Prayer and Praise
Meetings and update on Claudia
This evening I was over at Alberto and Claudia‘s house with a few friends. She is home now, and looking well (especially considering all she’s been through the last few days – here’s the back story).
She was sitting up and in the middle of a good Mexican welcome home party. 🙂
Thanks for your continued prayers for Claudia and her family. We praise the Lord that she’s home, but the treatment will be continuing. What lies ahead remains to be seen.
We enjoyed a bit of a personal planning meeting for the coming year with Rod this past week. We still have a lot to discuss, but we’re starting to get more of a picture of what will be happening in the year ahead (stay tuned!).
This went together with a brainstorming and planning meeting I went to for the church on … when was that? The week is a bit of a blur. Well, some evening this past week. I tried to mostly listen and learn, but it’s so great to hear the vision for planting new churches in the future, the vision for outreach to the community, and growth among the believers. There will be lots of great things coming up!
Thanks to those who have been praying this week. Now on to next week….
Please pray for Claudia
Just wanted to stop by to ask you to pray for a friend in our church named Claudia. Here’s the news from Rod Fry’s blog:
Yesterday after a biopsy it was confirmed that the lump that Claudia noticed in the last several months in her chest is malignant. She is scheduled to have a mastectomy either tomorrow or Friday. This news has come as quite a shock to the family and church family. Alberto and Claudia are a key family in the church; Alberto plays guitar during worship and Claudia teaches Sunday school. They have two daughters, Noemi is 7 and Karla is 5.
Not only do Alberto and Claudia do an excellent job in the church, they have already been an encouragement to us personally. Please do pray for her and the family.
More on mastectomies – a summary here, and more detail here. See a picture of Claudia and her family at Rod’s blog, In the Shadow of Volcanos.
First day of school in Mexico City (2008/2009)
It was an early morning here as we got the kids ready for their first day of school. Uniforms on, backpacks ready, lunches packed, breakfasts eaten. I went out to the van – chilly morning, I could see my breath – and everyone got in and away we went.
 Nathanael emerges out of his school after the first day |
We successfully found Hannah’s school. Her classes start earlier than Nathanael’s, so we all went there for the welcome ceremonies, including a presentation of the flag, speeches and introductions of the teachers. Nathanael couldn’t stand still that long, so he and I missed the last bit. He did like the bathrooms there, though, which have a huge painted Superman for the boys and a Wonder Woman for the girls.
With Hannah safely at school, we headed over to Nathanael’s school. We got there just in time, and in he was whisked. Did I even say goodbye? It was all so sudden! These days are certainly more stressful for the parents than the kids, right?
After some time we picked up Nathanael. He was very happy and had lots to tell us – especially that he had eaten all his lunch (although he also told us he had "shared" some of it). He seems to really like his school, and is convinced it’s better than Hannah’s (where all they seem to do is give boring speeches).
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Shari went to pick up Hannah. The traffic was horrendous, so I think we may be looking for alternate routes! However, Hannah had a great day too. I missed the initial excitement, of course, since I didn’t pick her up.
We thought we were doing well getting everything ready for school until today. Hannah got a note home in her bag, telling us that they had forgotten some things that she needed to bring to school. Would we please buy them and have her bring them on Tuesday?
We also got Nathanael’s list of school supplies (they didn’t have a copy when we registered). 60-some-odd different items to buy. Not just one of each, either – several. Having been through this once, we know what most of them are. But there are a few… ! – – and where do we buy these? ! and …. we need them by when??
Well, we’re swamped as usual. But overall, the day went pretty well, everyone likes school, and no one lost a limb. So far so good.
And now that are the parents are rushing around trying to buy last minute school supplies, it’s time to get ready for Christmas! Here’s a photo I took of Nathanael today at WalMart…
Nathanael with an electronic Santa
at WalMart today
Some of what’s on our minds (audio)
So I haven’t written much lately about what we’re actually “up to”. Here’s a quick hint of some of the things we’re doing and thinking about as we hurtle our way through August…
(Note: the player may not be working for you – if so, use the download function)
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People moving in CAM
There’s always a lot of movement going on with people from our organization, CAM International. But lately it seems a lot of the people we know best are going through major change!
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First example, Larry and Jayme Hower. After several years at the helm of CAM Canada, they’ll be moving back to their native land – the USA – to work at CAM’s Dallas office. They’ll be working in the mobilization department – as their recent email said,"Larry’s job would be walking the appointees through the process from their acceptance until they are ready to go to the field and Jayme would help with other areas of mobilization."
Larry and Jayme are planning to move in the last week of August – a little over a month after we got the news! Boy, those Howers move fast. 😉
Though we didn’t see the Howers as often as we would have liked (in Calgary, the Dallas office was actually closer than the Canadian office!), they have been a tremendous help, support and encouragement to us. I can’t say enough good about them – so I’ll stop there! But let’s just say we’ll miss having them approve our expenses. 🙂
So now we wait to see who the new Canadian director will be, and what changes there will be in our office. Recently we met with some CAM leadership and heard some great ideas to develop CAM in Canada – we’ll see what happens! Please remember CAM Canada in your prayers – their ministry helping people become disciple-makers in the Spanish-speaking world, including Mexico, Cuba, and Canada itself!
The other changes are right here in Mexico. The biggest news came recently from the Downs family. They were finishing up language study in Mexico, spending some time in the USA, and then heading the Uruguay as a part of a new team. But after a lot of prayer and no doubt a lot of discussion, they decided to continue in Mexico. They wrote,"We consider it a privilege to be able to serve along side of all of you here in Mexico. The needs are great and the workers are few."
What a big change for them! Read more here.
We got to know the Downs during our time in Cuernavaca, and are happy to hear they are staying in the country! Now hopefully they will see the light and move to Mexico City…
Finally, we’re going to be missing a family for a few months – the O’Briens, who are heading to the USA for a time of ministry in their homeland. The O’Briens are our good friends from Cuernavaca – it was sad enough to move away, but now they’re moving even farther away! We look forward to seeing them back home in Mexico in 2009.
So we’re not the only ones on the move – there are many others that I haven’t mentioned! How about praying for them in this time of change?