Our current project:
 Building a House 
for a Mexican  Christian Family In Mezcala

Spreading the Gospel of Christ
For the last three years, Luis and Letti Ramos of Mezcala have opened their home to us to present the Gospel of Christ, first to their own family, and also to their neighbors. With Luis and Letti's direct assistance the previously spiritually bound doors of Mezcala have been swung wide open.

It is from Luis and Letti's home that we present the Jesus Film to as many as eighty adults and children at a time from the village of Mezcala. Luis and Letti also allow us to use their home as a central distribution point of audio cassettes and CDs of the Spanish New Testament Bible, along with Christian Spanish Bibles, tracts, booklets, and other written materials. 

 Click here to see our web page of the Jesus Film being shown at Luis and Letti's house 


Luis' Family Home
Before passing away eleven years ago Luis' mother willed her three-room family house to Luis and his wife, Letti. It's not much of a house, being over one hundred years old, with deteriorating yellow mud brick walls in and out. The uneven floors are a mixture of mud and small stones packed hard as concrete from more than a century of bare feet walking on them. 

The plumbing in Luis' house that is used to carry the water from the village water supply, when it is actually made available to them, consists of PVC pipe and a garden hose that are moved about from kitchen sink to the Pila (wash tub) out back as needed. The electrical wiring causes me concern as it consists of extension cords pieced together. 

Still, it is the house Luis was born and grew up in, it carries a lot of fond memories for him, and he loves it. So... after inheriting it, he and his wife, Letti, moved in. They have continued to care for the house as best as their finances will bear, and pay the taxes and utilities for the last eleven years. In his noble manner, Luis also has allowed his aged father to live in the house with them. 

Over the years Letti has cooked and cleaned for her husband, her children, and her father-in-law without a word of complaint. She is a kind and loving young woman and we respect her greatly for her responsible attitude toward her family. 

Legal Problems
Unfortunately, Luis made a serious mistake eleven years ago. To his detriment, he did not have the title of the house transferred from his mother's name to his own after she passed away. Not understanding the legalities of such issues, Luis had mistakenly thought the hand-written and signed Will from his mother was enough to secure his ownership of the house.

Family Issues
About two years ago, Luis' father decided he wanted to see America and moved to Los Angeles, California to live with his daughter (Luis' sister) and her husband, and their four children. Luis' problems with the house began eleven months ago when his father returned to Mezcala along with the sister, husband, and their four children... and they all moved into the house with Luis and his wife and four children. Because his father, sister, and her five family members arrived in Mezcala broke and had no work, Luis took on the expenses of caring for all of them. 

As a dutiful husband, father, son and brother, Luis has supported a total of thirteen family members for the last eleven months.

Families in Mexico are normally very loving of each other, and even with 13 people jammed in the three room house, things went alright for awhile. But of course, the ruler of this earthly realm hates those that promote the Gospel of Christ and soon began his work against Luis and Letti.

Trouble
Luis' sister's oldest boy is 13, and before moving to Mezcala was involved in gangs back in Los Angeles. The boy has already started up a small gang in Mezcala, made up of a few foolish and bored kids, all flying their colors and flashing idiotic hand signals, and trashing dozens of walls with graffiti. Having a gang in your neighborhood is a real nuisance, costs a lot of labor and paint to cover over their usual egocentric "artwork", and often times somebody gets hurt. In Mexico you tend to tolerate such things to keep peace among neighbors and family.

However, regardless of the cultural norm, and no matter how much you love your extended family, at times the circumstances become a situation that has to be assuaged. Luis and Letti have had their own personal nephew gang member and his homies living in the three-room house with them and trouble has multiplied exponentially over the last eleven months. First there was Murder Rap "music" being played at all hours of the night in the house, along with raucous gatherings on the street out front, which continues today. I've heard the music, the lyrics are vile... Luis and Letti do not listen to unwholesome music, and it has grieved them greatly that their boys have now heard the lyrics to such iniquitous music. If that wasn't enough, then things started coming up missing... personal items of Luis' and Letti's, the children's books and toys, a CD player, and then, what little cash they had put away for food was stolen.

When Luis could take no more he spoke to his father telling him that his sister and her family had to find a place of their own. After all, the sister and her husband had not held a job in nearly a year, had contributed nothing to the cost of utilities (which had doubled in cost to 500 pesos per month since they moved in), paid no rent, purchased no food, nor cleaned up after themselves. 

God's Holy Spirit
The conversation between Luis and his father took place on a Thursday night three weeks ago. Before that night I'd last spoken with Luis a few weeks prior, and even then he'd not mentioned the issues at home. That Thursday, the same evening Luis told his father he could not afford financially or emotionally to care for his sister and her family any longer, I had a strong urging from God's Holy Spirit to go see Luis and Letti. I mentioned it to Sissy and we began gathering food, Christian teaching materials, and clothing for their family and neighbors, as we usually do when we go to visit.

Since Luis has no telephone, the next day I arrived unannounced at his home. Letti greeted me at the door with bruises and scratches on her face and hands, and her eyes were red and swollen from crying. I'd never seen Luis so down in his spirits. He was depressed and looked hopeless. As he greeted me, his usual cheerful bear hug felt feeble, I knew there was something very wrong.

Disaster
After Luis had spoken with his father the night before, please excuse the terminology, all hell broke loose. Luis' father went to the sister and told them they had to move out, and the sister, her husband, and the 13-year-old nephew first verbally attacked Luis and Letti, then physically attacked them. The sister and her family tried to literally throw Luis and Letti out into the street. Luis is a gentle person, small in stature, and he would not return the blows, but God was with him and he was able to cling to the door facing and not be forced out of his home. Letti, out of respect for her husband would not fight back against his family, instead as she had read in the Bible we'd given her, turned the other cheek, and they struck her many times.

Ongoing Trouble With No End in Site
The sister and her family have now set out to torment Luis and Letti into leaving. The Murder Rap plays day and night and punk kids hang out at Luis' doorway all hours of the night. The nephew curses Luis almost every time he sees him and threatens Letti and the children. The village government won't do anything to correct the situation, stating that "after ten years the hand-written will is no longer valid", and that "Luis should share the house with the entire family".

The brother-in-law has built a cardboard wall across the middle of the house taking more than two thirds of the total space for his family, leaving Luis' family with a single 8 by 9 foot room for the six of them to sleep in. Their living room is now the 3-foot-wide entrance foyer with no exterior doors to protect them from the elements or the nephew's gang member friends. Letti has been forced to use a 6x6 foot bodega (storage shed) located outside as her "kitchen", with no plumbing, electricity or fixtures. The sister took over the water well located in the rear yard and now Letti has no water supply an average of two days out of the week when the village turns off the municipal water due to pump issues. Luis continues to pay for the 500 pesos per month electric bill and for the city water for the entire house with no assistance from the extended family.

By now I'm sure you've come to recognize that Satan is attacking these kind people that have helped bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to their lost neighbors in Mezcala.

The inset image above shows a close-up of the 100-year-old mud brick work. The white arrow I've added points to competitive gang graffiti that has been applied to Luis' door post since his nephew began his own local gang. Luis has managed to remove part of the graffiti, which can cause retaliation for altering a gang's "signature"... Luis told me, "This is my family's home, I will not allow graffiti on my house". Good for him! Our God is with him.

What some would mean for evil, God has caused to be for good. Many years ago Luis and his younger brother, who now lives in Tijuana, bought a small lot in downtown Mezcala. They both began building little houses on the property, but as is common here, ran out of money after only raising four walls with no floors, no roof, and no windows or doors. Fortunately, Luis does have the correct papers for his half of the lot and the house he'd begun building. I've seen the papers, they're official. 

There is HOPE!...

NEXT PAGE:

Page Two - Click here to see and take part 
in what we are doing to help Luis and Letti...