Mission Accomplished

So, we finally taped Miguel's preaching. He gave 3 sermons that lasted about 30 minutes each. We will use these DVD's that will have the sermons and worship in traditional and house churches in Mexico. The project is all a pilot, which means that we are just "trying it out" to see if it will fit in the Mexican culture, but we believe there a many ways that this could help build the kingdom in Mexico and beyond.
The moment Miguel finished he was almost in tears with joy. He said that he felt the Holy Spirit was in the studio helping him along the way. The previous day was a frustrating one for him as we practiced in Ardmore. He mentioned that several times through the day he told God, "I can't do it." He asked God for perseverance and the ability to communicate to an audience that he could not see. He prayed for hours during the night and asked God to give him peace and to guide him with the words to say and expresiveness on his face to communicate the message with excellence. When he woke up at 6 a.m. he felt total peace. The plan was for the first sermon to take about an hour with re-takes, etc., but he nailed it on the first go. We never once had to redo even part of one of his sermons. God was in it! You can see Miguel's joy as he finished.

Rett became a good friend of Miguel.
He will be on the trip to Mexico representing the Ardmore team.

Chuck is the pastor at H2O Ardmore.
Miguel and he had a great time sharing about life as a pastor.Special thanks to Steve and Vicki, and Barry - the Lead Pastor of H2O. Thanks for a great visit! We will never forget your hospitality!

On the Way to Video

Today we finally arrived at an official studio to tape Miguel's sermons. Plan A, B, and C have all failed us, but we know that God's plan never does! So, here we are in Oklahoma City - a city that was never part of our plans. We can say now that we are thankful for our time waiting, because it has given us time to pray and plan.


Along the way I had to take advantage of the situation by snapping some photos of Miguel in the snow and other things that he is not accustomed to like round bales, and snow balls.

traveling through the ice

....We received news today that Northwest Arkansas (our destination) had lost all electricity due to ice on the power lines.....Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails!!!

So we were forced to stay in southern Oklahoma at the Ardmore H2O Church. Miguel was able to practice preaching and being video taped. Our new plan is to go to Oklahoma City tomorrow morning and do the professional taping. There seems to be many obstacles on our road here, however the Lord has blessed our time as H2O and UNIFAM were able to do some strategic planning and helping solve each other challenges.

The biggest praise in this came as Christian and Barry from H2O were able to plan out how our seminary in Mexico could use technology developed at a local university to start teaching online courses for Mexican church planters and pastors.......for FREE! Creating online courses to offer Mexicans a seminary education has been a dream of OMS and the Seminary due to the obstacle of distance, traffic for many of the potential seminary students. There now exists the possibility of starting online courses as soon as March of this year. The possibilities could be endless.

Christian in the States

This week Christian and Miguel (our National Church President) are in Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. They are there with H2O Church filming 3 sermons to bring back to Mexico and be used in churches with no or fledgling pastors. It has been a bit rough going especially for Miguel. He isn't accustomed to January weather in the States. You can see Miguel bundled up and ready to head out into the aftermath of an ice storm that hit as we landed in Dallas. We attempted to drive through it, but decided to turn back and stay at the home of some friends our ours - The Swigerts. We later found out that almost all schools in the state were closed due to the weather! Pray for our safe travel today - that we can make it to Arkansas, the location of the taping.

Miguel getting an ice scraping lesson from Steve.

Praising God for Northern Ireland....

Maddie and I (Robin) just returned from a one week trip to the beautiful country of Northern Ireland. We were thrilled to have the opportunity to travel there as the country has grown quite special to us. In our years serving in Mexico we have had the privilege to work with 8 different missionaries from Northern Ireland and with numerous teams who have come to serve on short term trips. What a joy it has been! God has really laid Mexico on the hearts of the people of N.I. Here are a few photos and a few prayer requests.......The country is beautiful. Period - there is not much more that can be said...It's beauty is only surpassed by the graciousness of it's people. We have never felt so spoiled or loved!
A true highlight of the trip was attending a charity concert put on to raise funds for returning missionaries Jonny and Julie Pollock and their son Ben. It was an awesome time of praise and worship..... I felt so renewed and recharged spiritually from the event! Please pray as more concerts are lined up to raise funds for the Pollocks. The next one is this Friday night. Pray that unbelievers in attendance would have their hearts softened toward God.

Here Maddie is pictured with Jonny, Julie and Ben. Please pray that the Pollocks will be able to raise all financial support necessary so that they could return to Mexico this spring.

Here Maddie and I are pictured with Leslie and Brenda Reid and their daughter Darina. (Baby boy Liam was asleep!) Leslie and Brenda are ready to return to serve in Mexico and are just waiting on funding to be complete. Please pray for their health....That the Lord would keep them all perfectly healthy and that their funding would be complete soon.
Gary, pictured with Maddie, served in Mexico for a year with us. He is recently married to a wonderful gal named Rhonda. Please pray for Gary and Rhonda as they become settled as a married couple and as they seek to honor God with their lives.
Julie is pictured above with Mark and Rachel. Mark and Rachel have visited Mexico twice now - once leading a team from their church. Mark will graduate from Bible school this fall. Please pray that the Lord would clearly direct his path as he prepares for ministry.

Carol and Andrew and their children, Tabitha and Oscar, pictured above were our first introduction to Northern Ireland! They have been serving here in Mexico for several years now....They were here in Mexico while we were in N.I. but we got to meet up with their family and explore their hometown. Pray for them as their ministries continue to expand and evolve. Pray for strength and wisdom and continued good health.
Finally, there is a wonderful ministry in Northern Ireland called a charity shop (like a Goodwill store) with all of the funds coming to benefit ministry here in Mexico. Please pray that God would protect and bless this amazing ministry.

Thank you for your faithful prayers of all that happens here in Mexico!

Feliz Dia de los Reyes

Today is the Day of the Three Kings here in Mexico. As has become our tradition over the last 4 years we celebrated last night with our friends Yadira and Raymundo and their kids. On this evening you eat a traditional "Kings Bread" (pictured above with all of the kids). Each person cuts their own piece and then searches inside to see if they have a little baby Jesus hidden in their piece. This year Ethan was the one in our family to receive a treasure in his piece of bread!
Then today, on the day of the Three Kings we headed to a fabulous play place in the mall with the Agnew family.... It was such a blast! Our kids were so happy to all be together - they are as close as cousins! We decided we should get everyone's photo together with the three kings (the Mexican equivalent to a photo with Santa)..... Carol and Robin had to participate as Tabitha and Amelia were not so sure about the Kings!

Feliz Dia de los Reyes!