Christmas and Caborca!
We arrived home to Hermosillo Dec. 22 after a great trip with God providing safety and great time together as a family. It was a warm reception at church with many fiestas, great food and fellowship with our family in Christ here. We had about 35 friends for Christmas dinner which included 5 Mexican families and our fellow Canadians here (Jack and Lucy Vogt from Dawson City, Yukon and Lane and Sheri Elliot and their children). We celebrated Christmas, Greg’s birthday (26th… unfortunately that’s the date not the age…), our anniversay and New Years on the 31st and Shelli’s birthday on Jan. 3rd. Fiesta central! But it doesn’t end there!
Monday the 4th we left for Caborca, Sonora, a city about 4 hours northwest of Hermosillo with 8 of our youth and our family (our kids were part of the team and did a great job!) on a missions trip to the workers in the asparagus harvest. Workers from all over Mexico (mainly remote regions in the south)come to Caborca in the different harvest seasons (mainly asparagus and grapes). They usually live in camps where families live in small dorm-type rooms. The workers make about $60 (Canadian) per week. This was the 3rd time over the last 2 years that we have joined with a group from Phoenix to reach out to the unreached in their indigeonous languages.
The workers come from remote areas of Mexico where they speak one of the 60+ still spoken languages represented throughout the country. Gospel Recording has recorded the Gospel of John in all of the known languages of Mexico and so when we visit a camp we divide up into different teams, diagnosing languages and sharing the Gospel with them in their native tongue. Most know enough Spanish to communicate and to understand but the goal is that they would hear the Gospel in their native tongue. We did children’s ministry in the camps sharing with 200-300 children over the 5 days. Every night we showed a new film that shows the life and ministry of Jesus through the eyes of Mary Magdelene (http://www.magdalenamovie.com/en/index.html). We would give an invitation to receive Christ after the film (Greg one night and the other nights, the pastor (Alfonso) of the local church we were staying at and helping). It was amazing to see the hunger to listen and respond to the message. We gave Bibles to all who made commitments to Christ as well as the Gospel of John in their language. I’m not sure of the numbers of languages represented each night, but one night the production team (the group that would make the CDs) said they had given out the CDs in at least 6 languages.
We’re sorry we didn’t get a chance to get out an update before this mission but we would appreciate your prayers for the many who put their faith in Christ. The main thing is that they would get connected to a healthy church, a very difficult thing in the conditions and locations they live in. Pray for the local pastor, Alfonso, and his church as they seek out and minister to these new believers. Our youth are putting together a video for the reporting time we will be doing this coming Sunday in our church. I’ll try to upload it here so you can get a better idea of what God did through the week!
We have much to do to start out the year in ministry. Many challenging situations, many exciting projects, many short-term teams coming, many needy people. A lot of stuff that is impossible for us in our power but totally possible for God. Please pray for us as we depend on God to do the impossible and to be able to trust Him and rest in Him. To Jesus Christ be the glory and honour and power forever!!!
Joyfully serving the Author of salvation,
Greg, Shelli, Talson, Annelise and Caleb
