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.