Continuing the work...

Earlier this year some dear friends who served here in Mexico with us for 19 months heard the Lord call them back to Mexico - but only for a weeks visit. During that time, Robin and Bebe visited friends they had made during their service here with a real burden to once again share the gospel....and praise God several responded and asked the Lord Jesus into their lives. Upon their return to England they asked us to pray about discipling some of these new believers. Well, for the past month Christian has been meeting with Raul and Lucrecia, Edmundo and his family and Carlos and Vanessa every Sunday before church. It has been a time of great blessing and growth. We are feeling however that we need to invest more time in these new friends and we ask for prayer and wisdom on how we proceed to disciple and build friendships with each couple.
Would you be willing to pray for each family? Specifically, pray that none will drop out of meeting and that they will continue to attend church. Please pray for Gina as she has not yet attended our meetings - pray that she will begin to be a part of this small group. Pray that we will build deep friendships with them and that they will grow in their relationship with Jesus.
Thank you for praying with us!

Good-bye Gary!

We have posted in the past about the joy of having short term missionaries serve here. Gary Thompson has been in Mexico for a little over a year and he returns home to Northern Ireland this Monday. During retreat we celebrated his year of service and we laughed and cried. Gary is one of the hardest working, kindest, most wonderful people we have met and we are so thankful that Jesus crossed his path with ours. Thank you Gary for who you are!

Gary and Ethan together.

We laughed so hard at Gary's good-bye party as we played hysterical games.... it was such fun!

Missionary Retreat

This past week we participated in a retreat for all of OMS Mexico missionaries. It was an incredible time. In fact, one of our fellow missionaries, Jonathan, who has served in Mexico for over 12 years said in the closing that he felt it was the best retreat ever - not because of location, or our speaker (although he was awesome!) but because there was such a sweet communion between all of us as missionaries - the spirit was so sweet and the Lords presence was easily felt.

Our speaker was Barney Davis, he is a Christian counselor who works full time with missionaries. He brought us a message based on the stresses of missionary life and with a focus of looking at all of the passages in the Bible when Jesus says, "Follow Me." We particularly benefited from Barney's teaching on grieving.

We took over 250 photos on retreat - we just felt as though we wanted to catch every moment - it was such an awesome time!

Our team ate in a family restaurant that specially prepared fresh shrimp and fish (all caught that morning) just for us! It was delicious and a wonderful taste of the local specialties!
Our retreat was held in the city of Veracruz on the Gulf - The city was beautiful and we took time as a team to explore a little!

Christian, Gary and Jonny in full business attire for the retreat - I am sure they were talking about strategic planning or something important here!

Our hotel had direct access to the beach and the kids had a great time playing in the warm ocean water!
Veracruz has the largest aquarium in Latin America. The kids were most impressed with the sharks!

Retreat Season

This is the time of year for retreats....at least here in Mexico. We have participated in two retreats in the last month....The first one united all of our UNIFAM pastors, our church planting workers, missionaries and every ones families for a time of Bible teaching, relaxation and relationship building. It was an amazing time for us to spend with our Mexican co-workers.This year's teaching was on holiness and it was an excellent time. We praise God for each person we have the privilege to work with here in Mexico.

Thank You

Bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Thank you dear friends for your cards and emails and flowers and phone calls - for pouring out your love on us during this hard time - our burden has been lighter because so many have come along side of us and held up our burden with us.
We want to praise God for the missionary family that rallied around us during this hard time - They rushed to our sides in real practical ways.... Robin Efing cared for our kids the first day we left (spending the night on our couch!), Carol came to our home and packed Amelia's and Robin's clothes for the trip to California, Jonathon and Lupita booked our air travel and drove us to the airport at 4 in the morning, Aunt Kay and Uncle Leroy came to the house and loved on the kids and Kay ironed our huge pile of wrinkled clothes, Margaret phoned us in California from North Dakota where she was attending a funeral to tell us she was praying and she loved us.... and Jonny and Julie canceled their vacation plans with their dear friends Mark and Rachel who were visiting from Northern Ireland (sorry Mark and Rachel and thank you so much for understanding!) and they stayed in our home and cared for our kids for four days.....
and they all prayed... Robin Efing told us that the morning after we had heard the news she could not sleep very well - she awoke very early and just dedicated the morning to praying for Maddie.
We are certainly forgetting other things that our fellow missionaries did for us during this past week - We are thankful to each and every one.
It is no secret that life on the mission field can be stressful - and that one of the leading causes of stress for people on the field are other missionaries...and as a team we too have our moments. But we can testify that the love and support we felt during this past week was a testimony to the "team" we are and to the beautiful ways we, as a body, are growing more holy and more reflective of Christ.
We are thankful for each person we serve with and for the practical ways they loved on us and our family. Thank you team - we love you and appreciate you.