Christmas Prayer Letter

The tree is up (though the cats have been slowly dismantling it every night), the advent candles are burning low, the weather has turned wet and cool and our grass is starting to grow.

It must be Christmas!

My final exams are all marked, we're making plans to have a Christmas party for the pastors and leaders class and their family and they are getting a much needed small brain break from classes for a couple weeks.








As we head into this Christmas season, we change gears a little bit as we help out getting Christmas gifts down to kids in Tijuana's poor colonias. Shar and the boys are putting together 400 candy bags for kids, we're picking up boxes full of toys mailed to the US office to be handed out and helping organize a few parties. Our fellow Missionaries Jose Luis and Cindy Pesina are doing the lions share of the work this year as they have the contacts both in Mexico and the US to help connect gifts with kids! Their ministry is much more aimed at kids than is ours, so we've asked them to take it over next year entirely and we can come alongside and help them in whatever way is needed.

This has been a good semester of teaching. Our pastors and leaders training is coming to a conclusion this spring. We are working on the 2nd to last course now- "Church History Survey". It is quite information heavy, but has been helpful for them to see the progression of the church through the first 500 years of it's history- both good and bad. We're hoping to have a better understanding of today's modern church and also have a sensitivity to the things that have historically caused the church to slide away from God's Biblical Ideal!

At Calvary Chapel Bible College I taught Minor Prophets to 14 students. It was a good class which solidified our understanding of the message of God throughout the Scriptures- God hates sin and calls us to repent and trust Him. There is a coming "Day of the Lord" when all evil will be judged- and noone will be able to stand without someone to save them. Jesus is the one prophesied about long ago- the Messiah, Christ, Saviour of all who repent of their sin and trust Him.

I found out, though, that I am a tough exam-giver. The students had 2 hours to answer 60 short answer questions and noone finished! Most came nowhere close. I am mean! :) But, thankfully in Jesus there is grace and mercy- so I had both on them and they did well overall! I'm learning a bit about testing and hope to have it down pat some day.

Next semester I am going to be teaching two classes. I have no missionary training to do and so will have the time to prepare. I will be teaching "1 Corinthians" and "Exodus" in the Spring semester.

A few prayer requests concerning these ministries:
1. I graduate the first class of pastors and leaders this spring and am praying about direction for next year. I'm not sure if I should start another class, or help one or two of my current students to teach a class or two. The idea is to train them to be teachers, that way the ministry is not dependent upon a missionary to run it, it can multiply quickly and only needs me in an advisory and administrative role.
2. Calvary Chapel Bible College is needing someone to come on staff full time or 3/4 time to teach a few courses every semester an help out with the administration / discipiling of students aspect of the ministry. Currently they have 1 full time teacher/ administrator. He is swamped and the school is growing each year. I may be able to do the ministry 3 or 4 days a week and commute the 100 mile round trip and then work 1/4 time with the pastors in the colonias. Or we could move to Ensenada (50 miles south) and live in the community that the school is in.
There are plusses and minuses to both options. We would like to have Christ's mind on this!

Finally, Shar and the kids are doing well. We have decided not to put the kids in a private school. Financially and schedule wise it would not work for us. Also we don't think it's the best option for the boys. So we continue to homeschool each day. Sharlene has found a homeschool group meeting twice a month here in Rosarito that she is going out to with the guys. They are enjoying it. They get to meet other folks, practice Spanish and do some other schoolwork while getting input from some other teachers. So far it is working out well.

Thank you so much for your prayer and financial support this last year. It has been a blessing representing each and every one of you who invest in this ministry.

Remember that you have an open invitation to come down and minister alongside us anytime you would like!

Our house is your house!

God bless and Merry Christmas!

Mike, Shar, Elijah, Caleb and Jacob McDonald

cat blog...

We have 3 cats...

Last spring, Elijah had been praying for a cat after our old cat decided to look for a new home. Along came this little, skinny, pregnant cat who also was looking for a new home. We took her in and she had 4 kittens.

We kept 2 of those cats and named them M&M and Tom.

We thought Tom was a boy. But she wasn't- she appeared to be a girl. Which is kinda funny because our old cat, Rosie, was once thought to be a girl. But that theory was proven incorrect when the time came to get her "fixed". Ken Weiers, the local animal fixer in Barthel, SK discovered the fact when he was about to sterilize Rosie. Rosie was actually a boy- or at least she was before Ken got a hold of him, rather- it.

So, we used to have "Rosie the boy cat" and now we have "Tom the Girl cat".

That was, until today...

Today we found Tom the Girl cat doing things that appeared quite "boyish". Sharlene took a bit of a shock, turned the cat over on it's back, and pronounced Tom a boy cat- again. Immediately she dispensed me to the vet before our newly discovered boy cat became a deadbeat dad cat...

So off we went, Jacob and I, to our favourite vet. I don't think he's the best vet, but he's good enough for us. Anyway, I went in, told them about our boy cat problems, and lack of desire for more kittens, and promptly gave the nice lady some money to surgically alter Tom the boy cat (macho in Spanish) into a lesser man- and more of an it. Across his cat carrier was masking tape with "Tom - Castracion". Something twinged deep inside me.

We were told to return at 4:00pm. But after living in Mexico for 3 years and watching the surprise on peoples faces when we actually show up on time- We decided not to go back till 5:00pm. Much to our surprise the first thing the new nice lady behind the counter said was "Tom was not a 'macho'- she is a girl". OH! I said semi-surprised. We thought so til today when she started doing boy cat things. She is one very confused cat (very likely to do with an absent father, a young mother and being named "Tom".)

This news was not utterly surprising, because up until noon today, we'd thought Tom was a girl, so now things were back to normal.

"Normal" will have to wait because "Tom the newly rediscovered girl cat" was still heavily under the influence of anesthesia. The "Doctor" assured me that she would come out of it in about an hour and a half- about 6:30pm.

She is on her way to recovery, but "out of it" is precisley what she is not. This poor cat is wobbling around the house, if she moves at all. Just before we were getting ready to go to bed Shar went looking for "Tom the gender confused cat" only to find the poor furball kind of lieing down with his head hovering over his food bowl, but without eating. As if to be saying "wow... look at all the pretty colours... and shapes... coooool..."

Now I don't know much about cat psychology, but I am certainly wondering if "Tomisita" asked for a couple extra hits of anesthesia when "he" found out she was a "she" again. I can imagine the confusion that must have been going through her poor mind at the moment of discovery... bad home life,given a boys name, discovered she was a girl a few months later, then declared a boy and sent to have her "de-machoed"and then redisovers her girlness just before the knife extracts her femininity once again.

It must be tough to be "Tom the sterilized, confused, heavily intoxicated girl cat..."

As I finish this, Tom has stumbled 5 feet into the dining room where he has passed out with is head in his hands.

Let's hope tomorrow is a better day for Tom.

Sleep well, my friend.