Yesterday was a good day….

Do you ever wake up in the morning and just thank God in your first moments of consciousness for simply being alive? Most days I just struggle to wake up and feel halfway human but some days I wake up simply feeling blessed.

Yesterday we went to Mexico to meet with a Discovery Team exploration group. They were coming to get a lay of the land and to plan ahead of time how best they could minister with our new church plants. As we waited for the team to arrive, I had the opportunity to sit down with Joel and catch up on his life. Joel is a student at the seminary; he's married with two children under the age of 5 who has a heart for Church Planting. As we spoke, he shared his dreams, needs and challenges for the mission church "Comunidad Cristiana Bautista Nacer de Nuevo". (Baptist Christian Community Born Again)

Rick and Joel at the seminary

1. Most of the people are new to the gospel.

2. They need discipleship.

3. He has no one to teach the children.

4. He has to be in charge of the finances.

5. He wants to design brochures but has run out of ink for his printing cartridges.

So many needs yet he wasn't complaining. He was just stating his reality. We talked about the need to be in relationship with other churches, the need to maintain accountability and have other people help him with the stewardship, the need to protect his integrity and his ministry. I knew right then that I would be writing this newsletter about Joel.

Alma, Ramon and Andrea

Later on that afternoon we met with Mike, Jonathan and Rich. (The Discovery Exploration Team) We showed them around the seminary, showed them the results of other work teams and how much we really appreciated their partnership with us in our work in Mexico. After our tour of the grounds we went to visit Alma and Ramon at their mission house "Mision Bautista El Buen Samaritano," (The Good Samaritan Baptist Mission). As you may remember, Alma and Ramon have a house church in a new development in Mexicali. They have four children, Alessandra (a college student), Rodrigo and Michel (Mitchell) (9th grade and 7th grade respectively) and Andrea, their youngest who is about 3 years old. Their house church is about two years old. As they celebrated the progress in their ministry they praised God for:

1. At least 5 new families with children from 5 different neighborhoods.

2. A blooming music ministry with 3 of their members taking guitar classes.

3. Some to be baptized soon at the mother church.

4. The larger space in the living room (now that they had torn down a wall, removed a bedroom to make more space for the worship area.)

5. The donation of an old travel trailer for their Sunday School Space for children.

6. A "real" pulpit that was being built for them.

As we prayed in the living room I again saw how they continued to see the possibilities in their outreach. They never spoke about limitations, about being uncomfortable as a family; they spoke about what new things they could do to reach others in their community.

As we drove home after leaving the Discovery Team at the seminary, we thanked God for being in Mexicali. Again we learned more from them than we could ever teach them. We prayed for the resources to encourage Joel, Alma and Ramon and other leaders to continue to do their ministry.

Prayer Requests:

• Pray for our family as we return to the field.
• Pray for Aida as she graduates from 8th grade, Richie as he finishes 6th grade and Joshua as he finishes kindergarten.
• Pray for Alma and Ramon, their family the "Mision Bautista El Buen Samaritano."
• Pray for Joel, his family and the "Comunidad Cristiana Bautista Nacer de Nuevo."
• Consider supporting our ministry by becoming part of our Missionary Partnership Network.
• Consider supporting us by including our ministry in your monthly budget.
• Consider supporting our New Church Planting expenses by giving toward New Church Planting in Mexicali.

We are currently in need of a video projector that would be used as a teaching tool with the churches and new church plants of our Mexican Convention.

Pray for the work of International Ministries and our partners around the world, for the resources to do what God has called all of us to do.

As we finish our year of home assignment we return to Mexico with the images of many wonderful people of our ABC churches who have shown us support in so many ways. Thank you all so much for your love, caring, wonderful meals, comfortable homes, opportunities to rest while on deputation and just for the feeling of being with loved ones while being far from our own family.THANK YOU!

Mercy

Family update

As Mercy mentioned, we are nearing the end of our US/Puerto Rico assignment. We have been traveling quite a bit, and this past month was no exception. We look forward to meeting people in the Los Angeles area (Mercy), Nebraska (Rick), and Pennsylvania/Delaware (Mercy). Yes, at times we do feel like ships passing in the night. Aida recently placed third at a speaking contest involving two schools. She was also part of a history team from her school that placed first in a county-wide history meet. Richie recited "O Captain, My Captain" by Walt Whitman as part of his class presentation at a recent assembly.Both of them continue to excel at school. Joshua is now counting to 100 by two's, five's and ten's, and is doing very well at reading. We look forward to celebrating Josh's sixth birthday on the 17th and Richie's twelfth on the 20th.We so appreciate your interest in our family and covet your prayers in that area, too.

Rick