A Little Newsey

We've been so busy I've not had a chance to update my blog, or decorate for Fall!  The kids are working hard on their school, beginning on Tuesday each week and ending on Saturday.  Our week is a little unusual, but that is the beauty of homeschool.  In our schedule, we have two days out of the week in which we do school in the afternoon, because the kids or their mother have ministry related items scheduled in the morning.

That is, all except the days when they are sick, which has been the case for the past two weeks.  A harsh nagging cough gradually made its entrance into the household a few weeks ago, and now it's just as slowly making its exit.  I'd like to evict it sooner, but all my powers of cough elimination are fruitless against this bugger.  I love how the Mexican ladies are all giving me advice.  In the US I'm usually the odd ball for my home remedies.  Twice, families have dropped by with their favorite herbs to make tea with for the kids, and I've also been scolded for not making them wear socks in the house.  "That's why they're sick!  Get socks on those feet!!!!"  (I would have to use a stapler, I think.)

I'm missing church, and missing the missing of church!  I'm so thankful for a church that I can serve in, and receive blessing from, for people to minister to, and who often minister to me.  Our pastor is a man of God who preaches God's Word without compromise or fear, and who, with his wife, genuinely love God and people.  These things are all priceless to me!

The property is ready to build on, we are just getting plans and people ready for the project!

This has been my news.  Thank you for taking the time to read it!

Newsflash!

 It's done!  Praise the Lord!  God put on the heart of a Christian here in Mexico to help this ministry with a building.  While he already invested in a small plot of land for us, he believed that the church needed more land, so he asked us to keep looking for the owners of the property on either side of us, or find two plots together somewhere.  We did find a plot that the owner was willing to trade with us, and allow us to purchase the neighboring plot from him as well.  Then his parents, who owned the plot on the other side, found out that we were looking for more land, and offered to sell us their plot too.  When Bro. Jaimez called his friend who was helping us, and asked him if he wanted to go ahead with this opportunity, he said, "That's so exciting!  This morning I was praying about your land, and God gave me this verse. Isa 54:2-3(2)  'Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;(3)  For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.'  Do it!"  So the church owns three plots together, and is ready to plan a building that will be big enough for our growing church.   This is wonderful to watch, and I feel privileged just to be a part. God is faithful!

Bro. Jaimez baptizing Elisabeth!

These aren't the greatest pics, but there wasn't a lot of water in the pool, and since we couldn't wait for another two hours, we just dunked them the best we could. Elisabeth is so light, her feet popped right out of the water!

Furlough adventure

Someone gave us a van to help us finish up furlough. It's a blessing, and I'd love to have pictures of it, except it is in Oregon; more on that later. We were trying to figure out the best way to get the van to California, and Ryan decided to tow our blue van with the new one, after consulting with a hauling company as to the best way to do this. We had a meeting in Oregon on Sunday, another meeting on Wednesday, and then a long drive on Thursday down to Northern Cali where my parents are. We prayed before we went that Lord would protect us, and show us if anything is not safe.

Things started happening on Sunday. We drove out of Vancouver, Washington early in the morning, took it slow towing the van, and drove for two hours on the freeway, going 55-60 miles per hour. Right before the exit we needed to take, the back wheels started to slide around. Ryan stopped and checked the tow bar, thinking that if anything was wrong, that would be it. But it was fine, so he got back in and we drove slowly to the off ramp. Right after we took the off ramp we felt a huge bump, then SCRAAPE. Ryan pulled over. Our left rear wheel was lying on the road next to our van, and long white mark on the asphalt showed where it had come off.

Ryan called the pastor, and he came out with a mechanic from the church. No serious damage was done; only loose lug nuts. However, when the mechanic took a look under the tires, he saw that the brakes were all bad! Here we are, planning to tow another van up and down mountain ranges with bad brakes!

Coincidentally, the mechanic happened to have a van exactly like ours that he happened to be using for spare parts. He replaced the brakes for us, and we got back on our way. I'm so thankful for the way God protected us.

On Thursday, Ryan was more than skeptical about our towing arrangement, and he was not happy with the way it was moving at all. We made it down to Medford, Oregon, and stopped there. Our van is waiting in a church parking lot. Ryan is going to get it next week.

Neither of these vans are going to be able to be imported to Mexico City. When we go, we will have to buy a vehicle there, because of new laws that have been made. We are praying about this, and we don't know how God is going to supply this need, but we do know He will provide. How can we doubt when He's taken such good care of us every step of the way?

I'm still here!

We've been busy as bees, which is how we like it! Last week we met with three different churches on Sunday! After this week, we are heading back to California, for some more meetings.

I don't have much more news, we finished our first year of home school a couple weeks ago, so now when we get back from a meeting, we can just rest.

Mount Laundry

Attacking the Laundry monster today! It's gotta happen before we are all buried!

Rejoice with me!

The Lord never ceases to amaze me. He did a wonderful work, one that I could never do in the past month.

We went to a church service on May 20th, the day a precious little boy by the name of Josiah Herring, age 5, was born into eternity to be with his "Best Friend". This church had been praying for Josiah, and his death was announced in the service, along with requests to pray for his family. My two young girls, Elisabeth and Rebecca, were sobered by this. We had shared the gospel with them, but they both didn't really think it was important to deal with it right away. When they asked me again how old he was, my husband and I took a moment to talk about death. We told them that, just like everyone has a day to be born, they also have a day to die. God knows this day, and we do not. It's important to be ready for eternity! Both of them were under conviction.

About three weeks passed. Then one morning while I was fixing Rebecca's hair, Elisabeth announced, out of the blue, "I'm ready to die now!" Well, those are words that make a mommy take notice! I asked her what on earth she was talking about. She repeated herself, in a matter of fact way, with a big smile on her face. When I asked her why, she said, "I'll go to Jesus!"

"How do you know that?"

"Cause Jesus took my sin away!"

"How do you know He did?"

"Cause I asked Him to!"

"Why did you want Him to take your sin away?"

"Cause it was going to take me to Hell, and I don't want to go there!"

She was so happy and content, and I had not seen her like that in a long time. I continued asking questions, and learned that the night before, June 9, She got out of bed, knelt down and asked Jesus to take away her sin and save her. She told Him thank you for dying for her, and for saving her. Then she went back to bed and slept.

I was, and still am amazed by this work the Holy Spirit did on my daughter, while I did not even know about it. This is not the end of the story though! A few days ago, my second daughter, Rebecca, came storming into our room about two hours after I had sent her and her sisters to bed. She was gasping and sobbing broken heartedly. She choked out, "I want to accept Jesus as my Saviour!" Again, we started asking questions to make sure she knew what she was doing, but that was just foolishness on our part. She knew exactly what she was doing, and this senseless delay was upsetting her even more. She cried, "I'm gonna die and go ta Hell! I wanna get saved!"

What can you say to that? We said, "Go ahead then!"

I watched my daughter drop to her knees and cry out, "Oh God! I'm so so sorry for all my sins! I've done so many bad things! Please, please forgive me!"

That was it! When she raised up her head, a smile started to shine. Ryan asked her, "Did He do it?" She said loudly, "Yessss!"

Rebecca and Elisabeth are two different little girls today! They have peace with God, and it shows. Do you have peace with God? Do you know what will happen to your soul when you die? God is not willing for you to perish!(2 Peter 3:9) Are you willing to repent of your sins and accept His gift of eternal life? If you are, then He is ready to save you! "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." II Cor. 5:21--John 3:16 says it better than I ever could, "For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

My heart goes out to the Herring family, I can't imagine what they've been through, and even though they don't know me, I've been holding them up in prayer. I'm so thankful for the life of their son. One day, I'm going to see him in Heaven, and I'm going to give him a hug and tell him "Thank you for your testimony!, here are two precious souls that were brought to Jesus!"

Newsy post

So we are apparently coming out from under the flu, or something we picked up at our last meeting. This one started on our last day in Canada, with the kids, and then I got it a couple days ago.

One of the unexpected things about occasionally traveling the country with your nursery-age children is that you acquire new germs everywhere you go! I always ask for prayer for health while we are on the move, because it's the one thing that puts a stop to our plans. Thankfully, we've only had a few mild bouts with bugs between meetings, so far. Also, we've not had any secondary infections, or asthma attacks. Thank you all for praying!

One of my more brilliant moments...

Ever done anything really dumb? I have one or two things on my list of Really Dumb Things Done. (or fifty, I don't remember which.) Anyway, one of those Really Dumb Things that definitely made it on my list was last year, and it had to do with our passports. This is a big no-no when you live in another country! We were sitting in line at the border, and I reached into our bag and drew out four passports, instead of six. We were able to cross the border into the states, because we had our ID cards and birth certificates with us, thanks to my more organized husband, but when we got back home, you can be sure we searched high and low for Ryan's and my passports! We looked everywhere for those things, and after two days, we figured we had better call them in as missing. (It says you need to do that right on the paperwork that comes with the passport.) So my husband went outside, climbed the mountain where our cell phone could pick up a signal, and made his call to cancel our passports. When he came back inside, I met him at the door with two dusty passports I had found seconds earlier. He looked at them, looked at the heavens and went back out.

Did you know that once you cancel a passport, you can't uncancel it? Heh. Bummer.

So for the rest of the time we were in Tijuana, every time the family crossed the border we had to explain to the border guard why our children had passports, and we did not have them.

I believe I have the most patient husband on the planet.

Anyway, I can tell the story now, without total mortification because we have our new passports now, and I don't feel like a total dweeb.

Hey! We're heading to Canada in a couple weeks! I can't wait!

Have a glorious Resurrection Sunday!

This is what it means to me:
(When you get time, just go ahead and read the whole chapter of 1 Cor. 15!)

1Co 15:19-20
(19) If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
(20) But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

1Co 15:42-43
(42) So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
(43) It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:

1Co 15:51-58
(51) Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
(52) In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
(53) For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
(54) So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
(55) O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
(56) The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
(57) But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
(58) Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

Whoo! What a day!

We are all packed up and ready to head out to Vancouver, WA tomorrow morning. We'll be pretty busy this month, but I'll try to stop in and say "hey" every now and then.

Lord bless you!

We can see the light!

We're coming out of the yucks, and getting ready for a very busy month! We're going to Vancouver, Washington on Friday, and we've got meetings every week all through the month. We love being busy, so we're looking forward to it!

Bugs!

We like to collect the germs and explore them throughly everywhere we go. I'm sure we are sharing them too! The last week has been a flu week, checking fevers, wiping snot, and tucking in moments of sleep where we can. Chicken soup has been involved.

Homeschooling has not. Not by my word. That was the Principal's call. Teacher is a tyrant who would happily have her little charges studying from the sickbed, Kleenex in hand. The kids are glad to have a dad with more compassion on them than their mom-although they are getting bored.

It's not as bad as it could be. My kids have been through the Twister a few times, and a little thing like the flu just sets them back a little. They aren't complaining much, and they do like Chicken Soup.

Heading out again!

We're taking a quick trip down to Harbor City, CA for a meeting, and then we'll be back here in Cloverdale for a week before heading out again to Oregon/Washington for many more meetings.

Rita, of the Jungle Hut, gave me some great advice for homeschooling while on furlough, for which I'm very thankful. I'm definitely going to be using it this year.

Ruth's birthday was fun. We had a small family celebration, which included too much pizza and a cake. My mom made an adorable dress with a hat, and the pictures are forthcoming!

Well, enough of my rambling, newsy post.

Newsy post

Just a little news on us and on our plans for the next few months! I'm getting the family ready to travel this month and next. This involves organizing things, which is one of my weaknesses, but it makes an enormous difference in the ease of a trip, so do it, I must! I'm also trying to work out the best way to home school while on the road. Ruth and Rebecca are doing K5 together this year, and I'm having a lot of fun teaching them to read. They are going just as fast as I can get the information into them, and they love it-the phonics, learning-to-read part anyway. They aren't so sure about the whole numbers thing. I sympathyze, but don't tell them! We've got a meeting next week, and then next month we start a full-time schedule of meetings. I'm so thankful for this time to get organized and into the school year a bit.

Also, the newest change we've made is a big move toward fitness-we are determined to get rid of the extra baggage. I already feel a major difference in my energy since we started eating more healthy food.

Where have I been?

The last month I've been homeschooling, and it's taken up all my creative energy. I'm having the time of my life though! This is something I always dreamed of doing "When I grow up". It is more fun than I even expected!

We took the day off today-teacher has the Cold To End All Colds, so school was canceled. I did hear my oldest in the room teaching her siblings their phonics. Too cute!

I'm going back to bed.

Our December prayerletter

Here is our last prayer letter, just to let you all know what we will be doing during the next year. I'll be blogging more often now also.

I want to extend our heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you who has sacrificed in your finances and with your time in prayer to support our ministry this past year. Our time in Tijuana has born fruit in souls saved, as well as in the ministries we had the privilege of serving in. My wife’s Spanish has greatly improved this past year as well. In October we packed up and moved out of Tijuana, and returned to the U.S.A. to prepare for the journey to Mexico City. We raised $2,300 toward our trip. God made it clear that He wanted us to take a furlough, raise the final amount, and also raise our support level to accommodate the change in expenses in Mexico City. This furlough should be about a year.

November started off with a great meeting in Fort Bragg, CA, at the Gospel Light Baptist Church. For the rest of the month, I called and scheduled furlough meetings with all our churches for the next year, while my wife got the kids settled into an on-the-road home school program.

December was busy, as we went down to Southern California for a Meeting in Downey, Boron, Delano, and our home church, Lighthouse Baptist Church in Santa Maria. We also spent some time in Santa Maria getting the van to the mechanic. It was naughty and refused to perform it’s “slipping transition” bump for the mechanic, so I just had him give it a tune up. He discovered that the tie rods were about to give out, which is quite dangerous, and replaced them. He also replaced a wire leading to the transmission. Since he did this there have been no more problems with the transmission. Thank the Lord we brought the van in for this problem! We made it back to Northern CA in time for the holidays. Now, we are getting ready for more meetings, as we take our first furlough.

Please pray for journey mercies, and for health for the family while we go. As always, I pray for the souls God will lead me to on the road, and in Mexico City. I believe He is preparing the soil ahead of me, getting people ready for the gospel, so I pray for them! Thank you all for your love and support! God bless!

Quick update

We've hit the road for a few months before going to Mexico City. Right now, we are in Cloverdale, CA, with my parents. We want to leave for Mexico City as soon as December if the funds come in. The last few weeks have been a blur. We moved from Tijuana, and attended two Missions' Conferences. I'm trying to check in here with something more interesting, but that requires more brain energy than I'm willing to devote at this moment. Thank you for checking in on me! Please pray that we can leave for Mexico City in December!

Come see our video!

This is where we've been the last three years, and what the immediate plans are. It's a short one, so check it out if you've got a minute!

Our video update

This is a link to our website. Feel free to look around!

News!

Several months ago our Internet switched off abruptly. I'm happy to report that things are going great! We are getting ready to move to Mexico City, and now we are on furlough. We will be traveling back and forth around California over the next few months, and we plan on heading down to Mexico City in December. I'll be updating more over the next few days. Thank you for coming back! I know I've been gone a long time!