Blogging with Friends

In spite of my friend (and cousin) Josiah's best efforts, the MexicoMatters.org site continues to experience issues. He thinks that 7 years of posts and vague meanderings might have something to do with that. Lots of gigabytes.

So in the meantime, while you may have trouble reading my site, let me direct you to others!

All of our co-workers, and even a future co-worker, are communicative. Communicative, mind you, can be used as a euphemism for gossips (chismosos), but I'm not using it in that way! They are effective communicators, how about that!

You can check out their blogs here.

Finding Direction is a blog about our Canadian co-workers Jim and Shari Cottrill and their ministry and family. Right now, if you check it out, you'll encounter news about Canada, as they are traveling in Ontario currently. Their daughter, Hannah, just turned 13. Those of us with teenagers obtain a perverse sense of glee when another family joins the ranks! Jim seems like a calm enough chap, until you get him playing a rockin’ praise song. Then something happens…

 In Avoidance of the Perfunctory is co-worker Tina Barham’s blog. Tina likes to use big words, at least in English. Ok, not really. Tina is our youth leader/community center leader/contact maker. My only complaint with Tina is that she doesn’t make her coffee strong enough, but perhaps she can still learn. Maggie, her pointer, is her faithful companion. Tina is looking to go full-time with Camino Global, and needs some additional funds. If you want to help her out, don’t think about it, just do it! We’ve been privileged to get to know Tina’s home church, Fremont Alliance, of Fremont Nebraska. They have sent a team (or two) to assist the ministry here both this year and last.

Jessie’s Journal is Jessica Nixon’s creative Wordpress site. Jessica is serving with us here in Ixtapaluca for the next year, and has an unfair advantage over the rest of us with all this blogging and website activity, because she actually knows what she is doing! Her graphic design and artistic skills are evident in her website and in her house, which she is transforming into something a bit more livable. Jessica is all about social media, and will no doubt re-tweet and re-face this post.

Malu and Julian’s mission adventures is Julian and Malu Grymaloski’s blog.  Julian is Canadian and his wife Malu is from Monterrey, Mexico. Please note that this blog is not to be confused with Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. We are still a bit uncomfortable welcoming them on our team because they have “malo” right in the middle of their name! Not true! We are excited to incorporate them into the ministry here in Mexico, first with the Howers in an area north of Mexico City, then here in Ixtapaluca. The Grymaloskis plan to be here in Mexico for a total of 6 months, beginning in June.

Chocoflan Thoughts is a blog by Kaycee Kaba (I think that's her real name and not a pseudonym), although Kaycee is of Chinese descent (I think), so who knows! Truth is we’ve never met Kaycee, but Dave Miller and Joe Ramirez vouch for her (which may be dubious endorsement). At any rate, we’re excited about her coming and joining the team here. Kaycee has 10 years of experience with short-term team leadership in Mexico. You can check out her church website by clicking the link: Lighthouse Community Church. She is also in the process of raising support, and hopes to be here in Mexico the beginning of 2015.

Below, Nathaneal with some Canadian geese. No, they are Canada geese. Actually I think they are ducks...in Canada. Thus, Canadian ducks. Unless they migrate...hmm...they could be bi-cultural. Are they bilingual? Oh never mind. 

 

Check out MexicoMatters.org

Hi there! I've begun to transition over to a new website entitled MexicoMatters.org. Check out the latest post, Food and Ministry, by clicking HERE.

Earth Movers R Us

A bunch of church people showed up at 10 a.m. this morning to move several cubic meters of sand and dirt that has been piled up in front of our property for the last several months.

Really sweet to see the united effort of so many people grabbing shovels, pickaxes and buckets in order to make the front of our property a bit more beautiful.

Please continue to pray for ongoing construction and improvements in days ahead, including the installation of a water line and additional permits required.

Wheelchair Donation Request

I just sent a petition for 50 more wheelchairs to Operation Blessing today. Apparently they do not have any in stock right now, but a shipment comes in again in June. We would like to continue to distribute these free wheelchairs in a series of outreaches here locally.

Because this ongoing ministry is part of our community center efforts, you can give to a special community center account via Camino Global. Each chair costs us 250 pesos for importation costs, which comes out to about $19 per chair at today's exchange rate. Figure $20 a chair. If you'd like to give directly to this ministry, click HERE and donate on line.

I had the privilege of preaching for a small church in Iztapalapa last night, Ríos de Agua Viva. There I met Timoteo, who is 87 years old with a dynamic testimony of how he tried everything...witchcraft, images, and gimmicks, until he finally understood that only Christ could heal him of his alcoholism and intense headaches. He also happens to be a professional guitar player. Check out the video below.

As always, there are other expenses, particularly related to Marcelo Melison's time here. Marcelo is a ventriloquist and a magician, and will be coming to do a week of ministry with us in July. Of course, we don't really have any budget for this, but we do have a credit card.

Thanks to so many of you who support and pray for the ministry here.

Quote of the Day: By the time Jesus conversations are happening, you are a person’s friend or respected peer, and you don’t ever have to go too fast or try to manipulate the conversation. If you let people come to you, and you speak with such gentleness and patience, you will have a comfortable running conversation that they will always lead.
Halter, Hugh Flesh: Bringing the Incarnation Down to Earth (p. 177).

New Logo!

Take a look at our brand new MexicoMatters.org logo, which Samuel just created for us. We are just about ready to make the transition from this blog to the more formal WordPress site, www.mexicomatters.org, just making sure that some of the bugs are worked out of it before we make the change.

Do you like the logo? As always, Samuel did a great job in capturing the priority of the gospel in the context of central Mexico, with our daily view of the volcanoes, Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl, featured prominently in the graphic.

Summertime Preview...and a new 1st

Summers are without a doubt one of our busiest times of ministry in Mexico, largely due to the reception of many visitors. Mayra and I have been involved with an internship program here since 2002, and have had the wonderful privilege of inviting many college students into our home and heart.

We never really know exactly who is going to show up, because some of our more spontaneous friends don't like to be confined by the limitations of silly things like dates. Brigam would be one of these people. He introduced us to Dave Miller and the Adventures in Life Ministry tribe. Brigam has threatened to visit us this summer, but, well, you just never know. Andrew is another guy who has mentioned a return this summer. Andrew was an intern last summer, and a great guitarist!

The people that are pretty much confirmed...well, here's a list.
1. Emily, who I met at Rio Grande Bible Institute in January, will be arriving sometime this summer, and spending about 8 months here, living, learning and worshiping with us. Emily is from Canada, and comes down via Camino Global Canada.
2. Marcy, an ESL intern from last summer, will be spending a good part of the month of July with us! It will be great to have her back.
3. Three interns (all guys) with Camino Global will be here for 6 weeks, participating in a number of different relational outreaches.
4. Brothers Peter, John and Andrew (what a Biblical family!) will be hanging out with us for about a month. Daniel will be living with the Ogilvie family while attending Mt. Calvary Christian School this next year. It will be great to have them on our home turf for a while! Be careful what's in your tacos, boys.
5. Rachel, a Spanish education major, will be hanging out with us for a while too, probably involved in teaching English at a nearby public jr. hi school. 
6. Seems like I may be forgetting someone...hahaha.
7.Yes, I did...Fremont Alliance group from the end of July, early August! We so appreciate the contribution from Fremont...this will be their second team this year!

We are also happy to invite Marcelo Melison to be a part of our summer outreach activities. Those of you familiar with the ministry here know that we've done everything from break dancing (thanks Colin), to mixed martial arts (thanks Dylan) to knitting (thanks Hannah) to mural painting (thanks Alyssa) in reaching out to our community. Well, one thing we've never done is ventriloquism and magic! But thanks to a contact through my sister-in-law, Mónica, we have invited Marcelo to participate in several (as of yet unplanned!) outreaches from July 10-20.  Marcelo is originally from Argentina, but currently lives in Canada. It was a joy to get to know him recently over the phone, and we're excited to see how God will use him here.

We still have people confirming (right, Greg and Denise!, Wolc people!) so this is a partial list at best. Please be in prayer for this season of ministry!

If I Were the President of a MIssions Agency (part 2)

I remember graduating from Bible school and talking to the pastor of my home church about the possibility of being sent out by my local church, without the support of a missions agency. He looked at me in an indirect, condescending way and said, "well, I don't know if the church would support that decision, but I personally would not support that decision." In other words, forget that idea, because I know what most people in this church had for breakfast this morning.

He was right. I was young, green, idealistic and stupid. I needed some sort of support group on the field to help me grow up, help me navigate culture and language, and generally provide community, albeit imperfect and intermittent. I remember going home after our conversation thinking that if I were to be involved in the future in planting churches, it was incumbent upon me to submit to my own local church leadership.

I recognize the need for people without cross-cultural experience to have a context in which to learn, grow, grow-up and hopefully begin to adapt to and enjoy another culture. Increasingly, short-term experiences aid in providing some of this initial adaptation, but there is nothing like actually living in a place. Paying monthly bills. Searching for a doctor when one is ill. Living the strangeness. Experiencing confusion and even rejection.  Mission agencies assist in providing this context.

If I were a mission agency president, how would I make sure people had at least the bare minimum of support and assistance on the field? That's a good question. Way too many variables exist in the whole missionary process to give a specific answers to that question. Even broad generalities often break down in the wonderful and challenging dynamic of cross-cultural life.

But to start with, I would constantly encourage people to immerse themselves fully in their host culture. In my own personal experience, as a single I lived with a Mexican family of 6, a Costa Rican family of 3, then I rented a room from a Mexican widow and married my (beautiful) Mexican bride. In all of that time, I never lived alone (although I could have). I remember Joe and Betty Querfield missed me when I arrived for the first time at the San José airport because they said it looked like I knew where I was going. So...I guess the typical look is one of lostness and panic? I had three intense immersion experiences as a single, and courted my wife in Spanish.  We were married in Mexico, in Spanish.

The all-too-common approach for missionaries is to live in an English-speaking missionary community, or even a self-contained, walled-in compound which are apparently still fairly common in Africa. Remember, what you gain in security, you sacrifice in accessibility. Every cross-cultural worker needs to prayerfully consider this trade-off. The tendency is to err on the side of security, although I know of several friends who have sacrificed security, something that I find refreshing. Another trade-off...what you gain in comfort, you lose in learning and, ultimately, effectiveness. It is not easy to not understand, to be placed in areas of incredible challenge, or deep humiliation. But that just comes with the territory. We must die to ourselves. It just so happens that cross-cultural workers have more opportunity to do just that, on a daily basis. Oh, to speak at least as well as Balaam's donkey, knowing that very possibly people are viewing you as they would that particular animal!

I hope I would model this ridiculousness of ministry to others. That I wouldn't be afraid, as president of my imaginary mission, to sit and laugh and cry at this painful, glorious process of the gospel of God fleshing itself out in the complex languages and cultures of the world, and in the headstrong and prideful culture of my own heart. Being bi-cultural and bi-lingual is tough. We all need to sit beside the Master, have him offer us bread, and see the scars in his wrists.

"Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth." Good thing this doesn't matter, because God still can and will change the course of human history through us. The foolishness of preaching combined with the ridiculousness of cross-cultural living creates fertile soil for the proclamation of the very potent and powerful good news of Jesus. We truly hold this treasure in earthen vessels.

Two Videos of Sendero de Vida's Church Service

Below, several videos of services that we've had at the new property. The first video was made by co-worker Jim Cottrill, and records the very first service in the new building (March 16). Several different testimonies are translated.

The second video was produced by Hector Morales, who himself has only be part of the family for a couple of years. This video is in Spanish, although has a few English elements in it (a prayer by Denny at the beginning, for example). His video is of the 4th anniversary service, April 6, 2014.

Both videos are fairly long, and you may want to skip through them, but they will give you an idea of what a worship service looks like in Mexico.

But before the video, a picture of what Xochimilco was like this past Sunday. We took Jane Beneenga and co-worker Tina Barham for a visit to this very colorful tourist attraction, in what is left of what used to be an extensive canal system that wove all through marshy Mexico City. The canals are long gone...or most of them anyway. What's left has become an outrageously disorganized and wildly colorful ride through "Mexico's Venice."

If I were a Mission Agency President (part 1)

I remember a long time ago a number of people told me that I was going to be the president of a (certain) mission one day. I remember thinking they were crazy. When I think of being a mission agency president, I don't really think of leadership, I think of administration.  Most mission agencies have such a culture and structure already fossilized around the leader, whoever he (or her) may be, that his hands are tied before he gets into the ring. These are the parameters. Don't rock the boat. Appease the old dudes, they have the resources. Be dynamic and eclectic to attract the kids.  Now go raise money. I'm sure a president is no doubt told he has lots of liberty...until he actually tries to change something.

Administration and me...well, they just don't get along very well. But over this past week, when I was fighting a funky sort of low-grade fever, I began to think about what I would do if I were a mission agency president. What I would say. How I would say it. This is the first in a series of blog posts of some of what I came up with, sweaty pillow and all.

Before I start, I should recommend that you never do an Internet search on Fevers of Unknown Origin (FUOs). You will be convinced afterward that you will most surely die of a tumor or cancer. I am still kicking, however, so my body must have known why it was heating up, even though I didn't.

My mind wandered to the times I've heard George Verwer speak. Two words summarize George in my mind...passionate and funny. It is difficult to separate George from his globe-ball, which he invariably throws into the crowd during or after his talks, and his annoying globe-sweater.  George is not terribly eloquent, and not a great expository preacher. But he tells good stories. They are not second-hand stories that he's heard from someone. They are his stories. I believe him because he is believable, and because he believes. His self-effacing sense of humor makes him human.

If I were a mission agency president, I would be passionate, I would tell my own stories, and I would never get too far removed from the real life ministry and the grit of the real life mission field. I would never get too distant from first-generation believers and I would never want to get to the place where I would be inapproachable or out of touch with the fact that the gospel is messy, imperfect, imprecise and glorious work.  I would refuse to spend too much time in the office, because I would not want to be an administrator, I would want to lead by example, and what a mission agency needs to be able, above all else, is relate to real people who have real needs.

Why do "promotions" in Christian ministries including mission agencies take us farther and farther from real-world, grass roots Jesus-sharing? How has "leadership" come to mean the sterile organization and re-shuffling of people and resources, from the comfort of my swivel leather chair? Really? When Jesus promoted leadership, he put his disciples in more social situations, and seemingly delighted in telling them "Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals."

If I were a mission agency president, I would lead from some God-forsaken corner of the world, so that everyone who had the guts to follow could see that God had not forsaken that part of the world...He had sent me there. 

Getting Missional

Word definitions are curious animals, especially when a new word or word phrase makes a debut. The American evangelical world has been inundated with fun new phraseology lately. Who are the New Calvinists, and do I want to be one? Are the emergents or the emerging the real heretics? Where is the Elephant room?

No one seems to notice the irony of preaching self-sacrificing discipleship in a multi-million dollar building, with the best possible lighting and sound system money can buy. But I digress...

Missional is one of those words. I think I understand what it means, but to all you Millenials out there, let me tell you what it means to me. Ok, sorry, a bit of Gen-X angst coming out there.

Missional means that everything you do and say can and should be tied into the gospel. The message of the good news specifically needs to be proclaimed verbally, because faith comes by hearing. Jesus died for me, taking my sin, paying the price, and rose again. But all of life is to be lived with the ultimate purpose of advancing God's subversive, glorious kingdom. The concept of some activities being "secular" disappears, because all of life is lived as a holy calling. We need to take off our shoes every day, because the ground on which we stand is holy.

God's best gifts, like sports, music and art, have been largely hijacked by people and institutions who have separated the magic from the Magician, have taken the art from the Artist. Why not take it back? Why not fill our church buildings all the evenings it lies empty and dark with music lessons, karate classes, math tutoring and ping pong tournaments. Why not energize our communities by being the church, taking back a role with has always been rightfully ours.

We should be leaders in these areas, not followers.  Christians are able to connect two worlds, and make all of God's gifts make sense to a society that generally has relegated the church to the personal, the private and the boring.

My son said to me a couple of months ago that sometimes he gets bored at Sunday church. I told him that sometimes I do too. Good thing that's not all the church is.

Let's get missional!

Below, my guitar class, doing some last minute panicked practice before their performance at the closing program last night.

Let's Get David Back to Uruguay

The video below is about David Gomez's ministry in the country of Uruguay. David is a good friend of ours, and has assisted the the planting of two churches here in Ixtapaluca. He is currently back in Mexico, needing to raise an additional $600 a month in order to return to Uruguay.

David has already received commitments to the tune of $200 a month. Perhaps you can help. Mayra and I have supported David over the last two and a half years that he has been in Uruguay, and plan to continue to do so.

David receives support through FAMEX. Camino Global is able to transfer U.S. funds to FAMEX, which are then deposited in David's Mexican bank account. David receives about half of his missionary support from supporters and four Mexican churches, and some from the U.S. If you are interested in supporting David, please email me or put a comment on the comment section of this post. It will not be published.

Sendero de Vida JM 4th Anniversary Celebration

Check out some pictures from the church's 4th anniversary yesterday. What a great time we had, with both a spiritual meal in charge of Chalo Sandoval, preaching from 2 Timothy 4, and a huge feast after church complete with BBQ rib and much more.

Among the highlights...a mime done by the youth group that related (without words) our journey as a church to acquire land. The ladies sung two songs, and the kids also participated with several songs.

Check out co-worker Tina Barham's blogpost about the anniversary celebration HERE. I actually stole a couple of her pictures...thanks Tina!

Check out the flow of people migrating around the world...both source and destination areas.  Interesting!

MexicoMatters.org

Over the course of the next couple of weeks (and maybe sooner) we will be changing the way we communicate, transitioning from this blog to a more formal Wordpress site. Many thanks to Josiah Heigel (Innovate) and his fiancé-soon-to-be-wife Heather Nero. And I should mention that my daughter, the lovely Catherine Fry, did the graphic on this post. So if you come to this site and there is not current information on it...that's why!

The name of the new site, www.MexicoMatters.org, reflects our desire to keep Mexico front and center when you and others think of missions. Contrary to conventional wisdom, there is SO much yet to be done here, and the Mexican version of Roman Catholicism is a far cry from what you may think it is. Mary is Queen here. The established Catholic church is morally irrelevant and politically compromised. Mexico needs to receive more missiological attention. Anyone who has visited the Basilica of Guadalupe knows exactly what I'm talking about.

It is also our desire to use www.MexicoMatters.org as well as several other sites that are being developed in both English and Spanish as portals through which you can possibly plan your next short-term trip or summer internship. Jessica Nixon is helping with another English site, that will focus on the church planting and community center ministry here. We desire to continue to work hand-in-hand with Camino Global and their Mexico internship that Tina now coordinates, as well as extend our reach to Spanish-speakers through FAMEX, and provide a more flexible format for families also. Our goal is to provide a "menu of experiences" by this October to choose from for 2015, complete with dates for short-term experiences.

Quote of the Day: Jesus certainly had hopes for people, and He was faithful to His personal mission, but He didn't have an agenda. He had the highest calling of any man in the world, with only three years to complete the task and barely enough people to start a volleyball team. If anyone should have had their loincloth in a square knot, trying to assemble people for the dream team , whip them into shape, get ’em out there and get ’er done, it would have been Jesus. He should have been the most controlling, most intense, most transactional leader of all time, but He was the exact opposite and showed us how to never let goals take precedence over people.

Halter, Hugh  Flesh: Bringing the Incarnation Down to Earth (Kindle Locations 897-902).

Daniel will be a Charger!

A big thanks to Mt. Calvary Church and School. We spent a full, encouraging four days with Pastors Dick and Jonathan and their staff, and go to know Dr. Sheard a bit, MCCS's superintendent, who was encouraging and supportive, having been a missionary himself with kids going in and out of different cultures.

Big news! Daniel will be a Charger this coming school year! We are in the process of enrolling him for the 2014-15 school year, which means that mom will be saying goodbye to her boy a bit earlier than we anticipated! SO GRATEFUL for the Oglivie family and my parents for making that possible! The Oglivie family attends a local supporting church, Hope Community, that we also so enjoyed getting to know better during these last three quick week. It's wild to think that Daniel will be attending the same High School that I graduated from...uh...a while ago! We would ask your prayers for him and us as we anticipate this transition in August. I'll write more about this later.

Great to get to know Larry Buckman and his wife Faye at Mt. Calvary's missions conference. Seriously, they really could go on the road and do stand-up comedy. Larry was asking about helping us get In Touch Messengers into Mexico in Spanish. The Messenger is a portable device that plays audio Bible text, sermons, etc... We're excited about working and networking with the Buckmans in the future! I had already heard about this ministry through Dave Rose at Rio Grande Bible Institute, and have a sample messenger at our house in Mexico City. Our desire is to potentially partner with Dave Miller and Gaspal Chable to make these portable devices available in Indian dialects in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, as well as work with FAMEX and Fernando Amezcua to provide them to indigenous groups in Michoacan.

Finally...a couple of pictures from the kids' last day in PA for a while. The BIGGEST THANK YOU goes to my parents, for once again spoiling us to death during our time here. Thanks so much, mom and dad!

Worship Languages...Nature and Community

Quite a challenging sermon by Dr. Dan Sheard, who is also superintendent at the school. Are we beholding the glory and truth of Jesus in our lives? The property motivations for missions is love for God and people, and genuine worship of the person of Christ. If we catch who Jesus is...we can't help but tell others about him!

During the Sunday school hour, I was able to share about our church planting ministry in Mexico...I thought it went well. Also able to share at an early men's prayer breakfast this morning at 6 a.m., and I wish I would have talked about something more specific to Mexico...but people were gracious.

This past weekend was partially cold and windy, but not before David and I were able to catch a bunch of trout up north with uncles Donnie and Dwight and cuz Chris. After being fishless for the first couple of hours I managed to catch a 16" (or was it 18"?....maybe 20") palomino trout, native to the streams in this part of the world (not).

More snow last night...when will it stop?!

The two boys below are dynamite together, here pictured at a breakfast time at 8 a.m. at Mt. Calvary Church, before our participation in the church's missions conference yesterday.

 

This Weekend at Mount Calvary

We're excited to participate this weekend in Mount Calvary Church's missions conference! The conference kicks off Sunday morning and goes through Wednesday evening. I had lunch with Pastor Richard Vaughn today and he explained that rather different format. The church previously had one main speaker teach for sequential evenings (like most churches do), but leadership observed that attendance was sparse, with pretty much the same people showing up for all three nights. So that changed their format.

Now, a keynote speaker (Dr. Daniel Sheard this year) preaches on two consecutive Sunday mornings, and missionaries are given speaking opportunities during the Sunday school times, as well as three evening meetings. Their small groups are then divided up over the three evenings. Attendance is higher, because people are really only expected to attend one of the three evenings, and every evening is composed of entirely different people. Church members are able to hear from both supported and guest missionaries, in a more intimate, less formal setting. Click HERE for a conference program in pdf.

Also during the conference...a prayer breakfast for the men, a brunch for the women and opportunities for missionaries to be involved at the Christian school in chapel times. We are involved with a youth meeting Sunday evening, a men's prayer breakfast Monday morning (6 a.m.) and an MCCS High School chapel time.

Ok, finally a picture from my 1984 MCCS Yearbook. I was so serious back then. If you know any of these people...tag them!

Cornerstone Youth Center Event

My dad is on the board at a real neat youth outreach in Elizabethtown, near the E-town train station, for those of you who know the area. It is called Cornerstone Youth Center. We just got back from helping my parents and a bunch of other volunteers prepare the Mt. Calvary School gymnasium for their annual fundraiser. The special speaker this year is Darryl Strawberry, who Phillies fans will remember as a N.Y. Mets slugger who helped the Mets dominate their division through the mid to late 80s. Drugs and alcohol cut Strawberry's career short, but he later came to Christ, and uses his platform as a sports personality to encourage young people to seek God instead of fame, and stay away from vices and addictions.

My dad was able to get a couple hundred Darryl Strawberry baseball cards on Ebay, several of which are placed as part of the table centerpiece on each table. Proceeds from the fundraiser and open auction tonight will go towards Cornerstone. Around 550 people are expected to attend. Should be a great time!

The Fry family will be returning to Mt. Calvary on Sunday for their missions conference! Both Mayra and I will be involved in their Sunday morning classes, a youth group meeting, men's and women's prayer breakfast, chapel for Mt. Calvary Christian School and more.  I graduated from MCCS way back in 1985!

Looking forward to that...but first, trout fishing in Perry County with David, and a couple of my uncles and cousins! David went with Dwight and Donnie yesterday to stock trout in Shermans creek...and came back super excited about a number of big palominos that he helped slip in the stream! Also met a man who was a retired Spanish speaker who had been to Ecuador on various occasions. What a relief for David to speak Spanish for a change!

Below...pictures of the conference prep and Cornerstone Youth Center!

Video of Last Sunday's Service in JM

We have been in PA since March 12, and this morning was the third morning we've woken up to a fresh snowfall. When will winter give up!

We enjoyed a great time with Hope Community Church this past Sunday here in PA, and a fun and edifying time with one of their small groups Sunday afternoon. What a special time with the Grove, Belmont and Ogilvie families!

We have been telling people that our goal was to be in the new church building in time for the church's 4th anniversary celebration April 6. Well, guess what! A big, iron gate/door was installed, as well as security windows, and some temporary Sunday School rooms were constructed ahead of schedule. The Jesus Maria church was able to meet in the 40'x25' space this past Sunday! We praise God for this great step.

Check out co-worker Jim Cottrill's video of this past Sunday below.

Property Progress Pics

I'm reposting some pictures that co-worker Tina just put on Facebook. You can see progress on the temporary bathrooms, one of them complete with a white door. Eventually a water tank (much smaller than the cistern-sized one in the picture) will be placed on the roof of the bathrooms to provide flush-able toilets.

The second picture shows a section of wall with tin roof overhead, spaces to be used temporarily for Sunday School rooms, providing shade for the kids.

Work yet to be done...the placement of a door and installation of a window for the main meeting place at the back of the property, and completion of the bathrooms. We hope to definitely be meeting at this property for the April 6 4th anniversary celebration, but may possibly be meeting there this coming Sunday, if all the work gets done.

Praise God for his faithfulness in this project, every step of the way!

Phase #2 of the property development will be to build a two-story building with permanent bathroom facilities, a conference room, an office and a lobby at the front of the property, basically right where the large water tank is sitting now, back to about the rear part of the current temporary bathrooms, or perhaps slightly farther. Samuel's rending of what Phase #2 will look like is pictured below (last pic).

Moses at Sight and Sound

Thanks to some gracious people who my parents know who are employees at Sight and Sound Theatre, the whole family was able to see "Moses" today, which their most recent presentation. Although every Bible story that S&S does is absolutely breathtaking, Moses has become my favorite. The production staff is using some new technology, including some phenomenal wrap-around 3D video, and the story line was captivating as always, yet without some of the overly acted segments that have been a part of past performances. Really quite the show!

In other news...I survived my tax and dentist day yesterday, and am looking forward to a great Sunday at Hope Community Church. We'll be involved with the "Beginnings" adult Sunday school class, then interviewed by Pastor Kirk Belmont in the worship service. A lunch follows. Sunday evening we're invited to the Grove household for dinner, then will be participating with their small group. Great fun!