How do you bring tears to a missionary’s eyes?  Well, actually, there are probably lots of ways, starting with a good solid Charlie Horse to the leg, but one way might be to have a solid Mexican believer, a leader in his church, tell you that he and his family want to work with you to help start a church. Recently, Tim met with Daniel and in the course of our conversation, Daniel said that he and his family feel God is leading them to commit to the church plant in Pueblo Nuevo.  This is exceedingly great news for several reasons.  First, we’ve been working with Daniel (and his wife Tere) in the small group for two years now.  We know them, love them, and have really seen their heart for the Lord and for witnessing and discipling. 
We have been so impressed by their faithful and diligent work for the Lord.  Second, they are leaders.  Both professionally and spiritually they are people whom others look up to. Third, they have integrity.  They aren’t perfect, but they are honest and real and act with integrity.  We are excited to begin planning for a new church.

 

Sports

You know how Mexico is nicknamed, "Flexico" in short-term parlance?  Well, even if
you don’t, flexibility is a big part of life here.  So a week back down,when we got a phone call from the flag football league telling us that our 9-10 year-old team qualified for playoffs, we, and all the parents, didn’t bat an eye.  Well, actually, we just showed up for the games with no practices and lost, but everybody had fun and the kids got medals (and ice cream).  We’ll be continuing Saturday practices and maintaining
communication with everybody.

Now we have an opportunity to work with some baseball as well.  Drew’s team needs more players, and when Tim put the word out at the elementary school, kids started coming out of the woodwork wanting to play.  So we’ll see how that turns out.  But there might be more interest in baseball here than we thought.

Studies
We closed the year well with a get-together for three different Bible study groups connected to our church plant team (the photo above).  We’ve started up Bible studies again (January is usually a pretty slow month, as it takes everyone a while to get up to speed again after the holidays).  We’ve gotten good responses in our three studies in Galatians and 1 John.  We’re excited to get into God’s Word with people again.

Church
The church plant work will consist of planning and team-building over the next few months.  Right now we are four households as a core. 
We’ll be meeting as a team as well as asking local leaders with church planting experience to share their wisdom with us.  This is an exciting moment, though, and we are keenly aware of our need for God’s mercies and guidance.

Help Wanted

We are so thankful for God’s blessings in our life.  Eddie Ferguson has been one.  He came down just as we were
getting started and has put up with our learning curve while working mightily to adjust to language, culture and ministry here.  But his two-year commitment is up in May (he’s staying until July!) and he feels God’s leading back to church ministry in the States.  So, this month, rather than a short-term, lesser-commitment, one-project kind of "Help Wanted," we’re going with the hard-core, "I wanna learn Spanish and live in Mexico for a longish kind of time." invitation.  Does this sound like somewhere God is leading you?  Let us know!  We could help.