We are all under the weather

Here we are a less than a week away from Thanksgiving and it is still just as warm as can be. It has changed at night time to drop in temperature but the days are still as warm as a Minnesota day of sun. With this bit of change, it still brings colds and flues. Over the last week all of us have come down with colds and sore throats. It is the kind that just makes it difficult to do normal things and not the kind that puts you in bed for days on end. All the girls are more whiny and crying more. Jessie and I both have taken naps in the afternoon at various times.

One thing that we are excited about, is our church doing a Christmas outreach. We will be singing three Christmas songs as well as doing a Drama. We are doing "Everything" by Light house. It is on God tube and You tube. We hope with the time that we have left we will be able to do it well. We are grateful for your prayers for this event. We know that Satan does not like what we are doing.

English Classes are continuing. There is a lot of seeds being planted. My last homework assignment was for my students to take a gospel of John in Spanish and read chapter 3 and summarize it using only English. I told them they could take it as far as they wanted to go with it. I am excited to see what they will do with it and how God will reveal himself to them.

Few more pictures

Here is a pic. of us and our ministry partners that we work very closely with, John and Elizabeth Rodgers. We are so blessed to know them. We love you guys and thank the Lord for giving us the opportunity to serve Him with you!

Our church had a baptism in a river just outside of Autlan. Here is John sharing some scriptures with us about baptism and what it represents.

This is Norma and Carlos (pictured below). They have only been Christians for a very short time. Being baptized for most Mexicans happens when they are babies. It is not the baby's decision to get baptized. So to new believers being baptized is a statement of faith. They are choosing to identify themselves as a follower of Christ. They are a very financially poor young family and are continuously in need of our prayers.

Our mission conference

Every year our mission has an annual conference. With the growth in Autlan, this year the leaders came down from Tecate, California, & had the conference here. There were five of the leaders that came, including our mission director, Ron Huffman. The theme of the conference was "The hand off" focusing on passing the baton off to others. The baton represents our faith & that we need to pass others. The theme verse was 2 Timothy 2:2.

"And these things you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. "

It is a good reminder that we need to bring others to Christ and teach them to pass their faith on to others. It was an encouraging time for us. They also shared the vision 50/50. The mission will be 50 years old in 2012 and the vision is to have 50 different ministries under Tecate Mission International. Right now there are only 25 or so. One of the highlights was the time we were able to spend getting to know the leaders personally, as well as them getting to know us. This was the first time we had met some of them.

Here are some pictures that we got from our director's camera.
He is the guy standing next to me. (Andy)



John, Elizabeth, Jessie and I did worship on Tuesday during the conference.
The second is of us during one of the morning sessions.

We had some time of fun with team-building games.

The banquet we had using an Olympic theme.

Ok, these are a little scary I know, but they are right in front of the Government building downtown. It is part of the celebration of the day of the dead which was October 31 and November 1. I am not totally for sure which day they celebrate it, but they have festivities both days. Both of these stand over 15 feet tall.



This is right inside of the Independence building (the main governmental building). It is a shrine dedicated to the dead. You can see the shelf is covered with little skulls. This is one area that needs to change in this culture. They pray for their dead relatives in hope that if they are in purgatory, they will be released and go on to heaven. It is reminder how deceived people can become.

This is us at La Roca church, with our mission leaders attending.