If you’ve been paying attention, you know one of the main reasons why we’re heading to Canada around this time – there’s a wedding coming! Our daughter Hannah and her fiancé Brandon are deep into preparations, and hopefully we are being of some help!
We will also be visiting some churches while we’re in Canada. We’re hoping to get to see some congregations we weren’t able to catch the last time around in Alberta, and then we’re going to Ontario to visit some churches and various friends and family there. It’s been quite a few years since we have reported to our churches in Ontario in person, so it’s important that we take the time to do so. If you’d like to see us, drop us a line and we’ll see what we can do! If we’re at a church in your area, we would love to see you there too.
I’ll try to get a church schedule in our newsletter, and maybe even here on the website if I’m ambitious. But as you can imagine things are pretty busy right now!
We would appreciate your prayers, as this will be a pretty intense and busy time. Pray as well for Hannah and Brandon, and also for Nathanael, who will be facing big changes himself. Pray that we would be able to be a help and encouragement to family, friends, and churches as we serve.
Pray also for the church in Las Palmas while we’re gone. Not that we’re indispensable – by no means! – but naturally our absence means more work for those we are leaving behind.
The 30th of April is Children’s Day in Mexico! It’s the 20th of November in Canada, but it tends to be a much bigger deal in Mexico.
In 2016, ten years ago, we had a group from Word of Life (Palabra de Vida) in Ixtapaluca to add to the festivities. They helped us out with some evangelistic activities, and part of the fun included a huge BALL!
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!
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!
