Ten years ago today, I had the privilege of escorting Hannah into her big celebration – her 15th birthday party!
As you may know, the 15th for girls in Mexico is a big deal. Looking back, it really was a huge blessing to see so many friends and family together, many who were there to encourage and pray for our daughter.
The theme was “heritage”, a time to also celebrate the family heritage that we are blessed to have.
Here’s Hannah with her friends – 10 year ago today!
Although we’re working mostly with the church in Las Palmas now, we’ve had some recent opportunities to connect with what’s happening at the church in Jesús María. So, in answer to the question, things are going well! 🙂
We enjoyed having an old friend from Jesús María come and preach (Oscar Luna), and we really appreciated his visit. He joined us in our series on Deuteronomy, taking us through Deuteronomy 7. Oscar preaches in Jesús María along with Rod.
When Nathanael and his friends were here, we went up to Jesús María for their regular youth event (yes, if you’ve been here, you know you go “up” to Jesús María – kind of like going “up to Jerusalem”). There was a good group there enjoying some games and then learning about the book of Judges. Here’s a little volleyball:
That morning we also went with a group from the church to the hospital for some evangelism. Our church goes too, but they go on a different day, so usually we don’t see each other. Here’s some of the group making sandwiches (tortas, to be exact) to bring to serve to patients, their families, and hospital staff – whoever!
Rod, who is working more with the church right now, just posted some more recent information about a youth retreat (two from our church joined them) and a missions trip to the state of Oaxaca – and some other recent special events!
Check it out: Anniversary #16, Good Friday and Easter, Youth Events, Oaxaca mission trip
Praise the Lord for His continuing work at the Path of Life Bible Church in Jesús María!
During the first few months of 2026 we have had a couple of kids coming off and on to our Sunday services. It’s one of the stages in the church when we have a lot of youth and young adults, and not a lot of kids!
But I wanted to give a shout out to the faithful teachers (including Shari), who have been preparing lessons – being prepared even when no children attended, just in case!
Everyone prepared an evangelistic message for children that visited or started attending. There was always someone prepared for the class, even in times when no children attended regularly.
The kids have come this year are still very young, so the teachers began learning how to simplify, simplify, simplify – because everyone can learn something about the Lord, somehow!
Praise the Lord for the faithful dedication of these teachers. Please pray for more children – and more teachers as well!
I’m a little over 3 months late, but I did want to report on an evangelistic event that we had in Las Palmas, because it was a good time.
So one of our beloved Christmas traditions here in Mexico is ponche, a hot punch filled with fruits. So we set up a stove on the street in front our church meeting place, and served ponche to the passersby.
Some served the hot drinks, some shared the gospel, some walked around the neighbourhood to invite people to come, and some played Christmas carols.
And we also handed out little bags with a candy or two, a verse, and information about the church.
Many people heard the gospel and received information about the church. About 200 of our little information cards were handed out, which means that many households in the community now know that we’re there.
You can see in the image above right that we have a sign at street level for the church, and we hope to put another one up above so people can clearly see where we are.
We appreciate your prayers as we continue to build on this start, or actually restart, since we’ve returned to Las Palmas after meeting elsewhere!
Ten years ago today, our friends Shelene and Alyson were visiting us. Many adventures were involved. But here’s a moment of time, making some Easter baskets at home.
So, what if I started to post again, once in a while?
Yes, it’s been a crazy time – not just today (which was crazy), not just the past few weeks, but the past few months. It would be nice to get back into some kind of equilibrium – but I’m not holding my breath. Instead, I’m just stopping by to post!
I might catch you up on a few things from the past few months, but let’s start with the most recent – the last month.
We’ve enjoyed quite a few visits! We got together with some new friends in Mexico City rather suddenly and spontaneously – in fact, our van was in the shop, and it j was just finished and we just grabbed it and we drove into the city to get together with Jon and Danielle. It was quick, but a good time of fellowship!
Then we got together with Jessica – you remember Jessica, she used to live here in Ixtapaluca, and is still with our mission. She was down for a meeting, and was nice enough to come by so we could catch up a bit. Glad she finally made it back!
Then along came what I called “Nathanael’s Gang” – Nathanael and three of his friends, Thomas, Emilee and Elira. The whole group had a bit of a “missions vision” trip, learning a bit about Mexico and ministry here.
Thrown into the mix was Natalie, former missionary to Guatamala who will be coming to Mexico – the state of Oaxaca – to serve. She came for a day of cultural orientation along with Nathanael’s Gang. As you can see, Mexican orientation has something to do with Coca-Cola and soccer. Go figure!
And of course all of this involved a lot of hanging out with Mexican friends as well – often over tacos…
The Gang was only here for a few days, but Nathanael stayed to have the pleasure of having two of his wisdom teeth removed. Oh joy! But you’ll be glad to hear he healed quickly, and we were able to enjoy some good times together.
Although, admittedly, not as much time as we had hoped for. There have been an unusual amount of challenges and complications in the midst of all of this – you know those times when everything goes wrong at once, or everything breaks down at the same time? Well – stuff like that. So that meant less time to enjoy Nathanael’s visit.
But God has been good, and a lot was accomplished in spite of it all.
Did I miss anybody? Probably. We even got to see our coworker Rod in there somewhere – an event that is rarer than you may imagine!
Nathanael is actually on the plane to Calgary as I write. And I have a music practice to get to! So – hopefully – I’ll talk to you laer.
