Fully Armored Kids

Ephesians 6:10-11 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

That's the theme of the kids' class that Sarah and Caleb are doing for the kids of Iglesia Vida Nueva (New Life Church), in Tamazula. They started with a look at why and with whom we are at war and are now learning all about the various parts of our Christian armor.

While the parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles are at the church, all the kids are across the street at one of the church member's house. There have been some challenges. For instance the church doesn't have portable tables or chairs, so we had to transport the table from our house. The kids persevered, though, and the class has been a great blessing.

With the change in daylight saving time, we've had to adjust the class time to earlier in the day. The house where the kids meet doesn't have electricity, so Caleb sets up spotlights for game time and runs an extension cord across the street from the church. Not ideal, but it works!

The students do a craft project, listen to a story/lesson about the armor of God, play some games, sing songs and -- of course -- have a snack. The class has become such a success that even some of the neighbor kids whose parents don't attend the church have started coming. Sarah said that she doesn't want to exclude them, so as long as they're behaving well and not causing trouble, they're welcome. Great outreach, eh?!

Last week was supposed to be a lesson on the Belt of Truth, but a child in the village had a birthday. In Mexico, that means that every child in a 3 or 4 block radius, and everyone who is even remotely related by blood or marriage, is invited to celebrate. When the party ended, most of them came to the class, but they were so wired on sugar and red 40 that trying to rein them in for a Bible lesson seemed next to impossible. So, they just played some running games and sang songs. Flexibility is most definitely a key to children's ministry, no matter what country you live in!

Special thanks to the children of Saguaro Canyon Church in Tucson! They saved up to give an offering to our ministry. With it, we were able to purchase all the supplies necessary class: scissors, glue, paper, etc., as well as workbooks for each of the kids in the class. What a blessing!!!

Back in the swing of mission trips!

It's been a while since we posted here! No excuses -- just a lack of internet and a lack of time! Now that we're back online, albeit buzzing along at a whopping 52kbps via a dial-up connection, we'll be able to share some of what we are up to now. It might take a while to catch up, but I think it can be done!

Rather than start back in August and then try to get current before the current becomes the past, I thought perhaps I should start with the "now" and then move backwards little by little until I fill in all the gaps. It should work. I mean, after all, this is a virtual scrapbook and you can always jump around in a scrapbook, right? Sure!!!

So here we go...the present!!! This is the end of October. The weather has shifted, and the days are now beautifully warm and the nights have a distinctly "autumnal" feel to them. We have entered into the Wonderful Time of Year, climate-wise, and are enjoying it fully!

Two weeks ago, a mission team from the state of Washington came down. We were invited by the hosting missionaries to tag along as interpreters and also to help with transportation. God worked it out so that our entire week was free to spend time with this team and with the body of believers in Guasave, Tamazula and Alomito. God is so good!

Here are some photos of the team and some of the things we did during the week. Some of the things not pictured are the outreach at the local prison, the pouring of the roof at the pastor's house in Guasave, the picnic afterward, several different excursions to the ocean, a fishing excursion with a bit of excitement, and a trip to the Guasave open-air market, to name a few. With so many hundreds of photos to choose from, one has to make some tough decisions, you know!

Friday night the alliance of churches in Guasave sponsored a youth concert at the church of Betesda. The team shared a powerful drama about mankind's need for a savior.





Saturday morning, the church of Tecumate (another section of the city) hosted a youth conference. Two of the visiting American missionaries were invited to speak and the youth were really encouraged. It was good to see a few new faces at this youth event! Sarah and Caleb joined up with Josh and Becca and another friend to lead the worship.

Sunday, we attended the church in Tamazula, which is where we do weekly parenting classes. Having the American team there for a Sunday service was a real treat -- I think as much for the Americans as for the local church! The Mexican brothers and sisters were encouraged by the team's presence -- that they came down, even though the whole world seemed to be warning them not to -- and by the love they showed. The American team members said that they were touched by the local church's love and acceptance of them and also by their passion for prayer and for the Word. It was a beautiful thing to see the Church working together as one in Christ!














At the end of the church service, the pastor invited anyone who wanted to pray or to be prayed for to come forward. Practically the entire congregation moved.
During the course of the week, we did a lot of running around and ended up exhausted by the end, but it was a very good sort of exhausted -- very fulfilling! We've missed having mission teams come down to work alongside of us. Now that we're back in "Mission Team Season", we're looking forward to being able to connect with more teams from the States.

Sunday night, we made the inevitable trip back to the Tufesa bus station to bid farewell to our brothers and sisters in Christ. That will never be the easy part of mission teams. Fortunately, we know that as Christians, our good byes are never permanent! They're just, "See you later!"

Not a Good Sound

We like to have Spanish Bibles on hand to give to people who ask for them. You'd be surprised how many people in Mexico don't have a Bible in their house -- even Christians! Why? Well, reading is just not a popular pasttime here, for one. Many folks just don't read. Another reason, though, is that they're a little spendy. If you bring in a little over $200 in a month, it's hard to justify spending 10% of that to purchase a book -- any book! So, when we travel to the States or when teams come down, we try to get inexpensive, paperback Bibles which we can hand out.

That said, we had an opportunity to give a Bible away on Tuesday. The husband of a Christian sister in Reforma had asked Braulio if he could find a Bible. Braulio asked Doug, and Doug dropped it off for the man, Ernesto. Ernesto works at a local shrimp farm as a manager. On Monday, the shrimp in a couple of the tanks just started dying for no apparent reason. Not knowing what else to do, he drove a mile to the beach, got out of his truck and just cried out to God. He spent some time there, and when he returned, the shrimp had stopped dying and it looked like things were improving in the tanks. He praised God for the miracle and immediately went to Braulio to share what had happened and to ask for a Bible.

We left the Bible with Braulio on Tuesday, said a prayer for Ernesto and went on with our day.

Last night, Thursday, Doug and I headed into town for our weekly "date" (that's where a husband and wife go out and buy groceries together and do all the other errands that need to be done for the household). We got to go see a movie, too, so it was more "date-like" than usual! Driving home late, in the rain, we were enjoying each other's company and wondering if we would have electricity at the house when we got home, when suddenly we heard a funky clunky sound. It was not a good sound.

Our first thought was a popped tire, which would have been a bummer, but when the engine died and steam came up, we knew it wasn't a tire. Here's where God's provision over every part of our life became (once more) evident:

• Along the last 10 mile stretch of road to our home there are exactly 3 places to pull off the road safely in the rain. The rest is all steep shoulder and 6 inch deep mud. The Bad Sound happened about 50 meters from one of these pull-outs.
• Traffic along this road at night is scarce. People traveling from Las Glorias after 10pm are usually drunk and people traveling toward Las Glorias...well, you generally wouldn't want them to stop and help you.
• There was a truck about 2 miles behind us which drove past and then pulled over when the driver saw us with our hood up.
  
• As we stood in the pouring rain thinking, "Who is this guy, and do we trust him?", the man rolled down his window and said, "Douglas, right? I'm Braulio's friend. I'm from Reforma."
• "You're Claudia's husband!" we said.
• Ernesto's truck had 4 wheel drive, so he could pull us up the muddy hill and back onto the road and he even had rope to haul us with. His rope and Doug's chain gave us just enough distance to tow -- if not comfortably -- at least safely!

So, what was the bad sound? I have no idea. We're leaning toward blown engine. Esteban's coming over later and they're going to tow the van to a mechanic in Palos Verdes. Pray that the mechanic will be able to fix the problem, that parts will be available, that God would supply the funds necessary to fix it. Praise God for all the ways He's already supplied in this situation and praise Him that now we have a friendship with Ernesto. He said that he was wondering where we lived and tried to find our house to thank us for the Bible. Now he knows where we live!

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. -- Romans 8:28

Fun Fact Friday -- Cookies!!!!

I've been negligent in my Fun Fact Friday posts, but I think I'm getting back in the swing of things!!! Here's this week's fact.

When I was a little girl, my mom took me to Brown's Bakery about once a week and let me buy one of these little guys:

I have fond memories of all the little Gingerbread men lined up hand to hand and toe to toe -- each with different colored frosting. Mrs. Brown used the leftover frosting from her cakes to decorate the cookies, so sometimes they were rainbow colored. I especially loved those!!! They were yummy, too!!!

Well, a while back I discovered a new Mexican cookie: the cochi.

Yes. It's a pig.

Just like every "man" cookie you see in the US will probably be a Gingerbread Man, every pig cookie you see in Mexico (or at least in Sinaloa!) will be...a Gingerbread Pig.

"I am the Gingerbread Pig, I am. I can grunt. I can, I can!"

Hmm. It doesn't have the same ring. But it was definitely tasty!!!

Do you have a fun fact to share? Link up below!!!