A new MOPS group!

What an incredible joy to report to you that the second MOPS group started yesterday at our church in LaLoma. It was a wonderful first meeting! The team of Mexican women who have gathered to provide leadership are incredible and they did an amazing job. Alicia, the woman who co-coordinated our first MOPS group with me spoke at the meeting and her words touched my soul. She is our pastors wife and she shared that of all the ministries they are involved in (and there are a ton) MOPS is her favorite because it has ministered to her as she mothers three small children. She shared about the blessing MOPS has been to our Campanario church, to the moms that attend from the community.... My heart was filled with praise to God for the amazing gift he has given us to serve the Mexican people over these last four years! A group of moms meeting together for the first time....

Alicia sharing a message about the blessing of motherhood and the blessing of being in MOPS.

Craft time! The women learned to make little bunny rabbits from cloth.

The team had so many creative ideas! Each mom was sent home with a box of craft supplies. Their assignment was to go home and make something with their children and then bring it back next time where the "most creative" project will win a prize. They even included an announcement inside reminding of the next meeting date!
The children had a blast as well. Amelia, who does not often enjoy going to the nursery was very happy and even participated in getting her face painted. Here she is pictured with Carol, the missionary coordinator for MOPS LaLoma. Carols philosophy is that if the kids are happy and having a blast the moms will keep coming back! I can definitely say that these kids were thrilled and I am certain the women with return - and bring their friends!

Urgent Prayer Request

Please pray for the son of two of our church members. The day before his 16th birthday he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was mistakenly arrested and has now been in prison for 2 weeks. His conditions are terrible and today a ruling was made that means he will be kept in prison for at least another 6 weeks. Although there are many inaccuracies in the accusation made against him he is up against corruption.

We know of no higher authority than our God and so we want to make an earnest plea that you would remember this kid and his family (We are omitting his name for security reasons). Please pray for his safety and for a quick release contrary to normal procedure. He is an amazing kid and has been part of our English classes ever since we got here. We need to pray for a miracle for God's glory. Please stop now to pray and then ask your friends and prayer groups to pray.

A Whirlwind.....

Things have been so absolutely crazy lately that we have gotten behind on providing ministry updates.... Here are a few of the highlights of the last few weeks....
1. Christian recently traveled with two or our pastors, Miguel and Alfredo to help celebrate the 11th anniversary of the UNIFAM Renacimiento church in Acapulco. There they installed Carlos Ramirez as Head Pastor and the church was officially handed over to UNIFAM - meaning it is no longer under the governance of OMS but is now governed by the national denomination. This is our goal with all churches started by OMS here - that they will become self-sufficient, mature churches and that they will move from under the leadership of OMS to the leadership of Mexicans. The work in Acapulco is incredibly hard and our churches there need prayer coverage.
2. We praise God for continued fruit from our church planting teams... we are desperate to see the effort explode.... we are praying for revival for Mexico.
3. Next week, the second MOPS group in Mexico will open at our LaLoma church. We are praising God for all He is doing through this ministry which continues with much fruit at the Campanario church. Thursday is the first meeting of LaLoma MOPS. Please pray for the leadership team as they finalize details.
We praise God for your interest and prayers in the work here in Mexico. What an honor it is to serve here and we are very aware that we could NOT be here without your prayer and support.

Drop In Center Opening and a face with a name...

This past Thursday evening we were blessed with a visit by yet, another team....(We had two teams here at the same time!) This team was from Waco, Texas and we were so thankful to have a full evening to spend with them in our home. Perhaps the biggest treat for me (Robin) is that a couple on the team has been supporting us financially since we arrived in Mexico - and yet I had never met them! What a joy to put a face with a name and to get to thank them personally!
Then, on Friday we celebrated the "Grand Opening"of UNIFAM LaRaza (the drop-in center). It was an amazing time. First we had a short (by Mexico standards) service followed by a meal.

The drop in center will serve as the head-quarters for the Proyecto MEFI ministry.
Here is a little information about the ministry of Proyecto MEFI that will then work in conjunction with the LaRaza church that will be started in the drop-in center very soon. I have "stolen" this excellent write up from the website of Steve and Helen Cosslett - a couple funding to serve in Mexico.

Proyecto MEFI is a social outreach ministry of UNIFAM; it exists to enable the people of Mexico to reach out to the street children of Mexico City, through practical, psycho-social and spiritual means. Our greatest desire, however is to see those children come into the Kingdom of God, grow into disciples of Jesus Christ, and be filled with the Holy Spirit, so that in turn they can reach out to others.

The abbreviation MEFI is taken from the name of Jonathan’s son Mefi-boset (in Spanish), who was crippled in both feet, and who David took into his palace and treated as if he was his own son. Many of the underlying principles of the project are taken from this story which can be found in 2 Samuel Chapter 9 in the Bible. Some of these principles are spelt out in the acrostic MEFI:

M - Misericordia (Mercy)
E - Esperanza (Hope)
F - Fe (Faith)
I - Integración (Integration)

Each letter represents a different step in our outreach to street children. Mercy being our initial contact providing food, first-aid and shelter. Hope being the hope of Jesus Christ and all that it means to be in a relationship with Him, including a hope for the future. Faith represents the journey that they embark on as they seek to trust God and others. Lastly, integration back into society is our desire for these street children, so that they can in turn impact their families (if possible) and other street children by the changes they see in them.

Team visit and Drop-in Center Update

This week is an exciting one here in Mexico. This Friday we will celebrate the official "opening" of the Drop-in center and to help add some final touches and celebrate with us on Friday a team from Ardmore, Oklahoma has returned. More than half of the people on this team have worked on the construction of the Drop-in center several times in the past few years. We are beyond thankful for their help.... and we are always so encouraged by them. Last night Christian and I had the chance to eat dinner with the team and to share with them about the future plans OMS has here in Mexico. It was a wonderful evening .... what a joy to be with our friends from Ardmore!We will certainly post photos of Friday's celebration but here is peek of the Drop-in Center. The Drop in Center (now called UNIFAM La Raza) will be a church targeted toward street kids but also aimed at reaching the surrounding community. The street kid ministry (MEFI) will operate from this location as well. We praise God for the hard work by Carol and Andrew Agnew, Pati and Alex and Fidel and Juana - and the many who have volunteered alongside them to make this dream a reality!

Pati and Alex standing in the main meeting area (where church services will take place).

Christian at the front door of the Drop-in Center.

The Chandlers are Here!

We are so thankful for a visit from our dear friends Ted and Angela . We have been friends with them for 11 years now (starting out in a young marrieds class together) ... but no, they are not only here to visit us - They are here to pray through their next ministry assignment. Ted and Angela and their three girls served with OMS in Haiti for four years and now are praying through serving in Ecuador or Mexico. We are completely excited to have a visit from our dear friends. Please join us in prayer for their future direction.Ted and Angela read our kids a bedtime story.

Seminary Focus Group

This morning Christian facilitated the first of 4 focus group meetings for the Seminary. So much effort has been placed on the new department of evangelism and church planting since August. Our attention will now turn to the Seminary so that national church will have more buy-in and influence over how the Seminary operates. Our hope is for the Seminary to provide the personnel and training needs of the national church (UNIFAM).

Today our focus was starting with the end in mind. Below key stake-holders are answering the following: "What does the Seminary look like assuming we are in the year 2020?" From the answers given (and they were big!) we asked, "How did we get here?" The answers to this question will become key steps in our new strategic plan. We are excited to say the least!

Pray for us during the month of February as we consider the Lord's will for the Seminary and its role in reaching Mexico for Christ.

Happy 10th Anniversary!

On Sunday we celebrated the 10th anniversary of the UNIFAM church in LaLoma. It is an amazing, Spirit-filled church and the service was a true praise offering to Jesus. We felt so blessed to be there to celebrate all God is doing. This is not your typical American church - services usually go 3 hours or longer! During the celebration Christian brought greetings (pictured below) and congratulations on behalf of OMS. We thank you Jesus for the congregation of LaLoma, for Pastor Miguel and his family, for all you are doing in the lives of the people. We give you praise!

Mission Accomplished

So, we finally taped Miguel's preaching. He gave 3 sermons that lasted about 30 minutes each. We will use these DVD's that will have the sermons and worship in traditional and house churches in Mexico. The project is all a pilot, which means that we are just "trying it out" to see if it will fit in the Mexican culture, but we believe there a many ways that this could help build the kingdom in Mexico and beyond.
The moment Miguel finished he was almost in tears with joy. He said that he felt the Holy Spirit was in the studio helping him along the way. The previous day was a frustrating one for him as we practiced in Ardmore. He mentioned that several times through the day he told God, "I can't do it." He asked God for perseverance and the ability to communicate to an audience that he could not see. He prayed for hours during the night and asked God to give him peace and to guide him with the words to say and expresiveness on his face to communicate the message with excellence. When he woke up at 6 a.m. he felt total peace. The plan was for the first sermon to take about an hour with re-takes, etc., but he nailed it on the first go. We never once had to redo even part of one of his sermons. God was in it! You can see Miguel's joy as he finished.

Rett became a good friend of Miguel.
He will be on the trip to Mexico representing the Ardmore team.

Chuck is the pastor at H2O Ardmore.
Miguel and he had a great time sharing about life as a pastor.Special thanks to Steve and Vicki, and Barry - the Lead Pastor of H2O. Thanks for a great visit! We will never forget your hospitality!

On the Way to Video

Today we finally arrived at an official studio to tape Miguel's sermons. Plan A, B, and C have all failed us, but we know that God's plan never does! So, here we are in Oklahoma City - a city that was never part of our plans. We can say now that we are thankful for our time waiting, because it has given us time to pray and plan.


Along the way I had to take advantage of the situation by snapping some photos of Miguel in the snow and other things that he is not accustomed to like round bales, and snow balls.

traveling through the ice

....We received news today that Northwest Arkansas (our destination) had lost all electricity due to ice on the power lines.....Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails!!!

So we were forced to stay in southern Oklahoma at the Ardmore H2O Church. Miguel was able to practice preaching and being video taped. Our new plan is to go to Oklahoma City tomorrow morning and do the professional taping. There seems to be many obstacles on our road here, however the Lord has blessed our time as H2O and UNIFAM were able to do some strategic planning and helping solve each other challenges.

The biggest praise in this came as Christian and Barry from H2O were able to plan out how our seminary in Mexico could use technology developed at a local university to start teaching online courses for Mexican church planters and pastors.......for FREE! Creating online courses to offer Mexicans a seminary education has been a dream of OMS and the Seminary due to the obstacle of distance, traffic for many of the potential seminary students. There now exists the possibility of starting online courses as soon as March of this year. The possibilities could be endless.

Christian in the States

This week Christian and Miguel (our National Church President) are in Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. They are there with H2O Church filming 3 sermons to bring back to Mexico and be used in churches with no or fledgling pastors. It has been a bit rough going especially for Miguel. He isn't accustomed to January weather in the States. You can see Miguel bundled up and ready to head out into the aftermath of an ice storm that hit as we landed in Dallas. We attempted to drive through it, but decided to turn back and stay at the home of some friends our ours - The Swigerts. We later found out that almost all schools in the state were closed due to the weather! Pray for our safe travel today - that we can make it to Arkansas, the location of the taping.

Miguel getting an ice scraping lesson from Steve.

Praising God for Northern Ireland....

Maddie and I (Robin) just returned from a one week trip to the beautiful country of Northern Ireland. We were thrilled to have the opportunity to travel there as the country has grown quite special to us. In our years serving in Mexico we have had the privilege to work with 8 different missionaries from Northern Ireland and with numerous teams who have come to serve on short term trips. What a joy it has been! God has really laid Mexico on the hearts of the people of N.I. Here are a few photos and a few prayer requests.......The country is beautiful. Period - there is not much more that can be said...It's beauty is only surpassed by the graciousness of it's people. We have never felt so spoiled or loved!
A true highlight of the trip was attending a charity concert put on to raise funds for returning missionaries Jonny and Julie Pollock and their son Ben. It was an awesome time of praise and worship..... I felt so renewed and recharged spiritually from the event! Please pray as more concerts are lined up to raise funds for the Pollocks. The next one is this Friday night. Pray that unbelievers in attendance would have their hearts softened toward God.

Here Maddie is pictured with Jonny, Julie and Ben. Please pray that the Pollocks will be able to raise all financial support necessary so that they could return to Mexico this spring.

Here Maddie and I are pictured with Leslie and Brenda Reid and their daughter Darina. (Baby boy Liam was asleep!) Leslie and Brenda are ready to return to serve in Mexico and are just waiting on funding to be complete. Please pray for their health....That the Lord would keep them all perfectly healthy and that their funding would be complete soon.
Gary, pictured with Maddie, served in Mexico for a year with us. He is recently married to a wonderful gal named Rhonda. Please pray for Gary and Rhonda as they become settled as a married couple and as they seek to honor God with their lives.
Julie is pictured above with Mark and Rachel. Mark and Rachel have visited Mexico twice now - once leading a team from their church. Mark will graduate from Bible school this fall. Please pray that the Lord would clearly direct his path as he prepares for ministry.

Carol and Andrew and their children, Tabitha and Oscar, pictured above were our first introduction to Northern Ireland! They have been serving here in Mexico for several years now....They were here in Mexico while we were in N.I. but we got to meet up with their family and explore their hometown. Pray for them as their ministries continue to expand and evolve. Pray for strength and wisdom and continued good health.
Finally, there is a wonderful ministry in Northern Ireland called a charity shop (like a Goodwill store) with all of the funds coming to benefit ministry here in Mexico. Please pray that God would protect and bless this amazing ministry.

Thank you for your faithful prayers of all that happens here in Mexico!

Feliz Dia de los Reyes

Today is the Day of the Three Kings here in Mexico. As has become our tradition over the last 4 years we celebrated last night with our friends Yadira and Raymundo and their kids. On this evening you eat a traditional "Kings Bread" (pictured above with all of the kids). Each person cuts their own piece and then searches inside to see if they have a little baby Jesus hidden in their piece. This year Ethan was the one in our family to receive a treasure in his piece of bread!
Then today, on the day of the Three Kings we headed to a fabulous play place in the mall with the Agnew family.... It was such a blast! Our kids were so happy to all be together - they are as close as cousins! We decided we should get everyone's photo together with the three kings (the Mexican equivalent to a photo with Santa)..... Carol and Robin had to participate as Tabitha and Amelia were not so sure about the Kings!

Feliz Dia de los Reyes!

A visit from our family....

We have been so blessed this Christmas season with a wonderful visit from Christian's mom and dad and his sister and her husband..... For us, being so far from family is the greatest sacrifice in missionary life. Yet, we are so thankful for the wonderful blessing of having friends and family visit us. The time spent this Christmas with family was precious and we will always remember the special times we had!

Amanda, Christian's sister, with Amelia after Amelia had just
enjoyed a green Christmas cookie!

Mimi and Maddie

Grandpa and Ethan

Rudy, our brother in law and Joshua in the process of decorating Christmas cookies.

No more parties, ok?

That was a recent request by Ethan, our 3 year old. Indeed, we have been to our share of Christmas celebrations this week..... Here are some photos of the latest ones!

Our church leadership (the people in charge of coordinating each of the ministries) gathered for dinner and games on Monday night. It was an excellent time of fellowship although the party did not start until 8:30 and ended around 11:30 at night! Then the next morning at 9:00 am the boys had their school Christmas celebration. Pictured below are their class mates as they sang three lovely Christmas songs.
The week prior to the party the boys were excited to tell us about their adventures in making a pinata by hand at school...but they enjoyed hitting it even more!
Then Tuesday evening all of our Pastors, church planting workers and the missionaries gathered together for an awesome celebration. There is such an incredible spirit of unity amongst everyone....and it was so evident at this celebration. We played some incredible games (led by Andrew and Carol), ate dinner and enjoyed each others company.
Towards the end of the evening Christian played "Santa" as gifts were handed out to each of the families as a thank you for their tireless efforts. We are so blessed to have the opportunity to work with such an incredible group of people!

Tis the Season....

For lots and lots of celebrating! Here are a few of the latest happenings here in Mexico City....
Our MOPS group partnered with the Women in Growth Ministry at the Campanario Church to have a Christmas breakfast....It was a wonderful time of singing, games, wonderful food and an awesome message based on Isaiah 9:6. We praise God for the way He is working in the lives of the women here.

Below is a photo of some of our MOPS coordinators enjoying their breakfast!

Our missionary family got together last night for the traditional Christmas gift exchange.... We had a wonderful time.....here are a few pictures from our time together...

The missionary ladies together...

All of the kids together...

Joshua and Ethan both got one of these awesome airplanes from Aunt Kay and Uncle Leroy! They were so excited!

Stay tuned for more photos of holiday celebrations....This week we have an event almost every day!

A blast from the past....and present!

We were so incredibly blessed this past week to have our dear friends Gary and Karyl visit us from Indianapolis. Gary and Karyl have been mentors to us for over 10 years now. They led our young marrieds group at our church in Greenwood for several years, Karyl was the mentor mom for Robin's MOPS group in Greenwood, Gary served on the school board for STAR Academy when Christian taught there... and the list of sweet connections between us and Gary and Karyl goes on and on... including the fact that they have been faithful supporters of our work here in Mexico.
They spent 5 days with us this past week and it was one of the sweetest most wonderful times for us. What a joy to talk with them, laugh with them, show them our life here in Mexico and to have a taste of home!
We praise God for Gary and Karyl and for the way they have willingly invested themselves in the lives of others. They are an amazing Godly example for us and for many, many others! Thank you Gary and Karyl for your time and your encouragement! Come back soon!

Maddie and Karyl....

.....Gary taking a swing at Piñata!