Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving!



Greetings from sunny Mexico on this Thanksgiving Day! We are spending our first U.S. holiday away from home, and though we miss our families, we are enjoying our time here.(Right now we are especially thankful for the warm sunny weather.) Today we aren't doing anything special, but Sunday we will celebrate with two families from the states. And yes we found a turkey that Josh is anxious to cook.
Yesterday we had a wonderful Thanksgiving service at our church. No, they do not celebrate Thanksgiving here, but our pastor has made it a tradition in the church to celebrate the holiday giving thanks for what God has done throughout the year. Josh gave the message with the theme of suffering, and we are excited to announce he did it in in Spanish! At the last minute he changed his mind and decided to preach in Spanish. Wow! He has come a long way in three months considering that he hardly could complete a sentence when we first arrived. After the service we shared a meal together and enjoyed a time of fellowship. This Thanksgiving we are thankful that we are here in Mexico, that we are adapting, and learning more about who God is. Also, we are so thankful for each one of you and the role you play in our lives and ministry. Thanks for praying and giving! You are loved!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Truth



We've been in language school for two weeks now, and we are enjoying our classes which prove to be challenging. During the past few weeks we have experienced many ups and downs and realize we have a long way to go in language aquisition! Some days are frustrating for us as we feel like we can hardly communicate and other days we can't believe how far we've come.

This week in one of our classes we had to write an essay about a topic of importance to us. One of the students in our class wrote about truth. He stated that there was no such thing as absolute truth and the world would be better off if everyone realized that and respected each other. We agree that respecting others' ideas and cultures is important, but to us there is no significance in life if we are not constantly in search of truth wherever it may be. This idea that the only truth that exists is the truth that every person has for his or herself is becoming more and more common in our generation. As King Herod asked, "What is truth?" Is there anything worth living for if there is not some kind of absolute truth to be found? Or is everything relative? These are important questions that many people struggle with. We hope that as we study and work here in Mexico we can point people to the way, the truth, and the light! There are many here in Central Mexico who do not know the truth, but as we sit in our Spanish classes with students from all around the world we've become more aware that there are poeple all over the world who do not know the truth and think that it doesn't even exist.
John 8:32 "You will know the truth, and the truth shall set you free."

Thanks for continuing to pray for us as we adapt to our new culture. We especially need your prayers for our language studies and our relationships with nationals.

Much love,
Josh and Jennifer

Sunday, November 9, 2008

New Beginning





Last weekend we traveled ten hours to the border for our annual meeting with the other missionaries from the Mexico field. There are not many of us (please pray for more workers), but we had a wonderful time meeting with one another and fellowshipping together. We had a safe drive to and from the border, and we are thankful for the time we were able to spend with our colleagues!

Monday of this week we stared language school in Guanajuato. Yeah! We are incredibly thankful for our classes and how God is providing the resources we need in order to attend for several months. As you pray please pray that God would give us the ability to learn Spanish well and that he would direct our steps after these first few months of language school. So far classes are going smoothly and prove to be challenging. Please pray for safety as we have an hour commute one way every day.

We have started working regularly with our church's outreach in La Cañon de La India on Saturday mornings. We see some beautiful children there who we wish we could take home with us and make their lives easier. The children in this neighborhood have so little, but we hope that sharing the love of Jesus with them gives them hope to see beyond their circumstance. As you think of us pray for this outreach and that we will be able to reach families with the love of God! One praise is that Sam's (as in Sam Walton) is partnering with us to do an angel tree project for these children this Christmas. We desire all of the children to be able to have a nice gift for Christmas through this project.

Thanks for your prayers and support! Keep in touch because we love hearing from you!