Hornbrooks in Mexico City: July 2010

7/25/2010

Sad and Glad

Today we experienced a bitter sweet day at your church. One of our founding couples and dearest friends had their last Sunday with us at Nueva Vida and are in the process of moving to Monterrey, Mexico. I'll have to admit that I cried during much of the day. Ernesto and Estrella and their boys are a part of the Hornbrook family as well as a part of our church family. We have known this couple before they were a couple. We had the privilege of singing in their wedding. We've watched their boys grow up since their first day of birth. Today we had a despedida or going away for them. We had 15 folks give testimonies and I cried through every single one of them. We actually all cried together. It was so exciting to hear the wonderful witness this family has had on so many folks. We are going to miss them terribly. We are also rejoicing knowing that this couple is looking at this move as an opportunity to grow and serve God better. This all has happened all so quickly. It isn't what we'd plan as we are in the last year of our term here before we go back to Indiana for our year of furlough. This is what God has planned and we know that His plans are always better than anything we can think up.

Sam is sharing his testimony.

Here is Silvestre sharing how much Ernesto and Estrella have impacted he and his family's lives.

Alfonso, Ernesto's brother, sharing his testimony.

Ernesto sharing how much he and his family are going to miss Nueva Vida.

Ernesto, Estrella, Ernesto Jr. and Greco cutting the cake in their honor.

Araceli, Fernanda and Estrella

Young people hanging before their last good-byes.

7/07/2010

Catching Up

I can't believe how long it's been since I blogged last. A lot has happened. First, we had a wonderful time in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Iowa. Most of our time was spent in Lafayette, Indiana but we did get to see some friends and family in the other states mentioned. We really enjoyed the wedding we got to go to Livonia, Michigan. Myranda and Justin did a fabulous job of honoring God in their ceremony. I spent a lot of time going to doctors, physical therapy and the dentist. Natalie is doing wonderfully! She has graduated to the next phase in her physical therapy. We are very thankful for the doctors there in Lafayette and Indianapolis. Natalie has been given the green light to start playing basketball again. She is really excited. Of course it will be in moderation until her body gets back into shape. Natalie is scheduled to have her wisdom teeth removed on July 13th. This was something we added in. We chose to have the procedure done in the States rather than finding someone here in Mexico City to do it. We haven't been too pleased with the medical system here lately. We also learned that we need to address the over bite that Nicole has. We plan to address this ASAP. She isn't very excited about it as you can imagine. Our children have wonderful teeth but they just don't grow in the right direction sometimes!

We also got to visit my grandma. Grandma June is 84 and ready to meet our Savior. Pray with us that she won't have too much pain in the process. Her kidneys are failing. She is sweet as ever. It is never easy to say good-bye and this trip was especially hard. I had to say good-bye to my grandma and it could be the last time I see her. We also left two kids in Lafayette this time. Of course Natalie is coming back in August but still it was more difficult.

Nathaniel is very busy with his job and the new ministries he will be in charge of at Faith while he is in Seminary. Pray that he will do well in his responsibilities as well as in his classes. He has chosen to live with two other Seminary guys for the next three years. He has been extremely blessed living with my parents these past six years.

I'm going to post a few of the pics from our time in the States. Thanks so much for your prayers. We look forward to seeing you all next summer and following when we come up for our furlough year!