Harvest Language Center

Jessica and me are taking classes right now at harvest Language Center. ( Jo'ell has been staying at home to continue homeschooling the other children.) We have really enjoyed the school so far. Our fellow Tecate Missionary, Andy Clarke, has been taking the classes with us. (see photo; he is the one with the close haircut!) The classes are small so there is good interaction with the teachers. It is ran by Jeff and Lisa King, who are from the U.S. and have been in Mexico for over 10 years. They are active in church planting also. They have a heart to see missionaries get trained to serve in Mexico and other Spanish speaking countries. Jeff and Lisa both teach and there are 2 other teachers: Pastor Moises Rodriquiez and Senora Chayo. The program uses what I would call the "old schoool" approach; they teach grammar, phonics, verbs and vocabulary. this is in contrast to the approach some schools take of just teaching converstational style Spanish. We will learn the rules we will need to know to speak the language well. This will be necessary for communicating about more complicated concepts like bible truths. Not for the faint of heart! Thanks for praying that we conjucate our verbs correctly!!

Lord, show us a sign

It is amazing the power a sign has. We were walking down the sidewalk near our house the other day and one of my friends noticed a sign for a church on the front of a building. It said "Palabra Fiel" or "Faithful Word". The name sounded good so we thought we would give it a try. We were excited to find a vibrant fellowship of about 30 people. Last Sunday was our 3rd Sunday there and their have been several visitors during this time who have came just because of the sign. One of the ladies who is a member is a new believer who sought out the church as she was going through some issues in her life that caused her to seek God and to want to know the truth about Him. She did not feel the answers were in the religion she had. She is now alive and growing in faith (Col. 1:9-12). I will post some more pictures of the church as we get them. The believers there have recieved us very warmly and are quite patient with my "baby-talk" Spanish! It is exciting to know that God has some among every people who are His!

Don't bite the hand that feeds ya

Friday Jan. 18 was a WTM day: Welcome To Mexico. Jessica and I had gotten home from Language school and we were all getting ready to eat lunch. A guy about 20 years old was knocking on the gate. He wanted to wash the car for $3 . I was in a great Friday afternoon mood so I decided to say OK. I talked with him a bit while he worked, wanting to practice my Spanish. He told me he was married and his wife was in Chicago, and that he had a 4 month old girl. While we were talking, Morgan came home on her bike. She said "Dad, I can't get my bike through the gate." I had opened half of the gate and pulled the car forward so he could get around it to wash it. I told her to just leave it on the sidewalk. When he finished I paid him and gave him a Gospel of John booklet. He left and went up the street knocking on the neighbors gate looking for another job. As I was in the kitchen I saw him on the other side of the street looking over towards our house but didn't think much of it. A minute later Brent suddenly yelled "Hey, that guy just took Morgan's bike!" Brent and I went tearing out of the house after him. He was at the end of the street just about to round the corner. I yelled at him( my mistake) , thinking he would drop the bike and run. Instead he jumped on the bike and pedaled away! Brent and I tried to catch him but to know avail. Later when my neighbor Hector got home he helped me report it to the Police.

I guess another lesson learned. It is not the first thing we have had taken since we were here. I am not used to being so "on-gaurd" all the time. I was in total shock and mad as a hornet that this guy would do that to me right after I went out of my way to try to help him. And to do it right under our nose like that was truly amazing to me. Vince Lombardi once said "Fatigue makes cowards of us all." I have been thinking of a modification to that along the lines of "Poverty can make theives out of some people." Solomon warned of the dangers of both prosperity and poverty in Proverbs 30:8,9 : "Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me niether poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: lest I be full and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain."

I believe in the total depravity of man and I guess I just got a rude awakening to it's real life impact! Jeremiah warned that " the heart of man is decietful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it? " Just another reminder that their are many lost people here and those are the ones Jesus came to reach. Pray for Arnulfo ( at least that is the name he gave me) that he will be under conviction and that he will read the tract I gave him.

Hikin' up the Mountain

Our street is on a bit of a grade, and at one end is "Mount Tesoro." One of Brent's buddies, Saul, offered to show us the trail so I went up it with them. It was a great view of the city. I wish I knew how to take a 360 degree photo. It is amazing to look down on 8 million people; twice the population of the State of Oregon in one city! It made me think of how many people there are that do not walk with the Lord. As I finished up my Bible reading for 2007 in the book of Revelation, it brought me again to grips with what it will be like when God pours out His wrath on the earth. It really adds a sense of urgency to getting out the Good News!

English Classes

We were able to travel to Autlan in December to spend some time with our fellow missionaries, John and Elizabeth Rodgers. They showed us around the downtown area. Communities in Mexico pride themselves in their nativity displays. It was cool that people get into it and nobody gets uptight about it being in the City Square.

The highlight of our trip was getting to set in on three different English classes at La Roca Coffee house. Jessica and I will be teaching level 1 in August. It is a GREAT opportunity to develop relationships! I can't wait!

For now I am going to focus on Spanish! First day of class tomorrow!

New Puppy

Today was a good day in this Dad's life, as well as for all the kid's. I had promised them a dog about 4 years ago. Today I finally delivered on that promise! Yeah, I know, pretty late. We were planning on going to Ireland at the time I made the promise. Ireland requires a 3 month quarantine on dogs brought in to the country. So I told them that as soon as we got there we would get one. The "there" turned out to be Mexico! I think this pup will be a great thing for our kids right now. I confess to being a dog lover myself! Thank you, Lord! She is a Golden Retriever and I think Brent is going to name her "MacKenzie."