Spring Break, a Busy Time!

Sending a quick update to ask for special prayer this week as we are hosting nearly 90 people at Bethesda Mission and Mount of Olives Children's Village. Please pray for all of the staff to serve the groups well and for the safety of the short-term missionaries as they do construction projects and as they travel on the roads. Pray too that they will be able to reach people with the message of Christ and show His love through them.

We are excited to have three groups here: our first arrived Tuesday and comes from Oregon (some medical professionals, construction experts, and high school students from Mid Columbia); our second group has been with us since Thursday and is made up of students and staff from Walla Walla University; and our third group arrived last night and includes students from Western Washington University, Whatcom Community College, and Skagit Valley College who are all brought together under a ministry called Campus Christian Fellowship. Many hands make light work!

New Photos Up

I posted a few new photos from February on our photoblog. Here is the link: http://www.photoblog.com/nicandclaire

Back in Mexico, Full Speed Ahead

Well, I don't mean to have such long lapses between posts. Maybe that can be a New Year's Resolution, to post more often. We love doing our part in God's work here and want to keep our supporters and interested parties updated. If you read this, feel free to comment. It will help to encourage me as it is hard to know who is out there, reading our blog.

We arrived back in our sleepy little rural town in Mexico just days before Christmas. We took those first days as true holidays, spending time with friends and eating well. Soon after, we got back to work and it has been a joy to be back!

Local Ministries and Local Churches Coming Together!
Today, Lucy and I just got back from visiting Nic down at a worksite in our town. We heard that some Americans (they were actually mostly Canadian, but anyone with light skin is usually labeled an American) would be a building a house in town for a lady at our church. Nic was enthusiastic about helping out - good time to speak English with someone other than me or Lucy and fun to see the house go up. The whole project is completed in under a week, as much of the parts are pre-cut and ready to assemble and it is quite impressive. This building project was run by Yugo Ministries, another missions organization located here on the Baja. They run the Ensenada Outreach Center (E.O.C.) in nearby Ensenada which provides many services to the neighboring communities.

I learned a bit more about Yugo Ministries from their website. Their main objective is to "bring God's love to this broken world around us." They are key in connecting needy people here in Mexico with the resources needed to improve their living conditions. Their work includes "building homes, running feeding programs & clothing distribution, providing emergency/crisis aid, and organizing children's programs and sport camps." The worksite was a mix of Canadians, speaking English with a slightly different accent than what we are used to and working hard to protect their comparatively light skin from the hot sun, and local Mexicans, lending a hand and working to communicate (Yugo Ministries does have full-time staff that are at the worksite who are bilingual). It was neat to see them all working side-by-side and the woman from our church was smiling from ear-to-ear to see her new house being built.

Nic and I are always encouraged when we come in contact with others who are doing similar work in our area. It really feels like such a privilege sometimes to be called to live and work in a place that we love and in the type of work that we enjoy.

Thanks for reading, hope to have some pictures up soon of the most recent group visits and recent pictures of the kids! It feels like summer is approaching now. It has been hot for the last two days, enough that I am actually looking for shade, yet only a week ago we were basking in the sun to get warm.