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!

Trip to Chihuahua 2016

Since leaving Chihuahua 5 years ago, we have tried to keep up the connections with the people there, especially with the church leaders and those we worked with while we lived in Delicias. Our last visit there was 2 years ago, and this last week we made the 15 hour trip back up that way.

Prepare yourself for a long post with lots of pictures :) 

We took with us our Intern, Jesse, who needed to cross the border in order to renew his visa and then was going to attend the Conference youth camp. So that meant we were in El Paso, TX, where we took a couple of days as a family and did some shopping (school supplies are cheaper up there!).

Then we headed south into Chihauhau where we began visiting. We stayed in 3 different homes over the week, all people we knew well, and so we felt pretty at home. And I have to say that the boys did so well the whole trip long! We visited on average of two different people or homes per day and they loved it all. So that is a huge help when doing these kinds of trips, as it does become tiring towards the end.

Our first stop was in Chihuahua City, where we attended a church service, as it was Sunday. This is the church where the pastor couple of many years, Aldo & Rebeca, both passed away from medical complications a year from each other. A young couple, Victor & Claudia, that had been part of the church for many years (sister to Rebeca) stepped up and became the new pastor couple, and we were thankful to see that the church is doing well and is growing! It was a blessed morning there together with them.

Victor also became the new President of the CEMM Conference (the Conference of 14 churches in Chihuahua) 3 months ago, and asks for prayers in this new role. The Conference has several strong leaders that overall are working well together and so the support network is in place. 

After a lunch together, we drove another hour to arrive in Cuauhtémoc, where we joined John & Lorna Wall for supper. They were missionaries with the EMC for many years, working with the Low German people in Chihuahua, and are now pastoring a church in that area. We always love to see them! We also met up with them one more time later in the week. A bonus for the boys was that they had their 2 grandsons over, who are the boys age.

We then headed just up the road to spend the night with Jason & Jessica, our friends from Chicago who just moved to Cuauhtémoc 2 weeks ago. They had been studying Spanish here in Guadalajara and now are going to begin their ministry with their team in Chihuahua, so we got to crash at their place!

The next morning we met with Walter and Susy, pastor couple in Cuauhtémoc. We always love to visit with Walter and were able to meet his new wife. His spirit and attitude are contagious. You may recall hearing about his wife Chepina, who was killed almost three years ago.

(picture borrowed from Walter)

From there we continued our drive, one hour more, to get to Santo Tomás camp, where Jesse was to spend 6 days. We got him settled and then headed another hour to arrive at Soto Maynez, with Juan Carlos & Claudia, missionary couple with the Conference. 

This was one of the highlights for the boys as they have kids their age and they took us to a farm ;) Our city boys need to get out into the country!!

While we were there we also went to see the church that they are in the process of building. Juan Carlos & Claudia will actually be moving up to Juarez in a couple of weeks to begin a new church plant there.

We also spent an evening with some of the church group, at the home of Oscar & Lupe, who will be leading the Soto Maynez church. 

 After two days in that area, we headed 4 hours east to Delicias! This is where we lived for two years, helping in the church 20 minutes out of the city and teaching the Bible within the city with new groups. We stayed with Antonio & Lety, pastor couple of the church.

The weather here was hot!! I mean, it was hot everywhere, but Chihuahua City and Delicias were about 40 degrees....I guess your body does adapt when you live in it all of the time. 

So we spent some time with them as a family...

And also attended their mid-week church service to meet up with those we knew from the church, and then met up in the city with Mario & Lorena and Benita, some that we studied the Bible with in Delicias.

We also met up with Orlando & Laura and their girls. They are a pastor couple from an Independent church in Delicias, and they became good friends and a good support to us during our time there! 

Orlando also helped Dallas manage the world of government and lawyers :) While in Chihuahua we needed to make a correction to Brady's birth certificate, which we had to do through a lawyer. Orlando knows a trustworthy one and he is now working on the paperwork for us! We are so thankful. We didn't know if we would be able to do this, as it's a process that takes months and has to be done in Chihuahua.

(picture borrowed from Orlando)

After a couple of days in that area, we headed an hour back to Chihauhua City, where we stopped to visit Pepe & Juanis and their son Giovanni. They are the pastor couple at one of the churches there, and Pepe recently underwent brain surgery to remove a tumor. They are so thankful for the way he is healing and that no memory was lost! He is re-learning how to walk and talk but his spirit is positive and it was an encouragement to visit with them. They were a couple that took an interest in us when we lived there and had us over several times, as they were one of the closer churches to Delicias.

Back to Cuauhtémoc, where the boys and I stayed with Jason & Jessica while Dallas continued into the mountains to the camp to pick up Jesse!

Jesse got to know the youth from the different churches and became "one of them" for that week. Some of the food, culture, and Spanish is different in Chihuahua than in Guadalajara so it was a learning experience.

The next day we got up bright and early to begin the 15 hour drive home! We all love road tripping so we had a good time.....but I was ready to be at home again! Stepping into your home after a time away is always refreshing. 

 Continue to pray for the Conference in Chihuahua as they work together as a group and as they seek to build the churches and start new churches. We were encouraged to see what God has been doing there in the north and we hope that we were able to encourage those we visited as well.

In the nitty gritty

I'm often surprised by the things we end up doing as part of our ministry. When you hear the word "church planter", you might think of a person that is doing constant preaching, evangelism, and leadership training, among other things. And we do these things. We have our Bible studies, where we study and point others to Jesus. We share our faith as we interact with others. We plan outreach events.

But then there are the other things that go with this - the nitty gritty of becoming involved at an intimate level in the lives of the people you work with. Living life with others through the thick and thin.

Recently Dallas and I have been doing quite a bit of one-on-one with people that are asking for guidance in certain areas. 

Mentoring a teen as she works through things of the past.

Mentoring another teen as she processes life, boys, and the future.

Walking with a dear older woman who recently lost her husband and won't talk to anyone else.

Mentoring young men as they make decisions for the future and looking for what's truly important in life.

Counseling a couple as they try to better their marriage. 

Counseling a mother who needs help with a rebellious daughter. 

These are just some examples, and with all of these, they come to us looking for Biblical and practical guidance. They know where we stand in our relationship with Jesus and it's neat and humbling to have others put their trust in you and our hope with all of these is that they will put that trust in God. He really is the only One that give peace in the midst of struggle. There are times where people need help beyond what we can give - professional counseling, etc. and we need wisdom in knowing where to direct people as well. 

It's interesting also how we work with such a wide variety of age groups! We often feel like we are so young (even though we are older than we sometimes think...strange how that works) and we're thankful that God is the One who gives us the abilities, cause we sure wouldn't know what to do or say without it! 

There are also the other interesting we get to do as part of our work here - like helping people apply for visas to Canada! I actually enjoy filling out forms and have been asked to help with this recently.

Ministry gets busy, as there are no set work hours! Through it all, we look for those moments to connect well with our kids and as a couple. When we get busy or stressed, emotions can fly a little off the wall, so we need to work always at maintaining a good rhythm of life and keeping our eyes on the author and finisher of our faith (God).

People are super important to us, and that includes our family! They are our #1.

Logan and I had a little fun in the school line-up this afternoon....

And on Monday there was no school so we took the day as a family day and headed to the forest to take the boys mountain biking for the first time. It is hilly with rocks and sticks and uneven paths, so they needed some help and encouragement but did well overall and we had a good time! This is definitely something we will keep doing as a family when we can. 

They of course looooved flying down the hills (there was a paved one at the end of the route) and I can see that we have some future falls on our hands :) 

I have done trail riding with Dallas before but it's been a while since I've been out in the bush biking, rather than on the paths here in our park. It was a lot of fun actually.