Donita

During our first year in Mexico we were blessed to work alongside a very special person. Our friend Donita taught English as evangelism. Our field misses her smile and love for the Mexican people. Last week we had dinner with her and her fiance.

Jesus' Messenger

As Christian drove into Indianapolis this morning he listened to WGNR Radio. Chuck Colson's Breakpoint section came on and he was convicted. We'll let his article tell the rest of the story....here's and excerpt from his organization's website. Click here to see his whole article.

.....That we have been going to church to make ourselves feel good and have our ears tickled. That therapy has replaced truth. There is more than a drought; there is a famine of reading and living by the Word of God.

I think God is telling His people to repent, to get serious about what we believe, to hunger for the Word of God, to seek holy living, and to ask God’s forgiveness.

We need to repent, as well, for not applying God’s Word, and repent for looking for a political savior while neglecting the true Savior. We need to repent for blaming our nation’s moral collapse on the gay-rights movement, or on the media, or on the politicians, and look right at the people whom God expects to know better—those who call on His name: you and I.

Thank God there are leaders who are now getting it and speaking out, like Bill Hybels, who two weeks ago publicly repented for failing to make disciples in his church. Others need to follow Bill’s lead.

We are all missionaries. This we have learned in our time back in Indiana. We pray that this message will pierce your heart as you consider your part in His kingdom!


Colson, C. (2007) The Drought. Retrieved on December 12, 2007 http://www.breakpoint.org/listingarticle.asp?ID=7307

Sharing at our sending church

Last Sunday we shared at Covenant Community Church, our sending church from the states. The church allowed us to take the whole sermon time to share about the progress, challenges, and prayers requests for the ministry in Mexico.

Sharing with more MOPS programs

It's great to be doing ministry in the states. Here Robin is sharing at another MOPS program on time management. We just received news from the Mexico City MOPS that Robin started. They gave news that the MOPS program there continues to flourish and reach mothers in the area for Christ.

What's in a title anyway

Last night we met up with some good friends of ours. They shared with us about their burden to reach high school age kids. In fact for a couple of years they have been adult leaders in a local youth group of about 50-60 kids. Due to some spiritual battle they have felt challenged in the ministry. We all were drawn together as we realized (once again) that no matter where we go or what job we may currently hold, we are missionionaries - ambassadors for Jesus. In our minds these two friends of ours are missionaries. How much deeper in the 'trenches' do you have to be than working with youth who daily are pulled in dozens of directions. It was a priviledge given to us by the Holy Spirit as we encouraged them to continue in their work. We praise God for them!

Meeting our prayer warriors

Today Robin had the chance to meet our good friend Dottie. Her frequent emails to us in Mexico have been so uplifting. She prays for our ministry and family daily. Thanks Dottie for your dedication!

Purpose of our visit to Indiana

We thought we might explain the purpose of our visit home in this post. As many of you know we recently had a baby girl and only 1 family member and a handful of friends from the states have had the opportunity to see her face to face. Our number one purpose in visiting was to introduce Amelia to her family and friends. Needless to say we have thoroughly enjoyed this part of the visit.


Sharing the ministry with our supporters has been another reason for being home. Many of our supporters are family and friends, so we've been fortunate to do both at the same time. Speaking and sharing at mission's conferences has also been on our agenda too. We praise God for being able to share about what God is doing in Mexico in areas like ECC, MOPS, and Project MEFI (Street Kids Ministry).


Pictured is Christian's cousin, Kara, with the 3 oldest kids during a recent visit.

Sharing at CCG

Pictured is Christian presenting the ministry of OMS Mexico at the Community Church of Greenwood's mission's conference.

Sad News

Tonight we got an email to phone some dear friends of our in Mexico City - we called and they told us they had their car stolen last night.... a sweet little red Volkswagen. It was their only car and they are in a real bind now! We feel awful for them and we feel odd to not be in Mexico to support them in person. It is so hard- so hard to even put into words - how it feels to be so far away from Mexico where our life is... and yet here we are in the states where our life was...We feel like we are caught between two worlds and we are not sure where home is! Jesus is teaching us through this that we really are foreigners in this world and that as Christians we will only truly be home in HEAVEN! Please pray for our friends the Rojas Family.

Visiting Prayer Warriors

A big part of our being home is sharing our ministry with prayer warriors. Ethan however had different plans as he introduced his new friend Thomas to sombreros. Our kids are having a great time being with old friends too!

Back Home Again... at CCG MOPS

It was a wonderful privelage to speak to the MOPS group that I was a part of for three years here in the states and to share with them about the MOPS ministry we have in Mexico City. A member of the MOPS group at CCG (Community Church of Greenwood) supplied all funds we needed to start the ministry in Mexico. It was a blessing to share about the lives of the Mexican women and how different and how similar they are to those of the women in MOPS at CCG. Please pray that we will continue to impact peoples lives with the stories of our ministry in Mexico.

The World NEEDS Jesus!

We have been in the states for two days now (we are home for two months to speak at churches and visit with family) and we were driving down the road when we saw this back window of a pick-up truck.... Pictured here are the American and Mexican flags untied by a picture of the Virgin of Guadelupe - an idol that is worshiped in Mexico. We are used to seeing her everywhere in Mexico but we were caught off guard to see her here in the states. It pierced our hearts as we remember that people are turning to so many things when all they need is Jesus! Please pray that we can be a shining light for Jesus to the Mexicans here in the United States.

Work Team

What a joy to make friends with folks that come down to Mexico on short term teams... and it is an even bigger joy when they return for a second or third time to continue ministering in Mexico. In this photo, our friend Steve from Oaklahoma is working construction, for the second time in a year, on the drop in center for the street kids. It has been a joy to get to know Steve and we look forward to his return (with his wife) again in January. Short term teams are a wonderful blessing to the work in Mexico.

MOPS Get together

As we prepare to leave Mexico for two months we decided to invite the MOPS leadership team and their husbands and children over for dinner. It was a wonderful time of fellowship and it was exciting to see how each of the women are growing in their leadership roles. Please pray as the team tries to work together effectively. Pray specifically that each girl will follow through with her commitments.

Still Chasing

It's been about 7 months since Christian had contact with his friend, Sergio. Since he lost his job as a local gardener there has been no communication. Last week Sergio called Christian to ask if the invitation to go to church was still good. So, Sergio, his wife, his little boy and Christian all met at church today. Sergio says he will continue to attend the church. God never stops chasing people!

Carlos and Vanessa

Every week we meet with some dear friends, Carlos and Vanessa (and their son Moses). We praise God for their lives and for the things we are learning together. Recently our Bible Study focused on the Holy Spirit. The next week Carlos shared how he sensed the Holy Spirit's leading at work. He is a new Christian, but it obvious to see that he has been baptized in the Holy Spirit.

A new year of MOPS

Our MOPS (Mothers of Pre-schoolers) group held its first meeting for this year (we follow the school year calendar) on Tuesday the 9th and it was wonderful! The MOPS leadership team this year is incredible and they are working hard to incorporate new ideas and to reach out to the women in the community.
At our kick-off meeting we were honored to have Valetta Crumley, a dear friend of ours from Greenwood and a missionary for over 50 years, come and share with the women. Valetta's life is an incredible testimony to the ability to rejoice in the midst of horrible, hard situations. Indeed we can have joy and hope regardless of what we face when we have Jesus. Her story of living through losing her small son at age 4, her husband to cancer, years later losing her two teenage children to a car accident and being raped while on the mission field all work together to help us realize that life is only worth living in Jesus. Valetta's powerful testimony impacted the women greatly and started our year of MOPS focusing our eyes on Jesus. We praise God for this wonderful meeting.

Celebrating the First Year of House Churches

The other day, Christian had the opportunity to be a part of the First Year Celebration for one our house churches. The "House of Vicki" is the name of the church. A little over a year ago one of the ECC teams found Vicki, a person of peace, in the northwest area of Mexico City. A person of peace is someone who is open to the power of the gospel message, a new Christian, and someone who is willing to host a church in their house.

Now, a year later, Vicki and the congregation is celebrating their first year. Although not all the family is on-board, the church continues to thrive. We had 30 in attendance for the service and 5 accepted Christ! God has used 1 person of peace to grow this tiny church to 30 strong!

Isabel, the daughter of Vicki, prays at the beginning of the service.

Vicki, pictured on the left, opens the service in prayer.

Worship time was full and the presence of the Holy Spirit was clearly felt.
The "Wind" blew through the house and congregation!

One of Christian's responsibilities was to transport the youth to the local ECC office. As you can see in the pictures the house living room is very small (about 10 x 12).

Pictured is part of the youth group. By teaching kids over the year many parents have started coming to the church out of pure curiosity of the stories their kids have shared.

Faith vs. Sorcery

Last month Christian was placed on a church planting team just 25 minutes north of our house. During a house church service yesterday a lady by the name of Joany shared that her mother-in-law had "cleansed" her son, Daniel, of a recent sickness. She went on to say that her mother-in-law practices sorcery & card reading. Joany in fact had gone along with her mother-in-law on several occasions, however she is a new Christian she didn't know how sorcery stacked up against Christianity and Faith. Salvador, the team leader for this area, simply called the sorcery what it was: sin, and the backed it up with passages from Deuteronomy. Please pray for this new Christian, Joany, and her family as she puts on the full armor of God to combat this real present danger.

"Cleansing"

At a recent visit to the zoo we came upon some Aztec "cleansers." The people that are receiving this healing actually believe that ancient Indian gods can heal them of any infirmity they may have. This is just another real way that the enemy has gripped this country.

Independence Day

One of our favorite times of the year is the "Dia de Independencia" - Independence Day for Mexico. This year our National Church Assembly invited all churches to participate in one "Noche Mexicana" Celebration. Over 300 people were in attendance at the Seminary Building - one of the best attendance numbers ever. "Viva Mexico" is shouted throughout the evening, but "Viva Cristo" was the reason we really celebrated. Here are some photos of our family and friends from this very fun evening.....

Put you ponchos on.

Robin with the kids.

The 4 of them.

Maddie and Sabdie - Sabdie is one of Maddie's good friends at church.

Robin and the MOPS leadership cooking up "Papas Fritas" - Fried Bananas - YUM!

Traditional Mexican Dancing.After the celebration we went over to some a Mexican friend's home for some great food, fireworks and sparklers. This kids made it all the way to midnight!

ECC Board

Recently Christian was named to the ECC Directors Board. His responsibilities will include working with 4 other men (2 from OMS and 3 from Mexico) to direct the work of ECC which is charged with planting churches in Mexico. Please pray for wisdom and guidance for these men as they lead 5 teams of church planters in the Mexico City area. Their names are Alexis, Joel, Jonathan, Miguel, and of course Christian.

Tultitlan Celebration

On Sunday the 9th our family celebrated the 14th year of the Tultitlan Church. This community is very poor with as high as 60% unemployment. Desperation leads to so many issues, but we pray that it will lead this community to a point of crisis that results in their finding Jesus. We covet your prayers for this church and it's pastor, Jonathan. We praise God as well for 14 years of ministry in this area of the city.
At the end of the evening it was time to cut the cake. As tradition states, everyone starts yelling, "Quiero Pastel" - which means I want cake! The pastor definitely had fun hamming up the histeria with yelling and lots of laughs as you can see with Robin and Ethan.

A Full Turn Around

Today after our church service one of our previous English students was waiting at our car wanting to speak to Christian. His name is Benigno and Christian had eaten lunch with him the week before and shared the Gospel message with him. Benigno told Christian during the lunch that he was not a believer in Jesus and that maybe one day he would consider it but not right now. Today when he met Christian at our car Benigno told him that he had been thinking a lot about what Christian had shared and that he wanted to follow Jesus but he wanted to do it his own way. Christian talked with him for a while and encouraged him to go into the church service that was about to start and arranged to meet with him again this week.
The Holy Spirit is chasing Benigno. As we loaded into our car to come home Benigno walked away from the church, not into the service. Christian said to me, "Look Benigno isn't going in - he is leaving. Well, that is OK, I am meeting him again this week." Then suddenly as Benigno was leaving the church property he turned around and walked back to the church. On the way into the building he stopped at our car window and with a smile said, "I will go in."
We praise God for Benigno's literal turn around - that he went into the church service - and we pray for a spiritual turn around- that Benigno would give his life to Jesus. Will you pray for Christian as he meets with Benigno this week?

UNIFAM National Assembly

This week Christian had the opportunity to witness the UNIFAM National Assembly. The purpose of the assembly was to conduct business and guide the direction of the young national church organization. Their are 10 established churches in Mexico with about 25 house churches. Christian was impacted greatly by the spirit of unity and love amongst the pastors and church board. In the past we have heard that the meetings have been far from unity. We praise God for the Holy Spirit's interceding and intervention.

A bit of background, and why this assembly was so important: OMS started the work in Mexico in the early 90's. However a key purpose of OMS International is to raise up nationals to take over the ministry of evangelism, church planting, and leadership training. Foreigners reaching another nation for Christ is good, but the better option is when nationals reach their own. In Mexico these nationals are represented by UNIFAM (literally a denomination set up by OMS to facilitate this hand-over of ministry). We may be years from handing all of the ministry over to UNIFAM, but they have complete governance over almost all 10 established churches.

UNIFAM will also be directly involved by guiding ECC (Every Community for Christ). In the past this has been exclusively governed and operated by OMS, but now both UNIFAM and OMS are teaming up very much like Paul and Timothy did in the New Testament. In the case of ECC, UNIFAM is starting to have more and more ownership in the work here in Mexico. Christian will be directly involved in the direction this takes as he will be 1 of 5 on a new board directing the work of ECC.

Pastor Alexis

A special ceremony was held Sunday at church as our Alexis Saucedo was installed as Senior Pastor of the Campanario church. Previously a missionary had held the title of Senior Pastor. We praise God for this transfer to a Mexican national. Our goal as missionaries here in Mexico is to train and equip Mexicans to reach their nation for Christ. This hand over of the position of Senior Pastor is a perfect example of what we want to see accomplished. Please pray for Alexis and his wife Alicia as they lead the church.Here leaders of the UNIFAM church pray over Alexis and his wife Alicia. (She is expecting a baby any day!)

WE DO!!!

This past Saturday at our church 11 couples said "I Do" as they wed in a joint ceremony. In Mexico couples must be married in a court by a judge to be recognized as married by the law. Having a church wedding is symbolic of including Jesus in your marriage. Some of these couples had been civilly married for over 40 years but had recently become Christians and thus wanted to wed in the church. Others, we wed civilly only days before the church wedding. Once couple shared that they had been waiting to marry until they could afford a church wedding. This joint wedding offered to couples by the church was free of charge. All the couples had to pay for was there clothing and rings.
It was an awesome celebration as Jesus was invited to be a part of these 11 marriages!

Hello Again!

Two weeks ago we were blessed to visit with a gal that served here in Mexico for three months when we first arrived in 2005. She was an incredible blessing to our family and to the ministry here. It was wonderful to hear how God has used Melissa in the past year and half and to be reunited with her.
One of the most difficult things about being missionaries is that there are a lot of comings and goings. This is especially hard as people climb into your heart and become part of your family. We are in prayer for our kids as it is difficult for them to understand that they may not see people they love dearly again this side of heaven. What a blessing it was for our kids to see Melissa again - she is a real favorite for them!














Melissa with Joshua in Dec. 2005















Melissa and her fiance Barry with Joshua this July 2007.

Festival of Hope

We received this email from a lady who came to Mexico City on a short term missions team with her church last year.... we think this idea is AWESOME!

"You know that Mexico had a big impact on many of us last year and God has been speaking to us. The outcome is that we were really challenged by the way you all have a vision to reach Mexico City for Jesus. We thought of our little home town of 8000 people of whom probably only around 800 - 1000 ever go near Church. We are now holding a mission for a week this year instead of sending a team overseas. We have called it 'Festival of Hope' and are so excited at the opportunities God is opening up for us. The Festival will run from 18 to 25 August and includes loads of events such as: Family Fun Day, Christian Concert for young people, Songs of Praise evening, Kids' Clubs, Lunch for Retired people with a speaker, Lunch for all the traders in our town with speaker, Ladies' Evening, Breakfast for Men, Pub Quiz with speaker for young people, Mums and Toddlers morning, Bar-B-Q and celebration, Bus parked in the town serving teas, having Christian literature, using this to meet with people to talk about Jesus and pray with people. We also have a caravan planned to use for prayer for our town. We've made booklets to go into every home and DVDs of testimonies of people from our Church. Would love you to pray for this."

What could you and your church do to reach more people in your city for Christ?

Armagh Team

One of Christian's favorite things to do in ministry is to help lead short term mission teams to the streets with Proyecto MEFI. Proyecto MEFI is the name of the organization that facilitates the care, compassion, outreach, integration into society, evangelism, and discipleship with key Christian Churches in Mexico City all for street kids. Christian is honored to a part of this effort. Pictured is Christian translating Andrew's testimonial (from Northern Ireland), the street kids praying, Alex (a Proyecto MEFI worker) sharing from Mark 7:14-23, and a street kid with Christian.

VBS Kickoff

Last night we had the opportunity to see Maddie perform in the church's Campo de Verano Obra (VBS Play). You'll notice Maddie say her line like a pro and sing and dance as well. It was great to see Maddie in ministry.

Dairy Queen

One of our closest Christian Co-workers are Alexis and Alicia Saucedo. He's the pastor of our church & she works as a teacher and MOPS coordinator with Robin. We've had the opportunity to visit the Pacific Coast together and while we were there we enjoyed Dairy Queen more than one night (American Style Ice Cream is very difficult to find).

So we've been on a quest to find a DQ somewhere in the central valley. The day before Amelia was born Alexis and Alicia told us they had a surprise to show us. So we traveled for about an hour into the center of Mexico City and sure enough there was a Dairy Queen. It was a complete delight to be with our good friends and their kids....and good old American ice cream!

Short Term Missionaries

Today we said goodbye to one of our short term missionaries - Kristen. Her role was teaching English and video taping the work that UNIFAM and OMS do together here in Mexico. As the short term missionary coordinators we are charged with planning out, following through, and evaluating their work. Kristen made it very easy on us as she often took the initiative to make relationships. The OMS Team and many Mexicans will certainly miss her and her smile.

Acting Field Director

As the current acting field director Christian has gotten to view all the ministries for OMS Mexico while our field director is out of the country. It is interesting to see how all the OMS Missionaries and the National UNIFAM Church work together at all levels. Please pray for us as we balance having a new baby and manage the OMS Mexico Field.

Sowing Seeds......from a long time ago

We received news the other day that a good friend of ours Israel just accepted Christ. His story is a typical one (in the states and in Mexico) where the wife is a Christian and church member and the husband does not want anything to do with church or Jesus. But praise God that he just accepted Christ. He is attending another church, but his wife Alejandra assures us that he is growing. I (Christian) remember a cold night about 7 months ago when he and I stood outside of the church during a holiday program. During that conversation we talked about religion and Christianity. I simply asked him the 4 questions to Christ. He was not ready though, but it goes to show that we must always sow seeds - we never know when the truth of each seed will sprout into a relationship with Jesus for a particular person. I remember being nervous as I shared - but I praise God that he was able to listen and take to heart what the scripture says.

MOPS Year Finale

We celebrated our "closing" MOPS for this school year last Tuesday. It was a wonderful day of testimonials from the MOPS leadership team and the women who had participated during the year. Several women shared how they regretfully used to scream and yell at their children or discipline them too harshly and how different speakers during MOPS had changed their parenting. Others commented on their growth in the Lord and still others about how they have learned how to play with their children..... so many lessons learned through the year. I praise God for the beautiful opportunity He has given me to work with these precious moms and look forward to the coming year.
Adrianna, one of the moms serving on the leadership team shares the lessons that the Lord has taught her this year through MOPS.

MOPS moms gathered at our closing celebration.

Breakfast for MOPS

Our church has allowed our MOPS (Mothers of Pre-schoolers) group to be in charge of cooking and selling breakfast at church one Sunday a month to raise funds for MOPS. This allows us to invite women to participate in MOPS free of charge.
Here we are selling breakfast after our church service. (Notice my big belly.... only two more weeks until due date!)
Two of our MOPS moms looking out of the kitchen area of our church.... We generally have 6 or 7 moms helping to cook and serve and we earn around 70 dollars towards each time towards paying for the expenses of our MOPS meetings.

Foundry Team

Last week our second team for June worked on the drop in center for street kids. During the week of construction I had the opportunity to lead part of the team to the Niños Heroes group.

Pictured are 2 street kids (Salvador and Carlos) that listened to the gospel message. We are very hopeful as they both were very receptive to the word.

Ardamore Team

Two days ago I had an opportunity to lead a team from Ardamore, OK to the streets. They have been working on the drop in center construction as their main focus for the trip. On this day though I was touched by what one team member had to say...

...."The experience of going to the place where the young people hang out was
very heartbreaking. It was sad to see young kids ages 12 to 13 years
old high on sniffing glue and other substances. We were greeted with
smiles and a special handshake, but as they spoke to us, they weaved back
and forth trying to keep their balance. They would only make slight eye
contact with us and many times we would have to repeat ourselves. We
spoke with women who looked older then they really were because of being
years on the streets as prostitutes. One young man who was 24 years old
said that he had been on the streets for 20 years. This was a great eye
opener for the team. We will return home to relate this to our
church, encouraging prayer support for the Street Kids and the
missionaries working with them."

Pictured is the team praying after the gospel had been shared.

Chapel Sharing

Each Wednesday our seminary holds it's weekly chapel. From time to time the seminary asks guests speakers to come and share. Yesterday Robin had a the opportunity to share about an important lesson the Lord had shown her years ago about priorities.

She used potatoes, beans, and rice to explain her point. Each size of food represented importance or priorities of life. The potatoes obviously were the 'big' things in life - the things most important in our lives - important but not always urgent. The rice represented the lower priorities in our life - things that are not necessarily important but urgent. The rice sometimes fills our jars of life so much that there is not more room left for the potatoes.

She visually shared that if you place the potatoes of life in your jar FIRST, then the beans and rice could easily fit in the jar AFTER the most important things in life had been given their time.

It was neat because I (Christian) ran into some of the seminary students later in the day and they shared how much Robin's talk meant to them and how much it impacted their thinking. I know that the Lord used her talents and time to show the students how important it is to "Seek Him First", and then family, and then church, and then ministry, etc.... , etc....

Wesley College Team

We were recently blessed to have another team on our field. Pictured is the Wesley College Team during an orientation at one of our new house churches. Their goal was to pass out all the tracts and invitations seen on the table - Mission Accomplished! Coordinating teams is one of our responsibilities on the field.