancestors came from. For many years we have wanted to go to Northern Ireland so we decided to meet them there and then go to Normandy with them. When their brother, Larry, heard about the trip, he and his wife also decided to go. Then they contacted their sister, Debbie, and invited her to join the group. Later their cousin, Craig, and his wife also decided to join the group. So nine of us met in St. Mere Eglise and spent four days seeing the monuments, museums, beaches and other attractions of Normandy. It was especially noteworthy as Craig’s dad, Uncle Dean Stanley, was a pilot during the Normandy invasion. It was a very special time of honoring him and the hundreds of other soldiers who fought for freedom 75 years ago.

The Magog Senior Citizens’ Club continues to meet twice each week. Recently they were practicing so they could compete against other clubs in the region in physical games. Despite their age, many of them are very agile and active. Those who excelled will go on to compete against other clubs on a provincial level.

The day care center is doing well. We have 20 children registered, but they don’t all come every day. We have recently hired a cook who prepares meals for the children.

Michael has recently been experiencing some short-term memory problems. We decided it would be advisable to have him see the doctor and determine the seriousness of the situation. So last week we met with our GP and he decided to have Michael admitted to hospital for a battery of tests. He was only in hospital overnight and the tests revealed that there is no reason to be concerned. We praise the Lord for that! The doctor said it could be stress-related so we are trying to scale down even more on his work.

The youth camp for our province takes place this week. Michael was asked to teach, but that required a long trip which is what we are trying to avoid so we decided that he should not go. Pray that the camp will provide meaningful fellowship and valuable teaching.

On June 7th we celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary. Our children organized an afternoon tea for us at a hotel. Our family and some close friends joined us for eats,  cake and a lovely social afternoon. The next weekend we went to a nearby game farm and stayed in a beautiful chalet. We were able to see zebra, eland, wildebeest, impala, warthog and giraffe. A highlight was seeing a very young baby giraffe! We also enjoyed a delicious Sunday dinner of warthog-on-the-spit with all the trimmings!

Pray for us as we are in the process of making some decisions about the future. We are doing some down-sizing in preparation for putting our house on the market. We want to move into a more secure place. We are also making plans to hand over the Umzumbe Bible Institute property where the church, day care center and seniors’ club now meet.

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