Family Camp: Video of Singing Group

Family Camp 2008

Biting into a hot peppper.

Crawling through the water balloon and mud land mine.

The Reformed Presbyterian Church of Mexico in Tijuana held a family camp May 9 - 11. We all (around 300 people) camped in tents at "El Rancho" in the town of Lomatova just east of Tecate, in a high desert plain. Since the camp included Mother's Day (always May 10th in Mexico) the men and youth did all of the cooking! Early (5:00 am) on Saturday morning, the youth serenaded all the mothers with two special Mother's Day songs. They also had a rally prepared which included 15 different stations and activities like eating a hot pepper, "shooting" an apple of the head of a teammate with tomatoes, crawling in the mud through an obsticle course, and much much more! After the rally, the participants initiated a water fight and gave each of the youth who helped with the rally a bucket of cold water over the head.

The theme of the camp was unity in the family. Several pastors gave devotionals and talks. Scott and Marcia showed a movie to the kids during the evening session, many did not make it very long before falling asleep! On Sunday morning we had a special worship service in the shade of several large trees, with a musical group made up of participants from five churches. Pastor Armando Ponce gave the message based on Malachi 4:1-6, turning a father's heart towards God and his family.

Our Sunday dinner included carnitas (pork fried in lard), Barbacoa (barbacued mutton) and birria de chivo (lamb stew). Each was served with tortillas and condiments of salsa, onion, cilantro, and lime.

Four families from the Agua viva mission accompanied us to the camp. They all enjoyed the weekend and were able to meet new friends from other churches.

Vacation in Mexico City

We also spent three days in Mexico City so Melissa and Karissa could see some of the buildings, art, museums, and the metro. We stayed at the home of Dave Gifford, missionaries in Mexico City who are in Michigan on home service. Thanks for lending us your home! On Sunday we worshipped at the Getsemani Church in Coyoacan. We also saw the museum of anthropology. On Monday we took a tour bus in downtown Mexico City. On Turesday, with Alejandro Pimintel, new missionary to Mexico City, we returned to see Bellas Artes, the Palacio, and a few things we had missed. By that night we were ready to return home. We arrived in Tijuana at 11:30pm, but with the time change it felt like 1:30am. We had two days to unpack, wash clothes, pack and leave for the family retreat in Tecate this afternoon. All of the RPC churches in Tijuana are having a combined family camp at a ranch. Fortunately the water to the bathrooms was fixed today! Several families from the new mission are going to the retreat this weekend, pray that they would have a great time and that they will get to meet families from the other churches as well.

Vacation in Playa del Carmen/Cozumel

Our family took a week of vacation after the retreat. We drove from Merida to Playa del Carmen, south of Cancun. On the way we stopped at Ek Balam, a Mayan ruin with a pyramid taller than Chichen Itza. There are parts of the pyramid that still have the original white stucco, and some paintings on the walls. After climbing the pyramid, we went swimming in a cenote, an underground pool at the bottom of a sink hole. We then drove to Playa del Carmen where we spent three days at the hotel Alux. We went snorkeling on Cozumel, and visited friends that Marcia knew from 25 years ago! We also went to Xcaret, a water and Mexican History theme park just south of Playa. It is always amazing to see the clear blue water of the Caribbian.

CRWM Mexico Field Retreat in Merida

From the 24th of April to the 29th, the CRC missionaries in Mexico had their annual spiritual retreat. This year it was held at the Hacienda San Pedro Nophat, on the outskirts of Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. The hotel is a converted henequen hacienda, with several pools, lots of plants and flowers, and a wall around the perimeter. It was a great place to stay, and the kids had fun exploring and swimming. Jan VanEe led the sessions, using Ray Vanderlaan's "In The Dust of the Master" series. Jan added personal insights and extra information from his studies in Israel. Thanks to the Merida team for all of the work they did to make this a great retreat.

Church Transformation for Integral Missions

This past week Scott and four other missionaries from Mexico attended a conference in Nicaragua. The conference was for CRWM and CRWRC missionaries in Latin America who are involved in church planting and developing. The conference focused on the indicators of a healthy church and how to help churches move towards being more healthy. One day the group divided into 6 smaller groups to visit and analyze local churches, Christian schools, and other Christian agencies. There was also a seminar by Jim Palmer describing a Christian people movement on the Coco River. Jim also identified four key missiological principles to start a church planting movement.

Agua Viva plans to start Sunday Services in May!

The team of leaders at Agua Viva has a target date of May 25, 2008 for the inagural worship service at the mission. Please pray with us for the planning of this event, and that many new people of the community will attend. Several families have stopped by showing interest in Sunday services, because of work schedules they can not attend during the week.

We also hope to have the new Santuary ready for this event. The construction has continued: Dave Crum (OPC missionary) had a work team help to install the insulation and drywall. The Rodriguez brothers are applying the cement stucco on the ourside of the building. There is still lots to be done, and we have two teams planned this summer who will help with the finish work.

As a team; Israel Ponce (Elder at the "Arca" church) and family, The Crum family, and ourselves will be working out the details of worship style, music, materials, children's classes etc. in the next six weeks. Please pray for wisdom in making these decisions.

Update at the rehab center.

Paulino Luna and the men from the rehab center have continued to work on the foundation for their new building. They poured the rest of the foundation and the floor! The holes are all covered up, only the rebar columns sticking up show where they were. Just like in our lives, the foundation is critical even though it remains hidden. Thanks again to our friends from Calvary CRC of Holland, MI, for your help with this big project!

John and Jerre De Young visit Tijuana

John and Jerre De Young retired last summer after many years of service with CRWM in Tijuana. They are now living in Zeeland, MI. They drove out for a visit (through a major hail storm) the first week of April. We were excited to see them, our girls grew up with Uncle John and Aunt Jerre! Their many friends here were also glad to get the chance to visit with them again. The De Youngs were encouraged to see that the work in Terrazas and Dios Altisimo continues to grow. Continue to pray for their trip, they plan to see family in California, and friends in Washington before returning home. Pray also for their health.

Semana Santa

Semana Santa or Holy Week is a busy time in Mexico. School children get the week before and the week after Easter for vacation. Most factories give some time off during the week, and on Friday almost all stores are closed. On Good Friday there are processions with people carrying large crosses, and special services. In some places people are actually crucified on crosses for several hours.

The Reformed Presbyterian Church also has special services during this week. Several of our churches invited their communities to see an evangelistic movie during the week. On Friday the Prince of Peace church had a special service of "7 Palabras" or the 7 last sayings of Christ from the cross. Seven men from the church each took a turn giving a devotional about one of the phrases.

On Saturday we went to the beach halfway between Rosarito and Ensenada. Yes, it was great beach weather here, about 80 and sunny! We met at church at 6:30 am and returned at about 5:00 pm.

Sunday morning we had our traditional sunrise service at 6:00 am. Because the women were the first to hear of Jesus' resurrection, the ladies are in charge of this special service. They all come dressed in white and lead worship, participate with special music, recite memorized verses, and give the devotional. Marcia gave a children's message at the end of the service using resurrection eggs. Then the men serve breakfast! This year we enjoyed "flautas", (deep fried chicken tacitos) beans, and boiled eggs.

At 9:00 we had our regular worship service. The day was a blessing, and a celebration that Christ Lives!

Friday, and it is all done!

Friday the team worked on finishing up the shingling and the electrical. The roof crew finished first and took a trip to Downtown Tijuana for shopping. The electrical crew stayed behind to get the rest of the building wired. It is an impressive site, to see a church building go up in only five days! Pastor Armando Ponce, from Cristo Arca de Salvacion church came by to see the building, and was impressed with the work. He had to try out the view from the pulpit.

Saturday morning the whole crew made it across the border and to IHOP for breakfast. Pray for safe travels as there are predictions for snow in the mountains!