A Good Week

Last week, we had the opportunity to visit UNAM ( a local university) for a college praise service. It was a wonderful opportunity for us to meet other young people around the city and have a time of praise and worship to our Father.

Last weekend, we introduced our Mexican friends to the card game, Phase Ten. It ended up being a huge hit and after some good American cooking, we played until late at night. We are so blessed that God provided us with such wonderful friends here in Mexico that love the Lord and with whom we can fellowship.

We cannot tell you how much your prayers and words of encouragement mean to us. Keep them coming and as you pray for us this week please remember to pray for the team that is coming this Saturday.

Much love,

T and D

Mi casa es su casa

I always thought that the saying "Mi casa es su casa" was just some kind of joke saying. However, we have found that the people here in Mexico are so warm and friendly and have been told this several times upon visiting someone's home. I hope I can develop the same kind of selfless spirit they have in being so warm and welcoming to people who are in many ways complete strangers to them. I just thought that was such a neat thing I wanted to share.

We have been up to a lot the past week - visiting a local University group, homeless ministry, visiting a new church, time with new friends, trying to "recruit" teams, meeting new local pastor's, and getting over a bizarre flu like bug.

Tomorrow we have plans to meet with a local pastor we will be working with on a mission project in the near future and Friday we are planning on attending a college event with a local Christian college group.

Prayer Requests:

- We will continue to get over our "sickness."
- God would continue to bring us national partners and friends that we can work with to spread his love in Mexico City.
- I will be able to build relationships with the ladies in our apartment building and Travis with the men.
- God will provide groups to fill our many open spaces for next year.
- The three teams we have coming in October.

Praises:
- New national friends!
- Travis is working hard and doing well in his seminary class - I am so proud of him!
- New possible national contacts

Hasta luego!

Shrieks in the grocery store

Travis and I made a huge spectacule of ourselves a couple of days ago when traveling through the grocery store. As I was passing through the sour cream and butter, I happened upon cans of cinnamon rolls and biscuits. I began shrieking at Travis across the store who had began to go off in the opposite direction. He came running back to me and started shouting in amazment at the cinnamon rolls on the shelf. Then, he attempted to take ALL the cans off the shelf and put them into our basket. I had to explain to him that we couldn't possibly eat 10 cans of cinnamon rolls and 8 cans of biscuits before their expiration date one month from now. We were laughing, probably almost crying, as we held these amazing creations. We haven't seen such things in almost a year. I know that the people around us thought we were absolutely loco. A couple of white people in a grocery store full of Latinos creates enough of a commotion as it is but I am sure you can find cell phone videos on You-Tube of the crazy Gringos going nuts over a couple of cans of dough.

I promise we are not obsessed with food. It is just one of the instances where familiarity can breed comfort- sometimes a small taste of home can bring such joy, such comfort, and such shrieking in the grocery store.

Independence Day Fun

Wednesday was Independence Day here in Mexico. We were invited to a friends house for an afternoon of fun. We ate wonderful Sopes and Tostados, played games, and laughed a lot - especially at the Gringos playing Pictionary in Spanish. Here is a picture of Memo with his girlfriend Alejandra sporting his cool Mexico mustache and sombrero. In the other picture, Pablo and Jessica are working hard at the Pictionary game.





Gracias amigos para este buen tiempo con ustedes. Era una bendicion para nosotros. Nos vemos! Daniella



- Word of update: Still no water.

Our Week in Review

We have had a rather busy week and a half. We have seen God work in neat ways as we are preparing for teams to come and asking God to send us nationals to partner with. We are excited about what is going on here in the city.

One fun thing of the week - We saw this guy driving down the road the other day and just had to take a picture. It is amazing where you can find pieces of home. Go Vols!

A neat project we were involved with last week is helping flood victims There has been a lot of flooding in parts of Mexico City in the past couple of weeks. Many families lost much of what they owned. Because of Southern Baptists gifts to Lottie Moon, we were able to do a great work in helping purchase some of basic life necessities for some of those who were touched by these floods. Thank you for giving to Lottie Moon and the Cooperative program!

Sunday, we had the priviledge of visiting with a church just outside of Mexico City where our home church, Brainerd Baptist is going to be bringing a team in October. It was such a fun service with lots of music and young ladies playing the tambourine and doing interpretive dance in praise to the Lord. We are so excited about how God is going to use this church and the team from Brainerd to affect this community.

Monday, we made a short little trip to the nearby city of Puebla. We were able to see some of the beautiful Spanish architecture, pottery, and the nearby ruins of one of the Aztec pyramids. It was a nice time to relax before we start being really busy in the next couple of weeks.

In other news, our apartment has been without water since Saturday. That's right, I said NO WATER since Saturday. Apparently a water pump broke down the street and they still have not been able to fix it yet. We have been taking showers and flushing our toilets with pitchers of bottled water. Here is a picture of my goofy husband standing outside in the rain to get some water to flush the toilet. I was complaining of our plight today when Travis reminded me of a home he went to visit just a couple of weeks ago. The family in the home has NO running water. They always take showers from buckets of water and flush their toilets with pitchers of water. We are just experiencing for a few days what they live with in daily life. We are praising the Lord that this is not the norm for us - it was a blessing that Travis was allowed to be a guest in the other families home to help humble us in this experience.

Here are just a few highlights from our week - we hope yours is going well and appreciate so much the prayers.

Until later - Hasta luego!

A Quick Note

Dear friends,

As I am sitting on my couch this morning worshipping the Lord through praise music and preparing to have my quiet time, my heart is so full of so many things that I felt I needed to put up a quick post before we get ready to head out for the day.

We have had so much going on this week. We visited the homeless ministry and I saw the little sweet baby and her family that I was able to cuddle last week. We were also able to go visit a site that we are taking a team in October to do a mission project ( I will post pictures later). We are so excited about this team coming - from our home church, Brainerd Baptist - and cannot WAIT to see how the Lord is going to work!

I made chocolate chip cookies last night to deliver to my neighbors this afternoon with an invitation for the ladies of the apartments to come to my home for a get together Sunday night. My intention is to get to know each of them better and to also see if anyone would be interested in having a Bible Study with me. I am a little scared - okay a lot scared. Please pray for me as I seek to timidly step out and build a relationship with these ladies. Pray that I would be bold and courageous and that they would accept me. There is two - fold purpose in this plan of mine. One part is that I might share the gospel with my neighbors. Part two is that I might make FRIENDS! It can be very lonely being the only one of your "kind" in a country where you basically know no one. My wording sounds like we are a couple of aliens who just landed in from another planet but some days that is how we feel!

Also pray for Travis and I and our team member David as we go to the North of the city to look at some of the recent flooding damage to see how we might can help minister to those people in that part of the city. There is so much need in this city and we are praying for the Holy Spirit to lead our team to where and how we can best serve.

Hasta luego friends,

Danielle

Buttered Pecan Ice Cream and a Baptism

I drove to the store ( by myself I might add - if you had to drive here you would be proud too) and I found THIS . . . .

I paid a small fortune for this amazing wonder but I think it was well worth it. I think that this itself could make up an entire post but felt like I should let you in on a little of what we have been up to for the past few days.

Thursday, we had a chance to visit a local MK school were our teammate’s children attend school. The school is growing and needs more space and so they are beginning a project of adding on a second level to part of the school building. We have a team coming to help with this project in October but are feeling it may be too big for one group and are praying that a team might come in November or December of this year or the beginning of next year to help finish this project as well as another construction project with the Homeless ministry in downtown Mexico City. This ministry has a clinic in the basement that needs a lot of work. The clinic has many of the building materials already but just needs someone to come in and complete the projects. If you are interested in helping us with both or either of these projects please contact us.

Friday, we had the opportunity to visit a children’s home ran by a local church in the area. This is a place where we would LOVE to be able to take a team. There are so many needs they have and so many things that a team could do such as: give the house parents a break by cleaning the house; doing a VBS with the children; playing and loving on the children giving much needed one on one attention; help to sort and organize the home; donate school supplies, toys, and clothes; offering a week of ESL classes or crafts and the list goes on and on. The house parents and the church do an EXCELLENT job but funds are tight and there is only so much that two people can do at one time for 10 children. Here are some pictures of the children’s home as well as a couple of the precious little children who live there. If you are interested in bringing a team to work with this children’s home, please contact us and let us know.

Today, we had the opportunity in participating in a Baptismal service. One entire family among our house group churches in the city came to know Christ after their son became a believer and then led his entire family to the Lord! They were baptized today in a service in one of our missionary family’s front yards in what I believe was a water tank with the top cut off. I would like to tell you that today it was about 59 degrees where we were in the city and raining. It was so neat to see how these people desired to follow the Lord in obedience so much that they didn’t care about the temperature or the fact that they weren’t doing it in a nice baptistery in a pretty church. I was amazed at their faithfulness to the Father.

Dear friends, we cannot thank you enough for your prayers and have felt each and everyone. Our prayer requests for this week:

- God would provide the right teams for the right projects at the right times

- Travis would have the patience and time to do his seminary work with dilligence that honors the Lord.

- Health of all our teams members

We thank you dear friends!

Until all have heard,

Travi and Dani ( these are our new adopted names by the locals)

God is SO good!

What a week we have had, dear friends ! We have been incredibly busy and loving every minute of it! Here are our past several days in review:

Friday and Saturday, I had the privilege of attending the Beth Moore “Living Proof” Simulcast. That’s right – here in Mexico City! Talk about an awesome experience!
Tears came to my eyes almost immediately as we began praising the Lord in MY heart language. I had no idea how much I missed worshiping the Father in the language of my birth in a large group setting and how much I took for granted that ability when I had the opportunity my entire life until now. As I stood there in the room with Hispanic ladies and English speaking ladies, I was reminded of how special and wonderful my God is and how much He does for me. This small gift He gave me this weekend lifted my spirits and my heart in a way I never thought possible.

Sunday, we attended the anniversary party of one of the house churches that our church planting team works with. It was a wonderful time of worship, fellowship, and awesome Mexican food! The Mexicans cooked the meal and the Gringos brought the desserts.
A version of one conversation from the event between my friend Graciela and I ( translated to English of course):

Graciela: So, desserts are very important in your culture, yes?
Me: Well, I guess you could say that. My family really likes desserts.
Graciela: Hmm, we really like when the missionaries come because they always bring dessert.

And Travis always tries to tell me I can’t buy friendship with chocolate . . .

Monday morning, I was awakened around 6:40 by some very loud noise outside our bedroom window – which faces the street. Travis took a peek out the window and there was traffic as far as you could see. For some reason, drivers in Mexico City think that if there is traffic you should honk your horn – not just honk your horn, LAY on it. So, from 6:40 this morning until about 9:00 all we heard were horns. It is kind of crazy. I wanted to take a picture of the traffic for you but since there are so many trees on our street, we felt they might obstruct the view and I only wanted you to see the picture if you could get the ENTIRE glimpse of what I am talking about here. ABSOLUTE CRAZINESS. We were able to meet with our supervisor and his family on Monday and enjoyed the day learning more about our job and what the needs are here in the city.

I lost my heart today.
We went downtown to help serve lunch at a local homeless ministry (one of the places we will use teams when they come.) During worship time, I was standing toward the very back of the room right behind a young couple with a little girl no more than a year old. Throughout the entire service, she would look at me and smile and laugh – of course I would make faces and coo and smile right back. Then she started reaching her hand out to me over and over again and finally one of the parents asked if I would like to hold her – DO YOU EVEN HAVE TO ASK?!!! I imagine he could see the intense longing on my face. As I held that precious baby in my arms, it was all I could do not to run straight out of the building to the nearest store to buy her toys, clothes, food, and medical care. Travis had to remind me the baby was not mine to keep and after a little while, I gave her back to her parents.

I do not know her families situation but from their clothing and tired faces, it didn’t look good. God reminded me how blessed I am and that even in the tough situation this little one is in – HE can still take care of her. As I watched the family leave today, I so badly wanted to follow them and see their situation. Pray for this family today and that God will touch their lives. Pray also for all the other homeless men and women that were at the ministry today. It was incredible just how many are in need.

Our next few months are going to be very busy filled with recruiting, leading, and serving.
Friends, WE NEED YOU!!! There is so much need here in Mexico we cannot even begin to tell you about all of it. We are asking God to send teams to help us in our work here. We want to say to the Mexican people – We love you, we care, and we want to show you why!
Specific team prayer requests:
- We pray that God will be with our three teams that are coming in October and one in November.
- We pray that God will provide at least one more team for this year in November or December.
- We pray that our calendar will be overflowing with teams for next year.
- We pray that God will send exactly the right individuals who need to come.