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.

Festival of Hope

We received this email from a lady who came to Mexico City on a short term missions team with her church last year.... we think this idea is AWESOME!

"You know that Mexico had a big impact on many of us last year and God has been speaking to us. The outcome is that we were really challenged by the way you all have a vision to reach Mexico City for Jesus. We thought of our little home town of 8000 people of whom probably only around 800 - 1000 ever go near Church. We are now holding a mission for a week this year instead of sending a team overseas. We have called it 'Festival of Hope' and are so excited at the opportunities God is opening up for us. The Festival will run from 18 to 25 August and includes loads of events such as: Family Fun Day, Christian Concert for young people, Songs of Praise evening, Kids' Clubs, Lunch for Retired people with a speaker, Lunch for all the traders in our town with speaker, Ladies' Evening, Breakfast for Men, Pub Quiz with speaker for young people, Mums and Toddlers morning, Bar-B-Q and celebration, Bus parked in the town serving teas, having Christian literature, using this to meet with people to talk about Jesus and pray with people. We also have a caravan planned to use for prayer for our town. We've made booklets to go into every home and DVDs of testimonies of people from our Church. Would love you to pray for this."

What could you and your church do to reach more people in your city for Christ?

Armagh Team

One of Christian's favorite things to do in ministry is to help lead short term mission teams to the streets with Proyecto MEFI. Proyecto MEFI is the name of the organization that facilitates the care, compassion, outreach, integration into society, evangelism, and discipleship with key Christian Churches in Mexico City all for street kids. Christian is honored to a part of this effort. Pictured is Christian translating Andrew's testimonial (from Northern Ireland), the street kids praying, Alex (a Proyecto MEFI worker) sharing from Mark 7:14-23, and a street kid with Christian.

VBS Kickoff

Last night we had the opportunity to see Maddie perform in the church's Campo de Verano Obra (VBS Play). You'll notice Maddie say her line like a pro and sing and dance as well. It was great to see Maddie in ministry.

Dairy Queen

One of our closest Christian Co-workers are Alexis and Alicia Saucedo. He's the pastor of our church & she works as a teacher and MOPS coordinator with Robin. We've had the opportunity to visit the Pacific Coast together and while we were there we enjoyed Dairy Queen more than one night (American Style Ice Cream is very difficult to find).

So we've been on a quest to find a DQ somewhere in the central valley. The day before Amelia was born Alexis and Alicia told us they had a surprise to show us. So we traveled for about an hour into the center of Mexico City and sure enough there was a Dairy Queen. It was a complete delight to be with our good friends and their kids....and good old American ice cream!

Short Term Missionaries

Today we said goodbye to one of our short term missionaries - Kristen. Her role was teaching English and video taping the work that UNIFAM and OMS do together here in Mexico. As the short term missionary coordinators we are charged with planning out, following through, and evaluating their work. Kristen made it very easy on us as she often took the initiative to make relationships. The OMS Team and many Mexicans will certainly miss her and her smile.

Acting Field Director

As the current acting field director Christian has gotten to view all the ministries for OMS Mexico while our field director is out of the country. It is interesting to see how all the OMS Missionaries and the National UNIFAM Church work together at all levels. Please pray for us as we balance having a new baby and manage the OMS Mexico Field.

Sowing Seeds......from a long time ago

We received news the other day that a good friend of ours Israel just accepted Christ. His story is a typical one (in the states and in Mexico) where the wife is a Christian and church member and the husband does not want anything to do with church or Jesus. But praise God that he just accepted Christ. He is attending another church, but his wife Alejandra assures us that he is growing. I (Christian) remember a cold night about 7 months ago when he and I stood outside of the church during a holiday program. During that conversation we talked about religion and Christianity. I simply asked him the 4 questions to Christ. He was not ready though, but it goes to show that we must always sow seeds - we never know when the truth of each seed will sprout into a relationship with Jesus for a particular person. I remember being nervous as I shared - but I praise God that he was able to listen and take to heart what the scripture says.

MOPS Year Finale

We celebrated our "closing" MOPS for this school year last Tuesday. It was a wonderful day of testimonials from the MOPS leadership team and the women who had participated during the year. Several women shared how they regretfully used to scream and yell at their children or discipline them too harshly and how different speakers during MOPS had changed their parenting. Others commented on their growth in the Lord and still others about how they have learned how to play with their children..... so many lessons learned through the year. I praise God for the beautiful opportunity He has given me to work with these precious moms and look forward to the coming year.
Adrianna, one of the moms serving on the leadership team shares the lessons that the Lord has taught her this year through MOPS.

MOPS moms gathered at our closing celebration.

Breakfast for MOPS

Our church has allowed our MOPS (Mothers of Pre-schoolers) group to be in charge of cooking and selling breakfast at church one Sunday a month to raise funds for MOPS. This allows us to invite women to participate in MOPS free of charge.
Here we are selling breakfast after our church service. (Notice my big belly.... only two more weeks until due date!)
Two of our MOPS moms looking out of the kitchen area of our church.... We generally have 6 or 7 moms helping to cook and serve and we earn around 70 dollars towards each time towards paying for the expenses of our MOPS meetings.

Foundry Team

Last week our second team for June worked on the drop in center for street kids. During the week of construction I had the opportunity to lead part of the team to the Niños Heroes group.

Pictured are 2 street kids (Salvador and Carlos) that listened to the gospel message. We are very hopeful as they both were very receptive to the word.

Ardamore Team

Two days ago I had an opportunity to lead a team from Ardamore, OK to the streets. They have been working on the drop in center construction as their main focus for the trip. On this day though I was touched by what one team member had to say...

...."The experience of going to the place where the young people hang out was
very heartbreaking. It was sad to see young kids ages 12 to 13 years
old high on sniffing glue and other substances. We were greeted with
smiles and a special handshake, but as they spoke to us, they weaved back
and forth trying to keep their balance. They would only make slight eye
contact with us and many times we would have to repeat ourselves. We
spoke with women who looked older then they really were because of being
years on the streets as prostitutes. One young man who was 24 years old
said that he had been on the streets for 20 years. This was a great eye
opener for the team. We will return home to relate this to our
church, encouraging prayer support for the Street Kids and the
missionaries working with them."

Pictured is the team praying after the gospel had been shared.

Chapel Sharing

Each Wednesday our seminary holds it's weekly chapel. From time to time the seminary asks guests speakers to come and share. Yesterday Robin had a the opportunity to share about an important lesson the Lord had shown her years ago about priorities.

She used potatoes, beans, and rice to explain her point. Each size of food represented importance or priorities of life. The potatoes obviously were the 'big' things in life - the things most important in our lives - important but not always urgent. The rice represented the lower priorities in our life - things that are not necessarily important but urgent. The rice sometimes fills our jars of life so much that there is not more room left for the potatoes.

She visually shared that if you place the potatoes of life in your jar FIRST, then the beans and rice could easily fit in the jar AFTER the most important things in life had been given their time.

It was neat because I (Christian) ran into some of the seminary students later in the day and they shared how much Robin's talk meant to them and how much it impacted their thinking. I know that the Lord used her talents and time to show the students how important it is to "Seek Him First", and then family, and then church, and then ministry, etc.... , etc....

Wesley College Team

We were recently blessed to have another team on our field. Pictured is the Wesley College Team during an orientation at one of our new house churches. Their goal was to pass out all the tracts and invitations seen on the table - Mission Accomplished! Coordinating teams is one of our responsibilities on the field.

A Glimpse of Glory

The fact of what heaven would be like bounced off the top of the new believer's head. Tonight I (Christian) shared with a new believer about our home in Glory. As we read Revelation 21, I started to tear up. It simply overwhelmed me.

I sensed a deeper understanding in his voice as he eagerly asked what he needed to do next - I told him to keep on accepting the free gift and to trust in the Word.

Revelation 21:3-5 - "And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."

This is forever!

This is his new destination! And this should be our ultimate motivation in winning souls.

Prayer - who need's it anyway?

We have been charged with facilitating all staff meetings and training on the Mexico field and find it a great opportunity to challenge ourselves and other missionaries spiritually and professionally. Yesterday Christian led a discussion on the National Day of Prayer from the US (we heard a podcast from Focus on the Family). After the podcast was over, the question was simply asked, “So what do you think?”

The overwhelming response was how much each of us concentrates more on doing than praying. It was a great reminder that even our Lord Jesus needed to pray. If Jesus needed to draw closer to his father in heaven, then how much more do we need to do the same?

Encouraging

Neither of us have the gift of encouragement. But just because it’s not one of our top gifts doesn’t mean that we are notto be doing the business of encouraging. 1 Thessalonians 5:14 – says that we are to encourage the timid.

At a recent birthday party Christian had an opportunity to encourage a church leader who was a bit discouraged about his work. He was discouraged as well at the lack of leaders stepping forward in the church with true conviction and loving hearts for Christ. Pray for our church that more lay leaders will come forward and thus encourage those who are already in leadership.