NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

“To remember the difference in spellings, dessert has two “s” because you always want two.”  I can still hear my junior high teacher explaining the difference in spelling dessert and desert.  At that time I had never seen the desert.  I lived in a land with green trees, green grass, rain, humidity, Michigan.  Now, I live in the land with one ‘s’, the desert.

This past February we had a freeze that set records in our desert.  Rolling blackouts, frozen pipes, and dead plants were among the “fatalities” of the freeze.  I was surveying the damage this spring and seeing nothing but brown around the guest house my thoughts were grim, “Dead, dead, dead.  We’ll have to replace all of this!”  I was overwhelmed, not being one who enjoyed working in the outdoors, I just enjoyed the outdoors.

It wasn’t until I saw the plants through someone else’s eyes.  There was growth!  Green!  How had I missed it?  I was days shy of trimming back everything.  In my inexperience and impatience I would have pruned the wrong branches.

I am so thankful that the Master Gardner, our Lord, does the pruning in my life.  He doesn’t look at me and think, “Well, she’s not growing, so I’ll just have to replace her.”  He waits with greater patience than I do, watching with an expert eye, to see new growth in my life.  He cares for me, waters me, and doesn’t give up.

Looking around this spring I have realized that the desert has become beautiful in my eyes.  Cactus in bloom, new life after a hard freeze, and plants that were created by God to grow in this dry land gives my desert home sweetness.

Where to start…
The first week of September the missionaries running the guest house in El Paso for the field of Mexico sent a letter announcing that they would be leaving the guest house ministry.  We were all sad as they have done an excellent job running such a big ministry that we all use.

Fast forward four weeks and one of the field leaders is sitting in our living room asking us if we would pray about taking the guest house ministry.

Before all of this even started taking place God was working in our hearts as to where he would have us serve.  Does he want us to continue in the school for missionary kids?  Does He want us to focus more directly with the tribal works?  So while we were very VERY shocked that they asked us to take over the ministry, God was already directing our hearts to what He would want for us.

Through a series of events that were set in place by God, we decided to take the ministry.  We are so excited for what this means for our family.  We can all be involved in this ministry, even the kids!  We will have direct connections with those in the tribal locations.  How exciting!!!!  Are you excited?  We are!  Be excited with us!  As partners with us in this ministry, God is using you in what He is doing here in Mexico.  Rejoice!

If you look in our neighbors freezer half of it is packed with various flavors of ice cream to sell in the neighborhood.  I (Torre) got our son a typical American flavor, cookies and cream, but they had many other kinds.  There was strawberry and other fruit flavors along with something called mangoneada.  I asked our neighbor if it was hot, as in spicy.  She responded with, “Kind of”.  Isn’t ice cream supposed to be cold?

It was Monday morning and I had just clicked our five week old baby into her car seat to drive four days back to Mexico.  I looked over at our two year old and then at Torre and said, “Are we crazy?”

A week, the stomach flu, heat, and a few close calls later, we drove up to our house in Mexico.  “We’re home!”  We had gone to Idaho to have baby Lydia and now returned to a lot of dust, heat, and wind.  I’ll admit, I wasn’t excited to be back.  The first 24 hours brought unpacking, sorting, and putting away things in a house with no storage.  Only a week before I was cold, now here I was sweating as I held Lydia.  I felt gritty from the dust with zero motivation to remove it.  Satan was hard at work in my attitude.

Twenty four hours later, a good nights sleep, dust removed, and the majority of things put away, we went next door to introduce our neighbors to Lydia.  As Ana stood holding Lydia and her five kids watched with excitement and awe, I was reminded that this is home.  It isn’t the physical place we live in, it is the people who are around us and who missed us while we were gone.  They are rejoicing with us in the addition of our new one and they encourage us as we learn Spanish.

Are we crazy?  That is still up for debate.  But I do know that we are led by the Lord.  And the Lord has us here serving Him in Mexico, helping to get the good news to those who have never heard of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Well she has arrived!

Lydia Elaine

Lydia Elaine Meissner came into the world Friday, March 26^th at 3:52pm.  She weighed 9lbs, 12oz, and was 21 cm long.  The doctor was amazed that the delivery went so well as, “larger babies sometimes get their shoulders stuck in the birth canal.”

We are just amazed at God’s provision.  He provided an amazing nurse to take care of me during the induction and even brought her back the next day while I was in post partum.  Turin seems to be taking the changes as well as a two year old can.  He often wants to know where the baby is and occasionally will kiss her head or “help” with various things.  For the most part he’s not that interested.  He does act out when mom or dad can’t be there when he wants us there.  I think it bothers mom right now more than Turin.

We don’t have internet where we are so updates take a bit more time, especially now with a new baby.

Thank you all so much for praying for us during this time.  Please continue to pray for our family as we transition and for Lydia as she grows.

Turin walked around in amazement at the wildlife we saw at the Nature Center.

As we wait for the arrival of our new Meissner I’ve observed several things about our changing Turin.

He hears the beat in almost everything.  When a car drives by with music blaring he instantly starts bobbing up and down with the beat.  As we travel many hours and miles in the car he will often want to sing.  I really need to find more songs to keep up with the demand.  When putting away silverware he’ll bob his head to the rhythm of the spoons and forks hitting the drawer.

There is no playground too big for this two year old.  Here in the states the equipment has been carefully thought out and the ground is often padded with wood chips or gravel.  Very different to the metal playground in our neighborhood with packed dirt to break the falls.

Thanks to the YMCA he has a new love for the water.  It’s been fun to watch him “swim” and get dunked under the water.

He is beginning to think that every house comes with cows.  Staying in farm land there are a lot of cows and horses.  He will often walk outside calling, “Cow, where are you?”

He’s a changing kid, we do know that, but this concentrated time with him has shown us just how much he has grown into an almost little boy.

P.S. For those of you praying for the baby.  She was successfully turned around and is now facing the “correct” direction to make her grand appearance into this world!