School's Out!


Schools out for summer!!!  The kids at Pan de Vida had final classes on Friday and Saturday we had the graduation.  This year there were no high school graduates but each class did the end of year celebration through drama and dance presentation.

Also, the students promoted to the next level, ex: kindergarten to primamry, elementary to Jr. High to High school were recognized by receiving certificates.  For me the best part of the day was to see Pastor, who arrived at Pan de Vida with no education, receive his certificate advancing to the 1st grade at age 19.  I know it was very humbling for him to stand among 5 year olds as he was promoted, but it made me very emotional.  I pray he will continue to allow God to teach him new things academically and spiritually while he is at Pan de Vida.

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Sarah's Graduation!


Saturday night Sarah graduated from the ILMES Bachelor of Pedagogy program taught at Pan de Vida.  It is a 4 year course and  educates people to teach with focus on biblical and Christian application.  It is a great achievement that comes with much dedication to the program.  Most of the students enrolled, teach in the mornings and take classes in the afternoon and spend evenings lesson planning and doing their own homework.

Sarah has been at Pan de Vida for 16 years, arriving when she was almost 7 years old from the Otomi community.  When she came, she had never had any education and remained in Kindergarten for 3 years because she really struggled learning her alphabet and how to read.  Once she learned, there was no stopping her.  She started to excel and now she is a kindergarten teacher and has taught many of the kids in her class to read.

It is very exciting to see this phase of Sarah's journey come full circle. She really wants to be able to continue to teach at Pan de Vida, but the reality is that Pan de Vida cannot pay wages and she really needs a job with income to cover her living expenses now that she lives in the transitional house. She is also interested in landscaping designs. Please pray as she seeks God's direction toward her future. 

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Anniversary


Well, here we are at our 3rd year anniversary in ministry at Pan de Vida/Bread of Life Orphanage.  I often say God is working on us more than through us.  He has taught us so much in so many different ways and the last couple of months have been a real season of relying on Him!

It started almost 2 years ago when the boys moved to the hacienda and it looked like we would become a facility with 2 homes.  In the end, that didn't appear to be God's plan and the boys moved back and their supervisors moved onto another ministry. Then, Pan de Vida developed transition housing for some of the older kids still volunteering here.  Other older kids were able to be placed with extended family members. When they were younger, Pan de Vida was a place they could come to grow, receive an education and learn about Jesus Christ.  Now that they are adolescents, we pray they can go and contribute to the households and demonstrate God's love and forgiveness to their families. 

Now that many of the older ones are moving on, this has left Pan de Vida with mostly teenagers.  And since we have all been teenagers and some of us have raised teenagers, you can relate to how emotional this age can be. With the changes, many of the boys have pushed away with a sense of feeling abandoned by the previous supervisors and afraid to open their hearts and love anyone else.  I think most of the girls are scared and insecure about decisions they need to make to prepare themselves to eventually move on.  All of this has brought on difficult and rebellious attitudes leaving the directors and all of us in ministry here stretched.

I was sharing with a fellow missionary the challenges and she reminded me of God's grace to us even when we really don't deserve it.  I have to tell you it sticks in my mind so strong and as a husband and wife, Ira and I have both had to draw closer to each other to work together in exercising this grace. 
We want to make every effort to give them a sense of family as opposed to being a facility. With such a diverse ministry here and so few live on volunteers, it seems you just get so busy with getting through the day doing the necessities and the importance of deeper relationships gets put aside.  There is always interaction, but we all need so much more than that. 

Ira has been allowing many of the boys to work with him in the workshop and on projects. We feel it is important to separate daily chores from the extra projects and thank them for helping.  So last weekend, Ira threw the boys a pizza party and rented movies for a "guys night." The supervisor of the girls, took the older ones out for tacos and the youth leaders took the Levi to The Bicentennial Park for the annual world exhibition. The younger kids got to go to a local playground in El Pueblito.  I chased the football team to their games. Also with the football field near completion, we are spending more time watching them play amongst themselves.

The youth group leaders  started  Project Koinonia which is the Biblical Greek word  for communion, fellowship and partnership.  They have also changed their format to having small group devotionals each Wednesday and then the big group activities every 2nd Saturday.

Already we can see many start to be more like themselves and putting down some of the walls. We know we will look back on this as one of the biggest growths in our ministry but does it ever come with growing pains.  We are thankful God is allowing us this opportunity to journey deeper with Him and the kids.  Praise His Name!

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Rose of Sharon


Here in Querétaro there is a church, Rosa de Saron/Rose of Sharon, that holds English services every Sunday morning.  It allows internationals, whether here on missions, language courses or business, to come together and encourage one another.  It is perfect balance for us because we now attend Rosa de Saron on Sundays and Pan de Vida on Thursday nights.

It has been so nourishing to meet other believers with so much in common and learn about their journey with Christ as well.  We already feel like family and have shared in some home fellowship with several.  Each Friday there is a home Bible Study.  As summer approaches, many will go on furlough, but we look forward to the return in September and being a part of the groups.

One of the couples, Rodney and Amy Westlake,  hosted a team from Middletown, KY for a week long mission trip here at Pan de Vida.  Since then, they have really been plugged into the ministry here.  God prompted a desire in them to minister with the older girls in the transition house. 

Another couple from the church, Heather and Toyo, serve in Querétaro with Campus Crusade for Christ.  Their ministry, “Student Life”, focuses on sharing the gospel, creating Christian fellowship and helping university students deepen their relationship with Christ.  They facilitate weekly meetings in homes and invite university students to join them. The meetings focus on biblical truths, young people’s lives and developing meaningful Christian fellowship.  They also organize fun, social events for the students.

When a student shows interest and is ready, they offer them biblical studies to meet their needs. It is a series of studies that helps them grow their relationship with Christ.  When students finalize their biblical studies and feel ready to follow God’s call in their life, they help them discover their spiritual gifts in order to begin serving and sharing their faith.

Rodney and Amy took all the girls from the transition house to the weekly meetings.  Even though the girls are not in University, it has been great for them to be a part of the fellowship to grow in relationships with each other and a deeper relationship with Christ.  We are sad to say Rodney and Amy will be leaving this month to return to the States, so I am praying God will continue this work in the girls lives and Ira and I can continue to take the girls to the mission.

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God Story


I wanted to share a God Story that has resulted from us getting a new truck.

In November, Ira and I started procedure to get our FM3.  This is a 1 year visitor visa opposed to the 6 month one we had that required us to drive to the border  for personal renewal and get vehicle registration.  The last time we drove the truck there, on the way back it broke down and terrorized us as we were on the side of a mountain in Mexico in the middle of nowhere. God responded to our crys for help and got us home safely. We knew then, we needed to have more reliable transportation in Mexico.

In applying for the visa, we learned Pan de Vida needed to be registered within the immigration to receive foreign volunteers.  There are others here from the US but being married to Mexicans, they fall under other immigration registration laws.  So during this process, the holidays came and delayed our application.  After the governmental New Year we started again.  Pan de Vida became registered and our applications were accepted.

Then the lawyer helping us with the paperwork got delayed as her husband was diagnosed with cancer and needed chemotherapy.  She assured us that as long as we were in the process, we were ok to remain in Mexico even though all our current documents had expired.  Of course we told her to take the time needed to care for her husband.

In the meantime, the funds for the new truck were being raised.  We found out in April that all the funds had come in and by then Dimitri (the lawyer's husband) had finished his 1st round of treatments and was feeling better. So the lawyer followed up on our FM3s.  It was then we learned that now the government had changed the format of the visa from being a document much like a passport, to now being more like a driver's license.  The new format would come into effect May 1st and no new FM3's would be processed until after that date.  So the waiting continued.

In the meantime, Dimitri came to visit us all at Pan de Vida and we learned he was originally from Greece and a mechanic.  After some discussion, he asked us what we were going to do with the truck and we told him we needed to figure out a way to get it to Texas to a salvage yard.  Mexico has very strict rules on foreign vehicles and it is about the only paperwork that they keep accurate stats on.  It was then that he showed interest in having it as a project.  We told him that if he could legally get it out of our name and into his, that he could have it. He was surprised by this but very grateful. So they did some research on what needed to be done to legalize it and decided to take the truck.

Today, the day we got the new truck, the lawyer came for our last phase of the applications and she told us that we had given them such a gift with our old truck. We really thought they were doing us a favor in keeping us from risking the trip back to Texas, and they felt they were the blessed ones.  In Dimitri's time of illness, he now has a project to possibly keep his mind focused so he won't dwell so much on his current situation.

We have explained that it is how God has just worked it all out to the good and in His timing.  We all had a good cry as we sat in awe to how it has all come together and God ultimately gets all the glory!!  Now we have new friends and they have even invited us to their home for an authentic Greek meal.  God is so Good!

Our New Truck!!


We were just blessed with a new truck! It still hasn't sunk in that this part of the journey has come full circle but I am sure we will love getting used to the idea.

Almost 2 years ago when we were in Canada, during a presentation at our church, we were asked what one of our biggest needs would be and outside of our monthly support, there was no hesitation it was a vehicle.  After more time went on and nothing seemed to develop, we just kept fixing the one we have in true Mexican style.

What a testimony this journey has been in many ways.  A very humble woman, who loves to serve and do things behind the scenes and never wanting credit, felt led to ignite "Wheels for Aron".  She has shared many God moments from the positive reaction,  the unity of fellowship of several churches to the generosity of service from everyone who plugged into this mission and the response from many in our community.  It was exactly 3 months from the 1st meeting until the last that the goal for the new truck was reached.  Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined a brand new truck and shame on me because we know with God all things are possible.   Also, the amount raised was almost exactly what we needed.  Once the money was transferred, the exchange rate ended being a little higher than expected and all we had to pay was an administration fee and a difference that came close to $100 dollars.  So how is that for getting exactly what you need and when you need it.

I could go on and on of the testimonies we have personally seen through this whole process but right now I can only think of how good this all feels. Our truck had just reached 320,000km/200,000miles. The last 3 years have been really hard miles if any of you are familiar with roads in Mexico.  To say she is wore out would be an understatement.  The heater knob on our truck broke while it was on heat, so driving with no air conditioner, and the heat on in 120 degree/35C temps has not been fun. Also, our windshield has a massive crack in it and now I can see!!  This isn't even mentioning how comfortable it is now to go over the million speed bumps there are here.  Oh and I can't forget my music.  I always loved listening to my worship music and this truck has a CD player so now I am back in business on the road.  I know Cape Islanders knew when I drove and my arms were in the air that it was in worship but around here, I will have everyone waving.

Well, as you can see, this hasn't left me speechless!  Our hearts are full of gratitude to each and everyone.  It takes every part of what you each do in different ways to make this possible and for that we are so very very thankful and humbled!!

The truck is great but the hearts behind making it all possible is what matters to us the most!!

We love you all!!

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