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I am grateful and very happy to be able to write this report. God has truly smiled on us this weekend.

On Thursday night we held our weekly ministry in Villas del Sur. This area has proved to be difficult since there is such great need. The people we are ministering to are truly in survival mode…some wondering where their next meal will come from. Oftentimes we Americans think of benevolence ministry as a one-shot deal. We’ll quickly give someone some help, but we expect that one instance to suffice. We’re learning that its truly an ongoing experience…..But I digress…Anyway, last Thursday we went to the homes of some of our ongoing Bible studies and no one was home. We finished early and decided to visit the home of a lady who had come to a group Bible study recently. We knocked on her door and eventually were seated in some chairs outside here front door. There she heard the gospel and accepted Christ as her Lord and Savior. Clearly, this lady has many needs, but now she has one less need…salvation! Praise the Lord.

On Friday, my partner Kenny and I drove over to the town of Miguel Alemán, about 35 miles west of Hermosillo. I was in search of information about an Unreached People Group (UPG) that has a significant number of members there. After a driving tour of the town and a couple of stops to ask for information, we found a pastor who is trying to minister to this UPG. He took us to the home of one of his deacons who is heading up the mission work. There I heard a comment that I’ve heard several times recently…..”We’ve been praying for the Lord to send someone to help us!” This church (not Baptist, by the way) was contacted around the end of 2009 and a ministry opportunity to this UPG just happened! They weren’t particularly looking for it, but I am deeply grateful for an insightful pastor who saw God at work and decided to join him there. I am not sure how this partnership might work out, but my prayer is that our Baptist brethren in Hermosillo will catch the vision to go and share Christ among this group. (I’ll share more about the Triqui people in a future blog post. For now, pray for them, please.)

I returned home around mid-afternoon on Friday and rested briefly before heading out for Pesqueira and the ministry at the vineyard. As you might remember, we made 3 or 4 trips to the vineyard before we were told we could not return. Thankfully, we have some resourceful and tenacious partners inside the vineyard. It seems that there is a fenceline near the dormitories where the workers live which separates the vineyard from the neighboring ranch. One of the Christian workers took the initiative to go and ask the landowner if he would permit them to have a Bible study or worship service on his land and the owner said yes. When I spoke with Chuy on Friday he said that maybe three of the brothers were willing to “go across the fence” to have the Bible study. I agreed to go and did so, arriving about 6 p.m. Sadly, the gate to the neighboring ranch was locked, so I spent 30-40 minutes trying to contact the guys on the vineyard. Long story short, a “cowboy” finally drove up and opened the gate for us and we were able to drive around the vineyard to the other side. We parked and walked up the hill, expecting three workers. But there were 10! We started quickly since the sun was going down, as we sang and as I shared from God’s word, 10 more guys showed up. We ended the night praying and praising God with 20 workers under cool, windy, and dark Sonoran skies. God is truly good.

On Saturday, we headed up to north Hermosillo and participated in an evangelistic event with the Casa de Dios church. This congregation has recently bought two vacant lots and hopes to construct a church building. We were pleased to be able to help them with their first event on the property. About 100 people form the neighborhood came to take part in the event. The most gratifying part of it all is that the Casa de Dios church did the event all themselves and they had a great team.

Finally, today we celebrated 5 baptisms at Las Lomas. These are the first that we’ve had and we pray that some other candidates will be motivated to take this step of obedience very soon.

We got some not-so-good news this week. It seems that the person who gave us permission to enter the vineyard and minister to the migrant workers did not have the approval to do so from others in the chain of command. At present we’ve been told that we will not be allowed to enter any more.

We have some options to continue ministering with the workers at an off-site location, but that may or may not be a viable option. The ranch is located several miles from the nearest small town and the dorms are located on the back side of a large ranch. Perhaps some of the most faithful and most interested workes might make the trek into town, but clearly the large part of them won’t.

We are praying for God to reveal to us how we should continue with our ministry. We are a bit discouraged at this point, but still hopeful.

A difficult decison has been made. I suppose it was inevitable, but that doesn’t make it easy.

As you have probably read in the news, one of the most dangerous cities in the world (that’s right, the world) is where part of our team works….Juárez, Mexico. During 2009 the death toll from drug-related murders rose to more than 2,600. The killing is senseless and widespread. And it appears to be getting worse. Although 2009 was the worst year on record, January and February 2010 are outpacing it.

As a result, after much prayer and discussion, we’ve made the decision to evacuate our personnel from the city. We really don’t know what will happen to the work that our people have been a part of for many years. Hopefully, it will continue and it will grow stronger. Doubtless, we will lose some of our preaching points. Perhaps some others will be raised up. Only God knows.

In recent months several religious groups have received extortion threats. The demand for “protection money” is growing and a host of burned out businesses (who apparently weren’t paying) is the evidence. Ultimately, our leaders just did not feel they could continue to allow our personnel to live in such dangerous conditions.

May God bless our personnel who are relocating, and may God bless the local brethren who can’t leave. May this violent and sinful city one day be transformed by the power of Christ.

February was a month of travels for us. Hopefully, March won’t be.

In early February, Donna and I flew to Mexico City to attend a team leader meeting. It rained and was cold almost the entire time we were there, making the situation less than ideal. We had a couple of days of meetings along with a couple of travel days. We were guests of some of our missionary colleagues in the D.F., since this meeting was done on the cheap! (Cutting costs seems to be the buzzword this year)

Later, I (Alan) flew to Guatemala City, Guatemala for a week of leadership training. I spent several days along with my colleague David studying with our regional leadership consultant. The time was truely rewarding and I think I came away with some useful information to put into practice. I enjoyed seeing Guatemala for the first time, although honestly I wouldn’t want to live there. This was another meeting done on a tight budget, and that was reflected in our meals. We didn’t really have any bad  meals, but as I like to say, nothing just really knocked my socks off……except maybe for the frozen coconut lemonade that accompanied our last meal. Yum, Yum.

For the last several years we’ve had meetings or other commitments that have separated Donna and I on our birthdays (mine is 2/20 and hers is 2/22). Late last year we decided, Lord willing, we’d plan something special to celebrate. We waffled on the idea (or maybe that was just me waffling) several times. I thought about how much we’d already been away from home, and how much a little celebration trip might cost and a few other things. Ultimately, I decided that Donna was worth it and that the other trips were all about work. So we headed out for a couple of days in the mountains of Arizona. We enjoyed snow-skiing, a musuem visit, and several good meals. One of the highlights was finding one of the restaurants featured on Guy Fieri’s TV show, “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.” We really enjoyed the weekend and will have to say as southerners, we’ve never seen that much snow in that little time. It was great!

February is over, and we are back at home and back to the real world. Lot’s of work coming in March. Pray for us!

Welcome to 2010! I can hardly believe that we are entering a new decade. Time flies. Things are off and running here in Hermosillo. We enjoyed time with family over the Christmas holidays, but we are glad to be home and back to work. Our partners did a good job in our absence and for that, we are grateful.

The changes at IMB continue. The arrival of 2010 has brought a new round of administrative changes, mainly in the area of funding. We are in a “wait and see” mode as the financial gurus get a new electronic reimbursement system up and running. In summary, it appears 2010 will be the year “to do more, with less” as we’re experiencing budget cuts, reduced personnel,…and even salary and benefit cuts. On the personal front, Donna and I are tightening our belts a bit, cutting out some things that we really don’t need. Among others, we’ve pledged to eat out less in 2010. No big sacrifice there.

Our church plant in Las Lomas is going pretty well. We’ve been meeting in the open air for several months now and lately have suffered due to cool weather. It seems that the folks from Hermosillo will sit through 100 degree weather, but don’t let the temps drop below the 80s. They vote with their feet, saying it’s too cold to sit outside for any length of time. (All the while, Donna and I are enjoying the weather in short-sleeved shirts and dreading the return of triple-digit heat.) Our prayer is that God will lead us to a suitable location soon.

In Villas del Sur, the news is not as good. We have struggled to develop leaders or even develop commitment among the adults. The kids are still coming by the droves….they are so hungry for love and attention. Most of the families in the area seem to be “surviving”. That’s about all we can say. Donna remarked that when she asked the kids what they got for Christmas, many said “Nothing.” While we understand that Christmas presents are not essential items, I think most of us expect to give or receive something, allbeit something modest. Our plans for 2010 include some new strategies for Villas as well as much prayer.

The big news items for us right now are violence and water.

Our team members in other cities are facing some of the most violent conditions in the world due to the war on drugs. In Juárez, for example, the death toll was 191 deaths per 100,000 during 2009, making it statistically the most violent city in the world. For those of you from Louisiana, Juárez surpassed New Orleans, according to the news report! That’s comforting to know, isn’t it? Our leaders are studying the situation and we’ve already taken some steps to protect our missionaries who live and work there.

In Hermosillo, the big news item is water. We’ve had a scarcity of water for years now, and the previous mayoral administrations have put band-aids on the problem. One mayor bought water rights from the farmers and constructed wells and pipelines to bring water in from the aquifer west of the city. That seems to be running dry. The next mayor constructed a dam along the Sonora River and created a new, larger reservoir. The problem is that it’s not raining anywhere east of here, so the lake isn’t being replenished. Back in December, the city began water rationing by going from 24 hour a day service to only 16 hours per day. That caused some chaos as the water mains were put through cycles of pressure/no pressure. Leaks sprang up all over the city. I am not sure if they saved much water! Now, the announcement is that we are going from 16 hour a day service to only 8 hours per day. At our house, we have a water storage tank on the roof that holds enough water for a day or two. What should happen is that our tank will fill during the eight hours of service, and then gravity will draw the water into the house when the city service is turned off. We still have water, although the pressure is greatly reduced. Donna and I joke that we can only do one “water function” at a time. Don’t try to turn on a faucet in the kitchen if someone is showering. Don’t expect the washing machine to fill up in less that about 2 hours. (And if you wash more than one load, the storage tank will be depleted.) Such is missionary life in another country. ….

On another note, I have been amazed several times this week. First, the renewal notice came for our vehicle license plates. This normally means going to the office and standing in line for hours, only to be told you need to go home and get more documents. Beleive me, it’s frustrating. This year, however, there was an option to renew online. I went to the webpage, verified the data, and entered my credit card payment information. About three days later, a courier knocked on our door, hand delivering the renewal stickers. Is this Mexico?

Yesterday I was out and about in the city. After making several stops, I went to the car to start home and it wouldn’t crank. For some reason after six faithful years of service, the battery was dead. Anyway, I got some guys to give me a jump start and finally got the car going. I attempted to give the guys a tip…and they wouldn’t accept it. I drove on over to the auto parts store, bought a battery, and the young man installed it for me. I tried to tip him, and he refused the tip. Twice in one day? This is Mexico, where most everyone has their hand out for a tip. What’s up with that?

Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers for us.