Family update

This week Oscar learned that not all experiences are pleasant - he got his first 2 vaccinations and blood was taken for routine tests. He was very brave, particularly for the blood sampling and we should get the results for that this week.We went to another place to try and get his vaccination card but they had run out for the month as well! This doesn't really concern us too much - it's not urgent. What is, and what we would really appreciate prayer for is the birth certificate. We finally met the lady who is sorting it for us yesterday. All was going well until she told us that we had to get someone from the City centre to say that we were living in their house. We had been asked to get a bill from somewhere in the centre and had asked Miguel and Guille (our pastor and his wife) for that. As you can imagine we did not want to have to ask them to lie and say we lived in their home. We told the lady we couldn't do it and offered her some money for taking the time to help us. We asked her what we might need to take to the office to register Oscar. She told us how it is in the centre but said that it might be different where we live and that it would be harder as foreigners to get people to help as there is a lot more paperwork involved than for Mexicans. Then miraculously she said that she understood our predicament and that she would try and get the document without using a bill or needing anyone to state that we lived with them! So Oscar was officially welcomed as a citizen of Mexico City, his thumb print taken and we're hoping to have his birth certificate by Tuesday or Wednesday this week. Please pray that the lady will be able to get the document and that God will honour us for taking a stand for what is right. Pray to that the lady will have been impacted by our decision.

This week we gave thanks for Tabitha who celebrated her 2nd birthday. If you go to the family blog (link on the right) you can see more photos and a short video. She was so excited! It was a lot of fun for us. We had a party with our missionary family and the theme was Dora the Explorer. Two years seems to have flown by. We appreciate your prayers as we seek to encourage and instruct her in the 'way she should go' in the short time that we have.

Weekly ministry report

This week Andrew was able to work a little more from home. So he spent quite a bit of time on the phone and meeting with various people.

Yesterday he went back to Mex-i-Kids at La Loma. The numbers have been sitting steadily at around 50 while the English course has been going on. There are just 2 weeks left and then the kids will be invited to special service at the church on the Sunday where they will get certificates and there will be a cake. Please be praying for that service, that many parents will come along and that through it they will be incorporated into the church. Pray too that the good attendance will continue. Please continue to pray for committed leaders for the club. Yesterday there were just 2 Mexicans with the kids working alongside Robin, Julie and Andrew.

Next week Andrew will visit the club down south. The pastor phoned this week and is very excited. The leaders are happy and excited to be involved. They too have about 50 kids a week without any advertising and the most exciting news is that 3 new families are attending the church as a result of the club. That's a big deal for a little church of about 20-30 people that meets under a gazebo in a patio!

Next week also sees the first Mex-i-Kids club start in Tultitlan. Jonny and Julie Pollock will be involved in that club. The pastor and the director have put together a very organised program and if the other leaders have half the enthusiasm that they have it will be very exciting. Pray that as kids will be excited as they come for the first time, that they will feel welcome and enjoy their time on Saturday morning. Pray for the clear presentation of the gospel in each of the clubs, not only through the teaching but also through the example and love of the people serving.
The extended Agnew family was back at La Loma today. As you can see from the photos Oscar got a lot of attention. Tabitha was a little taken aback but soon she was running around as usual and having a great time too.

A new visitation team was also announced and prayed for today. Pray for these ladies as they begin to visit families from the church. Pray especially for wisdom as they give counsel in many different and probably complicated situations.Starting this week Andrew plans to spend every Friday at La Loma helping wherever he can with the pastor. This Friday there is a half night of prayer. It starts at 7pm and finishes at 1.30am with a snack! The adults meet upstairs in the main sanctuary and the kids have their own prayer time downstairs! We love the emphasis placed on the kids work at La Loma. Now on a Sunday they have their own service downstairs with age appropriate songs and teaching. We are excited as we see new people coming to the church every week and as we see it growing in number and as people are soft and open to the teaching each week.

This weekend another team is coming from Ardmore. The plan is to lay the new cement floor in the Drop-In Centre and thankfully everything is ready for them. The team contacted a cement company here in Mexico and spoke with the director. He was very interested in the project and put José in touch with an agent here in Mexico City. It turns out the agent is a Christian and so Andrew is to meet with him this week to see how the company can help by giving the cement free or by providing tools to do the job! It's just wonderful to see how God can amaze us with His incredible provision. Pray for Steve who was due to come down on the team but has had to cancel as he has a two clots in his lungs. Pray that they will be successfully removed and for a quick recovery for Steve.

Please pray too for José and Viki (not their real names), the couple who recently had a baby. They aren't getting along too well and José has been breaking his part of the contract while expecting Proyecto MEFI to keep providing all he wants. He has amazing potential but we need to see a lot more commitment on his part.

We're praising God for the progress made by Julia (again, not her real name) who we asked prayer for as far back as April last year. She was the girl whose photo we posted who looked really terrible. She went to rehab but after almost 6 months returned to the streets again. She has been back in a different rehab centre (where we have really good connections with the director) and is doing amazingly well. She could leave but she wants to stay until her boyfriend finishes too. Alex and Paty are encouraging them to get married! Her big fear is what will happen when she leaves. She told Paty (who she calls 'mum') that she has no family to go to and she definitely doesn't want to go back to the streets. Of course Proyecto MEFI will help her but please pray that she will adapt well to a new environment, that she will be strong enough to resist going back to the streets and that she will grow in her faith.

Family Progress

I'll go through each family member one by one. It's been a different week for all of us!

Andrew has enjoyed the change of being at home this week. There have been a few necessary work phone calls but for the most part he has been chief nappy (diaper) changer, dish washer, laundry man, hooverer etc. He'll be looking forward to getting back to work eventually I'm sure! This week he will begin to pick up some work from home. Please pray that he will know how much/little to take on and have the energy that he needs despite the interrupted nights.

It's been just wonderful for me to have Andrew around this week. At the start of the week I was pretty immobile and the wound was very painful but it's amazing how much healing can happen in a week and this evening we were able to go for a short family walk. The doctor was happy with progress yesterday so all is well.

Tabitha is adjusting well. She does require a little more attention but she loves her little brother and makes sure to give him kisses before she goes to bed. She has been a little more unsettled and putting her down to bed is a little more challenging at times. This morning she was in our room quite a few times around 3am before a bottle of milk finally settled her down! Please keep praying for her complete adjustment and for us as we seek to keep her entertained and assured of our love.
Oscar is such a blessing. He is sleeping well and if we time his evening feeds right he is only up once in the night between 11pm and 6.30am! His first doctor's appointment went well and he has only lost 3lbs in his first week. Andrew has had some trouble getting his vaccination card. He went to the appropriate hospital but the office was closed. The next morning they told him they didn't have any cards and sent him to another place. There he was told we would have to go back on Wednesday morning at 6.30am and take Oscar with us and that they would give him his first injections. Andrew was not impressed by the cleanliness of the place so that won't happen. We are going to the clinic where he was born tomorrow and he will get his BCG (Tuberculosis vaccination) and his first Hepatitis B. We think we can go to another place and get his vaccination card with less trouble but it will be good to have it in our hands. Please pray that it will work out.

The lady who is going to help us get the Mexican birth certificate told us she would pick up our forms from us tomorrow. It should take her a week to get the certificate. Again we would appreciate your prayers that that would go smoothly.

Thanks for all your messages of congratulations. It's been so lovely to hear from each of you. We are so thankful for God's rich blessings in our lives.

Drop-In Centre Progress

This week the work has continued at the Drop-In Centre but it has slowed down towards the end of the week as the next job to be done is the laying of the floor which the next team that comes down will do. The room building, kitchen and bathroom fitting will be done by a different team of workers which will save the ministry about £2000 ($4000)!

During the week the support columns were put into the back wall...
The cistern was put in place and a cement 'lid' put on



The place is ready for the new floor to be laid.
Hopefully it won't be too long before the work is completed and the doors can be opened to the street kids once again.

He's here!

Thank you for all your prayers. Let us introduce you to Oscar Stewart Agnew. Born on Friday 8th February 2008. 7lbs 11ozs and 52cms long. Mum and baby both doing really well and glad to be home already. There are lots more photos and video if you click on Tabitha's name down the right hand side of this page. We'll follow up with more info later.

A hole...

The main project at the Drop-In Centre this week was the digging of this hole. It's out the back in the newly formed patio area and will be the home of a 15,000 litre cistern! That should keep the showers running for a while! We had hoped to avoid the expense of having to put in such a big tank but went with the recommendation of the professionals.
We also found out that the wall at the back of the building is too unstable and will need to be properly supported with proper foundations.

Thanks to the team from First Waco for lending a hand this week with some manual work and also for coming out to the breakfast club.

Encouragement and new possibilities

English does attract people! Here are the signs outside the church. The blue one announces the breakfast club and the red one the English classes. Six hundred flyers were also handed out in the area advertising the class...
...and 50 kids turned up. There were many new faces which was encouraging. Pray that these kids will return and bring even more with them next week.
Robin and Julie did a great job teaching the kids to say, "What is your name? My name is_____, Nice to meet you, hello and goodbye." No pens or paper needed and the kids seemed to have fun. Perhaps for next week we will divide the kids into two groups by age. The class was followed by a 10 minute lesson and some songs. It was the first time for the girl who gave the lesson and she did a great job. Please continue to pray for committed leaders and for a suitable person to take over the co-ordination of the club. We have a great bunch of teenagers who come along to help every week but we'd really love to see a few more adults with the same commitment.
The Mex-i-Kids co-ordinator from Jonny and Julie's church came to visit again. They plan to start the breakfast club in 2 weeks and we will meet with her on Tuesday to plan out finer details. We were so encouraged to be handed a 4 page document from the church outlining the reason for having the club, the aims and objectives, the structure and plans etc. Pray for the team at Tultitlan and that the breakfast clubs there will reach many kids and their families for Christ.

As these new breakfast clubs open and current ones grow in size we have been so encouraged by news from home that God has been moving people to donate financially. If you have been involved then thank you. It is so incredible to see these little kids come in week after week. Pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to work changing these lives and the communities.

We had another of the pastors over for lunch this week and were interested to hear that his team feel the real need in their area, and a tool for evangelism would be to have seminars for women with depression. Now that is something we have absolutely no experience in but there are people in the church who would love to give the course. We would love to support the program and having talked with others it seems that it could be well received in more of the churches.

Tomorrow Andrew will go back out to the church at Cualtitlan Izcalli. We have previously mentioned a ministry in that church that helps ladies in crisis. It is celebrating one year of operation tomorrow and Andrew has been invited to go along. There is a psychologist in the church who has trained a bunch of ladies who take telephone calls each evening. The psychologist's wife is a counsellor who specialises in sex abuse cases and both have done interviews with ex-street kids who are currently working at the Drop-In Centre.

Although Social Ministries hasn't been involved with the ministry to ladies in crises from the start and isn't regularly supporting it financially we are excited at how God is using it to bring ladies into the church and how they are being won for Him. Again, this may be a ministry that could be done in other churches for God's glory.

Still here?

We're still just over a week away from the due date but it's the question on everyone's lips (including ours!). Baby seems quite happy to stay put for now. We're all ready though when it decides the time is right. I have another doctor's appointment tomorrow.

We appreciate your prayers in these last few days before the birth. Yes, I'm a little nervous about the whole experience but I think I would be at home too. We are at the same time excited to meet the new Agnew and can't wait to show the photos on the blog. It will be interesting to see how Tabitha reacts. For the moment she thinks that everything is hers and is not too interested in anything baby. Of course it's all abstract for her at the moment and it will be different when the baby is actually here in person.

We appreciate your prayers for my health and that of the baby. We are still fairly busy in the work which means that time is flying by but also we get tired quite quickly. Pray especially for the ongoing work at the Drop-In Centre and La Loma, that the leaders will be able to carry the load when we can't be there. Obviously we appreciate your prayers for a safe delivery...eventually!

Team Unity

From time to time we have asked prayer for unity in the Proyecto MEFI team. While we were back in Britain for a year there were issues that had to be dealt with and we have been really encouraged at how the team has been gelling together, especially as they are all together quite a bit of the time in the Drop-In Centre. The work with street kids is a battle and that's in the spiritual realm too. There have been so many encouragements in the work and it keeps us on the alert for the enemy's attack.

Last Monday it became obvious that there was at least one issue that needed to be brought into the open. Andrew immediately called a meeting with the whole team. After reiterating once again the respect he has for each member of the team and the work they are all doing he encouraged them to put their cards on the table. The conversation opened up and many things were cleared up. What is encouraging is that forgiveness was sought and offered. Once again the air is clear but it seems that trouble is easily stirred up. We continue to ask for team unity.

The Proyecto MEFI team is incredible. We are so thankful to God for giving us people who have a call to the work, a love for the kids and vision for the future. Please pray for openness and transparency even in the little things and that small wounds won't be given time to fester. It is likely that there will be a weekly meeting on Mondays where team members will be expected to voice any grievance they might have against another team member. Pray for Andrew's continued wisdom and boldness as he lovingly confronts these issues. Praise God with us for the fantastic team and pray against the enemy's attempts to drive a wedge between individuals.