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.