Last Group of 2008 & First Group of 2009!!

As soon as our plane landed in San Diego from New Jersey, a group was waiting to come home with us. Gregg Conrad returned with a group 10 from North Carolina. They spent the week building a home for a family in Francisco's church. Lupita has a daughter (26 years old) who is suffering from kidney failure. She has a doner, but the cost to have the transplant is substantial, certainly more than she could ever afford. As we prayed over the home, Maria struggled just to walk up the stairs to her new home. Pray for the family that God would touch Maria in a mighty way.

The group was able to spend New Years Eve with us and people from all the churches we are working with. We had a huge celebration with all 5 churches eating dinner together at our second floor. Faustino prepared his signature dish, Birria, for at least 150 of us. At the end of dinner, Rick set off fireworks and lit the interns Christmas tree on fire. The kids had a great time enjoying the fireworks and seeing the dry tree go up in seconds. The lighting of the Christmas tree was far more exciting than ALL the fireworks put together, it gives a new meaning to "light the Christmas tree"!

During the week we visited two of the churches for evening service. At Faustino's, Pastor Tom preached. At the beginning of the service, one of the members came in late holding her baby. Not concerned that the service had already started, she boldly went forward and asked for prayer for her baby. The baby had grabbed a pot of hot soup and burned her arm. Unbeknown to pastor Tom, his sermon spoke exactly on trusting God in difficult times. It is amazing to see how God puts things together!

Over the past few weeks we have been entertaining some friends, Todd & Suzanne Slind. Todd & Suzanne are considering coming down to Ensenada to be apart of the team. We have grown so much in the past 4 years that we can not do it on our own anymore, thanks to God! PLEASE PRAY with us and for Todd & Suzanne. We know first hand if this is of God, ALL things will work out, all those questions will be answered.

Trip to NJ & NYC!

We had a great time in New Jersey and New York!

Rick had the privilege of speaking at Princeton Alliance Church, it was great to see the team from last year and meet new friends. During our stay out in New Jersey and New York, we had a lot of personal tours of Philadelphia and New York City, it was an amazing experience. Our family was humbled by the generosity of so many, we had a great 10 days of visiting with friends and seeing all the sites . A special thank you to Princeton Alliance for the opportunity to share in your service and flying our family out there. Thank you to all who made this Christmas a wonderful time for our family, from going up the Chrysler building, to seeing the Rockettes on Christmas day, to many who took the time from their families and froze showing us the sites.

Thank you so much. It was good to connect with several churches who have been down to Mexico, it was good to see you all.