9 days with our home church youth group!

For the week leading up to Easter, we hosted our youth group from our home church in Canada - Kleefeld EMC.

There were 9 youth and 5 leaders and we looked forward to it a lot as we know all of the leaders and knew it would be a great week together! The leaders include those that mentor us (our pastor) and that we have mentored (our previous youth) and that we currently mentor (Paulina, from our church here in Gdl but who is studying at Steinbach Bible College in Canada and attending our home church there, and who Dallas will be performing the wedding ceremony for in July!). It's neat to see the way different generations and groups of people can work together.

Our house was the central command station for all things food and debrief related ;) Our house is small but thankfully, youth don't care about cramming! 

We are so thankful also for those that helped us in planning and running the week, including those in our cell groups, we couldn't have done it without them! They helped drive the youth around, inviting their friends and people they're reaching out to to the different outreach event, and hosting with us. We are excited when we see the local believers working together.

The day they arrived, we did a bit of orientation and then spent some time in prayer for the upcoming week. That evening we put on a youth event, where we and our cell groups invited contacts to come out for a Cultural Event. Youth events here often mean anyone is welcome, and we had from little kids up until parents of the youth.

We did a bit of a talent show, music, played hockey, and had pizza together. Our prayer is that those that were invited will have come away with a positive view of Christians and that this can prompt conversations with those that invited them.

 

The next day was Palm Sunday and we took the group out to Los Chorros de Tala, which is a natural park with a waterfall, a creek, and a swimming pool. Some from our cell group went as well and we had a service there at the park and then spent the day together. 

For Monday we planned a Kid's Club here in our gated community and had a few of our kid's school friends come out, plus some from here in our community. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures as I was in charge and it went by quickly :) We also had some down time that afternoon and then spent some time in prayer looking over the city of Guadalajara from 2 high places. 

Tuesday they headed to downtown Guadalajara for our traditional Picture Scavenger Hunt that we do with teams that come! They split into groups and were given a list of things to find and to take pictures of. This included touring the Catholic Cathedral, visiting some historical buildings, and touring a typical market. 

Later in the evening we had one of Paulina's friends come and share about the traditional Catholic pilgrimage that is happening right now, that he took part of. This is a path that people walk for two days in order to spend time in prayer to the Virgin of Talpa, the town they walk to. 

After the first number of days in the city and exposure to urban life and ministry, we took the group to the Orphanage Ranchito Con Eperanza (Little Ranch with Hope), where they spent the next 4 days. I know this was a big highlight for many of them, as they were able to do several types of ministry. Some worked on the farm feeding cows and harvesting honey, some worked in pouring a cement floor, some helped with peeling and cutting tons of fruits and veggies, and some read and did activities with the kids. This is the Orphanage that Dallas and I and our cell groups volunteer at regularly and where our little girl is from.

 The orphanage is in a small town an hour out of the city and as the only Christian influence there, they periodically put on Kids Clubs and invite the town kids. One afternoon we did this with them and they had 30 kids come out in addition to the 23 they have at the orphanage. 

 And, one of the days while they were at the orphanage, Dallas and I skipped out and attended a wedding! We did pre-marital counseling with a young couple last summer and now they were getting married. Their parents are good friends of ours from our kid's school, as their younger son is in Carter's grade, so we had a table full of friends from school there to hang out with!

This is Karla, a mom friend who was one of the first I ever met here in Gdl almost 7 years ago! How time flies.

So, that was our week!! There are many stories to tell and I know that each person on the team would have different perspectives and stories. For us, we see the ministry opportunities and ways the team helped us with our ministry and reaching out to people. We see the ways people worked together and advanced God's kingdom.

It was also a tiring week for Dallas and I as along with the planning and running of the week, we had our 4 kids with us plus had Brady visit the hospital twice while they were here (he has a knee effusion, which we are still working on solving). But, we are thankful for the week and to God for working despite our weakness' and for giving us joy. Our prayer is that the week will be something the youth will look back on and remember the ways they were impacted and have this change them even in small ways, and that makes it all worth it!

Baptism!

A week ago today we celebrated a baptism together as our community of believers!

We first met Juanca 3 or so years ago through some of our cell members, and we got to know him as well as his whole family through various different events. He then started attending on of our Bible studies regularly a year and a half ago and has been growing more and more in his desire to be close to God!

It's been wonderful and encouraging to see how people working together can be used by God to spread his love - in Juanca's case he was friends with a family in our study group, we were then introduced to him, he then became friends with our ASCEND intern, Jesse, then he met the Kleefeld youth group that came for a week, and then he joined our Bible study group. All of these different people played a part in bringing him to the point of baptism and he recognizes each one. There are other believers that have meant a lot to him in the past year and it's been neat to see him grow from each interaction. 

It was not an easy decision for him, as his family doesn't understand and is not in agreement with what he's decided to do. It's hard to imagine being a young person and having the conviction to follow what God has placed in your heart despite opposition. His parents did attend though and I respect their desire to be there for him despite how difficult it was for them. We love this family and we all have things to learn from one another. It makes me think about how I will support my kids as they grow up and perhaps make decisions that we as parents don't agree with or that grieve us.

And after the baptism we of course had tacos all together!! A lady in our group makes great tacos and everyone brings something and we enjoyed a good afternoon together. 

30 Days of Writing: SENSES

TODAY'S SENSES:

Sight

greenery

color

faces that I love

new faces at the daycare we volunteered at today

termites!! not welcome, obviously

Hearing

birds chirping

food crunching

neighbors that live behind us talking

kids shrieking and laughing

conversation in the van with the youth group as we travel

Smell

coffee, coffee, coffee

egg frying

boy's sweat after school

termite killing spray

Taste

coffee

egg & toast

iced coffee

guacamole

torta ahogada

horchata with strawberries

Japanese peanuts

Touch

hugs with my kids

little kids at the daycare sitting on laps and reading books

kisses and hugs in greeting

a touch of a rude child of mine and a resulting discipline

a hand on a feverish forehead, of another child of mine

onions, tomatoes, and avocados in prepping the guacamole

30 Days of Writing:
DREAM, SENSES, LIGHT, INSPIRING, WHAT-SPEAKS-TO-YOU, ANIMAL, HAPPY, FLY, MUSIC, TASTY, SUPPORT, SPECIAL, PLACE, BREAK, TOMORROW, DESTINATION, BRAND, EVENT, NO, LAUGH, FEED, MIND-BLOWING, FABULOUS, COMPARE, EXCLUSIVE, FUZZY, FRIEND, BATTLE, SIGN, GRATITUDE, SMILE
*#an_snapaword

Prayer Team 2016

This past week we had our annual Prayer Team here in Guadalajara.

This year 10 people came from our different churches back in Canada, to spend a week in prayer for us as missionaries and for the ministries and church here. They also come to encourage the missionary team and we appreciate it so much!

Dallas and I personally knew a few on the team ahead of time and it was a highlight being able to re-connect with them a little this week. Such great people!

Besides re-connecting and being encouraged on a personal and spiritual level, another highlight was seeing them interact and care for our cell group people. Two of the ladies on the team lost their husbands recently, in the past 4-6 years, and they were willing to go with me to visit Teo, a cell member whose husband also passed away this year. It was a privilege for me to listen to these three ladies encourage each other and to see their faith in God as their highest priority despite the difficulties of life was a life-giving to me.

Marcella, Teo (cell member), and Levina

They also attended our Bible studies throughout the week in order to pray for the people and also to know better how to pray for the missionary team.

Each of us missionary couples also hosted the team for part of a day, sharing about our lives with them. 

On Sunday we had planned a celebration service so that the church people and cell groups could meet together. We also had a farewell for Jesse (Ascend intern who is leaving at the end of this month) and graduated 3 ladies that have been studying a Bible course for the past two years.

There were quite a number of people that attended one of church events for the first time! The atmosphere was very welcoming and we pray they experienced the love of the church that afternoon!

Dallas and Jesse have played music several times together for church events

Kids class during the service

 As Mexicans love to hang out and spend a whole day together, this get together included a Mexican bbq after the service and then floor hockey and visiting.

The Canadians tend to be the intense ones....but not always! Even though some may not know how to hold a stick or how to play, they get right into it.

Our boys also have a lot of fun at these events, playing with their friends, young and old...

 Our kids also love having Prayer Teams come. They love some extra attention and seeing Canadians once in a while.

The crazy thing was that exactly the week the team was here, all 3 boys had extra projects and presentations at school! So any spare minutes in the afternoons was spent doing homework with them but thankfully it all worked out :)

Now we continue to pray for our church here and we pray that what the team saw here will be able to be transmitted well back in our churches in Canada. When people come and see first-hand what God is doing here, they are able to share that with people there and as a result more people pray and that is what we need.

Kleefeld EMC Youth!

We just finished up a week with the youth group from our church back home in Canada! 

They have been coming every other year since Dallas and I moved to Mexico, so this was their fourth trip here. The Associate Pastor, Peter, has been with them each time and it's been so great to work together on this from afar and while they're here. 

They came with good attitudes, ready to learn and be involved, and we loved seeing them in action. It's also fun on a personal level to know their parents and older siblings, and to have worked before with those that are now leaders in the group.

I won't get into detail about each and every thing that we did, but here are a few pics to highlight...

The picture above was taken at an orphanage we went to for a day. It is an hours drive from Gdl, out in a small town. It's a Christian children's home and we were blessed to have been connected with them! The "parents" of the home are wonderful people, as are the staff that work with them, and we plan to help them more in the future. This was a positive connection made through Kleefeld having been here.

We also helped with food prep, clean up around the property, and spent a couple of hours with the kids.

playing games

A highlight for us as missionaries were the worship times together most of the evenings....we love Spanish don't get me wrong, but it's special to sing together in English with a group once in a while. Most evenings we also had visitors from our cell groups and connections with us, so it was still always a mixture of English and Spanish voices singing together.

Another thing we did was a kid's event in our neighborhood. We invited neighbor kids and also some friends from other connections. A new family that joined us on Sunday for our Easter celebration also sent their kids to this event, those double connections are good! 

Paulina, a youth in our cell group, invited her friends to the park one afternoon for a youth day. As it is Spring break, many of them were away, but several came and it's been neat to see Paulina take a stand for God with her friends even though she is the only Christian. 

In this pic below, the guys aren't bored on their cell phones :) They are getting them ready to take pictures as we played Egg Roulette!! Our interns, Jesse and Allison, had planned some games, so here they boiled some eggs and left some raw....each person had to take an egg and smash it on their head. Who knows what kind of egg you'll get!!

Besides these times together, we also took them to an Old Folk's home where they made good connections as well, they attended a church Easter celebration, they visited with people they came into contact with, they prayed with us and for us and for Guadalajara, and they saw new things.

Beyond what they did for our ministry and people here, we pray that they also left here having seen God at work - both here and in their own lives and hearts. We pray that their experience will have changed them in little or big ways and that they will remember this time and remember what God said to them while they were here!

These kinds of short trips taught me a lot as a younger person and were things that helped shape me into the person I am today, so I love having the come and being able to invest just a little into the youth of our church!