Our wee family!

Not sure where even to start this post! As everyone knows who follows this blog, Jonny and I went on a team in April 2006 to Mexico we were just 6 months married. It was on this team when we felt the call of God on our hearts to come back to Mexico. We did that in August 20o7 for a year and then came home for my sisters wedding, followed by the birth of Ben! We then returned to Mexico at the start of April 20o9 and we are still here. However we feel God closing this chapter of our lives and beginning a new chapter at home.

We have been studying, fasting and praying a lot about what we should do, as I (Julie) would lose my registration as a nurse in March if I did not complete quite a lot of hours. Jonny feels led to be part of a ministry in N. Ireland that God hasn't revealed to us yet, but I feel that God wants to use the gifts that He has given me in nursing.

We have loved our time in Mexico we have learned and grown so much. We are staying on with OMS and will help in different areas. God willing I will go back to work in December. We will continue to pray about what God would have us to do. We are sad to be leaving as we have made alot of good friends here, and this is were we have been most of our married life and really it is the only home Ben has known! However as we step out in faith we have already seen God in a real way providing for us in ways we won't have even though of!

We would also like to take this opportunity to say thank you to everyone for everything, words will never be enough to thank you all for your support and kindness and enouragement! We look forward to seeing you all when we get home and we will be available for meetings from the 14th of November!

Our church..

Here are a few photos of our church Jonny took a few weeks back! We have always felt so welcome here! We have three services every weeks and have house churches also attached to the church. Please pray for this church as it grows!

Independence Day!

This is a very special day in the history of Mexico, their Independence Day! There are many parties and fireworks and things to buy! When we were here the first time, all the churches came together and had a party. This year it was decided that each church would have there own! We had a great night! There was food, games and good friends! And Ben melted hearts all around as he was dressed as a little Mexican!

MOPS

We started!!!!! It was a great morning! We were few in number at the start due to the rain and the fact that kids were off school. However as the time went on we had more and more! Here are a few photos! We had a talk about Beauty and what is real beauty and how we as Mums and wives need to be beautiful from the inside out!

Rain and floods..

There was very little about it on the news at home, but not far from where we live there were floods in which hundreds lost there homes and 2 people died! Please pray for these people at this time, alot of the water was sewage water and so free tetanus injections were given out. This was a picture we took 2 days after and as you can see the drains were still finding it hard to cope with the water! Some of the under ground stations were closed as they were flooded, and so were the schools!

Margaret and Joe...

We had or field council last week and it was a busy time! Margaret was given an award for being with OMS for 25 years! She started the month after I was born! It was also Joe's birthday and so we had a wee cake for him as well!

Woman's Breakfast

On Saturday morning, the two woman's groups within the church got together in order to have a special breakfast! It was a great morning with singing and speaking and alot of work was put into the planning ect. Here are some of the photos from that morning!

Our speaker for the morning! Cheli works with Jonny in Church Planting.

All the women, there were 68 women the last I heard!

The welcoming team

Getting set up..

Baptism...

On Sunday our church had a Baptism service in which one of our friends were baptized. I had felt the urge to speak to this girl in church several times but hadn't been able to. However when I did I found out that she was from Russia but had lived in America since she was 5. Her husband is Mexican and he was down here doing some work! They have a wee boy who was born the 4th October (Ben is the 30th). So I invited her to MOPS and the rest is history. She was one of around 15 who were baptised including some from one of our house churches!

Assembly

Praise God for the Assembly going so well and the new committees being voted in! Pray that God will guide these men and women of God. It was in our old church so it was a great time to visit with old friends!

Gary and Rhonda..

...are here!!!!!!! It is great to have them with us over these few weeks! There are alot of things planned. They have already had the chance to visit the street kid work in which Gary was a part of when he was here. They are also planning to visit some church planting work, MOPS, the Seminary and of course they have already been to church with us! We even had a BBQ on Saturday for them so that Gary could see everyone and Rhonda could meet everyone! There are also a few people who have wanted to meet with them and catch up! So they are keeping busy! However the first few days they were here it seemed they had brought the rain with them from Northern Ireland!

Here they are with the Church planting team in our church! Below is how they put them to work!

Here are a family Gary was very close to when he was here for the year. They all came round for dinner! We had a great night!