December 2022 Newsletter

Rainbow Ministries-Tu Projimo / Getsemani Children’s Home

From Bud & Ruth: On April the 8th, 2024, we will have a total eclipse of the sun and according to our local Eagle Pass newspaper, and even though it is over a year and a half away, the city has already started getting phone calls regarding reservations in the town's hotels. “The city of Eagle Pass has been identified as the first city in the U.S. that is in the direct path of the Total Solar Eclipse. We are within the “path of totality” and are considered to be the top spot with the best view in the entire U.S.!! The eclipse is to last a total of four minutes and 23 seconds. It will be an almost total black-out and the city is expecting an influx of tourists and visitors. Right now we are known for receiving 3,000 illegal immigrants each month. Maybe we will become a famous tourist destination!! Quien sabe?? (who knows?)

We just returned from the 61st annual “Original Mexican National Association of Free Will Baptists” convention. We had a great time. Juana had our house all ready for us on the convention and Bible Institute grounds and it felt great to be able to sleep in my old bed once again. Things are somewhat different in Mexico and one thing I was reminded of this trip was that the bathroom in our house has the hot and cold water faucets backwards, which I am used to. However, this trip since we had five people staying there, and the commode was flushed a lot, I realized that after about the fifth flush, the water was steaming and one of the older pastors who helped build the house years ago before Fred and Barbara Jones lived in it had accidentally hooked the hot water line up to the commode.

The day after we returned, my incubator hatched out 50 quail and 20 chickens. It takes the chickens about six months to start laying, but the quail start laying in a couple of months or so. Ruth and I both eat 4 quail eggs and turkey bacon with homemade biscuits every morning. At our age, we have stopped worrying about cholesterol.

Last Sunday, we had two four-door State Police pickup trucks come to the Children's Home and told Paulina that they would be back Monday with a load of toys & food for the kids. We watched for them all day, but they did not show. But, typically Mexican, they did show up on Monday, only one week later!! I have heard men say, “I will be back on Wednesday to work on the plumbing”, but I have learned that means “sometime in the future I will be back to work on the plumbing”!!

Our electric bill broke a new record this month! Over 20,000 pesos. That is over $1000 and we have two houses with the roofs covered with solar panels which doesn't seem to help. We are still trying to find out from the electric company (government owned) why we don't have credit for the solar panels.

One of the girls just found a hidden duck nest with 8 or 10 eggs in it, so I will be going over and restarting my incubator and see if they will hatch.

We thank you so much for your prayers and financial support. We could not exist without your support. You will be able to read John & Paulina's newsletter below.

Bud & Ruth Bivens
Rainbow Ministries - Tu Projimo
338 N. Monroe St. PMB 359
Eagle Pass, Texas 78852

From John & Paulina: It is with a heavy heart that we report that Grace, the little 16 month old baby, and Christopher her two-year-old cousin, have been adopted into 2 different families. I say with a heavy heart because we know nothing about the families other than they are not Christian. They are also from Saltillo so there's little to no chance of us being able to visit and see them again. We were all completely blindsided by this. We were given 3 days notice for Grace and 2 days notice for Christopher. Apparently the family who adopted Grace had been on a waiting list for one year and had finally been fast tracked to adopt a baby. It is interesting because when we adopted our girls, we were able to change their names the day the adoption went through and their birth certificates list Paulina and I as their birth parents.

Social Services has said that there have been so many children adopted and then taken back to Social Services, that they are making the families wait one year before changing the birth certificates.

I believe it was about one day after Gracie left with her new parents that Social Services brought 4 new children to the children's home - four brothers and sisters from the same family. They tell us that they will probably be with us for quite some time. We never know exactly what the situation is and sometimes don't find out until years later when the children start to speak about their past. Since Sister America has a full house, Sister Paulina brought the new kids to our home, where we have mainly had teenagers for the last couple or 3 years, and it is funny to watch Sister Paulina. She has told me several times that she has grown accustomed to having teenagers in the house and not little children.

Along with special prayer requests for these 6 children we also have a special request for a pastor in Southern Mexico. His name is Esteban. He went to seminary at the same time as Paulina and I in Reynosa, Mexico. I almost ran away from home because of Esteban when I was in Bible college. I spoke hardly any Spanish, understood very little in the classes I was taking and took hundreds of pages of notes and translated every word into English every weekend to understand what was being taught. Esteban however, continuously made fun of me every single day I was there.

One day I just had enough and decided to leave. Sunday morning I got up in a bad mood, being depressed and wondering what I was doing in Mexico. I had left north east Oklahoma with lots of hills and curves and great highways to ride on a motorcycle, and moved to South Texas where highways were flat and straight for hundreds of miles. So I got in my truck and started heading back to Oklahoma. I did not say goodbye to anyone and figured I would just call mom and dad and my brother when I got back to Oklahoma and let them know. I got as far as the Immigration checkpoint about an hour north of McAllen and decided I should probably just pull over and pray about things. I had not wanted to, because I knew God would tell me to go back to Mexico. Sure enough, that’s what He told me to do. That evening I had dinner with my parents and I was telling my mom what had happened and she commenced to scold me and tell me, I thought you were the great "Moose", who had done everything and could do anything, and you're gonna let some bully run you off from Mexico. That actually kind of hurt, so Monday morning I got up early and went back to Bible college in Reynosa.

Esteban is now a pastor in the mountains near Panuco, Mexico. I had not known during our time together at Bible college but Esteban has epilepsy. The pastors at the national convention in Mexico last month informed Paulina that "Stephen" has really battled with his epilepsy and to get his medication. I know that there is at least one group of people that send money to pastors down south and Esteban is 1 of them, however It appears he sometimes does not receive enough money to purchase his medication and sometimes he will take half doses to make it last. My brother has epilepsy - I actually was with him during one of his grand mal seizures and I know I witnessed many petit mal seizures. I know his life would be completely different if he was not able to have his medication. Please pray for Esteban, and if you feel God leading you to help him with his medication you can get in touch with me or my dad and we will make sure he gets enough money to not have to worry about that again.

In another newsletter we had mentioned the property around us is being parceled off and sold as lots. We have received one donation to put towards those properties. We would like to purchase at least 4 lots. Isaac and Blanca have devoted the last 6 years to the ministry and we have not been able to pay them near what he would be making as a professional out in the world. They also have no property or anything outside of the children's home. Blanca's sister Kelly, who is blind, also has nothing to her name. When their mother was killed, her father spent all of their inheritance and squandered it away. Renee and Rogelio are 2 young men with fetal alcohol syndrome. They have been with us for almost 23 years now, and cannot function on their own out in the world. Dolores is a single mother who has been at the children's home for close to 14 years. Of course all of these people will always have a place at the children's home as long as they want, however if anything were to ever happen to Paulina and I, we don't know what the next generation of leadership would want for these people.

God willing before anything like that were to happen we would have a good solid family prepared and ready to take over the ministry. If God lays on your heart to help with purchasing part or one of these properties or later on building something on them, please let us know.

The children are all doing well. Everyone is anxious for Christmas Vacation. We have a large group from Louisiana State University coming at the end of this week and the children always have a blast hanging out with those young people.

We are also trying to set up more information to be sent out to our email list of recipients for the email. If you have not signed up for the email newsletter, and would like to, please send us a note with your email address and we will get you on that list. We are hoping to start sending out a weekly or at least bi-weekly update with pictures and more detailed information about the children's home and the ministry in general.

Paulina and Rocio went see the main lawyer for Social Services this morning - this is the next step for her adoption to be completed to a family in Oklahoma. Every time we think about her going to live in Oklahoma we get so excited, thinking about her going to high school, college and starting a new life and then the reality sets in that she will no longer be here with us. I'm a big cry baby......

  • Special prayer requests:

  • Sister Ruth,

  • Grace and Christopher,

  • the 4 new children who have arrived at the children's home

  • General support. We have had a lot of unexpected expenses the last few months.

Thank you all for everything you do for us and for this ministry. We honestly could not be here and keep going without you. Thank you to those of you who have sent financial donations, food and clothing donations, and prayers!! There is a family in Nevada who has never been here and we have never met and sends a clothing donation every few months. It is a huge blessing to me personally just to know that someone so far who has never met us is thinking about us. And so many of you who lift us up in prayers. Thank all of you so much, we hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving with family and friends and we hope you have an excellent and awesome Christmas. God bless you,

John & Paulina Bivens
Getsemani Children's Home
338 N. Monroe St. PMB 373
Eagle Pass, Texas 78852

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