Cooler Church Building!

Recently we have 3 additions/changed that have cooled our building considerably!

1) 2 coats of paint on the sunroof! For the last 11 years we have lived in this house/church that has a glass "greenhouse" type roof on one whole room that extends from the ground level to the second floor. It acts as a gigantic heater that would be a great greenhouse- but considering we already have 95 degree temperatures, we finally realized that simply painting it would cause that whole area to be shaded! Shade, as you know, is a great cooling device and consequently, we have a much cooler house!

2) Opened door leading to the roof. Old castles always had high windows which cause an upward draft of air. Since warm air rises naturally, it goes up and causes a little draft! Every morning we go upstairs and simply OPEN the door leading to the roof and it actually makes a tiny breeze in the kitchen 2 floors below!

3) Air conditioner with a 3 ton compressor and 3 blowers in the auditorium area of the church. We turn it on for services and close what doors we can to get the air to stay in the church area, and it actually makes it very pleasant. We ONLY turn it on for the church hours on Sunday morning and night and Wednesday evening, since that is when it is crowded and hottest! This addition has proved to make a big difference when we have the 130 or so people in the house.

We are so thankful for the Lord's kindness to us in cooling the building somewhat. We are still praying about the permission to enclose it completely downstairs.

What a JOY to know the TRUTH!

It is always a blessing to hear the Word preached and to see it lived out in peoples lives. We are so thankful to know the TRUTH! As believers we really do have abundant life!

Salvations!

This past Sunday morning Arnulfo was saved. He and his wife have been coming for about a year and been saved, but now he has obeyed the gospel. Please pray for him as he studies and grows in the Word.


Sunday evening a young boy named Adrian was saved. He is pictured here in the middle. His family all comes to church and his parents are both believers. His mom said that for quite some time he has been asking lots about being saved. In the children's class at church he often has questions about the story, or comments that let youknow he is really thinking about what is being said.


Tonight, Wednesday, May 20, Ana Cristina and Candy were saved. Candy, on the left, has 2 sons who have been coming to church for 2 years or more, and more recently she started coming. Ana Cristina came as a child and then her family left and now they are back again. Her mother was saved first, and then her brother and now she has repented of sin and put her faith in Jesus Christ.

Please pray for all of these folks whose hearts the Lord has opened. Pray they will have healthy spiritual growth and bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Mother's Day, May 10, 2009

Like you all, we celebrated Mother's Day here. We had our regular service first and then we had carne asada and frijoles charros, salsas and aguas and gifts for the moms. Then after cleaning up we had the evening service and each one to his home to pamper his mother.







Marco's mother. She won for being the oldest mom! 86 years!!! She will be celebrating 87 this month. With all our gifts from the teens, children and Isabel! Thank you!






Mago- partly hidden, Genoveva and Jose Luis

Thank you Dads, teens and kids who helped cook!

Thank you for the new chairs!

The Lord has provided for 51 chairs so far! Thank you for your gifts and prayers about this. We are still waiting to see if we can get permission to close the church in and put air conditioning in.

Salvations

There is nothing better than for a person to turn from his sin and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are glad that recently some folks have been saved here. Others have been saved as well but we don't have pictures of all of them.

Francisco has moved here from Tabasco and has been coming to church with his Aunt and Uncle.


Luis came as a child with his mother and sister and then they left for about 10 years. They have been back since December and his mom has also been saved.



Angeles worked with Eliud who witnessed to her and then she started visiting us here and recently she was saved.



Please pray for these and others who have made professions. That they would really desire the Word and grow. We are so glad that salvation is God's work and we just need to be faithful to announce the truth.

El Fin del Mundo- 25 de Abril, 2009

El Fin del Mundo means "The End of the World". Marco and I like to walk on the beach- and one time, by pure accident we "found" this spot almost at the end of the hotel zone here in Cancun, we lovingly named it "The End of the World" and has since been one of my favorite destinations with kids, visitors from the states, or Marco.



This year we went in honor of Children's Day, which is celebrated April 30 here in Mexico.

This first picture is when we were just setting out. We all had "provisions" for one day and were set to walk from this point where we are pictured, to the very tip of land you can see- THAT is the "Fin del Mundo".



What a blessing to have these children to teach and guide for years in church and see them grow. Little Oscar is the closest in the picture. Behind him is Danny, then Roberto Santiago and last is Joseph. Joseph brought 2 bags full- it seemed with water/beach toys. They turned out to be fun to play with and not so much fun to carry. The bags broke and we had to stuff it all in his tee shirt! No wonder they asked if we were orphans! Please pray for these children. Quite a few have unsaved parents we are praying for, and even for their own salvation when they certainly understand and love the gospel.


Simply sliding down the sand cliffs is wonderful fun! Enjoying the beautiful creation of our loving GOD!





There are a few world famous games kids do... tag, hide-n-seek and when you are at the beach...bury your friend!

As we were walking along, we almost fainted and stopped for drink. Some of the ladies from one of the hotels came out to ask if we were from an orphanage. Later along we met a lady and her husband who were also Christians and ended up coming to church the next day.


The waves were huge today and I wished we had made time to just sit and admire them and contemplate God's greatness.



I know they had fun, but they look a little whipped! They were real troopers. Look at those short little legs! 2 hours walking in the sand!!! Enrique who has sand on his head also was reported to have had sand in his pockets when he got home.



This is the actual attraction at the "Fin del Mundo". A Blowhole! You can see the little one near the big one. A little farther along there are pools with little fish that the kids always try to capture. We took so long walking to get here this time, we didn't have long to explore.



Enrique holding his little brother Tony.



Sammy came home drowsy and finally fell asleep in the van. He was the smallest one to go. His mother came as one of the helpers. At the beginning I told the kids there were 2 things that were not allowed on the trip: crying or fainting. They ALL made it to the Fin del Mundo and back again without crying or fainting- but quite a few came home sleeping. : )




Thank you to the big kids are so good at helping care of the smaller ones. And we thank the Good Lord for his protection on this outing.

The FLU ?

We are all fine here. No one in the church has the flu and in all of Cancun, we heard just one person might have it, but it wasn't confirmed. A handful of folks wear face masks, (usually on their forehead or under their chin) and employees of certain businesses. Schools have been closed and tourists are leaving- or rescheduling- that seems to be the larger problem here. Here in Cancun the high school and college kids go back tomorrow, the 6th of May and elementary and Jr High are scheduled to go back on Monday the 11th. In Becal where Jose Luis is, the town even ordered the churches to close.

Because of the decrease in the regular tourist income, there is less work and the concern is crime will start to go up. Just this past Sunday afternoon our neighbors were robbed.

Thank you for your prayers!

Baptisms- April 5,2009

LR
Delia- comes with her 2 little boys. Was a neighbor of one of the church ladies who witnessed to her. She first started coming to church and was saved about 2 years ago when her first boy was born long overdue and had complications in the hospital.

Carol- comes with her mom (the lady who witnessed to Delia). She is in junior high and has been saved a few years and now wanted to be baptized.

Fausto- recently saved and helping Marco get lots of legal work taken care of here in the church. His wife was saved before he was and it is a blessing to see them together in church now.

Martha- Saved about a year ago and now been baptized. Her daughter started witnessing to her, but now the daughter and her family has been moved to Costa Rica for the husband's job.

Alan- Comes with lots of family, and was recently saved. As soon as he was saved he told me, "Now that I am saved, I am going to start reading the Bible- Where should I start?" he is in 3rd grade.

Ana Bertha- Had come about 10 years ago with her 2 children and then left and has been coming again since this past January. She was saved and now baptized and we are praying for her children.

Andrea- comes with her mom and was also recently saved. She is in 4th grade and wants to start taking piano lessons.

It's a Healthy Baby BOY! David Felipe!

Jazmin and Felipe with their little David Felipe.




Felipe is a Dad now! He has just recently gotten over chicken-pox, and is ready to care for his new little boy.


I think the after-dinner visits are often the best part of the meal!


"Uncle" Miguel. Miguel went with us to see Felipe's boy!

New Tiles in Chemax

Thank you for the special gift for money to put tiling in the children's classroom and bathroom in the Chemax church! We went to Chemax today to see the new baby David, and also saw the beautiful job they did choosing and laying the tiles!




The Pastor's wife Leydi has always liked blue, and they said they found all these on sale as well, so it was something that I am sure she never imagined getting to do, choose tile for the church bathroom. But (WOW!) for some of these folks, who have never even had a bathroom with anything but a dirt of cement floor, tile is a luxury! Thank you for your kindness.



On another note about bathroom tiles... When Karina was here in training and she had to take turns in cleaning the bathroom, she said whenever she cleaned the tile in our church bathrooms and get it shiny, she thought of how beautiful the walls of heaven would be, jasper and precious stones...

Andrea and Alan Saved and Ready to be Baptized

What a blessing to know that the faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God! These little ones have heard the Word for some time now in church and at home and have recently come and expressed a need to be forgiven of sins, that they believed in Jesus. They came and talked to me after church on different Sundays and then Marco prayed with them. Andrea started by telling me she felt sad when she did wrong things. Alan came and said he wanted to say a prayer. When I asked him why, he began to cry and said "Because I am a sinner." They both give testimony that they understand completely and believe the gospel with all their heart.

They stayed after church this past Sunday to study and find out what the Bible says about baptism and Lord willing they will be baptized this coming Sunday with some others who have recently believed.


We know it is important that even children be taught to obey, to grow after having believed, so we will be having some discipleship classes with them in the coming Sunday afternoons. Curiously enough, they both live in homes with a single christian mother. Pray they will grow to love and obey their Heavenly Father more and more each day.

Enrique and Yuly's Wedding

This is the last of a set of 3 weddings we had at our church recently. We are thankful these couples have been saved, and also see the importance of being married by law and before the Lord.




Deysi (in black) is the grooms sister. She started witnessing to them and the Lord brought conviction and they were saved. Vicente (Deysi's husband) has also been saved more recently. We are amazed how the Lord keeps bringing conviction of sin and saving souls!


Marco must be one of the tallest Mexicans I have ever known! (And one of the nicest) Here we are with the bride and groom.


The lady on the far left in a black dress and a white top is Beatrice, a relative of the couple being married. She was saved and Felipe and Jazmin are having church services in her town. We are praying about Felipe and Jazmin staying there and making a church plant. Brother Vicente, in the stripes, has donated the use of a home he has there as long as we need it. The older couple in the picture are the grooms parents.

Jose Luis and Genoveva Wedding

Jose Luis and Genoveva have been saved and then married by the civil court and now in the church. What a blessing!

Dr. Jimmy Parkerson and Marco in Tabasco

Dr. Jimmy Parkerson has donated his time and resources and dental expertise for the last 4 years in our church here in Cancun and the 4 mission churches that have been started. This year he came and spent a day here in Cancun helping, and taking pictures of things that impressed him which we have included, and then traveling to Tabasco with Marco to help there.

CANCUN
Tomas, first patient patient in the Cancun "clinic". (the all purpose kids room in our church)


Mary Carmen from our church here, getting 2 teeth pulled! Thumbs up!


Raul, Tomas and Miguel. Raul is our faithful youth Pastor and Tomas and Miguel are in training now to be pastors. We are thankful for the men the Lord has sent with willing hearts and a desire to serve him in the ministry.


Taken from our roof, looking down into the patio area of our church/home. (And part of the neighbors patio to the left side of the pic). This is the same area we have decided needs to be covered now to give our church auditorium more space, about 50 more chairs can fit in if we cover this and the area that you can't quite see. Lord willing we will be able to do that before the summer months come. We just had 153 in attendance on Sunday morning and have been having 130-150 so we need more space.


Standing on the top step to go out to the roof, looking down through the 2nd and first floors of our house. The roof here is a skylight that gives light to our house since the 2 sides are closed in by neighbors walls.


TABASCO
They set up the clinic here in the church auditorium and got to work right away. This is Nacho's mother.



Some of the recipients of Jimmy's dental work at the "clinic" with gauze still in their mouth!
By the way- any of you Creative Memory scrapbookers- recognize the tee-shirt? "Simple pages, completed albums". My mom used to sell CM and I wore that tee-shirt for a while and then sent it on- it is amazing where some of your clothes will end up.


Keep the kitchen clean and ...

COOK "OUT"!


Good idea, fry that fish OUTSIDE! : )


This is the finished "fish plate" very popular in Tabasco. I tried once at my house and things didn't come out as nicely- but I will not be defeated and keep trying. there is no way to describe how tasty this fried fish is. You take out pieces and tuck it in a tortilla with a little mayonnaise, habanero, lettuce, salt...MMMM!

Eidy loves her Corning ware plates that were given to her when they left for Tabasco! they are the same design as the ones my sister and Grandma gave me when I got married and came to Mexico- thank you for you have showed so many kindnesses in so many ways to the Lord's people here!



There's no telling how many teeth Jimmy has pulled, or how many people he has helped since he started in dentistry, but we thank the Lord for his willingness and eagerness to help people with their needs here in Mexico!


This is Diego who has been coming to church since Nacho and Eidy arrived in town. We are thankful he is hearing the truth from a child and pray that one day he will be wise unto salvation.


More folks waiting to have work done on their teeth. Looks as if they have already had the anesthesia.


Tabasco gets lots of rain so it stays nice and green. Dole, the fruit canning company gets lots of its fruit from Tabasco. In the area right around Nacho they raise lots of beef.


GULF OF MEXICO- COMING BACK TO CANCUN
On they way back to Cancun we always go through Champoton, Campeche, right on the Gulf of Mexico. This is a quaint town with all the fishing boats and nets we see along the coast. Plus... the delicious shrimp cocktails and seafood restaurants all along the main road.

3 people saved on Sunday, March 15

On Sunday morning 2 ladies were saved. One who had come along time ago and then left for a good 8 years or so. We saw Ana Bertha over Christmas and invited her again and she has been coming a little more than a month now. She is here with her 2 teen-aged children also and are praying for them.

A young lady named Alyssa has also been coming off and on for a few years and was saved.

The third was a 10 yr old named Andrea, who has been coming to church for about 2 years with her mom. She is pictured here a year ago, under the red part of the ball, with a pink hairband on. She came to me after the evening service and among other things said "I feel bad when I do bad things." Marco sat down with her and her mom and shared the gospel with her and she prayed and asked the Lord to forgive her and save her. We are getting Bible study times set up with these 3 folks now.

Enclosure/Air-Conditioning and Chairs

Before Summer comes we would like to get the church covered with a roof and install air-conditioning. We have already passed 10 summers in the church as it is, but since:
1)we are averaging over 100 now in all the services
2)the heat that each body produces plus the heat of the summer sun and humidity,
we have decided to cover the open area of our church auditorium and air-condition it.

This first picture is the area to be closed in. Here you can see the tarp we have now, that covers about 2/3 of the once open area. We will take that out and then cover the whole area with a regular roof that could one day be used for other rooms on the second floor.

When we do this, we would pull the podium back a little (toward the newly covered area) and that would make the auditorium more like a "L" shape instead of an "I". We think it would be more comfortable for the people to listen this way and also for Marco to see them, that is, in the corner of the "L".

This is looking into the church auditorium from the "outside" area. As mentioned before we average over 100 now in the services, and often have about 130 on Sunday mornings. We all fit in here, and set up benches for the children near the plants you saw in the first picture and around the corner to the right in the back.

You can see in the pictures we have tried everything we can to make it comfortable in here. First the tarp, to at least shield us from the sun, then we painted the top white to reflect the sun, then the white Styrofoam tucked on the inside. Plus we have 10 regular sized fans, 1 mini-fan planted behind Marco as he preaches, and most recently an industrial factory fan about 3 feet in diameter. Even so, we just can't get this cool, so have decided the best route to go is air-conditioning! : )

The other delightful improvement we are making is chairs. We have these typical white plastic chairs every country uses, but as they get older, they get brittle and break easily. With the smooth tile floors, we have had quite a few break, always while someone is sitting in them. This is certainly not acceptable. They don't break open on the rough cement floor in the "outside" area though. So what we are planning, Lord willing, is to replace the chairs with the others you see pictured below. They are sturdy and also more comfortable. The church has bought 17 so far. The old ones we are sending to the mission churches as they still have cement floors!

If you would like to help with these projects, please let us know.