Gorgeouschimis!

Wow!! Have you ever seen such a beautiful bouquet of flowers? This is what arrived yesterday afternoon to our house with a card of "thanks" from the Faith Christian Varsity Boys Team, their coach, Phil Leighty and Scott Grass. It is the most gorgeous thing I've ever seen!! Thank you so much guys!!! And, you're welcome -- when are you coming back??!!

Homeschooling

Home schooling is going great! The girls are back into the hang of having school at home. Natalie still really misses her friends from Gilwell but several of the kids stop by a couple times a week to say "hi" to Natalie. Natalie also likes to go to the school when it lets out to see everyone. The school is around the corner from our house. Both girls are now in basketball. Nicole is really enjoying this new activity. She learned last night how "rough" it gets when her group of kids "scrimage". It looks more like American Football than basketball! We are also looking into possibly enrolling Nicole in a swimming class that is just down the hill from our house. So many things are within walking distance of our house!

Only God's Way Works

Here is a picture of Tania and Natalie. Pray for Tania. She is a young lady in our church. She is 14 and in the 9th grade. She is very wrapped up in the World's philosophy. She is making poor choices. Pray as we try to break through to her heart with the truth of God's Word.

Sports Outreach

Last week we had the privilege of hosting Faith Christian's Boys Varsity Basketball team. We had so much fun with this group. 13 of the 15 stayed in our home. It was wall to wall people or like they say here it looked like "salchichas" (looked like a package of hotdogs--when they went to bed). The group had to adjust its game playing to more like the NBA. In other words not many fouls were called and there was ton of traveling. We warned them before hand but until you see it and play through a game it takes time to adjust. We received many comments on how positive and encouraging the guys were to the young people during the basketball clinics. I'm still hearing how wonderful last week was! Of course the most important thing is that the group were great testimonies of Christ. It would have been so easy to lose control, lose patience during the games but the guys showed that there is another way to play. The coaches here have never seen such control of the game and of character. We hope to continue to use sports as a medium to reach out to the community and we are ready to host another sports team anytime!! Way to go Faith!!

Light and Dark

As most of you know, our girls were formerly in a private Mexican school. We thought that a private Mexican school might be an option for our family. The girls learned a lot of things but it just wasn't enough. For one thing, there wasn't enough discipline in the school. Secondly, the students didn't have enough respect for the authorities over them. I learned this first hand having taught English in the school for the month January. We needed an education system that focused more on English and also one that had more discipline.

We finally had to say that we are here in Mexico City to build His Church. This is nothing new but it does limit us to how we spend a majority of our time, and it should. Much of our time was spent just completing homework that our girls had. We have to evaluate all the time where we should and how we should use our energies and resources. Oh, we are still working hard to involve ourselves in the community. I believe we have to work doubly hard to not seclude ourselves from "what's out there". "What's out there" are a lot of people "in the dark". Nicole, our seven year old reminded me that often this phrase is misunderstood. She explained that she understood what that meant because she is light and her friend, Carito is very dark. Nicole was referring to skin color but as far as we know Carito is in the dark and still needs the light of Christ. Pray that we will continue to have opportunities with the friendships we have made at Gilwell. Our girls still have some very dear friends there that need to hear the good news!

How about you? Are you too wrapped up in things that aren't important to God? Trying to fit in maybe a little too much?

Just Beginning

Hey there!

We are finally moving onto bigger and more advanced things. We hope to use this blog to keep folks updated of everything that is happening in our lives here in Mexico City. Please be patient as I (Jamie) learn all the ins and outs of this. I hate technology but I love keeping up with friends and family. I figured that it was about time that we fulfilled our end of the deal.

Last week we had a group from Faith Christian School here. The group consisted of the boy's varsity basketball team, two coaches and Natalie's close friend Allison Grass. The team came and played other high school teams in our area as well as conducted basketball clinics where our daughter Natalie plays. The week was a success!! Today, however, we are recovering and having some down time as a family. We went to the mall and enjoyed doing a little shopping and eating at the food court. It was almost like being in the States!! Tomorrow we will return to our daily routine which has changed a bit. We had our girls in a private Mexican school but for several reasons we pulled them out the end of January. We will continue their education here at home which we have done for many years. We learned a lot about the Mexican culture, philosophy of life, etc. while the girls were in the Mexican School System. It all has helped us understand the people here better. Our girls really need more concentration on English for them to be able to return to the States on furloughs and for their college training.

Hopefully we can stay more connected through this blog. Maybe we will also have to have a Facebook account to stay in touch with some of you! Keep in touch!