Two weeks ago I wrote you an email letting you know how far Amy & I were away from heading to Mexico. Within one week of us praying together for my support, I got it all plus some more! Here’s how it went. Each day, my support went up a bit, some days by a lot, others by a little. But each day it went up. Then on Monday I went past 60% & reached 62%! Tuesday Amy & I found out that we need to get to Texas on February 24th! Wednesday & Thursday I started to tell some friends & let things start soaking in – Amy & I are moving to Mexico! Now I’m starting to plan for my last few weeks in Oregon & travel plans on the way to Colorado. I’ll be leaving Oregon on February 18 or 19th, arriving in Texas on February 24th, and entering Mexico soon after!

It is so amazing to me at how quickly my support went up! It truly is a huge answer to our prayers for these last two years. And it’s an answer at how faithful God is to us, just by listening and responding to us according to His plan & will!

Here’s what my current checklist is looking like: praying, taxes, Mexican car insurance, packing, saying goodbyes, planning for the road trip, praying, getting things fixed on my car, a dentist appointment, and of course there will be some more things that will get added to my checklist!

Thank you to all of you who have been praying for me as I’ve been working on heading to Mexico, and for some of you it’s been almost 2 years! I am so excited at how God has worked through friends, family & believers that I’ve not met to provide for both Amy’s support and mine!

Thank you so much for your prayers. If you have any questions, please let me know!

Heading to Mexico,
Crystal

**I have been trying to mail this letter for the last week, but have had no Internet access on my laptop.  Hopefully I can get it mailed while I’m at one of the three airports I’ll be in today!**  Sunday update:  didn’t happen at the airports.  This is being sent from Oregon!

Here is a quick recap of my last four weeks.

Four weeks ago I was in Oregon & packing to head to Florida!

Three weeks ago I was in Florida!

Two weeks ago I was attending an amazing Seminar in Florida at the NTM Home Office – “Sharpening Your Inter-Personal Skills”.  It was a great seminar and will greatly help us with our friendship, our co-workers & teammates, & also in the future with anyone we come in contact with!  I normally hate attending seminars/workshops, but this was very good because it had a great amount of interaction with each other, and there was no boring lectures!  Following the seminar I was able to spend some more time with Amy & her family, and we even got to go to the Gulf of Mexico side of Florida!  Life was busy & exciting in Florida!  And I even saw my alligator!!  He/she was around 10-12 feet and I could have reached out & touched him!

One week ago I was in Louisiana.  I came to Louisiana with the big purpose of sharing at my cousin’s church in Erwinville, Louisiana.  I was able to share with their church on Sunday (9/6) for about an hour!  It was a great time & I came away totally encouraged by this church and their desire to see God’s name reach people all around the world!  I’ve been able to stay with my Aunt Rosie, and I have seen almost all of my cousins that live in Louisiana.  We even took a trip to Mississippi to visit with my cousin & her family.  Now I am helping my aunt pack for our trip to Oregon on Saturday!

My Aunt & I will flew home to Oregon on Saturday.  Then Sunday I plan to 56will drive her to my grandma’s house and she will spend about 2-3 weeks with her, while I will only stay until Wednesday.  And that is all of my traveling (I think) for just a little bit.  My next big travel plans should be to Mexico!!!

When I get back home to Oregon the next big plans are: continue to raise my prayer & financial support, prepare for a yard sale, & pack my things for Mexico.  Currently my financial support level has reached 41% ($1299 out of $3152)!!  Amy & I have been trying to plan for a leave date to head to Mexico, and while we would like for it to be October, we are really going to have to wait until our support level reaches 60% ($1900).  And then we will be able to plan on heading down to Mexico!

Please continue to pray for us as we seek to do God’s will in our lives.  Also as we are getting closer to heading to Mexico, and for our families as we will soon be leaving them.  And also praise God with us as He continues to prepare the way for us to head to Mexico!

Patiently waiting on the Lord,

Crystal Pierce
en route to Mexico with
New Tribes Mission
www.ntm.org/crystal_pierce

P.S.  You can also check out my website – it has now turned into a blog & it looks pretty good!  www.ntm.org/crystal_pierce And Amy’s is www.ntm.org/amy_heckman . ]]> http://blogs.ntm.org/crystal-pierce/2009/09/22/september-2009-travel-update/feed/ 0 http://blogs.ntm.org/crystal-pierce/2008/11/11/october-florida-trip/ http://blogs.ntm.org/crystal-pierce/2008/11/11/october-florida-trip/#comments Tue, 11 Nov 2008 05:00:00 +0000 Crystal Pierce

This October I took my first trip to Florida!  As I left the fall colors in Oregon, I wondered what Florida would be like.  I knew there would be palm trees, and moss, but there was so much more.  I tried to enjoy the fall colors, but there was only one tree that changed colors, and it wasn’t even the leaves, it was a flowery looking thing.

The big reason why I traveled to Florida was to see my co-worker Amy Heckman!  We were invited to share at a missions conference at Hopeful Baptist Church in Lake City, Florida!  We had such an amazing time sharing in this 5 day missions conference.  We loved sharing about our desire to be involved in tribal church planting in Mexico!  Amy & I shared with: a homeschool co-op group, a Christian club at a High School, Adult Bible Study, teen girls from the youth group, at our display board, with a group of kids, an adult Sunday school class, families in their homes, and an adult Bible study.  But I think one of the most fun groups we got to share with was an Awana Sparkie group!  The reason why that is so exciting, is because that’s where Amy & I met each other when we were little kids!!  I had a great time meeting all these new people in Lake City & I came away from the time extremely encouraged!

Then the second week that I was in Florida, Amy & I spent a lot of time at NTM Home Office!  Some people wonder if the missionaries here in the states are “real missionaries“?  I would have to say YES!!  My next article is going to share more about that!

We also took a trip with the whole Heckman family down to somewhere around Fort Lauderdale to visit Amy’s grandparents!  We got up on Saturday, went to a craft fair, and then to Wal-Mart.  I don’t think I’ve ever been to Wal-Mart so many times than on my trip in Florida.  We went almost every single day.  Which is very different for a girl that lives 42 miles from the nearest Wal-Mart!  And while I was at Amy’s grandparents, I was able to go swimming in their pool!  Awesome!  That’s something that doesn’t happen in Oregon especially in October!

And week three found us doing a couple more tourist things.  I was able to visit Downtown Disney,  go to the Holy Land Experience, the Wycliffe discovery center, the beach, and also an Orlando Magic Game!!!

The Holy Land Experience was great because we got to see some of Jesus’ Life & Ministry acted out.  I got to see the miracle that Jesus performed at the Wedding Feast in Cana, which was great because we’ve been going through the book of John in my Bible study group!  And we got to see the Passion play acted out!  Oh my goodness, it amazes me every time I think about what Christ went through physically & emotionally to redeem the whole world back into a right relationship with God.  Another part of the Holy Land Experience is called the Scriptorium.  We got to see how the Bible went from being written on stone, and the transformation through the centuries that eventually led it into being made available today in English!

Then the next day we went to the Wycliffe Discover Center, which is great for hands on learners!  It shows that while we have the Bible in our own language (English), there are over 4400 languages without any Scripture!  Which is amazing since the complete Bible has been around for almost 2000 years!  Actually in the English language, we have the option of choosing a Bible from over 500 different translations!

The Friday before I left, Amy & I put on our own version of a Mexican Fiesta for a youth group!!!  It was awesome.  We made lots of Mexican food, played some games, sang some songs in Spanish, and we were able to share about Mexico and how we’ll be involved in communicating the Truth of God’s Word to people that won’t ever have a chance to hear!

I stayed extremely busy at the Heckman home and so much living with them!

Florida was fun.  I didn’t expect it to be, but I met amazing people, and was able to reconnect with lots of friends.  And I suppose, that one day I will travel back to Florida.  But when I go back, I want to go fishing and see an alligator!