My new seat.....

Wow! We were told by friends about this amazing chair in a shop in Satilite, so we decided to investigate and that is what we did the last weeks. During the week we went to see it, but alas they had none! A few weeks later we went and there it was so we had to give it a go, I fell in love with it but it was time to convince Jonny so I told him to sit in it and try it out! It didn’t take long before he loved it to. So it was ordered and is now in pride of place in our living and it is were we do our blogging and chilling, so I have included a picture!

This weekend.....

On Friday in Mexico, it is the “Day of the Dead”. This is a big celebration here in Mexico and at school our teacher explained to us that some people set up altars in their homes with pictures of their loved ones. On the “Day of the Dead” they make offerings to their dead relatives and talk to them. It is a very important time for them, some Mexicans visit there loved one’s graves and clean them, give them flowers and spend time talking and eating there. Satan has a massive grip on this country and we pray that we can be as shining lights in the midst of the darkness.

The Drop-in Centre.....

This is an amazing work which is continuing to be developed, with God workingin amazing ways (click the link for the Agnew’s ministry to read more of God’s presence in this work!) There was a team here from Men from Missions USA in this last couple of weeks. What a job they did over the last weeks. It is amazing to see how God brings together people and can accomplish so much through plain ordinary people like us. Praise His name that He doesn’t need us, but in His grace, chooses to use us!

We praise God that we have been able to be part of this work in a small way, we have both been able to use our nursing skills to treat people here and show Gods love in this manner. We would ask you to pray for this work as it continues to develop. Also for Andrew and Carol Agnew who head up this work, Fidel, Paty, Alejandro and the other people who labour for the Lord in this ministry.

Church plant....

On Sunday we went to a church plant not far from our house, when we arrived we realized that we had seen this area when we were here the first time with the Washbasin team. The weather here has been really cold recently (ok maybe 10 degrees C, but cold for here!) Don’t get us wrong we are used to cold weather, as we have lived in northern Ireland most of our lives, but the difference here is that there is no heating inside any of the houses or buildings!

Here are a few things on Sunday that really humbled us so much.

It is a rented building they are in, so every Sunday before church the pastor and the elders met and pray in the building in order to have it ready for church, as they do not know what has been happening in the building during the week.

During the service we were soooo cold and all of a sudden we had a tap on our shoulder. It was one of the men from the church, and he handed us coats! We couldn’t believe it but gladly accepted.

There was an appeal after the preaching, and there were a few people who came up. One person who stood out to me was a young guy who was crying so hard that there was a puddle on the ground in front of him. This young guy was so passionate for the Lord that I felt so overwhelmed. We praise God for the passion that He has given these people.

We praise God for these church plants and the work that is being done in this area, we are excited about the prospect of being involved in this area in January, we pray for wisdom that we will be able to encourage this work which God is accomplishing through these people.

Good, Better, Best.....

We were really convicted this weekend by the words of another missionary on the field. She has read a book that highlights that we owe God our best efforts, and the best of what He has given us to offer. The decisions we make have to be weighed up as good, better or best. You see, the decisions we make on a day to day basis are normally good, but we have to think; could they be better, and are they our best.

We were challenged on this with our quiet times in Mexico. Due to the language difficulties in church, we were downloading Bible study podcasts, family were sending us sermons from our home church at Ballee Baptist, and we were listening to them as we travelled. Now this sounds super holy, but in reality, many time we went back to listening to CD on our ipods.

You see, we may have been listening to music from the charts that may not have been that bad, that was our good. We could be listening to Christian music that our friends have given us, or recommended, this was our better. But we realised that listening to and applying God's word to our lives is our best.

We hope that you can ponder your decisions, as we now ponder ours. Can we say that our decisions are good, better or our best.

A Week at School.....

This week we both went back to school and it changed a bit - so we felt we needed to update on the praise and prayer points in this area. Julie is in the Elemental Level, and feels so much more confident with her Spanish having time in tutoring with Tania. She is finding her way through the class and even though I'm not allowed to say this - she is around the top of her class! (Sorry Julie!) She also got high marks in her classes with Tania, and we have really been praising God on how He has really blessed us and answered prayer through helping us with Spanish.

Another praise is that although Jonny is in Level 1 for grammar, he has now started in Level 3 for conversation, and has felt this to be of benefit. Due to having friends in church, and connected with the mission here, we have more opportunities to converse in Spanish than others in our classes. Praise God that in Level 3, Jonny is able to share more with his new classmates and also explain in greater detail, about why we are here, and the work God is doing in Mexico.

We thank you for your prayers, and please continue to pray as we can testify to the fact that it is our greatest weapon against the attacks of the evil one.

2 Month Update.....!

We have now been in Mexico for two months, and we are going to go out for a bit tonight to celebrate! Today we got a little pang for home, and sometimes, more than others, it can really frustrate you! So today we prayed for the Lord to strengthen us at this time, and help us to be faithful in His plans. So I want to kick off a monthly report of looking back at what I like to call our "Red Sea Moments." I came to this when I read about the Exodus, and 3 days after crossing the Red Sea, the children of Israel began grumbling. Yet God reminded them to remember how He proved Himself to them by His faithfulness! We can count these ourselves when we have times when out of the ordinary things happen in our lives that can only be attributed to God. So here goes!

1. We are now really into our Spanish and we have found it difficult at times, but God has blessed us with amazing teachers, and an amazing tutor for Julie.
2. We have a wee car which has meant that we can zoom around the city in safety, and get places to relax when we need to.
3. We have been blessed by being able to live so close to the other missionaries on the field, and we have such a great team here to share God's work with.
4. God has given us an amazing family as friends. We have spent some great time with Benjamin, Gretal & Yohanni, having meals and having real fellowship while attempting to speak Spanish!
5. God has astounded us with providing us with Skype, which has meant that we can keep in contact with home. We were told it would take weeks for our internet to be activated, and yet it only took about one day! Praise God for making things happen in His time!

There has been so many more things that have caused us to rejoice, and we will definately have more in the months to come.

We hope you can feel encouraged to sit back and look at your "Red Sea Moments." They really make you stand in awe of the faithfulness of our God!