Christmas Program at Nueva Vida

Idalia and Maria Elena as Chismina and Soplona--the town gossipers.


Alberto and Lazaro as Shepherds.


Gaby and her husband Alejandro, as Mary and Joseph.


The Ladies Group sang, Not that Far from Bethlehem.


Even our son got in on the act!! He was a part of the youth band that played Joy to the World.


Combined children's choirs singing Joy to the World.


The Youth playing bells and tubes to Navidad, Navidad--Jingle Bells (believe it or not it is a Christmas Hymn in Spanish).


The Children's Choir signing Happy Birthday Jesus!

It is so hard to know where to begin! Let's start with, "Our God is an Awesome God"! We had a wonderful turn out at our Christmas Program on Sunday night. We had nearly 100 guests and close to 190 in attendance. It was impossible to count all the folks since we ran out of chairs and folks were standing outside in 48 degree weather. Poor people. That's down right cold no matter where you live! All our performers did an excellent job. The kids were precious, the actors were great and the songs were wonderful! The gospel was clearly presented and the True Meaning of Christmas was given. Afterwards we enjoyed tamales, atole, apple salad and piñatas! Thank you so much for all your prayers! Have a wonderful Christmas!

Update on Natalie

First of all, I want to thank you for all your prayers for Natalie. It has been a frustrating time for her. She went from a very active young lady to not being able to stand for long without pain. We finally got to the source of her pain. She has had in the past a stress fracture to her back which has caused her L4 and L5 to slip out of place. There is no way to put it back except surgery but Natalie's case isn't severe enough for that, yet. This is something that she will have to live with for the rest of her life. It has been hard on me to see my very young girl have pain of someone in their upper years. Natalie finished up her Physical Therapy this week. They have told her to start walking on a regular basis and then build up to running again. Natalie is fearful she won't be able to play sports due to the pain she has now but we've been told that as her back gets stronger she will be able to return to basketball. We will see what the Lord has in store.

Much of our energies during the week have been trying to get Natalie on the mend. So much so, we realize we haven't sent out a prayer letter in awhile. We promise to get one out as soon as we have the Christmas Program on Sunday. We appreciate your patience. The church is doing very well. Sam was able to get us registered with the government which is very exciting! We weren't able to do this until we were officially paying rent for a location. For five years the church met in our home and of course we didn't charge rent.

Tonight our son, Nathaniel, is arriving!!! He will be staying with us for four months before returning to the States to work for the summer before he starts Seminary in August.

Trust you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year's!

Christmas Cookie Exchange

What a privilege to serve the Lord here in Mexico City. It sure helps to have a wonderful group of Missionaries here that have given up so much to serve in this Cement Jungle. Every once in awhile, we Missionary Ladies get together for food, fun and fellowship. This past week we had a fantastic time together. There were 12 of us that came for a Brunch here at our house. Sam, my wonderful husband, made the bestest ever waffles and the ladies brought every topping possible. My Natalie put every one on her waffle. I didn't get my camera quick enough to take a picture of it. Here are a couple of snap shots I did get.


The Cookies were all so beautiful! And yummy too!



So thankful for all the Missionary Ladies here in the City!



Sure enjoyed all the fellowship with these wonderful Servants!



So thankful for our inhouse Chef Sam! He makes awesome waffles!

She made a basket!

Nicole finished up her basketball for the semester. She finished on a good note. She made her first basket during a game! She has worked hard and finally it went in!

Seminary

 

We learned this week that our son Nathaniel has been accepted into Seminary!!!! He will be attending Faith Seminary there in Lafayette, Indiana. Our home church started a Seminary three years ago and Nathaniel is excited to be apart of the Seminary Interns for the Fall Term 2010. He will be studying as well as interning for the next three years! We are excited for this opportunity. We as a family will be semi-united again while we are on furlough 2011-12 with our son in Lafayette which will really be nice. My parents will also glad that their grandson will be in the area for at least three more years!

This past weekend

This weekend we took Natalie to hear one of her friends do the opening act at a concert. Elizabeth did a wonderful job with her song!!! On Saturday we gave away our last puppy. It was a happy/sad time. We were sad to see "Wally" go but happy to give him to a very loving family!!! It is always easier to give when you know that the receivers appreciate the gift. This reminds me of "the gift", the greatest gift ever given. Oh, how we as a people so long ago didn't appreciate the birth of Christ. Even today, we can forget the sacrifice He made for us. God did it when we, the receivers, didn't have an ounce of appreciation. May we, this Christmas, be examples of God's love; giving without expecting anything in return. Are we willing to sacrifice everything for the cause of Christ? Pray that we here at Nueva Vida would remember the true meaning of Christmas as we work hard on our Christmas program.








Natalie with her friend Elizabeth before the concert.

Trying to Stay Warm

This week we spent one afternoon winterizing the "chicken coop" where we have two children's classes. "The coop" is very rustic. The window holes just have fencing over them. We needed to cut down on the draftiness of the rooms. The temps have gotten down into the 40s at night. Even frost has shown up on the car windshields. Fortunately, we don't use the rooms until around 12 on Sundays. By then, the sun has been up and warmed up to middle to upper 60s. Now the kids have to get used to the plastic blowing. The kids will appreciate even more when they get a real classroom. I do think however they will miss the goats, cows and horses that can be seen and heard while they are in class!

The Lord has been working on the lives of the groundkeepers where we meet. Franciso and Sonia. Sonia is expecting and has been restricted to bed rest and "light duty". The church has done an excellent job of providing food and visits during this difficult time. We had a good visit with Sonia this week when we went over to work at the church. Sonia has come a long way. She would come to church and then zip down to her house right when the service was over. She was staying and visiting up 'til her recent bed rest. Please pray for Francisco and Sonia. Pray for their salvation.


We use to put plastic on our apartment windows in Lafayette many moons ago!



Me all wrapped up!


Not pretty but should make it a bit warmer.

Baptisms at Peniel Baptist Church

The water heater didn't work so they had to heat up water and put into the baptismal tank. Yes, the water was cold!



Here is Alan's dad getting baptised! God used the kidnapping to bring Alan's dad to Himself.



Here is Alan, the boy that was kidnapped, tortured and then escaped!




This is what happens when you are in the car too long!!

Party!

Natalie turned 16 this past week! We invited the youth to Fun Center where they enjoyed bowling, ice skating and two indoor rides! Then they came to our house for pizza and video games. They all had a wonderful time!

Basketball Hoop!

Basketball has been apart of my life since I was nine. I started to love the game by shooting out on a hoop that was attached to our garage. All three of our kids have played basketball as well. We finally got a hoop so that we can enjoy the sport even more--at home!! This was Natalie's sixteenth bday present. I know it seems strange to get a girl this, but believe me, we gals here love our bball!!

Surprise Birthday Party!

Yesterday the church had a surprise birthday party for Sam!!! After the service folks hung around and ate a wonderful meal, cake and coffee! I wasn't able to take but a couple of photos since I was helping serve. We had a wonderful day! We had 87 in attendance and Maribel understood salvation and accepted Christ! Sam had the privilege of walking her through the gospel. What a perfect way to celebrate your birthday!

Two Down, One to Go!

Rafa, Ale, Ana and Valentina with their new puppy!


Nicole and Jennifer with her new puppy!

We are still doing puppies!!

Our puppies are now six weeks old! Hard to believe. We gave away our the first one today. Boo hoo. There were a few tears. We gave her to a wonderful family that will love her just as much as my girls do. We have two more to give away and yes, I know we are crazy, we are keeping the tan one. We have named her Cinnamon and Nicole really wanted us to keep her since she was born. She was the runt but she has caught up! I'm ready for us to be out of the puppy stage but I know we have a whole puppy year ahead of us and then some! Our girls have really enjoyed the whole adventure. We all agreed that this was the last batch of puppies. Poor Sasha doesn't know what awaits her!!

Puppies!

Here's a recent picture of our puppies! They sure are cute and my girls love having them around! We have families that are interested in taking them so hopefully we won't be stuck with too many of them!!

Nicole turned 9!!

This past Saturday our youngest daughter Nicole turned 9!! She really wanted a sleepover in the tent so we set up our eight man tent in the livingroom. Nicole thought she was in heaven! Our house was filled with lots of giggles. Nicole enjoyed her special meal of chicken pot pie, macaroni and cheese, brownies and icecream!

Sam's Trip to Venezuela

Sam had a wonderful time just above the equator in Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela! Boy was it hot! Fortunately, most homes in Venezuela have airconditioning!! And, get this, they only pay the equivalent of $20.00 dollars a month for electricity!!! Unbelieveable! Also, Sam said that gasoline cost 7 cents a gallon!! These are the only major pluses to living in Venezuela. The president of the country makes life pretty miserable for nearly everyone. Everyone there is losing their freedoms at a rapid rate. Sound familiar?

Inspite of all of this, Sam had a fruitful ministry at the Bible Institute where he taught on Biblical Counseling. He also preached in four different churches the two Sundays he was there. Tim and Pam Darling were very gracious hosts! Sam got to see the sites, the churches, the culture and taste the wonderful foods of Venezuela!

We are very glad to have Sam back here with us! Us girls decided that two weeks is a long time without our daddy and husband!

It's been awhile since I blogged. Our lives have been very crazy since June. Natalie has stayed very busy with two a day practices with basketball. Little by little, we were more and more controlled by basketball. To make a long story short, after much prayer and counsel, we decided to change Natalie's schooling. Basketball is great but not when it is controlling so much of your life. The school where Natalie got her scholarship promised 90% of the subjects would be in English. Well, the truth of the matter is that only three or four, depending on the day. of the subjects are in English and the rest are in Spanish. Also, several of the classes never openned or used their textbook after a month of classes. What is up with this? Natalie has also been diagnosed with Scoliosis. Natalie has struggled with a lot of pain in her back and it was only getting worse. So, with all this said, she is back at home and homeschooling. We waited for Natalie to make the decision. It has been hard on her. She made lots of friends during the past month. She also misses playing basketball but we are giving her back some healing time. Natalie is happy but lonely here at home. Pray that we will find friends and more activities for our girls. Thanks so much for your prayers during the time when we were waiting for Natalie to take her college entrance exam, waiting for the scholarship, etc. We don't know why God would take us down this path, only to see that it wasn't the best plan for us. We are aware that Natalie is a lot smarter than we imagined. I hope to be able to keep her challenged. We have learned what our Mexican friends go through with being told half truths. It was very disappointing but we are growing in accepting God's plan.

Thank you Berean Baptist Church

Thank you so much Berean Baptist Church in Livonia, Michigan! The Backpack Outreach Ministry was a hit!!! Mouths dropped, kids jumped for joy when they received their new backpacks stuffed with the basic school supplies!!! I wish I could have video taped their reactions. It brought tears to my eyes to see the joy on the children's faces! It was like Christmas morning! Nothing like new stuff to get you started out on the school year right.

History Lesson

Every year we make several trips out to the Pyramids that are about an hour and half from our house. That's on a good traffic day it takes that long. One of our poor groups suffered several more hours than normal going around and seeing the sites this summer. Anyway, we always take our visitors to the Pyramids to show how far man in the past has gotten from God. The Pyramids were created during the period when human sacrifice was used to suffice the gods. We also take our guests to the Basilica, or the largest catholic church in Mexico. There too you see folks still trying to apease God but not by killing someone but by crawling on their knees until they are scabbed and bleeding. Reality starts to sink in with our guests. Folks here and in many parts of the world are still trying to work their way into heaven. They don't know that the blood sacrifice has already been paid.

This summer our youngest daughter Nicole started putting the puzzle pieces together in her own mind. Nicole understands better why her family has chosen to live away from most of her family and friends. It is so neat to see the light come on in our children. It isn't always easy being a missionary family. We miss our family in the States a lot. Having groups come over the summer is really a blessing in so many ways!