"I am small and despised, yet I do not forget Your precepts" (Psalms 119:141)

The word small could mean small in number, or small in years, or small in rank.

And despised. Treated with contempt, passed by, loathed. It may have come as the result of rank, age, poverty or religion. Regardless of the cause, the pain of being despised surely hurts. It is hard to take reproach and ridicule.

Little--but he remembered the precepts of God. This made him big. Little in the eyes of men. Big in the eyes of God. The perfect God and the imperfect man have completely different standards of littleness and bigness, which make it possible for the same person to be so little and so big.

Life is made up of littles that are valuable. The day is filled with little beams of the sun, and the night is magnificent with the little twinklings of the stars. When nature chose to give the world something rare and beautiful, she made it little: little diamonds, little pearls and little gold nuggets. Even the Sermon on the Mount is little, but the person who obeys it becomes a giant.

Let us not despise the little people. They may be the keepers of the precepts. And in that case, they are giants the world is too blind to recognize.

I read that this morning and I liked it. It made me think of how the the Lord is in control of all of us little ones, the smallest detail in our lives does not go unnoticed by Him. We went to Cd. Obregón three days ago to start the paper work process we need to start visiting the prison there once a week. Dan never wanted to stop his Thursday morning Bible study he had started while there. But, as I shared with you before, the prison has a rule for inmates that have been released not to be allowed inside the prison for a period of six months after their release. We are hoping though, to get a permit to go in before that time is up.

While in Cd Obregón we needed to find a particular person, but we didn't have a phone number or an address for him. The Lord worked out the details, using one of those little ones of His, for us to find the house of this person and we were absolutely amazed at the way He orchestrated everything. We are now waiting for an answer. We also had the opportunity to visit this young lady we met in prison as she visited her husband there. Her name is Dulce and she has two children. Her husband's name is Marcos and Dan had the opportunity to share the gospel with him some while there.

We have purchased our tickets! Lord willing, we will be flying from Tucson to Nashville November 18th. We will still visit some of our friends, but not all the ones we would have wanted to if we had driven. 'Charley & Renee, we would have loved to stop by your place in Arkansas, and in fact were planning on doing that. Thank you so much for the offer, perhaps another time though...'

Daniel's perspective: What an honor to know the Lord and to walk with Him. We were reading last night in Las Minitas about when Peter and John were used to heal the man that had always been crippled. After being confronted with their "crime" Peter clarified things. "If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole" (Acts 4:9-10). What was their crime? Healing a man that was helpless. After their defense, this is what was noted about them: "Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus" (Acts 4:13).

Jesus does that to a person, He changes them from the inside and takes the people that the world considers to be "losers" and pours His treasures into them. The important thing is that when He uses us, it is Him that should be recognized as being the author and finisher of any good thing that is accredited to our account. That was what the apostles learned after their failures, that it was all about Him and that although they watched Him going off to heaven, His promise was to be with His disciples till the end of the earth. Now, that might not be too far off the way things are going, but not to worry, He will be with us ALWAYS!

So, the little ones, the forgotten ones, the unimportant, the unpopular, the unworthy, can all be like the paralyzed man and leap for joy and glorify God, He has come down to us and is calling all to follow Him. He has taken our filthy rags and has clothed us with His righteousness!

PRAYER REQUESTS FOR RANCHO MARANATHA, ALAMOS, MX.
Pray the Lord to grant us the opportunity to go share in the prison as He sees fit.
Pray for Ramsés and Angel, they are both in prison innocently. Dan spent a lot of time with this two guys. We are in touch with Ramsés as he is from Mexico City and has no family close by. It will be a blessing to be able to continue to share with these guys, and whomever else the Lord leads us to share with. If the opportunity presents itself, I (Ana) would like to be able to share with the women there.
Pray for Dulce as she is having a hard time coping with having her husband in jail, having to work and take care of her children. She is not a believer.
Please pray for our travel plans and for all the the things to go smoothly during our absence here at the ranch. Pray for the Coopers, Roshon, Rogelio and the girls that will be responsible for carrying the work on. For the Lord to lead them all and use them to His honor and glory.

"...Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!" (John 4:35).

We love you all very much,

Daniel & Ana