July and early August have been months of opportunities. We’re excited about what has happened since our last letter. We continue to make sports contacts, playing soccer. Our summer computer class for the kids (and parents) was a good opportunity to make some connections for the future. Our English class for teachers went well. We’ve gotten some cultural experiences under our belt, and Eddie has gotten more and more comfortable with life and ministry down here.

Health clinic
We had a meeting with the community health committee at the health clinic to plan our participation in Adolescent Health Week in September. Our plans are to bring in a couple dentists, to offer nutritional advice to kids, to offer rock climbing and rappelling, and do some abstinence education. The meeting went so well that all the attendees decided that the gringos needed an introduction to Mexican food (actually, I let it out that Eddie needed an introduction). So they decided that they would make chalupas for us. Mmmmm…chalupas….For those who have been corrupted by Taco Bell or just don’t know, chalupas are tortillas covered in green or red salsa, a dry cheese, onions and shredded meat, then fried in lard. Horribly bad for you, but they’re very good (unless they’re cold). This was so typical of Mexicans, so generous and kind and eager to share their culture. So we gratefully benefitted! It also was their way of welcoming us to their team. So we are part of the community health team here now! We trust that there will be lots of opportunities for ministry that come out of this. And more good food!

Sports
We’ve been playing a lot of soccer lately, trying to build relationships with people. It’s going well. Sports can be a slow evangelism process, but so is gaining someone’s trust. We’re praying that’s what will come of this time.

English
Barbara-Lee does a fantastic job of teaching English. She’s come up with really creative activities, she picks up on students’ strengths and weaknesses, she’s encouraging, but firm. She makes it a pleasure to participate! We only had three students, so the three of us went one-on-one with them. The students got 16 hours of English and hopefully came away with something to grow on. Additionally, we were able to witness some to them.

Summary
These are just a few highlights of our summer. We have been active, not crazy-busy, but busy enough to feel that some good foundations have been laid. We’ve been doing more of a thorough job of documenting our work via our web site, www.theglessners.org. We’d encourage you to keep up with us there!

Help Wanted
English teachers: this is an area in which we could definitely use help, either of the short term or long term variety. In another area of Puebla a missionary has making great inroads into a neighborhood really concentrating on English–in 5 years they’ve had over 900 students! This has been an effective means of building relationships with people, sharing the Gospel and starting house churches. We think we could see something similar here, if we had help. Barbara-Lee’s first calling is our kids right now. It’s unlikely in the near term that she’s going to have the time or energy to do 10-20 hours of English teaching/tutoring work each week. So we’d love to have someone down here with us with ESL training/experience. There would be so many great opportunities to do things. So please pray about this with us and, if you might fit the bill, think about coming down for a few months to help out!