Dear friends,
Thank you so much for your prayers and concern for us over the past few days..... We wanted to post an update.
As we are preparing to leave Mexico and return to Indianapolis permanently our days of "don't leave the house" have been filled with packing and sorting and in just an hour a moving company will come to load up all of our things. We had planned to stay in Mexico a few additional weeks to wrap things up, say good-bye and participate in a few final ministry opportunities.... (Robin was scheduled to speak to 4 different women's groups.... but only got one completed before the swine flu outbreak)...
Due to the current health situation here in Mexico we have decided that it is best for Robin and the kids to leave Thursday morning and get back to the United States. Christian will remain here in Mexico a while longer.
Thank you for your prayers and your love and concern. We ask prayer for our safety and health and for our hearts - as they are hurting deeply at our departure. It is especially difficult to need to leave so suddenly without having a chance to say our proper good-byes.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
Swine Flu
Today the atmosphere around us was one of much panic as news of the swine flu virus in our area spread rapidly. All schools in our area have been closed as have museums, colleges, church activities -really anything that involves the gathering of lots of people.
Please pray for the protection and health of all of the missionary kids.... and that the Lord will calm the hearts of the people who are afraid and in a state of panic right now.
We thank Jesus for His amazing protection and we thank each of your for your prayers.
Please pray for the protection and health of all of the missionary kids.... and that the Lord will calm the hearts of the people who are afraid and in a state of panic right now.
We thank Jesus for His amazing protection and we thank each of your for your prayers.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Annual Retreat
We just returned last night from the annual retreat of Pastors, missionaries and church planting workers. What an amazing time it was.... although hard for us as well as we said good-bye to many. We have been truly blessed by the four years we have been able to serve here in Mexico. Never would we have imagined the heart-break and pain we are feeling as we prepare to leave. We leave feeling excited though about all the work that will carry on here. Indeed, Jesus is moving hearts here and people are accepting Him and growing in Him. God is good!
Gathered together for a time of awesome teaching about evangelism.... We are excited to put to practice all we have learned!
A poolside meeting.... as often happens much brainstorming took place during free time. Here Christian meets with Miguel (our national church President) and Alfredo (the national church secretary). It has been a great joy for Christian to work with these two men that he has grown to love and respect greatly.
We said lots of good-byes....and shed lots of tears. Here we are pictured with a dear family that works planting house churches in a near by town. We are humbled to have had the opportunity to work alongside such tireless servants of Jesus.
Gathered together for a time of awesome teaching about evangelism.... We are excited to put to practice all we have learned!A poolside meeting.... as often happens much brainstorming took place during free time. Here Christian meets with Miguel (our national church President) and Alfredo (the national church secretary). It has been a great joy for Christian to work with these two men that he has grown to love and respect greatly.We said lots of good-byes....and shed lots of tears. Here we are pictured with a dear family that works planting house churches in a near by town. We are humbled to have had the opportunity to work alongside such tireless servants of Jesus.
Praise GOD!
Last Saturday we had the wonderful privilege of accompanying some house church members (over 100 of them!) to a near-by water park for baptisms! What an amazing day..... 12 were baptized and several others accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior. After the baptismal service everyone stayed and enjoyed the day playing in the sun! We always say that our Pastor (Alexis) is an expert at two things..... glorifying Jesus and having fun! This day was a wonderful combination of the two!
Everyone gathers to sing praise music and prepare for the baptisms.
Alexis and Heriberto baptize a young boy.
As soon as the baptisms were over everyone jumped into the pool and played!
Everyone gathers to sing praise music and prepare for the baptisms.Alexis and Heriberto baptize a young boy.As soon as the baptisms were over everyone jumped into the pool and played!Thursday, April 09, 2009
Huatla
Christian recently lead his last team as an OMS Mexico Missionary. He has worked for about 9 months setting up the next mission project for the H2O Church in Oklahoma. The purpose of the trip was to determine the needs of the Huatla community in the mountains of Hidalgo, Mexico. Huatla is pronounced "Whatla." Six people went along on the trip to investigate the possibility of assisting the UNIFAM Church there with the construction of the local church and training local farmers in increasing their crop and animal production. The local language is Nauhtl (Na-what-el) and although many do speak Spanish, there were times that Christian could not communicate with the locals due to the language barrier - even right here in Mexico there are some who can't speak Spanish!
The area is very poor. Most houses have only dirt floors. Few have running water. Most do have electricity, but its really spotty. The local church was planted by a local UNIFAM church here in Mexico City. There have been two missionaries assigned to this area over the past 18 months. BUT, these missionaries are Mexicans from the Mexico City area. We believe this is a great sign of maturity in the Mexican leadership because they are starting to send out their own as missionaries. We PRAISE God for this!
The local church has started to plant house churches. Here is a church service we visited.
Here Steve (from H2O Oklahoma Church) and Martin (a missionary from Mexico City)
discuss the plans for the church roof.
Church service with a plastic roof. There were about 70 in attendance.
We don't think the standards are the same between US churches and
Huatla churches regarding the admittance of stray dogs - All are welcomed!
For Christian coming from a farm background, a very satisfying part of the trip was seeing how open the locals were to accepting the agricultural expertise from the states. Here Steve shows how to design a drip irrigation system to Memo, a local farmer and a leader of the community. The team from Oklahoma hopes to train him so that he can train his community.
This video is a clip of the worship service at another house church.
They are singing in their native Nauhtl language. Can you guess the tune?
The area is very poor. Most houses have only dirt floors. Few have running water. Most do have electricity, but its really spotty. The local church was planted by a local UNIFAM church here in Mexico City. There have been two missionaries assigned to this area over the past 18 months. BUT, these missionaries are Mexicans from the Mexico City area. We believe this is a great sign of maturity in the Mexican leadership because they are starting to send out their own as missionaries. We PRAISE God for this!
The local church has started to plant house churches. Here is a church service we visited.Here Steve (from H2O Oklahoma Church) and Martin (a missionary from Mexico City)discuss the plans for the church roof.
Church service with a plastic roof. There were about 70 in attendance.We don't think the standards are the same between US churches andHuatla churches regarding the admittance of stray dogs - All are welcomed!
For Christian coming from a farm background, a very satisfying part of the trip was seeing how open the locals were to accepting the agricultural expertise from the states. Here Steve shows how to design a drip irrigation system to Memo, a local farmer and a leader of the community. The team from Oklahoma hopes to train him so that he can train his community. This video is a clip of the worship service at another house church.
They are singing in their native Nauhtl language. Can you guess the tune?
Friday, April 03, 2009
Our future plans....
Dear friends,
It is with lots of mixed emotions that we send you this news about our future plans. It is with heavy hearts that we announce that we will be leaving Mexico City in May to return to the Indianapolis area. WHY? Have we struggled with the country and our Mexican co-workers? Absolutely NOT! We are in love with this country and we have made some of the very best friends in our lives with the Mexicans here. What a privilege it has been to serve here. Is the work stagnant and frustrating? NOT at all! The ministries here are booming, people are coming to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior….. OMS is having a mighty impact here for the kingdom of God! Are we discontent with OMS? Are you kidding? We count it an unbelievable honor to serve with such an amazing organization…alongside so many talented people. Indeed the last four years here in Mexico have been some of the most precious years of our lives so far.
Then why?
Our simple answer is that we are confident that God is calling us back to the Indianapolis area. And we are thankful to share that He has provided an amazing job opportunity for Christian with Elanco Animal Health. Christian will have the privilege of working for a company he has long respected in a job he feels was custom made for him. The blessings of Jesus are plentiful indeed! We are also excited to see how Jesus will use our love for the Mexican people (and our imperfect Spanish) to reach out to the rapidly growing Hispanic population. Over six years ago God gave Christian a clear vision of a plan for ministry in the Indianapolis area to Hispanics and we are excited to see how the Lord will bring this plan to fruition as He directs our ministry involvement.
We are also excited to keep our affiliation with OMS and hope that we can volunteer in the organization as the leadership sees fit.
For those of you that support us financially...we would ask that you would pray about continuing to support us through the month of June at which time we hope to have a get together to share in person (we will also be communicating through email) with you about the work here in Mexico and some ways you can continue to support the ministry. We also have some friends that serve with OMS that we would like to present to you for your consideration.
Thank you for the prayers, support, and love you have shown us over the past years. We appreciate your prayers as we prepare to transition back to the states. We will be updating our blog lots in these next few weeks with updates and of course with reflections on the many lessons Jesus is teaching us as we begin to walk through this major transition.
In Jesus,
The MacKinnon Family
It is with lots of mixed emotions that we send you this news about our future plans. It is with heavy hearts that we announce that we will be leaving Mexico City in May to return to the Indianapolis area. WHY? Have we struggled with the country and our Mexican co-workers? Absolutely NOT! We are in love with this country and we have made some of the very best friends in our lives with the Mexicans here. What a privilege it has been to serve here. Is the work stagnant and frustrating? NOT at all! The ministries here are booming, people are coming to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior….. OMS is having a mighty impact here for the kingdom of God! Are we discontent with OMS? Are you kidding? We count it an unbelievable honor to serve with such an amazing organization…alongside so many talented people. Indeed the last four years here in Mexico have been some of the most precious years of our lives so far.
Then why?
Our simple answer is that we are confident that God is calling us back to the Indianapolis area. And we are thankful to share that He has provided an amazing job opportunity for Christian with Elanco Animal Health. Christian will have the privilege of working for a company he has long respected in a job he feels was custom made for him. The blessings of Jesus are plentiful indeed! We are also excited to see how Jesus will use our love for the Mexican people (and our imperfect Spanish) to reach out to the rapidly growing Hispanic population. Over six years ago God gave Christian a clear vision of a plan for ministry in the Indianapolis area to Hispanics and we are excited to see how the Lord will bring this plan to fruition as He directs our ministry involvement.
We are also excited to keep our affiliation with OMS and hope that we can volunteer in the organization as the leadership sees fit.
For those of you that support us financially...we would ask that you would pray about continuing to support us through the month of June at which time we hope to have a get together to share in person (we will also be communicating through email) with you about the work here in Mexico and some ways you can continue to support the ministry. We also have some friends that serve with OMS that we would like to present to you for your consideration.
Thank you for the prayers, support, and love you have shown us over the past years. We appreciate your prayers as we prepare to transition back to the states. We will be updating our blog lots in these next few weeks with updates and of course with reflections on the many lessons Jesus is teaching us as we begin to walk through this major transition.
In Jesus,
The MacKinnon Family
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