Many of you have inquired about our personal safety due to all the news of violence that the American media reports. Most of what you hear is true, but thankfully we live in a very calm city that has, for the most part, been spared from the violence. Although Hermosillo is the state capital of Sonora and is home to nearly 35% of the state’s population, it is not considered #1 in violent crime. We are truly grateful for that and praise the Lord for keeping us out of harm’s way. We exercise common sense and are cautious and observant in our daily lives, but overall life here is very safe.
Our work continues to grow on several fronts. Many people ask missionaries, “Where is your church?” I suppose that is a valid question. However, for us, the answer is not easy. Since 2005 we’ve started no less than 4 churches and are currently working in 2 of them simultaneously. Our desire is to be facilitators and trainers, so we work closely with our Mexican partners and pastors. We try to stay out of the “spotlight” as much as possible and work behind the scenes to equip and train local people. In addition to the 2 churches, we are also working with migrant farm workers, university students, and are just beginning to develop a ministry to an indigenous group that lives about 35 miles west of Hermosillo. With these 3 ministries, that brings the total to 5 “streams” of ministry in which we are currently involved. On top of that I (Alan) serve as team leader with supervisory responsibilities for 5 IMB families. Whew!
Pray for us especially in these days as our mission continues to reorganize, revision, and transform itself into a global mobilization force.
In other news, we’ve enjoyed an unusually cool and wet winter and spring in Hermosillo. However, it looks like that might be behind us. Yesterday topped out at 102 and Friday’s forecast calls for 104. We have washed the AC filter and will probably use AC for the first time this afternoon! But that’s life in the “City of the Sun “. Ha! Ha!
Donna and I, our two semester missionaries Ashley and Kathryn, and many of our national friends all suffered recently from a stomach virus that made its way around Hermosillo. When such days come, we are reminded of how blessed we are to be in generally good health and suffer from so few occurrences of sickness.
Our family back home seems to be doing fine. Continue to pray for our son-in-law in Iraq and for our children, grandchildren and extended family who are in Louisiana. We are in the planning stages right now for our summer vacation and hope to make it to Louisiana for a few days to see them.
God bless you!
Archive for the ‘Prayer Requests’
from our recent newsletter
what a day
Today we returned to the vineyard for our weekly visit. But it appears that the “enemy” is doing all he can to oppose our work. Makes me think we must be doing something right!
I loaded up some supplies in our mission vehicle and we were getting in when I noticed a large wet spot on the driveway. I am no mechanic, but it appears that the water pump has given up the ghost. Not to be outdone, I quickly moved the supplies to my personal vehicle and off we went. We arrived at the land next door to the vineyard on time, but the gate was locked and the key was missing from it’s hiding place. I made a quick phone call to the guys inside the vineyard. They did not have any contact information for the landowner. We had no choice but to leave the vehicle at the gate and walk in, so we did….all 7/8 mile!
We arrived a bit late and were pleased to see nearly 20 of the migrant workers gathered to hear from God’s word. Since we were so far from the road, we didn’t try to carry chairs, so all of us just stood and sang and listened to the teaching.
What a privilege we have to be able to go to be with these people! I pray that God will work in their lives and that they in turn will take the gospel with them as they soon move on to other places.
update
I drove out to Pesqueira on Saturday accompanied by Miguel Ángel to talk with Chuy and Luis about the future of our ministry in the vineyards. I had been unable to reach them by phone to tell them that I could not enter the vineyard on Friday for our appointment and they were a bit worried that we had abandoned them. Thankfully we were able to explain the situation to them and they were very understanding. Although we haven’t given up hope on re-entering the ranch, right now it seems that we have two options.
The first option is to find an off-site location and continue to offer ministry to those who can find a way to get into the village. The problem with this option is that the folks would have to walk or catch a ride for the 2-3 trip. We think that we might have a small core group committed enough to do this, but obviously we will lose our contact with the larger group.
The second option, which to me seems to be the best and most in line with our strategy, is to train a few selected leaders off-site and encourage them to continue the ministry with the larger group on the inside. Chuy and Luis seem willing and able to do this and I think it will result in more “trained” leaders and less dependency on outside pastors and missionaries.
The guys are sharing these thoughts with the group and we are all praying for clarity in this matter.
On another note, Chuy related that he might be changing vineyards soon (maybe today) and feels sure that he can get work in a nearby vineyard that has nearly 2000 workers. Since it’s under different ownership, there is a possiblity that we could gain access there. We’ll keep you updated….you just keep praying for us!
volunteers, volunteers, and more volunteers
But it’s a good thing!
We were blessed to have a group from Illinois State University here working alongside our two great semester missionaries. They spent most of the week on the UNISON campus, making friends and building relationships. They drank gallons of coffee Caffenio and played volleyball until they dropped. We are grateful for their sweet spirit and can do attitude.
The day after the Illinois project ended, a group from our home church (Eastwood BC, Haughton, LA) arrived. Led by Bryan Canup, this team exemplified flexibility and servant leadership. They drove nearly round-the-clock to get here (and to get back home) and arrived with big smiles and loving hearts. The people of Las Lomas were touched by this group. Just last night one of our church members gave a testimony of how some of her unsaved neighbors commented positively about the willingness of this team to come and work in our neighborhood. The trip culminated in the screening of an evangelistic film which was well-attended. As a result, 8 new families have requested marriage counseling and we had some new folks at church on Sunday! Praise the Lord!
Back again for their 4th consecutive year in Hermosillo, the team from FBC, Borger, Texas arrived in force–three church vans and 27 people. These guys have been here so much they know their way around the city and feel right at home. They worked the entire week on the UNISON campus and developed many relationships. We pray that their efforts, along with those of the Illinois group will result in some students coming to know Christ and gathering for Bible study.
Today, we are taking a day off to rest, catch up on laundry, and regroup for the followup work. Pray for us!
some prayer requests
Would you pray with us for the following prayer requests?
1) That God would do a mighty work in our city and that many souls would be saved.
2) That our mission leadership would receive wisdom, and especially for the process of selecting our new president.
3) That the missionary families affected by the violence in Mexico would receive an extra portion of God’s grace
4) That our son-in-law Casey would be safe on his 18 month tour in Iraq.
5) That we would all be faithful to the task.
prayer request
Would you pray for us as we launch a church planting institute? We hope to train at least 10 church planters in Hermosillo in 2010. Our next effort will be a course in church planting that will meet about once a month on Saturday from January to May. We hope to have some graduates planting churches by late spring/early summer. If all goes well, we’ll either repeat the course with new students in the fall, or we’ll offer a second, more in-dept course to the spring students.
halloween alternative
This Friday night, October 30th, we are hosting a community-wide event as a Halloween alternative. We’ll have games and activities for the kids, a costume contest, a decorated fruit contest, and a brief message about why we don’t observe Halloween in the traditional way.
I am not sure what to expect in regard to the costume contest. We have distributed about 500 invitations in the community and have asked that the kids come dressed as an animal, a plant, a cartoon character, or something other than monsters, witches, etc. We’ll see!
The decorated fruit is a Mexican thing. Supposedly the kids are supposed to take any fruit…apple, orange, banana, whatever…and decorate it with whatever they have around the house. I suppose they will end up with something like a Mr. Potato Head or a Veggie-Tale character. We’ll see!
We are grateful for the expected arrival of a volunteer team from Tucson who’ll be helping with those events. Pray that we will make some good, new contacts during this event, Friday night from 6:30-8:30 p.m. PDT.
october happenings
Wow! I am really getting lazy about updating this blog. Sorry! We have been rather busy, however.
The work in Hermosillo continues to go well, although we’ve had some disappointments. One of our partners told us that in their experience, October is one of the worst months for ministry. The days are getting shorter, the kids have been back to school for a month, the long hot summer is still hanging on…..it seems like everyone is just in a rotten mood. We’ve experienced that in October. We’ve seen some apathy and some just general exasperation on the part of our people. Hopefully, it won’t last long.
Sunday before last, we arrived at the site of our Sunday services only to find that a neighbor had hired a very loud band to play ranchero music in the street. It was the final part of the “Quinceañera” celebration for their 15 year old daughter. There was cake and balloons, and although I couldn’t see it from my vantage point, probably beer flowing freely. At any rate, the band was blasting at about 100 decibels and you could hear it from 1/2 mile away. We stood around discussing what to do about church and couldn’t even hear each other. Finally some of the brethren showed up at the last minute and we moved our meeting to a home about 6 blocks away. Our attendance was way down, but God’s hand was evident. We had a very good Bible study with several new attenders. God is good.
Last Sunday we returned to our usual site and all was back to normal. We had nearly 50 in attendance including my adult Sunday School class of 16. We had a very good Bible study entitled “Living in the Spirit” and discussed the initial and the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of non-beleivers and believers. We had very good participation and it’s so gratifying to see people sorting out their own beliefs to come into agreement with Scripture.
A couple of weeks ago we headed out to Tijuana to visit our colleagues there. Just recently our newest team members, the T. family joined us there. It was good to see them and the L. family and spend some time with them.
We got our flu shots recently and I think both of us reacted to the shots with a bit of fever and strong headaches. It lasted a couple of days. Hopefully, we won’t get the flu!
November is shaping up to be a busy month for us. We had expected one volunteer team to come in November and had inquiries from a second, but alas, both have cancelled. As we say here, “Ni modo”. Life and ministry goes on. We are planning a youth retreat on Saturday, November 7 and later in the month (a date TBA) we’ll screen the FIREPROOF movie and begin some Bible studies focused on marriages. Our church is already planning for a Christmas event in the community, which will probably happen sometime between the 25th and Jan. 6th. (January 6 is the traditional day for gift giving in Mexico. Google it to find out more!)
Keep praying for us and for the work in Hermosillo!
God is good
A couple of weeks ago we went to see the dermatologist. We’ve had our share of sunburns over the years and now we live and work in “the city of the sun”….Hermosillo. Donna was concerned about some spots on her face and nose, and she insisted that I go along for a general checkup. By the way, the whole process here is so easy. We went to the new hospital that is just two blocks from our house and went to the front desk. We asked about a dermatologist and were directed to the third floor, suite H. We walked up and asked for an appointment with the doctor. She said, “for today?” We said no, and she said, “OK, how about tomorrow?”
The next afternoon we went in and I was pronounced free of any evident problems of the skin. Donna was given some powerful cream to apply to one spot, and the doctor advised on taking two biopsies from the spot on Donna’s nose. We went back the following Thursday and it was a simple office procedure. We were given the skin samples and carried them to the second floor to pathology. We went back on Monday to get the results.
Yesterday, Friday, Donna returned to get the stitches out of her nose and for the doctor to review the pathology. (We had the pathology report with us.) Thankfully, there was no cause for alarm. It appears that the spots on Donna’s nose are common to many adults her age and are not cancerous (nor do they usual develop into skin cancer.) We praise the Lord for that report!
In the midst of all this, we hosted a great volunteer team from Foothills Baptist Church in Phoenix, Arizona. Dave was the layman and volunteer missions advocate who organized the trip. He was accompanied by Pastor Brian and 8 eager volunteers. They arrived on Saturday afternoon and departed on Wednesday.
This team worked with our church in Las Lomas. The new church had named a leadership team for some relationship-building evangelistic events and the Arizona team helped with these events.
On Sunday, we knocked on doors and invited about 400 households to the events. At 6 p.m. that same day, we held a mini-olympics on the community basketball court. Over 100 people were there, including about 12-15 adults that we’d never met before. The Arizona team (mostly Spanish speakers, by the way) were quite helpful in greeting and chatting with these guests. Kids and parents participated in sack races, tricycle races, and an obstacle course. Everyone got a chocolate medallion for participating!
On Monday we prayer-walked in the morning (a first time experience for many of the Foothills volunteers). In the evening, we had a volleyball tournament on the same community court. This was the first time we tried volleyball and it seemed to be a great success as well. We had over 50 people playing volleyball until after 9 p.m. on a school night! Again, there were several adults who came to play or to just sit and chat.
On Tuesday, we made some home visits in the morning. In the evening we set up the screen and projector and showed “Facing the Giants” to a crowd of about 50. There were more new people on Tuesday night that we had not seen on Sunday or Monday. Movie night was complete with popcorn and lemonade, and as the saying goes, “A great time was had by all.”
We are grateful for God’s faithfulness during these days and look ahead with great anticipation about building deeper relationships with the new people we’ve met. We suspect that we’ll see some of the Foothills volunteers in Hermosillo again.
hurricane update
News is finally coming out of Guaymas, Empalme, and San Carlos (100 miles south of us) regarding hurricance damage. Although the storm made landfall on the Baja Peninsula, there were some fairly strong winds and all time record rainfall. Up to 28 inches of rainfall fell locally in and around Guaymas. Several low-lying neighborhoods experienced high water and mudslides.
As of today, Tuesday, there are hundreds of families living in temporary shelters in the Guaymas area. The Mexican government, Mexican military, and some American volunteers are providing aid and assistance. We’ve heard that the government is paying people about $10 per day to be involved in cleaning up their own homes and streets. This may not sound like much, but evidently it is a great help to the people and to the cleanup operation.
It seems that the sewer system has collapsed and potable drinking water is scarce. There is great need for almost everything from food to household goods to furniture.
We will be visiting the area today and surveying the needs first hand.
Please pray for these people.
