Happy birthday, Peggy

Have a wonderfully blessed day!! 

My Little Pony at 50!

Yesterday was another blessed day here at the work in Magdalena.  All of our people were faithful and came with a great spirit ready to receive what God had prepared for them.  We have also seen a "new" family of four in services for the third week in a row.  It was also a blessing to have a first time visitor walk in "uninvited".  We have actually visited her house a few months ago but she came for other reasons. 

 

Yesterday was also my fiftieth birthday!  Our people made their own plans for the evening to celebrate their pastor's birthday.  They prepared a meal and even had a piñata.  I hear that the family in charge of buying the piñata was looking for a car as they know how I like cars but settle for my second love of all things farm and ranch and brought a horse.  Turns out it was not a horse at all, it was a pony.  A My Little Pony!

 

God has truly blessed our work here with some tremendous people.  I am blessed.

 The men of the work

 My Little Pony was a favorite

 Chef Alonso manning the grill

 Iglesia Bautista de Magdalena

Meatball soup, grilled chicken and rice

 Enjoying the meal and fellowship

 The birthday boy and family

 Martin has a go at the pinata

 Surrounded by God's people

 Anna has her turn with the pinata

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PASTOR HARRIS

God bless you!! 

More Birthday Parties

September was a busy month for birthday parties.  Several of our church children had birthdays this past month as well as Anna.  Each wanted their birthday party at church as it is where their friends are.  That is a good thing and we are happy to help out with a safe place to hold the parties as well as enjoy a Mexican meal and a slice of cake.  One of our men had a birthday as well and his was held outside of his house.  His house is on one of the more traveled roads in town which brought a bit of uneasiness with it but all went well.

Our town has been in the grasp of some violence as of late (more than usual).  As this is open for all to see I will not go into detail but we do thank you for your prayers to God for us and the work of the ministry here.  For those who may not understand the why we are (still) here - there is nothing like being in the center of God's will!  There is joy in serving Jesus.

Dining room fellowship

Happy Birthday Anna!

Happy Birthday Aylin!

Happy Birthday Jesus

 Not every fiesta has to be a birthday :)

Summer's Conclusion

Well, summer is coming to a close.  We have enjoyed the summer that God has given us and sought to use our time for His honor and glory.

The highlights of the last month has been the visit of a couple of missionaries.  We have had the Manuel Robles family by who are from "our" state of Sonora and are raising their support to go to Panama.  We were also privileged to have the Angel Cobos Family who have been in Guatemala and are on a furlough. 

One Sunday we also met Juan Perez from Nicaragua.  Juan had attempted to cross (illegally) into the U.S. and had been caught and "thrown back" twice.  The third time brings an automatic prison sentence and he decided that he would rather return as a free man to his own country.  There were some discrepancies in his story but we chose to extended Christian hospitality.  He did have a good testimony of salvation and a letter of commendation from his Baptist Church back in Nicaragua.  

Mexican people like to have fiesta's and the people of our work are no different.  Normally we have a birthday to use as an excuse for the fiesta.  We have had several through the summer but the last birthday was for Leslie.  Leslie is Mario and Marysol's oldest daughter.  They had planned to have the fiesta at their house but at the last minute there was a change of plans due to rain.  It has been a blessing to watch Mario and Marysol grow in the Lord and a blessing to be able to help them celebrate their daughter's birthday in a Christian atmosphere.

Our biggest ministry issue has been the lack of electric power since June 21st.  It is a problem with corruption in general and at this time there does not appear to be any solution in the near future.  Our people have taken it in stride but it does limit the use of our building.  Pray with us that God would resolve that for us.

 Missionary Family Angel Cobos

  Leslie and her family

 Leslie and the church girls

 Leslie and our family

 Juan Perez

THE FULL EXPERIENCE (A Full Week)

We have had a busy start to the summer and I will have to catch you all up with our updates of the previous month latter on in another update.  In the meantime I will share the most current experiences.

EXCITEMENT:  (Youth Camp)

This past week was our annual youth camp.  With the participating churches we ended up with about seventy in total.  This was also Anna's first year as a full time camper and she was EXCITED!  Peggy and I were very hesitant to allow her to stay overnight but in the end (after much prayer) we did allow her to stay and all went well.  We had four others from our work attend and as was our experience last year, it made quite an impact on our youth.  Personally I believe this was one of the best camps to date.  I'll share more on that in a future update.

EXCESS:  (Water)

For the last two month we have not had much water.  For a period of about three weeks we did the bucket shower thing and even then had to leave the faucet on for the whole day to get that bucket full.  About the first of July is our monsoon season and it has arrived.  In fact the Mexican government has declared our area a disaster area after last nights storm.  We enjoy beautiful storms here in Magdalena.  When it rains - it really rains!  Last night it began to rain so hard during the evening service that we had to move into one of our enclosed rooms so that I could continue preaching and still be heard.  We were not there too long when a strong sewer stench overwhelmed us immediately followed by instant flooding.  We ended up with about two inches in the building.  The street outside was at the same level.  Two of our folks homes had over a foot of water in their houses and we spent the rest of the evening helping them bail out their houses and then we met today to clean the church.  The tremendous rains are really beautiful though.

EXTORTION:  (Life in Mexico)

Saturday morning I answered our house phone and my "nephew" was on the other side.  "Surprise Uncle Steven, I am traveling with a friend and want to stop by and catch up with you all."  After making all the necessary plans including telling me my address and other personal information relating to the family he says that he will see us in about an hour.  I immediately called family to see if my nephew was actually traveling, he was not.  A few minutes latter the phone rings again and it is my "nephew",  "Uncle Steven, I have been in an accident.  Let me pass the phone to this guy."  Supposedly my nephew had run into him and his wife and baby were badly hurt and for my nephew's protection blah, blah, blah needed to be handled immediately.  After listening to the whole spiel I informed the man that my only problem with the whole scenario was that my nephew was not in Mexico.  Our conversation was immediately terminated for his part.

Thankfully I had been able to contact family and know the truth.  Still, the unrest for Peggy and Anna were and are a real issue.  We just never know who is watching us and how far they are willing to go for the chance of quick riches.  We thank God for His power, His strength and His peace.  Without those we could not stay here - with God's help we are really having the time of our life!  God is good! 

Fighting the flooding

The water just kept coming

The buildings High Ground

A Memorial Day to be baptized!

Mario is Baptized

Yesterday, I met Chris

 Our normal monthly itinerary is to go up to the U.S. at the end of every month to buy supplies for both the ministry and for the house.  Peggy had ordered some special Mother Day gifts for this coming Sunday which were not yet in on our last trip out but had arrived this past Monday.  In order to have them on time then we made a special trip out yesterday.

On our trip out I noticed a black man walking south with a backpack and a bedroll but not trying to thumb a ride.  People walking on the side of the road is actually quite common and transients making their way south having been "thrown back" is normal fare.  However it is rare to see any black folk in our part of Mexico.  Although just two weeks ago I had met and witnessed with two young black men from Honduras who were attempting to cross into the U.S.   In our time here in Magdalena I have met one other black man who was here from the Dominican Republic playing for our town's baseball team.

Anyway we made our trip into the U.S. to pick up the package and do some other shopping and made our return into Mexico around 2 PM.  Somewhere between the border and Magdalena we passed the man I had seen that morning.  After making it a matter of prayer we turned around and pulled up a little past where he was walking.  I acted like I was digging something out of the back of my truck until he got to where I was and then casually began a conversation in Spanish which he did not understand.  Turns out Chris spoke English.  Chris is from Fort Smith, Arkansas and was headed to the beach.  The problem was that he thought that just over the next hill, around the next bend he would discover the beach but the nearest beach to us is about four hours driving - after a LONG deserted stretch of desert whichever way you go.

Anyway we invited Chris to allow us to give him a lift and ended up taking him farther south so that he could get on the right road to the nearest beach.  We then wrote the word PLAYA (beach) on a piece of cardboard with a "map" on the back for him to use.  We used our captive 3/4 hours to talk to Chris and witness to him.  Chris said that he was on a "spiritual" journey and God had evidently put us on his road.  There is little doubt in my mind that there was a spiritual war being waged as Chris would "come and go" on us during our conversation.

I know very little about Chris.  His birthday is today and he will be turning 26.  He is from Fort Smith, Arkansas and has a younger brother who he has not seen for a long time.  He was on foot heading west towards Rocky Point with a copy of John and Romans and a gospel tract with my name and number.  I know he needs the Lord as his Saviour and is heading into some seriously dangerous terrain and territory.

"And of some have compassion, making a difference:"  Jude vs.22