Summer 2011:: Mission Completed::

Well, I’ve made it back to Chihuahualandia!  And I’ve almost adjusted to the heat!  My time in Mexico City was a great time.  Remember, I spent 9 weeks in: Cuautitlán Izcalli, Mexico (a city an hour north of Mexico City).  And here is some of what happened during those 9 weeks!  I think I will show you through pictures how I spent my summer & what’s happened since I got back to Chihuahua!  Please enjoy!

Here’s some prayer requests & praises::
:: Praise for the great summer I had in southern Mexico!  I learned so much, and I’ve been so blessed by the friendships I made down there!
:: Praise for the awesome time we had with all the missionaries in July!  I met some great people!
:: Praise after a year & a half of Spanish study, I’ve entered into the Capable High Level & have completed my Spanish study!
:: Prayer request for my future ministry opportunity!  (more in the next email
:: Please pray for us as we work on heading back to the Casa Hogar one day a week to teach the kids to read.  We are going to talk to the leaders and see about possibly changing the day to work with the kids’ schedule.

How did your summer go?  Did you enjoy a vacation, BBQs, sweet corn, 4th of July, or family reunions?  Are your kids or grandkids ready to start school or maybe college?!  Let me know!  And if you have any prayer requests, please let me know!

Serving in Mexico,
Crystal

Mondays, Tuesdays, & Thursdays

Operation:: English Class:: One of the biggest reasons that I went to Cuautitlán Izcalli, Mexico was to be involved with a Summer ministry that Joca’s church was doing.  My part was to teach a 1 hour Enlish class.  During my hour of English, there were also keyboard lessons, voice lessons, carpintery, crafts, & drum lessons offered.  A requirement for receiving those classes for free, was to also receive an hour long class of the Bible!  The Firm Foundations Bible lessons (in Spanish) were taught each day!  I had a great time spending with my students & teaching them English.  I even had a small graduation for the students that showed up on my last day!  And all three ladies passed the oral exam!

Operation:: Missionary Get-Together::
One of the requierments for heading to Mexico City, was that I needed to return in time for the Missionary Get-Together.  It’s been over two years since the missionaries in Mexico had a field-wide get-together!  It was a huge blessing to see all our friends, meet new ones, and hear what God is doing through the missionaries in the Indian tribes in Mexico.
The picture above is me, with my friends Torre & Narah Meissner and Chris & Rachel Thomas.  I hung out a lot with them while I was in the New Tribes missionary training in Missouri.  And it’s so cool to see how God brought the five of us to the same country?!  Torre & Narah take care of the Guest House in El Paso, TX, which we love when we head to the States.  At the beginning of September, Chris & Rachel will be heading to a tribal location and will begin working with the Tepehuan Indians!

Saturdays

Club de Ninos:: On Saturdays, in two locations, were kids clubs!  I was involved with teaching Bible verses, playing games & helping out where needed.  It was a very fun time to be involved in this outreach ministry.

Family Time

Operation:: Dinner:: I also stayed busy by preparing meals for Joca & her family, and a couple of times for friends!  For Father’s Day, I also made & frosted three banana cakes for the fathers in the church.

Spanish Study Completed!!

Last week Amy & I had our Spanish Interviews to see how well we’ve done in the last 7 months!  And yesterday we received the results that we both have reached the “Capable High Level”!!!  I will continue to work to improve my Spanish, but my full-time job will no longer be studying (which I’m thrilled about )!  With reaching this level, it also frees me up to seek a ministry!!  I will let you know what that is as soon as I know!

The above picture is me with my friend & teacher Ana.  Her birthday was a day before mine!  So we celebrated by making dinner & eating cake!

Can you believe it’s already April?

March was a very difficult month for me.  There were four people I knew that died last month, my grandpa, and three people from my church here in Mexico.  One of the ladies from our church, Anita, died from health problems, and she left behind an 18 year old daughter, 15 year old  & 4 year old sons.  But the testimony that she had with sharing the gospel & how she discipled her friends was incredible.  Because of her testimony with others there are so many people here that are Christians!  It was so encouraging to see how God worked in her life!

My grandpa died about two weeks after Anita did.  He was 91 years old.  I was not able to attend the funeral because I had turned in my visa and wasn’t able to leave or reenter Mexico.  My family was able to attend including my brother from San Diego, I’m anxiously awaiting the DVD of the funeral.

And then two weeks ago, a lady, Brenda, & her daughter, Sofia, were intentionally targeted & died because of the drug violence here in Mexico.  Brenda was the same age as me & had a job as an investigator with the state attorney general’s office.  Her and her husband, Sergio, had study chronologically through the Bible with a couple from our church, and had become Christians!  We praise God for their testimony.  They no longer lived in fear of dying because they knew where they were going when they died!  Praise God for their testimony to their friends & family, and please pray Sergio as he lives life without his wife & daughter.

Through all this time God continually reminded me that He still had everything in control.  I know that might not be a shocker to y’all, but to me it was a great reminder, that before the creation of time, He knew that I would be here going through these difficult times, and He even knew that I wouldn’t be able to travel home for the funeral.  But He gives us so many promises in His word so that we remember that “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you (Heb. 13.5)”!  Wow!  I believe that God takes us through these trials, to remind us of his love and care for us.  And those were some of the things that I needed to learn & be reminded of in March.

Remember Juan and Dorothy?  The missionary couple we helped move down to Nyarit last summer so they could start working with the Cora people?  They came back to Chihuahua in February & on March 11 they had a baby!  Levi Yuhan Miranda Xiong was born here in Chihuahua.  Amy & I even got to meet him & hold him, and of course he’s super cute!

Upcoming Trip: After last month, I’m so excited & ready to take a trip next week!  I’m going with my friend Jocabed to the state of Mexico!  Jocabed is a student at the Missionary Training Center, and she lives near Mexico City.  I get two whole weeks of Spanish with Joca!  Her parents already have a lot of stuff planned for us while we are down there!

Prayer Requests
:: a safe & fun trip to Mexico City with Jocabed
:: continued faithfulness in Spanish!
:: for the ladies in the English class, that they would be able to make it to the new class day on Wednesday
:: one of the ladies from our English class, Rosa, she just found out she has breast cancer
:: friends & family that lost a love one last month

Praises

:: the Casa Hogar ministry is going great!
:: my laptop is back!  It was 7 long weeks without it!
:: great language & culture sessions with my friends Ana & Rouss
:: the amount of Spanish I’ve learned in this last year!  There are a lot things that now make sense to me in Spanish!

Dear Friend,
Here is a my update for the month of January!  Let me know what you think!
Crystal

::Mexican Host Church: Assigned!::

These two pictures are of my future pastor & church family in Mexico!  Once we arrive in Chihuahua, we have the privilege of bonding with the Mexican culture & Spanish language, and what better way than with them!  Amy & I are really looking forward to this new opportunity to spend a whole month with only our Mexican host family & church.  This will help us in bonding more with our Mexican neighbors & friends.

::Support Tracker::

Amy & I are so close to being ready to head to Mexico and we are continually in awe at how God works through us the prepares us for this new journey!

We have both passed the 50% mark!  Amy has reached 54% & I am at 53%.  Once we reach the required 60% – $1900 – we can plan to leave for Mexico!  If Amy receives 20 financial partners at $10 a month & I receive 22 financial partners at $10 a month we could head to Mexico!

I know that by now you are exhausted & tired of hearing about the support that we need in order to head to Mexico.  This is currently the “obstacle” God is allowing in our lives!  While we would love to set a “leave America by” date, but we cannot until we reach 60%.  There seems to be no special formula or set checklist during our Partnership Development time, but prayer & faith in Him to follow through.  If you have any questions, please let me know.

::Prayer Requests::

- Patience as I wait for God’s timing to send me to Mexico

- My Mexican Host church & family as they prepare for us to come!

- Please pray for the last $220 to come in!

- As I continue to help out with the Awana program with my church

::Praises::

- God has risen my support level to 53%!

- That God continues to supply my needs

Here is another devotional that I read this week!  I thought that it was a good reminder as to why we have "rests" in our lives, and how God knows how the whole song will go!
::Streams in the Desert Devotional::
January 22

He withdrew…to a solitary place. (Matthew 14.13)

There is no music during a musical rest, but the rest is part of the making of the music.  In the melody of our life, the music is separated here and there by rests.  During those rests, we foolishly believe we have come to the end of the song.  God sends us times of forced leisure by allowing sickness, disappointed plans, and frustrated efforts.  He brings a sudden pause in the choral hymn of our lives, and we lament that our voices must be silent.  We grieve that our part is missing in the music that continually rises to the ear of our Creator.  Yet how does a musician read the rest? He counts the break with unwavering precision and plays his next note with confidence, as if no pause were ever there.

God does not write the music of our lives without a plan.  Our part is to learn the tune and not be discouraged during the rests.  They are not to be slurred over or omitted, nor used to destroy the melody or to change the key.  If we will only look up, God Himself will count the time for us.  With our eyes on Him, our next note will be full and clear.  If we sorrowfully say to ourselves, "There is no music in a rest," let us not forget that the rest is part of the making of the music.  The process is often slow and painful in this life, yet how patiently God works to teach us!  And how long He waits for us to learn the lesson! – John Ruskin