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.

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!