Quote of the Day

I think I smell something burning LeRoy says (to Faith)

Oh, that's just me farting
Brooklyn jumps in and says (before Faith has a chance to respond)

The ice cream truck

Do you remember the hot summer days when the ice cream truck would come around in your neighborhood, selling ice cream. Although where I lived, the ice cream truck didn't really come and visit, I do remember as a kid, being in town, and the ice cream truck would come around selling his wares.
Well, around here, the ice cream truck is fairly common. Actually, now that I think of it, around our house, I don't know if I've seen one. In Vista Hermosa, where I try to work every Wednesday, it's very common. There's this guy that mounts his bullhorn on top of a white van, and away he goes selling ice cream. A couple of times, I stopped him when he was making his rounds, and bought some sort of homemade ice cream off of him.

A while back, as I was sitting there in the rented house where we do our ministry, listening to the catchy jingle coming from the ice cream truck, something dawned on me. This guy has a product to offer, drives around the neighbourhood, hoping someone has a craving for ice cream, selling them what they're looking for.

Here I am, looking/struggling to find ways of presenting the gospel in this community. What I have to offer is not a product, I am not a salesman, but a messenger sent by God, but in many ways, me and the ice cream man are similar. Both of us are going throughout the community, broadcasting the good news of what we have to offer to the people. The ice cream man is using the tools he has at his disposal: a reputation of good homemade, well priced ice cream, a bullhorn with a cool jingle, and a very recognizable van. I on the other hand, have much more powerful tools on hand, but the question is, am I using them properly? What would happen if the ice cream man would buy a little brown car (nothing against little brown cars by the way, just inconspicuous) take down his bullhorn, close all his windows, park in front of his garage with his ice cream hidden inside? As a Christian, I have the most powerful tools in the world. The Holy Spirit working in me and his transforming power working in the world. I also have the prayer tool, very often overlooked, and definitely underused. Thirdly we have the power of example. We can, and must show the world Christ, through our actions and our words. This is not an exclusive list, I'm sure you can think of more tools that we as believers have at our disposal. The Lord has given us these tools, but am I properly using them as I seek to share the gospel with the many needy people in this community that God has placed me in? This is a question that I have to ask myself as we continue to serve Christ with our lives.

I wonder what is the more successful venture? The sale of ice cream, or the spread of the gospel? Who is having more of an impact in our communities? The ice cream man, or me and you?

Update

VBS ended last week doing well. Kids kept coming excitedly, and we kept getting more tired. We were thankful for the week to be over but also thankful for how it all came together. This morning LeRoy left for Campo Tomas to help at the Adolescent camp (ages 12-14) until tomorrow around noon. He's leading a devotional tonight and helping in any little way he can.

Yesterday we went into Chihuahua and finally were able to pick up our FM3 papers. So we have them in our possession and the waiting game is over. We were also told of a place in Chihuahua where we could renew our vehicle permit. So now as long as we can renew our Mexico insurance over the phone LeRoy will not have to go to El Paso by himself in the next month. We are very thankful for that. Now just have to make sure that it's possible to renew that over the phone. It all expires the beginning of August, so it does need to happen soon.

VBS

Oh how we are so exhausted. LeRoy has been doing much more than I have for VBS, but I think we're equally as tired. Other than that, VBS is going great. I'll start with Anahuac's. LeRoy goes there every morning to teach the 10-13 year olds. Monday they started with 14 kids, and today already had 38 kids. They really only have 4 people there so it's a lot more tiring and busy I think. Our VBS in Vista Hermosa has also gone well. The kids have enthusiasm and seem to be having a great time. The weather has been perfect (other than very hot) so we've been able to do a lot of it outside. Monday we started with 19 kids, yesterday had 28, and today had 37. That's a large group, when we have such a small space. But God is working and the kids are having fun learning about Peter. Friday we will be ending our week with the parents joining us (is what we're hoping for) so we can show them what we've been learning and have a time where we can hopefully connect with these kids' parents. We are praying that through VBS we can have some connections for the future. We have yet to even see many of the parents whose kids come to kids' club and now VBS. Thank you for praying for us this week. We knew we were going to be tired, all 4 of us, and today it's hitting just how exhausted we ALL are.

On another exciting note we got a call this morning that our FM3 papers are ready!!! So we are planning to go into Chihuahua on Monday to finish this off. Sure hope we won't be told we have to wait once again and that we'll actually have them in our hands when we leave their building this time.

Still Here

We are still here, but have been horrible at keeping up with anyone lately, including writing something short and sweet on the blog. So here is just an update from a couple previous posts. Our FM3 papers have still not come, so our trip to El Paso was canceled:( But after a few very discouraging down days, God helped us re-focus and helped us be okay not to have that needed break. Please pray that our papers do come soon. Our van insurance and vehicle permit to be here is due sometime between end of July and middle of August. This means that once our papers come LeRoy will have to (no choice) drive up to renew the vehicle stuff. We are praying he doesn't have to go before end of July in case baby decides to show up, but are disappointed that he'll have to make that long trip by himself due to the circumstances with a new baby. We are hoping he can wait until my mom and sister are here in August, even though it still would suck, but then I at least don't have to be alone with 3 kids for a couple days, and he doesn't have to make is such a quick trip, but rather do a bit of stuff for us there right away.

VBS is this coming week and we have mixed emotions. It is going to be an exhausting week for all of us. The mornings are taken up with LeRoy and Brooklyn at VBS with our church in Anahuac. LeRoy will be teaching a group and Brooklyn will hopefully enjoy being apart of her own class. I will go one or two days to show support, but have not committed to anything there. The afternoons will be taken up with our VBS in Vista Hermosa. Thank you for praying, we have enough people helping us that it should be a great time. We feel like we are nearing being ready for it, but are very nervous as well since we have never led something like this. We pray tons of kids come, but at the same time not TONS because of it being our first time and figuring out how it'll all work on a small yard with a small house. But we know God will be working in us, through us, and in the lives of those kids. Pray that we all (including Brooklyn and Emma) will have the patience, energy, and love for each other to make it through next week. We are looking forward to it, but also know it could be very tough.

All week, little by little, I have been working on a prayer letter. My mind keeps getting stuck and not letting me have ideas and finish it. But hopefully soon you'll have our new prayer/update letter. Hopefully before the baby comes. haha Then again, I am so ready for the baby to come I hope a prayer letter doesn't stop him. Then I could actually maybe think of what to tell you all.

VBS

We are now busy planning VBS for our ministry in Vista Hermosa. It has been a bit tricky trying to figure out the best week to do it but we finally decided to have VBS the first week of July from 3-5 every day. School ends at the very end of June if not the beginning of July, and with baby coming I have way less energy, so hopefully that week will be good. Which means that's in 2 weeks, and have not worked on it much yet, but thankfully can put that as our main focus right now. Several of our other commitments have ended for the summer, one reason being so we can focus on VBS. We are told we can expect from 40-60 kids, and right now there is us and one other guy who is helping. And since we cannot be 2 full time people helping with having our girls there and me being so pregnant, with the other help right now we are only about 2 - 2 1/2 people. NOT ENOUGH. The Ebenezer church here in Cuauhtemoc (it's really their outreach in Vista Hermosa) are trying to get volunteers to help us, but we still have not heard of any that are able to. We have told ourselves now if we don't get more help we simply cannot have VBS this year which would disappoint many kids. Please pray that volunteers will come forward..we would like to have at least 3 more people to help us. We don't want to have to cancel.

Paperwork

This past Tuesday we headed into Chihuahua to do some final paperwork and payments needed to complete our FM3 papers. The papers that let us legally be missionaries here. We were told that now that they had everything they needed from us, we SHOULD have our FM3 visas within a week. So we are praying that this time limit will actually happen and that we'll receive a phone call from them this coming Monday or Tuesday. We are hoping to head to El Paso in the next 2 weeks one final time before baby comes, but it will all depend on if we get our papers or not. We cannot leave until we have them. And we would love to go for a few days, as we know it'll be October or November before going again (not a bad thing just longer than we're used to) and we do have some things we'd like to get out there, since some things are a lot cheaper there, and it's a nice break for all of us. Anyway, I think I am beginning to babble..it's what happens when I try to blog in the middle of the night.

Work retreat (oxymoron or what?)

So this past weekend, there was a planned men's retreat/work day at the Santo Tomas camp. It was high time to organize ourselves to do some of the maintanance that we were falling behind on. And work hard we did. On Saturday evening as we were finishing up our work for the day, and everyone was tired, one of the men was joking that now us Canadians had put in a day working like true Mexicans.

When I think of digging a 6-8inch deep trench back home, somewhere's in the 200ft range, it doesn't seem undoable. The dirt is generally soft enough for a shovel, and away you go. But not here. No way! It took 4 guys 4hrs to dig, purely with pickaxes, it was like cutting through rock. Among the other things we did were make retaining walls for the bathroom showers, revarnish the 2 cabins, and pour a washpad on one side of the dining hall.

Praise God for all the men that came out! 11 in total. One of the neat things was to have a fireside Saturday night, sharing what God is doing and praying for one another. We pray that this can become a regular tradition to go out as men and fellowship together in this way.



Here are just a few pictures, to prove that work actually got done, and that we didn't just sit around eating cookies and drinking coffee, although we did that too.

What Is She Telling Me?

Once again I am in a place where I wonder if the lady I do Bible study with really wants this. It's once again been 2 weeks in a row where she is not home when I show up. She says she wants to study and she does seem sincere that she wants to learn more about God and the Bible. But...then she's barely ever home. In this culture, people don't say no. So how do I read into this? Maybe she is being honest in that she does want this study with me but different family things come up she can't say no to. Or is she just telling me what I want to hear and then leaving when she remembers I am coming by? It's discouraging when week after week you prep a bible study, drive over there praying she's home...sometimes she is, most times she's not. It's tiring on me too but I don't want to stop if she does really want this. How do I find out? When is the time to give it a break and try again in a couple months? That's one of the frustrating things about the Mexican culture..you never know if what they are saying is from their heart, or just what they know you want to hear.

What a Week Looks Like

Today as we were visiting with friends I thought it may be a good idea to blog about what a typical/average week looks like in our lives here. And then maybe another day I will write what a typical day looks like, as there can be TONS of "interruptions" that you don't plan for. But for now...our typical week which to us begins on Tuesdays.

Tuesday - Begin with a time of prayer where we get up a bit earlier to pray, before the girls are up, for our ministries and specific people we know we'll face during the coming week. Tuesday is LeRoy's work day where he either locks himself in the office to do language study, sermon prep, bible study prep, or kids' club prep...or he goes to Anahuac to do visitation or any of the previous prep mentioned at the church where he is able to focus without the noise of children right at the door.

Wednesday - LeRoy's 2nd work day. Bible study in Vista Hermosa with 2 non-Christian men (another man joined), door to door visitation, connection with the kids around the area, work at our rented house there on any prep that may need doing. Every other Wednesday evening LeRoy meets with Walter (pastor of Ebenezer church) as a time of mentor-ship.

Thursday - Faith's work day...lock myself in the office. I am the Mexico field's treasurer so this is the day I can work on whatever needs to be done with that plus my Bible study prep, Sunday School prep (if I teach the coming Sunday), kids' club prep, language study, course homework (I am taking a course now to help with my Spanish), and any other ministry related things I need to get done. Thursday evenings is the evening that we have church meetings or bible study with the people in Anahuac.

Friday - The morning is spent finishing up my Bible study and going to do my Bible study in Vista Hermosa. The afternoon we leave open to be MORE flexible so that if either of us needs more time for something, that's the time to do that extra prep or visitation, or whatever we feel needs to be done. Friday evenings are what we call Date Night. Not that this happens every week because it does get a bit boring at times to have a weekly date where you're constricted to home after the kiddos are in bed, but for the most part it happens whether it's a movie, supper by ourselves, boardgames, etc.

Saturday - Once again a day to get things done we couldn't during the week, finish kids' club prep, and LeRoy makes sure different songs are on the computer ready to go for church the next day. Later afternoon we have kids' club that we do as a family, LeRoy then drops us girls off to occasionally go help with kids' club in Anahuac and then have worship practice for the evening.

Sunday - Church begins at 11, or more so whenever everyone is there, with Sunday School. Church service follows immediately at 12 or whenever they feel Sunday School is over. Service ends usually around 1:30 and we get home at least by 2:30 to find some lunch. So every Sunday is different depending if LeRoy preaches, teaches adult Sunday School, or I teach kids' Sunday School. And 98% of all Sundays LeRoy plays guitar with the worship team. The rest of the day is usually very relaxed for us at home, unless something comes up. But usually nothing does as it's very much a family day to get together with the larger family.

Monday - Family Day!!! NO WORK!!! This we set in stone when we first moved down here, and we are so thankful we have stuck to it. Sometimes it means going out and finding something fun and exciting to do, sometimes it means going into Chihuahua, but usually it means spending a relaxing day at home doing some cleaning and work around the house, all the while having no pressure to get anything done, and taking more time for our kids.

So there you have what an average week looks like, and that is leaving out all the details that make life slower here and just take more time.

Feliz Día de las Madres (Happy Mother's Day)

Kind of a semi-tradition that the Anáhuac Church has is to do a church picnic. So we packed up our stuff and headed out to Sainapuchic. It is close to where the Steinrech Bible School is located.

Carlos was in charge of getting all the meat for the discada (disco), and away we went.
It seems that I always learn something new and interesting when we're together in a non church setting. The other day I saw a few of them sprinkling chili and lemon powder on an orange. Well, here at the picnic, I experienced something new. Chili powder on Watermelon. Forget the Rollkucken, eh? Brooklyn absolutely loved it. I eventually tried it too, and it wasn't that bad.
It was good to get out and do something like this together as a church family. Here's a few pictures showing some of the highlights.

Pine cones on a huge pine tree
Scenic Overview
Cooking the discada

Fundamentals of the Christian Life

Tonight I (Faith) will be starting a course here at the Ebenezer Church. It's called the Fundamentals for the Christian Life, and I am mostly using it to improve my Spanish. I can go without the kids so I won't have them as distractions and hopefully I can do a lot of listening. It doesn't require too much homework between the classes thankfully, but it does involve 2 tests...yes of course in Spanish. I'm a bit nervous for it, but really looking forward to being able to go to this by myself and hopefully not be too tired to focus:)

Answered Prayer

LeRoy had his first Bible study yesterday with the young man we have mentioned before. This guy wants to continue and seems to have many questions. Pray that this will continue next week, and that this man's wife will be able to stay in their store so he can get away and join LeRoy. It really does seem that LeRoy has gained this guy's trust. Thank you for those who have prayed that this would happen. Continue to pray that God will continue to work on his heart, open it up to what LeRoy has to share, and that he will feel God's presence in his life.

Family Camp

Today we are heading off to Santo Tomas for CEMM's family camp. We are excited to go, visit with the friends we have made and meet more people. The girls are excited to go play on swings and slides. Even while it is considered work for us, we expect it will be a relaxing weekend, with our only responsibility of helping serve coffee and cookies tonight. We pray it will be a refreshing time for us.

Today I finally had another Bible study with Yarena, the lady I have mentioned that it's difficult getting together with. She seemed to hang on every word I said and we had a great discussion on what stands between us and learning more about God. I pray that next week she will be home once again so we can continue. LeRoy's study ended up not happening once again, and the guy was disappointed he couldn't leave his store as his wife had to leave to pick up their son. He asked if they could try for Tuesday, so please pray that this time it will work. They have tried 3 times to study together, and every time there has been a legitimate reason why they can't, but it is still discouraging.

Please also pray for 2 little girls we know through our kids' club. There dad passed away about 2 weeks ago, and they are broken. Today I met them on the street and just hugged them. They cried and didn't have anything to say. But are very excited to come to kids' club. LeRoy met their mom a couple days ago. She is without a job or way to provide for them. They don't have much and are in great need. Please pray for healing for this family, and that their mom can come to know Jesus through this hard time.

Please pray

This afternoon I was asked if I was available tomorrow to have a Bible Study. This is the same guy that I've been trying to connect with for quite a while. Please pray that he will follow through and come tomorrow, that God will open his hear to hear the Word.

I feel that it is because of prayer that he approached me to see if I wanted to study. Praise the Lord!

No Study

So for some reason the man LeRoy was excited to get together with today to start a Bible study didn't show up. Please pray with us that it will still begin sometime soon, and that this man is serious about wanting to learn more about God. In this culture people don't say no, so it is possible that he is saying yes while not wanting to.

New Opportunity

It feels like life has kept on being busy, not much time to breathe as we try and get back into our ministries here. Back into some sort of routine. Today as well LeRoy attended the Directiva meeting (like an EMC board meeting) while I relaxed a bit more at home with Tara and the kids. We also had kids' club again today, and since we forgot our keys for the house, we enjoyed the HOT sun and had club outside. 13 kids showed up, 1 of them being a girl. But it was a great time, the kids were excited, but we did find out it's a bit harder keeping their attention since we had to yell for them to hear us (due to outside noise).

The exciting thing that happened on Thursday was that a man that LeRoy has been connecting with agreed to begin studying the Bible together. He has shown interest in the past, and now agreed that he would be willing. Please pray for LeRoy as he begins his first study, and that this man would continue to show interest and want to learn so much more about God. He has a wife and one son (I think) as well, so keep them in your prayers too, that maybe we can connect as a family with them.

Flat tires and Desponchadoras

Yesterday, traveling home, we blew another tire. I mean, not punctured, slow leak style, but slashed. I guess somewhere, we drove across something that slashed the sidewall. About a month ago, we did the same thing, on the other side. Luckily the spare was full of air, and Nate and Bob helped us quickly change it.

In my observations, I've noticed how many vehicles are on the road with not so new tires. At first I made the assumption that people maybe couldn't afford nice tires, or didn't take care of their vehicles, or something like that. The more and more experiences I have with flats (like 4 or 5 in the last 6 months) which is 6 more than I've had in the last 5 yrs, I'm starting to think it's something else.

For one thing, we don't really get snow and icy roads down here (haha). But secondly, I think that everyone here understands that the chances of wrecking your tires are fairly high, and therefore nice tires are kind of an unneccessary expense. When a new tire costs $2000 pesos, and I was able to get a good used one for $300 pesos, what's not to like about that? And besides, there's a good tire shop, or 3, within 5 minutes drive of wherever you are in Northern Mexico. Well, maybe not quite, but almost. And you never know when that can turn into a good opportunity to share God's Word with someone, which has already happened on more than one occasion.

So, stealing from Red Green... "keep your stick on the ice, and a good spare in your trunk"

Back to Routine?

This last week was an amazing week of helping lead a youth group in Delicias and Cuauhtemoc. We joined the group at Dallas and Tara's last week Monday, and from there helped translate whenever needed at kids' club, show them some tourist places, and onto our area in Cuauhtemoc. We were so blessed to see them happily work at our place replacing windows and painting, and how eager they were to help fix and clean up at our church in Anahuac as well as clean the Ebenezer church. Friday was a very full day as we took the group to an outreach center for them to help clean up there, then did a kids' club for the first time in Anahuac, and then a service in the evening at Ebenezer. This group of youth was so tired because we kept them busy, and yet at the same time most of them still wanting to keep helping out whenever and wherever possible. They were a huge encouragement to us as they helped us in our areas and just spent time with them. They went home yesterday, so now it's back to some kind of routine...once we go back to Cuauhtemoc tomorrow. Today is a much needed off day.

What's really exciting is that by having this youth group do a kids' club in Anahuac, it gave our church the extra boost it needed. They have been talking about starting a club for a couple months, but never got going. Now on Friday when they were helping out the church announced they were having another time of club the next day!!!! and are going to continue to do it every Saturday!!! We were..and still are..so excited to hear this huge step for the church. There are many capable people there who will do such an excellent job and it's exciting to where that will go.

So now when we get back we'll have to try and get into a routine again. Back to visitations, Bible study prepping, sermon prepping, and just back to life in Mexico. And hopefully back to more blogging and catching with people.

Our First Mission Group

A group from Kleefeld arrived in El Paso yesterday, and today drove to Delicias with Dallas and Tara. Tomorrow we will be joining them and begin our first experience as missionaries to co-lead a missions trip. We think we have almost everything lined up for the couple days they will be in Cuauhtemoc, but we are nervous about last minute things that need to happen and be organized. Like how LeRoy will be able to be here at our house helping with installing new windows and at the same time explain well enough what needs to be done at our church in Anahuac (trees taken down, and some repair on the building). But we know God will help us take care of details like that. And whatever happens, we just pray that this week will be a huge impact on these 15 young people, and their 5 leaders. That they will see God working in the lives of those they meet, that God can touch their hearts and open them to what needs to be seen, that this week will be a huge highlight in their Spiritual walks. Pray for us too that we don't get stressed out being with a huge group the whole week but that we will all fully enjoy the week with everything we have planned for them.