YOUTH CAMP- Part One

Each year it is our joy to be able to participate in a youth camp for independent Baptist churches in our area of Mexico. In years past we have seen the attendance at one time or another of most of the churches we have dealings with in the state of Sonora as well as some others from neighboring states such as Sinaloa and Baja California. Our numbers were down again this year due to the increasing difficulty of travel safety and problems in our area. Some parents are a bit leery of sending their youth to our town.

We thank God that all went well again this year with no major issues. We saw souls saved, we saw lives dedicated to the Lord and decisions made every day. No one was hurt although Abigail almost got to make an emergency trip to the U.S. All travel was safely made to and from camp and even an unplanned all day trip to Tucson was made without incident for Pastor Perez and I. As Peggy said on Sunday, "We need youth camp each month."


My youth is spent but I will gladly spend what I have left on youth.

God at work!



Yours truly being caught on tape!

 

Pastor Perez about to be tossed.



Abigail- #3 Camper of the Week





 

YOUTH CAMP- Part Two

Water Volleyball -Oh Yeah!

Camp Service



Award Night



How high can we throw?



All too quickly the week is over!



Entertaining Angle(s):

"Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares" Hebrews 13:2

As a missionary if you did not entertain strangers you would not be very effective in your calling! Afterall, everyone is a stranger at first.


Those who know me also know that I am not of the youth pastor cut. All the way back to my high school days I have been know as being too old for my own years. I love kids and I love young people - its playing their games that has never been my forte. Not much of one to "horse" around. Work and serious stuff is more down my alley.

But if you cannot become all things to all ages then as a missionary, again you cannot be very effective in your calling. So, in that spirit I try. I admit it takes a lot and it takes it out of me but I do enjoy seeing the fruit in lives.

Enter Angel(s). Angel is the young man in the light blue shirt, big green glasses, in the first photo. The other angels have different names: Juesus, German, Jael, Irvingh, Evone, Sophia and of course Abigail and Anna. We call them messengers. They are the generation that are now being trained to know God, to know Christ and to carry the precious gospel of salvation on to the next generation here in Magdalena.

SPOTLIGHT ON THE FAMILY

This past weekend it was our privilege to travel to the city of Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico to hold a Family Conference for the weekend. Pastor Manuel Garcia went to Guaymas about seven years ago to plant the Iglesia Bautista Getsemani. He has been doing a tremendous work in reaching those in his city. He now has a good nucleus of people that are excited about the things of the Lord. He has five young men that have recently been saved and for various reasons live at the church property and are an invaluable and impressive part of the work of the ministry. For our time with them we started Saturday afternoon with soul winning (the shade tree meeting), went on that evening with a youth meeting and then full out on Sunday with the emphasis on the family.

On Monday we traveled on south to spend some time with Pastor Ismael's family in Navojoa. Pastor Ismael was actually much farther south in Mexico at another conference but we had a good time with his family. In our absence here in Magdalena, Brother Freddy Davalos, one of Pastor Perez' young men, came up from Hermosillo to fill in for us. He really enjoys coming up and our people really enjoy each time he is here. The good part of being a missionary is that you are actually looking for someone to replace you and for your people to like your replacement!

Travel, and life for that matter, continues to become more risky here in our state for which we thank God for His protection and you for your prayers on our behalf. Thank you for keeping us before the throne of God.

LIFE HAPPENS IN THE MINISTRY

While actively seeking to plant a New Testament Baptist Church here in Magdalena de Kino, Sonora, Mexico - life happens. Everyday it takes place. Sometimes it goes and comes quite quietly, at other times it is that tug on your shirt from your little daughter, sometimes its mechanical problems that remind you that you too live in the real world and yet other times it is the chamacos at the fence calling "Gringo" to see if he has anything to give them.

Anna wants a "fort", a "club or play house". Since we have very little space some creative thinking had to be employed. Hence the play house in the air.

Last week we traveled down to Hermosillo to help a church with a roofing project. While there I also got to go shopping at the local junk yard and pick up this beautiful, with optional grease, 1969 FMX automatic transmission. It was a deal and I got to pull it myself in the dirt. Thankfully my space was heated to 105 and the air conditioned with a breeze!

Almost every day I hear voices - the voices of these little neighbors climbing up our fence calling "Gringo". They live the next street over in a mud brick house with no windows. They throw rocks over our walls and pick our flowers. They tease our dog and try to smash our cats. Their parents are drug addicts. What the voices want to know is if "Gringo" has anything to give them today. I disappoint them most every day but about once a week they leave with a bar of soap, or a cookie, or a popsicle, or a trinket but always with a smile and I pick up the trail of trash when they leave.

Sometimes it amazes me all the things I could get done it life didn't come around so much! It came around again this morning a little past five.

I AM BLESSED

"The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a godly heritage." Psalm 16:6

I agree with the Psalmist - that is how I feel when I think of the life that God has given me. I thank God that by His grace I was given the honor to be raised by missionary parents on the mission field. And not just "any" mission field but the center of Africa. And not just the Central African Republic but as far into the country as possible. I know, I am strange.

Now while God did not see fit to send me back to Africa (yet) He has allowed me to continue the blessed heritage that I inherited in missionary service! Our physical life here in northern Mexico compares little to that of Africa except in some aspects of danger but I enjoy serving the Lord. We appreciate your prayer for your missionaries. I am sure it is hard to imagine the life that each lives for the cause of Christ. The purpose of these pictures from my life in Africa are to lift that awareness. My normal Saturday's (today) takes me into drug traffickers territory to make my visits. I would not begin to attempt such risk without relying on the prayers of God's people on my behalf.

God has been so good to me. The pictures below tell the story of just how good God is to me!

Epic Failure or Resounding Victory?

The photos below tell a story of our fellowship after our evening services Sunday night, May 1st.

Was it an epic failure or a resounding victory? The fellowship was promoted for our May birthdays. Lucillia on the 2nd, Juan on the 12th, Jesus on the 15th, Leonicio on the 20th and Anna on May 30th. Of those five only two made the service and fellowship. Our most faithful family, Juan and Anna Orosco - two of the birthdays, were absent along with Leonicio and his wife. As a birthday fellowship - Epic Failure.

The May birthdays though were just an excuse to grow everyone just a little bit more in the things of the Lord. Resounding Victory! Even with 5 (of our normal) absent we had 22 in our evening service. We can now count 4 families as a very real part of our work here. There is an excitement and they relate to each other as a whole. Last night several made comment of how they were going to follow up on the ones that were missing. A realization on their part that it is not just the pastor/missionary job to "provoke one another to love and good works".

So how did the day turn out. Resounding Victory there was no failure in the day.