A little late blogging

I am sorry that we have not been able to write this week. As some of you may have heard Mandy and I are transitioning into a new area of work. This job is not something completely new to us, but for our time in Mexico it is totally different. We decided that it was time to change our "hours of operation" a little bit while we are here. After praying about our life here and knowing that God is continuing to give us a stronger desire to see the fruit of a life skills center, we decided that we are going to act on that calling. We started going around the church and asking about ministries that needed help. We finally were able to make contact with a guy that runs a ministry called AINDOC (pronounced: I-in-dock). This is a ministry that we had been trying to get ahold of for some time. We had a meeting with the leader and told him all about us and what we are here in the city for, and how God has really been paving the way for us, and opening up some really big doors for our family. We then told him about the vision that God gave Mandy and I about a life skills center, way back before our time in Canada. He then took us for a walk, and showed us something that we could hardly believe. They have a 3 story builing that we have been given one and a half floors of, plus another building similar in size to a barn. He told us that he had been praying that morning for help because he could no longer do what needed to be done all by himself. We accepted this new position and now I want to elaberate on what that is.
Mandy and I have been put into a position where we are going to help the poorest people of Mexico City, through a variety of missions. Currently AINDOC has 22 ministries that are spread throughout all of the Mexico city. These ministeries range from house's for children of prostitutes, to elderly that are homeless, to Native shelters, and even a place that Illegal Immigrants are held until deportation, plus many more. There are now people that are running these programs from there specific locations, but the main problem is getting the supplies they need over to them. To remember we are not in the United States where help from the government is available. All these programs are run totally independant from the government. One of the great things is that there are many companies that are willing to donate supplies, food, clothing, and etc. However, there has been a huge problem of sorting, packaging, and distributing these goods to the specific areas around town. This is where Mandy and I come in. We are now in charge of taking all the received goods from many distributers, and cleaning it, packaging it, sorting it, and then making sure that it needs to get where it needs to get. For example, this week we just received a huge shipment of toys for the street kids for Christmas. We will beging packaging "Christmas packages" in about one month for children that have never had gifts before. We also have a food bank, that is the same, only that is alot busier because of the food that needs to be given out before it gets bad. Alot of what we get is for Native Ministry. It is given for the Indiginous people, and it is destributed to that specific area. Keep in mind this is all private and no government hands in the work. Right now we have huge piles of school supplies that are for kids going back to school, it now late because there was no way of getting them over to the ministries that needed them. There are box's sitting in a corner because there was nobody working in distrobution, and nobody knew they were there. Walmart donated a huge amount of items for the students returning to school but nobody knew they were there and the items just were piling up. This is the problem that we are going after. Another awesome aspect of this ministry is that we are virtually not limited in what we can say, how we can say it, and why we can say it. This gives us the freedom to share the love of Christ with the people and not have to fear an agency disciplining us for it. Right now however, we are just trying to make a little organization of the box's and box's of stuff that we have. After some time we are desiring to get out on the street and actually begin handing out what we are packing with the local ministries that are currently there now. This allow us to show the people the love of Christ that He showed us, which is the most important thing that we can do here. Our girls are helping us a little bit after school as well, and it is great to see them putting stuffed animals in little bags, and having them tell us about the kids they think are going to be receiving them. They have such giving hearts that now when we walk around town they have mommy carry little toys in her purse too give to the street kids when they see them, or change they have received for doing things for people they carry to give to the older homeless people that are on the street. We are so blessed in every aspect of our lives here in Mexico City. Our budget is short, we budgeted too low for the schooling of our girls, but we know that God is in control and as long as we are truthful, honest, loving, and folling Him before anything else we have nothing to worry about. Please keep us in your prayers as we move deeper and deeper into the new ministry that we are busy in, and the direction that God is taking us. Also just incase you all are wondering we have not left the youth that are working with. We are still teaching there as well, and are spending alot of time counseling young Christians in the truth of the scriptures and not the hearcy of the many false religions that surround us daily (trust me there are plenty). Thank you very much, and God Bless you. I also want to say, after seeing all these donations from American companies, God Bless America.

Back to School

Well, we are back now from our month of traveling and working all over Mexico. We were blessed to see many youth step out of the crowd willing to lay it all down to serve our King and Master Jesus Christ. We are now getting more and more involved in the youth ministry here. We are finding that many, many youth and/or young people are willing to step up to take on the call of Christianity but they do not want the religion. This has been wonderful to see because we are showing them what it takes to live a Christian life according to the Bible, and how they cannot do it alone. They are willing to sacrifice whatever God wants from them to be a kings and queens with Him when it is all over. We are in the discipleship of the young people which is something that is really different from what he have done before, but we are really seeing God's hand moving in our family's life and the lives of people around us. Working in a country that is overboard in religion is very different but it is great to see how the word of God is more powerful that ever. Jesus is breaking through the walls of religion and showing that His love for people is more now than ever. We have started working on a class for the people that are really interrested in seeking the face of God and we have more people than we can handle, that are interrested. It is amazing to see the favor that God has given us here, with the people around this community. Sometimes I sit back and say that what we are doing looks impossable in comparison to the size of this city we are working in. Then I have someone talk to us about something that is horrably wrong in their lives, and after spending some time with them and seeing them change through the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives I thank God that this is where He has placed us. Some days are very difficult, and some days are great but all in all it is really teaching us dependance on God. I wished that I could tell all the stories that we see, but we cant (because of the lack of time, and my poor fingers on this computer). I would love to tell you about Sunday right now. We were asked to teach 2 groups of young people during a couple of the services. We prayed about what to teach on and God gave us Hebrew 12:14. We taught on, "live in peace with all people and without holyness no person will see the face of God". In the end we had about 15 kids that we prayed for that stepped forward willing to change there lives and give up there sin to live in holyness. They are the ones that are ready to see the face of God. We have a HUGE burden on our lives to share the message of what it will be like when we stand before our savior and judge. We do not want to here, "Saved, but life wasted" but we will dedicate our lives to hear, "Well done good and faithful servent". This is the heart of our message and the youth are willing to hear it. I think that they can hear the Holy Spirit more clearly becuase their minds are not clouded by the worries of life, bills, payments, necesary provisions, kids, etc. The things that we as adults and parents have to deal with the youth dont understand, yet. I think that because of that, if we can get them hooked now on the reality of Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit, and the truth of the Bible, they will change the world.
Please keep us in your prayers as we push forward on some other plans that we are working on right now. We want to provide a place for the kids that are desiring to learn about God to come to us. Right now we are only teaching where we are invited because we have no place for them to come to us. This is the story of our lives and we need your prayers for the next step. We thought that we were going to be teaching this year as well, but we just found that it will not be happening. God closed the doors for us in that direction, but the same day we had another offer to begin working with the youth in a different aspect. This is a scary new thing, and it is not a ministry that exist, but God is awesome that way, and we will keep you all posted as things happen. Luv ya all, and talk later Ross J.

Our time in Acapulco

Greetings from the wonderful city of Mexico. We have so much to tell you about this trip too Acapulco. It is amazing how much God showed up there. It started out with us praying for money to go help in El Salvador. We didn't realize that God was acually having us raise the money for Acapulco. We were arranged to go to a place called Oaxaca in Mexico with a family of missionaries from Bethany College. From day one things did not work for us to go there, so we knew that were to go somewhere else to help, so we just started looking for a place. We thought that the invitation we got from El Salvador was that place but once again God had different plans. He shut the doors to that place and opened them mightly too Acapulco. We received money from some very close supporters of ours and we had enough money, also we had alittle left over to help with our daughters school uniforms, books and supplies. This was a great need. God has all of it in His hands. We started our time off in our usual whirlwind fashion. We were asked to come a day earier than our already fast time and to preach at church the morning right after we got there. Ross did a wonderful job there. There were many tears and hands in the air for a closer relationship with Jesus. He spoke on the story of Zacchaeus. We were also able to talk with a guy after church who was into drugs and was having a hard time with life. We asked if he wanted to get closer to God and change his ways. We were able to pray with him and help him out a little with a small amount of money that was given to us at the church from a lady. God always gives us opportunities to share about Him if we ask.
I am going to give a quick overview of our week.
Monday we had a open day to get ourselves ready for the week and for our daughters to have some special time with us before we started our busy week.
Tuesday we went on the streets with a group of teenagers spreading the good news and asking if people would like join us for church that night.
Wednesday we had time in the morning to prepare a drama and some events for the weekend ahead and also for our daughters to be able to swim in the pool at the home we stayed at. Then we went to the church and taught a drama to a group of teenagers who would be going on the missions trip with us the next day.
Thursday we went to a village outside of Acapulco on a missions trip with a group of teenagers. We went throughout the village and invited people to church and we performed a drama after service. Also we were able to help clean up the church area for the pastor. We were so proud of the teens we went with.
Fri.,Sat. and Sun. we went on a retreat with 25 teenagers to a place outside of Acapulco. We were able to each preach here and send some good quality time with the young adults. We preach five times over the weekend and had a time of questions each day with the kids. Ross and I gave our testimonies and also preached on "Sex before marriage", "Discipline from God the Father" and "Restoring the heart of the father in the family". God really showed up during these times and 5 teenagers asked for deliverance from depression and another group asked for prayer to have a stronger walk with Jesus. We also taught alot about the armor of God and the spiritual battle that we fight in daily. The Holy Spirit was so thick during these times. We were so blessed to be apart of this group of teens and teen helpers. We had three specific teens come up to us and said they have been praying for preaching like this and for the answers God gave them through us. One kid said that he didn't even need to ask for the answers he needed. We talked about all of them in our sermons. This was a great time and we were able to meet many new teens that are in our prayers now. Please pray for continued strength and teaching in the Lord for these teens. We have alot of pictures and videos on youtube of our trip. Please check them out. We start school one week from now. We have alot of preparing for school. Ross starts teaching at this time also. Thanks for your continued support and all your prayers. We are always in need of them. Satan doesn't want us here because he knows that we are here to God's work. Many Blessings Amanda



This is during our practice time. The next video is the one that we did on the streets.