We're Back!

Yes, we are back and we are excited! I am not sure that I can really put all that God has been showing us into words, but I can share a little about our time in Oaxaca and of course show pictures!



After a long, exhausting day of travel and then a good night's sleep, we got right into our first training session the next morning. Randy and I were thrilled to hear that the first message was "God's Heart for the Nations," the recurring theme weaved through scripture from Genesis to Revelation. We had first heard this during the Perspectives course last year and at that time the Lord used His word to really shake us up to be ruined for the ordinary! Sometime I would love to be able to post the whole thing here for you to see how our very purpose in life is to bring all nations to worship the King- we have been blessed to be a blessing... More on that later.



The remaining part of the two days was spent learning more about the Kingdom of God, Stewardship, lots of time in prayer, worship, and inductive Bible study and learning about the culture of Tlaxiaco and some Spanish phrases. The whole time during this phase we just knew that we wanted to bring a bunch of youth and adults with us next year- and we hadn't even been off the base yet!


The next five days were spent preparing and going out for our outreach times, which was teaching English to little children in the surrounding areas. This was of course a wonderful time, connecting with kids and playing and laughing with them is always a blessing. We did other things during the days as well, but being with the children was definitely a highlight for Randy and I. Here are a few pictures from these sweet times.

The last day was a fun day in Oaxaca City, where we went to some really cool ancient ruins and shopped around the town for some good bargains! I had gotten sick the day before this, so I was disappointed that I still felt bad on this day and couldn't enjoy it nearly as much as I would of had I been well. Here are some pictures of us at the ruins- it was like being in a history book-very neat. The best part of our time in Mexico though, wasn't even the teaching times or the cute Mexican kids or the cool cultural things. Hands down, it was watching a group of people come together as the body of Christ and live out the commands of Jesus as part of a missional life. We were amazed to see so many passionate young people giving up their entire summer vacation to come as interns and work and serve others! We couldn't believe the way that there was a constant leadership training going on- college students leading us during this trip! The gentle and humble spirits of everyone on staff was apparent from day 1 and never changed. We were beyond blessed to have the priveledge of meeting and spending a week and a half with such wonderful people and have learned so much from them in such a short amount of time. We hope to see them again someday...

I could go on about many more wonderful things we learned in our short time in Oaxaca, but I am confident that because God has done a work in our hearts, I won't have to just talk about it- the transformation will be evident in the way we live our lives and that is the real proof...

Video Updates

We discovered that there is someone at Global Frontiers who has been putting together short videos of some of the days that the short-term mission teams are there. This has been really cool for us to watch and get a little taste of what we will be doing these next 10 days.

Check out their you-tube channel at http://www.youtube.com/gfmvideos

Be sure to check it every couple of days- you may even catch a glimpse of us in action if you're lucky! This is so cool, since we won't have any way to email or send updates while we're there- it's like a video update. Let us know what you think- you may be coming along with us next year...

Just about packed and ready...

Look at all this STUFF! And this is only the medical supplies! Where are all of our clothes going to go?

We want to thank everyone who donated so generously and in such a quick amount of time to this project. As you can see, the Lord multiplied what we had originally thought we'd be taking and we are working on getting it all divided among our luggage. At last check, after I had carefully packed my huge suitcase full, it ended up weighing 64 pounds! (The max weight is 50 lbs)Who knew 40 bottles of children's vitamins and multiple misc items would be so heavy?Uh, I guess it's back to square one- now where is that extra 14 pounds going to go? I guess I could go without my 6th pair of shoes in order to make more room... Ha- just kidding! (about the shoes ;-) )

We are going to be on our way in just a few hours and have already felt your prayers for us. It has been a tough couple of days, but we are now just about ready for this adventure!

The boys arrived at "Grandma Camp" this afternoon to discover that in addition to all the fun things that they have planned, they are going to be helping Papa build a tree house in the backyard! Wow- is that every kid's dream or what? Um, I'm not sure that they'll even notice we're gone! We, on the other hand will for sure be missing them- please continue to pray for us!

We'll be back in 10 days with much to share I'm sure! Now, off to get all this stuff packed!!!

Why Missions?

Why missions? well I don't think I could say it as eloquently as this:

"Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn't. Worship is ultimate, not missions, beacause God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever.

Worship, therefore, is the fuel and goal of missions. It's the goal of missions because in missions we simply aim to bring the nations into the white-hot enjoyment of God's glory. The goal of missions is the gladness of people in the greatness of God. 'The LORD reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad!' (Ps. 97:1). 'Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you! Let the nations be glad and sing for joy!' (Ps. 67:3-4)

But worship is also the fuel of missions. Passion for God in worship precedes the offer of God in preaching. You can't commend what you don't cherish. Missionaries will never call out, "Let the nations be glad!" who cannot say from the heart, 'I will rejoice in the Lord... I will be glad and exult in you, I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.' (Ps. 104:34; 9:2)

Missions begins and ends in worship."
~Quoted from the opening page of John Piper's "Let the Nation's be Glad!"




***We are so excited to share with everyone that next Tuesday night (July 15th), Randy and I will be leaving on a mission trip to Oaxaca, Mexico. We will be going to Global Frontier Mission's training base and have a few days of focused training, Bible study, and worship followed by 5 days of different types of ministry among local people and then a day in Oaxaca city before we come home on July 25th. Would you please partner with us in praying for this trip? Here are some specific prayer requests:


~For our boys who will be staying at Grandma's house for the 10 days that we are gone. They are actually not sad in the least bit(especially now that their cousins will be there too!) but I know it is going to to be hard on Randy and I to be gone from them for that long! Pray for Grandma and Papa too! :-)





~For our traveling time. We are actually "smuggling" in a bunch of medical supplies for the clinic there and were told that everything needs to be hidden among our clothes. Please pray that our luggage would not be randomly inspected in the Mexican airports, at the risk of us having to hand all the supplies over to them. Also, neither Randy or I have flown since jr. high, so we're a little nervous!

~For our time there in Mexico. For those of you who are wondering, Oaxaca is in the southeren part of Mexico below Mexico City almost to Guatemala. The base is actually 3 hours from the city and we are told it is a very beautiful place. Pray for the people of Oaxaca- less than 2% of the population is born again Christian and many of the surrounding villiages do not have a single Christian. (This is called an unreached people group) We will be doing various things while we are there, but our main goal is to learn. We want to allow the Lord to work without our "plans" getting in the way, so we are open and up for anything!

~For our time coming back home. We actually were praying about packing up and moving to Mexico to attend their missionary training school this Fall for 10 months. We prayed for months about it, but felt that this year just wasn't the right timing, especially now with the adoption plans. We know that it is the right thing for now, but may feel some regrets after "living" there for the 10 days of our trip. We also are hoping and praying that we could lead some youth on this same trip next year. We just so badly want to mobilize young people to live fully for Christ. Please pray for our hearts, as we want to be obedient and submissive to the Lord's call for our lives and not prideful in what we have "done" for the Kingdom. May we only worship our Lord Jesus Christ.



Thank you for supporting us in this small, but mighty way. Keep checking in for updates about the trip!