Celebrating Two years of MOPS!

Today we had the closing session for this year of our Mothers Of Pre-schoolerS (We follow the school year). It was an awesome time.... I can hardly believe that we have had two years of MOPS already! Below are some of the highlights of the day.

Here is a photo of all of the women gathered together this morning.

Several women shared their testimonies this morning and it was AWESOME to hear how God has been working in their lives through MOPS. Maribel, pictured above shared that MOPS has been a school for her where she has learned to be the mom that God wants her to be. She talked about the many lessons she has learned through the year....it was particularly neat that she brought her mother along with her so that she could hear her testimony. There were lots of tears!
The mommy above shared that she was feeling so discouraged and down. When her husband dropped their children off at pre-school one of our MOPS leadership gals was their handing out flyers for our MOPS program. She was hesitant to hand it to a man but decided to anyways. He then passed it to his spouse and encouraged her to go. He was worried about his wife's depression and really thought it would help her to get together with other women and talk and share. She attended and shared how the year has changed her life. She said her days are full of hope and joy now.
Here is a photo of our MOPS leadership team.... what an amazing group of women! It has been a privilege for me to work with them. Here I am recognizing them for their efforts during the year.
Three of the gals from our leadership team sang two beautiful praise songs during our celebration today. It was a real treat and wonderful to be giving all the glory and honor and praise to Jesus!

Prayer Request

Today at church the MOPS leadership team and the "Mujeres en crecimiento" (Ladies in growth) leadership team cooked food to sell at church as a fund-raiser for our upcoming women's retreat. Robin will be the speaker for the retreat. Please pray for Robin as she prepares to share during the weekend of the 11, 12, and 13th of July. Specifically pray that Robin can communicate all the Lord is putting on her heart effectively in Spanish.

Back Home Again in Indiana...

At least Christian is back home in Indiana.... for 10 days of meetings at the OMS Headquarters in Greenwood. Please pray for him as he is brand new at his role of field director! The time at OMS Headquarters will be intensive training for sure!
What are Robin and the kids going to do while Daddy is gone? Check out Robin's blog to see photos!

Working Together

One of Christian's big projects lately has been the unification of a team in a nearby municipality. OMS and UNIFAM (Our national church) have been working together to bring all OMS churches under UNIFAM. This is vital because our belief is that Mexicans must take on a more active role in leadership if Mexico is to be reached for Christ. So recently Christian along with 3 other UNIFAM leaders have been training local leaders in the area of teamwork. Teamwork is often absent in this culture and so this work will continue to be a huge prayer request. Please pray for Daniel, Laura, Salvador, and Jonathan as they start working together to reach the over 1 million people in their municipality just outside of Mexico City.

Marriage Encounter

One year ago we attended Marriage Encounter here in Mexico. Last weekend we were the sponsors of 2 couples. Words cannot express how God worked in each of their lives. We heard comments from them like, "Our lives have been completely changed" and "I came here to learn about marriage but instead I had an encounter with God." Please pray for Raymundo, Yadira and Raul and Lucretia. We praise God for their lives.

Getting in shape with MOPS

Yesterday's MOPS meeting was a real blast! We had a speaker on nutrition, Robin spoke on relaxation, and then we had a full hour aerobics class! It is exciting to see as we wind down our second year of MOPS that we have developed a solid core of women who attend and we are seeing some real fruit from the work of the past. Please pray for our group as we have two more meetings this year and then we will begin planning for the year to come.

Warming up for our aerobics session...

Here are some of the kids staring in amazement as all of the mommies exercise!

Frazer Team

We have just been blessed by a team from Frazer UMC in Montgomery, Alabama. It was a wonderful team - the first time (since we have been here) that children have been on a team - and especially sweet for our family as we got to visit with Kelly Parker and her two girls. We stayed in Kelly's home almost 4 years ago when we were preparing to come to Mexico City. Kelly and her girls hosted us as we participated in the Frazer Missions Conference and they were so wonderful to us - it was a joy to see them 4 years later.
Here is a photo of our kids with the four kids that were on the team. Some of the adults on the team are seated in back.

Good Gifts

Matthew 7 verses 9 - 11 say "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"
Indeed the Lord blessed us with good gifts over the past two weeks. One of our fellow missionaries, Julie, had a surprise visit from her parents. We were so excited for her and her husband as we knew it would be a special time for them. Little did we know that the Lord would use Steve and Linda (Julie's parents) to minister to us and to love on us as well. Their visit was a good gift from Jesus for us and we praise Him for His thoughtfulness. Steve and Linda are much too young to be our parents but they loved on us in a parental way - spoiling us, advising us, sharing with us... and we enjoyed every minute of it!
Jesus knew we could use some extra TLC....indeed these past few weeks have been very stressful....it was a special time for our whole family. Thanks Steve and Linda!

Perhaps it is because we are so overwhelmed by the amount of things that are going on that we have avoided trying to encapsulate them into a blog post - but we are desperately aware of our need for prayer and so we want to share with you some of the big happenings and ask that you join us in prayer on some of the major points.
First, Christian has been heavily in the midst of transition to becoming the interim field director. This means his responsibility covers the daily operations of all OMS Mexico missionaries, partnering with our national church and pastors in planning and direction of the churches, providing vision and management to our church planting teams.... and more! Just in this transition time we have become very aware of the need for prayer as the responsibility is great, the pressures are heavy and the issues come at a regular pace. Will you join us in prayer for Christian to have wisdom and discernment in his new role?
Secondly, the Lord has placed several new believers in our path for discipleship. We need prayer as we seek to work with Raul and Lucrecia, Carlos and Vanessa, Eduardo and his family, and Raymundo and Yadira. Two of these couples will be attending a marriage retreat in two weeks and we pray for real revival in their relationships and a new understanding of what marriage can be when you have Christ in your life.
Would you be willing to pray by name for each of these couples?
We can truly say without hesitation that at times we feel overwhelmed by all that is lying ahead of us. It is ONLY in Jesus that we will be able to complete each days tasks. We are clinging to the promise that in our weakness HE is made strong. Please pray that Jesus would be glorified through all we do.
Thank you for praying with us!

In ministry together

Our group of missionary ladies has been meeting for the last 10 weeks doing a Bible study together. It has been a great time of growth.... This photo is special because it is the last time we will all be together for a year and a half or so - and by then we will have more women joining our ranks! One of our members, Carol Agnew has returned to Northern Ireland for 3 months of deputation, another gal, Robin Efing leaves July 1st for a year in the states, Julie returns to Northern Ireland in July until the following year - We are all spreading out! This however is part of missionary life - there are lots of comings and goings - and while this is still so hard for us we rejoice in the chance to be part of so many special peoples lives.On our first day of Bible study we created a commitment to each other... I thought I would share it with you all!

As women after God’s own heart, committed to glorifying Jesus, and to shining brightly so that others may know Him we commit to interact, work, play, and serve with each other in the following manner:

We commit to spending quality time with the Lord Jesus (Hosea 10:12) so that we can overflow with His love (1 Corinthians 13) toward one another. We commit to being kind (Ephesians 4:32), compassionate (1 Peter 3:8, Col. 3:12) and gentle (1 Peter 3:4) toward one another. We commit to listening to one another (James 1:19, Proverbs 1:5) and to serving each other (Galatians 5:13, Phil. 2:14). We commit to thinking the very best about each other (Phil. 4:8, 1 Thes. 5:11) asking ourselves if something is kind, true, and helpful before we say something – being careful with how we speak to each other (Matthew 7:1 & 2, Luke 6:37) We commit to having fun together and to being joyful. (Prov. 10:28, Prov. 17:22) It is our goal to continue in fellowship (Hebrews 10:25) and to be a cohesive (1 Corinthians 12:12) united (Galatians 6:2) group of women who are characterized by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control!
We give each other permission to hold each other accountable to the above. (Proverbs 27:17)
We do all of this to glorify Jesus - Amen

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.

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.