Baptism

One more quick post before we all leave for Christmas (well, actually I'm the only one still in town) to introduce you to your new sister in Christ! Janet was baptized today. She is the fiancé of Alejandro, who is the son of Pepe and Ángeles. You can read a little more about Pepe and Ángeles here. Just scroll down. They are almost at the end of the article. Anyway, Alejandro and Janet are getting married on Jan. 5th and have asked Sam to perform the ceremony. As Sam and Ann did some premarital counseling with them, they also studied more in depth with Janet, which led to her decision to be baptized today. We are rejoicing with the angels in heaven over this newest member of the body of Christ and ask for your prayers for her as she begins her new walk with the Lord and also prepares for the next stage of her life as a wife. Enjoy the pictures!

Sam talking to Janet before her baptism

Cute picture of the kids peaking over the baptistry to watch

Sam baptizing Janet

Praying over Janet

(L to R) Ángeles, Julieta (Alejandro's sister), Alejandro, Janet, and Pepe

It's almost Christmas time!

Just a quick post to ask for your prayers for safe travel for all of us this Christmas season. The traveling starts out with our intern, Jeanine, leaving on Saturday morning, followed by the González family hitting the road Sunday afternoon and then I head to Mexico City really early on Monday morning to catch a flight to DFW. I fly back in to Mexico City on Saturday, the 29th and will take another bus back to Morelia. Jeanine gets back in on January 3rd and the Gonzos roll in on the 4th. We are all looking forward to spending time with friends and family, but we do ask for your prayer coverage for these next couple of weeks. We must say that one of the things we do love about living in Mexico is that we are close enough to visit family during special times like the Christmas season! Here are some cute pictures of the Gonzo girls at a Christmas party the other day.

Christmas convivio

Well, the Lord amazed us once again! We had our annual Christmas convivio on Sunday and the Lord was there and saw us through it all. We had over 150 people there, which was a huge blessing. This is what Ann had to say about the event:

We had our annual Christmas celebration this past Sunday. It was a great day!!! I tried to count, but it was rather difficult -- people kept moving or I kept getting distracted. But, 147 plates of food were served and 4-6 additional people came in after the meal. So, we are saying that we had 150 there, which is a great number. There were many new faces, which we always like to see. Along with those were some familiar faces including Santa Claus. The highlight of the evening was the candle light part of the service. It was beautiful to see the room go from darkness to light and to think that that is exactly what we are all about. We were a little apprehensive as to how it would work with a lot of kids in the audience and it took quite a bit of energy to explain to our leaders how they would make it work. And it worked! The owner of the place we rented was especially impressed with it. He has spent 3 years listening to us worship, listening to God's word, listening to Sam preach...so one of these we look forward to him being in the light!

Here are some of the pictures I took. Enjoy!

The kids playing games as everyone else was arriving

People getting to know each other

Our official greeters for the day, Amy and Evelia (and Daniel)

Some of the kids sang a couple of songs to start off our celebration time

There were even actions involved in the songs!

A full house!

And of course, Santa Claus!

Update

Good morning! I just wanted to give you a quick update on Morelia. Jeanine and I went to see her yesterday at her house and she seems to be doing really well, although still sore and in some pain if she moves a lot. But she is in very good spirits and knows that it was the Lord who brought her through everything. She said she felt so peaceful and full of hope when she was waiting for the surgery to start. She went into the operating room singing the Lord's praises and she could feel the prayers of so many on her behalf. Please continue to lift her up. Pray that the Lord will heal her quickly and completely and that she will rest in Him in these days of recovery.
Oh, one more thing. Be sure to check out the Gonzo's blog for some interesting news. : )

Prayer request and praise report

Just a quick prayer request and praise report to start off your morning. First, please be praying for Morelia, one of the ladies in our church, as she is having gall bladder surgery (I think that's what it is!) this morning, Nov. 27, at 8 a.m. It should be a fairly routine thing, but pray for her nerves and the Lord's protection over the whole process. I'll update you tomorrow whenever I get information on how everything went.
I just got the praise report in an e-mail from my mom. As most of you know, Richland Hills, our sponsoring congregation, takes an offering for missions once a year, known as Harvest Weekend. The money raised pays for our salaries and work funds here in Morelia, along with all the mission work that they are involved in throughout the world. The goal this year was $1.4 million. That's right, that's JUST FOR MISSIONS! Anyway, there is a new Harvest total as of today. $1,345,546 or 98% of the goal has been reached! Praise the LORD! He is so good to us all and he loves it when his people give to further his kingdom around the world. Thank you, Lord, for bringing in the Harvest. All glory and honor is yours.

Prayer Requests

Well, I didn't get a fourth update in yesterday, but I thought I would post one more time today with some specific prayer requests for the church here.

• The biggest thing on our plates right now is our annual Christmas convivio, which is going to be December 9th. We are planning to do pretty much the same thing as last year. It should be a full house! Please pray specifically that those who were at our Friends Day on Sunday will join us again for the convivio and get to know us a little bit better. Also pray for all the preparations leading up to the event.
• Pray for the growth and multiplication of our cell groups, as well as the raising up of more cell leaders so that more groups can start.
• We are currently averaging around 20 kids on Sunday, which is a great problem to have, but the space we are using isn't ideal for that many kids. Please join us in praying for a solution to this problem.
  
• Everyone on the team is going to be traveling over Christmas. Please pray for safe travel! Jeanine, our intern, will be out from Dec. 22-Jan. 3. The Gonzalez family will be in South Texas from Dec. 23-Jan. 5. And Sara will be making a really quick trip home from the 24-29 of Dec.
  
• Please be praying for Summer's after school project that she is trying to start by the beginning of the year. Once again, if you would like more info on that, just let me know and I'll have her send you a brochure.

As always, thank you so much for the prayers!

Catch up Post #3 - Friends Day

Please don't have a heart attack when you see that I've updated three times today. Now you know I was serious when I said I had a lot to catch up on! There may even be one more after this, if you can stand it (although I feel myself loosing steam, so don't get your hopes up too high). : )
Yesterday, the 18, we had Friends Day at church. We've had these events in the past with a pretty good turnout, but it's probably been over a year and a half since our last one (unless you count the one on Easter Sunday that kind of flopped because Easter isn't as big of a holiday here as it is in the States). Anyway, we've been encouraging people over the past few weeks to be inviting their friends and family for this special Sunday. Man, did they ever step up! We had 106 people! There were probably 15-20 first time guests (I don't have the exact numbers yet). We had a meal afterwards and most everyone stayed around and talked and got to know each other a little better. We were also able to invite everyone to our Christmas convivio, which will be in a few weeks.
I unfortunately didn't get any pictures of the celebration with the place full, but I did take some pictures of the meal time. I wish they included sound, so you could hear all the talking and laughing and general good time that was being had. Oh, well! You'll have to make due with photos. : )

Catch up Post #2 - Missionary Retreat

The next blessing this month was the annual Mexico Missionary Retreat. This year it was hosted by the missionaries in Tlalpan, one of the delegations in Mexico City. One of the best things for us was that is was in Zihuatanejo, which is just three and a half hours from us here in Morelia. In the past, we've had to travel up to seven hours to get to the retreat, so it was really nice having it closer to home for us. (Of course, everyone else had to travel seven hours or so, but hey, it was close for us!) : )
The three days we were there were divided up between talks, given by Jay Jarboe, and free time. We would also get together at night for a devo. Other highlights included a family meal together where we were able to share the joys and the struggles of each of our works and take the Lord's Supper together, and a game night, which lasted into the wee hours of the morning for some! There were 91 people in attendance. It was amazing to see and hear what the Lord is doing throughout the country of Mexico. Please be praying for the missionaries throughout Mexico and the churches that the Lord is planting through each of them.

There were a lot of kids!

It's always a blessing to see Doug and Sandy Holcomb at these events, since they knew me back when I was just a missionary kid

Phyllis Needham, Jeanine and I shared a room and this was the view from our terrace. Can't beat that!

Catch up Post #1 - Los Azufres

I have so much to catch you all up on. I hope you have a blog reader that you use so that you haven't been checking back here every day looking for new updates! If you don't, you should get one. I use Google Reader. Check it out. It's really cool!
Anyway, back to catching you up. First, I want to let you know about a trip that our church made a few weeks ago to encourage some friends of ours who live about two hours from Morelia. Through a rather complicated set of events, Salvador and Stacey Torres, along with their four kids, live in Ciudad Hidalgo with Salvador's family. The way we got in touch with them is a pretty cool God story that I won't go into here. We try and go visit them as often as we can get away. This time, we invited the church and went to Los Azufres, which are hot springs right outside of Ciudad Hidalgo. Our other reason for going was to meet the newest member of the family, Ezequiel, who was born a couple of months ago. The church had taken up a contribution for the new baby around the end of September and we wanted to bless them with that. Overall, we had a wonderful day. Sam and the guys cooked some amazing steaks and we had fajitas. The kids all enjoyed playing together. I believe the Torres family was blessed by the time. Please pray for them. If you would like to know more about their situation, just let me know. Enjoy the pictures!

Olivia and Salvi

Stacey and the new baby, Ezequiel

Stacey and her sister-in-law, Brenda, talking with Ken and Eileen, a retired couple that live in Morelia and go to our church.

Victoria and Mariah, Stacey and Salvador's oldest

(L to R) Ceyli, a friend visiting from the States, Jeanine, our intern, Sam and Jeovel Sr.

José and Jeovelito playing in the water

The Torres family (Top row, L to R) Salvador, Stacey, Brenda (Salvador's sister) holding Ezequiel (Bottom row, L to R) Salvi, Luis, and Mariah

Cute baby Ezequiel!

Summer is married!

I'm sorry it's been so long since I last updated. I promise it isn't because we've been sitting around twiddling our thumbs! We've been focused on getting Summer married off. : ) That's right, she is officially a married woman now.

The festivities began the week after the retreat when the church here had a shower for her and Túpac. Instead of presents, we decided to focus mainly on blessing them in their new life together, both spiritually and financially. Ann put together a book and people wrote blessings for the new couple, along with some of their favorite recipes. We also had a time for people to speak blessings over them and we prayed over them. It was a great night of fellowship.

Summer left Morelia the next day to head to Texas for the wedding. I followed about a week or so later and arrived a few days before the bridal shower hosted by Richland Hills, our sponsoring congregation. It was another sweet time to reconnect with friends and family.

The next item for me on the agenda was to go with Summer and Túpac to the records office in Decatur and serve as a translator so that they could get their marriage liscense. I ended up getting to translate for another couple who'd come in as well. I may have found my new calling. : )

Friday, October 5 was the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner. It was an interesting experience because about a third of the participants had never been to a rehearsal before, since that isn't not part of the wedding tradition in Mexico. Everything went well and we were also able to enjoy some yummy country cooking a cafe in town. After dinner, we went back to Summer's parents house to celebrate her mom, Janene's birthday. She was very surprised and also very much enjoyed her first bi-lingual birthday party. After dessert, the bridesmaids and Summer headed to Summer's sister, Brook's apartment to hang out. We were also joined by two of Summer's college roommates. We stayed up until three in the morning talking!

We woke up the next morning to cloudy skies and started praying hard for everything to clear up, since the wedding and the reception were going to be outside. After getting our hair fixed and picking up the flowers, we headed out to Summer's parents house, which was the site of the wedding. We spent the rest of the afternoon getting everything ready and praying for the rain to go away, which it did around 12:30, praise the Lord!

The wedding was wonderful and the bride was beautiful. A few tears were shed, mainly by Túpac, and everything went great! The ceremony was a great combination of both cultures represented there and had a little bit of Summer and a little bit of Túpac. The dinner afterwards was incredibly yummy and the company was even better. Overall, everything was a huge success!

I'll leave you with a few pictures from the day of the wedding. Enjoy! And please be praying for Summer and Túpac as they begin their new life together. Here is what Summer wrote about their future plans.

'We are currently splitting time between Mexico City and Morelia as we both get back to work and make a home together. I will be stepping down as a missionary at the end of October and pursue opening up an after school program in Morelia. Please pray that God gives us tremendous wisdom in getting the funds and setting up the project. We are also working on transferring Túpac's job to Morelia as soon as possible.'

The lovely bride and her bridesmaids

Me and Lacey, Summer's sister, along with Sofía, who was one of the flower girls

Father and daughter heading down the aisle

The happy couple!

The newlyweds, the Gonzalezes and me

Church Retreat '07

Okay, I was going to write this nice, long update about the retreat, but Ann beat me to it, so check out her website to read about it. I'd already uploaded pictures, though, so you can check those out.

The whole group

Everyone was really glad to see Steven! (L to R) Maythe, Steven, Aldo, Elsa and Herlinda

The young people with Steven

Some of the kids did a skit for the talent show

Steven speaking

The group getting ready to listen to Steven
Kids having fun

Water ballon volleyball

A picture of the game time

Some of the art projects that Steven had people do. Cool, huh?