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.

In Memory of Anita Reina

We are in California now and we are celebrating the life of Robin's mom....of our kids Grandma who passed away Tuesday, March 25th. It is a dear and precious time as we sort through pictures and share stories of memories. Thank you to everyone for your kindness, prayers, and support. We feel as though we have the greatest friends in the world and we are beyond thankful.
Many of you have asked so we thought we would post here that in lieu of flowers gifts may be made to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Central California.
Please continue to pray for us to keep an eternal perspective on all we are passing through.
Praising Jesus, Christian and Robin

Baptism of a Friend

There is no better day in the year to be baptized than on Easter Sunday. We praise God that Raymundo, a friend that Christian has been discipling, was baptized today. Christian was fortunate to be able to baptize him. Please pray for Raymundo as there are many giants facing he and his family. Please pray that he can find a job soon and continue to be a light for the Lord.

New Church

Christian recently had an opportunity to visit one of our new churches on the southside of Mexico City with the Asbury Team. The church became an official UNIFAM Church last August. He was there to visit the pastor in what he has termed the “Listening Tour.” It is vital that he build relationships with all of the pastors in UNIFAM for his new role. Please pray that there will be a willingness to be open with sharing between Christian and the pastors of UNIFAM.

Notice the proclamation on the top of the picture, "Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever."

English Class – Mex-i-Kids

Robin and Julie recently ended their time with English Classes at a local church. Many new families were introduced to the church through their English Class. Please pray for these new families as they learn more about who Jesus is and can be in their lives.
The little boy standing next to Julie was interviewed all in English. He received a nice round of applause for his interview with Julie.

Sharpening Your Inter-personal Skills & MOPS

What a joy it has been to begin working through the Sharpening Your Interpersonal Skills class with our leadership team for MOPS. Almost all of the gals on our leadership team are new to leadership positions and some are new Christians. As we have been working together for two years now we have started to see some rough areas we needed to work on as a team and individually - So we decided to go through this Bible based course together and the blessings have been abundant! Today we learned about listening, not just hearing, and about communication skills - It is incredible to watch the women as their eyes light up when some part of the lesson really impacts them.
Please pray for our leadership team as we seek to grow and glorify God. MOPS is really coming to life and we are seeing new women attend every session. Please pray that women in the community will be reached for Jesus through the MOPS ministry.

Speech update

Thank you to all who prayed for us as we spoke to about 100 couples this past Saturday. Our purpose was to simply share out own marriage testimony. Fun, communication, making your spouse the second priority, and making God the top priority were the points of our talk. We pray and trust that our words will continue to plant seeds, water, cultivate, and maybe even harvest lost souls for the Jesus' Kingdom. Thanks for praying!

Prayer needed

Last week we accepted an invitation to be the guest speakers at a
couples dinner at church. Needless to say we are nervous for our
Spanish. We only want to glorify Jesus and impact these marriages for
eternity. Please pray for us for fluid speech as well as for the
hearts of those listening to the truth.

Women in Crisis

I (Robin) had the chance to meet up with a group of women from the Cuautitlan Izcalli UNIFAM church this week that are involved in a ministry for women in crisis. What an amazing impact this ministry is having. Six different women from the church volunteer their time to man phones (and meet in person) with any women wanting to talk through a problem. The service is free and confidential. Several of the women manning the phones are women who have benefited from the service. One women shared her testimony of how the ministry had changed her life by introducing her to Jesus - and how she is now liberated from depression and anxiety. It was beautiful to see women reaching out to other women in need.... Indeed, all around us are women who are in crisis - are we available to reach out to them and to bear their burdens with them?
Please pray for this ministry. Specifically pray that funds could become available for this church to hire another full time worker. There are many exciting ministries happening in the church at the moment but the Pastor is the only paid staff member and his work schedule is overwhelming.

Are Children a Burden or a Blessing?

This was the theme of our MOPS meeting this past week. A pastors wife from our sister church in a nearby town shared and the message was incredible! Are our children a blessing or a burden? Of course we want to immediately say a blessing! But is that how we really feel? Are there times when we dream about life before kids and times when our kids seem to get in the way of all we want to accomplish? Through a solid biblical understanding of the privilege of motherhood we can adjust our perspective of parenting and make adjustments in our schedules and our lives so that we are living in a way that truly indicates that we believe our children are blessings! Indeed, being a mother is one of God's high callings!

More Fruit!

Praise God for the work that has been done in the past week. Our good friends from England were here visiting and following up on the friends they made through teaching English. They were only here for 6 days, but they led 5 of their old friends to Christ. Pray for us as we have agreed to meet with them in order that they can receive discipleship.

We also praise God for 3 families who just came to the Lord west of Mexico City by another missionary. Pray for Christian as he and the ECC Committee decide how to disciple and train these people too.

Mex-i-Kids

Robin started teaching English to about 50 kids at a local church on Saturday. You can see her enthusiasm as she teaches the first lesson, "What's you name?" Our hope is that English will be used to bring many to Jesus in this area. She and Julie (pictured on the left) will co-teach this program over the next few months. Please pray that many will come to believe in Jesus and that the families of these kids will be moved by the Holy Spirit to follow Him!

Waco Team

Christian spent 2 days last week with a team from Waco, TX. After a lopsided game of soccer (US vs. Mexico) one of the members of the team gave his testimony to the street kids.

Bringing Greetings

This past Sunday evening Christian was given the opportunity to bring greetings on behalf of OMS to the UNIFAM LaLoma church as they celebrated 9 years of serving the Lord here in the Mexico City area. When we visited Mexico in 2004 to pray about coming here as missionaries, we visited this church and it was there that we both received conviction from the Lord that He was working mightily in Mexico. The church was used by God to bring us here and so it was an honor to celebrate with the church body.
Pray for Christian as he will have more and more opportunities to share in front of others. In the states public speaking is one of Christians strongest gifts....it can be done with ease, without much concern and done very well. Here however, with all being done in Spanish it is a much more humbling experience. Much more preparation, prayer and practice is required. Perhaps that is exactly how Jesus wants it.... to remove us from relying on our own strengths and gifts to relying completely on Him. Indeed we feel that there is not a day that goes by that we are not clinging to our Lord.

Waco Team

Today Christian had the opportunity to help introduce a team from Texas to leaders in the national church assembly. It is a passion of Christian's to share with visitors about how the Lord is working in Mexico. Our goal with all short term teams is that they will be compelled by the Holy Spirit to pray, give, and/or go to the field.

Please pray that this team will catch the vision of OMS in Mexico.

Update of Robin's Mom

Click on Robin's blog to read an update on her mom.

We need more Prayer Warriors!

Our field recently started a prayer blog for all of you who take prayer seriously. We believe this is our greatest need. Check out the link in the upper right hand side of this page (above our profile) to view the current prayer requests for our field.

Success on the Streets

Christian was so pleased to see what had happened on the streets. As you can see there are only 6 kids in this picture. In all there were about 10 kids that they recently visited within this particular group. You can see many other photos of this group throughout the blog. So, what is the success here? We only visited with 10 kids! This means that some of the group had left (normally there are about 20-25).
So, where did they go? The gray-haired man on the right runs a Christian rehabilitation center north of the city and near several of our churches. Nearly half of this group is now living at his rehabilitation center. We praise God that so many of them had decided to turn their lives over and start a new life. Please pray for 3 things: that the rehabilitation center can continue in spite of a lack of funds, that the street kids' decision to change will actually stick, and that this group can be wiped out and sent to the same place to find true hope!
Special thanks to the Ardmore Team for their work at the drop in center and sharing of testimonials on the streets. You definitely made a lasting impact! Who knows who will join the rehabilitation center next due to the seeds that you planted during the week.

Jonny and Julie go to a new church

Today, we went to the Tultitlan Church in order to support and make sure there was a smooth landing for Jonny and Julie Pollock, 2 missionaries that arrived in August of 2007. One of Christian's responsibilities is to help new missionaries assimilate into life and work here in Mexico. We are so pleased with how the pastor laid out the red carpet for Jonny and Julie today. Please pray for this church: for growth, solid discipleship, the new daughter church, and for a hedge of protection for the pastor's family and Jonny and Julie. Exciting things are happening in this area of town through the church and the daughter church. And we know the enemy hates to see Jesus' Kingdom expanded. We can see many coming to Christ in spite of spiritual attack.

New Position

As many of you know, we have been praying about our future here in Mexico. We have relied on many of you for prayer and support. We praise God for all your petitions on our behalf.

We heard a lot of advice over our time in Indiana and since we have been back in Mexico. Two common threads seemed to come to the forefront every time we considered scripture and this Godly counsel: Go where God can most effectively use you and glorify him....period. As of last week we decided that it would be best to remain in Mexico and to assume the leadership of the field. Our field director has recently announced his leaving on July 31, 2008. Christian has already started the transition into leadership and will start to lead the field more as these 6 months go by and then fill his vacancy on August 1st.

Christian is confident in only one thing, that he will be able to lead the field with success ONLY through the power of the Holy Spirit and in the fact that Jesus is Lord of all the work here in Mexico. And so we humbly come to you and ask for prayer. Please pray for our priorities to be kept in place in our lives (relationship with God, then family, then OMS....in that order), for wisdom as we lead the field, for our Spanish to sufficient for the communication that God wants us to have. We know that spiritual warfare is just around the corner and so we covet your prayers. ".....and so we make our goal to please Him." II Corinthians 5:9

Successful Church Planting!

At a recent ECC board meeting, which Christian a member, testimonials were given by 4 different church planting teams. Each of the teams reported that God has been working and growing the number of believers every day. Some of the activities have been non-traditional in reaching their communities for Christ, like renting a tarp so as to show movies about Christ, or partnering up with Traditional Christian Churches to help out with a lack a of funds. The geographic coverage of these three areas is amazing too. The very south of the D.F., to northwest, to the northeast is the range of these three areas. In total there are over 100 people attending these three house church areas. We praise God for the creativity he has given us as well as willing hearts to hear the message of the Gospel.

Please pray for wisdom and accountability to the plan as Christian co-leads the board in planning future church planting areas in Mexico.

Spiritual Attack

Our friend Raymundo has had a tough year since accepting Christ about 10 months ago. The workplace has been unfriendly to his new Christian life, his car was stolen, and just last week he lost his job. We cannot definitively say whether this is spiritual attack or a trial. Nonetheless, our prayer is that he glorifies the Lord in all he does and that others will see his testimony and be drawn to Jesus through it.

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.