Maranatha celebrates 25 years!

Saturday we were invited to attend a special concert to begin the celebration of Maranatha's 25th year of faithfully spreading the good news of the Gospel!  What a joy to hear the adult choir perform several specially selected songs.  Their orchestra was absolutely impressive.  We all sat there in amazement to see and hear what God has done.  We had the privilege to be involved in this church for the first ten years of our ministry here.  The young people are now married and their teenage children are serving in the choirs and orchestra.  This is what Heaven will be like.  We will get to listen to how our awesome God was faithful to His promises and rejoice and give all the Glory to Him.  It was wonderful to have Beulah Pinkston fly in for the special occasion.  We loved working with the Pinkstons when we came to the field twenty years ago.  The folks at Maranatha will always have a special place in the Hornbrooks hearts.

Rene, present pastor, Beulah Pinkston, founding missionary wife, my lovely husband, also former pastor, Pepe, former assistant pastor and Armando, present assistant pastor.

Some Maranatha folks we've known for 20 years.

One of the couples that we've known for a long time.  Now their sons are involved in the orchestra.

One of Natalie's bestest friends from Maranatha, Bety. Now Bety, 19 ,is the choir director!  She is very gifted.

Baptisms

 

We had a wonderful day at church yesterday.  We got to hear four beautiful testimonies of how God used people, events and even very difficult trials, to bring folks to Himself.  Rene, Ofelia and Michell are all from the same family.  Husband, wife and daughter were all saved within the past year.  God used a trial of their two year grandson suffering and nearly dying to bring this family to the foot of the cross.  Michell's boyfriend is our son Nathaniel's childhood friend.  It was through the friendship of our son with Carlos that brought these dear folks to church.  Carlos, Rene, Ofelia and Michell have all come to know the Lord.  Gaby, the other person baptized, has heard the Word all her life.  She came to know the Lord when she was six.  It is wonderful to grow up in a Christian home.  Yesterday we also had another baby/parent dedication.  Zuriel is such a blessing.  Lety, his mother, had a very difficult pregnancy.  She was in bed most of it.  Zuriel was born premature and just a month ago was allowed to come to church.  We are so thankful for Sergio and Lety and their desire to bring Zuriel up in the ways of the Lord.

Mixed Emotions

We are wrapping up another term here on the mission field.  As we approach our departure date, we do it with mixed emotions.  A part of us wants to go to the States and be with our family and friends and yet another part of us doesn't want to leave.  So why do missionaries put themselves in these difficult and uncomfortable positions?  There are a variety of reasons, to be honest, unless you are a missionary, you may not understand.  I've heard from very dear folk that we missionaries should be used to leaving and saying good-byes.  Listen, just because we've been doing it for 20 years doesn't make it easier.
Twenty years ago we left our family and friends in Indiana and made the long trek to Mexico City.  At the time we had a three year old son.  It wasn't easy leaving but having our little family to lean on as we went was comforting.  It was a new adventure and this is how we presented it to our son.  Children are very adaptable and look forward to new things.  At least this is how we looked at it at the time and it worked.  We adjusted well even though the circumstances around us were very difficult.  (long story that I don't want to go into at this time)  Fast forward to today... Now we have three children.  One left our nest when he was just 17 years old.  We sent him to the States for his senior year in high school.  I'll be honest, I was miserable that year.  I wanted to be with my son and experiencing all the things that other parents get to experience when their child is a senior.  I grew tremendously in my prayer life that year.  Much of it done with lots of tears.
We as a family take a year furlough because we believe it is important for our children to experience a school year in a regular school.  Homeschooling has been nice but it has been difficult and sometimes impossible to give our children all that they need to prepare them for the next chapter; college.  We don't have co-op groups here on the field.  We don't have libraries either.  We have been very fortunate to be able to bring down many books and other materials to help our children along.
Believe it or not we've had folks in the States question us on taking a full year.  I've heard some say that, "I've never gotten a year's vacation".  Let me say right here, our furlough is not a vacation.  We do a lot of driving, and then some more driving and we don't arrive at a resort where we can turn off our phones, sit at the pool, forget about our work, etc.  We do get to visit with some of the bestest folks in the world.  We also have the privilege to worship together and man do we eat good. We get to rejoice in all that the Lord is doing in Mexico City and around the world.   In many cases, this is better than a vacation!  
We plan to be gone 13 months this furlough.  We want to enroll our daughter Natalie in college and make sure that she is adjusting well to this before we return to the field.  It is getting harder rather than easier for us to leave the States as we will leave two of our children there.  I know they are there with my parents, a good church, a great college group, etc.  But still... I'm a mother and it still is hard.  We've gone a whole year without seeing our son when he was in college.  We are very thankful for our special blessing: Nicole.  I can't imagine coming back to Mexico City without a child.  This will be difficult for her.  She won't have anyone in the house to play with.  She has done pretty well in this category but she also will not have a sibling to talk to, to tease and believe it or not, to argue with.
This furlough year is also a time for us to pay attention to our health.  We all will have medical work done on us to make sure we are doing all that we can to be good stewards of our bodies.  This is the only time we pay attention to our health.  We don't do yearly check-ups on any of us.  We only go to the doctor when we feel deathly ill.  That rarely happens.  We have had to tend to our daughter Natalie and her back issues.  We are so thankful for the loving care she received last summer.  Her life is so much better than it was a year ago.  She will always have some pain but she has learned how to deal with it through exercises that help relax the area, yet strengthen her core.
We also use our furlough year to get more training.  We go to conferences that will help us to be more effective missionaries.  We learn so much from visiting each and every one of our support churches.  None of our churches are a like and each one has strengths which they are maximizing in different ways and different ministries.  We use all this here in our church plant.  We get to try things that we've seen in our churches back in the States.  This is one of our best ways to be creative in the ministry.
So, furloughs are great for our family and our ministry.  We go through adjustments that seem uncomfortable in the moment and God uses them to grow us.  Our children learn what it is like to be a stranger in a new place and they go back and work hard to make others feel at home.  That's worth it isn't it?  We all continue to grow in our understanding that this Place is all just temporary.  There is so much better in the next Chapter--Heaven!  This is truly what it is all about!  We all are serving Him, bringing others to Him so that in eternity we can all worship Him!
Furloughs are just apart of God's plan for the Hornbrook family and many other missionary families.  Furloughs come in many different shapes and sizes.  Sometimes the purpose is to raise more funds, sometimes they are useful for more training but they all serve great purposes.  I'm so thankful for our Home Church and all the love they have for their missionaries.  We always feel welcomed, loved and very well cared for.  Our church here in Mexico City has had to grow fast as we are leaving our church plant without a full time pastor.  The folks have jumped in and taken ownership of all the responsibilities that are involved in keeping a church of 90 to 100 going!  Us leaving is a good thing.  Our church family here in Mexico City has had to interact more with one another  and has had to learn some valuable lessons in communication.  This is all good. Pray with us as we maximize on our time left here and as we adjust to life back in the States.  Sometimes we missionaries come across as odd or different.  Don't let this keep you from getting to know us.  We've been out of the U.S. culture long enough to not know all the lingo but I believe we all can learn from each other!

Christina the Church Rabbit

Our children enjoyed the Christopher Church Mouse books and videos.   This is an excellent way to teach children biblical principles using a cute little mouse and his family.  They lived in the church building and listened to the preaching and teaching of the Word.  Well, at Nueva Vida we have our version;  Christina the Church Rabbit.  Our church is nicely located on a small recreational park.  All of us enjoy going to church each week just to enjoy things like grass, trees, and even animals.  Surrounding the church there are goats, cows, a horse and now... a bunny.  The children love arriving and trying to find the cute white bunny.  Two weeks ago my job was trying to keep a little kitten from coming into the church auditorium during the service.  That was quite the task.  I gently kept putting it on the other side of the fence and it continued to find it's way back to me.  Each week we are amazed at our Creator God through the hearing of His Word.  Sometimes we get to enjoy some of His creation while we are listening!

Mother's Day

We had a great day celebrating Mother's Day at church.  We had a great turn out since several of our church families use the weekend to visit their mother's.  We had a meal catered in and the dads and young people served the moms.  It was a wonderful time to reflect on the mother's in our lives and also to see that God in His perfect plan designed the family.  Aren't you glad we have His Word to guide is in parenting and in life?

                                                              Here we are being silly!

Kid's Day

That's right.  Here in Mexico we celebrate Kid's Day.  It is a national holiday to focus on children.  We used the opportunity to invite folks to church.  We had games, picnic, piñatas, and pool time for the children!  The visitors got to hear a very clear presentation of the gospel.  Mexico has plenty to celelbrate in the month of May!  These are great opportunities to reach out to the community around us.

Passover Meal

This year we did a Passover Meal over Easter Weekend.  It was a great time to focus on all that God has done and is doing.  We had a great turn out.  It was fun to have our former members Ernesto, Estrella and their boys come back from Monterrey and be with us.  They are doing a fantastic job of serving God where He has placed them.  We miss them terribly but we are excited to hear how they are faithful to our Savior.  The Passover Meal is very interesting with all the symbolism involved with each food item.  Some of the flavors aren't my favorite but it is a very good reminder of the Sacrifice that was made on our behalf. (lamb)  The bitter herbs to me are a reminder that God is ultimately in  control of everything, including the difficult times.  Sam played the part of a man that came through a time machine and told us all of the events that lead up to the Last Supper and more.  A few children in the church came up to Sam later and thanked him for the mini-drama. The drama helped tie the whole evening together.

Parent/Baby Dedication

We are having a baby boom at Nueva Vida!  It is truly amazing to see how God works in restoring folks to Himself and to others.  Daniel and Lizbeth were a couple that were ready to end their marriage.  They got invited by one of our church families to come to church.  That was over a year ago.  Now God has brought their family together!  They are excited to be growing and changing in the likeness of Christ!  They use to be a family of three but God in His Wonderful Way has made them a family of four.  Big brother Diego (14 years old) is so happy to have a baby sister.  Daniela is a little cutie.  This is our fourth baby in a year and we have another one on the way for July!  Our nursery is busting at the seams!

Youth Retreat

We had a fantastic time at our Youth Retreat this year.  We had unexpected rains that forced us to be very flexible and creative.  The theme was focusing on Godly Friendships.  We all know the pressures of life as a teenager.  The peer pressure to live without thinking of consequences is great at this age.  It was good to come together and see from God's Word that there is another way to do friendships.

We had a fantastic time playing games like: capture the flag, mafia, volleyball, Stephen ball, four square, mentira (bologna), apples to apples, and much more.  We ended the retreat playing a photo scavenger hunt!