What a Week!

We want to encourage you with some photos. We hope you can see what we see: that we are so blessed to be here in Mexico and that the Lord is doing some wonderful things!

January 29th was the beginning of an exciting week for us. Sunday was the 13th anniversary celebration at La Loma Church and it was truly a celebration. Nick had a great time playing with the worship team for

the first time, and later he gave a small vibraphone concert. The best part of the concert for Nick was when everyone sang along to one of our favorite songs, then the worship team joined him and we all sang it again.

Here is a photo of Pastor Miguel, Nick and me (Lisa)

taken before Nick began his concert. Nick asked me to give a short

explanation of a piece of music he wrote before he played,

and Pastor Miguel was there to help us as well. And, yes we had on coats. It can get cold here, and sometimes we find our toes a bit frozen by the time church is over. However, it is worth it and we love being at this church. There was also a touching performance by the children in the church and, of course, a powerful sermon by Pastor Miguel. There were many new visitors at La Loma that day, and several prayed to receive Jesus as their Savior.

Nick, Pastor Miguel and many others left later that afternoon for a 3 day planning retreat with the church planting teams. Here are a few photos taken during their time together. It was a very encouraging and productive time, and great for team bonding as well.

Our prayer requests for the week:

1. Please pray for all of the people in the picture above who are involved in church planting. Pray that each will have an effective ministry, health, wisdom, strength, integrity and peace.

2. This week has been a bit more difficult for our family health-wise, with the kids picking up various germs from school. Please continue to pray for our health and strength. Praise the Lord we have a good doctor who is also a nutritionist that relates well with our children.

3. Pray for the continued spiritual growth of La Loma Church as they begin to plant new churches in their area. Pray for strength and wisdom for Pastor Miguel as he leads.

4. Please pray for our field leader David, for strength, health, and wisdom. He and his wife, Carol, are wonderful people to be working with.

5. Pray for the rest of our One Mission Society team here in Mexico City: Benito and Robin, Margaret and Leslie and Brenda. At this point, our group is fairly small and there is much work to be done. Pray for health, strength, wisdom and peace for all of us.

As always, thank you for praying for us!

Outreach in La Loma

Here is the view from our car as we drive down the street in front of La Loma UNIFAM (United Families in Christ) Church, and then head our way home. We are so excited to be in worship with our Mexican brothers and

sisters who live in this area! La Loma church will be celebrating her 13th anniversary at the end of this month and they are planning a special outreach up and down these same streets. Nick will be giving a small concert as a part of the celebration. The church is also involved in Mexi Kids, a weekly outreach that provides a meal three days a week to children and their mothers. This is a church that doesn't intend to sit still and watch the world go by! We are really looking forward to becoming more involved with La Loma and the vision of our Mexican brothers and sisters for sharing the Good News of hope in Jesus throughout this coming year.

Prayer requests:

1. Please pray for La Loma church, Pastor Miguel and the church leadership. They have a vision to begin planting house churches in this new year. Please join us in fervent prayer for this area.

2. Pray for Nick as he goes out with church planting teams. Pray he can find his way around this city, for fruitful ministry and for safety. Pray for further opportuniites for him to use his musical ability to shared the Gospel.

3. Pray for Lisa as she prepares to teach a sociology course at the seminary. Pray for an increase in Spanish ability to be able to teach well. Pray we will learn how to apply God's truth to bring change into this world.

4. Pray for Hannah and Samuel to be healthy and strong, to grow daily in the Lord and to be a blessing here.

5. Pray for growth in the number of students in the Sembimex seminary, especially the daytime classes.

6. Pray for innovative ways to take seminary classes to the people, so more and more leaders can be trained.

7. Pray that the established churches will be thriving outposts for evangelism, training, and planting house churches, helping UNIFAM to reach its goal of 2 million house churches by 2025.

8. Pray for unity to be stronger than ever this year, that by our unity people will know the power and love of Christ.

9. Pray the existing house churches will be able to multiply, with new leaders being discipled and sent out to plant even more churches.

10. Pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in all of Mexico.

Thank you so much for your prayers! We rely on them daily.

Life in Mexico City

It's hard to believe that we have been in Mexico City for 3 months now. The time has flown by as we adjust to life here!

In Mexico, One Mission Society is partnering with the UNIFAM (United Families in Christ) churches to reach Mexicans with the Good News of Jesus. Nick is involved in church planting with various UNIFAM teams throughout the Mexico City area. He is loving it!

We have also been visiting UNIFAM churches as a family. The picture above is of a baptism of new believers in the Coacalco Church. It was a cold day, and we celebrated with those brave enough to get into the water. They are brave for declaring their faith in Jesus, and for stepping into that frigid water! It is a pleasure to minister alongside our Mexican brothers and sisters.

Hannah and Samuel are "jumping" right in to life here, with school and making friends at church and in our neighborhood. We are so proud

of them for how they have adapted to life in Mexico City. It is a huge change from small town PA. They are learning more and more Spanish each day.

Recently, we had a day of church planting training at Sembimex seminary (where we will eventually be teaching). There were around 130 in attendance! We split up in groups to learn more about how the Lord is working around the world through planting house churches. Nick is seeing the result of that first-hand and comes home encouraged each night.

Yep, some days it feels like an uphill climb, surmounting language barriers, cultural differences, traffic and day-to-day issues that we all experience. However, it is worth all of it to serve our Lord.

And, we know we couldn't be here without your faithful prayers and support. Thank you so much.

The UNIFAM churches have a goal of having 2 million house churches, filled with new believers in Christ, throughout Mexico within the next 10 years. Please pray that we meet that goal and even surpass it! All things are possible in Christ.

Here are some of our prayer prayer requests:

1. Pray that many Mexicans will come to know Jesus as Savior and Lord and that the goal of 2 million house churches will be met and surpassed. Only Jesus is the answer to the many problems in Mexico!

2. Pray we each gain fluency in Spanish and can communicate effectively.

3. Pray for ministry opportunities among our neighbors.

4. Pray for safety as we travel in the car, and especially for Nick as he goes out into the city most evenings.

5. Praise the Lord for our adjustment to life in Mexico and pray we continue to adjust more and more each day.

The Countdown Begins....

It is so hard to believe, but we will be graduating from the Spanish Language Institute in a little over 6 weeks, and the very next day we will be in Mexico City! We have learned a lot during our time here in Costa Rica...much more than we expected. As for now, we continue studying Spanish and preparing to move. Hannah and Samuel have a Spanish intensive course for the month of July at the same time we are in school.

As for now, here are our prayer requests as we begin to transition:

1. Please pray for our team members in Mexico who are carrying a heavy load, and who are now looking for a home and car for us. Ask the Lord for strength and wisdom on their behalf.

2. Please pray we will find the house and car that fit our needs and budget and that the Lord will use them as means of ministry.

3. Pray for our family as we say good-bye to good friends in Costa Rica, who will soon be heading out to all parts of Latin America. Today our children are saying good-bye to their best friends. Please pray the Lord will provide good friends for them in Mexico.

4. Please pray that the Lord will use us to be a part of accomplishing the Mexican/OMS team goal of 2 million new believers by 2015. All things are possible through Him!

Thank you so much for praying us through this transition!

2nd Trimester

Well, it is hard for us to believe but we are well into our 2nd trimester of language school. Unfortunately, we cannot post any pictures because our computer has completely stopped working and are writing this update from a borrowed computer. The good thing is that we are actually able to post. Our computer has been giving us problems for a while.

Language school continues to be a blessing and is much more intense this trimester. We are excited that we are preparing Bible studies in Spanish each week and are learning to express ourselves more and more. Hannah and Samuel are also taking the first steps of speaking in Spanish and are working with a tutor, besides all of their regular school work.

Thank you so much for continuing to pray for us! Here are our latest prayer requests:

1. Praise the Lord for keeping us safe and well. Thank Him for the opportunity for our family to learn Spanish.

2. Pray for our language learning. Some days it can be really difficult. Please pray we will learn quickly and will be able to retain all we've learned and use it to share the Lord's love with everyone we meet.

3. Pray for our church Generation de Campeones EC Church that new believers would continue to grow in Him and would share the Good News with others.

4. Pray we can get a new laptop at a good price and can find someone in the USA to bring it to us as soon as possible. (They are much too expensive here.)

5. Pray for our continued health, both Samuel and Lisa have had recent bouts of strep throat.

Thank you, as always for partnering with us. Your prayers are very important!

The Lord's guidance and protection

A couple of weeks ago we took our first weekend trip outside the city of San Jose, Costa Rica to a place called Tortuguero, where green sea turtles come to lay their eggs. We were all thrilled to watch the baby turtles dig out of the nest and make their way to the sea. Hannah and Samuel were especially privileged to walk alongside some of these babies as they headed toward the water. Those little turtles were so focused on getting to their destination that they never noticed our guide smooth the path for them out of the nest, nor the children at their side. However, the birds looming overhead did! They were quite angry at the protection Hannah and Samuel offered those little ones. The birds were missing out on a meal!

As I observed this taking place, I was thinking about our own lives. We're focused on adjusting to life in another country, to a new language, new foods, new school, new friends and we don't see the hand of the Lord smoothing our path nor the things we are protected from as we head to our destination. But He is there and faithful. And, He is indeed setting our way before us. What a blessed reminder that we are never left alone and though we sometimes feel small and vulnerable, the Lord is not and He is our ever-present help!

It is hard to believe, but half of our first trimester in language school is over. We still have a lot to learn, but we are amazed at how much Spanish we have picked up already. The Lord is smoothing our path!

He has blessed us with a wonderful Tico church plant that we will share about in the next blog post. Hopefully with pictures! Each week we're understanding more and more and are able to talk with our Tico brothers and sisters beyond, "Hello." "How are you?". What a blessing!

Thank you for your continued prayers! We know you are there, helping us to our destination...Mexico!

Here are some prayer requests:

1. Praise the Lord for His provision and protection.

2. Pray for our strength and health. This is cold and flu season and we've all gotten the flu in the past week.

3. Pray we will learn Spanish rapidly and will soon be able to speak well enough to share our faith.

4. Pray for Generacion de Campeones EC Church, our church here in Costa Rica. Pray for new believers to have boldness in sharing their faith and for many more to trust in Jesus.

5. The UNIFAM churches in Mexico have a bold vision: To start 2 MILLION house churches throughout Mexico by 2015, thus reaching 20% of Mexico for Christ. Please pray that nothing will hinder their efforts and many, many Mexicans will trust Jesus as their Savior!

First few days in Costa Rica

August has thus far been an amazing month!

We spent two weeks at One Mission Society headquarters receiving Church Planting Movements training along with people from 10-12 other countries. It was interesting hearing our sessions being translated into English, Spanish and Russian, which were the major language groups. We were blessed to be with three of the Mexican pastors most involved in church planting leadership with UNIFAM, the group of churches we will be working with in Mexico City next year. They have a tremendous vision to plant churches in each state of Mexico over the next 15 years!

The day after training ended we arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica around noon. We were greeted by Steve Cosslett, our language school "Big Brother" and a fellow OMS missionary to Mexico, and by Pastor William Araya, the Evangelical Congregational church leader in Costa Rica. Between the two men, we were able to divide up our luggage and ourselves and arrive safely at our new home.

We attended worship at a local church on Sunday where Samuel already made a friend who will be attending the same school, and Hannah was invited to attend a Saturday night youth group. It was also Costa Rican Mother's Day and the church's 7th anniversary. It was quite a day of celebration.

This month has been a time of wonder and adjustment! We are so blessed to know we are uplifted by your prayers!

1. Please continue to pray for our adjustment, safety and language learning. We are doing well but sometimes overwhelmed.

2. Please pray for the Mexican UNIFAM church leaders Alfredo, Alexis and Miguel. They are responsible for casting and implementing the large vision the Lord has given them. Pray for an increased faith and for the Lord's favor.

3. We met a wonderful pastor from Cuba at training named Magdiel. The Lord is doing amazing things in Cuba and many people are coming to know Jesus as Savior and Lord! Please pray for Magdiel's safety, strength, faith and perseverance in the midst of sometimes unimaginable obstacles.

4. Please pray for the Cossletts and the Reids, our dear friends and fellow missionaries who are leaving Costa Rica for Mexico City in the next two days. Pray especially for their children during this time of transition.

5. Please pray for Pastor William Araya as he tries to communicate with us through the language barrier. We will be meeting with him and his wife on Saturday and discussing plans for attending one of his churches on Sunday. May the Lord bless his ministry in Costa Rica abundantly!

Thank you again for your prayers! We are in great need of them.