FBC Missions

Hola a todos en Eugene,

Thank you for your prayers. Today was a good day packed with learning, growing, building, and loving. A small group of us went to K-57 to finish construction on the church there. Our work included installing ports in the wall for ventilation and frame supports to protect the building from high winds and earthquakes. Mark Atkins did a fantastic job organizing all the work and making sure everyone had what they needed.

VBS continues to go well. The children always love spending time with the high-schoolers and listening to bible stories told through puppet interpretations.

Also a small group from Victoria went to a drug rehabilitation center in Nueva Leon with Pastor Issac. We sang songs in spanish and Tim Bennion gave a short and sweet testimony of God’s transforming power.

Please continue to pray for energy and patience as we look towards our fourth full day in Mexico. All the work and sun (it’s been about 70 degrees J) has started to catch up to some people. Pray that God would continue to work in our lives and in those of our Mexican brothers. Despite all the news of violence, the towns feel much like they have every other year. However, we would appreciate continued prayer for safety.

God Bless,

The 2009 Mexico Mission Team

It is hard to imagine what you can pack into two days! It somehow seems that we have been here for weeks and it is only Tuesday. Yesterday we awoke to a gorgeous day with sunshine and light breeze. Steve Leighter and a group of young men were off early to K57 putting vents in the new church and adding extra bracing to the building. Tim Bennion and a group of guys and gals started digging post holes for the fence around the church in K39. In Oaxaca groups were putting insulation in the ceiling of the church and new wiring for the air conditioning. They power washed Pastor Onesimo’s house to prepare for painting. The group in 28 were off to the nursery school where they had 60 children ages 3-5. The medical clinic was in Colonial Juarez and saw a number of patients.

After lunches of beans, tortilla’s, carne asada, chicken mole, tacos, enchiladas, and pan dulce everyone was quite happy. In the afternoon over 200 children met for VBS where they learned about the conversion of Saul and made butterflies to tell of the changed life of Paul. It was a wonderful day and it wasn’t over.

One of the biggest highlights of the day was when Wes and the pastor’s wife from 28 came to the medical clinic with a women and her son just as the clinic was closing. She was a sixty year old lady with back pain. When Dr Jim asked if he could pray for her Lety, the pastor’s wife said that the woman was not a Christian. As they shared with her and her son about Jesus and how much He loved them they both prayed to receive Christ.

In the evening there was a basketball game in Delta. Delta is a very old community and is adjacent to Oaxaca. There were two huge blessings in Delta. Rudy was introduced to a man who had come to our game last year and also saw our teens sing and share the drama, “Broken Heart.” He came to share that after the play he had many questions and a few months later gave his heart to the Lord and has been growing ever since. The other blessing was that the “mayor” of the region came to make sure we felt safe. He even had several additional police cars in the area. At the close of our sharing at halftime he said to Onesimo, “This is a good work, this is what our people need.”

What a wonderful way to begin our week! Monday’s have never been so exciting. We appreciate your prayers!!! Colleen said she even got a nap!!!! The teenagers are precious and so great to work with. You would be proud of them all.

Blessings,

Rudy and Gayle

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Yesterday was an amazing day. We left Eugene at 6 am and headed to Portland. All the flights were on time and the trip was great. The vans were all ready for us to pick up and by 3 pm we were on our way to the border. A quick stop at IN n OUT and Walmart and we were off. Don Travis and Larry Burton met us at Walmart along with Colleen and our dear Julie Hafemeister. It was great to see them.

The border crossing was as easy as it could be, just a wave by the immigration officer and we were in Mexico heading to Victoria. We met our host families at the church and said HOLA to all our friends.

It was great to sleep in a little this morning and have a relaxing breakfast with our host families before Sunday School. My host mom asked us all last night if we wanted pancakes or a Mexican breakfast. She was met with a resounding “Mexican breakfast!!!”

At 11:00 am we met at our perspective churches and had a Bible Study led by one of our Mexican brothers. There were a lot of children in Sunday School and some of our teenagers helped in their classes. Sarah Yamada did an excellent job of translating for us in Victoria.

The afternoon has been a great time of practicing Spanish/English with our host families and enjoying another delicious meal (Dinner is about 2:00 each day) The meals seem to run together ~ we are in a state of constant fullness.

Tonight everyone will gather at the Victoria Church for praise and worship and a time of remembrance around the Lord’s table. We will sing and Pastor Isaac will preach.

Tomorrow the projects begin! Steve Leighter will take a group of eight guys to K57 for the day to work on the new church there. They plan to do some framing. Tim Bennion will take about 15 teens to K39 in order to dig holes for the fence around the church. Others will set up for VBS and the medical clinic. The group in 28 will go to the nursery school in the morning and hold VBS in the afternoon. In Oaxaca there are many small projects for us to do.

In the evening we will play basketball in Delta and Matt Busse and Sarah Yamada are ready with a group of teens to do the EVERYTHING skit. It should be a great evening. Please pray for the testimony of this skit and my message.

In spite of recent media releases, it feels and looks like old times here in Victoria and in the Valley. The folks around here don’t even recognize what we are talking about except to shrug and say, “Oh, yes, in Tijuana, there are lots of criminales.” We feel very safe and “at home.”

Thanks for praying.. we look forward to updating you throughout the week. God bless or as we say down here.

Dios le bendiga,

Rudy

See you at church at 5:45 am with backpack, lunch bag, bible. Be in prayer.

Hey everyone, just letting anyone who has kept up with this blog know that we have all finally made it home. We started out super early Thursday morning (at the airport at 5am) for our 7:00 flight. Around 8 or 9 we learned that the plane had encountered some ice in the air or something random and had by-passed La Paz (where we were) and instead gone directly to Santa Cruz; which had been our problem on Monday. At this point we were wondering if we were ever going to return home but we have, our plane eventually showed up around 2:00pm and we took off at 3:00; I can’t even explain how happy we were to leave the airport. Unfortunately the plane had to return to Santa Cruz to re-fuel and they then performed a security check while we were on the plane…an interesting experience to say the least. We missed all our connecting flights but American Airlines put us up in a hotel and provided us with food coupons though we only were able to sleep for about 2 hours before heading back to the airport. Our group was split into three different groups, one went through Chicago, one through Dallas, and another through Seattle. As one who headed off to Seattle we were unfortunately put into the SLOWEST moving line through security, every single one of us had to be checked and even were put into a tall glass box-like-thing as they separated us from the other individuals. Of course this is all happening as our plane is already boarding. At one point Kyle, Genna, Winston, and I (Bri) were all in this random glass box and Win started knocking on the glass and waving at the security guards who walked by, wondering if they had forgotten us. As we were taken out separately so our carry-on luggage could be checked Winston took off running for our gate, later to be followed by a sprinting Genna and Kyle who called to me, “We won’t let them leave without you!” Man, I should hope not! Well, I wasn’t far behind them as I struggled to not trip in my shoes that weren’t quite on and my bag bumbled around with all my loose money and change jingled in it. Arriving at gate C10 our plane was definitely not there but someone called that instead it was at C14 so we booked it there and thankfully made the flight. Once in Seattle we quickly got to our next gate and were able to grab a few things to eat/snack on before we boarded our 45 min flight to Portland.

Everyone from the team eventually made it, a few earlier than we had thought which was awesome and then we split up, 5 team members staying in Portland while the other five of us left Portland and though traffic made our trip much longer than otherwise it would have been, we are all here now. All of our luggage made it, we are all home and are not only excited to take long warm showers, but to also drink water out of the tap, eat lettuce, and sleep in our own beds. It has been a very long week but God provided through it all. Having a weekend to recoup is going to be awesome! Thanks everyone who prayed for us while we were gone, especially as the trip turned from 2 weeks into almost 3. So that’s it, we are finally back in the states and are all very excited to tell people about our experiences in Chile.

Chao!

Bri