Merry Christmas 2008

Merry Christmas!!

We were back in Canada over November, as many of you know. While we were there the snow, the lights, the cold all reminded us of a Canadian Christmas. Even though we were a month away, we almost all got that tingly Christmassy feeling that you get around this time of year.

Then it dawned on me...

In the last several years, we've only had a few white Christmases...
We were in Victoria for 3 Christmases- no snow...
Loon Lake for 2 Christmasses- had snow (and cold!! not just regular cold, stupid cold...)
Mexico for a Christmas as we checked out YUGO Ministries.
Mexico for now our 3rd year- living here.

So in the last 9 years (any of our kids memory) we've only had 2 white Christmasses... the green, or "Brown" Christmas is more the norm for us- and yet even for our kids Christmas=snow.

This years Christmas will be quite different from others. We are hosting 3 families from Canada- from La Ronge, SK, Nipawin, SK and Swan River, MB. They are all coming down for almost 2 weeks to experience missions as a family. We're looking forward to the opportunity to serve the families!

We plan on putting some rolled roofing on houses, painting a church, maybe building a bathroom. Besides those things we will be visiting an orphanage, doing Christmas supper with some less fortunate folks, spending Christmas day together, serving pastors and their families a Christmas fiesta supper, handing out Christmas gifts and worshiping in a Mexican church. It will be a busy busy couple of weeks, but we are praying that as we live and work together in community, that God will use us to further His Kingdom and that we will be a blessing to each other and the Mexican people we will be serving.

A couple of Updates---

Pastor Ramiro's church in Valle Redondo (former open-air church) has the bottom floor almost finished now. Lake Morena Community church from just across the border in California have been coming down drywalling, and helping get it all done. They were finishing some of the painting today and it should be ready by this Saturday when we are doing a major Christmas box outreach. This little church of 100 is hosting over 300 kids and their parents to an outreach program where we hand out Christmas gifts to kids who likely would get nothing otherwise. Along with that they get a message about the Good News of Jesus Christ, some music and maybe even some games. Last year when we did this there were only 3 walls and a semi-roof like thing over top! This year we will be dry and warm! Please pray that many families respond to Jesus' gift of Salvation as this church reaches out to their community!

Misi had her surgery in November. She is doing well and will need some follow up work in the next year. I don't know how the family is doing, but will keep you updated as we learn more. please continue to pray for Misi and her family.

Iselda at the orphanage has not yet had her brain surgery to remove the 20+ tumours. They are waiting for the DIF (social services) to buy the materials to use in the surgery. The thoughts now are that she will need to wait until after Christmas. Please pray for Iselda.

Jose (had severe prostate problems) is doing better. He has had several visits to the specialist. These visits and the meds have been costly, please pray for their needs to be met. The medicine is working well and he needs to have more studies done to find out why his prostate is acting the way it is.

Sharlene found a good asthma specialist. For months we had searched in the phone book and Internet and at hospitals for specialists in respiratory illnesses. Respirar is Spanish for breathing and so we looked for a specialist that had that root in it's name. We could not find anything.
Finally I found a website partially in English and Spanish and it turns out a respiratory specialist is a neumologo-- using the Greek root for breath- pneuma... whoda thunk it?!? Anyway he seems to be very good, aks lots of questions and spends 30-45 minutes with you in a visit to make sure he has all the info and is diagnosing you well! She has been on some new meds this last 2 weeks and has improved immensely! She is stable and the doctor wants her to keep going for 2 more months the same way so we can see what she is supposed to be like when she is at top notch! Praise God for a good doctor- they are not easy to find down here!!

Classes are still continuing. We've changed locations so we can have classes even in the rain (this church is on pavement). We have 11 dedicated students who are enjoying their opportunity to delve into God's Word. This session we are taking Biblical Doctrine. God has been very gracious to me as I try to explain difficult concepts in my second language to students who, on average, have an elementary school education! I think my limited Spanish is an asset sometimes, because I need to use simple words and concepts- they are all I know!!

Future thoughts and plans:

I will be teaching a course this coming Semester (Feb-May) at Calvary Chapel Bible College in Ensenada, Mexico (1 hour south). I'm also continuing to train our new missionaries this winter. I'm hoping to get an opportunity to go a little further south into Mexico to scout out the land! I may have an opportunity to go in January, Lord willing!

Thanks for your partnership with us!! You are a blessing to us. It was good to see many of you over November- I think the next visit is yours though!! We have the room, if you need to break out of winter for a week or two- Be prepared to serve and to be blessed!

God bless,

Mike for the family!