Dear Pastors, Churches and Friends,
February 1, 2017 (Dec. ‘16 – Jan.  ’17)

Things are well here in Mexico.  While I am here, Mary is still in California caring for Joseph.  Speaking of him, Joseph just got his halo off Friday, January 27th.  It wasn’t taken off because his neck is healing well.  To the contray, the cadaver bones that were injected with Joseph’s DNA didn’t fuse with Joseph’s own neck bones as was expected.  This is a bit concerning.  They removed the halo because of an infection around his skull where one of the four screws fastened into his head.  The doctor said once these infections begin from the halo, they often repeat, and the doctor doesn’t want any infection in the head & neck area as it could further prevent Joseph from healing & recovering.  Joseph is now wearing a padded neck support.  Please continue to pray for Joseph.  If the cadaver bones don’t begin to fuse over the next month or so, they may need to do surgery again and remove the cadaver bones, inject Joseph’s DNA into a new set of cadaver bones and implant the “new bones” in his neck.  Of course if this happens, the recovery time would start over and Joseph would need several more months to start healing again.  He would probably revert back to the halo and would need Mary’s help caring for him for another several more months.  Please aslo pray for Mary & I as we are having to be apart for extened periods of time.

The last couple months here in Mexico are best decribed as “explosive.”  At the end of last year, not only was the already active volcano outside the city much more active, spewing out a large, sustained plum of smoke, but also there was a large explosion at a firework factory 20 miles north of us that killed over 30 & injuried over 70.  To add to the turbulence here, in January the government increased gas prices 20%, which increased the cost of goods substationally.  The people are already very poor.  Last year the average daily (not hourly) wage was $5 per hour, now with the falling value of the peso, the daily wage is under $3.50.  This has caused rioting, protest and violence in Mexico.  Along these lines, some of Trumps policies (though I don’t disagree with them), are causing further unrest here in Mexico.  Mexico was already a dangerous place, but these things have made it much more dangerous.  Though this all sounds bad, God is using it to show people you can’t trust anyone but Himself.  We have seen many saved and are planning a baptistism soon.  A few week ago we had a high attendance of 79.  Most of our church people have become very faithful and helpful in the church.  Since we started the church several months ago, every week we have had new first-time visitors.

We nationalized our van and are now awaiting approval of our request for permanent residency.  After approved, we can get license plates and auto insurance.  When we drove our van back down to Mexico City from the Mexican border, we were able to bring much needed ministry items like tracts and Bibles.  We also brought down about a dozen boxes of Christmas Joy Gift Bags from Paul Deem’s DirectLine Ministry.  We gave the bags out on January 8th in celebration of “Day of the Kings” derived from the wise men story in Matthew 2 of the Bible where gifts were brought by them to baby Jesus.  This is actually the gift exchange day recognized by Mexicans here, so the timing was good.

Thanks for your prayers & support, and to those who gave extra for Christmas.  We greatly appreciate your part in our lives and ministry more than you could ever imagine.  We pray for you all, too.  We are “…your servants for Jesus’ sake.”  (2 Cor. 4:5).

Bro. Mike Wallace &Family