Psalm 146:2 "I will praise the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live."

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Happy New Year Everyone!

HAPPY
NEW
YEAR
EVERYONE!

I am looking forward to sharing with YOU all that GOD will do in
2012!!!!!!

Thanks for being a part of my life and ministry thru your prayers this past year!

Friday, December 23, 2011

Update On My Trip to Chihuahua

Hi Everyone,

Here is an update of my ministry trip to Chihuahua with a short video and pictures. We were up in the mountains on the west side of the state of Chihuahua. One thing that I thought was so neat was that the pastor and his family that we were working with were Mexicans--that had been reaching out to the Tarhumara for many years.

Basically my responsibilities were to help with the children's ministry part, hand out gifts (more on that later), washing dishes, serving food, and a variety of other things where and as needed.

Here we are in a team effort making Mexican hot chocolate for the children over fire.

I tried to get a picture of us all pouring the milk at once because I thought it would look cool---but by the time the camera took the picture, most people's milk had poured out!

Here I am with others getting ready to serve food to the people that attended.
I don't have many pictures of myself working--we were all just sooo busy!

Here are the women in their traditional dress.
Here are the children

The highlight of my trip was seeing these boxes

And being in awe and humbled by the fact that God was going to use my hands along with others to distribute Operation Christmas Child Shoebox gift boxes to the children! I think I was almost more excited to give the boxes to the children than they were to receive the gifts! I have filled boxes in the past (which is so much fun!) but was praying that God would one day let me give out shoe boxes to children. I want to be able to participate in all aspects of the process of boxes being sent out. All that is left in the process is to one day be able to volunteer and help check boxes at one of the processing centers!

So here are the photos you are waiting for!!!!
The pastor had all of the children wait and open the boxes all at once. It was really hard to get good pictures of them opening the boxes because they were obviously "in action" so much.
I woke up for several nights in the early hours of the morning with tears in my eyes from an overflowing heart of joy--thinking "God, You are awesome! I had no idea this was a part of this trip! Thank you for using my hands to give the boxes to the children---and at the same time giving me a true desire of my heart!"

Here are some of the children singing the "Head and Shoulder's Knees and Toes" song in their dialect--pretty cool!


The scenery while being driven the eight hours up and back was amazing!
I got to see things that I hadn't seen for awhile:

spruce trees
A touch of snow
A train


And there were other surprises

A beautiful sunset


Rock formations that looked sort of like elephants
And apparently I have a "house" in Mexico :) After all--the translation is "House of Cristal" :)
God is good--and it was a blessing to serve Him with others! Thanks for your prayers!

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Heading To Chihuahua

Hi Everyone,

I praise God for the day that I had today! I went over to Maria's (the lady that I bought the birds from). It was really encouraging. I found out that her and I even have more in common. What an amazing blessing!

Tomorrow I go to Mexico City on the 3:15 am bus to catch my flight to Chihuahua where I will be working with n ethnic group called the Tahrumara. After arriving at the airport in Chihuahua we have an eight hour drive to the mountains. Pray for our safety as we are ministering and traveling. Upon arriving at the final destination, with the others that are going (one couple and four of us singles), we will join other believers that are carrying out an evangelistic Christmas event. There are different days aimed towards sharing the gospel with children and adults. As to what I will be doing? possibly helping with food preparation but wil find out more when I get there.

I return on December 23rd and will update you more with photos and all upon my return.

Thanks for your prayers!

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Answered Prayer

Hi Everyone,

Above is another picture of the youth last Saturday.

My big praise report is that yesterday I was able to pic up my new "Visa" or migratory form! This means that I can stay for a year without going to the border and renew it up to four times! Praise God for fast processing!

Thank you for your prayers! God is definitely at work and I am delighted to be here!

Sunday, December 11, 2011

A Brief Update

Hi Everyone,

Last night at youth group was great! We went to hang out at one of the youth's homes and actually had a nice devotional time together outside. It was refreshing to be outside of the city a little bit. We were enjoying hamburgers cooked on the grill when all of the sudden we realized that the ground was like seriously shaking. Turns out there was a 6.5 earthquake with the epicenter in Guerrero. (I had never felt one that big before--I wasn't scared though) Amazingly it sounds like there wasn't much damage, but three people were killed. Do pray that God would use these natural events like earthquakes to bring people to Himself, not only in Mexico, but all over the world.

As a youth group we were in charge of leading the Sunday church service this morning. It went well-we assigned tasks last night as we were eating together. Hopefully next time we can put more creative touches into the service--this time we just didn't have the time to do that. It really is neat seeing everyone serve together. They really are great kids!

December 12th is when many Mexicans celebrate "The virgin of Guadalupe." Pray that the truth of Jesus Christ would shine into people's hearts and lives that they may come to know Him as their Lord and Savior----for there is only one mediator between man and God and that is Jesus Christ. He is the only one worthy of our worship and praise.

Anyways it is literally almost midnight here and I am getting up early tomorrow. Thank you for your continued prayers. I just wanted to take a moment to let you know that I am still here----just busy but doing well.

Blessings to you all!

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Potpouri-A Whole Mix Of Things

Hi Everyone,

It has been a week since I updated again. I first of all wanted to thank you for your prayers for my change of migratory status. I was able to pick up the paper I needed in Mexico City on Thursday and was able to turn in my paperwork to immigration on Friday. So my "visa" is officially in process! THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS! Keep praying that I would obtain my new migratory status quickly.

On Sunday I was able to attend a missions conference at different church! It was so neat to see how they did it! They had different countries represented by different tables decorated with items from the specific country and different foods to try as well. I helped with the table for Nicaragua. It was fun to talk with some people from the church. It was fun to see Mexicans getting more exposed to missions also.

Keep praying for my friend Conchita. There have been some challenges lately in her life.

Thank you for your prayers!