Some images from Spain...

Snow, El Bosco, and a cold little stroll

Well it went from rain to snow in Madrid for us, not that it stuck, but it was fun nonetheless. Leah and I hit Madrid today to walk around and look for areas in which we may want to live. Madrid is beautiful. There are many different barios in Madrid and all of them have a unique taste.

The first we visited the other day, Malasaña, has tight narrow streets and is full of life and youth. Apparently it is where the artists live.

For the washed up artists, or those trying to make it, we toured Lavapies, a bario with a HIGH concentration of foreign immigrants. We saw people of African, Asian and Arab descent while walking through the narrow streets. It was intriguing to say the least and quite fun to see the diversity. We strolled in the cold around the other areas as well, mostly with wider streets.

I (Kevin) think Madrid is beautiful (I think Leah agrees), and may rival my fascination with Portland. Today was a good day to compare the two as when the snow stopped the rain persisted into the evening.

After a little Spain style Mexican food (which was so-so), we headed of to Museo del Prado, one of the more famous art museums in Europe, second probably to the Louvre. We got to see some Rafael, Velazquez and many other famous artists and their beautiful work. I (Kevin) liked the Flamenco work. Leah did not.

After the museum, the rain had stopped, it had warmed up 3 degrees, and we strolled again in the breeze with many evening walkers to see the Christmas lights around el parque Retiro. It was very nice and beautiful.

Pictures to come. Tomorrow Church.

The Rain in Spain

So apparently Madrid has been experiencing a drought for the last few years, and people here say that it hardly rains. However, Kevin and I seemed to have perfectly picked the rainiest time of year! :) The forecast for the next few days is light rain, heavy rain, then snow/rain! Kevin, the lover or gloomy weather is in his element!

Today we are going to head down to one of the poorer areas of Madrid to pass out sandwiches to the homeless. Wednesday we met up with a couple who are missionaries here, but live more towards the center of Madrid. Last night we helped out at our church's homework club and attended a Bible study. All in all we have been getting a small taste for life here in Madrid. Saturday we hope to walk around the city doing a prayer walk. Please pray that God continues to give us discernment with all of the information and opportunities that we are learning about.

Spain at last!

We made it! After a very long trip Kevin and I landed in Spain Friday morning. We were more than a bit tired, but happy to be in Spain. First on our agenda was to figure out how to get to El Escorial, a super cute little town on the outskirts of Madrid where we would be participating in an evangelism conference. An hour and a half later we found ourselves at our hotel, but they wouldn't have rooms available for another four hours! So we walked around the town, taking in the sights. When we got to our room we took a quick nap and then started right in with the conference and the Spanish schedule. Dinner that night was at 9 pm, and our last plenary session of the day started at 10 pm, not finishing till nearly midnight. Still, we really enjoyed the whole experience. We met a lot of people who are doing ministry all over Spain, and got to have an idea of what it is to do ministry here.


This is a picture of one of our worship times, which were really neat.


It is not super warm here in Spain, and has been raining our drizzling quite a lot. Still that did not keep us from venturing out to try to go to see the famous monastery of El Escorial, where all the Spanish kings are entombed. We did not go in as there was a really long line, but enjoyed it from the outside.

Our conference ended on Monday, and we are currently living with a Free Methodist missionary family in Madrid. We will keep you updated on our adventures!

On Our Way

So in about eight hours Kevin and I will be getting up to get ready to go to the airport. Our flight leaves at 6:10 in the morning, and we will be traveling all day across the U.S., then in the evening we will be leaving from New York to fly to Madrid. Our first event will be a conference about evangelism in Spain. I actually think it will be very interesting, but am a little nervous about jumping right into everything, and I am hoping that we won't be too jet-lagged since the conference begins the same day we land. Please be thinking of and praying for us as we are traveling. Some specifics to pray for are: rest, successful travel (we have to navigate from the airport to where the conference is with all of our luggage on public transportation), and good connections with the new people we will meet. I am not sure what our internet access will be during the conference, but we hope to post at least once while we are in Madrid, so stay tuned!

Newsletters Out! Two Weeks to Go!

With our first set of newsletters out in the mail, I (Kevin) feel the reality setting in and have grown all the more excited. In just a couple of short weeks, we will be touching down in Madrid where we feel God has led us to minister.
As we approach this time, we do so with increased prayer.

We’ve been blessed to be able to stay with missionaries while we are there, reducing our costs dramatically, and, to boot, we get to see how to be a family while ministering in Madrid. Please be praying for us as we learn more about the culture, the nuances of bringing the Spearhead ministry to Madrid and to help us envision in which part of the city we would live and minister from.

We begin our journey by quickly testing out our mass transportation knowledge and getting ourselves to a conference which begins the evening we arrive. Jet lag will be our largest contender there, which will make it difficult not only to function, but will make it all the more difficult to understand. Please be praying with us for as little jet lag as possible. (Neither of us are good airplane sleepers!)

Aside from exploring the city and discerning which area we would like to base ourselves, we will be meeting with a bunch of contacts that will help us develop our ministry and understand the culture to best serve Spain. One of these contacts will hopefully be our home church, a Free Methodist Church doing amazing community work in the area. We are excited for this opportunity to meet them and I (Kevin) am especially excited to see how Free Methodism takes shape internationally. This will be a crucial point of understanding for me as I move through the ordination process.

We also plan to meet with some other missionaries in Madrid and we are excited to begin to develop our friendship as communication with them thus far has made it evident we have many common interests and ministry visions.
We thank you for your prayers.

Please email us at booksatterlee@gmail.com with your prayers that we may partner with you in ministering to the world, not just from where we are, but from where you are also.

Congratulations Tim, Mirna and Arely!

Last Saturday one of our sisters mexicanas, Mirna, married our friend Tim. Although we were not able to be there, we are really excited for them and for their new life. Arely, Mirna's daughter and our niece mexicana, summed it up nicely when she said, "Now I have a family!"

The ceremony. Paul, the director of Spearhead in Mexico is standing in the background. He and his wife Nydia just had a daughter, Ana Paulina!

Paul's son Andres, and our other Mexican niece, Elisa!

The happy couple, congratulations!

Update - Exploratory Trip

As Leah mentioned in the previous blog, winter has graced us with her perpetual breeze and on it rides the chilly air. It is a beautiful time on the farm however, the grasses are turning green, a brilliant color from their golden summer sheen. Clouds have produced some of the greatest sunsets I've seen since sitting in African winter fields six years ago. Gorgeous. The wasps have all but left, the cold striking the hoards down. That is great for me as I am finding that I have an irrational phobia to wasps and all things that fly and sting. Ask Leah as she laughs at me flapping my arms around running as the stupid little bug chases me. I've been even known to swipe at a bee with my foot in the middle of a restaurant. I put on quite a show...my pride is grateful that the chill has caused the departure of wasps and mosquitoes.

Plans for our exploratory trip to Spain are coming along. We have made some contacts and are watching the schedule fill up with invites, though navigating the calendar and finding places to stay are still being worked out. Here is a quick overview of what we hope to accomplish.

- We will be heading to a conference pretty much the day we arrive. This is a three day conference of Evangelical leaders throughout the country. We've been invited to attend by a future partner in ministry, Decision Espana. We'll be off and running upon touch-down.

- As I'm in the ordination process with the Free Methodist Church, we hope to meet up with the missionaries and leaders of the Free Methodist work going on in Madrid to plan on how we can be a part of the community. We will be blessed to meet face-to-face people that we have been conversing with for almost 6 months through email.

- We are also going to decipher a budget, which includes looking into areas in which we want to live and base the ministry out of. We will be doing some city exploring and ministry mapping during this time.

- I have also spoken with a missionary there who hopes to begin a Spanish-speaking international intentional community. This has been a dream of mine for some time now, and I look forward to learning how we might be able to get involved.

- We spend our last days with our future boss from LAM and our partners with Decision Espana to learn how we can be involved while we are becoming inculturated and going to language school.

What an exciting time for us. We go on faith expectant for God to show us a glimpse of what he has in store for our future. I personally have never felt so confident or at peace with my career as I do now.

Thank you for praying for us now and during this exploratory trip.

It's a cold, blustery day...

I feel like winter is arriving, whether I am ready or not! You can't see it very much in this picture, but the day has given us a steady dose or rain, combined with some strong winds.

I feel a little like we missed fall, I thought we were experiencing it for a while, those cool days, leaves falling, a certain crispness to the air.... mmmm! But then it got hot again. And now somehow we have transitioned from hot to cold!



This weekend Kevin and I made the trek down to Pasadena. We were able to visit with some of our friends, and attend our home church down there on Sunday. It was a really fun time overall, even though it was a long drive. On Friday night we went trick or treating with the family that I used to nanny for. It was really fun overall, though I missed hanging out with the oldest, Jacob, because he was with his friends. Here is a picture I took, you can kind of get an idea of how much energy the night required by the look in the boys eyes!
I know you can't tell from this picture, but there were hundreds and hundreds of kids on the street where we went to trick or treat, it was unlike anything I had ever seen. People go all out to decorate their houses as well, some of them were a little on the scary side, which I wasn't a real big fan of. One woman was dressed head to toe as a mummy and ha done of those crystal balls with a head floating in it. Hmmmm. A little scary for small children, or adults! :)

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Poem - Monastery

I (Kevin) wrote this yesterday while meditating on our time preparing for our service.

Monastery

A monastery removed
prays for the very metropolitan
it holds distance from.
So too are we
resting in the country hay
preparing for our urban mission

God is Good

Living in limbo while raising support has been challenging and also a blessing. Recently I (Leah)have been more overwhelmed by the challenges rather than the blessings. Finding non-traditional work has been hard, so that has resulted in a lot of not working, which in turn is a little overwhelming. Oh how I long to feel useful! :) I think it has been extra challenging because I almost feel guilty about my lack of day to day work. What in the world am I doing? I feel so useless. However, in the struggle God has been teaching me and growing me. One of the things he has been teaching me is thankfullness, even in the little things. I have also been working on living in the here and now, and asking him each day how he wants to use me, rather than worry about the days ahead when I might not have anything to do, or when we might not be able to pay our bills. I am slightly jealous of Kevin, because he has school, which is a legitimate, time consuming, and necessary :), thing for him to do each day. Perhaps at this point you are wondering why this post is called "God is Good." I guess that within all of this, the struggle, the difficulty of it all, this is one of the core lessons that God is teaching me. My mom encouraged me, while I have this abundance of free time, to look for ways that I can do things for others and just bless those around me. This may seem like a simple solution, but it is easy to get wrapped up in your own sadness and not look around to see what you can do for others. God doesn't always work the way I think he will, but he is always good, and he has always provided. On that note, I am really excited because this week God has already provided a number of ways that I can earn money, and also bless others. Yea God! I am learning how to appreciate the little things, and understand how God is my provider in everything, even the details. Yes, my God is good.

A Turkey Story

So....the other day my uncle asked me if I would bake a turkey. I said "Sure!" I have only baked one other turkey in my life, and it turned out ok, so I figured I could probably do it again :). There were quite a few steps in making this turkey, since first I had to brine it. Basically that means soaking the turkey in a mixture of broth and a lot of salt. I managed to cross that hurdle without too many problems, although my uncle helped me a lot, I had to put all the liquids in a plastic bag, and then put the turkey in so that it would all be soaked evenly. It wasn't until I went to actually bake the turkey that I crossed the first great hurdle.

Hurdle #1: To bake a turkey you put it on a roasting rack. The only roasting rack I had ever seen was the one that Kevin and I got for our wedding, which was of a triangular shape and rather large. So anyhow, when I went to look for the roasting rack I found nothing that met that description. I called my uncle and he told me where the roasting rack was, but after pulling everything out of that cupboard, I found nothing that fit my image of what I was looking for! One of the nice things about living on a farm with all of your family members is that you have several people to borrow from. So, because I knew I had to get the turkey in the oven soon, I went house to house looking for a roasting rack. Well...no one was home, so I had to poke through everyone's cupboards by myself. (I hope they don't mind!) Finally, on my third and final house, I found exactly what I was looking for. I went home and set the bird in the roasting rack and put it in the oven to brown.
* It turns out that we did have a roasting rack in that cupboard, when my uncle got home he showed me two little flat octoganal things that looked more like cooling racks to me, but are apparently another form of roasting rack! Now I know.

Hurdle #2: After the turkey browns, you are supposed to take it out and put a double layer of aluminum foil over the breasts. When I pulled my turkey out I realized that putting the aluminum foil on was going to be trickier than I thought b/c the breast of the steaming hot turkey was the part facing down. Fortunately for me, my cousin Lawrence was home, so he took tongs on one end, and I on the other, and we lifted the turkey up as I quickly slid the foil under. It was quite a "to do" and I wondered how in the world the recipe expected that one person could possibly do that on their own!
* I later found out (later as in when my uncle got home and the turkey was supposed to be done), that I had the turkey upside down! Suddenly everything made much more sense! The foiling would have been leaps and bounds easier if I had figured that out a little sooner!

Hurdle #3: The Gravy. So because I had put the turkey upside down, almost nothing had dripped out! There fore basically what was at the bottom of the pan was burnt. Oops!

Hurdle #4: Timing. Once we figured out the upside down problem, about the time it was supposed to be coming out of the oven, we realized the breast of the turkey was not fully done so we had to flip the turkey over and bake it for another half hour. By the time dinner rolled around we were definitely hungry!

Result: The turkey actually tasted really good. Lawrence said that it was his favorite turkey ever. He doesn't generally like turkey b/c it is on the dry side. This one was definitely not dry considering all of the juices never seeped out as a result of its upside down position! We didn't have any gravy, but all in all it was a yummy, much anticipated :), dinner in which I learned a lot of lessons.

Monday - Still in Portland

Portland continues on for me (Kevin), as I have 2 1/2 days left of inductive Bible study. It has been tiring and I'm ready to get back home to be with Leah.

Class time last week was with professor Jason Clark of England. He is a Vineyard pastor in the emergent conversation, but he stands back from the conversation with very healthy criticism as well. I learned a lot about how to do church from him, and it restructured some ideological paradigms that I had.

What I took most from him however, was our potential future context and religion. He mentioned how when people invite members of his congregation to do something and there is a church event, likely the person will say, "No, I have something else planned," (thinking they are going to church). "Oh yeah? What?", the parishoner's friend asks. "Oh, something," is the response. Did you catch that the parishoner was ashamed of going to church. Actually going to church in his context in London is pretty tough, so tough that it is easier to be misleading about it than to say, "I'm going to church," and deal with the pressure that comes.

What an extreme situation, no?

But wait, religious apathy is prevalent throughout all Europe it seems, and Spain will be of little difference. I came to realize that my brothers and sisters who I will befriend and join into community will likely have a hard time with their Christian identity. That also shapes my identity. Another hard aspect is the fact that to be Protestant in Spain is tougher than being religious.

Despite the realization of how difficult our community will be, I was more encouraged. The Lord has blessed Jason Clark's church and continues to bless his ministry. I know He is with ministries in Spain as well.

Church, Mission, World Economies

I (Kevin) am sitting in Portland right now, going to school listening to lectures on missional ecclesiology, talking about secularism, post-modernity, early church practices, consumerism in the church, etc. Everyone who knows me for more than one minute knows I'M IN HEAVEN! Well not quite, but close. There is a special lady back in Chico, that could be here to complete the current picture.

I am happy, loving school, but pondering the future. Pondering Spain. In the ponder, I see that our dollar is raising against the Euro. As a missionary, relying on payment in dollars, a weaker currency, this should be a relatively happy thing. Yet I'm sad, because the global economic situation does not effect us all equally, and it is an excercise in loving the communities that I will be a part of, while also loving and worrying about my own community. I watched 7% drop out of the market in the States yesterday and over 7% in most of the European markets. I'm glad I'm not happy that my dollar will now go a little further. I'm glad because I am happy to begin identifying with people I don't know yet, and I'm grateful to God for allowing my heart to soften even now for people we will be in community with.

This pertains highly to the mission of the world. We are not just a country at crisis. We are a world in economic crisis. We are interdependent upon each other. I am sitting in class with "missionaries" to the US. I put that in quotes, only because I know many people can't see missionaries as local practicioners. Yet they are. Their target population is an unchurched people group in their local cities. I love my colleague and hope for greater interdependence with him, and I hope that at some point he will send students that he's leading, to us in Spain so that we might be able to share a new world-view and an entirely different struggle of the Church.

When in crisis, we tend to find community a little bit stronger. Though I personally don't want to see my retirement fall, I want to take this opportunity to be involved in God's mission for the world by recognizing our global interdependence and work cross-culturally, cross-globally to be involved in what God is doing.

(Can you tell that class-time is wonderful for me!) (But I really, really miss my wife.)

Moving Forward

Tomorrow Kevin and I will celebrate our one "monthaversary" here in Chico. It has been a good month, with lots of clean air, fun family, and settling in. We recently sat down to map out a plan for our next year or so. It was a good time to talk and vision together. While some of the details remain cloudy, there are others that are shaping up nicely. :) Our two biggest steps we will be taking towards moving to Spain in the near future are our exploratory trip, and attending an orientation that Latin America Mission puts on in January.

We are really excited about our exploratory trip. We will probably finalize details this week, but it is looking like it will be from about the 4th/5th of December until the 17th/18th. Our goal for this trip is to meet with other missionaries, churches and ministries in the area to get an idea of what it is like to live and do missions in Spain. Our prayer is that God will use this trip to either solidify our calling to Spain, or make it abundantly clear that he wants to use us in a different country. We will be able to get an idea of the cost of living there, the neighborhoods, the city, etc. Please pray with us as we prepare for the trip. There are three specific ways you can pray:

1. That God will use this trip to finalize our call to Spain, or direct us elsewhere.
2. That our meetings and conversations will be fruitful.
3. That we will be able to raise enough financial support for the trip.

After we leave Spain we will not be returning to California, but rather to Florida where my (Leah) family is for Christmas. My sister is due to deliver a baby boy on Christmas day, so we plan to stay in Florida helping out and getting to know our new nephew until our LAM orientation, which begins on the 19th of January, and is a two-week deal. It works out well because LAM's offices are in Miami, Florida, so we will either drive or fly down from Ocala to Miami. We are excited about the orientation because it will be a time to come to know more about LAM, as well as answer many different logistical questions. We are hoping that after orientation, we will also have a budget firmed up that will allow us to raise support more specifically. The orientation also is costly, so please be praying that we will be able to raise enough support to cover that event, as well as our exploratory trip.

Kevin is in Portland this week for his first round of classes. He feels excited to be able to spend some time with his classmates (which are scattered all over the country).

Back on the farm we have a big weekend coming up. Although we are not having pumpkin patch this year, we will be having one weekend to raise money for the California Fire Department where we sell pumpkins, have wagon rides, and other harvest festival type events. I am hoping that it will be really successful and that it won't rain!

Anyhow... I just wanted to share with you guys a little about these two steps we will be taking in the near future (the trip and orientation) so that you can be praying alongside us in preparation. Thanks!

Life on the Farm

I just thought that I would add a small anecdote of what life has been like here on the farm! For me it has been like stepping back into the past, although it has changed, primarily because my parents no longer live here, and well, I guess I have changed. :) Kevin has really been doing a good job of adapting to his new environment, he has been pitching in with weed whacking, harvesting, feeding the animals, etc. despite the fact that his allergies are really kicking in. :( One of the most common occurrences on the farm is that at some time or another, animals escape their pen. Most recently it was one of our newborn calves. My aunt is raising some cattle to sell, and one of the cows recently gave birth. The new calf is super cute, small, black and furry. There has been some problems in the past keeping the baby calves alive through adulthood, for various reasons so everyone has been really keeping an eye on this little guy. The other night Lawrence (my cousin) came in to inform us that the calf was not in the pen with his mother. My Uncle Dan and Kevin had brought the cows in from a grazing field earlier that day, and sometime between the time they were out in the field, and the time they were put in the field, the calf disappeared. We all set out to look for the calf far and wide. It was evening, so the mosquitos were out with a vengeance. We searched for two hours, scouring out on the highway, on the other side of the creek, and far into our neighbor's land. All the time we were wondering how a small, wobbly legged newborn calf could possibly make it this far. The mother was in her pen mooing away, but we heard no response from the baby. Finally, with the last rays of the sinking sun we were ready to admit defeat, when Kevin looks out into the field where the cows were earlier in the day and says, "Is that the calf?" Sure enough, it was! The calf had been in the field the whole time, a field which we passed by numerous times, each time somehow failing to see him! Earlier in the day when Dan and Kevin brought the cows in they missed the fact that the calf had stayed behind. They were deep in conversation (with Kevin, what a surprise!) and just assumed that the calf would not have strayed far from it's mother. (Wrong assumption!) Anyhow, the evening turned out happily, minus the millions of mosquito bites we all had to show as battle wounds! :)

Jobs and Community

Leah and I have been in Chico now just about 3 weeks. We are almost coming up to the 2 month mark of being back from Mexico. Missing our Mexican family and friends certainly hasn't waned in these two months and has grown all the more as birthdays have passed by without us fiesta-ing.

But Chico is going well. I have been doing some landscaping to make some money and Leah some odd projects. I pop in my Itunes University and get educated while I work. As work comes through odd jobs, please keep praying for work to be done. If anybody needs help with anything, please let us know.

Community is going well for us also. Community is a slow building thing upon moving, which makes it tough, but we have Leah's family here on the farm, which is nice. We have been participating at a small-group at a local church for young marrieds and also have been attending Foothill Community Church (ironically the same name as our church in Azusa) in Oroville as well and have started to get in touch with their young adult group.

School has been going well for me and I look forward to seeing my classmates in person in just over a week and a half in Portland.

As for Spain, the plans are on the move. Our application is in process and Leah and I have been mapping out some preparation items, including an overhaul on the blog and how we use it. Stay tuned for that...

If You Are Checking Out Our Blog...

Please leave a comment in this post. We are trying to figure out how many people are reading the blog and could use some good numbers. So PLEASE write a quick comment, that shows that you are checking this blog. Thanks.

Transitions

So, we have been back in the U.S. for two and a half weeks now. It has been really great to see all of the family and friends that we have been able to visit and spend time with. We are currently going to be in Southern California for a little more than two weeks and are excited to reconnect with our friends down here. As we have thought and prayed, we have decided to move up to Chico to live with my (Leah) aunt and uncle on the farm while we raise support. This will allow us flexibility both financially and time-wise that we would not be able to have down here, although we are going to miss our friends and our church greatly! Our hope is to come down and visit frequently. Kevin spent last weekend in Portland, OR, where he went through the orientation for his new MA program. He was able to transfer most of his credits from Fuller to George Fox Seminary where he will be getting an MA in Ministry Leadership. He is going to be participating in a distance program, which will give us flexibility to go to Spain when we have sufficient support. He is super excited about this opportunity and looks forward to beginning. If you are in Southern California we would love to see you in the next couple of weeks, so drop us a line!

Back Home

So we are officially back home! It has been a really emotional few weeks for us, and we said good-bye to our family and friends in Mexico City with more than a few tears. Still, overall, it was a really amazing experience and I feel like we both are moving on to what is next with the feeling of being extremely loved.

Right now we are in Northern California, and will be until mid/end of August. We still hope to be living in Southern California, but as of yet have not found an option that will work with our travel schedule (we have a two week orientation with LAM in January, at least a two week exploratory trip, probably in November or December, and Kevin has two weeks of classes up in Portland for his Masters degree). Please continue praying that God will give us wisdom in this and will open up the right opportunity, in the right place, at the right time! :)

Meanwhile, we are enjoying visiting with our families, right now we are with Kevin's parents and on Saturday we will be going to visit my (Leah's) parents and grandparents. It is nice to re-enter life a little slowly and have time to process.

Please e-mail us, we would love to hear from you and reconnect when we are either up in Northern California, or back in Southern California. :)

Sad Goodbyes, Coming Hellos

Times of transition hurt. It hurts to change, even in a situation that is bad...But our situation has been awesome! This year has provided for us many things. Upon quick reflection some of the items are:

- The chance to spend a great deal of time together. I do not know too many married couples that spend so much time together and get to know their spouse. What a blessing.
- The chance to learn to minister and learn what God is doing around the world and in another culture.
- The opportunity to communicate well in another language (though Kevin still has a good ways to go.)
- The opportunity to make strong relations with people from another culture. These people will be like family. (This means we have three families - our parents, in-laws, and Mexican family.)
- The opportunity to explore missions as a full-time career.

All these things grew our personal lives, our marriage and our faith.

As earlier posts stated, we feel the call to begin a program, similar to the one we just completed, in Spain. This is a very exciting time for us as we have already run into many potential contacts to help our ministry there.

Yet we have to say goodbye to what we have here in order to follow the current call of God. This means tearing ourselves from a family that took us in and loved us. We are not so unique, however as our Mexican sister and her husband, and their two children are also moving away, almost as far as we will be (before we move to Spain). This is hard for our family, but it shows us that our Mexican family, like our own parents and siblings will be our family forever. That is fantastic. It still hurts to say goodbye.

But...

WE ALSO GET TO SAY HELLO!!!!!

Upon returning to Los Angeles we get to see my sister, Jennifer. We will also get to see some friends. Then after a day or two, we head north to stay with Kevin's parents in Cupertino. Some time with them, then we head to Discovery Bay where Leah's parents will be flying in and staying for a week. In that time I (Kevin) get to fly to Portland and say hello to my virtual classmates who I have yet to meet, and spend time with a very long-time friend (I've known him since he was born.) After this we will head to Los Angeles and decide the next portions of our lives.

With every change there is a sour side. The more intense the experience the more intense the pain when leaving, but the more you've been changed. It also means a sweet return.

It is a trying time, but necessary and beautiful. Sometimes shedding beautiful tears helps to grow even greater smiles.

Soaking it in....

Knowing that we are entering our last full week here in Mexico, Kevin and I are just trying to soak up every minute. This morning we went to church with our family (since we said good-bye to our church right before Compass week). One of the really convenient things about their church is that it is about two minutes away driving, and about fifteen walking. This afternoon we all ate pozole together to celebrate Nereyda's (one of our Mexican sisters) birthday. Pozole is a very yummy, and very Mexican dish. It is often eaten around Mexico's independence day, September 15/16. It is sort of like a broth with either pork or chicken, and something that seems like really extra large kernels of corn. You then add lettuce, chopped up onions, sour cream, avocado, and oregano. All of that is topped off with a tostada (which is like a really big tortilla chip). It is super yummy, hopefully we will be finding a pozole place when we get back to the States. Another cultural tradition here for birthdays is to have cake and jello (instead of ice cream). I never knew that there were so many creative ways to do jello, I have definitely learned a lot of them here in Mexico! We sang happy birthday, the traditional Mexican version, and the Mexican Christian version and then ate our cake and jello. I love our family so much and will really, really miss them. However, I will always treasure memories of days like these when we can all get together to eat and just enjoy one another's company.

Compass Week

This week Kevin and I are eating, sleeping, living and serving with a group of 19 high schoolers! It has been a great experience, but a little exhausting. I am actually not with them now because I am feeling a little sick, so if you read this blog soon, please pray that I feel better and am able to finish the week out strong. We are working closely with eight of those students. We act as translators and guides for their experience here, we are working at a home for street boys that is located more or less close to our church. It has been an amazing experience. We feel very privileged that we have this opportunity. On Tuesday we talked about the parable of the prodigal son, and it was cool because one of the house uncles interjected to let us know that many of the boys really have lived out this parable. The home where the boys lived is open, they can come and go as they wish, they are not forced to be there, and there is not limit on their time. Some boys have literally grown up there and now live on their own and have their own families. When Tio Martin (the house uncle) asked how many boys had left the home and then returned, about 15 or so of them raised their hands. The two main house parents/uncle and aunt (as they call them), are absolutely amazing leaders and teachers who really are like the father in the parable. I have learned a lot this week.

Drum roll please..........

The Book-Satterlees are heading back overseas! So, after a lot of prayer and thought, Kevin and I have decided that we are going to take the initial steps towards moving to Spain and beginning a Spearhead program there. For those of you who do not know what Spearhead is, it is the short-term mission program that Kevin and I have been participating in for the past year. It has a year component, and also a summer component. After thinking for quite some time where we could best use our desires and skills together, earlier this year Kevin and I concluded that a dream would be to have a study abroad program connected with students from Christian universities. Soon after that our boss approached us about starting a Spearhead program in another country. We were interested, but at the time felt that it would be something further off in the future. However, as we were weighing all of our options, we felt like this was the one in which we together had the most interest, and felt the most peace. So, we are going to begin to walk forward in this path and see if God continues to open doors for this path, and if so we will keep walking! :) Our plan is to head back to California in August. We will spend a little bit of time with our families up North, and then head back down to the Pasadena area. We plan to go on an exploratory trip to see if Spain is indeed the country for us, and begin the process of raising support and going through Latin America Mission's (LAM - the sending organization) long-term missionary process. We are excited and both very much at peace. Please be praying for us as we begin to walk forward in this new direction. If any of you know of extremely cheap housing in the Pasadena or Azusa area, please let us know, because this is going to be our next concern. Because raising support will be a full-time job, we are not sure exactly how we are going to manage the whole making money and having another job thing. :) Consequently, we are hoping to find somewhere where we can live very, very cheaply! So, for those of you who were waiting on pins and needles, this is the culmination of many months of soul searching and lots of prayer! We are excited to share this journey with you! :) Leah

Calling and Character

In the Spearhead summer program every week has a theme. It just so happens that this week's theme is calling and character. Funny, huh? Needless to say, it has generated quite a bit of discussion about what it is to be called and to have character. :) There have been several statements made this week that have particularly hit me, some of which I want to share with you. But first I wanted to comment on my last women's group meeting.

About five or so months ago the women in our church started meeting on Wednesday mornings. It was originally Janette's idea, she is one of the missionaries at our church. It started off slowly, gained some steam, and then cooled down a little bit again. Janette started off teaching, but then after a month or so handed over the reigns to the group to decide what the would do and how they would do it. Now Janette and her husband Joel are on furlough for a year, and the two other missionary couples at our church have been out town for the last few weeks. Women's group has continued, and it is really growing. Today I was the only guerra (white girl) there, along with twelve other Mexican women. The woman who was originally going to teach did not show up, so another woman who is a strong leader in the church just went ahead and led a discussion from the book that they are reading.

I have learned so very much being a part of this group. First of all I have found it very different from any of the other experiences I have had in women's groups before. There are definitely some cultural differences, but I think the main one is economic. I think that people are people, and everyone has the same basic needs, but I am really finding that one's economic status really changes how one reads scripture, and lives out your Christian life.

For instance... The other day we were speaking about submission. Part of that talk included speaking about the man as a provider. One of the women stood up and shared one of her difficulties with the submission issue. She and her husband have two adorable little girls, but life is difficult because her husband does not always have work, and when he does the money does not always go straight to feeding and clothing their children. This woman earns a little money through cleaning houses etc., and with that money she basically provides for the needs of their children. In her life whether she has ten pesos (roughly a dollar) or not, makes a huge difference of whether her children will eat or not. What does it mean to submit to her husband who is not caring for the needs of the family in a very practical way? A second instance happened today. The lesson was speaking about how the mother is the heart of her family, and has a big influence on whether one's dwelling place is just a house, or if it is a home. The discussion went on to teaching one's children to little by little contribute to the running of one's home, but not to expect them to do everything. One woman shared in tears about her difficulties when her husband left her with nine young children to care for. He had claimed to be a Christian, but then ran off with another woman, leaving all of his children and his wife with nothing. This woman, now a grandma, shared about how she had to choose which of her children was the most responsible and mother-like, and then leave all of the mothering duties to that child while she went out and worked. Later on her children shared stories with her about those years when they often had nothing to eat, or were not cared for well so the neighbors would lend a helping hand. How, this woman asked, do you create a home-like environment for your children and your family when you have all of the responsibility on your shoulders alone? They were living in small huts, and the landlord came weekly to claim the rent. Now, this same woman is 64 and the company she worked for cleaning bathrooms basically made her quit by requiring her to travel further and further to the workplace. She tried to go and collect social security, but you have to be 70 to start receiving it. There are not a lot of jobs in the city, and most people are not keen on hiring someone who is older. As she sat there crying I marveled at the way in which the other women in the group rallied around her helping her to think of creative solutions in which she could generate money, all of them willing to help. I am amazed by the faith of these women, many of which are very new believers.

The book that we are doing our study on is called (something like) A Woman After God's Heart. Almost every chapter we have read I have been aware of the vast financial difference between the woman who wrote this book and the women in our group who are reading it. Sometimes those differences come up in conversation one way or another. But the coolest thing has been watching the women share how God has touched their lives, and provided for them, how they are seeking each day to be a woman after God's heart, even with all of the challenges that confront them. I am so amazed what I have learned through the privilege of being part of this group, and find that as I read Scripture, I see it through a new light.

Because today was my last women's group meeting, I just wanted to share a little about that experience. But before I sign out I wanted to leave you with a few thoughts that have been shared with me this past week when discussing calling and character.

1. Your calling is your character: What is important to God is how you live your life, not necessarily all of the details of what you do.

2. As Christians, our primary calling is to Somone, God of course :), rather than something.

3. Our desires can be good indicators of the way in which God is calling us, but they are not the end-all indicator of what we should do.

4. When you are doing what God has for you you will have peace.

5. DO SOMETHING! Don't just sit around forever deciding what you are going to do, step out in faith and let God guide you from there.

So that is it for now, this is a pretty long entry, but I just wanted to share some of the stuff that has been going through my mind. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers! :) Leah

Turning Point

Now that we are officially into July the summer is at a turning point. The first half of this summer was really dominated by organizing Spanish classes, group meetings, and individual coaching sessions. On Thursday all of the Spearheaders graduated from their Spanish classes and are moving into a time of full-time ministry for the rest of the summer. The graduation ceremony was really neat, every class presented a skit or a project and it was really cool to see how everyone had grown, especially those in the Basic class that came with practically no Spanish.

With Spanish classes behind us, Kevin and I will have a week to get a lot of little details done. We are working on how we want to say good-bye to people. That may sound strange, but it is really important to us for a couple of reasons. First, here in Mexico both greeting people and saying good-bye is extremely important, no matter where you are (church, visiting a friend, a party etc.). If you do not greet or say good-bye to pretty much every person, it is almost like a personal insult. Second, everyone here is really precious to us and we are going to miss them all a LOT! I have definitely gone through different stages of homesickness in this past year, but for the past few months I have been incredibly content to just be here. I love Mexico City and I love the people here. It will be a big adjustment to move to whichever place is next for us.

On the "what's next agenda" please be praying for us this week, because we have made a commitment that we are going to make some narrowing down decisions by Friday, and are also hoping to buy our plane ticket for wherever that might be. We really covet your prayers in this process. It has been long and arduous at times, trying to figure out what is next. I have definitely had a couple of break down moments, but overall I thank God and give him praise, because mostly it has been marked by a sense of real peace in both of us. I have definitely been learning so much about being patient, about hope, about prayer, and about praise. God is so faithful.

Isaiah 58

Our Spearhead theme this summer is Restore based on Isaiah 58, specifically verse 12. In our leadership meetings we have been meditating and reflecting on the entire chapter. It is a powerful chapter and has some very instructive points for discipleship. I (Kevin) have some poems of mine that were either inspired by this chapter or fits with the theme.

Dumpster Diving

Forage through all that people discard
Pull out rancid and good fruits;
Separate them.
One in the compost heap to be redeemed
The other consume as a treasure for strength.
Pull out old, stained and dirty clothes
De-thread them if need be to make something
New; cut them as wash rags or patches for
Torn clothing; redeem your own wardrobe.
Assist the cowarding homeless woman,
Abused, stained and discarded by abusive men.
Help her to her feet. Separate the sins from the sinner
And love. Let Christ come to redeem her.
Feast and dine with the whore, bearing the redeemed
Fruits. Clothe her with the fine thread reused.
Reclaimed. Let God’s treasures mimic your own
And pull them from the refuse for redemption;
For life anew.

Kin

Do not hide from your own kin
Your own flesh and blood
Breathed into by the very Lord
That rose elephants form the dust
Planned the mechanics of the moon and sea
The creator of the waves
And beating hearts
Do not hide from your own kin

Sabbath

To be tender in rest
Is to be holy on the Lord’s day

Sabbath is not to not work
But to forget about your worries

Religious laws become the stumbling path
For those that count their Sabbath steps

Be devoid of selfish interest on this day
And be in tune with the father

The sun-down fast in not piety
But preparation for the Word of the Lord

Keep Holy the Sabbath by forgoing yourself
And see to it the Lord’s day is for
Righteousness

June

Well, the last month or so has been pretty much a whirlwind. June 4th the summer students arrived, and we spent three intensive days orienting them to the city and then sent them off to live with their Mexican families. Now that the summer students are here our roles have morphed a little. Monday through Thursday they have Spanish classes. As the Spanish assistant I help Nydia, my boss, organize everything with the teachers, tutor when necessary, and also help in the training of teachers for next summer. Once a week we have large group meetings, and each of us meets weekly with a smaller group of students as well. Kevin is working on a recruiting strategy for the Spearhead Summer program. Part of my role is also meeting with a small group of girls one-on-one, which is something that I have really enjoyed. Of the summer students almost all are girls, there is only one guy! Yesterday after Spanish classes we took everyone to the Basilica of Guadalupe. The goal was to engage in silent evangelism, (basically prayer), and learn a little more of the cultural make-up. It was a really good experience. You can be praying because now that everyone has been here for almost a month, some are definitely experiencing some culture shock, or culture crashes (as they would say in Spanish)! Pray that students would be able to see their purpose here this summer, even as they are struggling with the language and cultural changes. Please also be praying for us as we are deciding what comes next. At this point we are planning on leaving in August, but it is still a possibility that we would return to Mexico or another Latin American country as long-term missionaries. Right now we feel like there are several doors, but we are still considering which is the door God wants us to walk through. Please pray that we will feel guidance from him and a peace. On a positive note it is hard to for us to believe that we only have a little over a month left here in Mexico. We have enjoyed our year here so much, and it has been a really refining experience for us both personally and as a couple. We really love it here. One other piece of exciting news, well especially for us, is that we have internet in our house! Yippeee! :) It is a really nice blessing. Hopefully one result of this blessing will be more frequent blog posts, even though there is only a month left! Thanks so much for your thoughts prayers.

:) Leah

Summer

It is a bright, beautiful Saturday morning, and Kevin and I are in the LAM office getting some work, and some long-needed catch up done! Mexico City has really been quite beautiful the past couple of weeks, the smog has been at a minimum and the weather has been beautiful. J We are in the process of changing gears. Mid-May we had our final homework club session and said good-bye to our World Vision group, because for the summer we will be part of a team that facilitates 14 young people who are coming to the city on a short-term mission trip. These fourteen students, mostly college age and a little older, will be here for two months, and will be experiencing a condensed version of what we have been doing this past year. In pairs the students will be living with Mexican families, taking Spanish lessons, and working with local churches and other outreaches, such as World Vision, and a home for street boys. We are excited for everyone to come, they arrive on Wednesday! Kevin and I are still involved in our church, and I will be trying to keep up with my women’s group. Some of the things we will be doing this summer will be acting as a mentor for the summer students, helping with Spanish classes, in the office and acting as resources for the students in their ministries. The students will be here until August first. At this point Kevin and I are planning to return to the States mid-August so that Kevin can finish his Masters degree. Please be praying for us as we prepare for this summer and for all the transitions an decisions we are making.

Breathing...What's that like?

Has it really almost been a month!?! Yes, since we have last written a bunch has happened, and we have barely had time to catch our breath, even though some of it we were on vacation.

In mid-March, Lawrence, Leah's cousin came to join us for a week in Mexico City. It was great to be able to show family our life here and we really were excited that he was so excited about things. We did everything you could possibly do in a week, which means he missed a ton, but then we've been here nine months and have missed a ton. Some of the highlights were taking him to the community center at a trash-dump community for a medical brigade that we help translate for. Lawrence is quite a good on-the-fly optrician. We hit the pyramids and the center of town and a new attraction for us, was that we went to Tula, an ancient ruins about 2 hours from our house. It was quite fun.

The day Lawrence left, we too left on a plane bound for California. My (Kevin's) 180 days was almost up and I needed to leave the country to enter again with 180 days. We had planned on taking the time to do some fundraising, but with all that has come in and the way we've been able to cut our budget for the year, we did not need to do any of that. It was great to see family and friends, though the time with each of you was waaaaaay too short. Our little trip home was quite the adventure, because a nearly midnight we found out that we booked the wrong date without knowing and missed our flight! Oops...but we worked it out with not a little trouble and are here jumping in the swing of things.

Upon returning, we'd been off of our duties for homework club for two weeks, so we were excited to return to our kids. That also meant last minute planning.

On top of that I (Kevin) was scheduled to preach at church, in Spanish, the Sunday after we got back.

About that...I DID IT...well to be honest I read the sermon I prepared rather than preached it, because though I'm picking up the language fairly well, it is still difficult to flow in my thought process, especially for 30 minutes in front of a crowd. The experience was difficult, and I learned a lot about my language and cultural limitations, but it only makes me want to do it again and better. Everybody has been generous and said I did a good job, so that was nice.

We have now generally settled into our routine again here and after about three weeks of craziness, it is a nice break.

Hopefully we will be better at our time here on the blogosphere.

Congrats friends about to get married, and ones who are about to have children! We look forward to sharing that with ya'll when we come back!

PS - another aspect of the title of this blog comes in the fact that we have hit the smoggiest time of the year...hot and no breeze. Plech. A beautiful city hidden. It only means that it is time for the rainy season to come shortly - my (Kevin) favorite type of weather! Woo hoo (although it makes line-drying clothes a bit difficult.)

The Shack

We have gotten to read a good amount while we were here (it is amazing what not having a tv can accomplish), and one of the novels we have read was The Shack. Look it up.

I was very impressed by the guy's talent in writing, and for Christian publication, I was even more impressed. My only complaint is that the book seems to switch voices in the middle of the book, but it switches for his own intent, and I can respect that. I am most impressed by how he writes the theological insights that he has, and I feel it is a good read for many people.

Check it out!

Vacations and Family

Tonight marks the first evening of vacations for school children who have a two-week vacation time for Semana Santa - Holy Week. That means we have vacations, except for English class.

We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Lawrence, Leah's cousin to join us in Mexico City on Sunday. He will be staying the week with us and we are excited to show him around our currentl life.

Our Mexican brother and his family have also arrived from the north of the country, so it is a full house, but very fun to have another baby around and just good family times.

We will be heading to the States primarily because we have to change our visa before we can stay longer here in Mexico, but we will be meeting with friends and family in So. Cal. as well. We are looking forward to it.

Please be praying for our family as our Mexican nephew has health problems and could use all the prayers he can get. It is tough for the family, but praise God he has a LARGE family who loves him very much and he is a pretty happy little guy.

Back From LAM Retreat

We just finished our LAM retreat this past weekend. It was a great time spiritually and relationally. The theme of the conference was about the definition of success - God's success. It was a simple time of understanding, but after being around a number of missionaries who have devoted more than 20 years of their lives in Mexico, I learned that success takes different forms and very rarely does it look like something you would take someone out to dinner for.

With the future intentions of being long-term missionaries, it was great to see the difficulties and the life commitments people have made to serving the Mexican people. It was quite inspiring and humbling.

One of the greatest things for me (Kevin) was sitting with an old man, who grew up on a farm in Indiana. He and his wife have been in Mexico for 45 years, and though I'm sure we have millions of differences, he was a great man to learn from. We sat at dinner and talked about what it was like to be a Christian in the south (where he studied) during the civil rights movement. Very disturbing experiences he had ministering to African Americans while living in the south. Praise God for an active faith to share.

We have a crazy month ahead of us. Leah's cousin is coming for a visit for a week, which will be great and then we go to Los Angeles for a week to meet up with some people, share with our church and maybe (hopefully) do a few interviews for jobs.

Homework club is seeing more and more kids coming and our abilities more and more stretched. It is difficult to give the attention we would like to give to each kid, but we rejoice that they have a safe place to play and that our relationships with the youth are growing.

Leah's involvement in the women's group is great and Kevin just began a Bible study with some of the boys from the morning homework club.

As for future options, we are currently looking for positions that begin in August or early September. Kevin has recently applied to a few universities to be a resident director and Leah is looking for community organizer positions.

We would like you to be praying with us as we are praying about our long-term future here in Mexico. We are interested in student ministries, both American and Mexican and are praying about beginning a study abroad program for youth, similar to the program we are currently in, but that would also give university credits. This is a long-term future with a lot that can change, but please be praying with us about these things.

Thanks.

Life is good in Mexico City

Hello all! Between rather infrequent blogs Kevin and I have been quite busy, which has been good. We are feeling more and more at home here in Mexico. Let me give you a quick over view of how we pass our time here.

Monday
On Mondays we hold our homework club. We have a session in the morning from 10-12 and one in the afternoon from 2-4. Some students here in Mexico City attend school in the morning, others in the afternoon/evening. It is a little bizarre seeing some students just arriving home from school at 9 at night. Our mornings are typically light, which is nice. We have a smaller group of students, all of which are quite smart. We arrive at our church around 9:15-9:30 each day to start setting up. Our church is about a 20-45 minute micro bus ride from our home, depending on traffic and our driver! Afternoons are a little crazier. We typically have between 12-18 students, most of which are in Kindergarten-3rd grade. We also have some older students. We now have a girl from our church which helps us out at the homework club, her name is Alejandra, and she is great. We so appreciate having her. We generally plan a craft for the kids at the beginning, and then move into a time of reading. (On Thursdays we have a small English lesson in place of reading). We then move into a homework time, and finally usually finish up with a game. Many times students come without homework, so we have math sheets and other exercises for them to do instead.

Tuesday
Tuesday is our World Vision day, although it has been a slow start. Our main purpose will be to help them in some interviews and documentation of those interviews as they are planning to close down the particular project we are helping at in September. The interviews are aimed at understanding what the project accomplished, how it fell short, and how it might do better in the future.

One Tuesday a month we have a meeting with our supervisor, and the rest of the missionaries that are here for a year. This is a great time of fellowship and encouragement.

Wednesday
In the morning I (Leah) have my women's group. I am so encouraged by the women who have been coming. We only began a few weeks ago, but the women are really opening up to one another, which is so exciting to be a part of. The goal of this group is to disciple. It is mainly made up of women from our church, but there are also several who do not attend our church and are seeking. One young woman is a neighbor, and though her family is Catholic, she has become a regular attender at our women's group, English classes, and also is offering to help in the kitchen when short term mission teams come to town. Please pray for the women in this group. Many face incredibly difficult challenges relationally, financially, and from past experiences.

Our Wednesday afternoons are mainly dedicated to homework club prep, or any meetings we might have. Kevin, who now is officially on the ordination track for the Free Methodist church, often meets with his supervisor on Wednesdays.

Thursday
Thursdays are our marathon days. We are at the church around 9ish to prepare for homework club. After homework club the Millers, the missionary couple that lives next to our church, generously has invited us to share dinner with them. At 6 we have a prayer meeting, and then at 7:30 English classes begin. We don't normally get home in the night until around 10. English classes have been really encouraging for Kevin and I. We love our groups. I have all girls between the ages of 16-18. They are so great. One of them came to our church on Sunday which was a real encouragement. Hopefully she will continue coming and want to become more involved in the church body.

Friday
Our day of rest (and cleaning)!

Saturday
We leave the house early Saturday mornings to make it to Ecatapec where the World Vision office is (about an hour and a half trip). We give English classes for an hour to the young people who are promoters of human rights in their communities, and then join them for a work shop on emotions. (which we do not run) Generally we get home around 3-4 in the afternoon and then spend some time hanging out with our family. Often we have late nights on Saturdays.

Sunday
Sunday mornings are really peaceful for us. Because we have church in the evening we wake up late, and enjoy breakfast together, usually the house is empty because everyone else goes to church in the morning. We then spend the rest of the day doing this and that until church at 5. I know I have mentioned it before, but we really love our church. The people are warm and inviting, and our pastor and his wife are just amazing examples for us. I always come away feeling like I learned something new.

So that is a little look into the Book-Satterlee's week. Please keep us in your prayers and thoughts, we really appreciate them!

Sick...Again

Kevin is recovering from a pretty good cold...pretty much like everyone else of the 18 million plus Mexico City. The time is the time for colds. Our entire family has gotten something somewhere and we like to share. Kevin had a bit of a stomach bout the week before, but everything seems to be clearing up nicely. We are looking forward to a sick-free next few weeks...although working with kids, you never know.

Ministry stuff - going really well. The English class is already underway and Leah is loving her class which is full of younger girls. A great time for connections. Kevin has taken the advanced class, which includes the pastor of our church and a friend who lives across the street from the church. It is a great class as well.

Homework club is coming along and we are starting to see some good relationships grow with the kids and their parents. We hope that the homework club will get the kids to come to the other events at the church and that their parents would come too. Our pastor has a dream sometime in the 10-15 year future that the Free Methodist Church in Mexico would have the best schools in the country. The homework club is a far cry from that, but everything has to start somewhere and he is very excited about it, so that makes us happy.

World Vision is really coming under way, and we've been asked by the youth volunteers to come early and do some English classes, which will be a great time to connect with them. Our office work has not yet begun with World Vision...not the most exciting thing in the world, but really needed, so we are glad to be of help.

Now, after downing a few more glasses of Mango Juice (Mexican food and drinks are great!) we will be heading into our full weekend with World Vision and church on Sunday.

Been Almost a Month

Hello. Sorry it has taken us a while to write. As you can probably tell by the lack of our blog-posting, we have had a busy month. We're settling well into our homework club ministry and see a regular morning attendence of 4 children and an afternoon attendence of 12-13 children. Needless to say, our afternoon class is quite a bit more chaotic.

We began working with World Vision again also, since our break from the new year and just committed ourselves to doing some English lessons with some of the youth that come on Saturday mornings. We are excited at the prospect of contributing more with World Vision and getting to know these youth better. We also see it as a great opportunity for ministry as our experience with WV has not been much on the ministry side.

This past Thursday we began our weekly English class at our church in Iztapalapa. Kevin is facilitating the program an excericise he enjoys and it helps relieve one of the other missionaries who on top of her work with the women also has 4 children that she cares for. This is also a great opportunity for Kevin as he is in the ordination process and is gaining practical experience in leading a ministry. We had almost 20 people come on Thursday. One of the great things that comes from this, though we hold the classes for cheap, the money that we charge goes to covering material costs and the extra will go straight into programs for the children that come to our church, including the Homework Club.

Leah also began to meet at the Women's Club at church a prospect she was really excited for when we came to Mexico City. It has finally materialized.

Language learning is still going on, little by little. We are accustomed more now to the city and are excited to be in a more regular routine.

Things to be praying for:
Many of the students that come in the afternoon have learning disabilities or have been passed along through the system without learning the basics. This is obviously detrimental to their ability to learn and their desire to do so. Our goal is that they would love to learn and grow in the basics while they are in our Homework Club.

Another prayer request regarding our homework club has to do with the vision of our pastors here. They want fifty children regularly attending church by June. Right now we have about 20. The interesting and opportunistic thing is that about 15 of our homework club students do not regularly come, so please pray that they will get involved in other activities in the church as well. This goes for their parents whom we are developing relationships with as well.

For the English class that we will see a good turnout and be able to continue to provide what the local community wants.

Regarding World Vision, that we would be able to show the love of God in the midst and help to communicate that the human rights come from God and that it is through God that we have the strength enough to excercise our rights. Please pray for connections with the youth as well, and for our boss.


Things up and coming:
We are excited for the Latin American Mission retreat. It is a mandatory retreat to meet up with all of the LAM missionaries in Mexico and to also learn more about cultural learning and share our experiences. This will be a fun time happening at the end of the month.

Lastly, sort of silly, we are routing for the Giants this year, known as the Gigantes, because we have a Mexican friend who is a huge Giants fan. Frankly since the 49ers didn't even come close this year, we're happy to share in another friends' joy.

Happy New Year

I would have typed it in Spanish, but I'm on an American keyboard right now and the tilde is impossible to find.

We have come back from our trips with our family to Guadalajara and Monterrey, where we saw more of this beautiful country and learned more about the culture. It was great. Christmas stuff was great at church and then we spent Christmas day both with some missionaries and then the evening with our Mexican family here. It was a lot of fun. We spent the new year in Monterrey, up by Texas, and crossed over for a shopping spree, because believe it or not, it is cheaper in the US for things like technology and clothes.

Now we are back, and besides a little (or a lot in Leah's case) of under-the-weather-ness, we begin our ministries again. We are looking forward to what this time will bring with our church and with the children in the neighborhood.

Happy New Year!