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.
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.
As the saying goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. At least that what some believe. I ain’t buying it.
Right now, it’s all about change in the organization. We have new structure, new bosses, new policies and procedures, and new goals. There is not much that hasn’t changed, in my opinion, and that makes it difficult. Don’t get me wrong, I am not against change. It’s just when everything spins into confusion and into uncertainty, ministry suffers.
Several months ago we were told that the closer to the field a missionary was located (us peons as opposed to the ruling class) the less we’d notice the change. I think that was not exactly accurate. Change is all over all of us and some are handling it better than others. We were told to “expect confusion” for the next few months.
I am sure we’ll get through it, but we could all sure use your prayers right now!
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!
Thanks for your prayers for our church planting institute. On January 30 an excited group of potential church planters gathered in our home to register and receive orientation about the institute. After a couple of hours of fellowship they got their books and were on their way.
On February 27, our first class met from 6 to 10 p.m.. Each student had completed the first three lessons in the workbook. Our three “professors” each facilitated one of the lessons and a lively discussion ensued. We are grateful for the dedication of these students and for their participation. Would you pray for students, A, M, V, M, J, and I, as well as leaders, A, M, and G?
movilizando méxico