Dear Fellow Believers

It is so hard to believe that two-thirds of the year is over. We ask ourselves, have we done all that God had planned for us to do, and are we trusting in Him to complete the work? There can be so many distractions but as we keep our eyes on the Lord and know that He is in control, then there is no doubt that God is using us to complete His mission.  

The hot weather has been relentless again this summer.  Although all the hurricanes and storms missed us, we did get some much-needed rain from them, and still hoping for more.  

Here on the home front, we continue to use the facilities to assist brother and sister workers of the gospel. We have a church from the area that likes to rent the dorms, dining hall and church building for retreats. We also are having pastors from the interior of Mexico come to stay awhile in order to minister here in the states to help raise funds for their ministry and families.  

My parents, Melvin and Anna, are doing well. My mother is pretty healthy body wise but were praying for strength and memory for her. Dad is doing well and keeping busy here at the homebase, since we decided to retire the motorhome travel. He has prayer on Facebook every morning at 7:30 and teaches on the Holy Spirit on Sundays at two in the afternoon . He is also planning on teaching a Spanish course online this winter, if anyone would be interested, you can contact him at 956-571-9907.  It is a great blessing that mom and dad are still with us, but trying to care for them and keeping up with the ministry has been a challenge, so we had to hire a caregiver. She recently had to leave to take care of some personal business. But God has our backs and is blessing us with another young lady, Kimberly from Pennsylvania She is flying down this coming week to fill in for a few weeks, months. Who knows what God has in store, He just shows up and takes care of our needs and opens new doors before we can even ask or think.  

Our food pantry is growing and is needed now more than ever. The area around us used to be all farmland, but now the majority has been turned into subdivisions to house the illegal immigrants flooding across our borders. It doesn’t take long for the word to get out that Flame of Truth provides food for those in need. We trust God to provide the means to handle the rising costs in providing the food to this growing community.  

We just completed the 2024 Vacation Bible School (VBS) in Mexico. This year exceeded our number of children we had planned on reaching.  We expected a total of six hundred children, and over one thousand showed up.  It will take three trips into the interior to get it all done. Pastor Rosendo organizes the events and gathers helpers to take with him. Richard and I went with them on one trip to Vera Cruz where we served four churches. I had not been into the interior for three years, so I was really excited and blessed to be a part of it. What made it even more exciting was that teenagers showed up and many accepted the Lord as their personal Lord and Savior.  

One of the villages in Vera Cruz, named Ramal, didn’t have a church building, so we held the VBS under an open pavilion. The lessons were about a soft heart for God or a hard heart from sin. Later, the pastor approached a man that was known as the drunk of the town and asked him if he would like to receive the Lord. He said not at this time because he had to ask forgiveness, he did not mention to who. At the end of the night, a couple of the pastors went to visit him at his house. He had a very humble home with dirt floors. There he and his wife both accepted the Lord, and they were so grateful to the Lord for their miracle. They shared that their daughter was not able to attend school because they did not have the money to purchase her school supplies. She received exactly what she needed for school that night at the VBS. How awesome is the Lord.

While we were at another one of the churches in Vera Cruz, the pastor informed us that their church roof was damaged in a hurricane and desperately needs replaced. He wants to put on a cement roof to withstand other hurricanes, so the cost will be around nine thousand dollars.  He asked Flame of Truth for assistance in purchasing the materials. I know that God will send in the funds to meet their needs, according to His riches in glory.  God uses all of us to plant the seeds in faith, if you say that is you, sponsors would be greatly appreciated.

Pastor Rosendo and his group are in the interior on the third trip this week of VBS in Tula where we normally had one hundred children and we are expecting that to grow as well. Pray for the Lord to prepare their hearts to receive and for the move of the Holy Spirit to change lives.

Along with the VBS teaching, we give school supplies to the children that attend. We give them notebooks, pencils, pen, glue, scissors, crayons or colored pencils, erasers, and pencil sharpeners. We usually give them a few notebooks each, but Pastor Rosendo is handing out as many notebooks as each student needs for school this year, some as many as six notebooks. The students must copy all the materials from their textbooks into their notebooks, including the pictures. So, every time there was another VBS trip planned, Richard and I had to make trips to Walmart to purchase more notebooks. I am interested to see how many notebooks we handed out this year.  

Three weeks ago, Richard took a trip into the interior with Pastor Rosendo to celebrate the 10th year anniversary of our mission in El Cañon, SLP.  While there he fell in the dark and injured himself, he was in so much pain. He returned home and had ex-rays done and found he had broken 3 ribs. We are so thankful to God for his quick recovery, he is feeling so much better now.  

It is now time to turn our thoughts to planning the Christmas trips. We like to attend the same churches and share the gospel and bring the joy of Christmas to the whole families. With God growing the churches, we are believing God to provide a budget of five thousand dollars this year. If you would like to be a part in sharing the birth and love of Jesus Christ this Christmas and show them the love of God in a gift, please pray and consider sending financial assistance by the middle of November. You can donate to “Christmas 2024” by sending a check to Flame of Truth, or through the bank app Zell, using 956-778-3616 id number, or donating through flameoftruth.org website by debit or credit card.  

I pray God’s blessings on you, and thank you for your support throughout the years!!

Your servants in Christ:
Richard and Linda Hough
Melvin and Anna High