Update
Conference/Visitors
July 25 – 28 Phil attended the anual Conference for the Missionary Church of Mexico (IMM). It was held in a touristy town called Chignauhampan. This was an important event to attend since this is the year to vote in an almost entirely new Board of Directors for the IMM, and to make some important connections with churches who are wanting to begin and continue their studies with the Semillas Seminary that we oversee.
Sun July 28/29 on their way back from the conference, one of the pastors, his family and brother came to Puebla to visit. We had a lot of fun playing games and teaching them some baking skills.
Below are some photos from these special times together.
Making Granola
Granola is good on . . .
– List your favorite thing to put granola on in the Comments Section.
Here’s what Mexicans put it on: Yogurt & Fruit
On the weekend while Phil was on a Ministry Trip to La Sierra, Carolyn hosted a Granola making afternoon for a couple of ladies. They just love Carolyn’s granola! Fun! Fun! Fun!
Phil’s trip was very good as well! He was able to visit with 4 of the study groups and connect with the pastor in San Miguel whose group is no longer studying. He is very busy with another church ministry about a 10 min drive from his town. It seems to be doing very well.
He visited the group in Cuetzalan on Saturday. They just finished their exam with flying colors, and we celebrated with a meal of Carnitas at a local stand. The young fellow who waited on us attends their church and made it a wonderful experience.
On Sunday the group in Huitzilan celebrated with a meal of Cerdo con salsa rojo (Pork in Red Salsa). They were so pleased that their second group who just finished the first introductory book, received near perfect scores on their exams this past week.
It is always such a pleasure to be part of the work that God is doing here in Mexico. Please keep us in your prayers as we connect with Pastors, leaders and locals, that we would find favor with them and be able to build even deeper relationships for God’s glory.
Bear y Popo – not what you think!
Greetings from Sunny Mexico!
We just wanted to share with you all a couple of interesting things from this past month.
This month our dog Bear had his 11th Birthday. We took him to the vet this past week to get his regular yearly vaccine shots and the vet was amazed at how well looked after he was for 11 years old. Carolyn made him some peanut butter cookies to celebrate.
Our local Volcano Popo has continued to be very active these past few months. Below are some photos from just this past week. We’re beginning to wonder how much worse things are going to get.
Happy 150 Canada!
We know, it’s a bit late to say it, but with all the summer long festivities in Canada this year, we thought we’d say it anyway. We did manage to have some Mexicans over for a real Canadian style meal.
Once again the last month has just flown by and we are just now able to take the time to share a bit of an update with you all.
At the beginning of June we returned to Mexico after spending 2 weeks in Canada primarily to help Carolyn’s step-dad. Shortly after we returned, Phil started back to Language School for another 3 week session.
Below are just a few pictures we managed to take. After sorting through this past month’s photos, we realized that we missed taking pictures of a number of things. I guess that’s expected to happen every once in while (or more than desired).
We were able to spend some time with our American missionary friends on the 4th of July. We played mini-golf and had a fun evening playing some games. And, we almost got rained out on hole 18.
We also had the privilege of attending one of our teacher’s graduation. She studied French and is now working on German. Wow! Very impressive!
And here are some pictures from Puebla life that we really like …
So that’s it for now! Don’t forget, if you’d like to receive an email notice of our website updates, you can sign up by clicking the “Follow” button at the bottom right.
February 2017
This past Monday March 6, we had our Team Meeting and were able to visit with Ivan Preston and David Thompson. Ivan returned to Mexico to visit after having been a missionary in Mexico City and planting several churches. He and his wife are now retired and live in Kitchener, ON Canada. David accompanied Ivan on this visit. We were delighted to host them in our home for a night and send them on their journey to Chignahuapan the next day.
This past weekend Phil March 3 -4 travelled with Moises to Zacapoaxtla to be part of the regular teaching we do in that area. Two of the groups have now finished Level 1 of the seminary program they have been working on. Below are some pictures of the largest group. They were so excited to have finished Level 1 they wanted us to share a meal with them to celebrate.
We as a Team are so happy to see these groups finish Level 1. They have worked hard over the past almost 2 years. Some other groups are well on their way to finishing Level 1 as well. Once most have finished, we are planning to have a graduation service celebration.
Jan Trip to Oaxaca
January is getting to be a very busy month.
This past weekend Phil travelled with Dan Chapple to lowlands of Oaxaca which is a 4 hour + trip and the weather was very warm – hot by Canadian standards (highs of 35 degrees C). We had a safe trip to and from the Oaxaca area, but we heard of several places where there have been many kidnappings and murders from Cartel groups. We stayed an extra night to avoid travelling in the dark for safety reasons. Carolyn has been baking up a storm, some items to one of our Spanish teachers and a bunch of other items to some friends.
Below are some pictures from the Oaxaca trip.
Thanks so much for your prayers. Please continue to pray for safety as we travel in Mexico. Things seem to have really calmed down in the past couple weeks. All fuel prices have increased and more increases are to come in the next few months.
Mid Jan Update
Hey Everyone!
Just wanted to send off an update to let you all know how things are going. We’ve had many inquiries as to the security situation here in Mexico. As far as we can tell, things seem to be getting much better. We haven’t heard of as many protests and rioting. Some of the highway tolls are still being affected but this last week seems to have quieted down quite a bit.
Our whole Missionary Team went on a Ministry Trip to Zacapoaxtla this past weekend, Jan 13 – 15 and we had no problems with our travels. The journey to this area hasn’t really been affected much by the protests. Normally, only some of us travel each month for our teaching classes, but this time we all went, including the children, for a meeting on Saturday with the Tutors/Pastors of the groups in that area to introduce some Bible Study materials that will be of great help to them. We also had a Team Meeting and celebrated Carolyn’s (English) birthday. It was fun, but also very tiring as we met with 5 different groups over the weekend in 3 different towns. Thank you all for your prayers. The Lord has been so good to us in showing us His hand in the lives of those we work with.
Below are some pictures from the weekend:
