Of all the things that John and I do here, going to the mission is definitely our favorite. We live and spend most of our time in Bucerias, but on Tuesdays and Saturdays, we drive 30 minutes into the jungle-covered hills to a small town called San Ignacio. We do worship, kids classes and bible studies with the people there. We also feed the people a couple times a month. Since we started working here, I have known that this is one of the poorest towns in the region. But after a few weeks, I stopped noticing the dirty faces, the ill-fitting clothes, and just focused on the kids. Basically, I forgot they are poor.  Yesterday, I was reminded. 

Let me back up. On Saturday, Pastora Maya, our pastor’s wife, stopped by the mission in San Ignacio after our service was over and we were playing with the kids. She noticed one of our youngest and most faithful attenders, a 4-year-old girl named Abby. Maya asked about how often she come to the mission and if her parents were there, if they ever came.  I didn’t know much about her family, just that she comes very faithfully with her 10 year old sister, and that I had never met her parents. Maya decided that she wanted to go home with them, to meet their parents and see where they live.

The next day, she told me about her visit. There are four children who come to the mission very often (I didn’t even realize all four of them are related!) and a cousin who also comes faithfully. Neither of their parents were home. Their mother was working cleaning houses in Sayulita 15 minutes up the road. The oldest, Alisha, said that she would be home around 6 or 7 pm. Their father was working in Vallarta, about an hour away. If he wasn’t drinking, he would be home about the same time. Maya asked if they had any food, and who would cook it for them. (Prepackaged food is very rare here, and too expensive for most people.) Alisha said that her brother and sisters like rice, and she would make if for them. Maya asked if they had a stove and if she knew how to work it. She did. Stoves here are different than in the States. They are propane and never have a striker. To light them, one must turn on the gas and light it oneself with a cigarette lighter. Alisha regularly does the cooking for her siblings because her parents work so much to support the family. Another thing about Alisha, she is almost blind in one eye.

While Maya was there, the kids showed her a photo album. It was the happiest day of Alisha’s life, her 5^th birthday party at Kindergarten. Maya was inspired by this to come back with her niece, a photographer, to take pictures of the kids and print them so they had some pictures of themselves. She invited me to go with them yesterday.

Pastora Maya with Mona, a cousin, on the porch

We drove back in to the neighborhood further than I had been before. We approached a ladder that led to a double staircase that ended at their front porch. Two little girls appeared and threw themselves into my arms. They were so excited that I was there. Daily, I wish that I could communicate more with them, that my Spanish was better, but yesterday I realized that I don’t have to speak perfect Spanish for them to feel loved. Just being faithful to them every week, showing up and doing lessons with them matters.

Their mom was home with them yesterday. Maya talked with her while the kids had their photos taken. Their mom is a beautiful lady who loves her kids and works hard for them, but is already stretched beyond her limit. She showed us her home. She knows how little they have. I was struck with how vulnerable she was.

Taking photos

The mom told us that she works 12 hours a day 6 or 7 days a week. For that, she earns about $400 USD a month. Her husband, who probably works similar hours, earns less. Maya explained that she wanted to make a photo album to give to the kids like the one they had showed her the Saturday before. The mom thanked her humbly, and told us that she had never seen a photograph before Alisha had brought some home from school. Ever. Her kids had to explain what a photo was.

The front porch and entrance to their house

The house has one room with a bunk bed made by her husband, a tv, a two burner range, and a small table that acts as a kitchen counter. The bathroom is two stories at ground level. I didn’t see a mattress on the bed frame, just blankets. Her husband and her shared the bottom with their youngest, and the older three shared the top bunk. The walls were made of exposed cement block, and two of the walls were unfinished, leaving a 7 ft x 5 ft opening. She told us that it used to get very cold at night, but they had recently bough a green mesh to cover the window. They didn’t really have a front door, just a sheet and a piece of plywood to lean against the opening.

I didn’t know what to do or say. It is one thing to see something like this on tv. If we are going to compare it, maybe I’ve seen worse, but never in real life, never with kids that I care about. I knew that this is what San Ignacio is like. I just hadn’t seen it before. This family is not unusual. The long work hours, the kids caring for each other because no one else is home: that is normal. I’ve heard the kids at the mission say that their parents hit each other, or that they drink too much. Life here is really hard, and I know that. It is different seeing it.

Maya asked the mom if she believed that Alisha is totally blind in one eye. The mom said that she had never asked her. She said that she had never taken Alisha to the doctor because she didn’t have time because of her work schedule. I am thinking that money is also a factor. Maya is planning on taking her to the doctor in the next couple weeks. Alisha might need surgery.

When we climbed back in the car, Maya said to me “those girls are never going to forget your face. They will remember you for the rest of their lives.” She went on about how important what we are doing is. How it will change these kids’ lives. Then, she said “I still remember the missionary who came to my village and taught me about Jesus. Her face is still in my mind.” She said that the mission is the highlight of the week for them. They look forward to it the way that we would look forward to a movie coming out or something like that. I asked her son later if Maya had been raised as a Christian. He said no. Maya was the first one in her family to accept Christ. Here is the thing: Maya is the 9^th of 10 children, raised in a very poor family on the Baja. She was exactly like these kids. She met Jesus at a mission like the one in San Ignacio. Several of her family members have accepted Christ and she has led many many children to Jesus in Sunday school, at kids programs, and on her front porch. Those kids have grown up and broken the cycle of poverty in their families. They don’t drink or smoke dope like their parents did. They have real jobs. Some are the first in their families to have steady work. They don’t beat their kids. They love their spouses. They don’t have a girlfriend or boyfriend on the side, like is so very common here in Mexico. Their lives are changed because of Jesus. That is what we are doing in San Ignacio. With my sputtering Spanish and ridiculous kids songs, I have the privilege of watching Jesus change these kids in to movers and shakers in their communities. Jesus is plucking them out of impossible poverty and turning their hearts to him. In the middle of awkward, stressful circumstances, when I can’t understand what they are saying, God is here. I am so grateful to be here too. 

-Moorea

Please pray for this family, that God will touch their hearts, and change their lives. Pray that  Alisha's eye is healed, or that the doctors will be able to correct the damage.

Please also pray for one of the La Fuente Pastors, Fredy. He has been having some health problems and the doctors do not know what is wrong. The words hernia and cancer have both been used. He is in his thirties and has two young children. He has faith that God is going to heal him. Please pray into that with us and for peace for his family.

Hello,

So this is going to be a guest post by John Mark, so it may not be as refined as you are used to but I will give this blog thing a shot. We have been doing really good, staying pretty busy with the day to day work but finding really fun things to do in our free time. We really feel at home here in Bucerías and are enjoying the work we are able to do with La Fuente (the ministry we are working for).

Team

We had a team of five people come down from Michigan from a church of approximately 1500 people to check out La Fuente. They sent down their mission’s pastor as well as one of their youth pastors to see if their church would partner with us and send more teams down. Whenever La Fuente has teams come down, Moorea is in charge of scheduling the team and what they will be doing while they are here. She acts as a coordinator and spends time emailing the teams and answering questions, acting as a go to person for both the team coming down and the pastors here when they have any questions. I also help with the teams but more logistically and hands on. I coordinated some painting and other construction projects the team helped us with while they were here. I also am the professional chauffeur for the team, picking them up from the airport and driving them around while they are here. Having the team kept us running for the whole 10 days. We ended up being behind on a lot of the stuff we normally take care of and it seems like we still haven’t caught up, and it’s been several weeks since they left. We enjoy spending time with all of the people who come. We end up meeting people from all over the US and Canada who come from all different backgrounds and are missions minded.  All in all having the team was a great success. We were able to get a lot done with their help and they have already planned a team of their youth group this summer and another team of adults next February! I think you could say they caught the vision of all that La Fuente is doing and believe in it.

Some of the team painting at the church

Santa Fe

La Fuente has been working for some time trying to get a land donation from the government in a town near Bucerías called San Vicente. Nothing has ever opened up there but the government said there were several options in a nearby town called Santa Fe. Santa Fe is an area that has several large housing developments around it, yet has no church. None. No Christian church, no Catholic church, no Jehovah's Witnesses (JW’s are actually fairly numerous around here), so the opportunity to expand the kingdom is great. Last night when they had a service in a park near the land we are hoping to get there was 90 people (mostly kids) who attended! There is also a ministry in the US called Kids Around the World who wants to donate a playground to La Fuente but we need the land in Santa Fe to put it on. Please be praying that we will be able to get this land and get it quickly.

San Ignacio kids classes

Moorea playing catch with a girl from San Ignacio

We have been going through the story of Moses in the bible with the kids in San Ignacio. The older kids were doing well at remembering the story but the younger kids (ages 3-6) were not remembering it as much. Something we have found though is if you do very tactile things / hands on things with them, they are a lot more likely to remember the story. One example of this is when we were going over the plagues in Egypt and how the Israelites had to paint the door frames with lambs blood Moorea took some paper and put it up and let the kids paint it red (I lifted the little ones so they could paint the top of the frame as well).  Another example is when the Israelites went through the red sea we brought a bed sheet and had them walk through it to music. When the music stopped we would drop the sheet on them and tickle the “Egyptians” who were drowning.  The kids really liked that one.  One more example is when the Israelites were going through the desert they were led by the cloud by day and the fire by night and if it wasn’t for that they wouldn’t know where to go and basically be lost. So I made a maze out of the chairs and tables that day, then I crumpled up a few napkins in my hand to be the cloud and blindfolded the kids and put their hands on the napkins that were in my hand and led them through the maze. I then explained how that just how they trusted me the Israelites trusted God, and how we need to trust God the same. Really simple things but it really helps the kids learn the stories better.

John Mark playing with the kids at the orphanage

Friends / Crew

This is my new love language,
carne asada tacos

We have started hanging out with the same group of friends several times a week. The best part of it is they are our age as well. We typically go get taco’s from a stand after church, but we also go to the movies, go hiking, play the Wii (Just Dance 2), go to different church events, and in general stay up ridiculously late. Moorea and I have really enjoyed having people closer to our age to spend time / goof off with.

Salsa classes

Moorea told me even before we left the US to come down here that she wanted to take salsa classes. We have a friend who told us about one and we have been going for two weeks now, twice a week. Our teacher is a little Venezuelan who has studied several kinds of dance and has even danced competitively in an international dance competition that was aired on ESPN. I have really been enjoying it. I am not super motivated to work out and this is a way that I am doing at least some cardio every week. It is also nice to have a something else that my wife and I have in common that we can do together. Another perk of the class is I feel like my Spanish comprehension is getting better as our classes are taught in Spanish.

New vehicle

We had a nice little Honda civic before w left and came down here. Since deciding to stay here longer we decided it would be best to sell it and buy something that can handle the Mexican roads better (dirt roads, pot holes, cobble stone roads, heavy tropical rain). We decided to get a Toyota 4runner as it has better ground clearance, bigger tires, and can haul people and stuff easily. My dad took the money from us selling our car and started looking for one and bought a nice clean white little 4runner for us that was down in Stockton. He is having our mechanic go over it, taking care of different maintenance items and make sure its good to go.  My mom ran around and made sure everything was squared away with DMV. The CD player was broken in the 4runner and my parents are taking a cd player out of one of their other cars and putting it in ours. My parents have been such a blessing helping us get a car and make sure its road worthy. Thank you mom and dad!

Trip Home

We are planning to fly home in the end of May for two weeks and then we will drive the 4runner back down. We have a close friend getting married and Moorea is in her wedding. We will also be visiting friends and family and shopping for cloths, technology items, and other things we cannot get down here (or there is a large markup on them). We will be having a missions meeting talking about the work we are doing, stay tuned for when.

Vision Juvenil

We had the opportunity to go to a youth conference in Tepic, which is the capitol of our state with some friends and some of the youth from church. The church we are working for has a sister church in Tepic and the conference was held at that church. There ended up being 1,200 youth from costal and central Mexico, it was awesome to be able to worship with that many youth really pressing into God! We went up early and spent some time in a big park and going to the mall for a while. After the conference we went out for hamburgers and hot dogs and didn’t get home till 4:30 in the morning! (it’s a three hour drive).

Even the monkeys drink coca in Mexico,
At the park in Tepic

Our neighbors

We rent the top floor in a little   two-story apartment building, and our neighbor downstairs is one of the pastors at La Fuente named Greg and his family. Greg is the worship leader for the Spanish services and a really awesome, upbeat guy. Around our apartment there are more apartments and a few months ago a tarot card reader moved in downstairs, directly across the street. We were defiantly praying and doing some spiritual warfare, both for the tarot card reader himself and his family and for the people who were lost and looking for answers coming to see him. But Greg took it one step further. In Mexico many businesses don’t have hours they work or normal days off. They just work when they want to and don’t work when they don’t want to. Greg took advantage of that fact and whenever someone came to see the tarot card reader and he wasn’t there Greg would go out and talk to them. He would invite them to sit on his porch and talk to them. He would say, “if you ever want you can come talk to me. I have what you are looking for”. He spent time counseling different ones and praying with them, and out of that one family got saved! They are even serving on the usher team now and the adults are scheduled to get baptized next time we have baptisms. Praise God!

Oliver

Oliver Version 2.0

Two weeks ago, we had a big scare. One of the pastors has a small son, about 14 months old named Oliver. One afternoon, he fell down a flight of stairs several meters high. When he hit the floor, he started convulsing and then stopped moving or breathing. He turned blue and then yellow.  Both his parents were there and said afterwards that they felt that his spirit was gone. He was dead. They immediately started praying for him, hysterical as any parent would be in that situation. Several minutes passed as they prayed. Suddenly, his eyes opened and he started moving normally. They put him in the car and sped to the hospital. When they arrived, little Oliver was acting totally normal, mimicking other patients and asking to go home. They stayed for several hours, testing him, but nothing was wrong. He didn’t even have a bruise or a bump the next morning!! We have been celebrating and praising God who is able to raise people from the dead. We are in awe of this amazing miracle that God has done for all of us who love this little boy. His parents have declared that Oliver has been born again in a literal sense – according to their reckoning, he is two weeks old on Sunday.

Thank you all for your prayers and support.

Peace be with you,

john mark

Please pray:

La Fuente will receive the land donation in Santa Fe

John Mark’s health (allergies)

Building permit for the sanctuary would come through

That we would continue to learn the language

Protection for the Staff and their families at La Fuente