FLOW international

Welcome 2012!

2012-01-01T19:54:00.003-07:00

Happy New Year from the Coult Family in Las Glorias, Sinaloa, Mexico!

We end 2011 and begin 2012 with a huge shout of praise!

God thunders wondrously with his voice;
He does great things that we cannot comprehend.

Job 37:5

Often we don’t understand why things happen the way they do. It is very good to know that we don’t really have to understand everything. I suppose that’s why they call it faith!

Mission teams from Arizona and Oregon converged upon Las Glorias on December 16. Their main purpose: to put a roof on the New Hope Conference Center behind our house. After about 10 days of pretty intense work, the mission was accomplished. In addition to the construction project, though, they were also able to connect in some very tangible ways to the body of believers here in Mexico and experience a little bit of Mexican culture at the same time. Photos will be posted on our blog soon, so check there in a couple of days. We’ll post notes on Facebook when new blog articles are added.

Here is a photo of part of the construction crew:

On Friday before Christmas, the sub-roofing was finished, and we were able use the building to host a youth event. Several youth put together a drama entitled “Light Bulb”.

We said goodbye to the last of the American team on Wednesday, and on Thursday Doug and Joaquin put the last screws in the tile roofing.

The structure is now finished. As funds are available, we’ll continue working on details such as windows and electricity, but the building is now fully functional and ready for the next planned event: Master’s Bible School, which is scheduled for January 29 through February 9.

Almost 40 pastors and leaders, some from as far away as Mexico City, have signed up for this 10-day event. The course will include inductive Bible study methods, Biblical principles and identifying false teachings. The leaders we’ve talked to are very excited about this opportunity for training. We are only asking for a nominal contribution from the students, since we realize that many are making a huge financial sacrifice by leaving their jobs and families for 10 days. We are praying that God will supply every financial need that arises – for the students, the teachers (coming from Oregon and Ensenada, Mexico) and for us, as well. Please join us in praying for this adventure!!!

IMPORTANT NOTE: In regards to the Bible school, several serious needs have arisen in the past couple of days. These issues are serious enough that, if not resolved very soon, the school might need to be altered or postponed. We have no doubt that God desires for us to hold this conference, so we most definitely see the need for focused prayer. If you’re interested in more details, please send us a note, and we’ll share more specific needs. Please pray that God would be glorified through this conference and in the lives of the pastors and leaders who attend it!

Prayers and Praises:

Pray for the Bible school we’ll be hosting in February. Pray specifically for financial provision and that those who are supposed to attend would be able to. Because it was God who began this work, we trust that He will complete it, but we are experiencing some significant spiritual attacks in this area.
Praise God for the Oregon team and the Arizona team who sacrificed their Christmas vacation to work their tails off in Mexico!
Praise God for the lives which were impacted by the American missionaries who came.
Praise God for His protection over every person during the mission trip.
Pray for each person whose life was touched during those 10 days. God was speaking to several team members in some very powerful ways. Pray that they would stand firm in the Word!

All According to Plan

2011-12-15T10:12:00.003-07:00

Just wanted to let everyone know --

The wood arrived!!!

Thank you for your notes of encouragement and for your prayers. We would have written sooner, but our internet has been down. We're learning to accept this as a fact of life: internet is not dependable.

Isaiah 55:8-9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

What a great month of faith-building this has been!!!

The truckload of wood arrived on Saturday and our crew of workers made short work of unloading and stacking it. Along with the lumber, they brought doors for the center, which the owner of the lumber yard donated. Wow!

Evie playing "Queen of the Mountain" inside the conference center.

The next step is to prepare the wood by planing it and treating it for termites.

After the boards are planed and stained, we set them on end to dry -- they are still pretty "green", which makes them a little heavy. We're hoping that they'll be more dry by the time the men need to lift them 20 feet in the air!

Today, Thursday, we're all working busily, preparing for mission teams which will be arriving tomorrow. Please keep these teams in your prayers over the next day as they travel and during the next 2 weeks as they work and minister here. We have several outreaches planned including a Christmas party at the migrant camp, a time in the local prison and a dinner for couples in the church. Pray specifically for physical safety as the men work on the roof, for wisdom and insight as the mission team interacts with each other and with the Mexican people, for the families of the Vida Nueva church, and for the families in the migrant camp.

We hope to post pictures on our blog throughout the weeks, but we'll see how the internet works!

Blessings to you and your family as you prepare to spend time together this holiday season! We pray that relationships are strengthened, that memories are made and that God is glorified in your homes!

Coult's November Update 2011

2011-11-30T14:05:00.011-07:00

I will give thanks to you, O Lord,
among the peoples;
I will sing praises to you among the nations.
For your steadfast love is great to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the clouds.
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
Let your glory be over all the earth!
Psalm 57: 9-11

Algo Nuevo: Para nuestros hermanos que querrían leer esta carta en español, haz clic aquí.
Something New: For those who would like to read this letter in Spanish, click above.

Pictured here is a small business in Guasave. This is a very common sight in our part of Mexico. Many times the front room of a house is converted into a storefront. Without having to pay rent for a store or hire employees, the entrepreneur can make enough profit to provide for his family and purchase more inventory. This is especially common in families with small children or ailing grandparents who need to be taken care of.

It is good to have our family back together again! Sarah arrived home from the U.S. two weeks ago and hasn’t stopped working since! The day that she arrived, we were invited to share music at an evangelistic crusade in Guasave. What a blessing that was! We had a fantastic time and were immensely blessed to be part of the crusade.

Sarah and Caleb led worship at the church service in Tecomate last week. Since the property doesn’t have electricity, the sound system is powered by a car battery and a converter.

Construction continues on the conference center behind our house. The walls are nearly finished – only lacking the final touches on the stucco. In this photo, Doug fills the wheelbarrow for Caleb while the men prepare to pour a pillar.

All five of our men, plus Alfredo and Julio have been working practically non-stop for the past month to get the building ready for the roof. God has been faithful in protecting them all and in providing for every need during the project. As you may have read in a prayer request sent out earlier today, we have just learned that the lumber needed for the roof has not arrived at the lumber yard yet. Please pray that whatever is hindering the arrival of the trees would be removed and that the boards would be ready in time for their use in mid-December. We serve a really big God! Since He is the one who put it on our heart to build the center, we have to trust that He has this situation under control! So, also pray that we wouldn’t worry, but rather that we would trust and have peace!

Here is the building as it stands today.

To see more pictures of the Nueva Esperanza conference center, click here. We have begun inviting area pastors and leaders to an event we will be hosting at the center in January and February of 2012. The Master’s Bible School, a training program designed to equip leaders and pastors, will be a 30-day event. The first 10-day session will be held the first week of February. We are so excited to be able to be part of this! It’s a bit overwhelming, but we can see that it is God’s work. The response from area leaders has been very encouraging. We are pretty certain that we won’t have any problem filling the 40 spaces we have available for students. Pray for the teachers who will be traveling from Ensenada, Mexico, and Oregon, USA, and also for the students who will be coming from various parts of Mexico.

Lest you think that all we’ve been doing for the past month is work…

Caleb gets the wood oven ready for a pizza party.

At our home fellowship meeting last week, we fired up the brick oven and baked pizzas. We celebrated a couple of birthdays and enjoyed some time in the Word together. Continue to lift up the new believers in Las Glorias. We have such a wonderful group, and we pray that God would continue to grow it – larger and closer to God!

We are still homeschooling. Here are Rebecca and the kids displaying their newly-completed timeline. This timeline hangs on our dining room wall and is a great conversation starter! You can read more about the Mystery of History at Rebecca’s Blog. Just click here.

Prayers and Praises:

Praise God for His provision – both in the construction of the conference center and also in our day-to-day life.
Pray for the teachers and the students who will be attending the Master’s Bible School in Las Glorias in 2012.
Praise God for the families who have been attending our weekly Bible study at our house. Pray specifically for Esteban, Julio, Alfredo, Pedro, Xavier, and Jorge as the heads of their families – that they would seek to honor God with their lives.
Pray for the leaders of the Vida Nueva churches we are working with: Jeff and Renea, Ernesto and Brisa, Misael and Eugenia, Felipe and Yadira -- that God would strengthen their families and provide for their ministry.
Pray for the two mission teams that will be converging on our house in December. A team from Oregon will be arriving December 16 in the morning and a team from Arizona will be arriving later that same day. Their goals during their time here include putting a roof on the conference center and throwing a Christmas party for children at a local migrant camp.
Pray that the wood for the roof is here and ready by December 15.
Praise God that Sarah is home safe and sound! It is good to have our family together again.
Pray for wisdom and perseverance as we continue to educate our children at home. We have three highschoolers and two junior high students this year. Wow.

Building Update/Prayer Request

2011-11-30T13:37:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

A quick note to ask you to pray. As many of you know, mission teams from Oregon and Arizona will be coming down in a couple of weeks to put a roof on the new conference/youth center. I just got off the phone with the wood people, and the wood for the project next month has not arrived. I ordered it over a month ago, knowing that it might take some time to get it. It was supposed to come out of the mill last week and have been treated with that green stuff for termites and been laid out and drying the past week.

I'm not panicking yet. I was told this morning that the wood will arrive tomorrow and that 2 weeks should be sufficient drying time. However, I've learned that in this culture tomorrow isn't always exactly tomorrow ;^). (And by the way, that's okay with most people here.)

God has been so faithful and people have been very generous as we have worked on this project. We also have seen God's hand at work repeatedly over the past weeks and we know that He is ultimately in control. I just think that he wants us to seek Him more.

Please join me in praying that this wood order will arrive ready to build with by Dec. 15. Also pray for the teams which will be traveling down here the same date. Pray for peace as we trust in Him and that nothing would hinder the work that God has begun here!

Doug

Mexico Update -- October 2011

2011-10-21T10:45:00.002-06:00

Isaiah 40:29-31 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

Returning to Mexico after our furlough, we find ourselves somewhat rested and energized. That’s a good thing, since our schedule for the next few months looks pretty full!

The first weekend we were home, Vida Nueva Church hosted a big fish fry and a baptism. Several new believers wanted to be baptized in the ocean, so after lunch in Alamito, everyone piled into cars, trucks and vans to head to the beach. You can read more and see more photos of the baptism by clicking here.

Last weekend Vida Nueva Church of Tamazula hosted the monthly county-wide youth prayer meeting. Although only a small group came, only about 40 youth from 5 or 6 congregations, it was still a blessed time of prayer, praise and worship music and fellowship. One of the youth shared from James chapter 1 about the importance of living what we say that we believe: “Be a doer of the word and not merely a hearer!” It was great to lead music together as a family again and it was also great to be able to hang out with friends we hadn’t seen for several weeks.

With the target date for completion of the walls of Nueva Esperanza Centro de Convivio (New Hope Fellowship Center) set at December 15, Doug had to hit the ground running when we returned from the States. Three men from Boca del Rio helped him and the boys complete the sidewalk and build a temporary access ramp up the hill. This was the first step, making it easier to move materials and to work. You can read more about this construction project by clicking here. More photos are being added as progress continues, so keep checking back at our blog to see how things are moving along!

Next on the calendar is a 5-day mission trip to Quimichis, Nayarit. Vida Nueva sent a mission team there in July to do outreaches in the village where Pastor Felipe grew up. You can read more about that trip by clicking here. The upcoming trip, which is planned for the last week of October, will be to offer follow-up, visit new believers and to encourage the Body there. The pastor in Quimichis says that the church has grown so much that they’ve had to expand the meeting room by removing a wall! Pray for this mission team. We believe that we won some spiritual battles in that village, but the war is by no means over. Please pray specifically against the enemy as plans are made for Bible classes and more outreaches in this village.

In December, teams from Oregon and Arizona are planning to converge in Las Glorias to put a roof on the fellowship center. We are so excited!!! It’s been some time since a mission team from the US has come down here to visit and work with us. We’re looking forward to being able to share our home with them and to introduce them to our extended family here. In addition to construction projects, the team will get to celebrate Christmas “Mexico style” and will have a chance to get to know the brothers and sisters in Christ with whom we work.

January will, Lord willing, bring something completely new to Las Glorias. The inaugural event for the new fellowship center will be a 10-day university-level class for area pastors and leaders. This course, given by Masters Bible School, will focus on foundations of the Christian faith and how to study the Bible more effectively using the inductive method.

We are so encouraged by the work we see God doing in our lives and in the lives of people around us. It is a privilege to be able to participate. Thank you, God, for using our family here in Las Glorias!!!

Prayers and Praises:

Praise God for safe travels and His perfect provision during our time in the US. It wasn’t a totally smooth trip, but He was there with us the whole time!!!
Praise God for His provision of funds for the fellowship center!
Pray for safety for the workers and wisdom as construction continues. Also pray that attitudes stay positive. At the end of a long, hot day it’s easy to become frustrated and short-tempered. Pray that God would help us all to treat each other the way we want to be treated.
Pray against water issues. Cement construction requires water, and water has been running short here lately. In fact, all of Sinaloa is struggling with water right now. Please pray!
Pray for direction and insight as final preparations are made for the mission trip to Quimichis. Pray for the team during the trip: October 26-31. Specifically pray that God would be glorified through the lives of the team members and through the various outreaches and classes.
Praise God for this opportunity we have to share Masters Bible School with area pastors and leaders. Pray for the ministry as plans are finalized for the school in January. Pray that God would open doors for pastors and leaders throughout Guasave to be able to attend.
Pray for Sarah as she prepares to return to Mexico to work with FLOWinternational for a few months. Read more about Sarah’s plans here!

You just had to be there!

2011-09-19T16:12:00.005-06:00

Romans 10:13-15 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How, then, shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

Every time a youth group returns from a summer mission adventure or a small group arrives home to the States from a Christmas or Spring Break trip, the sending church is impacted.

We are gathering missionaries for our 2011-2012 mission trips. If you're interested, contact us soon, because space is limited!

God is doing some tremendous things in this land, and we know that He will do tremendous things in your life during your time here.

We would love to discuss the possibility of your church, youth group or small group coming down to minister to the people of Mexico. Of course, families, couples and singles are welcome also!

Read the mission trip information available at this site, visit our Online Missions Scrapbook to see what mission teams have done here in the past, and email us for more information. We look forward to hearing from you!

Coult's Update -- September 2011

2011-09-19T09:43:00.005-06:00

Psalm 100 Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth!
Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!
Know that the LORD, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!
For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.

We have arrived in Oregon and are having a wonderful visit with family and friends here. On Wednesday, we'll be leaving Oregon to begin our trip south and, Lord willing, will be crossing the border to return to Mexico on October 4.

Sunday, September 25, we'll be visiting Restoration Life Church in Sacramento and the following Sunday, October 2, Doug will be sharing at Saguaro Canyon EFC in Tucson.

Evie and two of her friends picking blackberries to make jam.

God has been so gracious and faithful to us this trip -- as always. It's been great visiting churches, reconnecting with old friends and making some new ones. As our time in the States reaches its end, though, we begin to look forward to our return home. We are anxious to begin work on the New Hope Fellowship Center which is now, thanks to generous donations from friends in the States, fully funded. We are praying for mission teams which are being raised up to come help with the building and also for a team of youth which is hoping to host our second "Desde el Interior" conference -- in the new building.

Also in the plans are inductive Bible study training, more work on the parenting class curriculum, children's worker training, music classes for worship leaders and discipleship of our home fellowship group -- in addition to school and "life". We expect the next 6 months to be as full as the past 6 months...and also just as blessed!

Ysy and Evie teach kids' class at the church in Alamito.

There are still many miles to travel on this furlough. Pray for us as we begin the journey back to Mexico! It's hard to drive off and leave our daughter, Sarah, in Oregon again, but we do take some comfort in knowing that we will be seeing her soon. She is planning to bring a mission team from Oregon to Mexico in December.

The view of Highway 42 in Oregon.

Prayers and Praises:

Praise God for providing the funds necessary to build the fellowship center in Las Glorias. Pray that He would send the workers!
Please pray for us as we travel -- safety on the highways, rest and health, God's provision for all our needs.
Pray for wisdom as we plan events and classes when we return.
Pray for direction and insight for Sarah as she makes decisions about school
Pray for the mission teams which are being organized now for 2011 and 2012. Contact us if you'd like to get involved in one of them!

Coults Heading North -- Fall 2011

2011-08-30T23:36:00.009-06:00

Psalm 92:1-3 It is good to give thanks to the LORD,
to sing praises to your name, O Most High;
to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night,
to the music of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre.

Our family had an opportunity to lead the worship at a youth conference in August.

It is an answer to prayer to have our whole family singing and playing instruments together. We're praying that by December, at the next youth conference, we'll truly have everyone: adding Andrew on bass guitar and Sarah on guitar. At this event in the village of Los Angeles del Triunfo, we were able to introduce a couple of new songs recently translated by Caleb. The youth were very excited about the songs -- so much so that all our copies were given away practically before we had time to get off the stage.

Doug and Andrew once again are called into action as "shade tree mechanics". Pastor Misael's car had a serious suspension issue: a bolt fell out, which caused the car to become un-steerable. Praise God that this happened while entering the highway and not while traveling at highway speeds! Thank you, Lord, for Your protection!

We do a lot of traveling here in Sinaloa and the country roads we generally travel, although beautiful and scenic, are not paved and barely maintained. The roads wreak havoc on cars, so it seems like the guys spend a lot of time under the vehicles doing repairs and maintenance. Praise God that they have the tools and know-how to keep all the church's vehicles on the road!

"Vibradores" = Speed bumps
Wherever traffic slows for speed bumps on the highway, vendors gather to sell their goods. Men wave packets of freshly made tortillas or bread, baggies of dried shrimp
or mango prepared with chile and lime.

The time has come for our semi-annual exodus from Mexico. This will be a short trip, only one month, but we will be covering many miles as we travel up to see Sarah in Oregon. Every Sunday, we’ll be in a different city, visiting a different church. Refer to the list of churches and dates below to see when we’ll be in your town. Like I said, it will be a quick trip, but we’re looking forward to seeing many of you as we travel northward.

You can track our progress across the country on Facebook and also on our Ministry Blog.

Fall Furlough Schedule 2011

Thursday 9/1 Leave Las Glorias +/- 4am; Arrive Tucson +/- 4pm

Sunday 9/4 @ Magnolia Presbyterian Church, Riverside, CA

Tuesday 9/6 Arrive Chico, CA

Sunday 9/11 @ Woodland Bible Church, Woodland, CA

Monday 9/12 Leave Chico, CA

Sunday 9/18 @ New Hope EFC, Winston, OR

Sunday 9/25 @ Restoration Life Church, Sacramento, CA

Sunday 10/2 @ Saguaro Canyon EFC, Tucson AZ

Tuesday 10/4 Leave Arizona and head home

Wednesday 10/5 Arrive home

Please pray for us as we travel: that God would anoint our hands, feet and words and that He would supply all our needs! Also continue to pray for the ministry and family that we're leaving behind: Iglesia Vida Nueva: Tamazula, Alamito and Tecomate; our home fellowship group; Joaquin and his family (staying in our house)

Mexico Mission Update July 2011

2011-08-06T17:33:00.003-06:00

Philippians 2:1-2 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

Our mission trip to the state of Nayarit, Mexico, was exciting, challenging, amazing, exhausting, humbling, and inspiring – all at once!

Entering Nayarit, vendors line the highway. They are all selling the same thing: fresh mangoes and dried shrimp.

Arriving in the village of Quimichis on Tuesday evening after a 12 hour drive, we weren’t certain of where our team would sleep that night. Within only an hour of our arrival, we were offered three different houses. Wow! What a reception! God had everything already worked out. One of our prayer requests was that God would keep our team close together for the sake of unity and safety. It ended up that half of our team stayed in the house of Pastor Felipe’s daughter and son-in-law and the other half stayed in the house right next door. God is good!!

While the grown-ups worked out the housing arrangements, the kids pulled out a soccer ball and taught all the neighborhood kids a new game: dodgeball. They caught on quickly and soon more than 40 children were running around in the street.

The response we saw to the music, the dramas, the teaching, the kids’ program and even just the times of “hanging out” was amazing. God has called a man named Narciso, from the State of Veracruz, and his family to pastor the Church in Quimichis. After the first night of the crusade Pastor Narciso was astonished as well. “We’ve had other groups – professional musicians, evangelists – but the people here never respond. For 40 people to stand up and ask for prayer is something historic here in Quimichis,” said Pastor Narciso.

Drama teams presented dramas each of the three nights.

We held the event at the main intersection of the village – only a block from where we were staying. God gave us favor with the local authorities and the neighbors, too (another prayer answered). The whole community turned out each of the three nights.

Doug and Misael with Pastor Narciso and his wife in front of “our house”

Abraham, the son-in-law of Pastor Felipe, shows off the bananas he grows in his backyard. Some of these bananas were over a foot long!

Children and adults alike stopped by to sit in the shade and talk. When we realized that we had nearly 10 children visiting, Sister Eugenia and Evie did an impromptu kids’ class.

We saw God's hand move in incredible ways in saving, healing, protecting, and providing not only in our own lives but also in the lives of the people of Quimichis. Heavy rain was forecasted for all 3 days of the crusades, but we only experienced a short drizzle on the first day we were there. During our visit many people asked for prayer. We had reports of people healed from inability to speak, diabetes, cancer, twisted knees just to name a few. Many people prayed to receive Christ. We give all the credit and glory to our great and mighty God!!

Pastor Felipe and his family led part of the music during the outreaches. He sings ranchero ballads which all the people seemed to know – even small children sitting behind me were singing along.

We were told that the village of Quimichis is not generally very open to outsiders. However, we found everyone we met to be warm and friendly, ready to both talk and listen to what we had to say.

Pastor Misael shares from the Bible with a man who lived down the street. His wife suffered a stroke 12 years ago and she has been unable to talk since that time. On Thursday, Sister Eugenia prayed with the woman; on Friday the woman attended the outreach with her husband – clapping and singing and speaking clearly!

Seth and Caleb spent some time talking with the men next door. Fishing season begins soon, and these men were passing their time making and repairing fishing nets.

During our morning devotions, some neighbors joined us to listen to the Word and to pray with us. A couple of ladies even walked all the way across town just to be there for our devotion time each morning.

Now, a week later, we are back at home in Sinaloa. The laundry is mostly caught up and people are getting healthy from the various colds and ailments which have been cropping up the past week. Parenting classes continue on Wednesday and Thursday. Weekly Bible study continues on Tuesdays – and we even had some more neighbors attend last week! Two little boys from the school in Mochis, Juanito and Andrés, have come to spend a month with us. Youth group meets today in Guasave. Doug will be teaching at the church in Tamazula on Sunday. We keep a very busy schedule, and we seem to find any number of ways to fill what little free time we have.

Our trip to Quimichis, however, impacted all of our lives. We saw God work in some wonderful and miraculous ways. Our team pulled together and worked in unity and accomplished some amazing and mighty things. The local Church in Quimichis is encouraged because of the new people attending the weekly meetings. And we made some friendships which will last an eternity!!!

Thank you so much for your prayers for us over the past month! We believe that the trip would not have been as wonderfully successful had we not had so many people praying for us and for the people of the village.

Prayers and Praises:

Praise God for His provision in every way which allowed us to participate in this mission trip to Nayarit.
Praise God for the families of Misael, Felipe and Ernesto (the pastors of the Vida Nueva churches); Pray for these Pastors and their families for provision, protection, and spiritual strength.
Praise God for the new families attending our weekly Bible study.
Pray for God’s protection for the new believers in Quimichis and for Pastor Narciso and his family.
Pray for wisdom for the Vida Nueva Church leaders as we pray about our next step concerning the church in Quimichis.
Pray for God’s provision of a van for the Vida Nueva Church in Tamazula to use in the church plant in El Serrano.
Pray for full-time workers (a married couple?) for the church plant in El Serrano.
Pray for God’s provision as we continue to raise the funds for the Las Glorias Youth Center.
Pray for wisdom and God’s provision as we plan a short furlough to the States in September.

Welcome to the home page of FLOW international

2011-07-24T19:06:00.002-06:00

Welcome to the up-and-coming website for the Coult family and FLOWinternational Missions!

If you're curious about that strange-looking couple over there on the right side-bar or that incredible sunset at the top of the page, click over to our current ministry/family blog for more pictures and stories about our village, our church family and visiting mission teams. You might also be interested in Mom's homeschool blog if you are wanting more information about our family or life as missionaries in Mexico.

A few bits about us...

We are a family of eight -- six kids ranging in age from 12 to 18, two parents over 40.
We've been in Las Glorias, Sinaloa, since January 2006
We were sent out from an Evangelical Free Church in Winston, Oregon
Doug and Rebecca were youth leaders for 4 years prior to moving to Mexico
We homeschool
Currently we work with half a dozen different Christian churches in our area helping as needed with children's ministry, music ministry, teaching, teacher training, parenting classes, and anything else which needs doing.
We host mission teams any time between October and June
"What We Believe" is posted on the right side bar.

We're still in the site-building phase (will it ever end?), but there's some great information here. If you're curious about mission trips, cross-cultural missions, missionary life or life in Mexico, there's something here for you.

We're glad that you stopped in and hope that you'll click around a bit...and don't forget to leave a comment!!!

Is there something missing? If you have any specific -- or general, for that matter -- questions you'd like to have answered or information you think should be included on this site, feel free to drop us a note at FLOWinternational@fastmail.fm

You can also click on the little mailbox on the right side of the screen. We're always eager to hear suggestions, and we look forward to hearing from you!

Embracing the journey!

-- Doug and Rebecca

Dreaming Big -- Nueva Esperanza

2011-07-16T08:29:00.009-06:00

Las Glorias Centro de Convivio Nueva Esperanza

In English, one would call it “New Hope Fellowship Center”.

Shortly after moving to Mexico, we began to see the need for a place for youth in our village to “go” and a lack of things for them to “do”. The lack of such a place, paired with an over-abundance of “free-time”, has made for a large group of youth who wander aimlessly around town causing trouble. As a family, we wanted to make our home a place where youth from the area could experience God’s love and come together to be encouraged in a positive atmosphere. We opened our home and invited youth and adults to come and just “be”. Our first problem reared its head almost immediately: our house just wasn’t big enough!

“Wouldn’t it be neat,” we dreamed, “to have a big room where we could set up the pool table and the air hockey table at the same time?” We envisioned community movie nights, hosting youth events and retreats and being available to house mission teams from around the world.

By God’s grace, and with the help of some neighbors, ministry partners and the local church, we’ve been able to do all of these things in the house that God has blessed us with. We have hosted several youth retreats during the past years.

We hold weekly “convivios” and frequent pizza parties.

Men from the village stop in daily to pass time after work or between jobs.

In January we hosted what we hope will be our first annual youth worship conference, “Desde el Interior”, which translates “From the Inside Out”.

Although the kids never seem to mind cramped quarters or shuttling chairs back and forth from one location to another, we see the great benefit that a community/youth center would be: one building closed off to the elements and the mosquitoes, bathrooms and showers, kitchen facilities, and housing all within walking distance of the most beautiful beach in the world (our opinion!).

Below is a sketch of the future New Hope Fellowship Center:

The building will be a 25 x 50 foot structure with 12 foot eaves – a conference center doubling as a gym or rec room – which will seat up to 80 people. Most buildings here are made of concrete, but even though the costs will be slightly higher, our desire is to construct it using steel and wood. This will reduce the amount of heat the walls retain and keep the building cooler. The small structure to the right is a bathroom, which will be added as funds become available.

The fellowship center is “Phase 1” of a larger vision for a facility offering a skate park, community pool, play equipment and picnic area. These other ideas would require the purchase of 4 additional lots totaling approximately $16,000. We feel the need to purchase these lots soon, before they are no longer available, but are trusting in God’s timing. The facility will be available for church and community events – both the local church and visiting groups from other areas including groups from the States.

Total cost of phase 1: $9800
Amount needed to finish phase 1: $7300.

The foundation has already been laid. In the summer of 2008, a mission team from Restoration Life Church of Sacramento, California, came down and poured a 25 x 50 foot cement pad.

Since that time we’ve had the blessing of having a large above ground pool on the pad.

During the past 3 years, we’ve felt God leading us to complete our house and put the youth and fellowship center on hold. Now, this year, we have begun to move forward with the vision we were given years ago. Our desire is to put a roof on the structure this coming December and have it ready for use by the beginning of 2012 – possibly in time for the 2nd annual “Desde el Interior” youth conference!

God has already begun to stir hearts (ours included), and we can see Him working. A team from Oregon has pledged to raise $2,500 towards the cause. That is the exact amount needed to put the roof on the structure. This team will be coming in December to, Lord willing, finish the building by putting the roof on. With the $2,500 pledged, only $4,800 is lacking to finish the building. Please pray about helping complete this first step in achieving the goal God has placed on our hearts!

Philippians 1:6 -- Being confident of this very thing: that He who began a good work in you will be faithful to carry it out to completion until the day of Jesus Christ!

Mission Trip to Quimichis 2011

2011-07-12T18:24:00.005-06:00

We would like to share a photo of the team which will be heading south to Quimichis, Nayarit, next week. Please continue to pray for safe travels and physical well-being. Pray also for God's guidance and that His will be done in this adventure.

It's been several years since we actually went on a "mission trip" as a family, and we are very excited about this opportunity. Pray for unity in our team and in our family as well. We'll try to post updates at our family blog site, but might only have time for the occasional Facebook Post. I would imagine that "down time" will be a rare thing next week!

June 2011 Mexico Update

2011-06-29T08:39:00.008-06:00

Psalm 92:1 -- It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto your name, O most High: To show forth your lovingkindness in the morning, and your faithfulness every night.

The church in Alamito. This is the "parking lot".

June seems to have been a very short month. We’ve been busy with our regular commitments but have also added preparations for a mission trip to the state of Nayarit in July.

Music practice in Alamito

On Saturdays we load all the musical equipment into the trailer and head to the village of Alamito for a time of practice. The Vida Nueva worship team now consists of a percussionist, 2 guitars, 2 pianos, 3 vocalists and a bass. Andrew is working on becoming our second bass-player, but for now he has been put in charge of the sound system. It’s been a fun challenge blending the two musical groups. Hermana Yadira and her daughters, Ysy and Sarahi, have a distinctly Sinaloa style which we call ranchero. The Coult family is most definitely a gringo worship team. Put together, we have a very unique gringo-ranchero flavor. However it turns out, we certainly have a great time worshipping in song together. We pray that we’re a blessing to the people who will come to the outreach.

Twenty people have signed up to travel south with us. We plan to be in the area of Quimichis for one week. During that time, the group has scheduled three outreaches and a mini-VBS. The men on the team have also been invited to enter the local prison as many days as they are available for Bible study and prayer with the inmates. We are very excited about the way God is opening doors in this city and continue to pray that we find favor with the authorities there.

Over the past month, God has led our team to pray in some specific ways for the area into which we will be traveling and ministering. We’ve listed these specific prayer requests in our “Prayers and Praises”, and we appreciate your joining us in lifting these petitions to our God.

Parenting classes in Tamazula

We are continuing to write lessons for a weekly parenting class. The response in the Tamazula fellowship has been very encouraging. We now have 4 couples and 8 singles attending faithfully there, and have recently begun a class in the village of Alamito. Our goal is to strengthen these families by giving them a solid foundation of Biblical principles and by teaching them how to apply them in their day-to-day lives.

In the past, we've had some measure of success using parenting materials from the U.S. which had been translated to Spanish. As our understanding of the language and the culture has grown, however, we’ve come to realize that the culture of Mexico is much more than simply its language. The American-written parenting books all miss the mark when it comes to parenting in the culture of rural Mexico. We pray that the book we are writing will be a useful tool for the Church and for many families in Mexico.

Seth and Gary show off Gary's lost sheep.

During the parenting classes, Caleb and the rest of the kids have really been stepping up in the leadership of the children’s class. Caleb has been organizing the class using “edible object lessons”. The kids really enjoyed last week’s lesson on the lost sheep. They made “sheep” using marshmallows and raisins. Yummy!

Sarah’s absence has been keenly felt, but it seems that everyone is growing during this time. Continue to pray for the kids as they adjust to their new roles and responsibilities. Sarah has also been going through a time of adjustment, but God is doing some wonderful things in her life. Pray that God would give her wisdom as she plans her next year. Much depends on whether or not she receives a grant or scholarship to study in the fall, so please pray that God’s will be done in that.

Prayers and Praises:

Praise God for the opportunity to travel to Nayarit on a mission trip.
Pray specifically for this trip:

That those going down would be “pure vessels” ready to be used for God’s glory.
That God would build unity in the team and in the families.
That God would go before us everywhere our feet will walk.
Pray against physical ailments – specifically lower back and stomach issues – that may arise during the trip
Pray for protection as we travel (7/19-7/25) – both the cars and the trailer.

Pray as we trust God to provide the funds needed to complete the youth center here in Las Glorias. We believe that God has called us to finish it by the end of this year. Pray for us as we trust Him in this!

Praise God for the parenting classes in Tamazula and Alamito. Pray for wisdom as we continue to write the curriculum.

Pray for the church plant in El Serrano. Specifically, pray that God would provide a van to transport the ministry workers from Tamazula and Guasave until local leadership is raised up.

Pray for Jorge and his wife and daughter. They’ve agreed to come to our Tuesday night Bible study, and we’re excited to see God work in this family; The enemy, however, is not. Yesterday, Jorge had an accident on his motorcycle. Praise God he only received minor injuries. Pray that the enemy will not hinder them from hearing God’s word and plan for their lives.

Coult's May Re-Cap 2011

2011-06-05T07:47:00.007-06:00

This tree is located on the canal road between Amole and Tamazula. Every time I see it, I’m reminded of one of my favorite Psalms.

Psalm 1 -- Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.
The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
for the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.

May has come and gone and it’s hard to believe how quickly it passed! Be sure to check out our blogs for more articles: Rebecca's blog, for stories and photos of our family and life in Mexico. Sarah's blog, for updates on her life as a "third-culture kid" in Oregon. Feel free to forward or print out this letter to share with others.

The Guasave alliance of churches held their annual summer outreach last month. Over 200 people were in attendance for each of the three nights. We heard testimony from neighbors a week later who were impacted by the concert, the message and the time of prayer afterward. Continue to pray for unity within the Christian church in Guasave; it is beautiful to see all the different denominations working together with the common goal of sharing Jesus Christ with the city.

We’ve begun another session of parenting classes at the church in Tamazula. This session is a bit different, because we are writing the curriculum as we go along. While being authors was never a life’s ambition for either of us, we have seen an increasing need for a parenting book or curriculum written in Spanish and specifically designed for the rural Mexican culture. Pray for us as we move forward with this project which God has laid on our hearts to do! Also pray for Caleb as he is preparing to lead the children's class on his own. This will be his first experience teaching a class without Sarah at his side! Pray the rest of the kids, too, that they would work well as a team to reach these little ones for Christ.

Plans are underway for a mission trip from Sinaloa to Nayarit in July. Some time back, Pastor Felipe and his family expressed a desire to travel south to Felipe’s home town. What began as an off-hand comment grew into a full-blown plan. Felipe traveled 8 hours south to Quimichis, Nayarit, last month on a scouting mission. Returning, he reported a great hunger for God in his village and that the believers there are very excited about our pending visit. Pray for the families who will be traveling south in July. Already we have experienced a lot of spiritual attack, so please pray specifically for spiritual protection over all involved. More than anything else, pray that we would be able to accomplish what God sets before us to do!

We continue to travel each week to the village of Benito Juarez, just outside of Los Mochis, to help at the Magdelena Rincon school for the deaf. All of us are beginning to pick up a little sign language, and wish we could spend more time there. During the little boys’ art class a few weeks ago, we learned how to tie-dye. They had so much fun that the whole school wanted to get in on it!

While we continue to work with the youth of the Vida Nueva churches two Saturdays a month, we have begun giving music classes on the alternate Saturdays. We load up our van and our trailer with drums, guitars, pianos and bass guitar, and we head for the Tamazula church. Our first week, nearly 30 people came to the class. Last week there were more.

There is a lot of desire within the church to learn music. We pray that we are able to give a little incentive and some tools so that those who want to worship God in song will be able to. This is a huge project, but everyone is enjoying it so far! Pray that God would provide for the materials necessary for the class: strings for guitars and bass guitars, drum sticks, guitar picks and electric keyboards which work. Andrew is in the process of repairing a couple of the keyboards which have electrical issues. God is so good and has supplied enough instruments that we can share around so that everyone gets a turn.

Prayers and Praises:
Praise God for the families attending the parenting classes.

Pray for us as we move forward with the writing of the parenting curriculum. Pray that the teaching would be clear and understandable and that we would share with the people what will be most helpful and what God wants them to hear.

Pray for the families who will be traveling to Nayarit in July. Already we have experienced a lot of spiritual attack, so please pray specifically for spiritual protection over all involved. More than anything else, pray that we would be able to accomplish what God sets before us to do!

Praise God for the outreach held in Guasave last month. Pray that the area churches would continue to work together to reach their communities for Christ.

Pray that God would provide for the materials necessary for the music classes: strings for guitars and bass guitars, drum sticks, guitar picks and electric keyboards which work. (Andrew is in the process of repairing several which have electrical problems.)

Pray that God would provide more teachers and helpers for the deaf school for the coming year.

Praise God for the new church beginning in El Serrano. Pray that He would provide for the work there and that He would raise up leaders in that village.

Pray for the Pastors of the Vida Nueva churches: Misael, Felipe and Ernesto and their wives and families. These leaders are constantly on the go and have very few resources to work with. Pray for strength and endurance as they do the work they have been called to do!

Continue to pray for Sarah as she works in the States. She has settled into life in Oregon, but still misses life in Mexico and her family...maybe even as much as her family misses her!

Lord willing, we will be moving forward on the construction of the youth center behind our house this month. Pray that God would provide what is necessary: time, resources and energy!

Boca del Rio

2011-05-14T15:48:00.000-06:00

Boca del Rio is a fishing village located on the west coast of Mexico’s mainland in the state of Sinaloa. Situated at the mouth of a river (hence the name), Boca boasts some of the best fishing in the state – perhaps in the country. The main industry is, of course, fishing; however, tourism is a growing interest and many of the villagers have cottage industries to help make ends meet. A small market with a tortilleria, two small “convenience” stores (called abarrotes), a water purification center and a beer stand (called a deposito ) constitute the towns “business district”. All along the main street, though, are cartones (signs) advertising fresh fish fillets, oysters, shrimp and even gasoline!

The marina stretches along the east edge of town lining a river which rises and falls with the ocean’s tide. From September to May, the marina is a busy place with local fishermen coming and going with the tides, traveling to the commercial fishing boats which moor farther out to sea. On the south edge of town, restaurants line the seashore. Many of these are only open during semana santa (Holy Week) and weekends during the tourist season (November until April).

Although there is a Catholic shrine located only a block off the main street, Calvary Chapel Boca is the only actual church in town. The church’s main building contains the sanctuary, Paloma Records recording studio, and the pastor’s apartment. A second building houses the CC Boca School of Ministry director’s apartment, teachers’ quarters and kitchen. The students’ quarters, 10 dormitory rooms, are located across a courtyard in a 3rd building. The church grounds are a hub of activity all week long with church and community members alike coming and going.

The city of Boca del Rio has free public education for children from age 4 to 13. Classes average about 15 students per grade, and each teacher is responsible for 2 grade levels in their classroom. After a child finishes their elementary education, they have the option to continue to secondary and preparatory schools, but they must travel 10 to 20 km (5 to 10 miles) to attend these classes. Students are responsible for their own transportation, so many children never continue past 6th grade. When asked how many children live in Boca, the villagers respond, “Oh, various!” which means “a bunch!” No one knows for sure how many. The best estimate is about 150 children under 15 and perhaps another 50 between 16 and 21. A large percentage of the village is under the age of 21.

Some of the main problems this village faces are alcoholism and drug addiction, sub-standard education and poverty. With the increase of quality education for the children, the other problems will surely decrease, but first and foremost the children need to hear about a God who created them for a specific purpose and loves them personally. The youth must learn that there is more to life than self-gratification and entertainment. The adults need to realize that God is real and is more than tradition and liturgy, and they need to forsake the idols they’ve set up in their hearts. In short, the village needs Jesus to bring hope into their lives!

Catholicism is the main religion in Mexico, and Boca del Rio is no exception. Every village has its own shrines to various saints and, of course, to the virgin Guadalupe (another name given to the Virgin Mary). In Boca del Rio however, since there is no Catholic church, the children are not taught the catechism and Catholic liturgy. Unfortunately, that also means that many children are taught no faith at all. Calvary Chapel is having an impact on its neighborhood, though. Every Saturday, children’s Bible classes are offered to kids from age 3 to 10. Usually 20 to 30 children attend these classes. Older kids are invited to come to weekly classes, too, but few attend faithfully because of persecution from a very vocal minority of “traviesos” (troublemakers). This is a constant matter of prayer for the Church.

In fact, the Church covets your prayers in many ways. Spiritually, the majority of the villagers of Boca del Rio are still walking in darkness. Pray that the body of Christ would “shine out like stars in a crooked and perverse generation” (Philippians 2:15). Pray that God would provide the means to accomplish their hearts’ desires and that unsaved family members would come to a personal knowledge of Jesus Christ. We rejoice in the fact that we serve a God who is “able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us! To Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all generations, world without end!” (Ephesians 3:20-21)

Spring Update 2011

2011-04-18T20:56:00.005-06:00

Psalm 92: 1-4 It is good to give thanks to the LORD,
to sing praises to your name, O Most High;
to declare your steadfast love in the morning,
and your faithfulness by night,
to the music of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre.
For you, O LORD, have made me glad by your work;
at the works of your hands I sing for joy.

This is the view from our roof looking southwest toward the ocean.

It is good to be home! After a seven week trip to the US, in which we drove just under 7000 miles and just over 120 hours, we are back in Sinaloa, Mexico, and settling into the swing of life and ministry. We had a wonderful time in the States and were able to visit with family, catch up with many old friends and make some new ones. One of the highlights of our time in the US was our first ever Mission Conference held in Winston, Oregon.

Doug shares at the first annual Spring Mission Conference at New Hope Church www.NewHopeFamilyOnline.com.
We pray that God would speak through them and that He would be glorified above all!

Our van ran beautifully all the way north to Port Townsend, Washington, and throughout the return trip through California and Arizona, across the border and through various checkpoints, (at each of which we were inspected quite thoroughly, by the way) until we were about 30 minutes north of Los Mochis…about two hours from home. The long story, with pictures, is over at our family blog. The short story is that God showed Himself powerful, a federal patrol stopped to help and we were on our way with very little inconvenience – and we had opportunities to share Jesus in the meantime!

Read more about our roadside adventures by clicking here.

Arriving home, we jumped back into life with both feet forward. Last Sunday we were blessed to be able to attend a baptism in Boca del Rio. The Vida Nueva church body from Alamito, Tamazula and Tecomate along with folks from Bethel and Calvary Chapel Boca del Rio gathered together at the river’s edge for a baptism.

The mouth of the river is also the place where the local marinos have their base, so access is restricted. You can see in top left of this photo that we had an armed guard in attendance.

After the baptism, everyone headed over to Brother Tito’s house for a fish fry fellowship. In addition to Tito’s amazing fried fish, we were also blessed to deliver to their new owners two guitars which God provided during our time in the States. Here is Sister Chayito playing the Tamazula church’s new guitar with Sister Yadira. She is so excited to be able to play an instrument which holds its tune!

Sister Chayito, left, and Sister Yadira lead some praise songs while we relax before lunch.

We’ve managed to visit with many of our brothers and sisters in Christ since we’ve been home and it’s been good to reconnect. Of course, everyone asks us about Sarah: Is she well? Has she settled into life in Oregon? Are we sad without her? We answer, “Yes!” to all those questions! It is very strange to be here without our oldest daughter, yet we know that she is where God would have her now. Those of you who are interested in keeping tabs on her can click over to her blog or catch her on Facebook from time to time.

As we travel through Mexico, we are encouraged to see crops in the fields. After the hard freeze which hit here in early February and left all the crops lying dead or dying in the fields, we didn’t know what to expect when we returned. The newly-planted corn is beautifully green and healthy. People here are praying for fast growth and a mild summer, since the harvest will be coming right in the middle of hurricane season and the hottest time of the year. Pray with us that God’s will be done, since we know that He is the one who controls the weather and the harvest!

Corn fields outside of Guasave, Sinaloa.

There is much to be done and we continue to trust in God to keep us pointed in the right direction and to provide as we go forward. Please keep us in your prayers and feel free to pass this email on to whomever you think might appreciate it. Below are some of our praises and prayer requests. You can print them out to post on your fridge or workstation!

Praises and Petitions:

Praise God for the new believers in the village of El Serrano. An outreach was held in the village while we were gone and many people responded to God’s call on their lives. We continue to help with the music ministry there once a week. Pray that God would grow the Church in El Serrano!
Praise God for Julio! On February 25, Doug’s friend Julio (Esteban’s father-in-law) dedicated his life to God. Since then, he’s quit smoking completely and, as his wife says, is a new man! Pray that Julio would continue to grow in knowledge and understanding of God.
Continue to pray for the other families in our home fellowship group. Specifically pray for Pedro and Alfredo.
Praise God for His provision during our Spring Furlough.
Semana Santa (Holy Week) begins Monday. Pray for safety for the thousands of people who will be visiting our beach during the week. Also pray for the Church here. Many different groups will be doing outreaches on the beach throughout the week. Pray that God would be glorified and that many would allow their lives to be changed.
Pray that God would give us wisdom and direction as we move forward with plans to construct a youth/multipurpose center behind our house.
Pray for wisdom also as we plan our next session of parenting classes and as we look into revising the materials we have been using.
Pray for Doug and the kids as they struggle with allergies. We’ve had dust storms off and on since we got back and the guys are really struggling even to breathe at times.
Pray for our children as we pick up school once again. After almost 3 months off of classes, it can be difficult to get started again…for the teachers as well as the students!

February 2011 Ministry Update

2011-02-17T16:36:00.005-07:00

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:3-6

The first annual youth conference “From the inside Out” was held in Las Glorias at the end of January.

Fifty youth and about 20 youth leaders from several different area churches participated in the 2-day event. The weekend focus was unity in the Body of Christ and how unity – and the lack thereof – affects our worship.

Doug has stepped in as area youth director for the Vida Nueva churches. We average about 25 youth at our weekly Bible study. The youth are learning to study the Bible inductively and how to share what they are learning about the Word with others.

This picture was taken 3 weeks ago as we drove from Los Mochis to Guasave. The truck in front of us is loaded down with a harvest of sugar cane, a major export from our area. On the right, one can see the lush, green corn fields which stretch for miles in every direction. During the winter and spring, crops of corn, tomato, potato, chile, sugar cane, beans and tomatillo thrive in the Sinaloa valley.
On February 4, a freak freeze struck the entire state, and within a week every field looked somewhat like this…

Corn farmers have donated their dead cornstalks to local cattle and goat ranchers to use as food. Ranchers are harvesting the stalks with machetes and hauling them away in their pick-ups. While the cattle are happy, the rest of Sinaloa is still in a state of shock, trying to come to grips with the fact that 95% of the state’s crops are gone. Pray for Mexico. Guasave is the agricultural hub of the nation. Migrant workers come from all over the country to work here during the growing season. With that season now prematurely ended, all the workers are being let go and returning to their homes. The tomato crop, which should just now be hitting the peak of harvest, is finished. A kilo of tomato, which sold for about 10 pesos last month, now costs about 40 pesos – or about $2.00 a pound.

Parenting classes in Tamazula have come to a close. After nearly 8 months of classes, it was almost sad to hold our final class. We’ve come to deeply love these families and continue to pray for them daily. We are also praying for God’s direction as we plan another session of classes. Several churches have expressed interest in the course, but we are praying that God would make it clear what we are supposed to do next. It seems as though He might be leading us to repeat the course in Tamazula, to reinforce and solidify the foundations which have been laid over the past months.

Sarah and Caleb’s “Kids Class” finished their program, too. Their class, “The Full Armor of God”, was based on chapter 6 of the book of Ephesians. We are hoping that in future classes we’ll be able to write a children’s program which will correspond to the parenting classes – reinforcing the Biblical concepts the adult class is learning.

We have begun our Winter furlough! Currently we are in northern California and are working our way northward. Below is our final itinerary for our trip. We are hoping to see many of you during this visit! God has given us the opportunity to share in 6 different churches this trip AND the privilege to be able to lead a mission conference while we are in Oregon. Although we don't feel very worthy, we certainly feel blessed!

If we're coming to your church, we'll see you there!!! Mark us on your calendar. Several of the congregations we're visiting have a "meet and greet" planned so that we'll be able to spend some more in-depth sharing time.

If you don't see your church on our itinerary...well, there are only 7 Sundays available -- bummer, I know. Send us an email, and we'll see if we can get together sometime during the week.

To those of you who have offered to house us...THANK YOU!!! Get ready! Here we come!

February 18 -- Left Mexico en route to Tucson AZ (Praise God for a smooth and uneventful trip!)
Sunday February 20 -- Saguaro Canyon EFC, Tucson AZ (both services)
Sunday February 27 -- Woodland Bible Church, Woodland CA; potluck following service
Sunday March 6 -- Restoration Life Church, Sacramento CA
Friday-Saturday March 11 and 12 -- Spring Mission Conference, New Hope EFC, Winston OR
Sunday March 13 -- New Hope EFC, Winston OR
Sunday March 20 -- Irondale EFC, Port Townsend WA
Sunday March 27 -- Magnolia Presbyterian Church, Riverside CA
Sunday April 3 -- Saguaro Canyon EFC, Tucson AZ
Monday April 4 -- Leaving the US en route to Sinaloa (pray for peaceful travels, smooth border crossings, and no car or trailer issues)

Pray for us during this time -- above all else, that God would be glorified in every moment of our trip and that He would accomplish His plans during our time in the US.

We look forward to seeing you soon! May God pour His blessings into your life today!

-- Doug and Rebecca and the gang

January 2011 Update -- Heart of Worship Conference

2011-01-24T15:55:00.005-07:00

John 4:23 But the hour is coming, and now is,when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship him.

The past couple of months have been like a whirlwind in our life and ministry here! Doug has stepped in as area youth leader for the Vida Nueva churches, our weekly Bible study continues in Las Glorias, parenting and children's classes are finishing up in Tamazula and we've been helping with music at a new fellowship which has begun in the village of El Serrano.

We wanted to send out a brief letter to let you all know what's going on with us and ask for your prayers for an event we're doing this weekend.

“Desde el Interior” (The Heart of Worship) is the name of the first annual youth worship conference/retreat being held in our village this weekend. The focus is unity in the Body of Christ and true worship which flows naturally from the heart. We have nearly 80 people signed up to stay the weekend, and they’ll begin arriving today at about 5pm.

We covet your prayers! Please pray for this weekend!
Pray for:

• Unity in the Body of Christ as we gather youth and leaders from 10 different churches
• That God would give the speakers the words He wants them to speak
• That the hearts of the youth would be touched and that they would have eyes to see, ears to hear and hearts to understand
• Safety for the youth as they travel here and also as they run around being youth
• For the ladies who will be working in the kitchen – that there would be unity and peace there as well!

This photo was taken at a worship service in El Serrano, a small village about 2 hours from our home. We’ve been helping the Iglesia Vida Nueva plant a church there. The Church meets outside behind one of the brother’s houses, since there is no church building available in the village.

Christmas in Mexico December Update 2010

2010-12-18T12:10:00.003-07:00

Hello, Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to all our friends and family!

We wish you the happiest celebration of our Savior’s birth and a great start to the New Year! Looking back on all that God has done in our lives this year has caused us to once again to see that it’s Him. It’s always been Him and it will always be Him…both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Phil 2:13). You had a part through your support, prayers, and in some cases, presence in the many miracles that God performed in Mexico this year. There are too many to list them all, but here are a few of the wonderful things that God did in our lives in 2010:

Beginning a work in the “Sodi” migrant camp.
Allowing us to make both furlough trips even though we didn’t “seem” to have the finances.
Finishing the construction on our living quarters upstairs.
Giving us a wonderful, much needed vacation with friends at Apache Lake.
Providing materials for and allowing to us launch parenting courses in Tamazula. We are seeing incredible fruit from that ministry!
Closing a season of preparation and training in our lives…and moving us to the next. :^)
Allowing us to begin a renewed partnership with the Vida Nueva Churches
Continuing to work in the lives of our Home Care Group in Las Glorias
Allowing us to be surrogate parents to two amazing boys for the summer
Providing for and opening the opportunity for Rebecca and I, along with Sarah and Caleb, to teach at the Escuela Cristiana Magdalena Rincón in Los Mochis every Friday (we will continue this ministry in the coming year)
Providing what we needed, both physically and mentally, to make it through another year of homeschooling
For continuing to use our home as a hub for young people to hang out in our community
Giving us a new van (new to us)
Giving us a new trailer (filled with blessings I might add)
Providing the finances for Jessee’s and Seth’s braces.
Giving Sarah nearly $1,200 to begin her schooling in the States

The last miracle I will mention is related to the first praise on the list. The workers in the “Sodi” camp come from a state in the far South called Veracruz. (You may have seen that name on the news last summer as they had devastating floods that wiped out many homes.) They spend 9 months of the year here and return to spend the summer months in their home state. Last year when God opened the door for us to begin holding services in their camp, they were about 70 in total. God impressed on our hearts to once again hold a Christmas outreach in their camp. The idea was to provide dinner for all of them, bless the children with a gift, have time of music and show the movie “The Nativity Story”.

Here’s the miracle: When we first began to plan this event we were expecting about 100 people to attend. Two weeks after we began planning, more workers showed up and that number increased to 250. With our current finances, we did not have the money to host such an event. The little that we did have we offered to God and asked Him to multiply it. God did it! On Monday the event will take place. We sold tamales, bread, and clothing, but it was our kind God who made it happen. Pray that God will stir the hearts of these wonderful Oaxacan people and that they will hear His calling on their lives.

Sarah with some of the children from Campo Sodi.
In the background, Caleb and Doug are playing volleyball.

Looking back on our year, we realize how incredibly blessed we have been and still are. While we were in the midst of some very difficult challenges, we didn’t see the blessings God was pouring out and the path He was clearing for us. Now as we recount our blessings, we praise our God for His faithfulness and provision!

Lord help us to praise You and give thanks in every situation knowing that You work all things together for good for those who love You and are called according to Your purpose.

May God clear your path this coming year and guard your feet as you walk it!

Felíz Navidad!
-- Doug and Rebecca, Sarah, Caleb, Jessee, Seth, Andrew and Evie

The Just-Barely-November Mexico Update

2010-11-04T17:33:00.005-07:00

Psalm 71:1-3
In you, O LORD, do I take refuge;
let me never be put to shame!
In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
incline your ear to me, and save me!
Be to me a rock of refuge, to which I may continually come;
you have given the command to save me,
for you are my rock and my fortress.

We've been able to relate well to this passage recently. We were reminded that Jesus is our firm foundation a couple of weeks ago when a series of about 15 medium-sized earthquakes shook Sinaloa. People in our village were very afraid that a tsunami would come or that their houses would collapse on them. Neither of those things happened, Praise God, but it was definitely a wake-up call and a reminder that we shouldn’t put our trust in our treasures on earth. The tremors seem to have stopped for now – another praise!

In the news we hear rumors of wars and violence, natural disasters, political conflict and economic crises. It is natural and normal to be afraid, but we need to keep our fears in perspective. Jesus said, in Luke 12, “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!” That should help us keep our fears in perspective!

Culture shot: the cargo basket/child transport seat.

So, life does go on! The past month has been a very busy one. Arriving home from our fall furlough at the beginning of October, we restarted our parenting classes in Tamazula and began volunteering once a week at the deaf school in Los Mochis. What a wonderful experience that has been! Doug has been teaching baseball to about 50 kids each week and Rebecca has about 15 in her cooking classes. It’s been challenging and rewarding! I know that if the school wasn’t so far away, we’d spend a lot more time there. Pray for the school: they are sorely understaffed and in need of a couple of teachers. They have a dozen children on a waiting list, but can’t accept them until they have more staff. Knowledge of sign would be helpful, but is definitely not necessary! Send us an email if you are interested in finding out more.

Here are Juanito, Manuel and Ricardo. They are three of the boys from Rebecca’s Friday cooking class. Last week they made popcorn on the stovetop. The look on the deaf kids’ faces when they felt the popcorn exploding against the pan lid was priceless!

We are working our way through the book of Luke in our weekly Bible study with Esteban’s family. One of Esteban’s brothers-in-law has been staying with Lupita, so his family has been coming to the Monday night get-togethers, too. It’s been great to have more extended family attending!

Doug, Andrew and our friend Julio pass some time talking during Julio's lunch break. Julio is one of several men who stop by a few times a week "just because".

Our house continues to be a place for folks to “hang out”. The pool table sitting in the middle of the shop has been quite an attraction. There’s not a lot in the way of entertainment in our village, so the table is quite the novelty. The swimming pool has survived another Mexican summer and we pray that it lasts for a few more! It also has been an attraction to kids and adults alike. In addition, many folks from the village stop in daily to grab a glass of water, to water their horses or cows, or just to sit and chat a bit. Pray that we would use every opportunity to share about the God who loves us and to “let our lights shine”!

During the weekly parenting class in Tamazula, Sarah and Caleb and the rest of the kids lead a kids’ class. Thanks to a gift from the children of a church in Arizona, we were able to purchase supplies and print out a curriculum for this class. The kids are learning about the armor of God from the book of Ephesians. Pray that the children would be attentive, that the truths they are learning would stick with them and that they’d be able to apply them to their lives. Pray for the parents, too! The material we are covering in the parenting classes is sometimes hard to grasp. Our culture, American and Mexican alike, has moved so far from Biblical norms in parenting that some of the concepts are almost foreign!

At the church in Tamazula, a visiting missionary from Washington shared and then offered an alter call. Practically the whole congregation came forward to pray!

A mission team from Washington State came down at the beginning of October to work with the Vida Nueva church of Guasave. We were invited to help with translation and transportation during their time in Mexico. Activities were planned at all three of the Vida Nueva churches: Guasave, Tamazula and Alamito. It had been a while since we had a team down here and it was good to get “back in the swing” of mission teams. You can read more about their time in Mexico at our Family blog.

After a time of prayer and seeking God’s will for the direction of our family’s ministry, we have decided to partner with the Vida Nueva church here in Mexico. They have three unique, vibrant churches in three different cities and they have asked us to assist them in some specific areas. First of all, we will continue holding weekly classes on Biblical parenting, Biblical marriage, and Biblical handling of finances. Second, we will be participating in and helping to coordinate evangelical outreaches in Sinaloa and, as God permits, in other parts of Mexico. The third area we will continue to work in is that of coordinating the visiting American mission teams with the Church in Mexico. Lastly, we have been asked to assist in the training of music ministry workers.

The exciting thing about this partnership is how well it fits the passions that God has been growing in us for our ministry here in Mexico. I (Doug) have also been invited to preach periodically in each of the Vida Nueva congregations. God is so good to first put desires in our hearts and then fulfill them as we partner with Him! Please pray for us as we embark on this new adventure.

Prayers and Praises:

Praise God for His protection and provision during our trip to the States.
Praise God that we have been able to get internet hooked up at the house again. We are so dependant on modern conveniences!
Praise God for the deaf school in Los Mochis and pray that He would raise up workers there!
Praise God for the Church in Tamazula. Pray that the Biblical parenting principles we are sharing would be grasped and that lives would be impacted in a positive way.
Pray for us as we coordinate and plan for winter and spring mission teams from the States.
Praise God for our renewed, deeper relationship with Jeff and Renea Petit (our missionary neighbors) and their family.
Pray for Sarah as she is making plans for her next year – possibly spending some time studying in the States.
Pray for wisdom and guidance as we plan outreaches and worship events.
Pray for the migrant workers of Campo 300 and the other camps in the area. We have been transporting those who want to attend church services in Tamazula. We pray that soon there will be so many who want to go that we'll have to borrow a bus to transport them!

Mission Update -- August 2010

2010-08-16T13:10:00.004-06:00

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. -- Hebrews 4:15-16

August in Sinaloa is generally a series of hot, sultry days followed by hot, windy days. The monotony is occasionally interrupted by torrential downpours and gale-force winds. This year hasn’t been much different. The rain has been significantly less, which is good news for those of us who dislike mosquitoes and bad news for area farmers, but the storm season has arrived and we’re now getting our share of evening thunderstorms…and mosquitoes, too. We praise God over and over again for the new roof we have over our second story – which doesn’t leak – and for windows and doors to shut out the critters! We are so blessed!

In addition to a roof over our head and screens on our windows, God continues to remind us of His care for us in the day-to-day, mundane things. This past week, for instance, when our van broke down, the circumstances of the incident made us sure that God was in control of every detail. The official diagnosis was a blown rod and a hole in the engine block. The bottom line: we needed a new engine.

You can read about the night we broke down by clicking here. It’s a very encouraging story which you really should read if you haven’t yet! We’re now friends with the man who towed us home. His family came over for dinner after church on Sunday and spent the day with us. Pray that our family would be an encouragement to them as they have been to us.

Last Monday Doug, Esteban and the mechanic, Nathaniel, headed up into the mountains to search for a new motor – and found one! They brought it down to Palos Verdes (about 5 miles from our home) and proceeded to put the van back together. By Thursday morning, we were driving our van into Guasave to re-charge the air-conditioning and run errands. The job took 3 days – which is amazingly fast and almost unheard of down here!

Nathaniel’s shop is under an awning in front of his house. He doesn’t have a lot of fancy tools, but he knows what he’s doing, and he’s talented. As a family, we chuckled together about how long it would have taken to repair the van if Doug hadn’t been hanging around all the time, helping when he could, entertaining guests who stopped by, and generally hurrying things along.

So, we’re back on the road. We did incur some bills from this, but we’re grateful that car repairs are so much cheaper here than they are in the States. The mechanic has no idea why such a new motor would blow the way it did, but we’re glad it did it here and not in Arizona or California. The total bill came to just over $1000. We’re trusting God to provide what we need for the rest of the month.

Our parenting classes continue in Tamazula. We’re so excited about this group! They are motivated and eager to learn what the Bible has to say about parenting, and we’re having a great time leading the classes. You can read more about the parenting classes at our family blog.

For the past few months, we've been traveling to various churches to help with music on Sundays and during the week, too. This photo was taken at a church service in La Reforma, another fishing village about an hour up the coast.

No, church services here don’t usually include balloons. After the worship service, one of the sister’s granddaughters had a birthday party…

…where we dressed up as clowns. We shared the drama “Jesus Is the Key to Eternal Life”. It was a lot of fun and a great way to share a Christian message with a lot of children and adults who may never attend a Christian church service. Of course, our clowny kids did the usual clowny things with silly string and confetti, but the focus of the party was Jesus. Several parents commented afterward that it was good to see clowns who didn’t use “groserias” (we call them “bathroom jokes”). We were glad that we could encourage the church body in La Reforma – through the clown act and also through the worship and praise music. You can see more pictures of the clown drama over at our family blog.

Here's a fun picture which I thought was a great example of cultural differences. Most people in our area use propane to cook. When the tank is empty, you take it to the gas station to fill it up. In the States, I can’t remember ever seeing a tractor driving down the highway with a propane tank balanced on the ball hitch…especially with no hazard lights. We've seen these tanks strapped onto the back of motorcycles, hanging out the trunk of a small car and even tied onto the luggage rack of a bicycle (I really want to get a picture of that!). If you don't have a car, what else can you do?

I’m sure glad he has that “international caution symbol” on the back of his tractor!!!

We've finalized dates for our fall furlough. Our plan is to leave Mexico for the States at the end of August. Our tentative itinerary is as follows:
September 1-7: camping in Arizona
September 8-11: In Southern California/Riverside
September 11-13: Sacramento/Woodland area – Restoration Life Church and Woodland Bible Church
September 14-17: Southern California/Riverside
September 17-23: Tucson – Saguaro Canyon EFC
September 23: Head for home.

This will be a short trip, as we don’t like to be gone long during storm season. If you’d like to get together with us while we’re in your area, send us an email! We look forward to seeing many of you this visit!!!

Prayers and Praises:

Praise God that we're back on the road and that He provided a new/used motor for our van. Pray that He would provide the resources necessary to cover the debt.
Praise God for the new opportunities He is opening up here in Las Glorias. Pray that He would grant us wisdom and insight as we teach and share.
Praise God for the children attending the parenting class children's program -- pray that the teachers (Sarah and the rest of our kids) would not become frustrated, discouraged or overly tired as they work with these kids!
Pray for Sarah and our family as we investigate options for college.
Pray for Andres and Juanito -- the two little boys who are staying with us until the end of August. They are a real blessing, but have a pretty tough background.
Pray that God would protect our home and ministry here while we are in the States. Pray for Chuy, who will be watching over our house and animals.
Praise God that He is in control in every circumstance -- whether it appears that way to us or not at the time!
Pray that God would provide more baseball equipment. We will begin training again at the end of September. (If you have any to donate, please let us know!)
Pray for us as we travel that God would keep His hand over us and that He would give us opportunities to share our lives with other people.

Prayer Request/Quick Update -- August 2010

2010-08-06T11:03:00.007-06:00

The August update letter is in the works, but we wanted to share a brief prayer request with all of you. Last night, while driving home from Guasave, our van broke down. You can read the "whole story" by clicking here, but we're asking that everyone would pray that the problem would be easily fixed.

God's timing is amazing, and we saw His hand repeatedly in the events of yesterday. We know that He is in control of the situation -- but car troubles are never fun. Pray for peace over our family and God's continued provision in our lives. Thank you for your prayers!!!

Summer in Sinaloa -- June 2010 Update

2010-06-26T18:33:00.004-06:00

Psalm 63:1 O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

Summer has settled in here in sunny Sinaloa. Daytime temps have crept toward 100 degrees, humidity is in the 80s and not a cloud in the sky. We praise God daily for the ocean breeze which blows most of the time in Las Glorias. Only a half-mile away, in the village of La Pitahya, the sand dunes block the airflow and the afternoon heat swelters past the 100 degree mark. Add to that the fact that La Pitahya has no electricity and no water lines and you can imagine that the summer there can become fairly depressing. Every time I sit down with a glass of ice water to relax in front of the fan, God reminds me to pray for the families of La Pitahya and other small villages – for their physical needs as well as spiritual.

Sarah and Rebecca have been working to update our blogs with lots of pictures, so be sure to click over to see what we’ve been up to lately. The blog pages are designed so that you can comment on the various articles. We love to read the comments, so don’t be shy!

Click these links to visit our blogs.

In family news, we are all physically well. There have been no major abrasions or contusions for a couple of weeks – except Andrew, who keeps getting bonked on the head from time to time – and we seem to have passed the first summer “gripa” (cold) which practically everyone in the village had. Our friend Julio, who has been doing some cement work here, slipped off the scaffold last week, but God protected him and he received nothing more than a small cut on his leg. God is, always, faithful to protect us and care for us and to give us strength to endure physical trials, too.

Andrew looks on while Alfredo puts the finishing touches on our outdoor kitchen.

The home “construction zone” has calmed down and we’re preparing for the rainy season. Julio has just finished putting stucco on the eaves upstairs, so the metal is no longer exposed to the weather. We still praise God every day for providing this home. Not a day goes by that we don’t have people stopping in to visit, and we are blessed to be able to share what God has blessed us with. As I write this letter, boys from Boca are downstairs playing pool and one of the local workers, who stopped in for a glass of cold water, is relaxing in the shade of our front porch talking with Seth. Thank you, again, to every one of you who gave and prayed and worked toward the completion of our home!

In ministry news, we have stepped down from leadership at Calvary Chapel Boca del Rio. Realizing that time is short and the years pass quickly, we believe that the time we spend working together as a family is of extreme value right now in the lives of our children. This is one of our main motivations causing us to make this change. Our original purpose in coming to Mexico was not to work with an existing church, nor to begin a church of our own, but rather to learn the culture and language and then minister as a family in whatever way God led. The past 3 years of working with CC Boca has been a great time of learning for our family, but God has made it clear to us that it’s time to make a change. Doug’s time at the Calvary Chapel School of Ministry was invaluable, and it has been wonderful working alongside the brothers and sisters there. We count them as family.

Kids from Boca enjoy “American Spaghetti” during a communion Sunday dinner at our house.

Leaving the children’s ministry is definitely a hard thing, but a good foundation has been laid. The teachers of the Saturday classes are gifted and dedicated, and the kids are excited and motivated. We leave them in good hands! We continue to pray for God’s blessings on the children of Boca del Rio and also for endurance and wisdom for their teachers.

We see stepping down from leadership at CC Boca as a very positive thing – a move forward for everyone. The national leaders at the church are strong in their faith, talented, and very capable of leading the Body in Boca. This move will also enable us to spend more time ministering and serving in our village of Las Glorias, as well as freeing us to help in other villages and communities as needed. We’ve been able to fill-in several times during the past month for a church whose worship leader was having surgery. Although the church members said that they were blessed by our music, we believe that we received the greater blessing! It was wonderful to sing and worship as a family there!

Our home-fellowship group in Las Glorias continues to grow both spiritually and numerically. What was, at its beginning, one couple and the wife’s mom, now includes most of the mom’s immediate family and some cousins who pop in from time to time. We praise God for this ministry He’s given us. We are living in a culture where family relationships are highly valued, but most families are very dysfunctional. Our hope and prayer is that, as a strong family unit, we can shine the light of Jesus Christ into our community and into the lives of the people around us. Our home group is just one more opportunity to shine.

We know that God has many plans for our crew in the future and we are looking forward expectantly to all He has for us in the years to come!

Fall furlough plans are underway. We’re praying about a trip to Tucson and Southern California at the end of August or first part of September. It will be a brief visit, since we don’t like to leave the house unoccupied for long during hurricane season. We’ll send out a travel schedule as soon as we finalize dates.

Prayers and Praises:
• Pray for the leaders of CC Boca as they go through this time of transition.
• Pray for the children of Boca del Rio – that God would pour His blessings on them and they would know that He loves them!
• Pray for the people of La Pitahya, Boca del Rio, Carricitos and other villages where poverty is extreme and a sense of hopelessness is pervasive. Pray that God would show Himself powerful in these villages.
• Praise God for the members of our home fellowship group. Pray that they continue to grow in their faith.
• Praise God for His protection over our household. Praise Him that Julio was not seriously injured in his fall.
• Praise God for the opportunity that we have to move forward in our ministry as a family. Pray that He would continue to grow us in unity and allow us to “shine our lights” in our community.
• Pray for Sarah as she makes plans for the next school year. She desires to go where God leads, so pray that His guidance would be clear!
• Pray for our family as we enter the hot season. God allowed us a reprieve this year, as the heat didn’t roll in until June, but there are still 3 months of heat to come. Praise God that there haven’t been many mosquitoes yet this season!!!

Mexico Mission Update Letter -- Spring 2010

2010-05-05T06:42:00.014-06:00

1 Corinthians 15:3-4 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures

That's the gospel. As Paul said, it's "of first importance" in the life of a Christian. That's why we're here -- sharing the gospel with the people of Boca del Rio and Las Glorias, Sinaloa.

Pastor Nachito, from a church in Guasave, shares the gospel message
during a volleyball outreach last month.

After a trip to the States, it generally takes a month or so for us to get life and ministry moving again once we return. The relaxed pace of life here does take some time to readjust to. This trip, however, was a little different. Perhaps because of the timing of our trip or perhaps because we did a better job of putting others in charge in our absence, we had to hustle to catch up when we got home!

We arrived here only a week before a mission team was due, right in the middle of a construction project at our house, with visitors living in our home and everyone in the village expecting us to pick up where we left off -- right away!!! Youth outreaches, migrant camp outreaches, children's ministry, Bible studies and projects at the church. By the time we had caught our breath, March was over, April was gone, and suddenly it's May! Poof!

Rather than try to catch you up on all the awesome things God has been doing down here this Spring, we want to invite you to click over to Sarah's, Rebecca's or our family's blog to read their posts and see all the pictures they've been posting. Little by little, we're getting caught up and if you check back every few days, you'll get some idea of our Sinaloa Spring.

We do want to share a few highlights, however! Two things we're praising God about right now are our house and our van. We've been living in a construction zone for the past 3 years. As God provided, we have worked on our home -- expanding and adjusting with the goal of "someday" having bedrooms upstairs and a large meeting room and shop downstairs.

In January, a fantastic team of youth came down on a short-term mission trip and finished the second story of our house. You can read about their trip at Sarah's blog. Since then, God has provided for us to stucco the interior of the upstairs, build a permanent staircase, and even install windows! Here is a picture of our house as it stands today. You can see the kids waving in the windows.

We give glory to God for building our house!
He is, after all, the One who provided it!

Second on our list of praises is our van. Our old white van was finally retired when we were in Tucson in March. It had been tired for a couple of years, and it was becoming obvious that the 80+ hour trips every six months were tiring it more and more. Our home church in Oregon became aware of our need and rallied prayer support. A supporting church in Tucson also learned of our need and rallied the financial support necessary to purchase the new Coult Mover.

Thank you, Lord!!! And thank you to all of you who have been praying for these needs and supporting us financially! We are indeed blessed!!! The van is holding up well, and we expect it to work for us for years to come! It is such a blessing to have bedrooms with doors and windows and to be able to invite people over for fellowships and Bible studies.

In ministry news, the church which we planted at a nearby migrant camp continued to grow in our absence. The church was originally planted when a short-term mission team came down from Tucson at Christmas. The people at the camp were hungry to hear more about God's love, so we began visiting weekly. The American family who took care of our house for us, along with Braulio and Pily, Joaquin and Luz, Brother Ramon and Brother Tito, continued traveling to the camp weekly to share a time of worship and Bible study.

Through a gift from a church in the States, we were able to provide Bibles to every adult in the camp who wanted one. By the time they left Guasave, at the end of March, every person in the group had memorized the order of the books of the Old and New Testaments and was working to memorize scripture, too. Please pray for these families. They have returned home to the state of Oaxaca, where persecution of Christians is often intense. We look forward to September, when they will return. We'll be at the camp, ready for them!!!

Evie with two of the girls from the camp sporting new hair clips and nail polish
-- Evie's ministry to the girls there.

Semana santa passed fairly quietly. In years past, we have seen upward of 100,000 people on the beach during the day. This year, there were fewer, but it was still a crowd! A team of missionaries from Southern California traveled down to share the gospel. On the weekend, the team shared a dramatization of the crucifixion of Christ on the beach. During the week, they shared their lives through various outreaches including English classes. The kids of the village are still singing, (to the tune of "La Cucaracha") "Do you speak English? Do you speak English? Yes, but just a little bit."

Some of the men on the team came over to the house to help us with construction projects. Thanks to all their help, we were able to get the staircase done! Without it, we weren't able to invite people over to the house; the old staircase had become unusable and we were going up and down via an extension ladder.

We still want to share about Dia del Niño (Kids' Day), the agape dinner we had at our house, the women's luncheon, the city-wide prayer meetings and Mother's Day, but you'll just have to check out our blogs to read about those!

For now, we want you to know that God is indeed at work here in Las Glorias, Sinaloa. We see His hand every day in our lives and in the lives of those around us. The economy is suffering here, as we know that it is in the States, but the Church is encouraged because many are coming to hear the Word. God is touching people's hearts.

Prayers and Praises:

Pray that God would continue to provide for His Church around the world
Pray that God would raise up workers for our church's children's ministry and that He would strengthen and encourage the workers we already have
Praise God for the 30 women who attended the Mother's Day Picnic at our house. It was a great time of fellowship and sharing. About a third of the ladies were non-believers, so it was a neat outreach as well.
Praise God for all the construction we've been able to do on the house and for our new van. (Wahoo!!!)
Pray for the new believers in Oaxaca (from the migrant camp). Christians in Oaxaca sometimes suffer intense persecution for their faith. Pray that God would bring them back safely in the fall.
Praise God for Luz Irenia who has stepped into the leadership position with the youth group. The youth group is growing, and we're excited to see what God will do in and through them!
Pray for the missionaries sent from Boca del Rio to Uganda, Africa. Tom and Naomi will be there next month, Dennie is there now, and two more young ladies, Annette and Ana, hope to be leaving in the coming months. Pray that God would meet every need and that He would be glorified!
Pray for the leadership of Calvary Chapel Boca del Rio. The men have been working hard to finish projects around the church grounds before the heat sets in. Also pray for them as they continue visiting the homes of people in the village. This outreach has been having quite an impact!
Pray for the School of Ministry which recommenced in January. The students are passionately seeking God's will for their lives and are making a difference in the community.
Praise God for a fantastic Kids' Day celebration! We had nearly 100 children attend and were able to give small gifts to each child. More importantly, though, we had a special time of prayer for the children individually -- it was a truly beautiful thing!!! Keep these children in your prayers: that God would touch each one and call him or her by name!
Pray for a family in our village whose father is in jail in the US. His wife believes that God is going to do a work in his life while he is there. We pray that the man's heart would be open to the gospel.

A Special Opportunity to Partner with the Coult Family

2009-11-22T08:48:00.005-07:00

As some of you know, God has been using our oldest daughter, Sarah, to raise up a mission team of 10 young adults from all over the US and Mexico. The idea was born from a chat among some of the leaders, of which Sarah is one, of a forum called “The Rebelution”. The forum’s purpose is to encourage and challenge today’s Christian youth to “Do Hard Things” in the name of Jesus and to step out of their comfort zones. One of these “hard things” is this mission trip to Sinaloa, Mexico, to help us finish construction on our house. They are scheduled to be here January 3 through 11, 2010.

We’ve seen God’s hand on this project from the beginning in the way He has been preparing this team and causing all the details to come together. The date of their trip is quickly approaching, and at the request of the team leader we are inviting you, our supporters, to help raise the final amount of the construction funds necessary to meet their goal of $6200. With God’s help, if we meet the goal, at the end of January we’ll be able to move out of our garage and into our new home. Granted, there will be some missing details (like glass windows), but this will be a huge step forward in the ministry God has been building through us here in Mexico.

Our living room during a youth retreat last spring.

The kitchen crew served meals to 55 people that weekend -- three meals a day!

Time is of the essence. If you are able and God prompts you, we invite you to do hard things with these youth who are believing that with God, all things are possible! Whether you’re able to contribute financially or not, we ask that you would be in prayer for this mission team and for our family.

If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to this project, you can send your donation to:

New Hope EFC
PO Box 1615
Winston, Oregon 97496

Make checks payable to “New Hope Evangelical Free Church”, with “Mexico Mission/Construction” in the memo line.

You can also make a contribution electronically by clicking on the “Make a Donation” button below, and put “Construction” in the memo. Sorry, we’re not set up to send out a tax deductible receipt for donations that are sent electronically. We know that the One who calls us is faithful, and He will finish what He starts! (1 Thessalonians 5:24)

Thank you for continuing to lift our family and ministry up in prayer!

Embracing the Journey,
Doug and Rebecca

Mexico Mission Update November 2009

2009-11-22T08:08:00.010-07:00

Hello, everyone! We're going to pretend that this letter went out last week like it was supposed to so we can still call it the "November Update". Our family got hit by a nasty cold-type thing, so not much computering has been getting done. Thankfully, all are feeling better (especially Mom, who spent the better part of two days in bed.) so we're getting back into the swing of things.

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good;
His love endures forever!
Psalms 136:1

November in the Pacific Northwest: bonfires, pumpkins and hot chocolate.

November in Sinaloa, Mexico: fish frys, a walk in the park, and a super-sweet, prize-worthy watermelon .

Evie and Bella enjoy the first watermelon from our garden

We've been so blessed this past month and continue to give thanks to our Creator, even though the actual holiday is over. Below are some photos with links to some recent posts at our various blogs, so you can read about the awesome things God has been/is doing in Las Glorias and Boca del Rio.

Now we look forward to all the things God has in store for us in the next months! At the front of our mind is the construction project planned for January 2010. God has laid on the hearts of a few youth from all across the country the desire to come down and help finish our home. You can read more about their plans and how you can get involved by clicking here.

It's early in the "Short-Term Mission Team Season", but we've already been able to host a couple of families for a few weeks last month. Short-term mission teams are such a blessing to us in so many ways! We were able to include these families in our day-to-day life and introduce them to our ministry here in Sinaloa. So much of our ministry here is just "life" (in Spanish, of course), but hosting short-term teams helps us to remember what being a missionary feels like as we see our ministry through their eyes!

We continue to lead a couple of weekly Bible studies in the village. Many times our fellowships include a meal. There's just something special about "breaking bread" together. Around here, we mostly break fish! We started this study group a little over a year ago with only two couples, and now the group has grown to include all of their immediate family members. Some weeks we have as many as 11 adults and 9 kids. God is doing a work in this family and we are excited to see what He has planned for their future!

We've begun our second session of parenting classes using the book "To Train up a Child". The class is, so far, a huge success with about 12 people attending. Some of the concepts of Biblical parenting taught in the book are almost completely foreign to the parents here. Pray that we would be able to explain the priciples well and that God would work in these families -- through, and sometimes in spite of, us! Also pray that God would strengthen our family as we are reminded to put these foundational principles into practice!

Sarah continues her work at the deaf school in Los Mochis. We were so blessed to be able to go visit over Thanksgiving weekend. A mission team has come down from Oregon/Washingto/Idaho to do some construction on the school's new facility. Their hearts' desire is to be able to move into the new building before Christmas. That's a big goal, but we serve a big God, so we know it's possible! You can read Sarah's latest updates by clicking over to her blog.

Baseball season has begun and this year Team Boca has a professional baseball player as a coach! Brother Juaquin and Brother Doug have teamed up to start a training camp for the boys of the area. You can read more about it by clicking here. They've been averaging 60 kids per week in attendance. Keep these young men and their coaches in your prayers! In addition to teaching the boys baseball, Doug and Juaquin desire to teach personal discipline, accountability and responsibility. [We're also gathering used baseball equipment, so send us a note if you have some old mitts lying around which you'd like to donate!]

Feel free to print out or post this update letter. You can also post our prayers and praises on your fridge or workstation so you can pray for us!

Prayers and Praises

Praise God for the mission teams which have already come down this season. Pray that God would strengthen these families!

Pray that God would raise up the funds necessary to finish our home. It's been awesome to see Him move over the past months as the youth team has come together. Pray that God would accomplish what He has planned in this team!

Pray for the teams and families planning to come down in December and January. Pray that God's will would be done in and through their lives.

Praise God for Coach Juaquin and Coach Doug! Pray for the youth of our community -- that God would show Himself real to them through the lives of these men.

Praise God for the parents in our parenting class. Pray that they would begin to put the principles they are learning into practice. Pray against any attack the enemy might launch against it.

Praise God for the couples in our weekly Bible study. Pray for unity in their families and pray specifically for Pedro and the struggles he and his family are going through right now.

Pray for Sarah as she finishes up the month at the deaf school. Pray also that God would bless the construction at the school so that they could move in before Christmas.

Doug and Rebecca and the gang

Southwest Travels -- August 2009 Update

2009-09-01T16:10:00.007-06:00

I will praise you, O God,

because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Marvelous are your works! My soul knows this full well!

Psalms 139:14

Greetings from Sinaloa! Well, August came and went and September is rushing past. Many parts of the country are enjoying the cooler temperatures of fall and here in Las Glorias/Boca del Rio the villages are a-buzz with preparations for la pesca -- fishing season. The season opens here on Saturday and there is no way to describe the sense of anticipation which is hovering over the town. Literally every man in the village is in some stage of preparation for fishing -- mending nets, building tablas, cleaning the boat one more time. You can read more about last year's shrimp season in Boca del Rio by clicking here.

Here is one of the local men, Pino, preparing one of his 100 meter long nets. Please pray for protection for each fisherman this season. Also pray for a good harvest. Shrimp and fish are the life's blood of the village. With the economy being what it is, a bad season would be devastating.

On Friday we will be taking Sarah, our oldest, to the neighboring city of Los Mochis. She will be staying there for the next couple of months to help at a school for the deaf. Pray for her as she settles in and adjusts to life away from home. This is a big step for her -- but probably a bigger one for her parents. Please pray God's protection over her and that He would use her and grow her in a mighty way! You can keep updated on her life by checking in regularly at Sarah's blog. That's how we keep tabs on her!

Another thing Sarah is involved with is a mission trip planned for January 2010. You can find out more by emailing Sarah at gone.riding14@gmail.com . Keep this trip in your prayers! Youth like these are the future of the Church!

We are happy to announce that Karen and Mavil got their passports. Hurrah!! Pray that God would continue to work in these young ladies' lives. Karen is working to earn money to travel to Africa to work with an orphanage there, but it has been a real struggle. Pray that God would both guide and provide as she seeks to do His will!

What is it about kids and mud anyway? We've put our parenting classes on hold until after the shrimp season dwindles. All of the men will be fishing, and the class is very "couples oriented". We continue to meet with the families in Las Glorias we have been discipling and the ladies' Bible studies are going strong. Rebecca has stepped in to help with the Saturday children's classes for the next few months. Pray that God would capture the hearts of the children of Boca del Rio, as well as those of their parents!

The kids will be restarting school next week. All the kids have been working hard around the house for the past week cleaning the property and the house, moving the pool, building a sun-shade and hauling water. Life is never dull around here! Andrew's latest project was building a cot. This was just before we left for our trip to the States. School is more than books and classes, and God is continually reminding us of that! Pray that God would grant wisdom this school year -- for the teachers as well as the students!

Our trip to the US was fabulous! We spent time in Tucson, Arizona, as well as in Riverside and Rancho Santa Margarita, California. It was wonderful to renew old acquaintences and make some new ones and to spend time with grandparents. We'll be posting photos and stories about our furlough during the coming month, so check in at Rebecca's blog and the Coult Family Blog from time to time for updates.

Thank you, everyone, for covering us with your prayers during our trip! Feel free to print out, post, or forward this email as desired. Also, you can print out our "Prayers and Praises" below to stick on your fridge or workstation to remind you to pray for us. Thank you for your continued prayer and financial support as we get back into the swing of ministry in Mexico!

Que Dios les bendiga!

Prayers and Praises:

Praise God for His provision and protection during our time in the States.
Praise Him for the new contacts and friendships we made in Riverside, Tuscon and Rancho Santa Margarita
Pray for a bountiful fishing season this year.
Pray for protection for the fishermen and their families. Pray that God would be drawing them to Himself and giving them purpose to their lives.
Pray for Sarah who will be working at the School of the Deaf in Los Mochis for the next couple of months. Pray that God would grow, stretch and bless her to His glory!
Pray that, according to His will, God would provide the funds necessary for Karen to travel to Africa.
Pray for us as we restart school next week. The first week is usually a little bumpy as we scramble to find the necessary materials and to get our daily schedules smoothed out.
Pray for the parents and the families in our parenting and discipleship groups.
Praise God for the materials He provided for the parenting classes.
Pray for the mission teams who are planning to come down during October, December and January. Pray that God would direct both our plans and theirs and that their time here would be a time of growing and learning for everyone involved.
Pray for the ADAPT team which will be heading to southern Mexcio in October to share evangelistic seminars. Our family will be leading worship in Sergio's absence, so keep us in your prayers for that as well!

Mexico Mission July 2009 Update

2009-07-25T14:04:00.008-06:00

July already! And the end of July to boot! It's hot in Sinaloa, with daytime temps here in Las Glorias well above 100 Farenheit, nighttime cooling down to a balmy 90 or so, and the humidity staying put at about 75%. Lovely. We praise God every day for our fans and for the electricty we have to run them. The extreme temps make us remember our friends and fellow Christians in other parts of the world where famine, disease and drought seem to prevail and electric fans are few and far between. We truly are blessed and thank God that He has allowed us even a glimpse into how the larger portion of the world lives. But, as the Apostle Paul said in Romans 8:18

...I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

In other words, someday the heat, humidity, drought, famine, plague and pestilence will be behind us, and we will be praising God. Oh, I can't wait!!!

This photo was taken last weekend as we returned from a birthday party in the neighboring city of Guamuchil. We didn't realize how close the storm was, how quickly it was moving or how strong it would be until it caught up to us. If we had, we might have changed course!

We weathered the storm, but it was a very interesting and prayerful trip home! You can read some of the details at Sarah's blog and see photos on Rebecca's blog. God used the events of that weekend to touch several people and to glorify Himself. How can we complain?

With summer officially here, several families in the church are taking vacations. Pastor Ricardo and his family have traveled to southern Mexico to visit family and also to attend the annual pastors' conference in Queretero. Sergio and his family, along with Luz and Annette (two other young ladies from the church), are on tour with ADAPT (Advanced Discipleship and Pastoral Training) teaching evangelism seminars throughout the Mexico City area. These families are missed in our small community! Pray that God would be glorified through each of them and that they would return home safe and sound...and soon!

We've suspended our weekly parenting class until after we return from our fall trip to the States. All four couples, us included, are learning a lot from these studies and we are deepening our friendships with each other as well. Pray for these young parents as they learn to apply Biblical priciples to their parenting. Some of these concepts are so foreign to them that it's hard to even know how to begin to apply them.

We've hosted two mission teams from the States this summer. We had a fantastic time with both groups. From a kids' festival complete with bounce-house and facepainting to a quiet morning making tamales with the sisters the missionaries were a blessing and an encouragement to us and to the church in Boca.

Please continue to pray for the three young men from Doug's discipleship class: Aby, Esteban and Eduardo.

From the time that they began to participate in the discipleship class, they began to be persecuted for their faith. Being called what would amount to "preacher boys" and "goody-goodies", the other young men of the village wouldn't leave them alone. A couple of weeks ago, Aby finally told Doug that the pressure was too great, and he just couldn't take it anymore. The three boys decided that the class was too hard, and the cost of following Jesus is too high. After praying and talking with them for a while, Doug decided to back off and just let God do what He has planned.

Caleb continues to seek the boys out and draw them into church activities and invite them over to hang out at the house -- which they are beginning to do again. Pray that God's will would be done in these youths' lives. Being a "teen" in today's world is hard. Pray that our young men would continue to shine their Lights and be examples -- proof that Jesus is really worth the fight.

We received a gift last month which enabled us to build a little more on the upstairs of our house. We're excited as we see the kids' rooms begin to take shape! The custom in our part of Mexico is to save money until you have enough to purchase the materials you need for a section or room and then build the room. When you run out of materials, you're done with construction and you begin saving again. I guess we're building according to custom! You can read more about our building plans and see more pictures by clicking here.

Here are Andrew and his friend Maicol (pronounced Michael) watching a crop duster swoop down over Las Glorias. Funny thing, that. Where the plane is swooping there are no crops. It took a couple of days to figure out what the man was up to. The owner of the local hotel hired him to fumigate for mosquitos. While I'm not so sure about the chemicals they're using, it certainly is a blessing to not be plagued so badly by those horrid insects. From late July until October the mosquitos here are usually insane. There was talk earlier this summer about outbreaks of dengue fever, too, so we are really thankful that Gustavo is taking the initiative. We won't think about which insecticide he's using.

And finally, we are making plans for our fall furlough. This trip will only take us as far north as Riverside, California and we'll only be gone a month. If you'd like to meet up with us along the way or send a package or letter, send us an email, and we'll make arrangements. Here is our tentative schedule as it stands today:

August 20 -- leave Mexico, arrive in Tucson
August 23 -- at Saguaro Canyon EFC, Tucson, AZ
August 30 -- in Riverside CA (with Grandma)
September 6 -- at CC Rancho Santa Margarita, CA
September 8 -- return to Tucson
September 13 -- at Saguaro Canyon EFC, Tucson
September 15 -- cross the border to return home

So that's our past month in a nutshell. As always, you can read this update letter online at our ministry webpage and you can read more about our family goings-on throughout the month at Sarah's blog, Rebecca's blog and The Coult Family blog. Feel free to post this letter and our prayers and praises wherever folks might see and pray for us! If you would like to support our ministry financiallly, visit our Give! page at our ministry website.

Prayers and Praises:

Pray for the young couples in our parenting class as they learn to apply Biblical parenting priciples in their homes.
Praise God for the parenting materials He has supplied.
Pray that God would make Himself real in the lives of the youth of Boca del Rio. Specifically in Aby, Esteban and Eduardo.
Praise God for the mission teams which came down this past summer.
Pray for the teams God is raising up for this winter and the coming spring.
Praise God for His protection during the storm last weekend. Pray that we would have another opportunity to reach out to that family.
Pray for God's protection and provision during our trip to Arizona and Southern California this August.
Praise God for the walls we were able to build on the upstairs of our house.
Pray for the church of Boca del Rio. July and August are the toughest months financially in the village. Fishing season doesn't start until September.
Pray for safe travels for all the church members during this summer vacation time.
Pray for health for our family. We've been passing around our first-ever ear infection for the past few weeks. With all the herbal and home remedies we have, we're muddling through, but it's just no fun to have a heating pad on your head when it's already 100 degrees.

Summer Arrives in Mexico -- May 2009 Update

2009-05-30T17:25:00.007-06:00

I lift my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth. Psalm 121:1-2

Summer has come to the shores of Sinaloa. The dew falls heavily some days and it is almost reminiscent of the Oregon coast...except it's about 40 degrees warmer. It's been a very full month both in our household and in our church. You can read more about our various activities by clicking on the blue links within the text of this article.

At the beginning of the month we celebrated Mother's Day with a picnic at the river. Twenty-three ladies came, including several who don't normally attend church. The ladies had a fantastic time of food, fun and fellowship and are considering having small get-togethers more often so that they can reach out to more of their non-Christian neighbors. In a small village where not only do most of the ladies know each other, but they are also related either by blood or by marriage, reaching out is sometimes hard to do. Many times there is a "good reason" why one household will not associate with another household and there are grudges and hurt feelings to be dealt with. These issues are sometimes faced better in a more casual environment, such as a picnic or a volleyball tourney. We pray that God would be breaking down the walls of bitterness, disappointment and hurt feelings among the ladies of Boca del Rio.

Doug's discipleship class continues to meet weekly. Although it is a struggle as we compete with all the other "things" which can get in the way -- friends and entertainment, and even school and family commitments -- it is good to see these young men growing in the Lord. Pray that God would continue to unite this group, that He would strengthen them in their faith and that others (including their families) would be drawn to Jesus through the example of these youth.

We invited the boys and their families over for a day of swimming and relaxing last week. One young man, Abimael, was shocked that his dad came. Chago never goes anywhere with the family. The men had a great time playing volley in the pool and eating seviche. The ladies chatted and relaxed in the shade...although they did jump in the pool for a while, too!

We have begun holding church services upstairs on the new covered patio. The humidity has rolled in, and the sun blazes from sun-up to sun-down, turning the houses and buildings into giant brick ovens. It's been such a blessing to be able to hold prayer and praise meetings outside in the shade where we can benefit from the cool ocean breeze! Click over to our blog to read more about our new "upper room" at the church.

Youth from Calvary Chapel of Compuertas shared a skit which depicted the things which stand in the way of our reaching Christ...and His passion to keep us for Himself. Our church was invited to attend a baptism at the river outside of Los Mochis. It is always encouraging to get together with believers from other churches. It was beautiful to hear the sound of over a hundred people singing praises to Jesus under the shade of the trees which line the river. I was reminded of the Psalm which says that "the trees of the fields will clap their hands" as we praise the Lord!

The following week, another Los Mochis church, Piedra Angular (Cornerstone Church) came to Las Glorias for a youth retreat.

The two-day retreat featured a guest speaker from a church in Olathe, Kansas. Dan Warne taught on the condition of the heart, and the youth were challenged to really examine their motives and attitudes. In the bottom left corner of this picture, you'll notice a young woman, our friend Petra, who is translating the message into sign language for the 6 deaf students who came to the retreat. It was a wonderful, refreshing, challenging and growing weekend, and we were blessed to be able to host these youth!

One added bonus to getting better acquainted with this church is that an opportunity has arisen for Sarah to spend a week-and-a-half in Los Mochis working at the deaf school. She writes that she's exhausted, but very happy to be working with the kids there. You can read more about what she is up to over at her blog...and you'll be as up-to-date as we are! She was happy to learn that they have high-speed internet at the school, but I don't think she has had much free time to enjoy it!

Here is a photo of one of the school buildings, which is also the home of David and Michelle Bonsell, the school administrators.

We knew that the day would come when our kids would begin to step out onto the paths which God had planned for them. It looks like that day is fast approaching! Join us in praying that our children would be seeking God's will for their lives over and above their own wants and perhaps even over and above the wants we, their parents, have for them. We praise God to see spiritual growth and maturity in our children and pray for wisdom as parents.

Thank you for praying for our ministry and our family!!! Feel free to print this newsletter for distribution and to post our Prayers and Praises list -- to your fridge or wherever it will be seen and prayed-over the most!!!

Prayers and Praises:

Praise God for His continued provision -- in material things as well as in spiritual things!
Praise God for the faithful couples who have been attending the To Train Up a Child classes at the church. Pray that they would not become discouraged or overwhelmed in the job of parenting and that we would have advice and encouragement from the Scriptures to give to them.
Pray for the mission teams which will be arriving during the coming month. Pray that God's grace would abound for them and through them as they minister in Las Glorias and Boca del Rio.
Pray that God would be breaking down the walls of bitterness, disappointment and hurt feelings among the ladies outside the church of Boca del Rio
Pray that God would continue to unite the discipleship group, that He would strengthen them in their faith and that others (including their families) would be drawn to Jesus through the example of these youth.
Pray for the Body of Christ in Mexico -- Cornerstone Bible Church, Calvary Chapel of Compuertas, New Life Fellowship, and the Guasave Alliance of Churches specifically.
Pray that our children would be seeking God's will for their lives over and above their own wants and perhaps even over and above the plans we, their parents, have made.
Praise God for each of you who has made a commitment to support our family and our ministry either financially or through prayer support. You make a difference!!!

Tips for Improving your Newsletters

2009-05-23T09:33:00.004-06:00

Whether you're a full-time, cross-cultural missionary or simply going on a short-term mission trip to the inner city, one thing stays the same: people want to know what you're doing! If you want your friends and family to be praying for you during your time "on the field", you need to let them know what you're up to and how they can help.
Communication is the key.
With the ease of accessibility to internet, sending out large numbers of letters has never been easier, but with great access sometimes come great headaches as you try to build an update letter exactly the way you want it.

I won't even begin to claim to be an expert! I will, however, say that this is something our family struggled with almost the entire first two years of being on the field. We have friends all over the world who all say the same thing: I wish it were easier to send out updates!

Hopefully, through sharing a few tips here, we can help someone who is struggling or who is just getting started. If even one person benefits from these helpful hints, then I'll feel like all those months of fighting with emails was worth it!

Build a better update letter -- Your family, ministry or personal update letter is just that...yours. It can be as fancy or as plain as you want it. Put in pictures...or don't. Tell stories...or not. It's yours, and I'm not going to give a lot of pointers on content. You know what you like to read, so write that in your letters.
I will say that if you want people to be praying for your ministry, you need to ask them to pray and you need to give them specific areas to pray about. For instance, you can ask for "prayer for the youth of our village". That's good. People will know that your heart is for the youth, and they'll pray for the youth. But you could also say, "Pray for Aby and Esteban, two young men in our village. They are suffering persecution for their faith." That's more specific and gives a better idea of what you mean by "pray for the youth".

In reality there are only two things that I consider mandatory for a good update letter.

Rule #1: Everyone who receives it needs to be able to read it. That sounds pretty much like a no-brainer, but you'd not believe how long we struggled to get our update letters into a format which everyone who received could read. You can make very nice-looking update letters in Microsoft Publisher, but the only people who can open it are people who have Publisher. Adobe Acrobat builds nice letters, but you need to have Acrobat Reader to view it. Your best plan is to have your letter in a format that is instantly open to every person who receives it. That's sometimes easier said than done. We'll talk more about that in a minute.

Rule #2: Do NOT put your contacts in the TO: field. There are two reasons why:

When you put your contacts in the TO box and send out the letter to 100 people, suddenly each one of those 100 people have 99 new email addresses in their inbox. There are probably 10 people in that group who really don't want 99 other people they don't know to have their email address. If your letter gets forwarded a couple of times, it could be grabbed by a spammer and suddenly everyone on your email list will be receiving offers for new condos on the Ivory Coast.
Most email programs have two options for replying to emails. "Reply" and "Reply All". If you send out your letter to 100 people and one of them is your best friend John who is concerned about that boil on your backside, he may want to reply and ask you about it. What if he accidently hits "reply all" instead of just "reply"? Suddenly 99 other people have more information than you would want them to have. There are other scenarios, too, but all of them are easily avoided by using the BCC field.

Solution:

Send your email to yourself, and enter the names of your contacts in the BCC (blind carbon copy) field. The only drawback to this method is that some inboxes will think the letter is spam. Sorry, it's unavoidable. Once the recipient has opened the letter and marked you as "safe", they won't have any problems; and your contact list will stay private, as it should be.

Now, back to rule #1. Making your letter "all things to all people" can be a little frustrating. We receive several update letters a month from missionaries, homeschool companies and friends. Each one is different and each one does what it's supposed to do: gives an update. There are companies out there who build very nice update letters -- and they're pretty reasonably priced -- but we're all about free here. Most missionaries I know don't have an extra $10 per month to put into a newsletter. If you do want to make an investment, check out Constant Contact. Their product is one of the sharpest I've seen. (Disclaimer: I have never dealt with the company and know nothing about them other than that they make nice letters. You're on your own with them! )

For starters, type your update letter in your word-processing program (Word, for instance) and copy --> paste it into a new email. Quick and fairly easy. Add a signature at the bottom of your letter, put your contacts in the BCC field, and your letter is ready to send. One drawback with that is that you won't be able to paste pictures, graphics or logos from Word to, for instance, Hotmail. Any photos you add using your mailbox's "Attach" button will be added to the bottom of the letter. This brings us to the next topic...

Including Pictures

"A picture is worth a thousand words!"

That ditty is never so true as with an update letter. We strongly suggest that you include at least one picture in your update letter if at all possible. Face it, not everyone who receives your letter is going to read every word, but you know that they're going to look at each picture. The only rule for enclosing photos is this: make sure that it isn't bigger than your recipient's screen. The photo size you want to attach will be between 400x200 and 1200x900. Any smaller and you lose detail. Any bigger and the user can't see the whole thing at once.

Embedding Photos -- That's a fancy way of saying "Putting the pictures in the text of the email, rather than tacked at the bottom as attachments." Photos can be attched to the bottom of an email fairly easily using your email provider's "attach" button. You can reference to the pictures in the text of the letter, and the recipients will be able to view them by scrolling down to the bottom. That's the easiest way if you're using most of the free email servers out there.

Some email providers will let you insert photos into the text. Hotmail does NOT, nor does Gmail. Sorry. Fastmail does. And it's free, too.

If you're just not satisfied with attaching pictures at the bottom of the page, you'll need to look into a "web host" for your photos. There are several free ones out there -- Picassa and Photobucket for example. We use Photobucket for our websites and update letters and it has worked well for two years now. My only objection is the advertising on the Photobucket page. This can be avoided by upgrading to a paid plan. If you're cheap like us, you put up with the ads.

Your signature -- Pretty basic stuff and probably the easiest thing to do to give your newsletter a more "professional" look. Go to your email's "options" panel and choose "Personal Signature". It may be called something else, but it's there somewhere. Follow the directions for editing your signature. When you're satisfied with it, send a letter to yourself to make sure it comes through the way you want it to. Your signature should (but doesn't have to) include your name, name of organization, contact information, slogan, catchy phrase, etc., etc. Depending on your email provider, you may need to include an "unsubscribe notice" with each letter. This is as simple as saying, "To be removed from this mailing list, reply to this letter with 'unsubscribe' in the subject field."

So, to sum up...

Include prayer requests and praises -- be as specific as you can be.
Include a photo or two -- make sure it is small enough to load quickly and to be viewed easily.
Put your contacts in the BCC field.
Use a program which everyone receiving the letter can open and read!

There are many sites on the web dedicated to the topic of "internet tips", but hopefully many of your newsletter questions have been answered here. If you have some more specific or technical questions, feel free to email us at FLOWinternational@fastmail.fm Was this article helpful? We'd love to hear that, too!

Have a blessed day!!!

Semana Santa, Swine Flu and Mission Trips

2009-05-02T11:20:00.010-06:00

Ephesians 6:12-13 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,

but against principalities, against powers,

against the rulers of the darkness of this world,

against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Wherefore, take unto you the whole armour of God,

that you may be able to withstand in the evil day,

and having done all, to stand.

Ramon, a local cowboy, herds his cows across the salt flats behind our house. Our boys help milk Ramon's cows in exchange for milk a couple of times a week.

At the front of everyone's mind is, of course the flu bug H1N1 (known in the States as "swine flu"). We wanted to let you all know that we are all well -- although still struggling with colds and allergies. The flu hasn't surfaced in our area yet, but the uncertainty certainly has. Faced with human mortality, many people are much more open to speak of Jesus Christ and eternal life. Unfortunately, in a culture deeply entrenched in tradition and superstition, this also causes people look for answers in the traditions of men. Pray that we would have wisdom as we share our Hope with people around us. A mission organization in Mexico City has constructed a page to keep folks informed with virus updates. You can click here to open the H1N1 Virus in Mexico information page.

Before the flu virus stole the headlines, the country of Mexico was enjoying the annual celebration of semana santa or Holy Week. You can read about Semana Santa at Sarah's blog and more semana santa at Rebecca's blog. During the week, we had a mission team visiting from Calvary Chapel -- Rancho Santa Margarita. It was a great time of outreaches on the beach and fellowship with our Christian brothers and sisters.

Another great blessing during their time here was the day we were able to take part of the team to La Pitahaya (pronounced La pi TAH ya). A group of ladies from a prison in Southern California had sent many handmade quilts to share with the people of Mexico. The village of La Pitahaya is a small village with no electricity, no piped water, no telephone, no school, no church. It's accessible via one dirt track across salt flats...or by boat, if you're a fisherman. There are only about 15 households in the village, but all the women and children of the village turned out when we went to visit. Pastor Ricardo shared a powerful message of God's love, forgiveness and justice. As he shared and prayed, you could see the ladies relax and open up to the Word. When he was finished, we all prayed together and then handed out blankets to each woman. It was a really precious time!!!

Afterward, several of the ladies agreed to get together weekly for a Bible study in the village. We were all very excited about that, but when the day came to meet -- a week later -- no one showed up. Karen said the village was like a ghost town. Even the dogs were hiding. Please pray for this village. Witchcraft and idol worship are strong there. Our family does have some friendships beginning to form with a couple of families in the village, so we are hopeful that through these relationships, doors will begin to open that otherwise would not. You can click over to our blog to see more photos of our time in La Pitahaya.

As mentioned before, even before the flu scare hit, our village was under attack from some serious colds. One little guy who's been fighting the "crud" for a few weeks is Ezekiel. We actually had a scare with him about a week ago. He stopped breathing and had to be resuscitated. Please pray specifically for Ezekiel, Nehemias and Jahasiel. These are three of the babies in the church who have been battling with bad colds for the past few weeks. The parents are beginning to believe that there is a spiritual attack involved. All three are children of the leaders of the church.

We've been exploring our environment during science class. Even though our terrain is mostly sand and scrub brush, we do have a lot of birds who call our scrub brush home...and we also have some really big cactus!

There are only a few more weeks of school left! For this, the kids are glad, but that means that we are pushing to finish a few classes which we really want to wrap up before summer break. Pray that we wouldn't lose focus of the One who gives meaning to our education. It's so easy sometimes to get so focused on the task that we lose sight of the goal. We pray for each of you that God would give you clear vision of the goals He has set before you!

End of school also means beginning of the hot season and the time of summer mission teams. We have two teams scheduled this summer and are anxiously awaiting their arrival! Pray for these teams from California: for those they minister to and for the teams themselves.

Don't forget to stop by our Blogs from time to time. We post several times a month, and it's a great way to stay up-to-date with the happenings of our life. Especially when we aren't as faithful with update letters as we should be! The Coult Family's Blog, Beautiful Feet, Go Therefore and Be Light

Prayers and Praises

Physical health for our family and the families of those we minister to and with here in Mexico
Those with whom we were able to share the Gospel during semana santa and in the days that followed. Pray specifically for Horacio, Chacho and Juan Ernesto.
Praise God for saving the life of Ezekiel last week!
Pray for complete healing in the babies of the church -- Ezekiel, Nehemias and Jahaziel.
Praise God for the time of sharing in La Pitahaya. Pray for a change of spirit in this village and that He would be building relationships with the people there.
Pray that God would continue to give wisdom as Doug leads a discipleship class for some young men in our community.
Praise God for the parenting class we've been leading for the past 2 months. All three couples are growing more confident as parents and are learning to better apply Biblical principles in their families.
Praise God that school is nearly finished for the year! ;^) Pray that we would finish well!
Pray that God would supply for the mission teams who are planning trips this summer.
Praise God for His abundant blessings over our household this past month. Continue to pray with us for God's provision!!! We serve a BIG God!!!

Seeing Lives Changed -- Dayeinu!

2009-03-31T10:01:00.005-07:00

One of our family's favorite Passover songs is "Dayeinu". Literally translated, it means, "It would have been sufficient."

The verses of the song begin with the children of Israel in Egypt.

Verse 1:
"If He had brought us out from Egypt, [Ilu hotzianu mimitzrayim, אִלּוּ הוֹצִיאָנוּ מִמְּצָרִים
and had not carried out judgments against them [v'lo asah vahem s'fatim, וְלֹא עָשָׂה בָּהֶם שְׁפָטִים
— Dayeinu, it would have been enough! [dayeinu! דַּיֵּנוּ

The song continues through the Israelites' time of wandering in the desert and traditionally ends with their entry into the promised land.

Verse 13:
"If He had brought us into the land of Israel, [Ilu hichnisanu l'eretz yisra'eil, אִלּוּ הִכְנִיסָנוּ לְאֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל
and not built for us the Holy Temple [v'lo vanah lanu et beit hamikdash, וְלֹא בָּנָה לָנוּ אֶת בֵּית הַמִּקְדָּשׁ
— Dayeinu, it would have been enough! [dayeinu! דַּיֵּנוּ

The tune is upbeat and catchy, and I find myself humming it from time to time throughout the year.

God showers us with so many blessings! How often do we stop to think about how undeserving we are? In addition to the air we breathe and the food we eat and the very life we enjoy, He's provided a way of eternal life! That's grace and mercy! Dayeinu!!!

When we came to Mexico, we had no idea of what blessings (and challenges, too) would lie before us. We didn't know who we would be able to share our lives with or what effect we would even be able to have in this community.

One of our first friends here was Esteban. He and Doug "hit it off" almost immediately. The language barrier seemed no barrier at all as those two worked around the house and around town fixing plumbing, electrical and "other" problems.

During the course of the following year, Doug was able to share his live with Esteban and Esteban came to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Dayeinu!!!

Beyond that, though, we've been able to share in a Bible study with his wife and her parents. Dayeinu!!!

Also, we've been able to become closer friends with Esteban's extended family. Dayeinu!!!

We are not worthy of the blessings God pours out on our lives. That's part of what makes them so special! As it is written:

Which one of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father, who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask Him? -- Matthew 7:9-11

What will God bring to us in the coming years? We have no idea, but we do know one thing:

Dayeinu!

Mexico Mission Update February/March 2009

2009-03-14T14:40:00.013-07:00

Hello to our friends and family around the globe! The month of March finds us back in Mexico recuperating from our winter furlough. We've been home long enough to catch up on laundry, restart school and come down with yet another round of nasty colds. Pray for our family as we battle these pesky germs! A special "Thank You!" to those of you who were praying for our family last week. Some sisters from the church in Boca came over the same day as we posted a prayer request, and our household began to feel better within 24 hours. God is greater than our colds, right??!!

Psalm 103:2-5 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving-kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

The ladies' Bible study group in Boca studied this passage last week. To read a more in-depth discussion of those verses, you can click here.

We've been so blessed over the past two months! So blessed, in fact, that it's been hard to find time to sit down and write an update letter. There's so much to share! Allow us to hit the highlights here, but please click over to our blogs to read more about what's going on here in Mexico.

Our furlough was wonderful. Of course, we didn't get to visit everyone, but we made a valiant effort! You can read the Nutshell Version of our furlough here. If you're really wanting to get the details, the long, drawn-out version of our furlough is here.

Sarah's latest update gives a good feel of what we did during February and the first part of March.

Youth group continues! We are averaging 15 to 20 youth every Saturday night for a time of teaching and games. Last week we took 2o youth to a Christian concert in Guasave. Still only a handful are committed to living a life set apart for Jesus, but we are praying for each one of the youth in Boca by name. We know that God deeply desires to have a real relationship with them. Pray that we could communicate that desire to these young men and women. To read more about our weekly youth meetings, click here.

Construction resumes on the house. We were blessed during out time in the States to receive enough resources to put a permanent roof on the upstairs. The boys are so excited! During hurricane season last year, we nearly lost the temporary wooden roof. We quickly discovered why everyone builds with concrete here!

Doug hired a brother from the church to come help last week. They pulled the old roof off on Monday and by Thursday they were ready to pour cement. Wow! If you've never seen a Mexican team pour a cement roof, you should really do so. You will never again look at a concrete structure in the same way! To read more about our new addition -- and the process of adding -- click here.

We've shared before about the corrosiveness of the salt air here. During the past 3 years, we've sanded and painted the roof of our van 3 times. It wasn't enough. Somewhere around Bakersfield, California, we discovered that the patches and preventative measures we'd done on the roof had failed. For the rest of the trip home, we patched the holes in our van roof with duct tape to keep the rain out and prayed that God would provide a way to repair it...and that the weight on the roof-rack wouldn't collapse the roof. God answered our prayers!

When we arrived home, Doug went to talk to the guy in Boca who builds fiberglass boats. For around $500 US Doug and Nano were able to completely strip and rebuild the roof out of fiberglass. Nano says that now the rest of the van may rust away, but we'll still have a roof!

Before

After

School continues for the kids, although we are getting geared up for Semana Santa (Holy Week) and pascua (passover). You can find articles about past years' Holy Week celebrations by clicking HERE. We take the week off of classes and call it Spring Break. Pray for our family as we continue to educate our kids at home. It is an area of constant prayer for us -- simply because it's not easy, and it's so important!

Semana santa 2007

We are praying about outreaches for this holiday season. We have hit a snag with the planned movie event. The church's projector died a few months ago (burned out bulb), so we've been borrowing a projector from ADAPT ministries. While we were in the States, the bulb on that projector burned out, too. Unfortunately, it died during a youth event, so the church (specifically the youth group) is responsible to repair the probem. It turns out that it may be cheaper to replace the projector than to replace the bulb. Bulbs for these things run upwards of $300US. Ouch! So, if anyone knows of a church or organization who is upgrading their system and wants to donate (or sell for cheap) a used video projector (or two), please let us know! Anything less than 5 years old would be considered "state-of-the-art" here.

Please pray for our village during the week prior to Resurrection Sunday. During that week vacationers will descend upon the village until it nearly bursts at the seams. We expect approximately 300,000 people to visit Las Glorias and Boca del Rio during the course of the week. We discovered last year that many of the people celebrating "semana santa" have absolutely no idea what they are really celebrating. It is simply another excuse to drink, party and get together with friends. Pray that the body of believers in Boca del Rio would be able to shine the light of Jesus during this week -- and every day, too! We will be having special prayer times and church services during the week along with some special outreaches. Pray for God's guidance in this ministry.

On Tuesday we began meeting with three other young couples in the church for a Bible study. Our focus is Biblical parenting. This is a much-needed study -- maybe in the States as much as in Mexico! The Mexican culture, however, tends to be very child-centered to the extent that parental discipline it almost completely non-existent. It is our hope that we can share Biblical parenting principles with the families in leadership, and that they will begin to put the principles in action and share them with their extended families and friends. God has been working this out over the past 3 years! All three couples in the study are in leadership and all three have new babies. What a great time to start! Pray that God would help us with the ~~sometimes~~ frequently confusing verb tenses and that we would be able to communicate His truth -- not our opinions.

We thank God every day for our friends and family in the States and around the world! You are such a blessing to us! Feel free to print out our Prayers and Praises below to stick on your fridge or work station so you will be reminded to pray for us! We love to hear from you, too, so send us an email! If you desire to contribute to our work and ministry here in Mexico, click here to visit our financial partnership page.

Prayers and Praises

Praise God for His provision and protection during our trip to Oregon.
Praise God for the family who was willing to come down and housesit for us for the month+ that we were gone. I think it was a blessing for both of our families!
Pray that God would continue to draw the youth of Boca del Rio and Las Glorias to Himself. That He would be turning the hearts of the fathers back to the sons and those of the sons to the fathers
Pray for the need of a video projector for the church and the repair/replacement of the borrowed projector for our ministry
Pray that we would have clear vision as we plan events for Holy Week and passover
Praise God for His provision and covering -- the roof of our van and the roof of our home!
Praise God for His healing from the colds and flu bugs which have been going around down here
Praise God for the church leaders who are desiring to train up their children to love the Lord and obey Him
Pray that we would be wise and that the teaching we share during the parenting classes would be clear and understandable and applicable
Pray for Doug as he continues to battle with allergies. We are in the worst of the "dust season" right now.
Lift our family in prayer this week as we prepare to lead the worship for this month's city-wide prayer meeting. It's an honor to be invited to participate, and we love to sing together, but it's unusual that we would do so in front of so many people. Pray that our health would hold and that God would be glorified through and in spite of us!
Pray for the mission teams who will be traveling down this summer. They are in the all-important planning and fund-raising stages!
Pray for the governments of Mexico and the United States. We know that there is much unrest here in Mexico due to the uprising of the drug cartel. We pray protection and wisdom for the honest and dedicated government officials who are fighting against corruption and deceit.
Praise God that His Word is "living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12)

January 2009 Mexico Mission Update

2009-01-15T16:15:00.006-07:00

Happy New Year

to all of our friends and family around the world!!!

Psalm 19:1 "The heavens declare the glory of God

and the firmament shows His handiwork!"

This month we are heading north for our semi-annual exodus to the US. If all goes according to plan, we'll be leaving Friday night late and traveling through to Tucson. We tend to do our schedule "in pencil" during long trips, simply because much can change in a short time. Quite often, things don't go according to plan.

If you think about us over the next few weeks, be in prayer for our travels and for the appointments we've made with various people from Arizona to Washington State. Also be in prayer for the family who is watching our house while we're gone. They've had a pretty interesting trip...and they're not here yet! You can read about what's going on with them here.

Here is our "penciled-in" schedule for our time in the US (note -- this is where we'll be physically, not a list of speaking engagements! If you're in the area, consider this your official invitation to come and see us!) :

Sunday, January 18 -- Saguaro Canyon EFC, Tucson AZ
Sunday, January 25 -- Woodland Bible Church, Woodland CA
Wednesday, January 28 -- somewhere in Chico CA
Sunday, February 1 -- Restoration Life Church, Sacramento CA
Sunday, February 8 -- New Hope EFC, Winston OR -- New Hope is planning a "Mexican Food Potluck" for that Sunday after church. If you're one of our friends in the Roseburg area, please stop by the church about 12:30pm. Bring a covered dish to share and plan to spend some time fellowshipping. Our time in Oregon is limited and this may be the only "social event" we get to attend!
Monday, February 9 -- Portland OR
(tentatively) Saturday, February 14 -- Centralia WA.
After that, it gets a little sketchy, so if you're farther north, sorry we can't be more specific! Get in touch with us via email so we can make more definite plans!

As is probably the case with many of you, December was a very full month here! To read more about the various events, click on the links (the underlined text). In addition to celebrating our Lord's birthday, we celebrated Sarah's 16th birthday and Doug's birthday, too...

...threw a church Christmas party...

...attended a village Christmas party...

...had friends visit from Oregon...

...and a mission team from southern California who served a special dinner to the couples of the church...

...had a party to celebrate Three Kings Day -- where we were able to hand out 300 shoeboxes from Samaritan's Purse: Operation Christmas Child.

Whew!

We'll be posting furlough updates at Rebecca's, Sarah's, Caleb's and our family's blogs as we travel, so check them out periodically!

Please keep us in your prayers as we travel this month. We continue to praise God for His provision and care in our lives, and we thank you all for your support of our ministry here in Sinaloa.

Mexico Mission Update December 2008

2008-12-05T21:56:00.008-07:00

Proverbs 25:25 "As cold waters to a thirsty soul,

so is good news from a far country!"

December is not only here, but halfway gone! Wow! Where have the days gone?! Our family and our church are gearing up for a pretty exciting holiday season! In the next couple of weeks, Lord willing, we'll have two posadas, Christmas and two visiting American mission teams. I'll say it again, "Wow!"

November was a pretty full month, too. The first Sunday of each month, we celebrate the Lord's supper with a comida agape (church potluck). "Agape" is the Greek word for brotherly love. November's agape dinner was especially fun, because it coincided with Sister Pily's birthday.

Church dinners here are so different from the potlucks at our home church in Oregon. In the States, a potluck is all about variety. Miss Hazel brings her potato salad and so does Miss Emma, but you should take a spoonful of both, 'cause they're totally different from each other. Miss Julia wows us with her fancy desserts and chocolates, the menfolk get together and make homemade ice cream...you get the picture. Something for everyone!

So what do the folks bring to a potluck in Boca del Rio? Fish.

We had a great time of fellowship celebrating Pily's birthday and according to Boca tradition, Pily got wet. In this instance though, the birthday girl was not the only person to be soaked! (To read more about the agape dinner/water war, click here.)

Doug arrived home safe and sound (albeit tired) from his trip north. He brought a special gift of a movie called "Indescribable" by Louie Giglio. If you haven't yet seen this video, which showcases the magnificance of God through photos from the Hubble Space Telescope, may I recommend it very highly!!! Caleb wrote a short article and posted some great photos at his blog. Click here to read more.

November 7th was Andrew's 11th birthday. Several friends came over, and we celebrated in style with pizza and cake. In this photo, Sarah and our friend Maria are putting toppings on the pizzas.

To see more photos of this big day, click over to Rebecca's blog.

We've been continuing to work on our ministry website. It has now progressed from the "a lot of work with little to show for it" stage to the "wow, this is starting to look like something" stage. Here's an excerpt of an article we posted recently...

In case you're thinking that you couldn't possibly become a missionary, because missionaries obviously "have it all together" and just "know" the will of God in their lives, allow me to introduce you to two missionaries who -- even after severe persecution for their faith and several years on the "mission field" -- didn't quite have it all figured out.

Act 16:6-10 Then [Paul and Silas] went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia because they had been prevented by the Holy Spirit from speaking the word in Asia. They went as far as Mysia and tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not let them. So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision. A man from Macedonia was standing there and pleading with him, "Come over to Macedonia and help us!" As soon as he had seen the vision, we immediately looked for a way to go to Macedonia, for we were convinced that God had called us to tell them the good news.

The kids continue with their studies at home. Almost daily, we are asked questions about homeschooling. It is a new concept here -- very similar to the way it was 20 years ago in the States. In smaller villages, finding good teachers for the public schools is almost impossible. The villages are not able to actually pay a wage. The best most public school teachers can hope for is to be provided a room to sleep in and food each day. The schools in both Las Glorias and La Pitaya were closed some years back when the town was no longer able to keep a teacher. Now all the kids walk or ride their bikes to Boca del Rio. This isn't a very long bicycle ride, but it does put a bit of a strain on the already full classrooms of the Boca school. We thank God daily for the privelege He has given us to be able to educate our kids at home. It's a lot of work, but it's worth every moment!

In this photo, Sarah and Andrew are working together on an engineering class project. It doesn't look like much yet, but we have high hopes!

Sarah continues with her French classes at the Instituto de Ingles de Guasave. Yes, that's the Institue of English. They also give classes in Spanish, French and Japanese. The school is run by a Christian family and they hope, within the next year, to offer classes in all subjects to all ages (K-12) in English. Pray for this family who pours out their lives to teach the next generation!

In addition to several hours of French homework each day (which she loves) and Geometry (which she does NOT love), Sarah has been spending a bit of time writing on her blog and has recently been invited to write for an online girls' Christian magazine. Cool!

Here is an exerpt from a post at her blog...

Hey everyone! I have felt led to post about prayer. Prayer is one of the hardest and most necessary things in the Christian life. Setting up a daily and hourly prayer schedule is difficult and takes a lot of work. It is my belief that it is so hard because we have an enemy whose object in life is to see us fall and fail in all that we do for God. Prayer is what makes the Christian tick. If the Devil succeeds in causing us to fail at it, then he has succeeded in making us live a stunted life. We can't grow if we don't pray and receive from God. (Read more here.)

A friend of ours, Ramon, pastures his cattle in Las Glorias during this time of year. He has invited the boys to come and help him milk his cows at 4 am every morning. Andrew and I went together the first day and got this great shot of the sunrise.

It's quite a committment for these boys, but we've certainly enjoyed the blessing of fresh milk and cream! Ramon has asked many questions about Christianity. Doug has spent some time talking with him about spiritual things, and he listens intently. We offered to give him a Bible, but he can't read. We do have the Bible on CD, but the cabin where he stays has no electricity.

Romans 10:14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?

Pray for the many in Mexico and around the world who will never hear the good news about Jesus...unless someone actually tells them...simply because they can't read.

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of a mission team from New Hope Church of Winston, Oregon. Two families are coming down to spend the holiday season with us. Pray for these families as they plan and travel! They will be arriving, Lord willing, the day after Christmas. What a fantastic Christmas present!!!

In addition to the Oregon team, a mission team from a California church will be arriving the same day! Their goal is to bless the church here by completing some construction projects. They had considered a trip down last summer, but all of the leadership of Calvary Chapel Boca banded together to tell them NOT to plan a serious construction project here at the end of July. December is a MUCH better time of year!!! We look forward to seeing what God is going to do in the next couple of weeks and will be posting photos and articles in our Online Scrapbook as regularly as possible.

Finally, be in prayer for our semi-annual exodus to the US. We are earnestly desiring to make it all the way to Washington to see family and friends and to encourage several churches along the way. Pray that God would provide the funds necessary and that the van would cooperate! Above all else, though, pray that His will be done in our lives and in our furlough! We'll keep you updated on our schedule as we work it out.

Thank you so much to all of you who have prayed for us and sent notes of encouragement and gifts over the past month! What a blessing you all are!

Serving the Body of Christ in Mexico,

Doug and Rebecca and the crew

Prayers and Praises:

Pray for our family's health. We were hit with our first major cold of the season last week and it's making the rounds. Currently, everyone is suffering coughs, sore throats and runny/stuffy noses. We praise God that we'll probably all be healthy again by Christmas time, but it's pretty miserable right now.
Praise God for a gift we recieved from New Hope church which has enabled us to continue construction on our home!
Pray that God would provide according to His will for our winter furlough to the States.
Pray for God's continued provision of our family's and ministry's daily needs.
Praise God for the families from Oregon who are setting aside their families' Christmas celebrations to come spend the season with us!
Pray for 3 health "issues" we have: Sarah's wisdom teeth are coming in, Caleb's tonsils really need to come out, and the twins will probably be needing braces in the next year or so. All three things are rather "big", but we serve a big God! We are trusting Him to supply -- whether by healing or my medical intervention.
Praise God for the family who has offered to bless us by watching our house and animals during our furlough. Pray that God would work out all the details according to His plans!

Embrace the Journey...Christ or Nothing!

Taking the First Step

2008-11-23T10:08:00.006-07:00

Acts 16:6-10 Then [Paul and Silas] went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia because they had been prevented by the Holy Spirit from speaking the word in Asia. They went as far as Mysia and tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not let them. So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision. A man from Macedonia was standing there and pleading with him, "Come over to Macedonia and help us!" As soon as he had seen the vision, we immediately looked for a way to go to Macedonia, for we were convinced that God had called us to tell them the good news.

Paul and Silas, who are probably best known for the prison account of Acts 16 where the Philippian jailer was converted, are now considered spiritual giants. The above passage, however, does not paint a picture of men who have every detail planned ahead of time. This dynamic duo sometimes took steps of faith which were not in the correct direction. Sometimes God had to put huge billboards, so to speak, in front of them to get them to adjust their heading.

The Bible doesn't say that these apostles were necessarily doing anything wrong in trying to preach the Word in Asia or Bithynia. We are simply told that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus himself, would not permit it. That door was obviously closed to them. Why? Because apparently God had already made a divine appointment for them with a woman named Lydia and a jailer in Philipi. He didn't want them to be late.

Several years ago, I heard a pastor named Irwin McManus preach on stepping out in faith. The entire sermon was inspired, but the part relevant to this article is his interpretation of Philippians 4:8

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is fair, whatever is pure, whatever is acceptable, whatever is commendable, if there is anything of excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy-keep thinking about these things.

How many of us have heard sermons and studies on this scripture focusing on the traits of truth, honor, justice, purity, acceptability, commendability, excellence and praise-worthiness? But if we look at that verse from a slightly different angle, we'll notice that the repeated word -- the word used 6 times in the above translation -- is "whatever". Now, this is not an "if it feels good, do it" command! Heaven forbid!

On the contrary, Paul here is saying that if the thought you're having or work you're thinking about doing is true, honorable, just, etc., keep thinking it! Keep making your plans! As Pastor McManus says, "Don't being afraid of doing the wrong good!" Do we think that we'll somehow mess up God's plan for our life? Will God slap His forehead in frustration and say, "NO! I didn't want them to help that poor soul!"?

What, then, is the first step in becoming a missionary? It's the step that gets you moving. Whatever that step is. Spend daily time in fellowship with your Father God. Spend time reading the Word and then "...whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31) Step out to do a good thing, and trust that God will steer you in the right direction.

Don't be so afraid of doing the wrong good that you do no good at all.

Mexico Mission Update November 2008

2008-11-13T16:02:00.007-07:00

"A merry heart does good like a medicine,
but a broken spirit dries the bones."
Proverbs 17:22

Today we received a note from a missionary friend in Uganda, Africa. He wrote:

A smile ministry? Don't be too quick to dismiss this as silliness!! As Christians we are supposed to be filled with the joy of the Lord, but my, how many Christians I know walk around with a perpetual scowl!! What others see when they look at us is called our countenance...new-agers call it our aura...in either case our countenance either consciously or unconsciously attracts or repels others. A SMILE communicates so many things to others...it tells others you are friendly, open, positive, that you care....isn't that the image you want to project? Do you realize that when you scowl and make eye contact with another, many people will, in the depths of their mind, wonder if you dislike them, if something is wrong with them? A scowl also says something about you as a Christian...you all know the scripture about our being the light...well, a smile (show teeth even!!) is one of the greatest ministry tools we have (and a benefit is that our smile creates within us a positive mindset...it is a fact that the look on your face portrays what's going on in your mind!!) Try this out today...look others in the eye today and give them a big smile and see if the world doesn't become just that much better! God bless you today! -- Alan

As we are drawing closer to the American holiday of Thanksgiving, I find this "call to joy" very timely! The Apostle Paul says, "Rejoice in the Lord always!!!" in Philippians 4:4 and then he goes on in verse 6 to say "make your requests to God with thanksgiving." Sounds like joy and thanksgiving should go hand in hand! I pray that you are able to reflect joy and thankfulness in all you do as you go about your day.

God has been so faithful to our family and ministry here in Mexico! We are indeed thankful and joyful!

Doug returned home from a two-week visit to the States in October. We are SO glad to have him home! To all of you who opened your homes and hearts to him during his time there, "Thank you!!!" He came home tired physically, but refreshed spiritually -- and I think he gained 10 pounds! What did you feed him?!?!

Speaking of growing things, we found homes for all of our puppies! Thank you, Lord! Puppies can be rather hard to find good homes for here. Here's a shot of Evie with the two that we're keeping. One is Esteban's, which we are taking care of for a while. He can't have puppies at his property because there is something in the dirt which kills pups. We think it may be parvo. So, puppy stays with us for now!

Well, fall has finally fallen in Mexico!!! Hurrah!!! It's currently 85* and 58% humidity!!! Time to break out the sweatshirts and slippers!

From Sarah's Blog "Go Therefore and Be Light!":

Just to let you all know the weather here is finally cooling off!! As of right now the temperature is 85* 68% humidity. I know that most of you probablythink that I'm crazy to be thinking that this is a good temperature. But, compared to that of the last 5 months, this is great!! I actually slept without a fan last night! I'm hoping that this time the temperature will STAY cool. The last few times that it started to leave it just ended up being a trick to taunt us. You know, like a taste of cake and being told that you can eat the rest for another month! ;) The heat can be a very big test of patience. It's hard to be a blessing to those around you when the heat is causing you to be so frustrated! Still, I do thank God for the heat. I'm not sure what good it does though...
Wait! Papaya! I forgot that Papaya grow wonderfully in this climate! There is no getting along without that stuff!!! HaHaHa! :^) Read the rest of this article here.

November marks the one-year anniversary of our family "blogging" adventure. Something special that we've found ourselves involved in this month are the annual Homeschool Blog Awards. Our family actually ended up with 4 blogs nominated in various categories. If you have a few moments free, click over to Rebecca's site where you can vote for our blogs. You don't have to be a "blogger" and you don't need any special accounts. Just point and "click" (Sorry, only one vote per computer!).

We had a little excitement at the end of October! At 4 o'clock one afternoon, we received a call from Esteban telling us that we needed to be at the beach in Boca del Rio by 6 that evening if we wanted to see some turtles. Turtles??? The university in Guasave harvested over 100 sea turtle eggs from the beach of Boca del Rio a few months ago. They hatched at the last full moon! Practically the whole town turned out to see these little miracles! In Spanish, their name is Tortuga Delfin. Anyone know what variety that is in English? Read the rest of this article and see more photos here.

School is back in swing at our house. Now that the heat has somewhat abated, we feel like we can finally concentrate on such things as math and history. The kids, believe it or not, are pretty excited to get back into a routine. Not all the kids are avid readers, but they all love to dig into "projects".

One project we've had in various stages for the past month is a small motorbike our friend Esteban has "loaned" to Andrew. Andrew is in his element when his hands are covered with grease. I remember one instance almost 2 years ago when Andrew was helping me fix the shower head. From Rebecca's blog:

The little holes were clogged with sediment and I needed to drill them out, but I couldn't get the drill to work. Andrew, then only 8 years old, said, "Give me that, Mom. I'll see if I can fix it." I handed him the drill and then went back to poking the drill bit in the hole and wiggling it around (not very effective). Half an hour later, Andrew brings back the drill and says, "Here ya go, Mom. I took it apart and the wire was busted inside, so I rewired it. Works fine now." At that moment, I knew he had found his vocation. Read the rest of this article here.

We praise God that we have been able to create an environment for our kids which encourages them to pursue their passions. I, Rebecca, was asked this week what one experience has done the most to ignite passion in our kids' lives. My answer was, hands-down, moving to Mexico. We pray that our children will always be so passionate about their Creator God that they would gladly walk away from anything that would threaten to quench that passion.

We've been working the website for our ministry, FLOW international. Well, it's finally ready to go! The address is: flowinternational.blogspot.com We still have more we want to add, but there's a lot of good info there. We're hoping to make the FLOW international site very informational -- a place where folks can read about ministry and mission trip opportunities for the American church, as well as background and cultural information about our area and the Mexican church with which we work. This month, we've been digging through old emails and re-constructing our update letters from 2007 and 2006. Do you remember this photo? It's from our update letter May 2006.

I often found myself shaking my head in wonder as I read through those old letters! God has brought us so far! In big things like constructing our home, and in small things such as learning to insert photos into emails, God has proven Himself faithful time and again! Three years ago we were despairing of ever understanding the people around us, let alone speaking Spanish coherently. Now we're preaching and teaching in Spanish. Wow!

Do you realize how much God is using you in our ministry?

You are our prayer partners.
You send encouraging emails at just the right moment.
You send cards on our birthdays.
You open your homes to us when we're traveling. ALL of us!
You supply us with coffee and peanut butter and beef jerky! ;^)
You have fixed our van's air conditioning, replaced our tires, repaired our transmission, fixed the hole in our roof, bought our gas.
You fixed our computer when it crashed.
You replaced the computer which was struck by lightning.
You supply our school materials and ministry materials.
You bless us with all sorts of special things to share with the people around us.
You give Bibles to the people of our village.
You support us financially, which enables us to continue living and serving in Mexico.

You, the Body of Christ, are ministering in Mexcio as we minister. You have a hand in Mexico. Thank you for being part of this ministry! His ministry!

Serving Him wholeheartedly,

Doug and Rebecca and the kids

Prayers and Praises:

Praise God that Doug was able to attend his Grandma's memorial service and that he made it home safely!
Praise God for His care and protection over the house and household in Doug's absence.
Pray for Doug this Sunday as he teaches at the church (in Spanish!). Pray for clear thoughts and good verb conjugation and that God would be speaking what He wants the people to hear.
Pray for some of the ladies in the church...Cristina pulled a ligament in her foot, Pily threw out her back and Armida sprained her wrist. Pray for quick healing for these sisters in Christ.
Pray for Esteban's extended family. We are hoping that they will all want to be involved in the biblical parenting study we will be starting soon.
Pray that God would give us wisdom in that parenting class. We are in the process of translating a study we have from English to Spanish. It's slow-going, but God is faithful!
Pray for the youth and families of Boca del Rio and Las Glorias. Our ministry focuses on family relationships. Pray that we would be lights in our community.
Pray for the mission teams that are making plans to come to Mexico this coming year.
A mission team from Washington arrived at the Petit's on Tuesday. Pray for this team -- that God would be glorified during their time here and that lives would be impacted for Christ.
Pray that God would continue to provide for our needs here in Mexico. He is always faithful!

Mexico Mission Update July 2006

2008-11-09T16:22:00.002-07:00

Hello again, everyone!

July has arrived and it is officially summer in Mexico. The thermometer hovers at about 96 Fahrenheit all day and all night (in the house on the shady wall). The breeze from the ocean is refreshing, and we praise God for His creation daily. We’ve been seeing lots of storm clouds rolling past, but not much rain to speak of yet. We’ve been told to expect rain in July, August and September. Well, we are definitely expectant!

We were able to see some rain last month when we visited my parents in Kansas. We spent two weeks fellowshipping with friends and family. One of those weeks was at a church camp in Missouri. God provided “full scholarships” for all of us. What a blessing! The camp was wonderful! It was neat being able to share our lives with the people there. Doug shared at one of the chapel times about our ministry and gave a challenge for the students to make a deeper commitment in their daily walk with God. About 20 students made decisions for Christ during the week. Praise the Lord!

Of course there were the usual camp activities, too. Sarah, Caleb, Jessee, and Seth participated in the camp Bible quiz and had a great time. Evie and Andrew also made some new friends and really enjoyed camp. They all shined brightly. Sarah was able to rally a group of kids to share a song during one of the chapel times. We are very proud of all our children and are grateful for the way God is working in each of their lives.

Although we haven’t received any rain to speak of, we have received showers of blessings in the form of three young men from Oregon who have come to visit. (Our home church calls them the “Tres Hermanos”.) We’re keeping them busy with various building projects for the local churches and with outreach events, too. They plan to be here until we leave for the states in August, and then they will travel up with us.

It is very hot here, and it’s hard to feel like doing much of anything when the sweat is dripping from the ends of our noses while we’re sitting still. We have a new appreciation for the people of Mexico after spending a summer here. (Although summer is nowhere near over.) People just accept the heat with a shrug and a smile and wipe the sweat off their foreheads with a toalla (towel), which they carry slung over their shoulder.

When we walk down the streets of the mercado, we might find a spot where there is a patch of shade and a nice breeze. There we would probably also find 3 or 4 men sitting and talking and enjoying such a nice place. In the evenings, families and neighbors gather and visit outside to catch the evening breeze. The general atmosphere is “laid back” and relaxed. Nothing needs to be done in too much of a hurry.

In a lot of ways, it fits our family very well. Since we arrived in Las Glorias 5 months ago, we have been praying that God would show us where He wanted us to “plant our roots”. We have fallen in love with the people here. We have made good ties with a missionary training center in the nearby village of Boca Del Rio, and established weekly music ministry in Alamito, a village about 3 miles from here. Now, God has provided an excellent opportunity for us to buy a small piece of property in Las Glorias. We believe that He is leading us to purchase it and, Lord willing, we will be breaking ground on it this week with the help of the “Tres Hermanos”.

We have two outreaches planned in the near future. One is in the village of Alamito on August 2. There we plan to have music, skits, puppets and possibly a movie as well as a spoken message. There has not been an evangelistic crusade in Alamito in almost two years. We have committed to praying every Tuesday for this crusade, because we know that there are many strongholds of the enemy in this village. As the Lord leads, consider praying and fasting with us on Tuesdays (or any other time, as well!).

August 5 through 8, Pastor Jeff will be heading up another crusade in the mountains of Sinaloa. So far we are planning to do the same things that we do in Alamito, but we are listening for the Lord’s leading. Please pray for hearts to be softened and ears to be opened, and for both boldness and protection for the saints. We will try to get the next update letter out before we leave for the states in August.

For now, let’s close this with a photo of a missionary family from Monterrey. Mariano and his wife, Ari, are students at the Bible and missionary training school in Boca del Rio. Their term ends in March and they are praying about where God will lead them. Their desire is to serve the Lord wherever he leads. Please pray with them for His direction. Also, pray for their daughter, Hepsiba. She has a throat infection which the doctor says was caused by sucking on dirty fingers. (Looking at the photo, you will understand why!)

Praises:

The mission team of Andrew, Tyler and David has arrived safely from Oregon
God has provided a piece of property where we can begin to build our new home
We’ve begun to solidify relationships with the local churches and have started helping with music in Alamito and English classes in Boca del Rio
My (Rebecca’s) stomach seems to be settling down (YEAH!!!)

Prayer requests:

For continued health for all our family and the young men who are visiting
For spiritual awakening in the town of Alamito and in the mountain village
For eyes to see, ears to hear and hearts to understand what God’s desires are for our family and our ministry
For quick healing of my hand. Last week we had a big wind storm and my fingers were slammed in a metal door. One is broken and one is badly bruised. I figure I won’t be playing piano much for the next couple of weeks and typing is slow going, but God is good and it will heal eventually.
For the funds necessary for us to build a home here in Las Glorias

Mexico Mission Update May 2006

2008-11-09T15:53:00.004-07:00

Happy May Day to all our friends and family!!!

We pray that everyone’s Easter, Passover, and Resurrection Sundays were blessed. Semana santa was awesome here! Thank you so much for all of your prayers!

We really are thankful for all of your support, and we want you to know that it is already making a difference here in Mexico. It’s amazing how God has the ability to work through such unqualified people as ourselves! We continue to be in awe as we watch God work in and around our family.

Much of our time is spent in Las Glorias, and we have begun to find ways to minister to the people here. We believe God has placed us here for a specific purpose. We see our house as a prime location for reaching out to passersby. Our home is located on the main boulevard on the corner of one of the most-used beach access roads. When we first moved into this house, we saw many people pass our home each weekend on their way to wherever they were going, and we saw great potential for an outreach…particularly during the week of semana santa. We envisioned a live band on the porch during the holiday, but God had bigger plans!

Instead of a simple concert on the front porch, plans for a huge outreach began to form. The church in Guasave has a twenty-foot tall projection screen which they brought out to set up. The decision to have the concert and movie on the roof came after much prayer. In the picture you’ll notice that there is no railing on our roof. The edge is the edge. For Yadira, the guitarist and singer, overcoming the fear of heights was something God had to help her with. She said that after we prayed, she wasn’t nearly as afraid, and she wasn’t worried at all while she was singing.

Our house is the tallest one around and the movie was viewable for blocks…even from the beach.

Twenty believers from the church in Guasave, Coloradito and Alomito came to the Petit’s and our houses on the Friday before Easter. They arrived early and we were able to share breakfast and then have a great prayer and praise time. After that, teams divided up to walk the streets and beach to distribute fliers. The fliers, in addition to being an invitation to come to our house to listen to music and watch “El Pasion de Cristo”, also contained the gospel message. We passed out 10,000 fliers. Between the fliers and the program on the roof, we are sure that close to 100,000 people heard all or some of the gospel message. We won’t know in this lifetime all the work God did in people’s hearts during the outreach.

If you, our brothers and sisters in Christ, had not answered God’s call to support us and send us here, the holiday would have passed as many others have, without any of those 100,000 people hearing the truth.

Romans 10:13-15 “For whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How, then, shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!”

The kids had a ministry going during the weekend as well. All along the boulevard and the beachfront road, vendors set up tents, booths and huts to sell snacks, trinkets and anything else you could want…for ridiculous prices. The youth group, and a couple of “youth group wannabes” set up this canopy to sell reasonably priced snacks and sodas and raise a few dollars for the youth fund. It also was another good opportunity to invite people to come back to see the movie later in the evening. In the background of this photo, you can see Doug and some other men working to set up the projection screen and other equipment on the roof of our house.

By mid-afternoon Friday it was obvious something was brewing at our house. One of the visiting Americans said it looked like we were trying to sail away. They left the screen partially unattached throughout the afternoon because the wind was blowing so strongly. At about 6pm, the breeze began to die down, and the instruments began to tune up. The movie started at dusk and as we had hoped, it attracted a lot of attention. Neighbors all around us pulled out lawn chairs to watch the movie, and people parked all along the boulevard as well. Some people even came to knock on the front door to ask if they could sit on the roof. Why not?!

This photo was taken from the Petit’s back yard. The movie was very visible and the sound was loud and clear. At one point during Saturday night’s movie the police came to ask us turn the volume down a bit. Apparently some neighbors had complained. We didn’t notice any change in the volume, but we did notice that the entire police force of Las Glorias pulled up to our house and settled in to watch the whole movie. After the evening was over, we rehashed the events and realized that the boulevard (our section of it at least) had been very calm all evening.

The traffic had not stopped -- it was bumper to bumper from sun-up till 3am Friday and Saturday both -- but there was a peace surrounding our corner which had not been there the whole week. Our corner is a notorious “gathering spot” for people to drink and listen to really loud music. Even the traffic seemed quieter -- no spinning tires or incredibly loud music throughout the movie. We spent much time in intercession and in prayer against the darkness and evil, but it would have been interesting to see (literally) the spiritual battle taking place during the weekend! I would say that, because of the peace that we were experiencing, God was victorious.

It was wonderful having all the people visiting for the weekend! Graziano, his wife Diane (pronounced Dee-ah-ney) and their twin babies stayed at our house. Graziano is the pastor of the church in Coloradito, which is a fishing village about an hour from here. He brought some of the biggest fish I have ever seen to BBQ for lunch on Friday. Saturday’s lunch was fish that had been caught when Doug, Graziano’s brother-in-law and Esteban had gone out fishing a few weeks before. We had great fellowship during the mealtimes and afternoons. And had lots of opportunities to practice Spanish.

While the men worked on disassembling the equipment on the roof, Sarah was able to give some rides to the kids. She and Becca Petit gave pony rides on the boulevard on Thursday and had a really great time together. Sarah’s horse broke through the fence that Wednesday and it took us the better part of the day to find him and bring him home. Apparently it is very common for people who are drinking to see a horse tied up or in a pasture and decide that they want to ride it. They may even cut the fence just to let the horses out “for fun”. Sarah’s horse had run to Alomito (about 5 miles away) with another horse who had been cut out of his pasture that night. After the fact, we learned that they had been in a farmer’s corn all night and eaten a LOT of corn. It is hard not completely understanding the culture here. We offered to pay for the corn the horses had eaten, but it was turned down. We aren’t sure, but we think it was because we are Americans. Esteban said it was because we were “hermanos” or Christian brothers. We were afraid that to insist that he take the offered money would insult him more than the horses in the corn.

Our understanding of the Spanish language is improving daily. Now we are at the point that we catch most of what is said. What we miss are little words that indicate when things happen and to whom. Kind of important little words that can dramatically change the meaning of the sentence. Pray that God would continue to show favor on us as we learn!

Here are some other ways you can continue to join us in prayer…

We are wanting to get our visas changed from tourist to FM3 (basically, a green card). There are some details in that which need to be worked out. Such as needing to be sponsored by a recognized Mexican religious organization and additional funds needed for the lawyer and paperwork. Pray for wisdom for us and for God’s provision.

God’s continued supply in our ministry and lives here in Mexico.

That God will keep drawing Esteban and his family to Himself.

For wisdom and direction in our long-term ministry plans here.

An upcoming evangelistic crusade involving many of the churches in Guasave. Our family will be doing a “puppet drama” and music. Pray that we will be “understood” and that God will continue to work in the hearts of the people of Mexico.

We want to continue to be an encouragement to you our supporters. Pray that God would show us how to do that best.

Half of the family (Doug, Caleb, Jessee and Seth) continue to suffer from allergies. Big surprise. The dust here is pretty heavy at times.

“Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us. To Him be the glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations. Forever and ever! Amen!” Ephesians 3:20

In Christ,
The Coult Family
Doug and Rebecca, Sarah, Caleb, Jessee, Seth, Andrew and Evie

P.S. I wanted to throw in a picture of our friend, Esteban. Someone tried to steal his bike during Semana Santa. I don’t think they would try it again!

Mexico Mission Update April 2006

2008-11-09T15:46:00.004-07:00

April 3, 2006 --

Hello to you all! The old saying is “April Showers Bring May Flowers”, but we have yet to see a rain cloud! Some days we can see glimpses of what the summer will be like, but for the most part the weather here has been beautiful. We feel like we’re beginning to acclimate a bit, because some nights we even feel a little cold…sort of.

Photo: Airplane over Las Glorias

The photo, Airplane over Las Glorias, was taken last Sunday afternoon. In it you’ll see two of our neighbors. The first neighbor hired a band called “Los Rebellos” who played really neat Mariachi music for the first part of the evening. The music deteriorated as the band members drank and by midnight, we were ready for the music to fade! People were passing out fliers to notify people that the “Spring Break Riot -- Las Glorias 2006” would be held next week with many different bands playing throughout the days. Oh boy.

The second neighbor in this picture was “attacked” by our dog, Maggie, as he rode his bicycle past our house one night a couple of weeks ago. (You have to know Maggie to know how funny that really is!) Esteban was here when the man, who was very drunk, rode past and started throwing rocks at the dogs. Esteban said the man was “loco” and told us that once this man had flown his airplane over to Cabo san Lucas, landed in town, ordered a Coke, flew back to Las Glorias and landed on the beach. He had lost his license for several years because of that. Apparently he has his license back, but judging by where his plane is in relationship to the power lines, I don’t think he’ll have it for long! He spent all afternoon Sunday swooping over our house. He got close enough for us to feel the wind off his wings as we stood on our balcony. He flew off when a Transito (police car) chased after him honking his horn.

Everyone here is in the throes of preparing for Semana Santa. The words translated to English are Holy Week, but the meaning just doesn’t seem to translate. The only thing I can think of to compare the atmosphere to is the county fair, but even that doesn’t catch the whole feel of the city. People have been trickling in for the past few weeks, workers have been busily tidying up and our friend Esteban has been kept very busy by his patrones (bosses) doing all the little things they need done for their week in their beach houses.

The city workers are very busy, too. All week trucks have been hauling in rock and dirt to level roads and fill in potholes -- and hopefully cut down on dust. A water truck has been driving up and down spraying the roads a couple of times a day. That is really nice. Wish the roads would stay damp, because the dust is unbelievable! City water has been a lot more reliable the past week or so, too. Good for us, but not so good for the neighboring village of Boca del Rio. From talking to some people there yesterday, I found out that during Semana Santa, water is diverted to Las Glorias and very little makes it to Boca.

The church in Guasave has been invited to come out here Friday and Saturday nights for praise and worship. So far about 15 people have said that they will be coming. Some will stay with the Petit family and some will stay here. We’ve been told that from about Wednesday until Sunday it will be nearly impossible to get out of Las Glorias by car. Sounds like the mission field is, indeed, coming to our door!

------ Fast Forward ------

I got busy and wasn’t able to finish this letter last week, so now here we are on Thursday, April 14 -- right in the middle of Semana Santa. Blessed passover to you!

Semana Santa begins “officially” on Wednesday, April 13. Many businesses close Thursday and don’t reopen until Monday so their employees can go celebrate at the beach. People come to Las Glorias from as far away as Vera Cruz and Oaxaca simply because it’s “the thing to do’. Booths and vendors line the side streets and Coca Cola stands and beer gardens line the boulevard. The traffic is non-stop and we've been told it will only increase as the weekend wears on. I’ve never seen anything quite like it!

People from the church in Guasave, Coloradito and Alomito will be arriving tomorrow morning to stay for the weekend. They plan to leave Guasave at about 5 in the morning and arrive here by 7a.m. It’s only about a 30 minute drive normally, but they expect the traffic to be terrible. While they are here, we will be having prayer for Las Glorias for several hours in the morning. Then during the afternoon a couple of bands will be playing Christian music from our roof while we pass out tracts and talk to people on the boulevard. Later in the evening, we will be showing movies from the roof, also. We were thinking of showing “family films” (Veggie Tales?) to start with and then possibly the visual Bible and later, after the children go to bed, “The Passion of the Christ”. All plans subject to change!

--- I just read a great letter from our dear friend David, who was here for two months and is now back in Roseburg OR. I have to add this verse he sent us: "Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops." Matt 10:27 Some scripture was intended to be taken literally!!! ---

Today we spoke to a man from Puebla, which is somewhere near Mexico City. He was selling hats in the boulevard and stopped to show his hats to Sarah and Doug. He said he spoke 3 different dialects and was learning English. He and I spent a few minutes conjugating verbs and swapping nouns. Doug and Sarah each bought a hat from him. He is a Christian and said he has been coming to Las Glorias for Semana Santa for the past 10 years.

On a more serious note, please pray for the family of a three year old girl who was killed this morning on the beach. She was run down by a pickup truck. Apparently the driver of the truck was drunk and didn’t intend on stopping. He was stopped by a man we know who blocked the truck with his horse. He was then arrested by the police. We’re praying for God to work in this situation and comfort the families involved. As we all know, God often uses tragedies and crises to draw people to himself.

I’ll close this letter with some prayer requests and a promise to write more and send more photos after the weekend. We earnestly covet your prayers!!!

Pray for:

Safe travels for the brothers and sisters coming here for the weekend.
Protection for the children (ours and other's) on the beach and the streets here.
That the true message of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection would be proclaimed and that many would have lives changed by that message!
Continued health for our family…we seem to still be dealing with stomach issues, but it does seem to be improving.
Rest for our family and for our guests -- the boulevard hasn’t quieted down before 2 a.m. yet this week…and it starts back up about 6:30.

God bless you all in the name of our awesome and RISEN Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ!
Doug and Rebecca Coult and the kiddos!

Embrace the Vision...the Journey...the Christ!

Mexico Mission not an update April 2006

2008-11-09T15:37:00.001-07:00

Hello to all!!!

Warning: This is not really an update letter. The real update letter will be coming soon, but not today!

Many of you have asked for a mailing address for our family. Well, we finally have one! It was pretty easy to get, once we found the post office. When we did finally get to the PO, I told Doug I didn't think we would be able to get a PO Box, because I didn't have any proof of address. He said that he didn't think it would make any difference. He was right. One thing though, was that there was only one box available and there were no keys for it. We had to take the lock tumbler assembly to a locksmith in town and have him make keys for it and then return to the PO again. It was a little more difficult than it sounds. Someday maybe I'll be able to explain what it's like to drive in downtown Guasave. Suffice to say, it took a little longer than we would have wanted, but an address we have!!!

Here it is:
Doug and Rebecca Coult
Apartado Postal #394
Guasave, Sinaloa, MX

Here is our phone # again: 011 52 687 873 7131

Just a word about sending packages: allow about 3 weeks for delivery; don't send irreplaceable or really valuable things (birth certificates, cash, small children, etc.); don't send packages which look like "new things" i.e. stuff in a VCR box -- even if it has been retaped shut -- plain brown is best. Other than that, we've been told that the mail system is usually pretty reliable -- if a little slow.

Thank you for all your prayers! We have been battling sickness here, but are all well right now. Apparently a nasty flu is working its way around the area. We had the honor of getting it early!

We continue to pray for God's direction in our ministry here. Our work at the campos (migrant camps) has been wonderful. I'll send photos next letter. A weekly meeting has been set up in Huitussi -- PRAISE GOD! A worship concert is scheduled for our front porch for the weekend of semana santa (Easter weekend) -- more on that next letter, too!

"We thank God continually for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers!"

In the name of our Awesome Lord and Saviour -- Jesus Christ!

-- Rebecca (and the rest of the family, too!!!)

Mexico Mission Update March 2006

2008-11-09T15:26:00.004-07:00

Well, with life being as busy as it often is and computers being as obnoxious as they usually are, I have been having problems getting emails sent out as regularly as I would like! I just spent the last 2 hours updating our contact list and making certain that I had added all who had wanted to be added. Now, I will work on getting the letters to actually go where they are supposed to go and be readable when they get there.

The last letter we sent out was apparently formatted wrong for most computers to open. I'm sorry about that!!! Then I tried to send it again in a simpler format, but it got lost in cyberspace. Sigh. So, we will try a third time to send the "March Update Letter" with pictures as attachments. If it comes through with no problems, and you have a minute, please send me a little "It worked!" email. If it comes through as jibberish, I guess I want to know that, too!

When I was reorganizing my organizer, I found several email addresses that I thought were already in my list. For those of you who have heard absolutely nothing from us in the past month (Karen, Sherri, Adam, Maria...to name a few!) I'M SORRY!!! I hope this letter will catch you up a bit!

God bless you all! You are in our prayers and thoughts daily!

Love,
The Coult Family
Doug, Rebecca, Sarah, Caleb, Jessee, Seth, Andrew and Evie

Here's the Letter:

Peace to you! And blessings from our Lord, Jesucristo!

Today is Saturday, March 18, and I finally have some time to write the long-awaited March update letter! Hurrah! Much has happened this month, and it would take many pages to tell you all the awesome things God has done!

We are settling into our new home. If Doug was missing the remodeling that has been so much of our lives for the past 7 years, he is no longer!!! Once again we have moved into a “project house”! Our landlord was not really interested in renting it until after Santa Semana (Holy Week). During that week, even a small two-room house in Las Glorias will rent for $2000 U.S. He was counting on getting that money so he could do some work on the house. We offered to do the necessary work for him. So, we are renting the house for 2000 pesos per month. That’s roughly $190, and the materials we need for repairs will come from that.

Two main things needed to be done: there was a cistern on the roof to hold water for the house, and the house was plumbed, but the water pressure here was not enough to get the water up to the roof. We needed to install an in-ground holding tank and a pump to move the water from the ground to the roof.

If you look closely, you’ll see David Hutton’s head down in that hole. Through this project, Doug met a man named Esteban who has not only been an incredible help with all sorts of things, but has become a good friend and Spanish teacher. Esteban is not a Christian, so pray that…well, pray that he sees his need for a Savior! The second thing the house needed was electricity in the upstairs part of the house (the kids’ bedrooms and laundry room). When David offered to help with that, he didn’t know what he was getting into!

Each conduit must have a channel cut into the cement so it can be stuccoed over. There were lots of channels to cut. After the first 3 hours of hammer and chisel and axe, Doug said to David, “Hey, I’ve got an air chisel if you want to use it.” The work went much faster after that!

We found a Home Depot in Los Mochis (about an hour and a half from here). There we were able to purchase a stove and fridge and some building materials. Everything was more expensive than we would have liked. (As usual!) We were blessed, though, by one of our neighbors in Las Glorias. Her daughter was moving into an apartment and she needed to sell her washer, so she sold it to us for a very good price. It was good for her and good for us, too!

It has been wonderful getting to know our neighbors. Not many people live here during the week, but during the spring, RV caravans come in every week with 50 to 100 people. Lots of American visitors. There are workers doing maintenance and construction around town, too. Not many live in Las Glorias. Some live in Palos Verdes or Alamito, both of which are within 5 miles of here. The people who work at the hotel live mostly in Boca del Rio, which is a town about 1km from here. One couple we have met lives in Las Glorias during the week and Los Mochis on the weekend. Steve is an American doctor practicing Eastern medicine and acupuncture (sp?), and Elena is originally from Puerta Vallarta. Pray that we would be lights in our community, and that we would not be hesitant in speaking truth!

As I said, God has been doing awesome things here! A mission team from Arizona arrived here on Tuesday night and will be leaving tomorrow at about 4:30 a.m. They have been doing a crusade in a small fishing village about an hour from here called Huitussi. (pronounced wee-TU-see) When the team from Guasave went to this town last Monday to prepare for the crusade, they found a very tough village. The people were very closed and cold. Add to that the fact that “winter winds” were blowing (which means it was only about 55 degrees -- cold for most Mexicans), so the first two nights of the crusade were hard. We prayed that God would lessen the wind and bring a softening to the people. On Wednesday, it seemed that the village had been transformed. People smiled at us and waved. The wind stopped and the temperature rose and the people came out to see what those Americans were up to! The Arizona team (Trinity Church) had brought balloons and face-painting stuff for the kids.

We performed a puppet show using puppets from the Petit’s and a cassette of kids’ Spanish songs we were given in the States. (Which was a TOTAL hit!) The teens did skits and music and a man from Trinity Church shared the Gospel. That night, over 30 people wrote their names down as having made a decision for Christ! WOW!
Thursday night we shared another puppet show and the Guasave youth group shared music and skits.

(This is a photo of Sarah and Alexis practicing for the Thursday night crusade.)

More than 300 people attended the crusade on Wednesday and Thursday night. Over 100 decisions for Christ were made, and a relationship was forged with the people of Huitussi. Praise God! Pray that God would raise up a pastor for the believers in Huitussi.

Well, I’m sure that this letter is long enough, and I’m sure also that I could go on for a few more pages, but the final meeting of the crusade is this evening and I need to find all the kids and get them ready to go. I did want to address some specific questions that people have asked:

-- Yes, we now have a phone in our house! Our phone number is: 011 52 678 873 7131 (that’s what you dial from the States to get us.) We each have cell phones, too, but it is very expensive to receive calls from the US on our cell phones.

-- Yes, we have a physical address. I’m not too certain about sending anything to it, though. We did find out that DHL delivers in Mexico, but don’t know prices. I’ll be working on getting a mailing address this week and will send it out as soon as I can.

-- Yes, Sarah got her horse! I haven’t loaded the pictures of it yet, but he is very sweet-tempered and gentle.

-- Our Spanish lessons are going well. We hired a private tutor to come to our house 6 hours a week. People here say we are learning quickly, but some nights we have come home and could almost see the smoke coming off our heads. It is hard!!! Pray that we would not become frustrated with how long it takes and would not be afraid to speak -- even if we’re not certain of the verb tense!

I wanted to share one last photo. The twins’ 10th birthday was March 8th. This was, as I told them, their present from God on their birthday. The photo was taken from the roof of our house looking toward the ocean.

Blessings to you all!

In Christ,
Doug and Rebecca Coult and the kids

Mexico Mission Update January 2007

2008-11-08T13:10:00.003-07:00

Happy New Year!!! Today is Thursday, January 18. We’re sending a few photos for you, so that you can see what we’re up to.

Doug and Esteban were able to get the van roof painted to protect it from the salt air. Praise God for His provision, and thank you to those who were praying about that and who helped us financially with that project. It is a relief to have that done!

At precisely 7:00 a.m. Christmas morning, the kids piled in for the traditional “Christmas Dog-Pile on Dad”. Then followed the traditional photo by the tree!

Pray for a new family we have met. Freddy, Minerva and their son Irvin spent Christmas morning with us. They had been staying at the hotel for about a week prior to Christmas because of problems they had been having with her family. Minerva became a Christian several years ago and had been praying for her husband since then. Six months ago, he gave his life to the Lord and turned away from drugs and alcohol. Now their family has rejected them and persecutes them heavily. Freddy and Minerva are praying about moving to a different city so that their son can be safe. He has had nightmares for weeks and they believe that the nightmares have been caused by the witchcraft that Minerva’s mom is involved in. As soon as the family moved to the hotel, the nightmares stopped.

Well, it’s not a very clear picture, but it tells a funny story, so I had to include it. One of the ministries that we have is the “Pulling the Trailer” ministry. Sergio, the drummer from the church in Boca del Rio, has a very nice sound system that he rents out to Christian groups and churches. The truck that he usually uses to pull his trailer was broken down and he had several events to do, so we used our van to pull his trailer to Los Mochis. At this event, both large speakers blew (weird electricity in Mexico), so we took them to a repair shop after the concert. This picture was taken at 1 a.m. in the middle of the street in front of the shop. We had to remove the speakers from their boxes so that they could be taken inside and fixed for the concert the next day. It just struck me as very “Mexican” that we would stand in the middle of the road and disassemble speakers at 1 in the morning. Funny thing is, it just felt normal!

We had agreed to do some work for the man who owns the house we’ve been living in for the past year as part of our rent. With only a month left in this house, we though it would be good to get going on it! The day after Christmas, 15 friends from Boca del Rio and Guasave showed up to help us enjarar (that’s the cement coating they use instead of sheetrock here) all of the upstairs rooms. Sarah learned how to float concrete (and she’s very good, too!) and Doug and I tried our hands at throwing mortero on one wall. I thought we did an OK job, but when it dried, one of the guys asked us how much of it we wanted him to arreglar (fix). Sigh. Those guys can throw a whole room in the time it took us to do one wall, and they use a fraction of the material. I guess we’ll stick to what we know.

The group spent about 4 days and finished the bulk of the work. Three of the guys, plus Esteban, stayed another 3 or 4 days to finish the ceilings.

Misael (left) and Julio (right) were the two lead guys who stayed to do the final touches on the rooms. Misael is a Christian brother from Guasave and Julio is Esteban’s father-in-law. During the meal time, Misael, Esteban, Wes, and Doug were able to share scriptures and testimonies. Alfredo and Julio asked many questions and there was lively discussion. Pray that God would touch the lives of these men. Alfredo has some deep hurts in his life, and both he and Julio are searching for more meaning in their lives.

Construction has recommenced on our new house! This photo is of the first load of tabiques (blocks) we will use for the walls of the bottom floor. Last summer a group of young men from Oregon came down to help us lay the foundation. Now the walls are starting to go up. Every day it looks more like a house. Lord willing, we will be able to move in when we return from the states at the end of February. It will be a crude, one-room structure, but it will be ours! The same crew who helped us with the rental house is helping with the new construction. Pray that the Holy Spirit would guide us as we share our lives with them. Communication is becoming easier, but at times Doug (and me, too) become a little frustrated with the whole “language issue”. Not to mention that while we know a lot about how to build in the States with wood and metal, none of that applies when building in Mexico with concrete. Doug said yesterday that after spending another week working with these guys he’ll be fabulous at understanding them…or he’ll have a really big headache.

Do pray for protection for our work crew (including Doug). Doug injured himself two days ago and has a bruised rib. The one major expense that remains for this house is the running of electricity. The closest electric pole is the one that you see on the far right of the photo. Looks like it will cost close to $2500 US to do it correctly. We may be using a looooong extension cord for a while! I’ll close with another absolutely wonderful sky-scape from our roof.

(See Attached Photo: Skyscape)

The heavens declare the glory of God,

and the firmament shows His handiwork!

-- Psalms 19:1

Blessings to you all! We pray for you daily and thank you for your prayers for us, too. All our love, Doug and Rebecca and the kids

P.S. Sarah wanted me to include a small update for her. I asked if she would like to write it, but she thought it would be very difficult, so I agreed to do it. About two weeks ago, Sarah and the neighbor girls were out riding horses on the dunes. Sarah’s horse, which Hannah was riding, fell at the bottom of the dune and was killed. Praise God that none of the girls were injured. Esteban said, after studying the animals‘ tracks, that the horse’s last act in life was to save Hannah’s life by throwing her to the side, so he wouldn’t fall on her. Sarah was very sad for some time, and is still sad, but is handling the loss very maturely. She and Becca still take the other horses out riding almost daily, so the accident hasn’t scared her from riding. I think that all three girls learned a lot from the incident.

THANK YOU to all of you who pray daily for our kids’ safety.

We have reason to appreciate it!!!

Mexico Mission Update February 2007

2008-11-08T12:57:00.005-07:00

Hello again everyone! Wanted to update y'all on house progress and “other stuff” with our family. On January 15, construction began once again on our house. The floor needed to be finished first and then the walls could go up from there. We had a bit of a cold snap down here -- I guess we are acclimated now, so it may not have been what you would consider cold, but for a few days, the computer told me that it was warmer in Tenmile, OR, than it was here. Add to that the fact that most Mexican homes don’t have heating systems or hot water heaters and you have…cold.

My sister sent us a great care package of hot cocoa and coffee (Thanks again, Cindy!) so we were able to keep warm on the inside while we worked. We discovered that the workers really like mochas!

As of yesterday, the walls are up and we’re getting ready to start the roof. You can see from the picture that the sun is out again -- Doug said that he thought he preferred to work in cloud cover, since the sun is very intense here. Alfredo and Julio come over every morning for coffee and every afternoon for comida (lunch). This morning, Alfredo asked Doug for a Bible. I was glad that we were able to give him one. Pray that God continues to provide Bibles to give to those who desire them and praise Him for putting that desire into people’s hearts!

The boys continue to attend school in Boca del Rio. That is an interesting thing. We are learning much from this experience! I praise God daily that we’ve been able to homeschool for the past 12 years. Because we feel that the boys are very much ahead of where they “should be” academically, we’re OK with them taking a break to attend school. (That sounds weird, I know, but…) If we really desired for them to learn anything besides Spanish, we would be very frustrated. They all continue to meet new kids and make new friends, and it gets easier daily! Pray that their attitudes stay good. Some days it is difficult to get up and go listen to hours of lecture in a foreign language.

The “Christmas Tree” photo is of Andrew and 3 of his friends from here in Las Glorias -- Havid (Esteban’s son), Jesus Israel (Havid’s cousin) and Juan (another cousin). This picture was taken at the Las Glorias Christmas Eve party.

When driving through the “back roads” of Las Glorias, you might come upon a herd of cows or goats. Many ranchers run their herds through here during the week, since there is a lot of grass and not many people. Yesterday, Auralio and his son posed for a photo for me. His son was so incredibly cute on that donkey, I just had to take a picture. Auralio lives a couple of miles down the road and drives the cattle to Las Glorias every morning and back home every evening.

We’re planning a trip to Arizona in a couple of weeks. It will be a short trip, but we’re looking forward to meeting some friends up there and taking care of paperwork. When we return home, about the 20th of February, we will be moving into our new home. We have been offered the use of another house in Alomito (about 5 miles away), but decided -- after much prayer -- that it would be better to just move once and think of it as camping for a while. We should have a roof by then, Lord willing, and there is already water at the property. All we really will need is a septic system and electricity. Esteban has said that he will take control of the electricity issue. He’s pretty ingenuous and knows who to talk to in order to get things done, so we should have lights when we move in. Pray that the remaining details with the house work out smoothly.Doug’s classes will be starting up again when we return from the States. They’ve been on winter break since just before Christmas. During this time, the Mexican students have been ministering in a small village about 3 hours south of here and the other American students went to Pueblo and Mexico City for a conference. With the return of daily classes and homework assignments, and with the work that will still need to be done on the house, things could be a little stressful (what’s new?). Our home phone will be turned off at some point soon -- probably the end of this week. Our mailing address will remain the same and we will continue to check email a couple of times a week, until we are able to reestablish a land line, which may be some time. In case of an emergency, we can be reached through our home church in Oregon (Pastor Dave will have our cell phone numbers). We will continue to pray for each of you and to send updates as often as possible.

Prayers and Praises:

Please continue to pray for our family and for the Church in Mexico
Pray for the students returning from other parts of Mexico to the school in Boca
Pray that our boys are not too frustrated as they begin to really learn the language
Pray that God would give us wisdom in the building of our house, the raising of our kids, and basically in living our lives here. That we would live what we believe.
Julio got a piece of cement in his eye yesterday -- pray for healing for that and that the pain would go away.
Praise God that the house is going together so quickly!
Praise God that we are able to encourage and bless Alfredo and Julio and their families!
Pray for a safe trip to AZ for us and that all the tax paperwork that we need makes it there.

You are in our prayers as well!!!

Ephesians 1:16-21 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated Him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

-- Doug and Rebecca and the kids

Mexico Mission Update April 2007

2008-11-08T12:02:00.004-07:00

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!!!
Praise Him all creatures here below!!!
Praise Him above, you heavenly host!!!
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost!!!

Right now, I’m watching the sun set off the coast of Las Glorias, Mexico. I think of all that God has done over the past couple of months in our lives, in fact over the past few years, and just sit in awe of His provision. It's been a while since our last update letter. Much has happened! Our new house is, for the most part, finished. We are settling in and Doug has restarted classes at the school in Boca del Rio. Life is resuming its rhythm.

Of course, “finished” is a relative term, and “finished” in Mexico is a little different than “finished” in the United States. Here, if you are able to move into your house, it’s finished. If you’re not going to do anything else to it in the next year, it’s finished. So, our house is as done as it is going to be for a while, and we’re moved in. Hence, our house is finished. Gloria a Dios!!! The people here are amazed that it went together so quickly. Things like that just don’t naturally happen here. We agree -- it was definitely super-natural, and we praise God continually for watching out for us and for blessing us above what we ever expected. Thank you all, too, for all of your prayers. We know that without prayer, we are powerless.

To those of you who have written saying that you’ve prayed specifically for us at certain times, a thousand thank yous!!! We have felt very “cared for” during the past weeks, even though we haven’t been able to respond to the letters we’ve gotten. (One of the down sides of moving off the beaten trail is that the phone lines don’t reach. We’re working on it, but so far we have no internet in our house.) We were able to get electricity, though, through a huge miracle.

The problem with getting power to our house was the fact that the nearest electrical pole was over 100 meters away. Also, there can only be a certain number of mediadores (electric meters) for each line, and the nearest line was maxed out. So, in addition to purchasing and installing a pole, we would need to purchase an electrical transformer. (somewhere in the neighborhood of $2500 US -- out of our neighborhood, for sure!) Well, we asked everyone to pray, and then Doug and Esteban went to the electric commission to petition them for power. After two hours of “No puedo…por favor…no puedo…por favor”, the commission finally said, “Si puedo” and we got electricity. No tips, no bribes, no special strings pulled. God is good!!! All we had to do was put in the pole!

Esteban just happened to have an extra telephone pole laying around at his mom’s house (a man of many resources, for sure!), so they measured off 50 meters and dug a hole.

With only Doug, Esteban, Julio and Alfredo, the job of putting in a power pole looked a little impossible. Then Julio gave a shrill whistle, and four more men working at nearby houses came to help. Doug says that he wants to learn to whistle like that!!! Strong chains and ropes were tied from the top of the pole to be held by the men below to balance it. Another rope ran from the top of the pole to the axle of our van, which I had been “volunteered” to drive. On Esteban’s signal, I pulled the van forward, all the men heaved and up went the pole. The entire time the men were lifting and yelling and pulling on the ropes, I was praying protection over the whole project. Things were pretty tense for a few moments, but it went very smoothly, all things considered. When they were finished, Esteban and Julio took turns shimmying up the pole to unhook the chains and ropes from the top of the 30 foot pole.
We recommenced work on our house on January 19th. Julio and Alfredo helped faithfully for a month putting up walls, beams and pillars.

Here in Mexico, most cement mixing is done on the ground rather than in an actual cement mixing machine. The cement is stirred and shoveled and then transferred to a wheelbarrow and carried to where the workers are laying brick. Usually, gas-powered mixers are only called in for pouring floors and roofs.
On February 19th, we hired a team of men to come pour the roof of our house. They arrived at 9 a.m., began mixing concrete at 10 and drove off at 1 p.m. These were professionals. We were all impressed at these men who could repeatedly sling a 5 gallon bucket full of concrete (close to 100 pounds) up over their heads for 3 hours straight. We were also really glad that all we had to do was watch and supply Cokes and cookies.

We made a really fast trip to Arizona in February to renew our visas and do our taxes (and visit some friends!) and then zoomed back down to move into our new home -- since we had to be completely moved out of our old house before the first of March. We removed the wooden framing from the roof 9 days after it was poured -- well, started removing. It was a two day job and while Doug and Alfredo worked at that, the kids and I were feverishly packing and cleaning.
On February 28th, we officially moved into our new home. It felt a lot like camping for a couple of weeks, but the kids adjusted well.

In this picture, it looks like we have a bunch of lazy kids, but in reality they had deserved this break. All of them worked really hard (pretty willingly, too) at everything from wiring together re-bar to removing brush to filling buckets with mortar and passing bricks. The day before we moved in, Caleb caught a bad cold and we began the Passing of the Germs. (We have yet to have everyone healthy at one time, but that is life in a large family!)The boys are still attending school in Boca del Rio. I think that they are cured from that desire that many homeschooled kids have: the desire to attend public school. All three are very eager for the school year to end so that they can start homeschooling again. Go figure.

Sarah continues to excel in her schoolwork (yes, I’m biased), and Andrew and Evie are also thriving. Their Spanish is improving by leaps and bounds as they spend more time with the kids in Boca. All six of the kids can function in Spanish now. That is such an answer to prayer, since the twins were very frustrated by the language only a few months ago.
Andrew built this tree house for Evie for her 8th birthday. They like to spend time in it with Alfalfa the Bunny after they finish their schoolwork.Last week the church youth group met to discuss goals and to set a time to pray for the group. Please lift this very small group up in prayer. Over the next weeks, we will be focusing our prayers and energy on encouraging the youth group and reaching out to the other youth in the community.Here follow a couple of funny, unrelated photos. First is one of me, since I never put in photos of me and the kids always complain about that. I’m usually the one behind the camera, and I kind of like it that way!
There is no barber shop in Boca del Rio, so when one of the girls heard that I had cut all the kids’ hair and Doug’s, too, I was called over to the pastor’s house in Boca to play hairstylist. Of course, I couldn’t just do one haircut. The girls lined up, and some guys, too. In this photo is one of the students from New Mexico. Annette is a first-year student at the School of Ministry and this is the first time she’s had her hair shorter than the middle of her back. She promised she wouldn’t cry in front of me, since I’d never made anyone cry from a bad haircut.

And finally is a funny photo from a wedding we attended last week. The drummer from the church in Boca, Sergio, and his girlfriend Brisa were married on the church lawn. It was an absolutely lovely ceremony with lots of different cultural traditions. It was great! At the beginning, though, as the guests were being seated, I noticed one family up front that didn’t really belong. Mr. and Mrs. Chicken and their friends were clucking happily in the middle of the aisle until the wedding party filed in. Then they “flew the coop”.

Prayer requests and praises:

Praise God that we are moved into our new house!!!
Praise God that we completed all the work necessary on the house we were renting last year.
Praise God -- we have water, electricity, windows and doors, and indoor plumbing!!!
Praise God -- Esteban continues to grow in his faith and his family are not hostile toward him. He continues to ask questions and spent time this weekend talking with Doug and Ricardo (a teacher from the church) about God’s grace.
Doug has resumed classes at the School of Ministry in Boca del Rio (praise and prayer request, both)
Pray that God would show himself powerful in some health issues our family is dealing with (Doug’s asthma, Caleb’s tonsils, everyone is fighting colds…)
Praise God!!! Caleb was healed overnight from a bad case of strep throat last week.
A dear friend and brother in Christ, Graciano, (pastor of the church in Coloradito) has been diagnosed with cancer. He has decided to pursue cancer treatments, even though they have no insurance and no money, and trust God to provide. The cost will be about $1500 for the chemotherapy he needs.
This past week was Semana Santa. Praise God for His protection from the craziness that goes on here. Also that God’s truth was proclaimed through the dramas, Christian concerts, movies and other outreaches which were planned for the week. (more about that next letter.)
Pray that God would continue to provide for the needs of His workers -- both in the local churches and in the field. Pray for the youth of Boca del Rio as the youth group begins to form. Wisdom for the leaders and strength for the Christian youth.
Pray for wisdom as we plan our summer. We desire to visit several churches and families, but as always there are more places to go than time. We ask for God’s direction in that.

Jude 24-25 Now to Him who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever.
Amen!

Mexico Mission Update May 2007

2008-11-07T21:16:00.002-07:00

Well, I have an excellent letter all ready to send out full of photos and encouraging words. This isn't it. That letter is stuck in my computer, and I can't get it out. SO, you're getting this much shorter, photoless letter until I'm able to get my computer modem problem sorted out. Of course, by then, the old letter will be outdated, so I'll have to write a new one. Sigh. Computers are such timesavers.

I just wanted to let everyone know that we're still here praising God!!! Our days are very full -- with Doug's school, kids' school, church activities, house projects and just "life". God is good all the time!!!

I'd like to share some praises and prayer requests for now and then write a little more when I have more time (I'm at an internet cafe right now).

Praises and Prayers:

Praise God! Graciano, the brother who was diagnosed with cancer, went in for another panel of blood tests last week and was pronounced “cancer free”! Thank you for your prayers for him and his family!
Praise God! It finally seems like everyone here is healthy at once! Hurrah!
Sarah’s dog, Mindy, came down with the Mexican version of lyme disease and was very ill for a couple of weeks, but she’s recovered. Definitely a praise!
The youth meeting last week was well-attended. A young man from Boca had died of kidney failure just a few hours before the meeting, and the kids were shaken. Berlinda, the youth leader, took that opportunity to speak about death and what will happen after death. Keep praying that the youth of Boca and Las Glorias would be drawn to the Lord.
Praise God! Yesterday was "Day of the Child" here in Mexico. Over 150 kids and teens came to the church for a huge celebration (with a lot of candy, of course) and heard a great Gospel message. About 20 kids responded to the invitation to "enter into Christ" (that's how it's said here). Pray for continued growth in these kids' lives and that God's love would be proclaimed in Boca del Rio.
Caleb, Jessee and Seth are home from school for good as of today. It's a positive thing, and they left the public school on good terms. So, pray for us (me) as we try to get the books and supplies out of crates and find a place to set up bookshelves for 3 more students. It's been very quiet at home for a few months during school time; Andrew struggles with reading and Sarah struggles with algebra when it's noisy. I know that God will work all things out...so I wait patiently! More or less!
Doug is at the dentist today getting a root canal done. It's something he's put off for quite some time, so it's a pretty big thing. Praise God that dental care here is very reasonable and that there is a good dentist here in Guasave. Also pray that the problem is solved by this procedure.
I've begun teaching an English class to the Mexican students at the School of Ministry. It's going very well and we're ALL learning a lot. Pray that the students won't become frustrated while learning to pronounce those obnoxious English vowels!
Continue to pray for wisdom for our summer plans. We would like to see "everyone" in July and August, but we know that it's just not possible.
Pray that we could get our computer problems settled. Sigh.

May God richly bless each one of you! Thank you for praying for us!!!!
-- Rebecca and Doug and the crew

Mexico Mission Update June 2007

2008-11-07T20:14:00.004-07:00

Greetings to our friends and family in Christ! June has arrived in Mexico, but the ridiculously hot and humid weather seems to be holding off. Praise God!!! Naomi, the wife of our pastor in Boca, said that she has been praying for a climate change (and that God would take away the mosquitoes) for the past 10 years. A week ago, she said God told her to stop being so selfish by praying for only Boca del Rio. So, she began to pray that God would bring relief to all the places in the world where the heat and insects are so extreme. The next day, a cool breeze blew in and has been here ever since. Who knows how long it will last, but we'll praise Him for it! And we'll keep praying about the mosquitoes!

Thank you to everyone who sent encourageing notes this past month! We've been able to read them regularly, but because of computer complications haven't been able to respond as often as we would like. When are computers not complicated? The notes, letters and forwards are an encouragement to us and also remind us to pray for our friends in the States and around the world, as well. You are such a blessing to us!

Life and ministry have been abundant! Doug continues in school, the kids continue in school and I continue, well, in school, too! We feel so blessed to be here and continue to connect with the people. Along with weekly church meetings, women's prayer and Bible study, youth group (which has been well attended -- more on that later) and classes at the school in Boca, we are continuing to build relationships with the people here in Las Glorias and surrounding areas.

We were able to visit with some friends in Alomito last week. Sister Alejandra, an elderly lady with great "spunk", is praising God that He has taken the pain away from her elbow. She had fallen a few months ago and broken her elbow and it was taking a long time to heal. She went forward for prayer at a meeting a month ago, and the pain has been taken away! Praise God with us for this blessing in her life!

The reason that we had gone to Alomito in the first place, although just to visit would have been enough reason, was to find Sarah's new horse. Since her first horse died in December, Sarah has been saving money from her job here to purchase a horse from her friend, Hannah. She was finally able to buy the horse a couple of weeks ago. This horse, like Shasta before her, knows where the good grass is. She broke free and headed for the greener pastures of Alomito.

Fortunately, she was MUCH easier to find and catch than Sarah's last horse. It was a bummer having to spend the time hunting through the corn fields, but we were grateful for the time to fellowship with our friends. Mango season is coming, and they told us to come back soon. And bring buckets!!! We assured them we would!

As I mentioned before, youth group has been well-attended. We've had about 10 kids each week for the teaching time. Closer to 20 come for the volleyball and soccer games before the teaching, but most disappear when it's time to do the study. Pray for Abimael, Esteban, Abel and Dulce. They are the most faithful of the kids and have been coming every week. It is difficult for the youth to come to the study. They face ridicule for their decision, and the temptation to do "other things" during that time is huge. This Saturday, we're taking the kids to the river for our meeting. There is a beautiful swimming hole, and we hope to have a good time away from distractions. Pray for this time with the youth as Ricardo prepares to share his heart with them.

In mid-July, Lord willing, Doug will be heading out on a "practicum" for about 3 weeks to Puebla (near Mexico City). The school is splitting in to 2 teams of about ten members each. One team will be ministering to an indigenous tribe in the sierras and conducting a pastors' conference at a church near there. The other team is going to assist a church in Guadalajara. This will be the last practicum of the school year. Since we were busy building a house during the last practicum, it is good that Doug will be able to join in on this one. We are also praying about allowing one of our kids to go along. Pray that God would give us wisdom in that.

When the students return from Puebla, a team will begin preparing to leave for Africa. Pastor Tom and Naomi and 3 students will be leaving the first week of August for a 2 month mission trip to Uganda. They will be looking into the possibility of long-term ministry and training in that area. This trip will be a learning and growing time for all of them. Pray for this team!

The other day, Doug was asked to describe the School of Ministry in Boca del Rio in one word. He chose the word "unpredictable". I agreed that that was a good choice! So often and so easily our life can fall into a rut. We get up and go to work or to school or, for us moms, we get the kids up and start our routine of meals, chores, meals, school and...meals. It can become very predictable. We develop strategies and formulas to get us through our days.

I don't believe that God intended for our lives to be so mundane, though. Just yesterday, Doug was talking with the kids about the various ways Israel was victorious in battle against their enemies. Once, God caused a city to fall down after the Israelites marched around it seven times.(Joshua 6) Once, God eliminated almost 90% of the army and then caused the enemy to defeat itself in chaos.(Judges 7) Another time, the battle was going strong and Joshua asked God for just a little more daylight so they could defeat the whole army, so God caused the sun to stand still for almost a whole day.(Joshua 10:12) Then there's the time that Joshua's army was winning while Moses had his hands raised, and started to lose when he put his hands down. That time men held Moses' arms up so Israel could be victorious.(Exodus 17:12) Every battle was different. God was never predictable.

I believe that He did it that way so that the children of Israel would not just depend on the strategy or the formula, but on God. Because the plans of men are not foolproof and often fail.
So, our God is not predictable, but He is dependable! I've been reminded many times over the past weeks of a verse, 1 Peter 5:7, which says,

"Cast all your cares upon Him, because He cares for you."

Doug included the following account in a letter he wrote to some friends the other day. It illustrates how God has cared for our family lately.

From Doug:

I wish I could say as Paul said, "I have learned to be content in all things." I can only say I am learning to be content in all things. Paul said, in those accompanying words at the end of Phillipians, that he had been through a multitude of trials and persecutions in his life. I believe that it was through these hardships that he learned to make the choice to be be content no matter what came his way, keeping his eyes fixed on Jesus, who promised to one day end
all of this suffering if we would only trust Him to do it. I don't think it was easy for Paul, but God gave him the strength (I Cor 10:13) through each trial and each time he was tempted to look at the circumstances instead of keeping his eyes on the "author and finisher of his faith".

Here is a little something that might encourage you: It seems that the people of Mexico look for any occasion or reason to throw a party. As a result, there is a national holiday every week (at least that's what it feels like). Even their streets are named things like "Diesiseis de Septiembre" or "Bulevard de Juan Lopez" to point out significant dates or people in Mexico that have helped shape them into the nation that they are. Kinda cool really! [Wasn't God, throughout the Bible, always telling his people to set a holiday or feast or landmark to remind them of the things that He had done in their lives so that they would not forget either where they had come from or the God that had delivered them? Sounds like we as Christians could learn a lesson from the Mexican people. Just a thought.] Anyway, back to my story.

Last Wednesday was one of these "special days" -- Dia de Los Estudiantes (students day). So, the staff and students at the School of Ministry in Boca planned a trip to the river to picnic and play. Rebecca and I were invited to bring our family along and join in on the fun. Well, money had been a little tight, and our van's gas tank was empty at the time. We had about 200 pesos (about $20) but had dedicated that money to food for the week. We had a decision to make. We could stay behind, or we could put 100 pesos worth of gas (about 3 gallons) in the van and pray that God would provide for the food for the week. We knew we could bless the school by bringing our large vehicle to transport people and that everyone (including us) wanted us to go. So, we chose the second option. Afterall, $20 really wasn't enough to by food for a whole week anyway, so what was another 100 pesos? Really though, we felt the Lord saying, "Go ahead and go. I will provide for you."

The day before we went on our trip to the river, as I was returning home from the school, one of the local guys approached me and said that he had some extra cement and wondered if I wanted to buy any. I asked, "How much?" He told me that he would sell a bag to me for only $6. Wow, what a deal! Cement usually goes for $11 a sack. I talked him down to selling me 2 sacks for only $10. That's a good deal! I knew I could sell those sacks for full price, or even at a slight discount, and still make the extra money that I needed for the gas. I even already had a buyer in mind. We had been putting in pillars at the school, and I knew they could use a couple bags of cement.

I had it all planned out: I would give the bags to the school for 90 pesos each. That's 40 pesos less than it costs at the store. And, they don't even have to go to town to get it. Sounds reasonable right? It did to me. Then came that still, small voice, "You're going to make a profit on the ministry?" "Well," I reasoned,"I am going to use the money to transport people to the river." It was no good. There was no way I could sell something for a profit -- and feel good about it -- to the ministry. "Should I just give the cement to the church, Lord?" After praying about it for a while, I had a peace about just giving them to the church for the money I had in them. Back to square one.

We had not announced our gas situation, nor revealed any of the details about the bags of cement to anyone. This is what God did: The day that we showed up to the school to leave for the river, one of the students approached me and said, "God told me to give this to you. It's not much," and then he put something into my pocket. A couple minutes later, after reaching into my pocket and finding the 200 pesos he'd left, I set out to tell him how God had used Him to touch my heart. I couldn't find him, so I found the next best thing -- his wife.

I explained how our family had prayed and how we had stepped out and how God had used them to touch us. When I finished, she got a big grin on her face and she said, "Of course! Let me get my purse." I thought, "Oh, no! She thinks that I am asking her for money." I knew that English was her second language, so I thought that maybe she had misunderstood me, since we had spoken in English. "No, no!" I said. "Your husband already gave me 200 pesos! I just wanted to say thank you." She looked at me, still wearing that big smile, and said, "Yes, I know! But I, too, want to give you 200 pesos."

I know $20 or $40 doesn't sound like a whole lot, but to us at that moment, it meant that God was watching us, and God cares about our lives down to every detail -- every meal, every trip to the river to spend time with friends. Everything! It makes me aware that I need to be sensitive to the times that God speaks to me. And that even though what he tells me to do might seem insignificant to me, it might mean the world to someone else. I hope that this reminds you to look to the one who can supply all our needs! It has certainly helped me in my walk. God has supplied us -- and continues to supply us -- with more than enough.

Blessings to all of you in the name of our awesome Lord and Creator!
-- Doug and Rebecca and the kiddos

Prayer and Praise focus:

The ridiculously hot and humid weather seems to be holding off. Praise God!!!
Praise God for our friends around the world who encourage us and lift us up in prayer!
Praise God that school continues to go well for all of us. Pray for Doug as he studies for his final exams. Very intense tests!
Praise God for the healing of Sister Alejandra's elbow!
Interesting praise: Doug has found a less expensive medicine to control his allergies. This is interesting, because he has tried this med before and it did not work at all. Then the medicine he had been using was discontinued. We prayed for wisdom, and then Doug tried this other med again. It worked!
Pray for Abimael, Esteban, Abel and Dulce. They are the most faithful of the kids who come to youth group and have been coming every week. It is difficult for the youth to come to the study. They face ridicule for their decision, and the temptation to do "other things" during that time is huge.
Pray for the teams that are preparing to go on the mission trips to Puebla, Guadelajara and Africa.
Praise God that He cares about every detail of our lives!
Pray that God would keep your life from becoming mundane and predictable!!!

Mexico Mission Update July 2007

2008-11-07T16:02:00.012-07:00

Feliz cuatro de julio!!!

Happy 4th of July!!!

This is our second 4th of July in Mexico and it nearly sneaked past us! The kids were the ones to remember – of course! Unfortunately we weren’t able to hunt down any fireworks to shoot off tonight, but we did find a couple of packs of sparklers. These are the ones that Doug and I grew up with – the really dangerous ones that stay hot for a long time and burn your feet when you step on the wires that people leave lying around. I remember that my mom always had a bucket of water handy on the 4th of July to dunk the metal sticks from the sparklers and the other debris from the fireworks we shot off. Yes, those old-fashioned sparklers were dangerous, but they sure worked well! Ah, the good ol’ days!

Well, it’s fun to remember old times, but truthfully I’m grateful for “modern conveniences”. For instance, without the internet it would be much more difficult to keep in contact with all of you. So, even though computers are basically a pain in the neck, they truly are a blessing…in disguise. Anyway, we’re once again able to send pictures. Yeah!!! The modem on the computer is still not working correctly, but we’ve found a place about an hour away where we can connect to wireless internet. Works for me!

The month of June fairly flew past! School for the kids has ended for the school year, and we’re taking a short break before we start up again. Since we’ll be taking a couple of longer breaks in the fall, we decided to only break for a couple of weeks now and then push through the summer. In a few more weeks, it will be too hot to do anything except sit in a shady spot and read anyway, so we might as well read to learn!

Doug’s school is also winding down. He is finishing the preparation for the final exam – a grueling 75 essay-question test during which he can only refer to his Bible. One of those 75 questions is, “List all the parables that Jesus used to teach on prayer, and write a sermon for each.” All of the students are working hard because they want to finish well. Doug has been given the option of continuing with the School of Ministry’s ADAPT program after graduation in a staff/student position. Pray for us as we consider this.

Practicum starts as soon as the tests are over. The Africa team is leaving in about a week. Pray for that team as they head to Uganda to encourage the believers there and serve the body of Christ. There are 11 days until the teams leave for southern and northern Mexico. They will be serving churches in Puebla, Guadalajara and Hermosillo for the next 2 months. Doug is on the team working in Puebla, although he will only be gone for 3 weeks instead of 2 months. Lord willing, Sarah and Caleb will be going with him, and we are praying that God will grow them in maturity and faithfulness while they are there. Pray also that the teams will bless the churches with which they will be ministering.

In May, I (Rebecca) was able to attend the annual Mother's day picnic at the river. It was such a blessed time! We had a great time of sharing and worship and of course fellowship and food. The ladies prepared carne asada (barbequed beef at its best) and a wonderful fruit salad with optional chammoy on the side. I opted out of the chammoy. That's one Mexican delicacy that I just can't adjust to. This is a photo of the moms of the church. Pray for these ladies. Many have non-believing husbands and non-believing children. They desire to see their families walk with Christ.

We’ve had a very special treat for the past 10 days. Rachel Burt, a missionary from Woodland CA, came down to visit and learn about our ministry. While she was here, she gave classes to the students at the School of Ministry in Boca del Rio. Rachel has worked with Child Evangelism Fellowship and agreed to share her wisdom and techniques with us. What a blessing!!! After the 5-day seminar, Rachel helped the students organize a children’s outreach filled with songs, dramas and a great Bible lesson using the Wordless Book.

About 60 kids came to see what was up. Afterward, 10 kids asked to pray with Rachel about receiving Jesus as their Savior. We believe that God is preparing our church to grow in its children’s ministry. Pray that He would continue the work He’s started and praise Him for bringing Rachel down here at just the right time!

We continue to work with the youth from the area. A couple of weeks ago, we took the youth to the river for a picnic. Twenty people piled into our van and we drove across cornfields to a fantastic swimming hole. The place in this photo is the main commuter route from San Jose to Alomito. There is a “ferry” (for lack of a better word) that transports laborers from one side of the river to the other. The kids had a blast pulling the ferry back and forth. And…well… rocking the ferry back and forth, too.

Now that we once again have reliable internet access, I'll be more faithful to send out these update letters. God's blessings on each one of you. You are in our prayers daily!

In His Loving Care,
Doug and Rebecca and the kids

Prayers and Praises:

We praise God for the encouragement we have received from you!!! Your prayers and support are so important to us!
Praise God that we’ve found a way to send photos with our letters again!
Keep the School of Ministry students in your prayers over the next 2 months. This will be a time of testing and stretching beyond normal limits.
Pray that the teams grow in faith and unity and that they will be an encouragement to those they will be serving.
Pray for the kids and I (Rebecca) as Doug and the older kids go on the 3-week practicum. It will be very strange to be without the three of them for so long!
Praise God for the growing children’s ministry at the church in Boca.
Pray for the team of children’s workers as they begin a weekly kids’ class.
Continue to pray for the Boca del Rio youth. The group is still small, but faithful! We are building relationships with many young people in Boca, Las Glorias and the surrounding area. Pray that God would continue to draw these kids to Himself.
Pray for us as we make travel plans for August. Contact us if you’d like us to visit your church. We’d love to see as many of you as possible this trip!

Mexico Mission Update Letter August 2007

2008-11-07T15:45:00.004-07:00

Greetings to all our friends and family across the United States and around the world!!! Due to some unexpected and unavoidable computer glitches, this letter is just a little out-dated. I’m sending it anyway, though, because I don’t want to wait another week to fill you in on our lives. I’ve updated the “Prayers and Praises” and will write more when we are in the States next week, Lord willing!

Every morning I read Psalms in Spanish. Reading Spanish is good practice for me, and reading God’s word never fails to set my heart and my mind in the right direction. I can always tell the days I hit the floor running and don’t take the time to meditate on the scriptures. By 10 a.m. I’m a grump! Today I was especially touched by Psalm 133:1.

In English it says, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity.”

The Spanish translated the word “pleasant” a little differently. They used the word “delicioso”. “Pleasant” is a good word. It brings to mind a cool breeze on a hot day, or a shady spot to sit and rest. But the word “delicioso” translates “delightful” or “delicious”. It’s more than just pleasantly sitting in the shade, it’s delightfully splashing in the water. More than just feeling the pleasant breeze, it’s devouring a delicious bowl of ice cream! Speaking as a mom of 6 kids I can attest to the fact that having brothers (and sisters) living together in harmony is definitely more than “pleasant”. It is absolutely delicious!!! My prayer for each of you today is that you taste the deliciousness and experience the delight of having harmony with your brothers and sisters -- whether they be blood relatives, spiritual relatives or just the people you rub shoulders with every day. Of course kids bicker, people’s feelings get hurt, it’s impossible to have “peace and love” all the time. I like the word “harmony”. It means that there will be dissonance sometimes, but it will resolve into something beautiful…harmony!

“Look and see!!! How absolutely delicious it is when people live together in harmony!!!” (my translation!)

Not much in life is 100% certain. Especially when you live in a very “flexible” place like Mexico. Take water, for instance. The expression “Water, water every where, but not a drop to drink” is never so true as at the beach. Water for the villages of Las Glorias, Boca del Rio, Alomito, Palos Verdes and many others is pumped from a central station in Guasave, about 30 miles away. Water is pumped along the pipes and is turned on for a few hours each day at each village. This is why most houses in Mexico (at least rural Mexico) have big black tanks, called tinacos on their roof and many have in-ground cisterns, too. Las Glorias and Boca are the last towns on the system, and so sometimes we don’t receive as much water as we would prefer.

A few weeks ago, the amount of water being received by the Las Glorias station was not sufficient to pump to both Las Glorias and Boca. The men in charge of the water decided that since Las Glorias is a resort town and people only come here on the weekends, they should divert all water to Boca during the week and to Glorias on the weekend. That’s a fine idea, except that there are some of us living in Las Glorias whose cisterns won’t hold a full week’s worth of water. By Wednesday of that week, we were dry. Doug, Andrew and Esteban trotted down to the water station with two tinacos on a trailer to pump into our cistern. It worked so well, that Esteban borrowed my washing machine drain hose (the big red hose in the photo) for two days to deliver water to all the other residents of Las Glorias.

A few days later, the city tractor stopped by with another load of water. Fortunately for them, Esteban and Doug were here to help them get the extremely heavy tractor un-stuck from the extremely dry sand they had driven into. They seem to have the water issue under control now, but this time of year we have to be careful to not over-do the washing of clothes or showering.

Our son, Seth, has been saving his money for some time to buy a chameleon. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to find one. A few weeks ago, though, a friend of ours called to say that he had found a really neat iguana and wondered if Seth would be interested. He brought it over and Seth was instantly in love. Seth named her Felicia. (Feliz for short -- that means happy in Spanish.) This photo looks very “posed” but she really does just “hang out” with Seth all day. In the morning, she suns herself on Doug’s workbench and when she’s warmed up, she rests on Seth’s shoulders or, frequently, on his head. From what I’ve read and what others have told me, the green iguana can grow to be up to 3 meters long. That’s almost 10 feet. I don’t think she’ll be sleeping on Seth’s head at that point. I don’t think she’ll be sunning herself on the workbench, either!

As you may remember from our last update letter, the students from the school are at this moment in Puebla (southern Mexico near Mexico City). They left the 15th of July with the plan of being gone between 2 and 3 weeks. I’ve received text messages and short phone calls over the past 2 weeks to keep me posted on how their time is progressing. They’ve had a good pastor’s conference and were able to perform the drama that they learned when our friend, Rachel, was here. The church in Puebla has been so glad to have the team there; Doug said that they’ve been spoiled.

Fourteen students and leaders piled into our 15 passenger van for the 24 hours of driving. Of course, if you’ve ever traveled a long distance with a group like that, you know that there is no way you could possibly fit all the luggage and paraphernalia for 15 people inside the van. So Doug, being the professional packer that he is, climbed up on the roof and began the process of loading the stuff. Since this is July and is the rainy season in southern Mexico, everything had to be water tight. Hence, the black plastic draped over the van. As far as I know, nothing was soaked by the huge rainstorm that hit 30 minutes after they left. The trip back will be lighter, since half the team will be staying in Puebla or Guadalajara for the next months.

While Doug, Sarah and Caleb have been gone, the rest of us have managed to stay pretty busy. The rain storm that hit the night that Doug left made us realize that we needed to seal the roof with waterproof paint. I am constantly amazed at God’s sense of humor, but also at His provision. The kids and I drove to Guasave to purchase the paint needed, but I couldn’t find it anywhere. I called Esteban, and not only did he offer to go get it for me, but also offered to paint the roof for me. I love it when the body of Christ works the way it should! So, later in the week (after a couple more small showers that kept us dumping pans and wringing towels) Esteban got the paint (on sale for half price even!) and he and Andrew and Jessee patched and painted the roof. It hasn’t rained since. But we’re ready when it does!!!

I’ve started teaching English privately to a woman and her daughter here in Las Glorias. It has been a blast, and they are learning quickly, even though Vergen complains that she’ll never learn and that her head aches constantly! I told her that I understood completely, since I suffered the same thing learning Spanish. Several people have told Doug or me that they want to take classes now. Since Las Glorias is a resort town, there are many English-speaking visitors here during the tourist season. Understanding English would be a huge benefit. English is taught in all the schools, but very few of the teachers can actually speak it, so it is usually not taught very well. Kati, who works at the supermarket, is working on getting a group together to take a class this fall.

I praise God for the chance I have to get to know these ladies better! As I am able to build friendships with Kati and Vergen and other ladies in town, I pray that I will be able to encourage them and to “let my light shine out”. I sometimes feel very inadequate with my Spanish, but at least I can understand and make myself understood -- usually! The more comfortable I am with the people I’m talking to, the better I am able to communicate in Spanish. I suppose that is normal. I can’t think very well when I’m nervous! Pray that God continues to grow friendships here in Mexico and opens doors to serve the people here.The time is drawing closer for our fall trip to the States. We plan to leave around the 15th of August and return around the 15th of September. Everything is still very flexible. We have loose ends to tie up here, but one of the students from Boca has graciously offered to keep an eye on our animals and our house while we’re gone. What a blessing to us!!!

Pray that we will be able to accomplish the things we need to while we are in the States. We hope to be able to visit and encourage several churches while we are traveling, and plan to meet up with family and friends along the way. As I said before, we are trying to stay very flexible with this trip. If you would like us to stop in to visit, we would love to try! Let us know and we’ll see if we can make it work. Until then, blessings to you all! We pray for everyone on our mailing list and think of you all often!

In Service of the King of Kings,
Doug and Rebecca

Prayers and Praises:

Praise God for all of you who continue to support us with your prayers, notes, emails and gifts!!! You are such an encouragement to us!!!

Pray for God’s continued provision for our daily needs.

Praise God that our roof is sealed and ready for the rainy season!

Praise God for the students in Puebla and their willingness to serve the church there this summer.

Pray for the team in Africa. We haven’t heard from them yet, but continue to pray that they are safe and are finding ways to bless the church in Uganda.

Praise God the team arrived safely and on time from Puebla last Tuesday. Their trip was a great adventure and God proved Himself powerful again and again.

Also pray for safe, uneventful travel for us as we drive the 42+ hours to Oregon in August and pray that God would plan our itenerary so that we visit the places and people He would have us visit.

Praise God for the sister who has volunteered to watch our house for us. Pray for her also, because we didn’t have the iguana when she agreed to “pet sit”. :^) I’m not sure how she feels about reptiles.

Pray for wisdom for me (Rebecca) as I teach English and develop friendships with the ladies here.

Pray that I can be encouraging and helpful to them.

4 of our 6 kids need to take their CAT tests this fall, and Sarah should take her PSAT.

Pray that God provides funds necessary and the opportunity to take those tests and that the kids do well. School has felt very “hit and miss” for me this year, but the kids seem confident and are excited about the testing (Crazy home-schooled kids!).

God is always faithful!!!

Mexico Mission Update Letter October 2007

2008-11-07T15:38:00.003-07:00

The Coult’s Almost-November Newsletter

Technically, it’s still October, and our last newsletter was sent out at the end of July, so to be totally honest, I’m only about a month late on this update letter. But it is almost November, at which point I would be a little over two months late…which is what it feels like! I’ve missed writing to you all, and I know (from the notes I’ve gotten!) that the letters have been missed, too. I’m very sorry that I’ve allowed myself to get so busy!

Today I (Rebecca) shared a devotion at the women’s Bible study. It was the first time I’ve taught in Spanish without someone else there to help me if I got stuck on a word. God was, as He always is, faithful! The women’s group at the church in Boca is a strong group of Godly ladies. Every week they meet to pray for their families and to dig into the scriptures. Colossians chapter 3:8-9 tells us to put away all anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from our mouths and not lie to one another, since we have laid aside the old self with its evil practices.

In this verse, I found another instance where the Spanish gives deeper meaning to the text. Since I was teaching in Spanish, I had to look up a lot of words that I wasn’t sure I could explain. One of those is the last word of verse 9. In English it is translated “practices”, but the Spanish uses the word “habitos”, which as you might expect means habits. When I looked “habit” up in the Spanish dictionary, though, I found a very interesting definition.

What is a habit? A habit is a custom or something which is done frequently and, therefore, easily. So with that in mind, I re-read verses 9 and 10:

Do not lie to one another, since you have gotten rid of the old self with all of its evil habits and have put on the new self who is in the process of being renewed to a true knowledge of the One who created him (as in personal knowledge of a human being, not information or facts -- another word that translates better to Spanish than to English!).

The more Spanish I learn, the more I love it – and the more I realize I don’t know!

Well, there’s much to tell about the past almost two months. I’ll just hit the high points!

Our furlough to the States was absolutely wonderful. We were so blessed by the many people, both new friends and old, who opened their homes to us during our stay. As near as we can figure, we spent about 100 hours driving. It doesn’t seem like so much now, but it felt pretty long when we were in the middle of it! There were still many folks we weren’t able to meet up with, and we were sad about that. Six weeks isn’t a very long time when you get right down to it!

It was also a blessing to spend some time with some dear missionary friends from Papua New Guinea. While comparing “mission-field stories”, we discovered that many of the cultural traditions here in Mexico are very similar to traditions in the villages in PNG. One similarity is that the people of Mexico and the nationals of PNG all love to sit and visit. In the afternoons and evenings here, people gather at the front stoops of homes to chat and pass the time. It reminds me of stories I’ve read about life in the United States during the 40s and 50s. Life is just slower-paced here, and while we do miss our friends and family back in the US, it is good to be home.

Hurricane Henrietta, which plowed into the Baja peninsula at the beginning of September, also left its mark on the villages of Las Glorias and Boca del Rio. Several summer homes were devastated and a line of restaurants was swept into the ocean in the space of about 20 minutes. Our friend, Esteban, stood on the roof of a neighbor’s house to video the waves. When the storm ended, the restaurant shown in this photo was the only one left standing. The piles of debris mark the remains of taco stands and other small buildings. In the distance is another house which was heavily hit. This house was offered to us last winter to live in until we completed the house we are living in now. We were praising God again for watching out for us when we drove by and saw what we could have come home to! As it was, we spent a couple of weeks cleaning up and drying out from Henrietta (You gotta love concrete floors!). We did decide that we won’t be leaving during hurricane season again any time soon!

Shrimp season opened the same weekend the hurricane hit, and it has been one of the worst seasons in recent memory. In a culture which depends so heavily on fishing for its survival, this is catastrophic. Several neighbors have told us that they can’t afford to go shrimping anymore, because they aren’t catching enough to pay for the gas. To make matters worse, many locals were counting on good revenues from shrimp this year, so they borrowed heavily to buy new equipment. Please pray for these villagers who in the best of times live in what many consider abject poverty. The church in Boca stands as a light in a dark place where education is limited, prospects are few and alcoholism is rampant. Pray also that we would have wisdom and resources to help where God would have us help.

This month we began our 13th year homeschooling — and our second of homeschooling in Mexico. Sometimes homeschooling in Mexico is a real challenge. Actually, those of you who homeschool know that it’s a challenge no matter where you are! Come to think of it, just raising kids is challenging, but God is faithful to meet us where we are and He promises that His grace is sufficient for us! Really takes some of the pressure off of us, doesn’t it?
Sarah is in her second year of highschool, and as part of her class load she is teaching a class on word origins to the 5 younger kids. It is such a blessing to me, as it frees up a little time each day to prepare for science and history. So far it seems like having another teacher is a blessing to the other children, too. Sarah’s doing a great job of keeping the class interesting and not losing her patience with her siblings! We are getting a slightly later start than usual this year, but one of the joys of schooling at home is the flexibility it offers. Starting a month later means that we will have to be much more structured in our daily schedules to make up for the time lost, but it was very much worth it to be able to visit so many friends and relatives in Oregon, Washington, California and Arizona. Pray for us as we continue to educate our kids at home and as we reach out to the families here in Las Glorias and the surrounding villages.

Thanks to generous gifting from our supporters, we are able to begin construction on the second story of our house. Yeah!!! When we're finished with this addition, the house will be a little over 1200 square feet. Esteban’s brother-in-law, Alfredo, is working for us for the next couple of weeks. It is good to be able to bless his family right now. He and his wife are expecting a baby in the spring, and with no fish to sell, money is very tight for them. Pray that we would be able to encourage Alfredo and his wife Heidi. Andrew spends much of his free time on the roof as Alfredo’s ayudante (helper) and Doug is working up there too, so pray that God would give opportunities for the guys to talk about more than just the price of fish.

The kids are very excited about the house addition, too. The boys have been hauling tabiques (limestone bricks) and sand up to the roof for Alfredo. One afternoon several boys from Boca stopped by after school and helped form a “brick brigade”. It was hard work, but since the worst of the summer heat is over, they were able to enjoy themselves. Unfortunately my camera batteries were dead that day!

I’m really glad that the kids come over to visit. They hang out and ask for help on their English homework…then they ask if we’ve eaten lunch yet! Thirteen year old boys are the same no matter where you live: they are always hungry! Baked goods are a bit of a novelty here, since only a few of the houses have ovens. We keep extra bread in the oven, so when the boys come over, they peek in to see what’s leftover. Today the bread was still warm when they got here, so they were very happy!

Youth group at the church in Boca continues to go well. Last weekend about 12 kids came to the Bible study. It was a difficult time, since several of the boys are from very dysfunctional families and have little or no discipline or accountability in their lives. Please continue to pray for the youth of Boca del Rio and Las Glorias. Drugs and alcohol continue to be a real problem. The boys in this photo, Brayn, Abi and Esteban, are three who come to our house frequently and also attend the weekly Bible studies, but they endure persecution for it. Groups of older boys taunt them and jeer at them as they walk to the church on Saturdays. Even during the meetings, sometimes kids will saunter in and try to entice kids in the group to leave. That happened, in fact, last weekend, but the boy who came in with his soccer ball in his hand (trying to round up enough kids for a game) actually stayed for the study. Pray that Doug and the other leaders would have wisdom when dealing with these young men. Pray that they would be able to speak the Truth in love.

Prayers and Praises:

Praise God that none of the residents of Las Glorias or Boca del Rio were injured in the hurricane which hit last month
Praise God for His provision for our family during our time in the States.
Pray for the fishermen’s families who are struggling because of the lack of fish.
Pray for the students traveling to Tijuana and Southern California for graduation at the end of this month and for those returning for a second year of classes.
Praise God and continue to pray for our family’s good health. God has truly blessed us this past year, and we give Him glory for it!!!
Pray for us as we begin school and as we reach out to the families here in Las Glorias and the surrounding villages. Pray that our family would be effective as we reach out to the families around us.
Pray that our family would be lights to shine out to Alfredo and his wife Heidi. Also pray for her health and that of their unborn baby.
Pray that Doug and the other leaders would be able to speak the Truth in love to the youth of Boca del Rio.
Praise God for the birthdays we have coming up! Andrew is hitting “Double Digits” and Sarah is celebrating her Quince Primaveras (15 springs). Both of these are big celebrations and they happen to fall only a couple of weeks from each other. Pray for peace for Mom, too!

Financial Partnership in Missions

2008-10-31T20:19:00.006-07:00

Contributing financially to FLOW international connects you to us in a very tangible way. One hundred percent of all donations are sent directly to the mission field. If you desire to give to a specific purpose -- such as purchasing Bibles, helping with school costs or various building projects -- simply note that on your donation, and we will honor your request.

You can financially support FLOWinternational in two ways. Checks can be sent to our sending church:

New Hope Evangelical Free Church
Mexico Mission
PO Box 1615
Winston, Oregon 97496

If you prefer to contribute electronically, you may make a donation via PayPal. Simply click on the "Make a Donation" button to be directed to their secure site.

Seven Prayer Tools from the Apostle Paul

2008-10-27T14:41:00.010-07:00

As Christians, prayer is our first and best line of defense. It is our open line of communication with our Creator and Father God. It is a way in which we can support each other -- continuously lifting each other up in intercessory prayer.

As missionaries, we covet your prayers. At the bottom of each monthly update letter, you'll find a "Prayers and Praises" section. You can print our Prayers and Praises and post them on your fridge to help you remember to pray for our family and our ministry.

The Apostle Paul, one of the first missionaries of the early church, spoke much about the power of prayer in the life of a missionary.

Here are 7 ways to pray for missionaries...

Seven Prayer Tools
from the Apostle Paul

1- Pray for open doors.

"Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.
And pray for us, too,
that God may open a door for our message..."

Colossians 4:2,3 (NIV)

Open doors can't be taken for granted. Many missionaries work in restricted access countries, or areas which are resistant to the Gospel. And even where there are open doors, hearts may still not be open.

Pray that God will lead missionaries through the barriers to find hearts prepared to receive His Word.
Pray that the Lord will open doors of ministry, blessing partnership and friendships.
Pray that those who serve will be led by the Holy Spirit and recognize these opportunities.

2- Pray for boldness in witnessing.

"Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth,
words may be given me
so that I will fearlessly make known

the mystery of the gospel"

Ephesians 6:19 (NIV)

Why should we pray that missionaries will have boldness? They need it to:

Minister effectively in other cultures and languages.
Overcome the opposition of evil forces.
Overcome the fear of embarrassment and fear of failure.

3- Pray that the Word of God will spread without hindrance.

"Finally, dear brothers and sisters, I ask you to pray for us.
Pray first that the Lord's message will spread rapidly
and be honored wherever it goes..."
2 Thessalonians 3:1 (NLT).

Obstacles must be removed if the Word of God is to flow freely. Satan, who is determined to obstruct it, must be resisted (James 4:7). Just as Aaron and Hur supported Moses' arms in the battle against the Amalekites (Exodus 17:12), you can support the weary arms of missionaries through your prayers. Remember that the struggle is against spiritual forces which can attack in any area (Ephesians 6:1018).

4- Pray for protection.

"Pray, too, that we will be saved from wicked and evil people,
for not everyone believes in the Lord"
2 Thessalonians 3:2 (NLT).

Pray that God will keep the Christian workers safe from those who might seek to harm them.
Pray that God will change the hearts of those who are resistant to His Word and to those who share the gospel.

5- Pray that their ministry will be accepted by believers.

"Pray...that my service in Jerusalem
will be acceptable to the saints there"
Romans 15:31 (NIV).

Cooperation and partnership are essential to ministry and vital to the progress of the work. Pray that the missionary's ministry and attitudes will be worthy of acceptance and that fellow colleagues and believers will be supportive.

6- Pray for God's guidance and assistance in travel.

"Pray...so that by God's will I may come to you with joy"
Romans 15:32 (NIV).

Many missionaries travel frequently and the mode of transportation varies. Traveling often involves stressful situations. Pray for the protection, provision, timing and permission needed by missionaries as they travel.

7- Pray for refreshment.

"Pray that...I together with you may be refreshed"
Romans 15:32 (NIV).

Pray that missionaries will seek and receive refreshment from the Holy Spirit.
Pray that they will be disciplined in and rewarded through the study of God's Word and through faithful prayer.
Pray that they will experience rich, spiritual fellowship with other believers.

Thank you a thousand times for your prayers for us

and those with whom we minister!

Mexico Mission Update -- October 2008

2008-10-11T10:48:00.008-06:00

The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice;
let the many coastlands be glad!” (Psalm 97:1)
Let the peoples praise thee, O God; let all the peoples praise thee!
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy! (Psalm 67:3-4)

One of our family’s favorite authors is John Piper. In 1993, he published a book entitled “Let the Nations Be Glad – The Supremacy of God in Missions”. If you’ve never read it, we’d like to recommend that you do so! For now, though, here’s an excerpt:

Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is
ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the
redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more.
It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever.

Oh how we look forward to the day when we will be able to have pure, undiluted worship! Until then, we are missionaries – worshipping God in Mexico and hopefully “rubbing off” a little on those we come in contact with.

September has ended and October is well on its way! Most of you are probably enjoying the cooler temperatures of fall and are beginning to think of fireplaces and hot cocoa. Here in Mexico, we still haven’t turned off the fans, the fridge can’t keep up with the ice cube demand and we continue to spend half the day cooling off in the pool. We even did history in the pool one day last week, because the house was just too hot. Only a few more weeks till the winds change and humidity is blown back over the ocean where it belongs. We can hardly wait!!! The folks from Boca come over frequently to cool off, too. The pool has been such a fantastic ministry tool! Read more…

Slowly but surely we are re-building our ministry website! By the end of this month, we should have it fully functional. When we’re finished, Lord willing, visitors will be able to read newsletters from our past 3 years’ ministry, learn more about our area and our ministry here and hopefully they will become excited about the work going on down here and want to become involved – financially, prayerfully and physically, too!!! For a “sneak peak” you can click here link to FLOW blog October update letter to read the rest of this newsletter online!

Luz and Briseyda, graduates of the School of Ministry and part of the worship band OACA, have returned from southern Mexico. The OACA group traveled to Puebla and Queretaro to visit family, show off Sergio and Bris’s new baby, and promote their latest album “Open Heart Surgery”. During their absence, our family has stepped in to lead worship on Wednesdays and Sunday mornings. We were very happy to have Luz home again last week! With Caleb playing his djembay, congas or the cajón and Sarah getting more comfortable on the guitar our worship band is growing! We’re praying for a bass guitar now to make our ensemble complete!

Sergio, Bris’s husband and leader of the band, has sent word that his work in Queretaro is going well, and he hopes to have enough money saved to pay off his debts when he returns in December. Pray for this young family! They are struggling to make ends meet as a family and this time of separation is hard on all three of them.

Here’s a photo of Sergio and Bris’s new baby, Ezekiel. Isn’t he absolutely adorable!!!

Shrimp season opened at the beginning of September. Click here to read more about Doug’s experience as a fisher-of-shrimp.

This month, Doug has been doing some work for an American family in town. This couple is planning to open a coffee shop here in Las Glorias and they have much to do in a short time to transform their patio into an outdoor café. Those of you who know Doug know that he’s in his element when he’s building something. Even though it’s hard to work in 100+ degree heat, he’s really enjoying himself! Click here to see the finished product! They turned out fantastic!!!

Karen and Mavil are still praying about going to Africa as full-time missionaries. Their hearts are already there! A church in Southern California donated some clothing to sell to help raise money for air-fare, visas and passports. While they work to sell the clothing, Karen has been helping Sister Maria at the water purification station. This is where we (along with the rest of the village) purchase our drinking water. Click here to see more photos of the process.

The ladies of the church threw a surprise party for Rebecca’s birthday. They came over under the guise of wanting to swim, but they brought a big pot of posole and all the trimmings for a great time of fellowship and fun! Read more… And finally...we have some “new additions” to our troop. Our dog, Izzy, had puppies on Thursday and due to some extenuating circumstances we ended up with 11 pups – 3 of which are real troublemakers!!! Click here to see pictures and read the whole story!

Prayers and Praises:

• We continue to pray for the mission teams which are in various stages of preparing for trips down to Sinaloa this year. God will do mighty things with their time here, and we know that they will face many struggles during the next months, too.
• Pray for missionaries around the world who are bringing the Gospel of Jesus to the nations!
• Praise God for His provision in our lives as Doug has been hired to do some fabrication and carpentry work.
• Pray for the fishermen of Boca del Rio and other local villages – this has not been a good fishing season. There have been several accidents and capsized boats and a couple of deaths, also. The life of a fisherman is a hard life indeed.
• Pray for Rebecca and the kids as school (officially) begins again. Sarah is continuing her French class and we continue to trust God to provide for them.
• Praise God for the provision of a small motor bike. Esteban gifted an old moped to the kids to use as a shuttle around town. This will help with our gas costs!
• Praise God for a family in Guasave who has blessed the church with an electric piano. We have been transporting ours twice a week for services and (in addition to being beastly heavy) it is hard on the instrument. Now the church has its own that won’t need to be transported!!!
• Continue to pray for the youth and children of Boca del Rio and Las Glorias – youth groups for boys and girls continue to meet weekly.
• Pray that God would bring healing and unity to the families of our village. We believe that our family has been called to be a light in our community, so pray that we would be able to “shine brightly”!
• Praise God for continued health of our family. The heat has been hard on everyone, but we’ve managed to stay pretty healthy this season. Wa-HOO!
• We continue to praise God for our swimming pool. Yes, a pool is a luxury, but when the air temperature is 105, the humidity is 75% and the tap water comes out at 104…some days the pool feels like a life-saver. We’ve had up to 30 people at a time over once or twice a week all summer. The pool has been quite a bit of work sometimes, but we feel so blessed to be able to share it with the church and the community.
• Pray with us concerning our winter furlough. Our hearts’ desire is to make a trip to Oregon (via California) to see family and visit our home church, but we also deeply desire to pay off our house here in Mexico. We feel strongly that God wants us completely debt free, so pray that He would give us wisdom in these decisions and provision as He wills!