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.