Last week

Andrew was busy with the team most days last week. There were some very long days and a lot of driving in the heavy traffic. We will try and get some pictures this week of the Drop-In Centre. Tiling is well underway and some of the painting has been done too.

On the streets the Cosslett team encountered a fight in Niños Heroes. Andrew feels that since we have been concentrating so much in the last year on the drop-in-centre there is much prayer needed before we hit the streets again soon. Please pray with us for the groups that we work with. Pray that even now the Holy Spirit will be moving ahead of us, for softening of hearts and for a warm reception from groups.

Many this week were glad to see Fidel again, especially the group in Baranca del Muerto who listened very well indeed. From this group one was going on a trek across the city to find his girlfriend and child. It sounds as though he is ready for a change and even to leave the streets for good. Another guy who used to hang out with the group there but has come off the streets wanted to meet us too and is interested in staying in touch. He may be a very good person to get to know more about since he was obviously a guy whom most had a lot of respect for.

As the rainy season continues we woke up one morning to find our laden lime tree all toppled over after a pretty wild storm. We're not sure what happened but it's back up now and continues to provide us and lots of friends with hundreds of limes.

I had a meeting to begin to think about MOPS. Please pray as Guille and I consider who to invite onto the leadership team. The actual meetings won't begin until into the new year but the leadership team will meet fairly frequently quite soon.

I also had our first meeting of the Mex-i-Kids leadership on Saturday. The meeting lasted for three hours! It was really good for the ladies to share how their clubs run, share ideas, encourage one another and look ahead together.

Please pray for Irma in Chalco (down south). We were all touched as she told us about their club. The church in Chalco has about 25-30 members. It was about to be closed but then Irma and her husband Cesar met Andrew and with the help of Social Ministries funding Mex-i-Kids was started. Between 40 and 80 kids attend on Saturday mornings. None of the church members can help on Saturday mornings as they have to work in the market. That means that they have helpers from the parent church (Cesar pastors both). It is a 90min journey each way on public transport. There are just 6 helpers, three of whom are Irma, her husband and her daughter. Irma prepares all the food on Friday night. She didn't know how to cook before starting Mex-i-Kids so she learned what she needed to know and prayed hard every week that no-one would get sick! In the past Irma found herself running a club for 100 kids all by herself. Seeing the potential of kids ministry she sought training. She is an incredibly humble and capable lady. With such a small team of workers they can't advertise. Irma explained that once they ran a special event for kids. They put out publicity and prepared for 200 kids. 450 kids arrived! The potential there is huge. Please pray for labourers for the harvest.

Tultitlan is by far the most organised club. They have a director, a supervisor (who monitors quality) and a co-ordinator (who keeps the program moving). There are 21 helpers in total who meet together on Wednesdays and Fridays to pray and plan. Leadership training is also soon to commence. Please pray with them that they will reach their goal of 150 kids by December. Currently they are ministering to about 40-50 kids a week.

And you already know lots about La Loma. Please pray for Janette, the new leader, who is going through a particularly difficult time with respect to family and finances.

All clubs are seeing fruit for their labours. Kids are coming to know Christ and new families are attending the churches. In Chalco Irma is particularly encouraged by all the mums who are attending and hearing the gospel though the club.

This week the music teams from La Loma and Tultitlan will get together to co-ordinate songs and actions. Perhaps one day in the future we will have a united Mex-i-Kids service...or a camp... We all need to have the same actions for songs. Andrew will co-ordinate that meeting. I will be working on putting together a manual which the leadership team will edit and approve. The manual will provide all the necessary information for new groups wanting to start (as God provides the finances). The next leadership meeting will be in October.

Health

This week I was at the doctors. It seems my intestine is struggling (possibly due to the parasite but I didn't have any tests done to identify that I had it) and somehow that is connected to low blood pressure which has been giving me various symptoms. So Andrew and I are both on medication and watching what we eat so that our digestive systems have the best chance to recover but I think as each day goes by we are feeling better. Thanks for your continued prayer for us.

Mex-i-Kids

The continuation of last week's story is that we had a great meeting with the director of the breakfast club in Tultitlan. Being released from some of the responsibility at La Loma I will be able to dedicate some time to the unification of the 3 clubs currently in operation and together the leaders will be able to prepare a model for churches which want to start a club.

This weekend we have a meeting in our house with the club leaders and the following week we have a meeting with the song leaders to co-ordinate the songs used and their actions. These meetings will hopefully be a great forum for sharing ideas and resources and for encouraging the leaders in the work. Praise God once again for a role which I can fulfill around the schedule of our children.

Teamwork

'The Cosslett Team' arrived on Monday. Once again Proyecto MEFI is blessed to have 5 great people to help out and to see the ministry first hand. Steve Cosslett who is leading the team is married to Helen who first introduced us to Mexico and Fidel a long time ago. We are hoping that they will join us here in Mexico before too long with little Nisha.

Check out their website by clicking here.

As the person responsible for the team on the field Andrew has been busy driving them around, showing them the ministry and working alongside them. He did manage to get a little time off on Friday afternoon. We love having teams. They are a lot of fun and encouragement and such a blessing for us and the ministry but the work is intense. Please continue to pray for Andrew's stamina as he fits in his usual responsibilities around his time with the team. Praise God for the team and pray that He will speak to each member during their time here.

Gotcha!

So when the medicine didn't resolve the problem Andrew decided to have tests done to try and get to the root of it. Turns out that he had a nasty parasite called Giardia. Treatment was another 3 day course of medicine to get rid of the bug and other medication to rebuild his intestine. Reading the symptoms I figured I should take the medicine too (it could do no harm).

So we are thankfully feeling a lot better and will perhaps be staying away from salad for a while! Thanks for your prayers.

Sadly the MacKinnon kids developed nasty throat infections this week. Antibiotics seemed to resolve the situation but we are thankful that apart from runny noses our kids were good this week. We continue to appreciate your prayers for our health and for our safety as we are out and about.

We could need you...

The little charity shop (thrift store) in Coleraine (Northern Ireland) is always looking for volunteers. Through this amazing ministry support is raised for the work here. This team of people is one of our biggest encouragements. We often think of the team working there and feel like we are working together. The shop team open the door to things that would not otherwise be possible.

If you live nearby and have any free time then please consider being involved. There are loads of ways you could help e.g. lifting furniture, manning the shop on a rota, ironing clothes etc. etc. Please leave a comment or email us if you think you can help and we will put you in touch with the appropriate people.

Fiesta!

Yesterday we had a big event to re-launch Mex-i-Kids. We had a bouncy castle, trampoline, games with prizes, face painting etc. There were just under 100 kids and some parents. We had some great conversations. Pray particularly for a guy called Guillermo (William) who described himself as an atheist. He has seen a huge change in some neighbours who attend the church and have become Christians. We had a long chat. Pray that God will open his spiritual eyes to the truth of the gospel and to his need of Him.

This morning we had a planning meeting for the new term. The mood is excited and committed. Pray with us for great things this term!

Ministry Changes

Children's ministry has always been something that Andrew and I have loved. Since we have been together we have worked well as a team in that area. In all that goes on here it has been such a joy to set up Mex-i-Kids in La Loma and to then see it spread to other areas. Just this week we heard of another Mex-i-Kids that will probably be opening. It isn't even in an UNIFAM church and we have never been to it but the daughter and son-in-law of our pastor go there and they want to run the club as a follow-up to their own Holiday Bible Club (VBS).

As a missionary mum I am so blessed to have some support here. Fellow missionaries are happy to babysit and are more than capable. Tabitha and Oscar love their missionary Tios and Tias (aunts and uncles in Spanish). I'm also blessed to have Robin, mum of four, with an incredibly similar outlook on the area of ministry and family.

Recently I have felt a growing pressure in the area of my involvement in Mex-i-Kids particularly for the stress it is obviously putting Tabitha under. It all came to a head one morning just before we went home on HMA. Andrew was away so I went to Mex-i-Kids with mum (who was visiting) and the kids. As I talked to the kids and did my organisational duties I had Tabitha hanging off my leg (Mum was attending to Oscar). Eventually in a moment of utter frustration she stood in the middle of the room and let out a blood curdling scream. The room instantly went quiet and time stood still for a bit.

Apart from the frustration of always being petted and carried (mentioned last week) there is the problem of Tabitha's travel sickness (we give her medicine before going to La Loma). Also she just cannot sleep in the nursery there so she gets tired and very grumpy. Saturday and Sunday are two long days for both kids. The bottom line is that at this stage of our family life Mex-i-Kids is not the best ministry for us all to be involved in.

As I have been praying about this I felt burdened about a ministry that could work alongside family life. A couple of years ago Robin started a ministry in her church called MOPS (Mothers of pre-schoolers). I asked her what she thought about the possibility of stating a group in La Loma. What I am about to write is an incredible story of how God was at work way ahead of me planning the way and how He has confirmed without a shadow of a doubt that this is His will.

Robin excitedly told me that she had felt God burdening her to start MOPS in another church. Before I even went to her she had gone to the leadership group of the MOPS in her church and shared that burden. The girls are more than prepared to lead their MOPS forward and just this week voted in a new co-ordinator. They told Robin that they would gladly help to train a Mexican team in the new area.

We had a meeting this week with our pastor and his wife in our home. I discussed the problem of co-ordinating Mex-i-Kids and suggested MOPS. In fact both were excited as they have been talking about starting a MOPs group. Some ladies have even been approached. There is a huge need for MOPS in the church and even this morning as I looked around the congregation I saw many young mums. There are also several young mums who would be great on the leadership team.

There was just one more area to cover. Who could take over my role in Mex-i-Kids. Miguel and Guille suggested someone who might be interested though she is going through a difficult situation at the moment. We spoke to her yesterday and as I explained the situation and what we were asking her to do her response was amazing. "It's like God is telling you what to say," she said. "I have felt Him telling me to be more involved in ministry but I wasn't sure how or where." What a confirmation!

This morning in one of the bible readings at church a verse from Isaiah 25 jumped out. On this mountain (La Loma means the hill and it is probably more of a mountain!) the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples. I thought about the other group of people (young mums) that will be reached through this new ministry and through the food of His word.

So this week I have my first meeting with Guille and Janette. Guille will be the director of Mex-i-Kids and Janette will organise the events. We have asked for prayer for such a person and Janette is a great person. I will be training Janette as far as I can though she will probably have loads of great ideas and ways of working herself.

I also have a meeting with Robin and Guille to discuss MOPS. We will initially be looking for ladies to form a leadership team with us. After some time of planning and seeing the other group in action we will eventually begin our new group in La Loma. Our first meeting will probably not be before the New Year but there is a lot of work to be done before then.

Andrew will continue to go to Mex-i-Kids at La Loma twice a month. The other 2 weeks he will visit the other 2 Mex-i-Kids groups. We also hope to get more intentional about encouraging the other teams and drawing together leaders to share ideas and resources. This afternoon we have a meeting with the co-ordinator of the Tultitlan group (up north). We will be looking praticularly into training materials.

Structural changes

Since we have returned to Mexico Andrew and Christian (our field leader) have been working on a new idea for Proyecto MEFI. It's very exciting.

Here in Mexico there are established churches called UNIFAM. La Loma, our church, is one of those. There is also a church planting organisation known as Every Community for Christ (ECC). ECC exists in all the OMS fields. Various ECC teams here work in different areas evangelising and running house churches. One such team is based in La Loma and some long-term readers may remember Zoel and his work with families living on dis-used railway lines quite near the church. The plan is to run Proyecto MEFI according to the ECC model. So what changes will take place?

Well eventually what will happen is that the Proyecto MEFI team will be based out of La Loma. Our pastor (and the current president of UNIFAM), Miguel Romero, will be the pastoral supervisor of the Proyecto MEFI team (just as he is of Zoel's team). The Proyecto MEFI team will then be like an ECC team with their focus being the new church plant in La Raza. La Raza is the name of the area where the Drop-In Centre is and so it will maintain its function but will also be the church called UNIFAM La Raza. Church services won't necessarily happen on a Sunday. We are excited about this change and Miguel is a great pastor to be supervising the team. His own testimony is an incredible story of how he was rescued from alcoholism and family breakdown and he has a real love for the ministry.

As the building work nears completion the big question is over who to invite. Please pray for wisdom in that regard. Previously we have invited whole groups and have seen some do well and others not so well. A new idea is to invite leaders from the groups. Working on influential members from a number of groups may impact even more kids. A couple of group leaders have already been asking to be discipled. How exciting!

Continue to pray for the Proyecto MEFI team as it works through the changes. Pray for unity and vision and pray that in all of this God would be glorified, His will be done and His kingdom extended.

Disinfecting and de-bugging!

Well if last week was a high then this week in some respects was a little lower. Just after blogging Andrew's stomach didn't feel so good and the next day we were both miserable. We have been taking medicine all week and although we are feeling somewhat better we still have moments when it seems like the medicine hasn't worked 100%. Thankfully both kids have been fine so it may have been something we ate rather than something we 'caught'!

Some friends recommended that we take medicine to get rid of the infection for 3 days and then to take a course of 'de-bugging' medicine. It's not uncommon for Mexicans to take such a course every 6 months or so. Andrew had only done it once and I hadn't ever done it so it was not before time. So anyway, we'll see how it goes this week but hopefully we'll feel normal again soon! Thanks for your prayers.

Drop-In Centre

A huge thank you to this great team from Foundry, Houston (and José in the middle) who worked so hard all week on the Drop-In Centre. They got within about an hour or so of finishing all the electrical work but ran out of materials at the very end! They also did many other bits and pieces including a lot of plastering work. We can't wait for the work to be finished and for the Centre to be fully operational. There have been so many people involved hands on. This truely is a team effort. This week Alex and Paty will take some time off. Fidel will also take a couple of days but he's waiting until after the next team (which arrives next week) before taking more time off. We will take tomorrow (Monday) off and besides a few meetings Andrew will work mostly from home this week.

Holiday Bible Club (VBS)

The VBS started with a bang on Monday with about 110 kids. At it's peak there were over 150 kids in attendance. The leaders were enthusiastic and excited. Andrew was in charge of the songs which meant picking new songs, inventing actions and doing them in get-together times as well as practicing them in workshops during the mornings. When they were all together the kids would chant for more each time a song ended. Here is a video of clips from the singing. See if you can spot Andrew and the smiles on the kids faces...

On Wednesday Andrew felt exercised to make an invitation at the end of the day. About 60-80 kids responded. (At least that's what it looked like to Andrew when he asked kids to raise their hands before praying.) What does that mean? Well some who responded will have done so many times before, some go to the church week by week and are used to responding to invitations. Without wanting to limit what God was doing at the VBS I would say that 60-80 kids were sensitive to the message of the gospel being preached. Follow up is an extremely important task and we would appreciate your prayers for the follow up program - Mex-i-Kids.

On Saturday Mex-i-Kids will be re-started with a big party. We had a planning meeting for it this morning. If we want the momentum of the VBS to carry on then we need the enthusiasm from the leaders to continue. Unfortunately it seems that that is already waning a little. Saturdays are days that children go to visit relatives or have other clubs to go to, some adults normally work on Saturdays or have other commitments. The exciting thing is that at least 2 or 3 new families were at church this morning as a direct result of the VBS. Andrew and I have always been excited about the potential of kids work. Please pray with us that God will burden the hearts of available people to carry on this amazing work. Pray for committed workers for the harvest.

You must be praying...

It is so overwhelming to be able to report specific answers to prayers requested on the blog. We feel sustained and strengthened by your prayers and are continually built up in our faith in our amazing God who loves to give good things to His children and to see His name glorified in the earth. From the little to the large, nothing is too difficult for Him!

Tabitha continues to settle in to life here. She is much more comfortable being surrounded by Spanish. She still resents being the centre of attention everywhere she goes and the constant petting and carrying she gets. Today I had to go down to the nursery in church to make up a bottle for Oscar and Tabitha was happily playing with her little friend Sawli. Days at church are very long for the kids so I only took them to the Bible Club on Wednesday and Saturday. We continue to appreciate your prayers for wisdom to know what God would have us do day by day and how we can best glorify Him. Perhaps I will elaborate that thought more later.

We got our little car back early in the week. It goes but there is a strange rubbing noise when turning corners so we'll have to take it back to the mechanics this week to try and get that sorted. Last week was too busy to be able to leave it back and Andrew has been driving it all over the place.

Praise God especially for the strength He gave Andrew to be able to get through this busy week without headaches as well.

Transition

The team is here and ready to start work tomorrow (Monday). There has been a lot of progress in the Drop-In Centre. Andrew was delighted by what has happened while we have been away. The Proyecto MEFI team have worked very hard.

After the US team leaves the Proyecto MEFI team (the Mexican part!) will take a week off before another team arrives from the UK to hopefully put finishing touches to the Centre.

Praise God the annual meeting of the church leaders, church planting teams and missionaries went really well. Andrew's report seemed to be well received. There was a real sense of unity.

Tabitha had a blast spending lots of time with the MacKinnons as I helped Robin to pack boxes for their house move on Saturday. It was a great chance for us to have some time to begin to catch up and to make what could potentially be a stressful situation a chance to bless, be blessed and have some fun along the way.

The move took place on Saturday. Andrew was with the team, Margaret was looking after 6 kids (all under the age of 7!), Christian was in the old house with the removal guys and Robin and I were unpacking the kitchen. When we were finished we popped out for a message. We took my little car. We were quite tight for time. As we made our way back to the house my right foot seemed to lose the ability to keep the car moving! With said foot to the floor we managed to make it at about 5 mph to a place where we could pull over. Now here is how God intervenes - we were able to pull in to a spot where we were safe (outside a lovely little park!), we were close to home, we had a mobile (cell) phone (with credit and battery charge!) so we could phone Andrew who had arrived home, we had bought food so we had time to eat it, we had each others company, our kids were happy at home with Margaret... So Andrew came and rescued us. We took his car and he nursed my little car to the garage. We took a back route to the MacKinnons new house which neither of us knew which was potentially a bad idea (but good because of the backed up traffic on the main road). We followed our noses (another bad idea if you know either of us!) and praised God when we took a turn up a very steep hill (which the Clio would have struggled with even at full potential) which led us straight to the MacKinnons road. An eventful afternoon!

So tomorrow my little car will be serviced and hopefully the guys will find out what the problem is and hopefully it won't be too drastic. Andrew will have to go to the Holiday Bible Club on his own as he will go straight to the Drop-In Centre afterwards. Please pray for his stamina this week. It is particularly busy for him as he has that same schedule every day. I'm hoping that the little car won't take long to fix so I can take the kids out for at least a couple of mornings.

We had our first Sunday back in La Loma today. We were given a warm welcome. It really was lovely to see people again and to be a part of the service. Tabitha did well. We have noticed that when people are speaking Spanish she goes very quiet, starts rubbing her 'blankie' and sucking her fingers. Last week we had her surrounded by Spanish in short doses a few times so this morning was her first real test as we left her in the nursery with no English. She seemed to have a great time. We appreciate your prayers as she continues to make the transition back into Spanish again.