This morning we went to the church early, as we usually do on Saturday mornings, but instead of dispersing to various missions to hold bible studies, work for food programs, and activities for the kid, we piled into several church vehicles and went to the lake. This morning was a baptism service.

All the baptism services I have been to in the states are very basic: come, watch the baptism, go home. You sped an hour tops. Not so here. It is commonly understood around here that Mexicans have parties as often as they can. Any excuse is a good one for everyone to gather, eat potluck Mexican food, chat, and listen to music. Today was no exception.

We drove about 20 minutes to a river flowing out of the jungle and towards the ocean. It was very beautiful. I was surprised how much the scenery reminded me of the Feather and Umpqua rivers: forested mountains nearby and shallow rocky river bed in the valley. The men unloaded tables, chairs, and a basic sound system. We had perhaps ten baptisms in the cool water. The water was probably a little warmer than the rivers in Northern California at their warmest. Here, that is freezing. The ocean and swimming pools are very warm, so only the kids and pastors were brave enough to get wet at first.

Once the baptisms were over, the women produced huge pots of beans, rice, tostadas, sandwiches and desserts. We ate the wonderful food, trying to forget about the swarms of carpenter ants we had disturbed on the beach. John started swimming and I went wading with some of the older girls. At one point, John picked a couple flowers upstream and brought them over to me. That attracted the attention of the whole group and they started wooping and chanting at us in Spanish. I didn't understand at first, but with the help of a Canadian friend, I realized what they wanted. I kissed John to the delight of the crowd.

It was such a fun, relaxed atmosphere. Some of the men started hunting for fresh water shrimp, and the young adults floated down the rapids. I hadn't quite gotten up the courage to brave the cold water AND rapids, when Pastora Maya asked me if I would float down with her. I agreed, so John, me, Pastora Maya, and her teenage son floated down in that order. It was so much fun, I did it again :) All in all, it was a wonderful day. I can't wait for the next baptism service.

Other than the trip to the river, our life was very typical this week. We went to the mission a couple times, worked on things at the church, attended a couple prayer and regular church services, made power points for the services, and studied Spanish. I called the language school, and John and I are starting to research what we need in terms of funding and housing to move to Guadalajara to attend the school.

John and I are starting to feel some spiritual opposition now that we have committed to staying here for a while. Nothing huge, just small inconveniences that make life more complicated. For example,  John Mark is still sick with the upper respiratory infection he got when we were home. He did a round of antibiotics but wasn't getting better, so he went to the doctor and got another set of stronger antibiotics and some other drugs. Those new drugs gave him some rough side effects, and he had to stop taking one of them. We also lost our camera. I thought it was around the house somewhere, but we have looked through everything (twice) and cannot find it. We don't know where else it could be. We are praying that it just appears somewhere. Please pray with us about these things and that the details for language school work themselves out. Thank you so much for your prayers. We value them greatly because they make a difference in our lives.

We are doing really well, and are very happy to be here.
Blessings & love,
Moorea

Hello,

I am sorry that it has been so long since the last post. We’ve been stuck in a whirlwind the last few weeks. I have only just started to catch my breath. 

Autumnal walk through orchards

John and I went home for a wedding of a dear friend at the end of September. The wedding was absolutely wonderful- a fall picnic in a persimmon orchard. We were able to spend time with close friends and listen to a folk/bluegrass band through the reception. Just perfect.

Me and the lovely bride

Two dear friends listening to the music

The rest of our time was parceled out between friends and family. We had something going morning, noon and night. (and even later night!) I was really nice to be in a comfortable and familiar place for a little while. We got to spend time with our niece and three year old nephews (one of whom has been asking after “Unca John” since we left three months ago). I am really happy that so many of our friends and family made extra time for us, staying up late to hang out with us despite having jobs and family to take care of in the morning. John and I were really encouraged by the time we spent with people who are important to us. 

 John, with his nephew, Jayden

 We ended up extending our trip a little to move out of our cottage. Our landlords and friends had generously to let us leave our house intact duringour three month stay in Mexico. They have been using it as a guest house for some family who had come to visit. Since John and I have decided to stay longer then we were planning, we packed up our things and moved them into a corner of John’s parent’s garage. We packed and moved in the space of four days while still spending time with friends and family in the evenings. We were pretty exhausted by then. We are so grateful for Ted and Mary who offered to do all the packing and moving for us, and who ended up helping us a lot with the move. My mom and Mary are also going to clean the place and return the key.  It is hard to describe how much our families have helped us in our adult lives. I am so very grateful for their love and support. It would be impossible for us to have the life experiences we have had without them. 

 My sister, brother, and me

We also sold our car to my parents and are looking for a little truck or 4-runner that would be more appropriate for the terrain down here.

It is no surprise with the change in diet, time, schedule, and environment that we were both fighting colds while we were home, and John Mark is still pretty sick. He is suspecting an upper respiratory infection and has started antibiotics. He has been sleeping and resting a lot to try and get well. There wasn’t time for us to rest when we were visiting home, so we are both a little relieved to be back into our own place and into a routine.

John and I decided while were home that we want to make a longer commitment to La Fuente and go to language school to help us learn Spanish. We have been making some strides with the language, but our time is focused more on serving, which limits the time we can spend on language study. It would help us so much to spend some time where we are only working on the language. We could do so much more if we knew Spanish. The pastors have started speaking to us primarily in Spanish since we returned which will help immensely.  The school we are looking at attending is in Guadalajara. It is specifically for missionaries. We would probably spend 3-6 months there depending on how long it takes to become proficient in conversational Spanish. John and I feel like there is still a lot for us to learn and do here in Mexico. We are looking forward to the months and years ahead. 

 We had a safe and uneventful flight despite the concern about Hurricane Jove. They were predicting extreme whether with over 100 mile/hour gusts. Hurricane Mckenna hit here a few years ago, and it was pretty intense. It rained so hard that cars were swept down the street and into the ocean. I have heard that the Mexicans were buying extra water and candles this time, expecting the storm to be pretty bad. The kids even had time off of school. Hurricane Jova was supposed to make landfall before we landed in Puerto Vallarta on Tuesday, but it never hit here. The south part of the bay had some severe wind and rain, but we just had a steady rain for most of the day yesterday. It was almost eerie how still the palm trees were for most of the afternoon.

Together!

 Thank you to everyone who came to our get together on October 2^nd. We loved seeing all of you and sharing some pictures and stories with you. We are so grateful to have your prayers and financial support. Without them, it would be impossible to follow the direction that we strongly feel that God is leading us. Despite our blindness, we are confident that God will continue to make his plan clear to us just in the nick of time – as has been the case with us this past year.

At that meeting, we asked you to pray for our friend, Dago. There was an accident the day we flew home. The head of construction who was a close friend of John’s fell 20 feet onto concrete and did not recover. We are very sad to lose a friend, but we know that he is with Jesus. Thank you for all of your prayers. Before he passed, his wife had a dream of him saying goodbye to her and leaving. She was deeply comforted by that dream and has been doing well considering the circumstances. Please continue to pray for her and the rest of his family.

We are very grateful for your continued prayers for us and the ministry here. John would appreciate prayer concerning the infection he is fighting. He wants to get back to work, but is not feeling well. Please pray for safety for the construction team and for our continue progress in the language.

Looking Forward,

Moorea

Happy Mexican Independence Day.



Today is one of the most important holidays in Mexico. The kids have the day off of school and there are parades happening all day. This evening, Their are two or three street parties planed just in Bucerias, not to mention Puerto Vallarta and the capital, Mecixo City, which is the largest metropolitan area in the Western Hemisphere. Girls in traditional Mexican dress have been galloping by the church on horses to make it to the parade on time. The workers at the church are getting off early today and are having a special lunch prepared for them as part of the celebration. Everyone is more relaxed and chatty, even at work, because of the holiday. I am happy that John and I get to be here for Independence day.

 Playing soccer Independence Day afternoon

This evening, we are having a Posole dinner at San Ignacio to celebrate. We also have two potlucks on Sunday. As pastor Keith says, if the Mexicans can find a reason to celebrate, they will. This weekend is also the second anniversary of our marriage. We are very busy, but it is mostly with celebrations and parties, which is pretty great.

 San Ignacio Independence Day celebration

Last night I went to a friend's surprise 16th birthday party. He is the one who translates for me the most, so I talk to him a lot. It was a swim party with most of the teenagers from church. I was very fun. Lots of loud American pop music and jumping off the second story balcony/compound wall into a 4 foot pool. (I was not a participant in that particular enterprise.) There were a couple dance parties thrown in there too. Half the kids there were Canadian, so they speak English, but they all also speak Spanish. One of my friends who is in university in Tepic came down for her brother's party and I am happy I was able to spend some time with her. She is really great, and I was sad when she moved away for school.

This morning, we had prayer at the church as usual. Prayer is open to anyone who wants to come. We start off together, praying for each other and our specific prayer requests, and then break up to pray for the prayer cards from the church services. I love it. I feel very privileged to know these people who are so committed to serving God. So many people pray for healing, for financial provision, for restored relationships. It is a blessing to see that faith and join in with it. Sometimes they translate for me, sometimes not. I can understand some of it when I remember to listen. It is a lot of work listening closely to something I don't understand. Some of the people who come don't speak three words of English, but I have slowly been able to develop a relationship with them anyway. This morning, we were able to joke around with just hand signals. I am starting to work on my conversational/relational Spanish now that I can ask and answer functional questions.  I have been studying a lot - almost every day. Probably for 4-5 hours a week not including the conversations I have with people or sermons/prayers I listen to everyday. I still have so much to learn. Thankfully, the people here are very gracious and repeat things the correct way when I mangle a word or phrase.

Construction is coming along. John Mark has been helping with running electrical, plumbing and other lines upstairs. He is using a chisel and a sledge hammer to cut crevices in the block for the lines before they stucco the walls. It is very hot up there since there is not good airflow and no air conditioning. The work is not as difficult as it has been , but the heat makes it tough.

 Preparing an Independence Day meal for the construction workers

John Mark was sick this week. He caught the flu and was totally bedridden. He was very sick, but thank God it was only for one day. He was feeling much better the next morning, and it totally fine now. His allergies have been giving him some trouble; please pray that he will be able to sleep well and that his symptoms would go away.

John, chilling on the roof

This week, I was given the task of figuring out how to put the sermon recording on the La Fuente website. The guy who had been doing it left for Bible School in Tepic a couple weeks ago. He tried to train someone before he left, but she did not understand how to do it. Now that I have spent three days trying to figure it out, it is no wonder that she couldn't understand it. I had no instructions to go on and the website is only available in Spanish, so I was flying blind x2. After much trial and error, I figured almost all of it out on my own. I like the way that the player displays on the website, so I think it was worth it, but it was a lot of work.

Mexican pride :)

John and I have been really developing relationships recently. We love getting to know people and hearing their stories. So many of the people we know have come from drugs, or alcohol, or eating disorders, or depression. The work that Jesus has done in their lives is unbelievable. We see God's restorative power every where we look. I was talking with a friend who works with us in  San Ignacio who told me that he has been a Christian for 14 years after coming our of drugs and gangs, but in the last four months, God has been shaking things up. He says that his life will never be the same because of how God is moving.

We feel very privileged to be here. Please pray with us that God will provide direction and funding as we are praying about his long-term plan for us. Please also pray that we will learn Spanish quickly. There is so much more I wish I could do, but can't because of the language barrier. Thank you for thinking of us and checking our blog. We appreciate your love and support.

Vive la Mexico
Moorea

They were cutting tile yesterday to finish off the kitchen counters. It was a little dusty so I improvised, much to the delight of my co-workers.

Hello,

Construction is continuing around here. They have moved most of what they need for the roof up stairs, so the construction site has gotten a lot quieter. No more cement mixer or truck/pulley system. They just finished pouring the pitch in the roof and laying tile as the final stage of finishing the roof. Now, they are doing some of the finish work on the second story rooms like electrical and stucco. The current office needs to be torn down before they can begin construction on the main sanctuary, so they have to move upstairs before breaking ground on the next phase of construction. The plan is to finish the current building enough to occupy it, and then to commence on the main building. They hope to have at least the roof up on the main sanctuary before Christmas. As you can imagine, that is a huge project which involves tearing down one building, cutting down two beloved trees, and moving the awning under which we are currently having church.

 Laying tile on the roof

This week, we had an organizational meeting for the kids’ class teachers. With three main services a week, plus classes at three other locations two times a week, the group of teachers is a sizable bunch. A man who works for EMS in Puerto Vallarta came and gave some basic first aid training such as how to respond to a person who has collapsed, how to help someone who is choking, and how to deal with someone who is bleeding heavily.

Getting set up and ready for church to begin

I am currently heading up two teams of teachers. I am organizing the classes at San Ignacio, though my Spanish is not yet good enough to teach. I am also organizing the teachers for the English 9-14 year olds class. It was very good to have a time to discuss what is working and what isn’t, and to plan ahead for the next few weeks.

In Sayulita on the beach

On our day off, we went up to the little town of Sayulita which is just north of San Ignacio. It is a touristy, hippie, beach town famous for its surfing. One the way there on the bus, a tire developed a bubble in it, so we were galumphing along at a pretty slow pace on the jungle road when I felt it explode where my foot was resting against the wheel well. Afterwards the driver seemed relieved, and we sped happily along on our seven remaining tires. The rest of the day was lovely. We spent the afternoon sitting on the beach and eating from one of the beachside restaurants. We were able to use an umbrella from the restaurant, which saved us from being severely burnt by the end of the afternoon. The town was a little more touristy that we had anticipated (read: we were heckled by beach vendors the whole time). We walked around a little before we bused home. The town was very colorful and had lots of potted plants and taco stands.

John and I are going home for a quick visit at the end of this month. One of my good friends is getting married, and I am primarily going home for the wedding. It will also be good to see our families. It is hard to believe that we have been here for almost three months already. My sister is also flying in from San Antonio the week we will be home, and I am pretty excited to see her.

We are having a breakfast tomorrow in San Ignacio, so we will be up early to pick up a couple of the teenagers, drive north, and make sandwiches.
Thanks for keeping up with us,
Moorea

La Fuente gave out sheets, blankets, and pillows to people living in a shanty town in San Vicente

Hello Everyone,

When we came down to Mexico, we made a three month commitment that ends at the end of September. We have been praying about it and feel like we are not receiving direction from God to change our circumstances at the moment, so we are planning to stay longer than originally intended. We are currently planning to extend our stay in Mexico till at least December maybe till spring depending on God’s direction and funding. Please pray with us that we will listen closely to hear what God is saying and that he will provide what we need to remain here as long as he wants. John and I are both really happy about this extension since we feel as if we just arrived and have so much more learn from and give to this place. Learning Spanish is also an important goal of ours and the extra months here will help a lot, now that we have some of the basics down. 

Amazing things have been happening at the mission in San Ignacio. Our small group of attendees continues to grow, and there are more kids and adults every time we meet. Last Saturday, we had over 40 kids and 20 adults. The town we are in is very small, probably less than 2000 people according to a local. To have such consistent attendance of this many people is unusual in this area. The LDS and JW groups are very popular here as well as a cult called Light of the World. Evangelical churches are surprisingly rare. So much so, that the leader of the local Light of the World has been known to spy on the San Ignacio mission meetings.

 A class for the younger kids

The two couples who are leading the mission are very faithful and hardworking. They have a huge passion to build relationships with the local people and to see the Holy Spirit move in their lives. We are privileged to work with them.

Sweeping upstairs

Washing chairs and cleaning the bathroom

 Sweeping, wiping tables, planting trees, and pulling weeds

This Tuesday, instead of mission, we did Kilo x Kilo which is a work for food program run by La Fuente. Basically, people from the community (mostly women) who need financial assistance come and work for a couple hours around their neighborhood, cleaning, pulling weeds, and planting trees. In exchange for 2 hours of work, each person receives a bag of food which usually includes corn meal, vegetable oil, fresh tomatoes, some canned goods, rice, etc. Since it is the rainy season, plants grow very quickly (think greenhouse), so the San Ignacio mission was pretty overgrown and needed some attention. That is where we worked. Many of the women who attend our meetings regularly were there as well some new people we hadn’t seen before. When the work was done, one of the mission leaders gave a short devotional, and we handed out food. It is important at the missions for people to take ownership of the church and invest in it. These work days and taking tithes and offerings are meant to help the people feel invested in the mission. What they give is small, but for many of them it is all they have.

 Handing out food

I was just interrupted by one of the ladies in the church who wanted to tell me some good news. She just got a job at a bilingual school today after searching for a job for 1 1/2 years. She is so excited she is practically jumping up and down. I know that they have been struggling financially and praying desperately for work. Her daughter is in university and they have another teenage son at home. The daughter was saved two years ago, and because of her, the rest of her family is serving God. They are wonderful, exuberant people. It is a huge blessing to see that God is providing even though this is the low season and this part of Mexico has been hit hard by the economic downturn.

 Mixing cement and lifting it onto the roof

John Mark is still helping with the main construction project for La Fuente Riviera. They have finished moving rock and concrete on to the roof for now and are now tiling the roof to help seal it. Though it is still humid, it has been cooler that last few days, for which we are grateful.

Work has been a little slower for me recently, but yesterday, I was given the job of coordinating the English service 9-14 year old Sunday School class.  I have been writing curriculum for them for a month and a half’s worth of classes till the curriculum arrives (via someone coming from the states). During the low season, we might have 0-3 kids in that class, but during high season it can have as many as 14 kids. We want to have the classes planned out before things become busy around here. I will be overseeing about 5 teachers who rotate the job of teaching each week. It is a pretty administrative position, so I think I will like it.

I also discovered yesterday that we need to have a month of classes planned for San Ignacio at a time. I will be working on planning the classes and distributing materials to the other teachers at the mission. I have been planning the classes week by week and giving the supplies to one of the Spanish speakers to teach. I use my small amount of Spanish and hand signals to indicate what I had planned. It surprisingly works fairly well. The teenage Mexican girls who help with the teaching do a great job – much better than I could do on my own.

The kids at San Ignacio are often riveted when the teacher is telling a story. We use a flannel graph. That’s it. When we do coloring, it is almost silent. The kids have so little creative outlets that anything colorful or creative is fascinating. 

 Doing an activity in San Ignacio

Please pray for my body. It has been giving me a little bit of trouble. My back went out on Tuesday, but I got prayed for at church and it felt much better afterwards. No pain since. Thank you, God. I also have had some stomach problems for about 24 hours. I took a charcoal pill and have been feeling better since then. These small complaints have thankfully been the worst of our stay here. Please pray that my body will be strong and function properly. Please also continue to pray that we will learn Spanish and be able to communicate with people here. 

We are still praying that the governor of our state will give La Fuente Riviera some land in San Vicente for a church. There are many people there who need Jesus and who would welcome a church there if there was one. On Monday, La Fuente handed out blankets, sheets, towels, and pillows to a community who lives in cardboard shanties in San Vicente. La Fuente has been developing a relationship with those living in that community, and we are excited to see what God does there.

Thank you for your prayer,

Moorea