This Can’t Be Good

We got a form Saturday from one of our supporting congregations. Each year they send us a self-evaluation form to fill out and send back. This morning I sat down to work through it and send it in. However, I noticed something different about the form. All the questions were the same, but the title was different. This time it read, “Final Performance Review”. Um… should I be concerned about this turn of events?

Here Comes Mine Pucker!

Have you heard Larry Boy’s song, “I Love My Lips!”? Well, it could have been written for Clark. For some reason he thinks his pucker is bigger and perhaps better than everyone else’s. Thus, he was running around yesterday yelling, “Here comes mine pucker!” and hurrying to give kisses. Very fun.

This photo is of the poor boy when he’s not puckering. Perhaps he’s in line for a visit to the dentist. Dr. Curtis, can you help the boy?

Let's Celebrate!

Well, tomorrow is the big day.

Love renewed. Mystery awakened. Hope eternal.

The love affair, for me, began in 82. It was a wonderful, whirlwind romance with all the ups and downs one could hope for. Our first outing together. Hot August nights. The roar of the crowd. (Of course, you know I’m celebrating pitchers and catchers reporting to Spring Training. Right?)

It’s been a long winter with not many signings to speak of. Even still, there’s always hope. Unless of course you’re a Cubs' fan.

February Family Update

February 5, 2008

In January the city finally woke up from its holiday slumber. It has been fun to get back into the mix of things again. God has been encouraging us and growing our faith in Him this month. He seems to be opening more doors for us and the churches here in Guadalajara.

Jocotan
As we mentioned last month, exciting things are happening with our house church in Jocotan. In January, we as a church were able to travel together to the home of Jose Julian’s mom, Felipa. She and a few of Julian’s brothers and sisters live in the colonia of Tuluquilla. (Though we’d still consider Tuluquilla to be a part of Guadalajara, it is 45 minutes from Jocotan.) Felipa was very warm and welcoming and appears to be excited to learn more about what has created such a change in the lives of Julian and Lilian. Even a couple of Julian’s sisters were eager to join us when we began to sing. However, more extended family happened to arrive who did not like the presence of our group or that we were worshipping there together. We ask that you continue to pray for this mission point; that God will not allow a negative voice to become an obstacle in reaching to this home.

Also, the brother of Lupe (Lupe is Omar’s wife… does this get confusing sometimes?), Chuy, joined our assembly one Sunday with his wife, Nena, and their two children. Chuy has visited with Omar in the past, expressing interest in what we’re doing because of the drastic change he’s seen in Omar’s life. It seemed that Chuy and Nena enjoyed their time with us, but they were pretty quiet (so it is hard to tell what they were really thinking.) Later Omar assured us that they did, in fact, have a good time. This was especially encouraging to Omar as Lupe seems to be held back in following God by how she fears her family could react. She was comforted by her brother’s desire to seek God openly and we pray that she will be moved to courageous steps of faith and seeking.

Answered Prayers

As we mentioned, we believe God is displaying His power in an exciting way here. Tim has partnered with our teammate Cory in the last couple of months to begin trying to reach out into two colonias on the other side of town. Cory began reaching out to a family in Lomas del Paraiso and asked Tim to join him in prayer-walking through the colonia and looking for more “persons of peace” as Jesus refers to them in Luke 10. They, similarly, began prayer-walking through the neighborhood of Alcalde Baranquitas where we have been ministering to a couple of friends over the past two years. And though they’ve just begun doing this on a consistant basis, it appears God is already opening more doors.

At our last team meeting we were sharing about what we’ve seen God doing in these colonias. In
Alcalde Baranquitas the extended family of our friend Sindy has gathered for a “prayer meeting” and they have dedicated themselves to seeking God together and to trying to encourage each other to live as a testimony to their neighborhood. We are really amazed at God’s work here. It excites us to see evidence of Him moving about in this city. Afterward our teammate, Gerardo, mentioned the opening of a new home in that same area because of the death in the family of one of the Christians from the North. They worshipped together in that home this month. There are Christians there who have no church fellowship at this time and other family members who were talking about wanting to be baptized. We praise God for His wisdom and ask for your prayers to steadily partner with God in whatever He wants for us to do.

The details surely get hard to follow in letters like this, but for us it is the details that make the stories so amazing and point to God’s direction and His hand in our lives and in our work. In your prayers for us, pray that we will walk in faith and seek God more and more.

We’re Getting AIMers!

For those that don’t know, AIM stands for Adventures in Missions, and is a program for 18-25 year olds designed to give them experience working with missionaries around the world. Our mission team has had AIM students come in the past, but the last ones were here when we were very new to Guadalajara. So, we feel like it’s a first for us. Kim and I were both in AIM and worked with the program while we were in college. At the missionary retreat, we were reminded of how God has blessed us with the relationships we made while working there. All of our American teammates were also AIMers at one time, and we were with many others who share the same connection and are also serving now in Mexico as missionaries.