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!