Acting in our blood…

Our Sunday eve service had both the youth/adults and the kids present plays to remember Christmas.  The kids gave us a traditional look and the youth/adults gave us a humorous message to not forget Jesus during Christmas.  LOL (did I really do that?)

Calling Ba…, California…

One of our youth along with his family headed up to California earlier this month to see his sister and his newborn nephew.  The youth group prepared drawings (no words allowed) to share with David via skype.  It was a time to connect with him while away from Mexico.  It was a fun evening with lots of laughter.  Hope you enjoyed it, David.

Things will be slow

For some, the Christmas holidays don’t end until the Three Kings Day when most kids get their gifts.  So we’re forced to slow down, rest, plan and anticipate where God will take us in the New Year.   

Thanks so much for your faithfulness this year,
praying and giving to the work in Mexico.

Everything’s still quiet

While businesses opened up as usual and we managed to get what we needed from the grocery store, things were slow.  So we had a yummy lunch and settled in for a movie night at home.

Late, but heart-felt Merry Christmas

We had a great Christmas Day with a wonderful breakfast, some presents, but most of all we invited a single-parent father along with his son to a turkey dinner.  And a new believer stopped by to enjoy the trimmings, all the way from Acapulco where she’s been living for the past month after leaving our area.  It was a great way to celebrate.

 

Lots of homemade gifts - like this one to me from Keila

At the New Place

Several weeks ago, I took a picture of some of the women gathering in our new place for a Bible study.  They were the first to use the place officially.  This week I took a picture of the kids after their play practice showing off other aspects of the place and the characters that they are.  Hope you enjoy the photo.

Kids practice

With our Christmas church service just days away, the kids are working on a small play of the birth of Jesus for the congregation.  Our “lights” celebration has in the past been a time of singing Christmas songs, presenting Christmas plays and with the lights out – lighting the room with candles.  We hope to have a time of fellowship after the service on Sunday.

On the dotted line

The same afternoon of our baptisms, we invited the newly baptized to join the congregation officially as members.  Another family also went forward to sign our membership book and become new members of the congregation.

Into the Water

Those who could from our congregation hiked up the hill to the founding church where we presented four for baptism.  Mother and son, as well as mother and daughter were baptized that day.  God is so good to allow us the privilege of helping these believers profess their faith on front of a bigger congregation.  Great job, Saira, Deriam, Madai and Daniela.

Great talk

On Sunday Gerardo gave his message.  It was well thought out and clear just as he had practiced several days before.  My youngest daughter said, “Dad, it was easy to follow, and to write down the main points.  I believe that is what a message is all about.  Now it’s up to us to put it into practice.  Great job, Gerardo!

Practice makes perfect

A week ago, several of the men got together to listen to a sermon that was to be given the following Sunday by Gerardo.  He had spent several weeks preparing it and gave it to a select group to get their feedback.  He did a great job, and was very clear in giving his supporting points to his sermon on the value of suffering.

What did we do?

Last week, our local staff – Tracey, Maria and I – sat down to fill out an evaluation of how we perceived our progress this year.  I enjoyed hearing about all that we had accomplished together with the congregation, as well as how we can do it all better.  It was inspiring.

I did the same at the founding church the day before, listening to the leaders in a larger church.  One of the questions that struck me, and it must have been God that inspired me to write my answer was this…

In one sentence, define how you felt during this year of service.

My answer was, “I feel motivated by the participation of the congregation to stretch themselves in new areas of their lives.”  God is so amazing!

Praying for Safety

Christmas season isn’t only a time to to give gifts, but to enjoy the birth of Jesus.  The pastor of the founding church encouraged us as staff to pray for the missionaries in the country during this time of the year.  He cited that aside from being a dangerous time of the year with people out of work, and a rise in robberies and personal assaults, kidnappings are also up.  And the kidnappers see foreigners as an easy target.  So we prayed for the safety of the missionaries that we know in the area, that God would keep them from harm.  I needed to hear that!  And I need to continue to pray that for others…

Men don’t Cry!

This was a statement one of our men made during Sunday’s service.  “Men don’t cry… unless their wives leave them, then they can’t stop” was the comment by a single dad.  During our men’s meeting a space opened up for the men to share struggles, and one of the guys realized for the first time the reason why he should be attending the men’s meeting – to share what he can’t share anywhere else.  This was the first time I’d seen a deeper movement of God’s spirit touch their lives.

Rewards are Great!

For all the hard work done by the youth over the past month: they created our very first “Family Festival” for the kids with fair-style games; they took care of the little kids while the parents attended our Parenting Seminar; and they organized and ran our youth conference and music on the last Saturday of the month; we rewarded them.

 

We took them all to the movies on Saturday to watch: “Big Hero 6.”  It was a big laugh, and all of our youth enjoyed the outing.  Those who turned into me their first 6 lessons on 1 John (we’ve been studying 1 John in youth group) got their ticket for free.

On Revelation…

 Maria was asked several months ago to share about our hope today and tomorrow.  She spoke to the congregation from Revelation where it describes Jesus.  I was glad to hear an exegetical message shared simply and flowing logically.  We’re working with different ones to share God’s word in a way that is understandable to the congregation.  Congrats Maria!  Great job.

Great Meat!

A rare staff outing took us over to a small town east of the city about two hours to enjoy eating “cecina,” marinated meat.  After the meal, we took a long walk through town and into the countryside.  We even managed to stumble into a local “flea” market where not only were crafts sold, but livestock!

Back in the Saddle

This was the first Sunday where I got to preach again.  While our attendance was low due to a long weekend, I enjoyed sharing God’s word with those who attended.

A Great Act to Follow

Each church that was invited to the youth conference was also invited to present some songs for the youth to sing together.  The time of singing came after the conference and brought great excitement and movement to the youth.

Needed Advice

Our youth conference and music had a very special speaker sharing on youth relationships.  Tracey led the youth through some fun exercises and a much-needed talk on dating. 

A Time of Thank You’s

Our mission got together in Mexico City to celebrate Thanksgiving a day early with turkey and all the fixings.  It was a warm sunny day to see friends and spend time together.

First One!

Keila got accepted to her first choice university, Calvin.  We’re all excited about her pursuit of higher education.  Congrats Keila!  They enclosed a portion of her essay in her acceptance letter.

A Tough Act to Follow

One of the ladies who regularly teaches the kids on Sundays taught the congregation last Sunday.  Her first words were, “Close your eyes and when you open them, you are all ten years old.”  She prepared a message much like she prepares her kids Bible study – with lots of enthusiasm and creativity.  Everyone was on the edge of his/her seat wondering what was coming next.  There wasn’t a distracted child or a wandering eye.  Congratulations Adi for your excellent work with kids and now with adults.

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.