It’s October yall! Although we are not welcoming pumpkin spice and corn mazes into our fall season we are welcoming rain which cools things off a little bit around here! I do believe our blood is thinning a little and we are getting used to these year round warm temperatures!
As of October 2 we have lived here in Mexico for an entire year! It has been a year of growth in so many ways. We have grown in language speaking. Puedo hablar en Espanol mejor que cuando llegamos! We have grown as a family. We have adjusted well to being a family of 4, and adjusted being together all of the time. Garrett and I have learned that just because we are together doesn’t actually mean we are communicating! And being married without communicating is like trying to breathe without oxygen… can I get an AMEN! We have grown closer to the Lord. When you move to a place that doesn’t speak the same language as you, you really have to take your spiritual growth into your own hands. No longer do we have the luxury of driving to our local church to be fed by local Sunday school teachers and pastors. Although we love our church here, and our thankful for the support of believers, it's different not to learn and worship in your own language. We have also grown in our ministry...
The Bible Study with ladies by the river is going well. Several months ago they asked what a “real” church looks like. So we have started a 5 part bible study with them going through the bible to learn what the bible says a church looks like. They were excited to learn that church is not a building, and that they could become a church. We have introduced singing a few songs before our bible study, and that has become their favorite part! Prayer Request: Please pray for their family relationships; husband and wife, mother-in-law and daughter in law, mother and sons, etc. They all live under one roof, and spend a lot of time together, and the closer they grow to Christ the harder the devil works! Also, pray that the rest of the family that live on the other side of the street will want to participate in the bible study.
Wednesday Nights in Ojitlan is changing a little. Every Wednesday night since March we have gone to Ojitlan (as long as we weren’t all sick or out of town). We have taken at least 2 youth from our church here in Tuxtepec with us to play at the large community sports complex in Ojitlan. There usually averages about 15 to 20 other people around the complex varying all ages. Our strategy here is to get to the know the people of Ojitlan. Ojitlan is the hub of our people group and they are very closed off to outsiders. Most of them have never seen a white person, and especially not in their village. We want to show the love of Christ and allow them to experience it, instead of just handing them another religion to tac on to the end of the last one. So our strategy right now is show up every week to play and get to know some of the people, and to walk to the streets and pray. The last month or so the youth of Peniel have started back to school, which means they haven’t been able to go with us, the rain has settled in, and it’s getting dark early so we haven’t had a lot of people at the park, or we only get to spend about an hour in Ojitlan. So after talking with the youth of Peniel we are going to start going on Saturday mornings for a few hours. Prayer Request: Please pray that we will have youth of Peniel involved in our ministry in Ojitlan, pray there will be people to invest in on Saturday mornings, and pray for open hearts to the Gospel through this ministry.
Our partnership with Peniel is growing! Garrett plays the bass for Sunday morning worship, which means practice twice a week, learning language, and getting to know the other people in the worship band. I have started teaching an ESL, English as a second language, class for the children on Saturdays from 12-1. This means investing in next generation of believers, and maybe even a translator wink wink.
Our partnership with Shindler Drive Baptist Church, and any other believers that would like to partner with the Lord and us to share the Gospel to the Chinantec Ojitlan people group needs attention. We had 11 people come on mission with us this past year, and we would love to see that number at least double this next year. On our website we have posted different types of trips. We would love for you to read over them and contact us with more questions, or just to let us know you are interested. You can click here if you would like a copy of the trips. Our church has rented an apartment right next to ours (with AC in the bedrooms) to help with the cost of a trip! We cannot do this alone, and we were not called to do this alone. Prayer Request: Please pray and consider how you can get involved in this mission!
And a quick update on the kids. Hope has started school and she loves it! I was a little worried because she is the youngest in the class, it’s a 3-4 age range and she turned 3 two days after starting school and Spanish is her second language. She is thriving and loves her “maestra y amigos”. Through Hope’s school I have gotten to know one of the mom’s and have started walking with her in the mornings. Gideon is almost a year old! He loves to eat and begs worse than a dog. He is not walking yet but loves to cruise around the furniture.
