Ordination of Elders and Deacon at "Emanuel"

Sunday, May 25th was also a very special day in the life of the "Emanuel" church. At a special service in the evening, they ordained two new elders and a new deacon. We are excited to see how God is working in these three men's lives, we are also encouraged by the growth we see in the Emanuel church.

Inaguration Serivce, Sunday May 25, 2008

The first Sunday Worship Service at "Agua Viva" was held on May 25, 2008 at 11:oo am. About 180 people attended the special service. The mother church "Cristo, Arca de Salvacion" came after their regular morning service. Their Pastor, Armando, gave the message from the book of Acts. The mother church also brought the food (carne Asada) and grilled it for the meal afterwards. The congregation "Dios Altisimo" also attended the service with us. There were also many new visitors from the community around the mission, and several regular attenders invited family members and friends.

Diamandy, with help from Jane, Melissa, and Karissa, had a lesson for the children. There were about 70 kids in one classroom! The kids learned about Noah's Ark, and at the end of the service recited their text for the adults.

The ministry team at "Agua Viva" is excited that the mission has taken this next step!

Dave, Israel, Scott

Jana and Jane, Elizabet holding Eliab, Marcia

Eliazar and Esteban, Diamandy, Karissa and Melissa

For more pictures, watch the slide show on the top right side, or click on the link to the Inaguration Agua Viva Album in the link section on the left hand side.

Getting Ready for the Big Day!

This past week we were busy getting everything ready for the Inauguration Sunday Service at the "Agua Viva" Mission. The bathrooms (outhouse style) had to be moved and renovated, electrical shorts had to be fixed, fill dirt had to be brought in and leveled, the cement patio had to be swept, the drywall on the front wall of the sanctuary had to be finished, the wall had to be painted, and the sanctuary had to be cleaned and the chairs and other furniture arranged.

Some of the projects were done during the week, and on Saturday we had a work day at the mission. Several families came to help us get the work done. We started at 8:00 am and finished after 1:00. The work was made more difficult with rain, the mud got tracked inside and we ended up mopping the floor in the santuary three times. One of the ladies who could not make it to work sent over chiles rellenos (chili peppers filled with cheese, dipped in egg, and fried) and Alma, who lives at the mission, made burritos.

We were all tired, but glad to have the mission looking good for Sunday!

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 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

Melissa and Karissa in front of the Palacio Municipal in the Zocalo.

Scott and Marcia in front of the Palacio de Bellas Artes.

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!

Thursday

Thursday was a busy day. The two main projects were the wiring and the roof.

A trench had to be dug from the electrical pole at the road to each of the buildings to lay the main cable. The new santuary as well had to be wired for lights, outlets, fans, and speaker wire.

The roof was another big job. The plywood had to be nailed on, then the tar paper and shingles. Bird block and facia boards had to be cut and nailed up as well. By the end of the day, one side was shingled and some of the plywood was up on the other side.

Everyone returned "home" to Pancho Villa tired. The pingpong table had only a few takers.

Wednesday, raising the roof

Wednesday morning dawned a bit cloudy, all the better to work on a roof. The first order of the day was to make the two gable ends. These trusses are special and it is always a challenge to get it exactly right. Then the truss crew loaded the 36 scissors trusses and two gables on to a flatbed truck for transport. The truck made it to Agua Viva in the same condition it left Pancho Villa.

The building crew had to unload the trusses and set them in place. It is a very impressive site to see the trusses go up. It is also a bit scary to see the guys up in the trusses and walking on the walls. By evening all the trusses were set in place, ready for the plywood sheeting on Thursday.

When they arrived for their Wednesday evening Bible study, the small congregation at Agua Viva was surprised to see how far the building has advanced. They are very excited to have a santuaty.

For lots more photos check out the Denver Adult 08 album.

day 2 working hard

Tuesday morning saw the two teams at work again. The construction crew at Agua Viva began by raising the two long walls. They then built the three shorter ones. By the end of the day all of the walls were up! They are ready for the trusses on Wednesday.

The truss crew finished all of the trusses except the two end gables. The time was 11 minutes per truss, until they ran out of glue and had to take a lunch break. By the end of the day all 36 trusses were done and ready for transport to Agua Viva.

During devotions two veteran team members were honored for 10 years of service. Mark Hinken and Mile Alsum (in ausentia) received their ten year jackets. Thanks for your commitment to building churches in Tijuana.

More pictures are available in the Denver Adult 08 album. Link on right hand side bar.

12th annual Denver Adult team

The adult team from 3rd CRC Denver arrived in Pancho Villa, Tijuana, Sunday evening. They came ready to build the new santuary in Ojo de Agua, for the "Agua Viva" church.

Monday morning the group divided into two teams, one team went to the site to begin framing the walls and begin electrical work, while the truss team stayed at Pancho Villa, at the "Cristo Arca de Salvacion" Church, to begin building the scissors trusses.

In the evening two veteran team members were "honored" by Dick Pastorkamp. Dan Tigar was honored for his service as a volunteer fireman. Pastor Dave DeRidder was honored for his plan to ride in the Sea to Sea cycling event this summer.

For more pictures click on the Denver Adult 08 album link to the right.

Puppet Miniatry at Prince of Peace

Yesterday a group of eight adults and youth from the Prince of Peace church began a new outreach program directed towards the children in Altiplano. Diamandy came up with the idea and is directing the project.

Before hand they passed out flyers in the community, then on Friday at 3:00 they had two short puppet shows with an evangelistic message, sang some songs, and had a snack. About 40 people, children and parents, came to the first event! They are planning a similar program every other week.

Please pray for the workers involved, and for the children and adults who attend and hear the Gospel message.

Friday, wrapping up

The men from Calvary CRC finished up in the morning, filling some more holes. They then attended a joint prayer service with the men from the Rehab center. It was a moving experience for everyone.

In the afternoon they went to down town Tijuana to do some tourist shopping. They returned for a pizza dinner, and a final time of sharing with ourselves and the Lees. They went to bed early to be up this morning for their 6:15 flight from San Diego.

Thanks again for all of your work, and the love you showed to the men at the rehab center.

Thursday, winding down

Today the guys from Calvary went to the 6:00 am devotions at the Rehab center. They enjoyed the experience, even though they did not understand much of anything! They finished up pouring the columns, and began pulling off the forms from some they had poured first. Then came the job of filling the holes back up. 12" at a time, and then compacting.

Check out more pictures by going to the Calvary album. Link is on the right side bar.

Fire!

On Monday we had Santa Ana winds, the dry winds from the east that fuel wild fires. In Terrazas, about half a mile from where the group was working there was a house fire that quickly spread and took three other houses as well. Neighbors were there with garden hoses, and buckets of water. The fire truck took a wrong turn and was late. Fortunately a water truck came by and helped to put out the fire. It was amazing it only took four houses. Yesterday the guys saw another fire up the hill a ways from them.

Fire is always a danger here, with the dry conditions, and poor wiring (many times using spliced or damaged wires) with the wind it just takes a spark for a fire to start. Many homes in Terrazas are still stealing electricity, hooking a bare end of a wire over the electrical wires and then stringing it to their homes. This is also dangerous in the winds, and rain.

Just last week a family from the Emanuel church, Julio Cesar and Geronima, and their 8 children were left homeless when one of the grandchildren started a fire playing with matches. This family is staying at the Emanuel church until Grupo Amor can build a house for them in two weeks.

Day 2, Calvary CRC

Tuesday morning the guys started out where they left off. They made forms (from used plywood complete with rusty nails), and rebar columns to put in the holes. They then had to reinforce the 16" forms, and fill them with cement. The goal was to pour seven more cement footings (bases) and six concrete columns today.

Check out the photo album link for Calvary CRC to see more pictures of the work. Pictures will be added daily.

Calvary CRC at the Rehab Center

Have you seen the movie "Holes"? If you have you can imagine the scene at the Forjando Nuevos Destinos Rehab center in Terrazas del Valle. But instead of holes six feet deep these holes are about twelve feet deep. What are they doing, digging for water? Buried treasure? New outhouses? No, these are footings for the new two story building for the Rehab Center. Because the lot where the center is located has tons (literally) of fill dirt, in order to build a strong foundation, the footings have to go down into hard ground. Eight men from Calvary CRC in Holland, Michigan, arrived Saturday night to help with the project. They are working along side of the guys from the rehab center, under the direction of Paulino Luna, an Elder at the Cristo, Arca de Salvacion (Christ the Ark of Salvation) Church, who is also a cement mason.

The group is staying at the Cristo, Arca de Salvacion church in near by Francisco Villa. On Sunday morning they worshiped with the Arca church. They ate a taco lunch at the church, took a tour of some of the other churches and missions in Tijuana, and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing at the Geurink's house. In the evening they worshiped with the men from the rehab center at the Dios Viviente (The Living God) church located on the other half of the same property.

Presently the rehab center has about 35 men, it has had more than 45. The new facilities are designed to hold 150 men. The construction will be done in stages, replacing the current temporary buildings, as it progresses.

For photos of the work in Terrazas, click on the link to Calvary CRC album at the right of the page.

Church Planting and Church Building

The month of February has been very busy, with activities at the new mission, and with preparing the foundation and floor for the new Santuary. Third CRC Denver will be here the 9th - 15th of March to frame the church building. The floor, however, had to be done early because of the activities on February 16th and 17th. Both outdoor activities took place on the new slab.

First we had to fill the area with fill dirt, and compact it. Then came the job of leveling the area. Finally the forms and rebar had to be put in place and tied in. The on Monday February 11th the pad was poured. About 40 men, and women, from several churches and the rehab center showed up to help with the work. This time we ordered the cement from cement trucks. The cement was supposed to arrive a 7:30 am, the first truck arrived at 10:45. So, we had breakfast before the work.

After all the trucks had delivered their cement we were still about 6 sacks short, so the men got to mix the last little bit by hand and deliver it by wheel barrel. Scott, Paulino Luna, and another cement mason stayed to finish troweling the cement.

We still have to lay two rows of bricks on the outside of the foundation, and then we are ready for the group from Denver!

For more pictures, lots more, check out the foundation for santuary photo album link on the right hand bar.

Evangelistic Campaign

The men from the Rehabilitation Center, Forjando Nuevos Destinos, hosted an Evangelistic Campaign on Sunday February 17th at the "Agua Viva" mission. They plan to have a campaign at each of the churches and missions in Tijuana during 2008. The praise band from "Cristo Arca de Salvacion" Church played, and their pastor, Armando gave the message. Several men from the rehab center gave their testimonies as well. There were several new families from the community that attended, and three families accepted home Bible Studies. They also sold food, Bibles, and plaques to raise funds for the rehab center.

Youth Outreach Event in Agua Viva

For several months the youth from the Reformed Presbyterian Churches in Tijuana have been planning an outreach event at the new mission "Agua Viva". The theme of their last camp was service and this event was a followup, allowing the youth to put in practice what they had learned. They organized three puppet shows, a clown show, a time of singing, a class for children and adults, and they collected toys and food to give out. Saturday, February 16th was the day of the event. The theme was God's Love. There were about 180 children who attended, and 80 families for a total of about 300 people. James Lee also took family pictures which will be available this Wednesday at the Bible Study. Twenty three people signed up to have someone visit them in their home for a Bible study. Pray for us as we begin the follow up with these families. We are thankful for all of the hours of planning and hard work the youth dedicated to this project. Melissa and her friend Lesly were in charge of the children's class and Karissa was in charge of the puppet shows. If you would like to see more pictures of this event click on the link to the Servicio Evangelismo Juvenil album.