Natalie and Nicole

Our girls are really enjoying the life God has given them here in Mexico City.  Both girls have friends at church, basketball and from other connections.  It has been fun to watch our children grow up in another country.  They have learned another language plus have been brought up in a church plant focused life.  This lifestyle isn't like any other.  This year has been a year of them both realizing that they are going to have to pick up and leave again.  For Natalie, it  has been much more difficult.  She has come to a point in her life that she knows that her life won't be like it has been for the past 17 years.  She is going to finish her high school education in the States and then move on to college.  She will only come back to Mexico for visits.  Let's just say, she has shed a few tears about this.  We have just a few more months 'til we head back to the States for our furlough year.  We enjoy our time in the States but it just isn't the same as our life back here in Mexico City.  Please pray for our girls.  My childhood was not like my kids.  I went to the same church my whole life up until we came to Mexico 20 years ago.  I didn't know another culture, another language like my children have been so blessed to learn.  I barely knew that there was a West Lafayette.  (I grew up in Lafayette)  There are always lessons in these transitions.  Saying good-bye doesn't get easier with time.  We continue to grow more and more attached to our church and those around us.

This is a cool truck that we found in the Home Depot parking lot in Poza Rica where Sam's dad lives.

Thanks so much for your prayers as we get ready to transition to the States.

Double Baby Shower

A week ago Sunday we had a Double Baby Shower at Nueva Vida en Cristo.  What a fun time of games, devotional and opening gifts!  It was a joy to see the church folk demonstrate so much love to these two families.  You may remember Fransisco and Sonya.  They are the couple that lost a baby nearly a year ago.  God blessed again and this past week, Kevin Emanuel was born!  We barely got the baby shower in before he got here!  Lizbet and her husband Daniel, the other couple that is expecting, have been a blessing to have in our church.  They came to our church with their marriage ready to end.  They've both come to know the Lord and are now expecting their second.  That's right!  They have a son Diego that is almost 14!  This is the second family in our church that has a big age gap and they too just had a baby in November.  We are expecting little Daniela to arrive any day now!  It was fun to buy both girl and boy gifts for the shower.  In thirteen months our church has had a growth spurt in the nursery of 4 babies!!!!!  This is so exciting and fun for the church.  There are plenty of babies to hold when you get to church!  Our church is also going to have two weddings this summer!  One in June and one in July right before we leave for furlough.  Sam is enjoying doing two premarriage classes during the week in preparation for these weddings.  Pray that these couples and families will continue to strive to please God in everything.

Ellen Hornbrook's Homegoing

Several words come to mind when describing my mother in-law:  gracious, humble, loving and hospitable are just a few.  I've had such a privilege being in the same family with her.  I"ll be honest, years ago (1984), I was blown away with my mother in-law.  So much so that I decided that I could never measure up to all that she was.  Sam, myself and a friend, Kandie (Johnston)Stilwell, went down to Mexico in 1984 so that I could see what I was getting myself into by marrying Sam.  I came back feeling like I could never do what I saw my mother in-law do.  I felt inadequate for the job of: missionary wifery.  Sam was good to convince me that I could learn to do what every missionary wife and mother has had to do.  I still fall way behind when it comes to all that my mother in-law has done all these 50 plus years here in Mexico.  I'm so thankful that I got to rub shoulders with my mother in-law.  Not all the Hornbrook sister in-laws have gotten as much time with Mom as Ruth and I have due to living here in Mexico.  We all however got to experience her love and kindness.  Mom was quick to jump up.  Ellen was also quick to play with her grandchildren.  I have fond memories of her playing dolls with my girls and legos with our son.  She always brought a special book up to read to the children when she and Sam Sr. came to Mexico City.  Our children always looked forward to her yummy desserts that she also brought along.  We miss Ellen tremendously but we know that God hasn't allowed something to happen to us that we can't handle.  And we know that good will come from this.

There were so many flowers.

It's been awhile...

Christmas was here and gone but the message of "the free gift" is something we carry and share with us all year long.  We had a wonderful time visiting with family over the holidays.  My parents (Jerry and Rita Jamison) came for nine days and our son Nathaniel was with us for two weeks.  The time went by too fast but we made some wonderful memories.  The highlight was December 27th when we invited all the family to our house.  We had my in-laws (Sam and Ellen Hornbrook) Sam's brother (Jim and Ruth and family) Sam's nephew (Brian and his wife Merari) my parents and us.  We also invited our son's best friend and his girlfriend.  There was lots of eating, fellowshipping and laughing.

Not long after our family left we welcomed a group from Faith Christian School in Lafayette, Indiana.  They came and served at a Missionary school, held a youth activity, basketball clinics and got some site seeing in.  We were  busy.  It was a lot of fun.  In the middle of their visit we got word that my grandmother went home to be with the Lord.  That same day we learned that Sam's mom had suffered a brain hemorrhage.  Sam has been with his mom and dad in Veracruz since January 11th.  Today they are transporting my mother in-law back to Poza Rica where they live.  She is still in critical but stable condition.  She is unable to respond at this time.  She is breathing on her own which we are very grateful.

It's hard to think of my mother in-law being in such a fragile state.  She has always been very active and the most hospitable person I know.  She was getting ready to serve homemade icecream when her hemorrhage started.  She and my father in-law have had a "swinging door" policy in their home.  There has always been room at the table and if you needed a place to stay--the beds always had clean sheets waiting.  We'd appreciate your prayers for the Hornbrook family at this time.

Thanksgiving

We have so much to be thankful for.  Of course we have to begin with our salvation in Christ!  We are thankful for good health.  This past year both Natalie and Sam have had back issues but right now they both are doing well.  Natalie has learned to tolerate her back situation.  She still has pain but knows how to get through it.  Sam is finally getting over his back strain that happened in September.  He is working his way back up to running again for exercise. 

We are also thankful for the spiritual growth we've seen in our own lives and in our children's lives.  We are grateful for the trials that God has brought across our paths this past year.  We are hopefully growing more through these specially designed situations!

We are thankful for the privilege to serve the Lord here in Mexico City!  We are grateful for the spiritual and numerical growth we've experienced at Nueva Vida!  God is allowing some major trials to occur in some of our church families.  Most of us don't enjoy being put through the hard times but we have all been reminded that God is in control and His Grace is sufficient.

We did Thanksgiving a little differently this year.  We had planned on spending the holiday with Sam's parents in Poza Rica.  Unfortunately, my visa didn't get resolved until Friday and we weren't able to use our vehicle until my paperwork was in order.  So we did plan "B".  We invited our Bible Overview attendees over for a Thanksgiving meal on Friday.  We had the works!  It was fun to introduce our friends to some traditional dishes like sweet potatoes, greenbean casserole and cranberry sauce!  The turkey was moist which was a wonderful surprise!!  Please pray for our two Bible Overview studies.  There are several folks attending that still need to understand the true gift of salvation.

Party!

The ladies at church wanted to do something special. So, they planned a fun brunch and surprised me with gifts! We have a special group of ladies in our church that desire to grow in their love for God and their love for one another.

Cre-Cri (Creciendo en Cristo or Growing in Christ)

Some of you might remember the name of our Children's Program called, Cre-Cri.  It stands for Growing in Christ.  This is what we do when there is Bible Institute for the adults on Sunday mornings.  We have one service on Sundays where Sam teaches the adults and the kids have what most would call Sunday School.  But when we have Bible Institute we use the time with the kids to teach them Godly Character Qualities.  This past semester we've been working hard on Obedience--Submitting to your authority with a happy spirit.  I used the teens as my helpers.  Natalie taught the Bible story each week.  I had three other teen girls help with the definition and memory verses.  Plus we had the children learn the books of the Old Testament.  If they memorized them in order they got to pick a Beanie Baby from the Treasure Chest at the end of the semester.  We also used mini-Beanie Babies as a reward each week for good behavior.  It was such a joy to see the kids grow in the area of Obedience.  The kids also worked hard on the Obedience song from Patch the Pirate.  Last Sunday we got to show the church all that we learned.