God Continues to do Amazing Things!

First off, we are totally amazed at how the media is blowing things out of proportion in terms of safety.  We totally feel safe and secure here in Ensenada.  In fact we feel safer here in Ensenada than we did in Washington State, go figure!  Praise God, He continues to have his protecting hand upon his servants in Mexico!

We are excited to have our first spring break group, they came a couple weeks.  Owen Sound Alliance Church painted two of the churches, moved a huge pile of dirt, put up a fence around Ricardo's church and built a roof for a lady in lower Durango (all this in one week), THANK YOU OSAC!  This was a special week for us, Rick was the youth pastor several years ago at this church.  Now one of the former youth, is now the youth pastor.  It was a great experience to work alongside Greg and the team from OSAC.  Many of the youth that came were little kids when we left the church, they were not quite in the youth group.  It was a blessing to see these kids grow and be strong followers of Christ.  This year we have started some new ministries, one of them was a prayer ministry.  One of the leaders or pastors from each of the churches, a prayer team (lead by one of our interns, Casey) and a couple from the group go and visit a family. They spend time getting to know them and pray with them.  This has been a  great ministry, and seems to be a great encouragement to the churches. Another ministry is with our new church plant.  Pastor Jamin has a band and are called "El Trio", they have a mini concert for our groups.  It was a lot of fun, even the other pastors got involved. 

 

At the end of this week, a church from Big Bear California joined us.  Their plan was to build the retaining wall for Francisco's church, but as usual plans in Mexico don't always work like we think they should.  The group was gracious and willing to do whatever we had for them.  15 men (skilled laborers) poured a cement slab for the new church plant in Saliteral.  The next day they went to the boys home for a youth event.   It was amazing to see all of the pastors get behind Rafa and Isai, it was an amazing youth event.  There were 100 youth praising God!  Three of the youth were from the boys home, I was able to see one of the boys come to know the Lord that day.  One of the greatest moments was at the end, they asked all the youth to go forward so they could pray with them.  Each of the pastors prayed for each of the youth at the event.  It was amazing to see 15 men who could mix cement, and build a cement floor in a day, serving food to each of the youth.  There purpose in coming was to serve, either building or serving one another.  Willing to be used by God to do God's work.  The last day the men helped build a bano, a sidewalk for Reynarios church, and even poured the footing for the retaining wall at Francisco's church.

 

Gods timing is so amazing.  On the last day of Owen Sound, Becka cut the tip of her finger off.  Rick and I were returning from a meeting in Ensenada when one of our interns called and told us what had happen.  We met Becka, Nancy, Kourtney and Sarah at the hospital.  The doctor looked at her finger and felt that it would not be a good idea to do stitches due to where the cut was.  Unbeknown to me, the second group had a doctor with them.  Not only a doctor, but a fireman and an EMT.  God is so good, the doctor from the group said the Mexican doctor did the right thing.  Mike and Rick (not Rick Romano, because he probably would have passed out!)  helped me with treating her finger, and by the time they left it was looking better.  God knows what we need and when we need it, I continue to be amazed at how Great our God is. 

This next week we have a group coming from Las Vegas to Mexicali to construct one of our new churches. Please continue to keep checking up for updates and to see new photos!

Blessings,