One Car

Andrew has put a deposit down on a car. We are to pick it up on Friday or Saturday. It needed to have its registration plates changed. I will add a photo to this post when we get the car.

Thanks for your prayers. This is a weight off our minds. Please keep praying that we find a suitable ministry vehicle. In theory it will be harder to find but it's in God's hands so we know we will find it in His time.

Last Sunday

We phoned the Pastor, Miguel Romero, in the morning to find out what time the service starts at. We found out that the leaders gather at 9.30am for prayer. We rushed over (it took 45mins in the car to get there) and arrived in time for the start of Sunday school at 10.15am (Sunday school is for the whole church and classes are divided by age group - children and adults). The service followed and then there was a lunch. It's the same program every week. We got home by about 3.30pm.

Sunday will be a busy day but there is a crèche where Tabitha can sleep. We are excited. The church has grown from about 30 members last year (following a split) to about 110 at present. We look forward to sitting under Miguel's ministry and the church members were very welcoming. We hope to meet with Miguel at some point this week to chat about how we will be involved.

Back to the Streets

Mike Berkeley, the British Director for OMS is here at the moment visiting the field. He has been visiting other places on the way and has yet another stop to make before he returns home.

He went yesterday to the streets with Andrew. With all the catching up we have been doing with Fidel and Alex and Paty, as well as all the settling in with getting the house ready and looking for cars and missionary retreat, it was Andrew's first trip to the streets since we got back.

They went with Fidel to 2 different groups. Andrew said that one of the groups had a lot more younger kids which is always a worry. It was his first exposure since our return to the 'street' Spanish which will take some adjusting to. He learnt a new word (which the street kids use to describe someone who is posh). It's always wise to pass words that the street kids teach you through someone you trust. As expected the word is one to forget - it's considered very rude outside of the street culture.

It was good for Andrew to get back to the streets. Today he's back at the house finishing the painting, cleaning and waiting for the carpets to be laid and the washing machine to be delivered. Tomorrow we will move our furniture in and on Friday our bed will be delivered so that is when we hope to move in. All in good time to unpack boxes etc. before Andrew starts his Spanish classes on Monday. Pray for his stamina and that he won't get sick (with stomach bugs or headaches).

Sandra and Adán

Not last Sunday but the Sunday before Sandra and her partner Umberto dedicated their second child, Adán, in the Santa Monica church. They vowed to teach Adán the scriptures, to accompany him to church, to pray etc.
This seems like a huge step for an ex-street kid to take. Please pray that God will enable them to fulfill the vows they have taken and that they will grow spiritually themselves through personal study and their integration into the Santa Monica church.

Tabitha's love of babies is superceded by her love of balloons but here we are with baby Adán and his big sister Samanta.

Sickness

I think I am getting over a tummy bug. We are still living with the MacKinnons and Robin and I have both been feeling off with stomach cramps and the like. We don't think it was something we ate.

The reason for telling you is that when I don't feel too great (about 3 times since we left home for me!) I am always encouraged to know that you are praying. I always claim those prayers and have definitely experienced God answer them.

It is so encouraging to know that you are praying for our settling in here and for our health and safety (as well as everything else). Please be encouraged that it is making a difference, even in the little things. Now that I feel a little better I can update the blog and start to write our prayer letter. Thanks for being part of the team.

Carol (it's usually me who writes the blog entries)

Shipping News

We were delighted to hear that the stuff we had shipped from home is finally due to arrive this evening. We have been waiting patiently for it for a while.

I phoned the Air France office to check when it would be possible to pick it up only to discover that we can't pick it up. We don't have access to the customs area where it will come in. We need to find a 'Customs Agent' to help us. Of course that will cost money!

So I phoned a customs agent who told me that we will need a letter and other documentation (I'm still waiting for the email to tell me exactly what) and that it will cost about 6000 pesos (£300) for his services. Of course that is a completely unexpected fee and one that we are unwilling to pay (we've already paid for shipment!).

Thankfully there is a member in one of the OMS churches who used to work in customs and has contacts there. He seems to be hard to get a hold of. Please pray that this issue will be resolved.

Our house!

Painting is well and truly underway. We will go a pick carpets later today and we should hopefully move in some time next week. Today we were in the house with the MacKinnons and a neighbour who overheard the kids playing came over to introduce himself and offer his help in any way he could. What a lovely welcome!

Agustin

Yesterday we finally got the keys to our new house and Andrew went down to do some painting. I phoned to see how he was getting on to find out that he had gone to the hospital! Agustin is one of the guys from a group called Politecnico who is trying to get off the streets. He has been living near the Santa Monica church (where the current MEFI group is based) but has returned to the streets from time to time.

Last week he ran back to the streets with 100 pesos (about £5) which he had borrowed from a church member. It turns out he felt bad that he wasn't contributing his fair share to the rent and was going to use the 'borrowed' money to help pay. Instead he returned to the streets where he was treated incredibly badly by the other kids in his group. His 2 friends that he had been living with went and found him and took him to hospital. He was discharged the next day though he was in no condition to leave. Alex took him back and he was prescribed some drugs but when they presented the prescription at the pharmacy it turned out to be a made up drug which doesn't exist.

Alex took Agustin to another hospital where he was treated very well (perhaps the first one has seen too many street kids). He was now ready for discharge and Andrew went to pay the hospital fees.

Agustin was told that his heart could give in at any point and especially if he goes back to the drugs and that it is a miracle he is alive. But God has a purpose for his life! His 2 friends have demonstrated forgiveness and he is living with them again.

Keep praying for Agustin. Breaking the addiction of the streets is not easy. Pray for the demonstration of God's power in his life and for a successful re-integration into society.

The painting has since been resumed!

The Doctor

For the second time! Ethan and I like going to see the doctor together. Last time Ethan had an infection in his ears and I had a throat infection. This time he got the all clear and I got my MMR injection. I like the Doctor - he gives me lollies! It's all in a days work for our mummies (last time it took 5 hours!) but I think they enjoy going to the Doctor's together too!

Nearly...

Well we thought we had a car...but it didn't work out. We liked a Ram Charger because it would be useful for the ministry and it had plenty of seats inside too. Also it didn't look as rich as some of the other cars of that size.

So we lined up the finance and documentation etc. and called a mechanic friend to come and look at it (an evenings work to pick him up, take him to the car and take him home - getting around here takes forever!). Thankfully we did though as he identified a problem with the engine that would take £1000 to fix!

So we're just about back to square one. There is another Ram Charger that we were looking at and our mechanic friend is going to keep a look out for cars for us as well.

Keep praying - this is frustrating but God's timing is perfect!

The Social Ministry Centre

We finally were able to get down to see the developments in the Social Ministry Centre over the last year. Part of the building has been re-modelled thanks to a team from the States and Paul Weeks from Canada. It was amazing to see the building being used. Kids are making things for selling and using the money to keep themselves off the streets. They are also keeping clean there and most importantly some are being discipled in their new faith. Some kids are well integrated into the Unifam church in Santa Monica and others who are beginning the process are in drug rehab and already beginning to testify to the friends in their groups. God is good!

We have also heard of so many kids, especially from the Indios Verdes group (Frijol's group) who have died over the year. We just heard since we got back of three more. In fact, there is no longer an Indios Verdes group. They have merged with a group a few metres up the road called Linda Vista. Though numbers were depleted through death they have been increased by new street kids joining them. There is still so much work to be done.

Donated clothes waiting to be dispensed to needy kids
The unmodelled side of the Centre is being used as a workshop
Pictures being mounted in Mexican style
The remodelled eating/gathering area
We were intrigued at the ingenuity of the team who were able to find ways to cut costs. Check out this plastic bucket designer sink!

Still Looking...

We're so thankful that we found a house so quickly. Unfortunately it hasn't been so easy to find a car. We are looking for a ministry vehicle and a little car to run around in. Either they are too old (cars older than 10 years are prohibited from circulating one day a week) or they are too new and expensive.

Last time we were here God wonderfully provided a ministry vehicle which is still incredibly useful and was really inexpensive. Please keep praying that we will find something suitable soon. We don't want to waste lots of time on this and have already spent quite a bit of time looking.

Thanks for your prayers. We will let you know when we find the car!

La Loma

We have just heard that in a couple of weeks we will be attending the church in La Loma. The church in Santa Monica (where we were last year) is doing fantastically well. There are so many people there who are new since our last term. Alex and Paty are doing a great job with the MEFI team in the church as well.

The La Loma church may sound familiar to those of you who know Jonathan and Lupita Morton (Jonathan is our boss). Jonathan planted and pastored the church before handing it over to Mexican leadership and moving to Santa Monica.

It is now pastored by the National President of Unifam (the church denomination we are working with), Miguel Romero.

We are looking forward to getting plugged in there and we keep you posted as to what we get involved in.

A house!

Andrew has been looking all over the areas where we would like to live for a house. We went to see a couple of options but the first house was far too big and the second was far too small. We weren't too disappointed as we know that God has the perfect place planned for us.

Yesterday we went to look at another house and fell in love with it. It is in a lovely safe and quiet neighbourhood. We asked so many of you to pray that we would find a place with a garden and we shouldn't be surprised but God has answered above what we could think or imagine - the house not only has two gardens but it also has a lime tree, a fig tree and a raspberry bush as well as Andrew's favourite climbing plant. We will be able to see Tabitha playing in the back garden from the study and the kitchen - the two places we are most likely to be! It comes in below budget and is close to the bus route.

We also went looking for a car but didn't find what we were looking for. Last time we went to a huge market and the car we bought stood out a mile from the others as the car God had provided for us. Andrew will return to the same market tomorrow with Fidel. The car is out there - we just have to find it!

Temporary Accomodation

For the moment we are living with the MacKinnon family. We helped them to settle in when they arrived in Mexico in the summer of 2005 and they became great friends. We have really been looking forward to seeing them again.

The kids are all having a great time getting to know each other and playing together. Tabitha has never played outside so much. We have to constantly watch her as she loves to explore and at her age everything is explored by mouth! If we thought we had to do a lot of washing before the amount has just increased as all the crawling outside makes for dirty clothes very fast!

It has just been wonderful to know that we can stay here while we look for our own place to live and we have plenty of time to catch up on the last year.

Arrival in Mexico

We left Indianapolis as the snow was beginning to fall. We had arrived in plenty of time but the luggage allowance was different from the arrangement between the UK + US so we had to pay to get Tabitha's bag on board. We travelled with Esther Lawson, a fellow missionary who had been on cross-training with us. The plane was delayed and held back by headwinds and consequently we had 15 mins to run across Houston airport with bags and baby. Esther ran ahead and managed to persuade the staff to keep the doors open for us. We were last on the plane and felt sure that our bags would never make it. We were delighted to hear the announcement that said, "We have decided to wait until all the bags are loaded so you will all arrive in Mexico with your bags!" As our hearts recovered and our faces calmed from fiery red to their normal colour Tabitha made friends with the Mexican lady sitting beside us and spent half the flight sitting on her knee!

We arrived in Mexico and were surprised and incredibly relieved to find that there was no queue for immigration. Esther once again went ahead of us (we had to hand in our old Visas - something we had overlooked on our departure last time) and was waiting with all our bags by the time we got to the baggage belt.


We had a welcome party waiting for us - 2 missionaries, 4 of the MEFI team and 3 ex-street kids. It was wonderful to not have to carry our bags for a while! We were taken to the missionaries' house for something to eat and eventually to the home where we have been staying where we rolled into bed!

Cross Training

We arrived in to a cold Indianapolis airport in the evening of the 11th January. The next three weeks were packed full of interesting and useful material. Though we have spent over a year in Mexico City it was useful to hear about cross-cultural issues. We also looked at developing good relationships e.g. through learning good listening techniques, encouragement, conflict resolution etc.

The middle week was spent analysing a couple of tests we had taken. The first identified our working styles, interests and stressors. It was totally enlightening and as well as identifying them for ourselves it was an insight into how others work and how we need each other. It is also useful to know what could cause us stress, how we might deal with it and how we can deal with it better. The object of the second test was to identify our spiritual gifts and how we work in a team and what kind of people we need in our team.

The third week was learning more about cross-cultural adaptation, the ministries and theology of OMS and putting some of what we had learned into practice in a couple of short exercises.

It was wonderful to have the chance to work through some of the issues and meet people who are supporting us from HQ and doing such a great job while we are on the field.

We also had the opportunity to share at the morning worship time on one occasion. It was quite daunting when we considered the many people with years of missionary experience sitting in front of us. At the same time though we weren't made to feel intimidated and felt very much a part of the family.


Tabitha was looked after by Heidi Walton who is an OMS missionary who used to work with her husband, Carl, in the OMS office in Manchester. She did a fantastic job with Tabitha who was very fond of her. Tabitha learned loads of new tricks and had a great time meeting missionaries all day and who knows what else!