(This is my second posting today: read the other first and this one will make more sense.)

Dear family, friends, partners…

It is interesting for me to be sitting in my room here and watching Mom and Dad outside doing ordinary things (for them), in setting and background that is so different from accustomed Canadian setting. I think about what it was like (what it might be like for all of you now) to wonder about their life in Mexico. For Dad to be walking around with a machete trimming trees was already a normal sight in Canada; he is doing that now. (Trees here are in full leaf year round). Mom is moving back and forth, waiting for Dad and thinking of all the things that he'll forget.

To our family, dear friends, and communities, I tell you that we think about you often. It might even be accurate to say we think about you everyday. Do you believe me? One of the things that causes us to think about you is the excitement of our lives here. With the challenges and surrender of our decision to come here, there are also great joys and victories. When we experience something wonderful, we think about you wishing you could, if not be here, know what we know -experience what we experience.

Remember Dad's blue ranger (truck)? The truck box is now tall and vinyl covered with cushioned seats inside. It is a people carrier, and pretty attractive too, in a way! They do a great job with those things here! We got it for $200. A deal! The person who did it for us is a Pastor in another town. He didn't charge any labour nor, probably, even all the material. And he did a great job.
Well, with this truck, Dad, my friend Lino, and David (from Nacaxtle -he baptised when we were here in January), and myself went into the mountains to a native village. Beautiful! The mountains here are old and worn, covered in lush green. In Tierra Nueva (40 minutes from Hueyepan where we live) we did some road maintenance for the sake of our access to the church there. We chopped away at a huge stump for a while (in the middle of the street) making a higher and better path. We dug up some of the big rocks sticking out of the ground and used them to fill the ruts that were carved by flowing water during rainy season: that street is now usable -for a skilful driver.

Together with the Pastor of Tierra Nueva, we then drove further up the mountain to another village (with a name I cannot remember or even pronounce). We went there because we got word that the church there, that was once thriving, had now been without a Pastor for three years and there remains only a handful out of a congregation of about 100. We found some of those that did remain and soon the house was filled as people gathered spontaneously. ---- One of the opportunities of our presence here is strengthening connections between churches. Often there is pretension between church members, and between one church and another, that prevents them from working together. But there is no pretension towards us and people trust us more easily, it seems. Very soon some of the other pretensions lose their influence as the people fellowship together again. It is just the freshness of our influence, the colour of our skin and the willingness of our service that influences these people most profoundly. They only needed something to bring them together and cause them to open up and trust. There is so much mistrust.---- We all sang together and prayed, and laughed. We ate "square bananas" and oranges plucked off the trees. It really is so beautiful in those mountain villages with great trees and awesome views!

The other thing that was so exciting about this day was that in our physical work, fellowship, decisions making, appreciation of the beauty… we had two people with us who we were discipling and encouraging. I don't know a better way to do that then by sharing life (work, ministry, joy, decision making) together, because this is where faith influences our lives the most in joy, courage, humility, love, wisdom, honesty, seeking, hope…

Birthdays:

On Dad's birthday we hosted a meal of 30 people, or so. Mom did a great job. You never know what is going to happen here -everyone is so spontaneous- but Mom managed it very well and fed many more than expected. (And there were basket-fulls left over.)

Mom's b-day (4 days later) was a full day. It was Mom's 60th birthday. We (Mom, Dad and I) were taken to a tourist town (Catemaco) and hosted for a boat tour of the area. We saw remnants of Aztec civilization where mineral water flowed out of the ground. We saw crocodiles! Monkeys, and Iguana's too… Later that day there was a big dinner at the church for her. She got lots of presents! Mom destroyed a piñata with one swing! -But worked quite hard to bring down the second. Then we had lemon birthday cake. A full day, but it didn't finish off until 1:30 in the morning…

After the party, we filled three vehicles to travel to a neighbouring town where we joined another church for "watch and pray". Every week we plan to get together with this other church to fill at least one nights' watch (3 hours, I think =4 per night) with prayer, worship, and teaching. We started at 9pm finished after 1 am. What an awesome time! The spirit of unity and sincerity and joy was an answer to many prayers! Old and young seemed to be deeply encouraged… The next day we had some (a little) time to rest.

Culture:

The greatest challenge in this culture is dealing the tardiness, disorder, and mistrust. Everything here seems to take three times as long as other places. Organization of an event ahead of time is especially difficult since everything is considered tentative until it actually happens and there are so many adaptations to be made in the process… Spontaneous is perhaps the most efficient way to operate here, but it is a burden on us because we see how it could have been better, had we been prepared. Things happen in flurries and confusion, and we find it more stressful then necessary. On the other hand, if we realize that we are not actually expected to be on time for an engagement, we can excusably take the time, send the word, and take hold of opportunities as they arise. It is so curious but you learn to expect unexpected things. Friday nights we have services focused at youth. Twice we ran out of chairs: The service has started already and there is a flurry of activity as a number of people go home to get chairs; And since many people are still arriving (late) many are offering their seat to others. Last Friday we filled the seats, brought more from our homes and then went (during the worship time) to rent 30 more chairs. 20 minutes later we returned and we still didn't have enough for more people had arrived. Very well, the rest had to stand around the door inside and out. In the end, the seating distraction was less than the excitement of having so many people come. The service was planned out (by me) and that effort was somewhat useful, but we had to adapt in various places for the new people arriving and to buy some time as the speaker was late and various other had left to find chairs!!! God seems to be giving us grace and patience, for by the end of the service we were all very blessed. Please pray for wisdom and more patience as we adapt to or influence this culture. We don't think like they think. For communication and order to be established here, people first need to become dependable and sincere. That is the long road, but is there really any other?

Prayers:
Pray with us for daily peace, humility, wisdom, faith, and hope as we communicate the reality of God's salvation to the people around us. Pray that we would be firm as well as gracious. We learned an important lesson about being critical of others. Especially for Pastor's or people who see a lot of ugly things in the lives and families and are called on to fix it, the criticism leads to condescension, pride, and disunity in relationships and confusion. We experienced that here (Dad, Mom and I) and we decided to commit ourselves and remember occasionally that it is grace that has brought us from dark places and it is grace that keeps us still. We are deceived if have in our hearts something against the fruits of the Spirit .

Gal 5:22-26

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
NIV

On behalf of Henry, Anna, and

John

I have collected some pieces from e-mails written to family and others and I share them here to help fill some of the gaps.

Washing Machine:
Thanks to all those who gave for a washing machine for us here! We were able to buy an good machine and Mom has been using it for a while already. Thank-you and blessing on you

2nd-3rd week:
…Mom is doing very well with the move. I remember this being a large concern of mine before we left-how mom would adapt –but it isn’t a concern of mine here. Maybe I should say it this way to be honest: We are prepared to adapt and we are adapting. All of us experience in our week both joys and grief. Being away from family at home is like a burden that we carry; for we do long to participate in and be with you all, but we are not hindered by that burden -sobered rather. Mom, of the three of us, has the least to distract her during the day, and her prayers always show that she has been thinking about all of you, (son-in-laws, grand children, everyone). I wish I could e-mail you some pictures already, for there is testimony that there are some good times here. I have observed Mom and Dad enjoying each other’s company with an enchantment that I do not understand but is characteristic of people in love. Their language too has been positive and appreciative of one another. They are well…
…We won’t have phone for a while yet. A good time call would be 8:30 pm (9:30pm your time) any night of week if we make arrangements, and we could go to Maria’s house to use her phone...


Oct. 6th, 2006

…Have you been wondering about us here in Vera Cruz? We have to go to a café to use internet and it hasn’t been very convenient, but we are figuring things out. I have some photos that I would like to share but at this point it takes too long to upload them…

…We gave David from Nacaxtle the bike that was given. It has fun for us to give it to him. He received seemed to be in some shock it seemed, and gratefulness. He sends “thanks to the brothers”....

We have had no trouble finding footholds for our ministry here. The challenge is to make the daily decisions about how to spend our time and efforts, and maybe say no to some things and be intentional about others. For example, the many in the church here in Hueyapan see my Dad as their Pastor. They want him to preach almost every night and fix certain issues. This week it was discussed that my Dad would Pastor under certain conditions that he would have the freedom to be away for most of the week to fulfill his calling to plant churches, train and support leaders. So far so good. But, honestly, according to my limited foresight, I am still uneasy that this will cause much distraction and over-burdening. I haven’t talked to my Dad a about that yet but I will on next opportunity. Please pray with us concerning this. I wonder if he could have an elder position instead of Pastor. The church here is under a cloud of disunity presently and we do want to help as we can. Things are looking positive. Youth have been attending church almost regularly in the last two weeks. Today we have a service for which we have invited another church group and are inviting youth from off the streets. It is amazing how such advertising here seems to have such a receptive crowd. We’ll see if it is also sincere. A group of us will be singing a song tonight and reading Psalm 119: 9-16 together.


It has wonderful for me to go to the Nacaxtle church! The building looks really good! The floor is poured and there is iron work over the window openings. It is awesome after our work here to be in the service with the residence, kids and all! Truly this has been a very satisfying project
.
Gustavo has bigger hair (needing a hair cut), but he is still very much himself. There is a difference however: dominant attention seekers are different now, and Gustavo seems to be a bit of an outsider. I think his parents are probably not among the regulars at church.

The church In Nacaxtle has expressed that they would like to have a drum set for their worships service! Apparently there are two among them who play, and they desire it. My Dad asked me to mention it to you guys for what ever doors might open.


I have to go! Any questions? Anything we could do to communicate better to people there? Please let us know.

Oct 07, 2006

…I have now talked with my Dad, about the Pastor-ship thing, and whatever the name of his role it is predictable that he will serve with both his time and energy where he sees need and right now this community is very much looking to us. This is what we will do: my mom and I try to be both an encouragement and accountability for my dad, and all of us for each other. Our vision is to express the love of God here, and be obedient daily to the guidance of the Spirit. But we agree that Pastoring should not be my Dad´s preoccupation here. So we will discuss this with the church in a very honest way, and follow through in the wisdom, discipline, and guidance God provides.
I am very relieved of my uneasiness, and encouraged rather at this opportunity to clarify the vision for our ministry and to be a model for teaching the people with whom we are working this through…

Oct 25, 2006

Update: The church here in Hueyapan would like to see themselves as support and participants in the ministry of Hope Mission 50. They do see my Dad as their Pastor, but they want to both give us freedom to do other things and help with that ministry. That was a agreed upon. Thanks to God for his provision for the people here and this our ministry! The church is experiencing renewal. But the deepest healing will take time. There is need for healing of the unity of the leadership; a breaking down of pretension.