Update on Samuel

Thank you for praying! Samuel is doing remarkably well. In fact, he is recovering much faster than the doctor expected. After only one week from being diagnosed with pneumonia, he was given doctor's permission to go swimming yesterday at his "Gym and Swim" class. He was so happy (as were the rest of us)!
Here's our prayer requests:
1. Thank the Lord for a wonderful time at Wayside Community Church last weekend. And please pray for that church as they receive their new pastor on Thursday, Sept. 23.
2. Please pray that Samuel's immune system continues to get back to full strength quickly. We are taking some time away next week, hoping that some fun and sun will be of benefit. Pray for travelling saftey as well.
3. Please pray that our full funding will come in soon so we can go to Costa Rica at the end of this year (after Christmas).

Thank you, again for your partnership with us in ministry!

Samuel

Cold and flu season has come early to the Lakatos household, unfortunately. Lisa and Hannah are doing well after a couple of rough days. Samuel, on the other hand has a longer recovery period ahead, as he was diagnosed with pneumonia on Sunday (Sept. 13). He was happy and healthy and playing with friends at a birthday party Friday night through Saturday morning and then began to rapidly become sicker and sicker late Saturday evening. We were deeply concerned as we decided Sunday morning that he needed to go to the emergency room at our local hospital!
He is feeling pretty good now, and we praise the Lord for that. The roughest part on Samuel is that he has to go the next week with "no physical activity": try telling that to a 9 year old boy! He is especially sad that he is still considered contagious and can't play with his cousins who recently moved here, nor with his friends.
Through it all, we have been given the opportunity to learn to trust the Lord with our most precious gifts (our children), to surrender control to Him, to learn new medical skills, to gain patience and to bond as as family since some of us are not able to interact with the "outside world" for a while.
Thank you so much for partnering with us in this faith ministry. We really do appreciate your prayers! As you pray for us this week, please remember the following before the Lord:
1. Praise the Lord that Samuel is recovering without a need for hospitalization! Praise the Lord that He led us (Nick and Lisa) to do what was needed before the situation became worse.
2. Please pray for full recovery for Samuel and for the health of our whole family.
3. Thank the Lord that Nick had a wonderful time at the EC World Fest at Lakeside Church last weekend, even though his family was at home and unwell. It is so awesome to surrender our cares to Him!
4. Nick will be at Wayside Community Church, Grove City, PA on Sept. 20th. Please pray for the Lord to meet with everyone in the worship service and for Him to equip us all for service.
5. Please pray our remaining funds will be faith promised by the end of November so we can make plans for language school in Costa Rica in January.

Again, thank you for praying!

Changes!

Lisa's brother and family moved to our hometown this past week and so the changes begin for both of our families. We are currently making plans to transition out of our home so they can move in (at present they are staying with other family members). We are trusting the Lord for the rest of our funding to be in by the end of fall. Then we can head for language school in Costa Rica after Christmas!
As for now, Hannah and Samuel are really enjoying spending time with their Florida cousins, uncle and aunt. And we are too!
We are hoping to fill our schedule this fall and would appreciate your continued prayers for the following:
1. Praise the Lord for the safe arrival of Lisa's brother's family!
2. Praise Him for how He is working out all the details, putting everything in place and making His care for all of us very evident.
3. Pray for Nick as he travels and speaks at Grace UM September 6 and EC World Fest on September 12.
4. Pray for fruitful meetings, strong relationships to be built and funding to come quickly.

Home Again

We had a great time during our 3 weeks of CROSS training at OMS headquarters! Thank you so much for praying for our family during that time. We learned a great deal that will be most useful in the days, weeks and years ahead. We also were able to meet others heading to Mexico City (or are already there) and are excited about the team the Lord has put together.
While we were away, Lisa's brother and his family began to make plans to move to our hometown. This will be the first time Lisa and her siblings will be living in the same area in over 20 years! We are currently working out details for her brother's family to live in our home while we are out of the country.
Thank you so much for partnering with us and especially for your prayers. As you pray for us in the coming days, here are some prayer requests:
1. Praise the Lord for the safe travel, fellowship and learning we experienced in July!
2. Pray for Nick who will be travelling to Terre Hill EC Church this weekend and for an abundant time in ministry.
3. Pray we will be fully funded by fall so we can go to language school in January 2010.
4. Pray for the Coslett family (Steve, Helen and Nisha) as they prepare to leave for language school in Costa Rica this month. (They were in training with us and will be part of the Mexico ministry team.)

Getting Ready

Well, June has been quite a month for our extended family. As a matter of fact, my (Lisa's) grandmother was just hospitalized on Father's Day and is being released today. We have seen the Lord's hand at work as both Mom and Mimi (grandma) have dealt with life-threatening illnesses in June. Both of them have progressed toward wellness much faster than doctor's anticipated. Thank you so much for praying!

Now we are counting down...one week to go before leaving for CROSS training at OMS. We are very excited and have a lot of loose ends to tie up. We feel we are playing "catch up" in several areas as this has been a rather hectic month. So, we would really appreciate your prayers for the following:

1. Praise the Lord for His healing power at work in Mom and Mimi!
2. Pray for physical health and strength for us and our extended family during this week and while we'll be away.
3. Pray we can efficiently accomplish all necessary tasks before next week.
4. Intercede on behalf of everyone attending CROSS training and all those leading us at OMS headquarters. We're most likely not the only ones who have faced challenges recently.
5. Pray for a few good, calm days for our family to be together, regroup and feel rested before we leave.
6. Praise the Lord He is always faithful!

When we are weak, He is strong!

We know that the Lord tells us His strength is made perfect in our weakness, and we have had the opportunity to experience that first hand the last couple of weeks.
June has had a rough start for our extended family. My (Lisa's) mother has been hospitalized twice for kidney failure and my grandmother has had some problems recovering from a recent surgery, as well as needing a new one. The doctors told my Mom it would be months before she would be well again. It has been an emotionally and physically trying time for all of us.
We have had many people praying for us and we want to thank you. You have held us up and kept us from becoming discouraged.
Nick is at Seneca Hills Bible Camp this week sharing with children ages 8-12 and he is having a great time. Hannah and Samuel were with him last night and called to say they love it! I will be picking my Mom up today when she is discharged from the hospital. She will be glad to be home, I'm sure!
So, here's our praise and prayer requests:
1. Thank the Lord for being our strength! Thank Him for our partners in prayer and ask His blessing.
2. Praise Him that both Mom and Mimi (grandma) are recovering much quicker than anyone expected!
3. Pray we will continue to have the strength to all the Lord has for us.
4. Pray as we make arrangements to be at cross-cultural training at OMS headquarters in July that all will work out smoothly, and we will be prepared to learn all we need to know to help us in our future ministry.

School

Well, it's hard to believe it, but Hannah and Samuel are about to finish their school year. The time really flew by quickly. As we are saying good-bye to school, we are not saying good-bye to learning however. We are preparing for our CROSS (cross-cultural) training at OMS headquarters in July. Some of our pre-training assignments have been completed and we're working on some more. Each thing we have done has been very helpful and we are becoming excited about training. We are especially excited to meet those who will be a part of the missionary team in Mexico!

Please pray:
1. Thank the Lord for all of the missionaries at OMS headquarters that are putting this training together.
2. Pray we will get all of our assignments completed in a timely manner and we will finish up all things necessary at home as we plan for our time away.
3. Pray for our continued health and strength as we prepare for our training and during the training.
4. As always, please pray for the Mexican people to rejoice in Jesus as their Savior.

Thank you for partnering with us in prayer!

Surprises

What a lot of surprises we've had since last weekend! We returned home from Texas to a ringing telephone with our first surprise. Someone we deeply love and trust is considering moving to our home area and living in our home while we're on the mission field. That would be the answer to many concerns, if it works out.


Then we went to the mission conference in Cranberry, PA where our next surprise awaited. This is what greeted us when we drove in to the place we were staying for the weekend.

I heard from the back seat as we pulled in, "This is like a dream come true!" Not only did we have a wonderful time of fellowship with the people of Van UM, Cranberry UM and Rockland UM churches, including a fun fiesta with good Mexican food, but we were also restored. Ahhh!

Because of government concerns over the swine flu, Hannah and Samuel could not return to school until they were tested for the virus. (They do not have it.) So, they got to stay home an extra day. And surprise...at the doctor's office Monday we met a wonderful Christian nurse who wants to become more involved in missions. She was interested in hearing about Mexico City and we are hoping much good will come from our meeting, with she and her husband visiting there in the future.

Nick went back to teaching Tuesday and was offered a new job until the end of the school year tutoring a student. He was happy to come home and tell us about this opportunity!

So, we had a joy-filled, surprising week. Now we are trying to get back into the "routine". Here are our prayer requests:
1. Praise the Lord for surprising us with so many blessings this week.
2. Please pray the Lord will work out our loved one moving to Greenville in perfect timing with our full-funding and moving on to language school.
3. Please pray we will have many more good meetings with believer's whose hearts are stirred to spread the gospel to all nations. (Nick will preach at Leavittsburg EC Church this Mother's Day and we will be at Riverhill EC Church missions conference May 16-17.)
4. Pray we will be fully funded by fall so we can make plans for language school.
5. Pray as we prepare for cross-cultural training at OMS headquarters in July. (We are currently finishing up some homework.)

6. Please pray especially for the people of Mexico City as they attempt to get back to "normal" after the swine flu scare. Pray for much fruitful ministry in the days ahead for the missionaries and national Christians.

Thank you for partnering with us in this journey of faith. May the Lord surprise you with many blessings this week. Lisa

Texas

We are back from the Missions Conference at First UMC in Waco, TX. So how was it? You can figure it out by Samuel's parting words on the way to the airport as we were heading back home, "I want to move to Waco, Texas!"

We met many people who have been a part of the OMS Mexico work and we hope they will return while we are living there, giving us the opportunity to minister together. It was a privilege to share how the Lord is working in our lives as we prepare for life in Mexico City. And, we were richly blessed by many new friends. We are so thankful for those who have made the faith committment to partner with us on this journey!

We will be leaving shortly for our next missions conference in the Cranberry, PA area and are looking forward to making many more friends.

Praise and prayer:
1. Praise the Lord for His provision and for family in Christ.
2. Please pray for strength and good health in all our travels, currently Samuel is recovering from a cold.
3. Ask the Lord that many people will join us as prayer and financial parnters.
4. Pray we will do and say exactly what the Lord wants us to.
5. Pray for much fruit to come from the missions conference this weekend!

Traveling

We are preparing to leave this week for a missions conference at First UMC in Waco, TX. We are travelling as a family and will be there April 25-30. Hannah and Samuel are excited to see Texas. Their only experience in the state was in the Houston airport as we travelled to and from Mexico City. First UMC is a wonderful church and we are sure they will be glad they went!

After our return, we will leave the next day for the missions conference of Van, Cranberry and Rockland UMC churches in the Cranberry, PA area from May 1-3. These churches are very near the one we wrote about in our last post. Our whole family is excited about being back in that area. It is beautiful and so are the people.

We have so many prayer requests for this coming week:
1. Praise the Lord with us for the opportunity to fellowship with other believers who have a heart for missions.
2. Pray we will communicate effectively what the Lord has been doing in our lives and in His work through OMS in Mexico City.
3. Pray for many new partners to join us on this faith journey.
4. Pray for safety in travel, for good health, and especially for Hannah and Samuel to get the rest they need.

Thank you for praying with and for us.

Fiesta!

What a blessing we had this weekend! We were invited to Seneca E.C. Church in Seneca, PA to share about our future ministry in Mexico and how the Lord is working there. It was wonderful to get a chance to know many people at Seneca. Then to top it all off, we celebrated together with an after-church fiesta, complete with Mexican music, scrumptious food, a pinata and pin the tail on the burro (donkey).

We also had Lisa's mother, sister and niece along with us. Everyone really enjoyed the fellowship.

Here you can see Hannah getting ready to take a whack. She was the one who managed to break open the pinata and was so happy about that! Samuel laid claim to its remains. This is a picture of him with his "prize" and a piece of candy in his mouth.

One of the greatest blessings of our friend-raising ministry is having the privilege of getting to know so many believers who have a desire to see the Good News shared throughout this world, and to know they are praying for us.

Praise the Lord with us for the blessed fellowship we have as believers. Please continue to pray for safety as we travel, and for many people to join us in this faith journey.

Cultural Lesson

Last week we participated in our home church missions conference. What a wonderful time we had! It is so encouraging to hear stories of what the Lord is doing close to home and around the world. And, it is uplifting to see people excited to spread the Good News by going and sending.

I had a conversation on the closing night with a missionary to Bolivia that really got us thinking. He pointed out that even through our friend-raising ministry, the Lord is teaching us invaluable lessons about Latin American culture. Isn't it just like the Lord to use every little thing for our growth and benefit? Praise His Name! While we are focused on gaining the prayer and financial support we need to be able to go to language school (and then to Mexico City), the Lord has already begun some of the schooling.

We would appreciate your prayers that we would learn our lessons well. Pray that we would continue to grow daily in godly character, and that we would have many opportunities to learn the Mexican culture and language. Also, please pray with us that we will be fully funded and able to go to language school in the near future.

The Learning Curve

Well, if you want to be a good teacher, you also need to know how to be a good learner. So, here it is...we've finally figured out how to get a blog started. Now that it's up and running, we're excited to be able to share with you on a more regular basis!

And, what a better place to start than Sembimex Biblical Seminary, the place where our family first encountered Mexico City. Our church missions trip seems so long ago now. We went to help with clean-up and painting at the seminary just one week before the building's grand opening. What a mess we all were! It is so exciting to catch a glimpse of what the Lord is doing there since then. Please take the next 6 minutes to watch the video posted on the left side of the blog. It is well worth the time. (If you have trouble getting it to work, right underneath is a link to the OMS International page with the video.)

While watching, keep this quote from the OMS website (link on the left side of this page): "There's an explosion of new Christians worldwide. In many regions, the response to the Gospel is in the millions. This is unprecedented in history. New Christians have spiritually grown on their own, without guidance from a shepherd. Trained pastors are rare in most of the more than 40 countries where OMS International serves."

And there Sembimex is. A place to train and equip people to be shepherds. We are so excited to be a part of that ministry: in the past as a work team and in the future as educators. And, especially now, in the present, as we lift this ministry and its leaders before the Lord.

Will you please join with us in prayer for Sembimex? Pray for the teachers and students to grow in the Lord's grace, and in the knowledge and applying of His Word. Pray for leadership to have a clear vision for the seminary, and the skill to implement that vision.

Please pray we will be fully prepared and funded for this ministry in the near future. Pray for us as we try to learn Spanish here at home, to get a jump-start on language school. The learning curve is pretty big, but we're encouraged. After all, we did finally get the basics of a blog!