Busy Week.....Ojo de Agua!

This week was also the dedication service at Ojo de Agua, the house church we are involved with. It's amazing to see how God has been working to provide a home, a family and blessed it with His presence at meetings of this church and how it has grown. We praise God for this service as many of the members of the Tultitlan church made the journey to encourage their brothers and sisters in Christ. There have also been a few new families that came out to the service and will now attend the house church.

We will be going out each Wednesday to encourage this church, and to pray with them and participate in Bible studies with them as we seek to learn more of God's word. Please pray for this church, as they pray for us as missionaries, pray for our home church at Ballee and for everyone who support us to be here.

Busy Week.....Jorge & Yolanda!

Jorge & his wife Yolanda are the "Hijos de Paz" of the Ojo de Agua church. They have opened their home up as a house church and have been so welcoming to us as we have spent the last couple of weeks with them. We went to their house on Wednesday to share Christ with Jorge's sister and his niece. They said they were "traditional" in their beliefs, and since Jorge & Yolanda had talked with them they began reading the Bible, and wanted Pastor Villanueva to share Christ with them. Jonathan opened the scriptures to them and they said that they had been living their lives in religion, and now wanted a personal relationship with Christ. It was amazing to be with them, even when Jonathan asked me to share my testimony with them. At an hours notice I scribbled down in my best Spanish, and plainly read it out as Julie spent time with the children playing and singing. The two women are now our sisters in Christ and we praise God for Jorge and Yolanda as they have such a heart for evangelism in their family and in the lives of their community. We can rejoice this week at two souls accepting Christ, and we pray, and urge you to pray, that we will see Christ's kingdom advanced further in the next months that we are here.

Busy Week.....Jovenes!

This week we have spoken with the pastor about encouraging the youth at Tultitlan. We are going to sit on a committee of young people as advisors and to pray with them, and they will take leadership of the youth group with shared responsibility. It's amazing as we have so many Godly young people that help out so much in church. They also form a praise team for each service, they asked Julie and I to play and sing with them after the Dedication Service at Ojo de Agua and we obliged - but only in English. We all joined in and had such a great time worshipping. The pastor said we should sing on a Sunday service, but we don't want to be responsible for a mass exodus of the church!!

Please pray for us next Saturday as the Youth Fellowship restarts and we have been invited to share at it, I am to give my testimony and share a message (all in Spanish, Aghhhh!) and we are going to show a Christian film called "Facing The Giants." It's a chance for us to spend some time with the young people and to encourage them as they seek a closer walk with God.

Busy Week....Team Work!

This is a picture of us preparing for the service at Ojo de Agua with our new pastor, Jonathan Villanueva. Jonathan explained he had been praying for someone to come to the church as his wife is expecting their third child and he has lots of work. We had a meal with him after the service on Sunday and he was so thankful that we could be here, and we too are thankful that God has placed a man after His own heart in our church and that we have the priviledge of working with him.

Busy Week.....Wedding!

We were very excited this week at being invited to our first Mexican wedding. The couple are really friendly and Jonny plays football with the groom once a week. It was a real experience and was very different to the weddings at home. The ceremony was excellent and it was amazing to see two members of the church dedicate their marriage to God. We hope that in the months to come we can be of encouragement to this couple and gave them a couple of little gifts from Northern Ireland, something they will probably not find too common over here!

Busy Week.....Dedication

This week has been really busy and we have had some real blessed times in our new church! We were so priviledged to be invited to so many special occaisions and we feel so much part of the family of our new church. This picture was at the dedication of a little baby girl, and her mum and dad wanted to bring her to the front of the church to dedicate her to Christ. The pastor spoke about how important to bring families up in the church of Christ, and it's amazing that the national church here UNIFAM (Families United in Christ) has brought people to Christ and they have testified that Christ has drastically changed there family. We ask you to pray for this little family and indeed all the families that we are with each week at Tultitlan.

Binmen - Part 2.....

Ok I promise this is my last shot of bin men! We went to church on Sunday and got there in time for our local rubbish collection. In Tultitlan these guys are everywhere as there isn't really an official service - just a bunch of guys on carts collecting rubbish. I've been told this is how it was done in the old days - but if anyone can confirm this - as we are too young to remember ha ha!

Is it Christmas??????

Just thought we would write to say that on Thursday we got 7 packages and a few cards (Christmas cards!). We felt it was like Christmas all over again, maybe it was because we had received some advent calenders! Thank you to everyone who took the time to send these to us it meant alot! We felt really encouraged by this, we will blog as usual tomorrow or Monday.

Calling all Binmen.....!

On our way home from church we were able to drive up the road we normally use to get to our house. I must explain this because every Sunday we have Tianguis (Street Markets) near our house and they block a couple of roads near us. Every Sunday we drive home from church and we have to detour around them to get home. But this Sunday we have changed churches and now get back a little bit later. So as we were able to drive up our road, we took the route. But driving took on more of a slalom driving style as the marketeers had left their rubbish on the road for the rubbish collectors. It was one of the strangest things we have seen as we weaved in and out of the little piles, but we then realised that this has gone on every week since we've been here, and we're normally tucked up at home by the time the tianguis finish!

House Church.....

On Sunday night we also had the blessing of going to our first ever house church! We will be attending the church at Ojo de Agua (Eye of the Water) every Sunday evening after our time at Tultitlan. It is probably the most remote of churches, quite close to the pyramids, but the people there are fantastic. It is ran by a couple who have evangelised their entire family and the church stands at about 35 people regularly attending. You can also see the children's church in the far left side of the photo!

We were really welcomed into the home of this young church, and again they felt strongly about praying for each person who has made it possible for us to be here. We had a good go at explaining about Northern Ireland, and that we don't wear skirts (that's Scotland) and neither one of us can do Irish dancing!

MEXIKIDS.....

This week Julie had the priviledge of going to another church within UNIFAM at La Loma to see how MEXIKIDS (a club for children, similar to holiday Bible clubs only every Saturday and with breakfast) works.

Andrew and Carol Agnew, fellow missionaries, have overseen this minitry in La Loma for a while now, and praise God it is now moving into other churches, and ours!! So Julie, along with a number of people in our church, went to see the running of the club, and were very impressed. Julie even got to play some games!!

Over the next few weeks we will be planning, and praying for MEXIKIDS in our church. We have many Mexican brothers and sisters in our church who are leading this ministry and we will work alongside them in any way we can! It is funny as many of the younger children at only 4 or 5, have better Spanish than us. God likes to keep us humble, and this way we will only use the words that He gives us! Hallelujah!

New Church Life Begins.....

We had our first service in our new church this week, and it was an amazing experience. There were about 100 people in the service with many young people in attendance. The atmosphere was so Godly and people were very welcoming to us. We have been invited to so many houses for dinner, breakfast, to pray and also to a wedding next Saturday!!

As well as this, the church is making a promise to pray for our church, Ballee Baptist, and also everyone who is praying for, and supporting us. This amazes us as even though they have their own needs, they want to bring everyone that stands alongside us before the Lord!

We really pray that you will take our new church, UNIFAM Tultitlan into your hearts in prayer and together we will see amazing things done through us all in Mexico!

Our Missionary Family.....!

We would just ask you to pray for our missionary family here in Mexico as we enter a new year and a busy one at that. We pray that God will be the centre of all we do! We feel so blessed to part of this team and we praise God for each one as they have been an encouragement to us and we have been able to gain so much knowledge and insight from them all. We have a meeting on a Thursday in which we all meet together. We love this time of the week, as we all catch up with each other, (and usually this is the day that there is post!) we have a thing we do each week called Star Awards; these are for people who have been a star this week, have gone over and above what they need to do! There isn’t a week goes by that there aren’t maybe 20 plus awards, and as a family we look out for one another and help when we can. We just want to take this chance to praise God for each one of the team!

Our New Church.....!

On Friday we were able to go out and visit our new church and also to learn our new route! Jonny and I are still learning our way around Mexico, and if you ask any of our family who were here at Christmas it is very easy to get lost! We have no photos yet but we are really excited to see how God can use us in these next 6 months that we have left in Mexico. We will be at the church on a Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The other days in the week are for language as it is vital as we work even closer with our Mexican brother and sisters.

New Beginnings.....

Our dedication was not the only thing is church today as we were blessed to be part of the service where the church's pastoral role was handed over from Jonathan Morton to Dr Leroy Lindsay. This was a beautiful service where Gods presence was awesomely felt. We ask you to pray for Dr Lyndsey and his wife, Kay, as they advance the kingdom of God through their ministry. They are an amazing couple who have really encouraged us since we have arrived and a real shining light for Christ in Mexico. Also pray for Jonathan & Lupita Morton as they are in the UK for a few weeks to visit family and speak in churches. One of Jonny's highlights afterwards was that we had cake!

Saying Goodbye.....!

Today was our last day in the Santa Monica church! As of next week, we will be attending our new church in Tultilan, which is a bit farther from our house. We always knew that this day was coming as the plan had always been to move us when our Spanish was better (we aren’t sure that day is here, but we are trusting in God!) and to help at another church. So on Sunday we were brought up to the front, and the whole prayed for us in our new work. Thanks to all the people who are praying for us at this time of transition, and we know God will bless us as we work for our new church.

Snow joke.....

Ok firstly we have to thank Laura for the picture! And this isn't a picture taken in Mexico you'll all be happy to know, as we are very comfortable in our t-shirts at 20 degrees! We have been talking with different people this week who are cold, being stuck in traffic, sent home from work, or even can't get to work!

So in order to make you all feel as if we can sympathise with you, Julie has come down with a really rubbish cold including sniffles, sneezing and coughing. Just lets hope there are no sudden outbreaks of Man Flu or you'll all hear about it!

New Beginnings.....

This week we start back to our full schedule.....but with a difference! We are now starting part-time language study which enables us to be more involved in ministry. We are having meetings this week to determine in which direction we are to be involved, so we wanted to ask you to please pray for us as we take this next step. We have nearly been in Mexico for five months, and we feel the Lord leading us, and speaking to us through His word and appointments we have had. We praise Him for family, and friends (both on the field and all round the world) who have encouraged us, especially at this time as Julie's parents left. However we feel renewed and refreshed, and stand on the edge of another step of faith, and as we know that He is faithful, we feel assured that He will guide us at every step of the way!

Day of The Kings.....!

This Sunday we celebrated the "Dia de los tres reyes", or the day of the Three Kings. In Mexico, Santa Claus is a relatively new visitor and normally Mexican children receive their gifts from the Three Wise Kings! These balloons are used to post letters to the Kings to let them know what the boys and girls would like for their gifts.

Also involved is a very special cake, which symbolises the crown of Christ, and is called Rosca de los Reyes. However, there is also a special treat! In each cake is a number of little white plastic babies, and if a person finds a baby in their piece that they cut, they have to make a Mexican dish for another party on the 2nd February! Guess who got a baby each.....we better learn how to make tamales!!

Happy New Year.....!

We know we're a day late in our post but we wanted to thank everyone here for being part of our team in this last year! We started this blog since we came here and much has happened that we havebeen priviledged to share with you all. We have laughed, cried and felt so blessed in many of our experiences here and have had a wonderful family of people back home and missionaries here. We were going to post a staged picture of us being really smiley and posed, but we thought we'd take a picture of us being normal - because that's who were are. We want to let everyone see us in the real way we are (not Jonny talking and Julie listening! - no jokes please!) because we feel so overwhelmed at how God has worked in our lives, and to be honest we are two ordinary people serving an extra-ordinary God.

We want to share with you in this next year, our successes, our failures, our high points and our low points and we just want you to feel blessed that, through your prayers and support, we can endeavour for the Lord in Mexico City. We love you all so much, and together we can begin 2008 with joyful hearts and enthusiam that this year the Lord is going to accomplish great things - are we all ready!

Jonny & Julie

Las Piramides.....Part 2!

When the Irons' were here we had a great opportunity to visit the Pyramids with them to let them see the sights of Mexico. It was amazing for us to bring Julie's family there, especially as it ws our second time and we could enjoy it a bit more knowing what we were looking at!

The Basillica.....

We had an opportunity to bring Julie's parents to the Basillica to let them experience the reason for us being in Mexico. It is so heartbreaking to see first hand the lostness of the people here as they show devotion to the Virgin of Guadalupe. We really urge you to pray for the people of Mexico and also for the work of UNIFAM and OMS in Mexico and indeed all evangelical Christians as they serve the Lord in Mexico and work to advance Christ's kingdom.

Our First Mexican Birthday Party.....!

On Boxing Day we all went to our first ever Mexican Birthday Party! It was Johanni's first birthday and we went round to their home for the party. It was amazing to spend time with them, especially with Julie's family to let them meet. They are so dear to our hearts and they have helped our transition here go so much smoother and really helped with our Spanish. Little Johanni is so cute and we have seen her really grow up since we've got here and they really typify the amazing people of this country. We'll keep you updated on our friends here and we hope that you pray for them and their little family.

Pinata.....Pinata!

It has always been Laura's dream to have a pinata (who said dreams had to be aimed high!) so for Christmas, we here at Jonny & Julie's Dreams Come True, we made that possible. We bought a pinata from the shop down the road and set it all up on Christmas Day as a surprise for Laura. Unfortunately Christmas dinner and swinging about don't really mix, so it took Laura a few days to finally get hitting. It was one of the strongest pinatas I have ever seen and it even took Linda (my mother in law) a few hits to aid the cause. I haven't included photos of her in fear of my life - as I've now seen her swing a stick!

Let it Snow.....Let it Snow!

This is a photo that Laura took when they were travelling, and we wanted to post it as it seems weird to us that not too far away from where we are is a brave bit different than our current climate. We have to say that we miss things about the cold at this time of the year; seeing our breath while we are out in the mornings, defrosting the car before going to work, loads of traffic as people can't drive in snow.....hang on we don't miss that much! We want to give everyone at this time of year a big fleecy pjamas hug to keep you warm as you brave this weather everyday and thank you for just being part of why we are here and what we're doing! God Bless!