Year end update

Judging by the frequency of our posts for the last six months one could conclude that either there is not much to report or so much going on there has not been time to report it. The latter is true as June through December has held many full adventures for us. Here's a brief summary:

Summer Campaign - we had a team of 30 from two Chicago area churches come for a bit over a week in late July to hold a basketball clinic, kids club and english class for people in Tenancingo, specifically in Agua Bendita and San Jose. It was refreshing to have much energy and excitement and a hectic change of pace. Both Lina and Matthew were heavily involved in coordinating details related to the campaign.

School - Samuel started 3rd grade and Rebeca 1st grade at the same public school where Samuel has been. Matthew got elected to the Parents Association as treasurer and has spent many hours getting to know the school structure, happenings and "ways of doing things." We have made good relationship with a number of families, some of whom have asked us whether we can help couples with counseling.

Church - We have continued our involvement with worship on a regular rotation with Lina on keyboard and Matthew singing, playing guitar and occasionally leading. This fall we also underwent some training for marital counseling with our teammate Steve Peterson. Though the program called Prepare/Enrich, we took a marriage inventory and were able to go through an evaluation of areas of strength and opportunity. It was refreshing and encouraging for both of us and we are now meeting weekly with a newly married couple and working through the followup with them. During the upcoming year we will continue to debrief with more couples both in the church and broader community.

San Jose - This past fall Matthew led a team of 5-8 mentors who spend time with elementary students helping them work through their homework. Because we have limited volunteers, we have only been able to offer help on Tuesdays and Thursdays. During October and November, our friend Carolyn Preston volunteered her time to teach English every Monday and Wednesday. She has since returned to the US, so our plan starting in January is to have homework help from Monday through Thursday. Additionally, we have had a few activities for women, teaching them crafts they can use for home business initiatives. We have started to think and pray about the possibility of moving to this neighborhood in future years so that we can spend more time investing in the people of the community.

That's the last few months in a nutshell. We appreciate the love, kindness, prayers, encouragement and support from so many. This year has been a bit difficult financially, although God has graciously allowed us to end each month in the black. We have gained a few supporting families, but lost more. We trust God will add others to our team of regular donors who will invest in our lives as we invest in the kingdom here.

A bold initiative and a move

Summer may be full of R&R for some, but we're gearing up for a busy next two months as we have set a goal of meeting with three individuals/couples/families per week between now and Labor Day. We are doing this with the direct purpose of sharing our vision, passion and needs related to life and work in Tenancingo. Our intent is to be very direct in asking folks to consider financially supporting our ministry and that can be a delicate task. We need prayer for focus, joy, boldness, wisdom and good balance with work and family life.

Our lease is up @ the end of August and our landlord will not go month-to-month. He would require us to commit at least until April 2008 if we renewed our lease. So we are looking at alternatives. Our most obvious and likely one would be to move in with Lina's brother Isaac who has graciously opened their home for us to live with them; this may be through the end of the year depending on how the rest of our support discovery goes.

What about April?

The month is one week from over and we have yet to add anything here. Well, while life has been quiet here on our blog, let us share a few things with you about our non-web-based life. In no particular order:

• Training We have continued some ongoing training which must be completed before leaving for Mexico. It involves some reading and writing a reaction. First we need to read a book about spiritual disciplines by Richard Foster called "Celebration of Discipline." Then there's a Statement of Faith (50+ pages) which details the core beliefs of International Teams. We need to summarize our understanding, as well as react to a few different scenarios of how we would incorporate our faith into a particular situation. Finally, the major project is an introspective study of the book by Christian psychologist Larry Crabb called "Inside out." Lina and I have both picked a mentor to read one chapter a week and meet with us for a few hours to debrief what we have learned that week. We're about a third of the way and should be done by early July with this part.

• Support Discovery We like this term better than support "raising" as we firmly believe that God will faithfully provide the financial and prayer partners we will need. Our job is to discover where that will come from. We have created a presentation and shared it with a few people. As of this posting there are 17 individuals who have told us they will regularly contribute financially to our ministry in addition to our home church, Christian Life Church. Starting this week I will be working a four-day week so that I will be off on Fridays. Our hope is to dedicate this time fully to our support discovery efforts. We have a trip planned for visiting friends, family and at least one church in Minnesota in early June. We will need continued prayer as we plan, meet and share with potential supporters.

• Family Samuel and Rebeca continue to grow and play together more often than ever before. Rebeca loves to imitate her brother and Samuel is more patient and understanding with her. They both now have bikes and are learning to ride around in the parking lot outside of our apartment. It is fun to have routines with our meals, baths, bedtime stories and prayers. The sense of security they receive is a joy to see just as it is a pleasure to create. We think Samuel has a decent sense of what is coming up, but the idea of "living in Mexico" is still a distant concept for him. Within the next week or so, you'll hear more from Lina's perspective.

That's it for now!