Lots of Musicians

On Sunday, the kids ran the service.  From prayers to scripture readings and even leading worship, the kids were in control.  It was amazing to see them play on keyboards and guitars to direct the congregation in worship.  They filled the hall with the sound of their instruments, and believers singing at the top of their lungs.  It was fun to be there and to listen to God’s spirit moving through these little ones.

Conference & Music

Our youth are preparing for an event on Saturday to invite other youth to a conference and some music.  On this day, after their youth meeting, they prepared some huge greeting cards for the activity with the purpose of having the visiting youth write down something that they are grateful for.  This is Thanksgiving week, so we want to remember that God has given us so much.  Pray that we have a good turn out.

Men at Work

After spending “some” time loading, setting up and packing up week after week for the Sunday service, some men in our congregation took over the task, allowing me to focus on teaching music, greeting people and then teaching English.  I can’t begin to express the relief I felt when these simple but important tasks were taken over by the men.  Thanks guys!

Saying Good-bye

After about a year of attendance with us, we said good-bye to a family that came from the founding church to help us for a season.  Due to added activities and responsibilities on their part, they may be back every so often to visit, but their weekly attendance will be sorely missed.  Thanks again Guille and Viri for your encouragement. 

More English?

While teaching English is not our favorite thing to do, for the sake of being able to use a public building, we do it.  This week, we had a breakthrough and the kids and I were able to go over some simple phrases while at the same time play games.  It was fast paced and focused on a few concepts related to words that describe our emotions.  They learned!  I think I like teaching English again!

Pushing our Families

We trust that our trademark is giving families what they need to grow healthy kids and prepare them for the future.  Tracey gave a conference on How to Raise a Modern-Day Joseph.  This was taken from the principles we see in the life of Joseph in Genesis.  I was amazed by lots of facts that I’d never heard before.  The congregation was able to easily see what characteristics need to be instilled in our children and which ones have yet to be acquired.  It was inspiring and motivating.  Wonderful job Tracey in teaching us what’s important!

Celebrating together

In anticipation of a long day on Saturday, the youth met on Friday night to “have their time.”  The meeting was short, but we celebrated both Deriam and Keila’s birthdays that evening.  It was late, but it was fun!

Bringing us ALL together

Believing that a worship team should do more than just sing songs, Kiana led our congregation in worship with three new songs.  People sang loud and they sang inspired as she taught the words to us.  It was a wonderful accomplishment for one so young, and that with a cold and sore throat to boot.  Excellent, Kiana!  You’ve done what few have in our small congregations.

Beyond this World

On Keila’s birthday we all went out to a movie that Keila wanted to see.  To our surprise it was playing locally in English (with subtitles in Spanish of course.)  The movie had our heads spinning, but it was a good way to end the day on Keila’s birthday.

Last words at 16

Keila asked me to “preach” (share) in a service several months back, so we scheduled Sunday for her to share.  She did a great job and best of all, because our building was rented out for another event, we had to meet at the new place – all jammed together like sardines.  She said, “It felt more like a Bible study than a sermon time.”

Continuing Ed.

Tracey was invited to a “mentor’s” retreat this weekend and spent the day with her mentoring group.  While the place they went to was about 3 hours away, it was beautiful and green.  Her only comment was that it was cold, but then again the springs were “hot” springs.

Out in the cold

We haven’t made the move yet to the new place where the youth is concerned.  I like meeting outside the basketball court under a shaded picnic table.  We can laugh, be loud and do some fun things.  Besides, people can see us and the youth can catch up with us if they get there late.

But this week, a cool breeze and an overcast day pushed us to use the new place where we did some games and reviewed our lesson.  Take a look at what we did.  The object of the game is to stand 5 people on top of a plastic bucket turned upside down.

All’s Quiet

The men didn’t do anything big in their use of the new place, but I got to lead the Bible study this time.  We had some breads, coffee and good company – that is some visitors to our group.  But give us another week or two and we’ll do it huge with a cookout and a great lesson via a movie.  Stayed tuned!

Getting used to it

While the kids met in the new house for Sunday school and for crafts during prayer meeting, the women’s group was the first to have an official photo taken of their use of the house.  They settled in with a homemade carrot cake and coffee.  Let’s see if the men or the youth can do any better…

Learning our lessons well…

Those attending our prayer meetings have been studying the basic doctrines of the faith in anticipation of a doctrinal exam in May that will qualify us to be an officially organized church.  Tracey handed out a trial exam to see how we would do.  She was merciful allowing us to form groups of 2 to fill in the blanks of the exam.  Wow, we were surprised at how people remembered the details of the first 4 doctrines.  We only have 16 more to go. Pray for patience!

Praying for maximum effect

After the service on Sunday, we had the congregation hike over to our new house where the kids were having their Sunday school classes.  Two of the men led in prayer and afterwards we held hands to see if our group could make a big enough circle to fill the living room, the hall and the bedroom.  Guess what?  We did! 

We’re praying for the maximum use of our new place.  Help us to be creative in its use.

Family Festival

 

As Day of the Dead has gained popularity in the States, Halloween has found its niche in the Mexican culture.  Wishing that our kids learn something other than dressing up as ghouls and knocking on doors for candies, we organized a fall festival.  The youth had been working on fair-type games for the kids, while the adults forked out some money to buy candies.  The ladies arrived to decorate the place.

 

We had a fun evening of games, crafts, songs and even a Bible story on fear.  And after all that we even had snacks to share with those who arrived.  This was the start of something BIG!  We stormed the gates of hell with our small efforts.

 

The streets were filled with trick or treaters.  Halloween is BIG here.

Big News

Many have been praying for a house for us to rent to hold our weekly meetings.  As many of you know, we have our building’s use only on Sunday.  And in fact next Sunday we’ll be kicked out for an event.  On Friday afternoon one of the members of the church saw a house near our building for rent.  We quickly dashed over to see.  Well, while the rent is a little high, the place is in good shape and even has the front part of the lawn enclosed.  So, you guessed it, we told the owner to take down the “For Rent” sign and we put down a deposit.  The next day, Saturday, we paid the remainder of what was owed.  Thank you so much for your prayers and your desires that we have a place to meet.

A Growing effort

As you may know, we’ve been offering music and English classes over the past year in our building.  The classes have benefited our congregation, but are also open to the community.  It’s been a challenging and time consuming part of our outreach, but has brought some wonderful results. 

 

Well, last Sunday I decided to attend a class offered by one of the men in our church.  He gathers kids and youth on Sunday mornings beneath the covered basketball court near our building and teaches the discipline aspect of karate.  The classes have been going now for about 4 weeks and this week we had some passersby ask about joining the class.  Again, to the church the classes are free, but we charge a token amount to the community.  What a wonderful way to use these gifts to reach out to others!

Teaching them to observe all things

Tracey led a teacher training time for those interested in learning to guide the children in Sunday school.  To our surprise she had 13 new people show up with a desire to help and learn.  We’ve seen some really talented people come up through the ranks instructing the kids with amazing creativity.

Committed

We were glad to have several families come over for our members meeting.  We wanted to thank them and remind them, but most of all give them hope for the future of our congregation.  We have big plans.  Now we just want to pray that they are the same ones God’s been nudging us with.

An enLIGHTening message

Tracey spoke to the congregation on Sunday about the history of Day of the Dead and the addition of Halloween to the Mexican culture.  I believe she had people on the edge of their seats, I know I was, sharing about the impact that these two holidays have had on our culture and the one to the north of us.  Excellent message, Tracey!

This comes on the eve of our Family Festival on Saturday, an alternative to Trick or Treating.