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Kansas City move and update

2010-03-21T17:19:00.003-05:00

Just wanted to write and tell all of you what is going on. We have signed up for the International House Of Prayer and are waiting for there final approval. Many of you are wondering what has happened and why we are here in the United States. To make a long story short, we had problems with our immigration papers in Mexico. We had hired lawyers to do our FM paperwork to live in Mexico. When it came renewal time we found out that the lawyers had did the work illegally. We hired specialists to try and sort out our paperwork. In the end they were not able to. They advised us to leave the country for a time, and then approach the Mexican Embassy here in the US. We only had 1 week from the time we found out to be out of the country from the months end. We had to drive to Kansas City and have been trying to get a home and situated here before we could write a letter of explanation. We have to wait a few months to address the issues of our paperwork. Meanwhile, during that time, we are going to be attending IHOP. There is a 3 month internship that our family will be taking there. During this time we are going to be praying for direction and guidance to our next steps ahead. At this time, we are not able to give you anymore information. Because, we don't know ourselves. Many of our supporters have told us that this is called a Spiritual Sabbatical and is quite normal in ministry. If there is any of our supporters that we were not able to be in contact with by phone. Please call us at 701-347-2114 or email us at rossandmandy@yahoo.com. We would appreciate all your prayers during this time of change and transition. Blessings in His name. Ross, Amanda, Alyssa and Zoe Johnston

long time without blogging

2010-01-23T19:05:00.003-06:00

Well, I must admit that I am not good at this. I don't take the time to just sit down at the desk and do stuff. I feel like I need to be moving around doing stuff to accomplish anything. I know that I have to get better at this so I will make a better effort at it. Right now we have alot to tell you about. As of this week we have finally been in close contact with the church that we are attending and we are going to begin working with the youth. We are more than super excited about it, and look forward to an amazing time ahead. We are going to be working with the youth in therelationship area and outreaches. There is another couple that we are going to be working hand in hand with who are going to do the weekly service, while we work on outreach's. We also are working at a social help program called " La Casa del Mana" which in english is "House of mana". We are doing feedings and taking care of anything that they need done. Right now there is a list of around 700 people for sure that want to be baptised. This is great news except for we need water and a swimming pool or something like it. Our group is working with all areas of social help. From children that are terminally ill, to inmates, to the families of inmates, to children on the street, or whatever we can. Right now there are 1,006,000 children oficially that need an adopted home in Mexico City. (If any of you are bored with life or unemployed we need your help.)But we are happy that God has laid this task out infront of us. We also are working at the christian school plant here as well. I am teaching in the high school and we are trying not to kill ourselves getting our new school ready. Because the style of education is something like the style in the states and the education is blatently Christian and not religious, the school is exploding. We are continually getting new students and are growing and growing. Because of the growth we need a new building. We have found a new building, but the building is in need of SERIOUS help. We are changing the floors, patching the holes in the floor, busting up the concrete that was spilled all over, painting, cleaning, taking down the sticky plastic that is all over the windows, and etc. This is in our free time, as well as trying to be a family as well. I am thankful for the opportunity that we have to have our girls working hands on with us on the field as well. This last Thursday Alyssa and Zoe were able to help us by handing out food to people that were in need. Mandy and I had them stand in the distribution line and take over the lettuce post. It was so fun to watch them as they learned about giving to others. They also were able to spend a couple hours worshipping the Lord with all the people before this. God is so great in his kindness and love. I remember Alyssa asking me how to love people with food one time, and this was a perfect example. God in His mercy showed them how to love people that they didn't even know Zoe was so cute, she was singing worship songs from her heart as she was giving out food. We were all so over filled with joy. The people were very thankful and seemed to enjoy all the hugs from us. They also gave us a huge welcome. This was very nice to have, because, earlier that day we were denied service at a store just because we were American. We have this often but we just needed a extra welcome from the people we are helping. Knowing there are ignorant people in every country,expecially in our country but thankful for the good people and not giving the bad ones a second thought. Well, I just wanted to let you all know what we have been up to and we have many more plans as well. I will try and update this more and more. Also please feel free to look us up in Facebook. We love to visit with all of you back home that are just as much a part of this ministry as we are. We love you all and look forward to hearing from you soon. We will be sending out a new newsletter soon!!! Ross

Waiting!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-12-08T11:18:00.002-06:00

Hello everyone it has been about a month since our last blog. Many things have been happening in our crazy lives. We were working on the house and preparing for our Thanksgiving Party. We had 3o people show up for the party. We had such a great time with each other. We gave thanks, played games and ate way more food than we should have. I(Amanda) have been baking like crazy. For the Thanksgiving parties, Christmas parties, gifts and just people over at our home. I am planning on also having a cookie exchange at our home. I (Amanda) have also been battling with my fibromialga since after our Thanksgiving party. It seems like a never ending battle but it is teaching me to take care of myself more. Hard thing to do when you are busy mom and hard headed. I will be writing up a newsletter/seasons greetings card for this month. You should receive it by Christmas time.

Ross has been busy working during the week at two different school. He is teaching in a high school at one of them and sixth graders at the other school. He is able to share about Jesus at both of the school and is building relationships with all the kids. Along with teaching he has been teaching the other man that is living with us how to fix things around the house. This is one of the things he finds relaxation in. He is also very good at it. We are so thankful that he knows how to do all of this because the house was in REALLY BAD SHAPE when we moved in. Thank God for our handyman.

Alyssa and Zoe have also had a lot of changes happen in their lives lately. We moved to a different home, in with another family, plus they changed schools. Jesus is so wonderful, the girls were able to have time between the changes. They were VERY ready to change schools. They come home everyday with huge smiles on their faces. It is so wonderful to see how they have adjusted to everything. We as a family made a gingerbread house the other day. The girls were telling us that the frosting is the glue for the elves. We had a wonderful day bringing in the Christmas season. They have their school play coming up. They are both so excited. The other day Alyssa cam and told us that she was so thankful that we have our family day together. Every Saturday on our Saboth we celebrate being together as a family. We understand that our family is first and our ministry/work is second. They are both growing up so much!

Well to end we would like for you guys to be praying for us for the next two weeks. We have yet some more things that maybe changing in our lives. Please pray for guidence, wisdom and encouragement from the Hold Spirit. We thank all of you that keep up with our lives and ministry. Many Blessings! The Johnstons
P.S. If you don't receive our newsletters and would like to please email us or leave a comment for us. Our email is rossandmandy@yahoo.com

Hello Everyone!

2009-11-10T20:04:00.002-06:00

Well we are now in our new home. We are all so happy! We are enjoying having another family living with us. It is working out very well. We are getting everything unpacked and settling in. It really feels like a home. We have a wonderful older neighbor, she has came over a couple times. She asked us if we would like her to be our grandma. She is very sweet.
We just booked my parents (Amanda) tickets today. They are coming in February. We are already counting the days. We have been very busy moving, fixing and working. We are soon looking forward to having a big Thanksgiving party at our home. It will be our typical home, filled with people :) What a blessing! We will write again soon. Blessings in His name! Amanda

Trip to Reynos, Mexico

2009-10-27T09:12:00.002-05:00

Hello everyone, we are back for a long tiring trip. We were able to get out trailer and deliver the donations that everyone from the Williston area gave. They went to an orpahange that was in need. A mens prision and also to the garbage dumps of Reynosa. Many people live there and have nothing. We brought our trailer back to Mexico City with us. We ran into some problems with some crooked cops. They said we needed a special permit that the boarder agency didn't tell us we needed. Satan was definitly at work on this trip. He hates that we are doing the Lords work. We were over charged on so many things this trip. He knew we had very little money to make this trip. So he doubled the cost of everything. We know that this trip was for the Lord and He always provides for His children. As for the crooked cops, I pray that the Lord has more mercy than I wanted to give them at 2:30am in the morning :)

We are now moving into our home. We are in between the two places now. Please pray that I (Amanda) can have the energy that I need to do all that is necessary. We are moving into our home with another Mexican family. They have three children. We will have a busy home but it really is nothing different than we are use too. Please keep the prayers coming for my health. I am wishing I could be more patient with the healing process. Also hoping for things to slow down a little in our lives. Thank God for the Saboth (Saturday) our family day and the day of the Lord.
Blessings in His name, Amanda

Road Trip this weekend!

2009-10-14T22:47:00.002-05:00

We are planning a trip this weekend to Texas. We will leave early Sat. morning and return home Wednesday night. We are going to get our trailer and try and bring as many donations as we can with us. We are planning on working one day in Reynosa. For sure in an orphanage and I am not sure where else. Please be in prayer for a safe trip and for financing this trip. Reynosa is one of the poorest places in Mexico. Please also pray for us to get the donation across the boarder. If we are not able to bring them across, please pray that they would go to the people that are in the most need of them. God has His ways of making things happen. If they are suppose to be in North Mexico or South Mexico it don't matter to us. We are just HIs hands and feet. Thanks to everyone that donated the clothing and that helped make this happen. We will try and get pictures for all of you. Blessings Amanda

Hello :)

2009-10-07T11:46:00.003-05:00

Hello everyone, we are now working on the house we are going to rent. We have been
painting, taking down wall paper and changing some flooring. The owners are a blessings, they said that we could use our deposit money to help work on the house. It really needed a face life. Very dirty and old but we are very excited to have a house to live in. We need to be in it around the 15th of Oct. It is taking longer than we wanted to work on it but that is what happens when people are sick in your home. I have been very tired but am pushing through to get it done. My husband has been wonderful to just tell me to stay home and rest. It is amazing how hard it is to rest. Things always come up and our lives are not exactly normal ones. We are praying for a balance. I have been abe to rest thought while Ross and the girls are at school, which I am VERY thankful for. You realize how nice it would be to have family around you at times like this. We miss them but we keep pushing through. We are excited my parents (Amanda) are planning to come in Feb. We are looking forward to seeing them.

We are also going to be having another family living with us in our new home. They have two kids close to our age. We are excited to have them with us. Please be in pray for all of us to adjust. Please also be in pray for our upcoming party at our home. We are going to have another party at our neew home for the teenage group we work with. Nov. 1st is a big holiday here. They celebrate Day of the Dead during OCt. and Nov. 1st. We are fighting against this spirit and are going to celebrate life instead. Last year we had 25 teenagers stay at our home. Please keep us up in your prayers for this party.

If you have not received a newsletter within the last week please email us your address at rossandmandy@yahoo.com.
Blessings Amanda

Check out our new newsletter

2009-09-29T08:53:00.005-05:00

Here is our fall newsletter. I have been doing better. It is very hard to try and rest at the place you also do a lot of your work from. I have told the places that I work at, that I will not be able to for one month. We are also try to tear down wallpaper at our house that we are renting and also painting and cleaning. It is amazing how much work it is just to try and rest. We are trying to find a balance though. Thanks for your prayers and support. We have many things to start in Nov. We are excited to keep you posted. Blessings Amanda

We need a time of rest!

2009-09-23T18:28:00.002-05:00

As I felt myself starting into another seizure today, I started to pray, by only breathing His name (Yahweh). I was in the seizure and I felt myself being protected by His presence. My body didn't start the shaking and convulsing like it normaly does in a seizure. This one was different. I felt His peace like never before and I started to understand somethings that I have been praying about. As I layed on my bed I felt my husband come behind me and hold me. I layed there in complete peace. I felt like I could fight off a thousand demons. I felt like my spirit was on top of the world. Like I have never been stronger, but at the same time I felt the weakest I have ever felt before in my body. I was unable to move my arms or legs. I was unable to barely take a breath. I realize that my body is in need of recovery. In the last three days I have had three people tell me that my spirit is so strong but my body is so weak. I need to allow my body to try and catch up. I finally understood this was the truth. It is so hard to admit that you are not superwoman and you can't conquer the world. I have worked so hard to prove things to some people that are involved in my life. I finally realized that some people will never change and that they want to see evil in other people. Because, they have hardened their religious hearts to Christ the Lord. They have closed their ears to the voice of the Holy Spirit. I feel even more ashamed of myself, than hurt from these people. I am ashamed, because, I have allowed pride to come in and take the focus off of Jesus in this area. When I was reading Galations 1:10( Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.) I looked up the word approval, it means blessing. This hit me like a lead brick in my spirit. I realized that I have been trying to receive a blessings from these people. A blessing in the work we do, a blessing in my parenting and a blessing in me being a good wife. I knew in my mind I wanted a blessing from God but in my spirit I also wanted a blessing from these people. I now realize how wrong and offensive this is to Christ. That is why i am writing to tell you all, that we are taking a month away from hands on ministry. Ross will still be teaching at the school but I will be stepping away from my ministry areas. I am going to listen to my God, my husband and my family. I am going to allow my body a much needed rest. I am thankful to all of you that support us and I believe that you will understand my reasoning. In the first week of November we will be helping AINDAC with their big day of social help. Also we will return to going to our little mountain village that we are helping with along with our other ministry responibilities. Please remember that I am not going to be walking away from my highest ministry responsablilites, my husband and daughters. Thanks to all of you that have been praying for me. I believe that I am on my road to recovery. In church the other day, I heard the Lord speak to me and he said, "Your strenght is in me, your health is in me, your joy is in me. You don't need to look any where else but in Me." I am going to take Him for His word and work on this during my time off. Thanks again to all of you who are praying and supporting us. Please don't stop the prayers. This is truly the earthly support that we are in need of right now.

Gracias a Dios, Somos juntos

2009-09-21T23:20:00.006-05:00

Bueno, as I sit here tonight thinking about what is going on in our lives and how God is moving miraculously, I am also angered over the attacks of Satan. It seems at times that there are just no easy answers. Satan has definitely increased the attacks on the body of believers and we are pushing back as hard as we can. There are times that I feel that we are at the top of the world and others that we are in the bottom of the barrel. This has really made me stop and think a lot about myself. I have begun to think of myself as a glow stick. First, because, sometime I think of myself as smart as a glow stick, just sitting there waiting for someone to just pick me up!! Just kidding, that is not really why!! The real reason is because of the absolute sense it makes thinking about it. The more that a glow stick is with a light source, the more it glows!! This is like us, the more that we are with our master Jesus, the more that we glow as well!!!! This is so amazing, yet SO difficult. I am learning all over about prayer and the effectiveness, the sacrifice, the joy, and the hardship of time in prayer. I will admit that I struggle in this area. I always feel like I have too much of this or that to get done. However, without prayer we are just a car running with no gas!! I am learning to "love again" the intimate time in prayer and study from my Master and King. I was just reading in Galatians 1-3 and it really hit me how hard living the true gospel of Christ really is. I seen in Chapter 2 that Peter was clearing walking away from the gospel of Christ and I thought "WOW"!!! I began pondering in my mind, if Peter could be mislead and walk away, how much easier for one of us. We didn’t walk with Jesus, talk with Jesus and eat a meal with Jesus. I always had it in the back of my mind that if I had just walked a little closer (physically) to Jesus, or had just lived when He did so I could have heard Him. Everything would be better. However, this is a lie from Satan!! Now that this has been exposed, I must deal with it!! Peter walked away from the truth. He literally walked with Jesus, and then that pesky old rooster crowing thing was there as well!! This wasn’t just some guy, this was Peter, a spiritual giant of the Bible!!!! We need to make sure we are on the right track with the true gospel and make Jesus famous in this world. The thing is, we need to make sure that what we are preaching is the truth and not some other teaching that we were just taught. We need that intimacy, that time in prayer, and that glow that we can only get from our precious Father. I know that with a glow stick you can put it anywhere and it will suck up the light, we however, have only one source of light and that is Jesus Christ. We must stay next to the Father and quit looking for our light in people. Jesus is the first and the last, the beginning and the end, and I give Him my heart my family and everything that I am. I am learning that I don’t need and shouldn’t expect anything in return from Him. Everything that He has given me is a blessing that I am not worthy of receiving. Thanks be to God for the wonderful life that He has given, and I pray that I am ready to ride out the coming storm that is on the horizon!! God bless you all and hope to hear from you. Ross

Change of Pace

2009-09-13T09:33:00.003-05:00

Hey everyone, I sorry again that we have not blogged in a while but we are having to change the style in how we blog. As you know we are busy, busy, busy here in Mexico City. We have taken on a bit of a different dynamic in our ministry and I would love to let you all know about what we are doing. We want to start blogging about once a week to let you all know more about prayer requests and/or what we are thinking, or mulling over in our minds during the week. We don't want the precious people that we love and are trying to help to get the wrong impression about who we are. We certainly do not want anyone here to feel like they are a "project" or just "work" for us. We know that lots of you reading this, are from Mexico City. We want you all to know that we LOVE you. We are here to help Mexico City dig out of it's roots of religion and move towards the freedom that is only found in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. We want all of you to experience what the Bible calls a life, and life more abundantly.
Now, because we are picking up a "fan base" or to say it better, just friends of course that are reading this blog, from the Mexico City. We are no longer using names or identities, unless you we ask you and you say yes. We just want you to be sure that you know WE LOVE YOU. Our blog will be more posts of things that we are thinking on any particular day.Things that we as a family need prayer for or projects that we are working on. Please understand that we need to do this because we don't want to offend anyone or accidentily "let the cat out of the bag" if you know what I mean. Thank you for your understanding and we look forward to hearing from all of you soon. Ross, Amanda, Alyssa, and Zoe Johnston

Music Video I like

2009-08-19T18:16:00.004-05:00

Here is a video that I like that I found while searching on youtube today. I hope that you like this video as much as I did.

Thank you much for all of those that are helping us and God bless.
Ross

If you cant see the video here is the link: Click Here -----> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv6sQKHdgOA

We are HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-08-15T14:35:00.002-05:00

Hello everyone we are so happy to write and say, "we are home!" If has been a great time but Alyssa, Zoe and my niece Shaylee all got sick. Viva Mexico!!!! We have been trying to work out in the villages but everything has canceled on us last minute. We are hoping that we will be able to go this weekend to our friends house that runs a orphanage. We will be working next week in a orphanage that I am starting in. We have been doing our everyday work and also showing Shaylee Mexico. We are so excited to go back to our church this Sunday! Well we will start to send picture and update more now that we are back home. Thanks for all of you that have keep up with us. If you would like to be put on our blog account update, please email us at rossandmandy@yahoo.com. Also we could put you on our mailing list of our newsletters. WE will be sending one within the next months time. Blessings Amanda

Heading Back Home

2009-07-29T12:39:00.002-05:00

Hello everyone we are leaving Williston on the 2nd of August. We fly out of Minneapolis on the 6th of August. We are so excited to be home. We will start to write regularly again when we are back in Mexico. We have a busy time when we get back. Our niece is coming back with us for a week so we have many differnet jobs we will be doing. Thanks for the the people that have helped make this possible for us. We appreciate the finacinal support that people have given to us. We are so thankful. Many blessings to you all. Amanda

Busy Time

2009-07-21T07:19:00.003-05:00

Hello everyone, as you know we are back in Williston using our time to connect with friends and supporters!! This time has been awesome, however we had a suprise oppertunity offered too us two weeks ago and we sorta had to put our fundraising time on hold. Mandy and I had an older enclosed trailer sitting out in the trees at her parents house for the last couple years. We had put some storage stuff in there that we were not ready too get rid of until we knew for sure what was going to happen in Mexico. Well, now that we know we are going to be staying in Latin America for a while we decided that we needed to get rid of our stuff. We sold everything that we had around here in North Dakota, but we still had this little trailer left over. We could have sold it as well, but we had a vision of the trailer full of clothes. We wanted to somehow get the thing to Mexico to help those in need down there. Well, we were visiting with some firends and they told us that they would be willing to take it to Texas for us!! New Hope Church paid for the gas to get them there, and we have some friends that are willing to hold it for us until we get the authorization from Mexico to bring it in!! This is a huge answer to prayer because we did not have a vehicle to take it down, nor did we have the time or money!! This was a huge answer to prayer. At that time we could see that God was starting to bring all this together. The only thing that we had now was that they said they were leaving in 2 weeks and we needed the trailer ready to go! So I was able to get ahold of our friends in Mexico and talk with them about bringing it in. They talked to the appropriate legal team and they assured us that it would be possible to get it in, but there was certain criteria that we had to follow. This was no problem, just alot of work. At this point, time was certainly working against us. Well, to make a long story short we were able to put the news in the New Hope Church bulletin, and in the local paper. The resonce from the people was overwealming!!! It was great to see people coming out with cloths, shoes, blankets, baby items, baby cloth's, lots and lots of everything!! I want to say thank you too all of you that made this possible!!! Well, to make a long story short, we took donations through last thursday, and we spent everyday last week sorting, and seperating the supplies. Womens cloth's in one pile, men's cloth's in another, and baby here , young mens there, and so on, and so on. Finally with the help of the kids from Eckert we were able to get it all packed, labeled and weighed!! We have over 2000 LBS of clothing for those in need!! We dropped it off last thursday night, and it headed for Texas frieday morning. We got word last night that it reached its destination in Alamo Texas last night!! Thank you Sonny and Doretta for doing us, and the people of Mexico, a HUGE FAVOR!!! Now we are just doing all the legal work to get it into the country. We are flying back out of Minneapolis in about 2 weeks. From Mexico we are able to connect with the local church and drive up to Texas to get the stuff and pull it in. God is soo good and we are able to further the spreading of the gospel because of those of you that are helping us, with food, clothing, finances, and resourses!! This really puts us in a unique position now being able to help with the physical needs as well as the spiritual!! We will keep you posted with more info as this project progress's. We have posted photos of the trailer and us working at our flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rossandmandy/ . Thank you again too all of you that made this possible through your gifts and resources.
We are also still fundraising, and we want to say a special thank you to those of you that have partnered with us. The last couple weeks we have not had alot of time to spend with all of you because of this trailer project. We have given the fundraising over to God and told Him that it is He needs to provide for us, because we are not able. We are limited in our time that we have to see each and every one of you. I know that all of you that are willing to stand along side of us while we go and do, and just as much responcible for the spreading of the gospel than we are. Without you none of this would be possible and we thank you. When I spend my time in prayer each day I ask that God pour out his blessing on you for the sacrifices, and selfless giving that each of you take part in, for us. Each time we sit down at the table together, or drive into a village with a car load of cloth's, I thank God that you were willing to give to us, for Him!!
God bless you all, and we will write more soon.

Hello from North Dakota

2009-07-08T23:17:00.002-05:00

Hi everyone, before I get started we would like to apologies for not writing lately. We have had a whirlwind month. We are still home meeting with churches, supporters and hopefully new supporters. We are still not at our budget but God is good and we are looking forward to returning back to work soon. It has been wonderful to see parents and family. It is great to be able to go walk up to your loved ones and give them a kiss anytime you feel like it. We appreciate all they do for us. Thankfully the Internet is available and we are still able to communicate so easily. This has been such a blessings for those lonely days. This has also been a blessings to be able to communicate with our brothers and sisters back in Mexico. We will not be writing as often while we are home, unfortunately there are not enough hours in a day to accomplish everything. But we will try to communicate more often. We leave Williston the first of August. We will make a couple more stops before we get back on the plane to fly us home. Our niece Shaylee will be coming back with us for two weeks. We are so excited to show her our home and our new friends. We will write again before we leave. Many blessings Amanda

Home at last

2009-06-01T09:59:00.002-05:00

Well, we finally made it, we are back in the US for a short spell of time. We have only been back for a few days and have begun the whirlwind schedule that we have over the next couple months. We actually arrived home a week early because of the airlines moving our date on us. This is ok because we need to finish our presentations, support cards, and all the things that we have to have ready by next week. We are so excited to meet with all of you and thank you personally for all the help over the last 18 months. We will only be here (North Dakota) until August 4th then we are headed back to Mexico. We are excited to be home while at the same time we are excited for August to get here so we can get back on the "street" doing what we love to do. This last few months have been difficult but rewarding and our love for our daddy and Savior is so much stronger than before. We would love to sit and talk to all of you one on one if time and schedules permit. Please feel free call us at Linda Hammonds (572-9486) or Ed and Polly Jeannottes (572-) to set up a meeting if you would like. We also are going to try and contact many of you to come and tell you about the blessings that you created and what we are going to do when we get back. What blessings you made possible and what plans we have for the next few years.
We have to be honest, with all the stuff that is going on in Mexico right now many people from here, and there, have asked us if we are going to pack it up and head home. While this is a very attractive option we feel that there is too much of Gods work that needs to be done. The swine flu, the war of drugs, the rising level of violence, the economic collapse, medical problems and many other things make our job even more important. We feel that in times of adversity and struggle people are more willing to listen and accept the truth of the gospel. This is prime time for Mexico right now, we are seeing Gods hand moving across the face of Mexico and there is nothing more rewarding that watching lives transformed and changed to the truth and reality of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We want to say thank you again and we look forward to seeing you and meeting with you to show you the faces of the people that you have changed.
See you in a little while and God Bless. Ross

We are very excited!!!

2009-05-16T15:40:00.002-05:00

Hello everyone, we will be coming to Williston a week earlier than planned. We have been dealing with Aeromexico. They have changed out airplane tickets 4 times on us. We to make a long story short we were able to move our tickets up because of it. Alyssa is taking here finals this coming week and I(Amanda) have not been able to work because of the surgery, so this was a perfect time to be able to come earlier. We just had Zoe's birthday on Wed. She was not able to have a birthday at school because the government band all parties because of the swine flu. This was ok though, we went out to eat as a family, picked out toys(thanks Mr. & Mrs. Purkey and Family for money for gifts)and then went to our friends house for cake. It was a fun day! Both girls were in there princes dresses. I have never seen someone go so crazy in the toy aisle as Zoe. Watch out Barbies here she comes. Well better go, hope to see some of you guys soon. We will be in Williston for 2 months on furlough. We will return to our home in Mexico the 1st of August. Blessings Amanda

O it feels so great to feel good!!!!!!

2009-05-09T12:33:00.002-05:00

Hello everyone, I am writing with such a happy heart. I have not felt this good in 3 months :) I am recovering fast from my hysterectomy. We just had a check up with the doctor and he said, that I am recovering better than he thought I would. What great news!!!! We have been stuck in our home for about two weeks now. The girls have not had school and many companies and businesses have been closed down. It felt great to leave the house for groceries two days ago. The doctor has also given us the green light to allow friends over to the house. Everyone here in the city has felt caged up, we are all excited to see each other again. Zoe's birthday is on Wed. May 13th. We are going to have a small party at the school for her with her friends. I am doing well but not good enough to through a normal party yet. Also we are going to be returning to Williston on June 3rd. We are very excited to see family but I am also having to heal up before the trip home. I am learning not to push it (this is unbelievable hard thought:) Pleas ebe praying for our health these next two weeks. We cannot get sick because they will not allow us on the plane if we are. Trusting in Him!!!! Praying you all have a great week. Blessings Amanda

thankful for Him

2009-05-04T19:31:00.002-05:00

Hello again. Wow, what a story. As some of you know Mandy and I just got back from the hospital a few days ago. Well, its been almost a week now. She was bleeding internally the doctors said for probably a few years, just getting progressively worse. She has been struggling with this problem for sometime, but things are getting way better now. She went in on Saturday because of intense pain and many other complications. The doctors said that she was on her way to having another convultion again. Her oxygen levels were down, and she was running out of energy. They took her in and said that they needed to do emergency surgery on her "now" and not wait. Well, she went in and everything is great now. There were some complications with the medicines but everything ended up well in the end. She is doing way better now, just recovering. We are so happy to be living in the will of God and letting Him use this whole thing to further the gospel of His kingdom. We were in the hospital when this thing about the swine virus broke into the public. Also during a 5.8 earthquake. We were in the middle of the place where people needed to hear the most about the gospel of peace. This is something that we have had from the beginning with these medical problems. Peace is not something that you can fake, or make up, or try to immitate. You either have it or you don't. I was told by a spiritual giant one time, as long as you have peace about what you are doing, you are living in the will of God. Not to be confused with comfort, just peace. Well, from day one my wife has been telling me about the peace that passes all understanding she has felt, even from before this whole thing started. Well, as you know, we were in the hospital and the swine flu began its destructive sweep across Mexico City. At first I couldn't figure out why God would bring me here, at this time, but now it is all coming together. At a time when people need to hear the most, we have relationships and ways of communicating. What a blessing!! We even had internet in the hospital, that does not have internet!! Now, that was a miracle in itself!! It's funny how God does things like that. I would love to tell you more about it, but there just isnt words to define the feeling of falling into the loving hands of my daddy, while I lay there helpless and alone. He was the only way that I have made it through this, sustaining me when I had nothing left. Twice now I have felt the embrace of my daddy so much that I knew there was no way humanly possible to recreate the feeling that He gave me. His embrace is the love of all loves and the peace of all peace. I was able to sit in the hospital and tell the nurses that no matter what happens in this life, we can live in peace and communion with the creator of the world who desires nothing more than to hold us and love us. If we are failing physically, its ok. Because He wants a deep heart to heart relationship with us. This is not something taught here in the majority of the church's. People are taught to do this and that and you are "saved". But there is no relationship, they are missing so much, basically everything!!! If we are just living to do this and that, or get this and that and miss the relationship, what is the point of living at all??? We are sitting here in the middle of groud zero for the swine flu epidemic and all I can say to Him, is "Thank You". We are SO blessed!! We have so much to be thankful for!!! There are not words enough to explain the love, gratitude and thankfulness for Him. In the words of my hero count Zinzindorf, "If I am forced to give it all up for Him, my home, my family, my life and I still go to hell, May the Lamb receive the reward of His suffering". You see, He is teaching me, its not about me, its not about my life, its not about what I think I am entitled to or what I think I should have, its all about Him. He is willing to and has blessed us more than anything I could have asked or imagined. It doesn't change the fact that it is not about me or us. I hope that I do the best with my life, with the time that He has so graciously blessed me with. I look around at us and think that one year ago we came to this country with only 4 suitcases and now we have all these things around us, friends, a home, and a life that we love. God is so amazing!! Well, something to think about. I need to go now and get some sleep. Take care and God Bless you all. In Him, Ross

The Joy of Life:)

2009-04-20T11:02:00.002-05:00

Ok once again we are needing to apoliges for not keeping up on our writing. I (Amanda) have been feeling better and we have been busy trying to catch up. We have had friends over more and we have went on a couple trips. Here in Mexico the kids get two weeks off from school for Holy week and their spring break. We did a lot of running around town, bought a vehicle, been helping out other friends and we took five young adults camping over the Easter weekend. Also Alyssa and I caught a good bug over this vacation. We are all doing better now though. Need less to say our the girls time off from school went very fast. O ya we celebrate Easter during that time also :)

The girls started school again today. They were very excited to see their friends again. We are also able to celebrate our friends birthday today. We are going to go eat with the and then having them over for cake and ice cream at our home. What a great way to start our week off. We are starting to prepare our presentations and slideshows for our time home on furlough. We are having to start a little earlier than we thought because on the 3rd of May I am going into the hospital to have a historectomy. The doctors figures it was for the best to take it now because of all the problems I have been dealing with. This is a six week healing process for me. Our mothers are coming the end of the month to help us out while I am in the hospital. Need less to say we are very busy now trying to prepare for furlough and surgery.

Within these next two weeks we have two trips planned. Next Friday and Saturday we are going up to a mountain village to take up food and clothing. We are very excited about this trip. Please be in prayer for us that we could build strong relatonship with the people and the church there. Also our mothers are coming down and we are going to celebrate Zoe's birthday while they are here. In two weeks we are going with a family to a town called Cornavaca for the day. Hope to also show our mothers some of our everyday places we go and some fun areas of the city we have found since the last time they where here. We now have a vehicle so this makes it a lot easier to go and do things. Also to see so crazy new parts of town.

We are excited to go to Williston and see family and friends during our time of fundraising. Every weekend we have a meeting planned. We are trying to keep our fundraising and teaching to two or three days a week when we are home. This way we can see our families and friends, but if you would like a meeting with us send us a email and we would love to come and visit.

When we return to Mexico we have many things that we are planning on doing. My oldest niece will return with us for about a month to help us. We already have three villages we plan on going to visit while she is here. Ross will also be starting to teach english in a school here. He is able to do a 30minute Bible study before class everyday. Him and his students are excited for school to start. We are going to still be helping in the social help area with our good friend and his wife. We will be going to CIFAM houses and little villages every other weeked. Also we made some connections with an orphange that is wanting someone to come in and teach Bible studies. This is something we are in prayer about now. Please also pray for us so we could see God's next steps clearly when we return. As you can see we will be very excited to return to our home and work. Thank God for time away though. He knows everything that we need, even before we ask of it.
Blessings in His name! Amanda

From the Hospital -

2009-04-04T17:58:00.003-05:00

As many of you know, Mandy and I were in the hospital the other day because she had internal bleeding and it was causing many problems with her body. Well, after they found out what was wrong with her, they took her into surgery around midnight. While I sat by her empty bed I began praying and writing. As I began thinking about what to blog about today, I felt like I was supposed to just copy what I was feeling while sitting there all alone, spending time with my Jesus. Here is word for word what I was "journaling" about.

"As I sit here tonight in the hospital with my wife in surgery and my children at a friends house my mind is flooded with thoughts of frustration, confusion, unknown and many other things. I am pouring my heart out to God and then I feel His warm embrace. As I sit the storm in my soul begins to calm and I become conscious of the cool breeze coming in the window behind me. While we live in one of the largest cities in the world it is remarkably quiet outside the hospital tonight. There is only an occasional car going by and I hear the gentle rustling of the trees. Somewhere not far behind me I hear the sound of an ancient Aztec flute being played. It fills the air with the gentle, joyful, sound that only a wind instrument can make. I wonder if it was sent here by God to calm my spirit. It is times like these that I realize that we are truly living in the center of His will. I know that this is a strange place to thinking about the will of God, but I know that this is the truth. I think about all the places in the world that I could be right now, but I don't want to move. As I sit here writing this I become keenly aware that I am scared to move. Not because of the circumstances around me, but because I am afraid to loose the embrace of my Father the King. I came into this hospital tonight wishing that I was just about anywhere else in the world, but now I don't want to be anywhere else in the whole world. It has been a lifelong process learning to follow the will of God, and I know that I am not done yet. I am slowly learning that the most important thing to say to Him is," yes". I can't imagine where my life would be at right now if I would have told Him no, when He told me to "Go". I know that from this point on the answer to Him will always be yes. He is not done with us yet, and I look forward to what He has for us here in Mexico. They have a saying in here about Mexico that goes, "Anything is possible in Mexico". Now as I sit here tonight, alone, I am beginning to change my vision of my God. I am starting to see the truth of that statement. However, I have the desire to add just a couple words to this statement. The truth looks like this, "With my God, anything is possible for Mexico". I love this city, I love these people, and I love this place. It is no accident that we are living here at this time, and in this place. We are a long ways from being done with what God wants us to do. I know that the surgery will be fine and she will be better off after this."
Now I have to say, I wrote this while my wife was gone, and I had not heard anything from the doctors. I am happy to report that God has confirmed in our lived what He so gently whispered in my ear that night. Yesterday we went and visited with one of our great friends, and a leader in a program called "Social Help". You will probably be hearing more about this as more time goes on. We are now moving from a position of stalking shelves, and counting cans, to a position of taking and distributing food, cloths, and necessary items to people all over Mexico, and Mexico City. We have a great couple that love God with all there hearts, souls, and mind, that will be working with us. I believe that this is the plan that God is moving infront of us for, "Such a time as this". We are excited to get out there and get our boots dirty. Right now it is difficult for us because of medical limitations, and God has been telling us to wait on Him. We are however getting ready and helping to areas close to our house, now. Also I have the wonderful opertunity to help in the Christian school here teaching english. I took the whole month of March and taught for 1/2 hour every day on Matthew 5:1-12. I am humbleded to teach the leaders of tomarrow about what a life of following Christ looks like. This is one big aspect of what God told us we were coming here for. This for me is one of the most joyous things in the world to do.
Thanks to all of you that have spent time praying for us and helping us reach Mexico City for Christ. Ross

What a great day!

2009-03-28T18:15:00.004-05:00

Today we went to our friend Karla's baptism! This was so wonderful!!! There was also some of the teenagers from Tripolantes that were baptised. My heart was overflowing with joy watching the commitments made today. There are times when you share the love of Jesus with people and you know that you are the planter of something. Then there are times that you are the waterer and weed picker. Finally there are times when you are part of the harvest. You get to see the fruit of your love and sharing. Today was that day for me. We have work with a lot of different types of people. Some people who only want Jesus to make them feel better about their sins. Some just want to go to Heaven for themselves, But then there are the people who want to love Jesus because He deserves to be loved, no questions asked. That is the kind of person our friend Karla is. She loves Jesus because He is her Savior. What a encouragement to us and a privilage to have her as a sister in the Lord. Please pray for our friend as she walks out her faith. We could all us a prayer for that.
Now my health, on Wednesday I had a series of seizures. I had four of them before we got to the hospital. When we got to ER our doctor that is a friend was there waiting. He seen that I was anemic right away when I was brought in. They started to look for internal bleeding. Well they found some. My uterus was bleeding internal. They took an ultra sound and found a large tumor that was about the size of 50 cent piece with more little tumors in my uterus. They took me into surgery right away. I was given iron shots. Wow those hurt:) Well after all the drama I was released from the hospital. I am feeling so much better now. I am sore because of the seizures and the surgery but all is well. I was wobbling a little at the baptism today but I would not have missed it for the world. The doctors found out why I have been having seizures so I should be recooperating a lot faster now. I feel like my own crazy self again. What a blessing health is! Don't forget to put it on your list of things to be thankful for. What a happy day! Blessings in His beautiful name!!!!!!!!!!! Amanda

Walking with Jesus

2009-03-13T00:53:00.009-05:00

Hey, I know that it has been a while since I have blogged. I wished that I could give you all a great excuse, but as I sat here doing this I just couldn't think of one. So, I will just blog.

Well, I want to tell you all about some crazy things that God is doing in our hearts. As many of you know Mandy and Iour schedul has been lowed down. Mandy had a seizure for over an hour a while back and she is now in the recovery period. We are not doing the same amount of hours as we were before. We are learning to regulate our time while we are at home. We are having to learn that our time is our time. When we have some evenings open, we take the time to be together as a family now, instead of trying to fill every minute of every day. This was something that we have talked to other missionaries and they all told us that they had to do the same thing. The problem with our line of work is that we see a need and feel like we have to help it. The problem with Mexico City is that we could be with people every hour of every day and still not help everyone that we want to.

Anyhow, I want to tell all of you about somethings that we are looking at taking on. We are still working with AINDAC but it is not taking as many hours of our day as we hope for. We are having to wait for people to get there stuff done so that we can go ahead with what we have to do. This is very discouraging for us, and hard because we want to work. However, since that is just the reality of living in a laid back and relaxed society. We are now looking at giving our time to some other local ministries. We are already helping a group of doctors that are medical missionaries. This is fun and exciting, but it is just a a lot of making connections for people. We are in the middle of trying to get medical equipment from the states down here to open up a free medical clinic for people that cannot afford private hospitals, and are rejected from the government hospitals. Also it will be a Christian Hospital which gives a great opportunity to tell about the love of our Lord to those that are in need and willing to hear.

Also, I have taken on work at the local Christian school teaching English. I recently was authorized from the gov. of Mexico to teach English here in the country. This opened up a lot of doors for me. I will begin working on my teachers certificate now while I am teaching class. The class that I am teaching now is 2 hours long and I was authorized to give a bible study before class everyday. This is wonderful because we are doing exactly what God told us we would be doing, working with Christians and discipling. We are blessed to have the opportunity to do this on Sunday mornings, with the youth and now daily in the class room. It is an amazing experience. I would have never imagined the opportunities that are available to tell about God while teaching English. I can now see why this type of work is so productive in countries that are closed to the truth. I love is as well.

Well, I would love to tell you more because we have so much more that we are getting involved in, but because of the sensativity of the people around I cannot share more. Please keep us in your prayers as we pursue the will of God. Also please pray for us that we could hear what He wants from us here in the city. We are here and held accountable to Him and there is nothing that we will not do for Him. We just have to be sure that it is from Him, because if it is just of us, or for someone else it will fail. Thank for for all your prayers and time spent praying for us, it has been a stressful, but great period of growth this last couple months. In Him, Ross

An Eye Opener!!!!!

2009-03-06T13:48:00.008-06:00

Hello everyone I have some great things to share with you that Jesus has been revealing to me. These last two months have been very challenging for me. Everything from pinched nerves in my spine, to a hour long seizure that I am very thankful to be alive from, has happened. Through all of these things I know that God was trying to teach me something. I knew a part of it was patience and another part was learning how to balance life. The thing I was not understanding was the thing that Jesus was speaking to me the most, TO BREATH!! Did you know that everytime that we take a breath we are saying the name of God. Try it! Take a deep breath, breath in YAAAAA-then breath out, WEHHHHH. We are literaly saying His name everytime we take a breath. YAWEH. I was real frustrated yesterday(Thursday),because, on Monday I had another small seizure coming home from visiting a friend in the hospital. I have been very tired and have had a headache again this week. Finally I said to God, "what am I not getting", "What am I not learning that you are trying to teach me". It was amazing how He literaly taught me that all I needed to to was breath.

Ever since I became a Christian I have always picture myself at the feet of Jesus, washing His feet with my tears. Always thanking Him for the sacrifice He made for me and the love He has shown me. I would always pray to Him and say, "Lord what can I do for you" and "How can I be a better person so others can believe". My prayers always had these six words in it: What can I do for You! I know that He has been telling me the answer, but I have been too deaf and to busy to hear it. He has always told me to just breath, and to picture Him as a Daddy not just as a Savior. It took two months and a lot of miracles to finally understand Him. He spoke it so kindly and so gentle into my spirit. He also in these last two months has used a people that are so dear to my heart to teach me. I have had people come up to me who have had visions, dreams and special words to help me understand the depth of love He has for His people (me included). He has really taught me to just breath. By this I am being what He wants me to be. This seams like it is a easy thing to do but just try to live it out. It is easy to understand it in your mind but it is a lot harder to allow it to go to your heart. When I study about the New Jerusalm I always think that is when I will be able to sit on His lap and just be able to enjoy Him. I have been wrong. He wants us to also enjoy Him now. Can you imagen a God like this? One who tells us to be like servants to Him but He also tells us that He wants us to be treated like His most loved sons. That we will be kings and Queens in His kingdoms.

I am so glad that all this has happened. It has taught me to trust in Him (even with my life....literaly), patience, to listen, thankfulness (for my husband and my kids), to except and most of all to allow myself to be loved by Him.

I would like to challenge you guys to just BREATH!! Remember that He is the one who breathed life into you. Are you living a life that gives Him glory or are you just expecting your next breath to come from Him without giving thanks? Do you want to live just expecting breath or do you want to give thanks to the one who created life. We live in a world that has enough things to make us worry about. You can be sure that if you except Him into your life, you won't have to worry when the breaths are no more. It is the easiest but one of the hardest choices you will make in your life. Allow Him to be your best friend, to spend time with Him, and to ask to be forgiven of all the sins you have commited in your life. Know He is the Son of God and that he was raised from the dead and is seated at the right hand of God. Also know that just saying these words don't make you His son or daughter but that you need to live the life that He has commanded. He didn't just leave us guessing what this life looks like. He Himself gave us the perfect example to learn from. Also He gave us the Bible. Know that religion is not a relationship. Think of how you want a best friend to treat you. This is how you need to treat Jesus. You can't build a life long friendship over night but it only takes a few words to start one. He don't expect perfection but He does expect dedication and commitment. Like a true friend is always there for you, He is the one who made us understand what friendship is. He will never leave you. Take a deep breath and just BREATH!!!!!!
Blessings and thanks for all of your dedication to our family. It don't go unseen! Amanda

Newsletter Update

2009-02-28T08:39:00.003-06:00

We have just recently sent out our new newsletter. If you want to view it online we have it posted here at the bottom of this webpage. Just click on the place that says "Our Newsletters Past and Present", or you can click on this link here http://johnstonupdate.blogspot.com/ .

We are sorry that we have not been able to blog as much as we like lately but we are starting to get back to normal and hope that things will be more like they were before. Thank you very much and God bless you all. Ross

Today is the day.

2009-01-31T08:51:00.002-06:00

Hello again. We are coming to you this time with wonderful news. We had been experiencing a "lull" lately. It hasn't been that there is no work or anything, there had just been difficulties in everything that we were doing. Satan was on the prowel, but greater is He who is in us, than he who is in the world. I was just reading that other day in Ephesians and it says, "together with the Lords people we may grasp how wide, and long, and high, and deep the love of Christ is. His love surpasses all knowledge and we may be fulfilled". Imagine what that statement says, it is incredible. This is something that we can't fully comprehend while we are here on the this earth, however, there are times that we see this in the middle of struggle, and then there are times that we see this in the middle of victories. This last week was a time of victory over the forces of darkness. On all sides it seemed that Satan was trying to attack us. He knows that he cannot touch us directly because of the Blood of the Lamb that is over us, however, he can manipulate the circumstances around us to directly effect us. I want to add at this point a big thank you to all the people back home that have been praying and fasting for us, you know who you are!!! This week was a direct answer to those prayers. I want to first start out telling you about the status of our immigration paperwork, we are finally accepted. We are going this weekend to take our photos for our Mexican Passports. Thank you Jesus, you are faithful. We will hold dual citazenship with the States and Mexico. This will allow us the freedom to live here, own a vehicle here, get insurance here, and travel freely into the States. With our American citazenship it allows us the same rights as a normal American citazen. Then secondly we went and found out that the car that we bought is ok. We were told by a mechanic here that the motor was wrecked and needed to be fixed for over $1,100. There is no way that we could afford this, so we just had it towed to our house. I was telling a friend of ours about it, and he told me he has a mechanic friend that is a Christian. We took is and after all the work he told me it was $157!! This is still alot of money for us, but thank you Jesus for the people who gave to us extra this month. We got the exact amount of money to fix the car and pay for an emissions fine we received because of some wrong information we received. This exact amount of money came from extra people who are not monthly supports. God is our provider!! Then after that we went to the chiropracter and he worked on Mandy's back. We found out that she has scoliosis. Also her spine was out in four places and she had pinched nerves. He spent over an hour working on moving her back and muscles around. After we left the appointment she is much, much better. She is so much better it is incredible. She has had two doctors working with her these last two weeks. They told us that they are doing all the work on her for free because we are here helping their people. Thank you Jesus for the knowledge of these men and their giving hearts. These guys are wonderful brothers in Christ. One of these doctors went on my last missions trip with me, and I will continue to go with him, on the trips to the Indiginous villages. He told her that it will take about 3 weeks of not carrying heavy things, and no running, to repair it fully. Our God gave us time to "rest" and study His word more fully, and spend time with Him. Now we are ready to start all over again, getting back into the "normal" swing of things. This leads me to the final thing that God allowed for us. We meet with the people from AINDAC that we are working with and they told us that they have authorized us to move into some new places. Not only that, we were given some shelving units, and locks and things to give us a place to organize, count, seperate, and make a detailed inventory of what we have. We have had very little shelving and actually very little space as well, so this is a huge development for us. We are now starting to take in donations, and seperate them, organize them, put them in boxs or bags and have them ready to ship out. This makes life alot easier, and alot more organized. Then when someone needs a donation of food, we have it ready to go. Or they need a donation of bathroom supplies, it is ready to go. We have pictures (on our Flickr account) of this idea from when we went on our day of social help. We will take a clear bag and put in it, a kilo (2.2lbs) of rice, a kilo of beans, a kilo of sugar, 2 cans of refried beans, a bottle of oil, a bag of cereal, a bag of cookies, maybe some suckers, or other little candies, two bags of pasta, and some powdered milk. This is one time "donation". We are trying to get set up, to give out these donation every month to the people that need help the most. For example, this Friday our friends at one of the CIFAM integration houses came and got 140 donations. This will then be taken to the houses and the people that need the food the most will be given one of these to take with them if they have a house, however, only after they sit through a service, and listen to the gospel message. This allows them to hear the good news of the gospel, and not just take the food and run. Then for the people that accept Christ, the houses are there all the time to provide discipleship, and trainning. We also, on a diffent level with AINDAC, go and take cloths, and other items out to these houses as well. I told you this, because the more room Mandy and I have to work, the more donations we can take in, and the more help we can provide to the people that need it. Thank you Jesus for your faithfulness. This weekend we moved shelving units into our building and next week are ready to go building them, moving things, and starting to organize.
I just want to say thank you Jesus for your faithfulness, and also those of you that are supporting us in prayer, financially, and through all the kind words and emails. We miss all of you very much back home. Because of your faithfulness, there are people that are entering the kingdom of Jesus, one meal at a time. In Him, Ross

Alyssa's birthday party.

2009-01-26T13:43:00.003-06:00

Hey again we have yet another blessing to tell you guys. We were able to have Alyssa birthday party in a big garden that the Church owns and rents out for large events. This is not your normal garden. This place is beautiful. A little excape from the city. At this garden that we were allowed to us for free was a beautiful tent that had been rented for a fancy wedding the night before. We were also able to us this for free. Tables, chairs and all. What would have costed someone $1,000 to use, the Lord gave it to us for free. It was a wonderful party. It was a costum party for the kids. We had 30 adults show up and 20 kids. Lets just say we were glad that we were serving hotdogs, not steaks. This was the first birthday party here without family with us. Zoe had a party in May but we here blessed to have Linda, Harry, and Amber here with us. I (Amanda) was missing my family a lot during this time. I was thankful for all the people that came but they will never replace family. I was very busy to say the least, thankfully that helped. I was very glad the girls had such a wonderful time. When they can home they fell asleep immediately. They ran and played a lot. There is not alot of places in the city that they can't do that. Alyssa was Belle from "Beauty and the Beast" and Zoe was Snow White. They were very precious. I am once again on the couch though because of all the running and work yesterday. I am unfortunately paying for it today. I go to the chiropractor tommorrow to get the places in my back corrected. Thank you Jesus for that situation also. We have two doctors that have been helping me for the last two weeks. They are doing it for free. They told me that we are here helping their people so the least that they could do is help us. God is our provider. Soon those disc's in my back will be healed and I will be back to my normal self. Thanks again for those of you that gave money for Alyssa'a b-day. She was very blessed by it. Her real birthday is on the 28th of Jan. but we did the party earier. We will have been here exactly one year on the 28th of January. We get to celebrate two special things on this day. To all our family back at home: We love and miss you!!!!!!!!!!!! Amanda

Jewish Post on the war in Gaza

2009-01-22T08:59:00.002-06:00

I took the liberty to take this information from the Aish.com post, as I felt it was very touching. Please allow me to share this post written by an IDF Rabbi.

At the beginning of the Gaza ground offensive, I had the privilege of accompanying the soldiers of the Golani Brigade's Regiment-12. I am the regiment's rabbi, in reserves, and I was called up to serve just like all the rest, to "aid Israel at its time of tribulation."

We spent most of the week in "wet tents" with the terrible cold preventing me from sleeping at night. I wasn't working as hard as the other soldiers, because they fell asleep the second they hit the pillow.

When the Golani Brigade soldiers were about to go out to war, there wasn't a soldier there who didn't equip himself with a Book of Psalms in his pocket or combat vest. But the big surprise we had was when we gave out tzitzit. Usually only the religious guys take them, but this time, every soldier there seemed to want one.

"Rabbi, bring me some tzitzit, my whole tent wants." Here, achi (my brother), take one of these, it's better than the ceramic vest!" These were the type of calls we kept hearing over and over. Every package of tzitzit that we opened was snatched up within seconds.

There was one young fighter who came to the synagogue whose face fell when he heard that there were no tzitzit left. He was totally bereft, until one of the officers who wasn't going out to battle took off his own tzitzit and gave it to him, saying, "Take it, achi (in the Golani Brigades, you can't say something without achi), you need it now more than I do."

Friday evening Shabbat prayers were simply unbelievable. The Rabbinate realized that the synagogue was too small to fit all the hundreds of soldiers, and so it turned the soccer field into an impromptu synagogue, with prayer books, Holy Ark, and everything else.

Almost the entire Golani Brigade, officers and soldiers, yelling out the Kaddish and Tehillim prayers. If it wasn't for the uniform I was wearing, I could have almost thought that I was at a Yom Kippur service in a large yeshiva!

Our Father doesn't ask, "Where have you been until now? Why do you remember Me just when you go out to war?" He welcomes all His children and embraces them with love.

After the Shabbot meal, we were privileged to hold an Oneg Shabbat "social gathering" for the soldiers. We sat outside in the cold eating cake and sunflower seeds, but inside our hearts it was warm.

When it was time to go, the Regiment Commander gathered everyone for last minute words of strength, and explained about the "corrective experience" we were about to impart to the enemy.

Then the Deputy Commander read aloud the prayer before going out to battle. "Repeat after me," he ordered, and a whole regiment of hundreds of soldiers yelled out, "O God, save us! O God, grant us success!" After the prayer, the Deputy asked me to blow the shofar, just as thousands of years ago when we conquered the Holy Land.

Though I've blown the shofar in public before, this particular time was something that will remain with me my whole life. And then, in perfect coordination, the moment that I finished blowing the shofar, our IDF planes bombed the enemy area, as if to signal us to begin the ground offensive.

The soldiers lined up in two columns, & as I parted from them with handshakes, I thought to myself, 'What a special nation we have! This is how a Jewish army looks as it goes out to war - not with boastful 'We will win' stickers, but rather 'We will win with God's help.'"

Where I live in Modi'in Illit, we have a clever interpretation of the verse "God's voice is powerful" - the word for power (ko'ach) is spelled with the letters kaf and chet, which we say are the intitials of kova and chalifa - hat and suit, our usual yeshiva garb. But now I know they are also the initials of the kumta chuma - brown beret, worn by the Golani soldiers. There, too, the voice of God is heard. We are truly united as one nation, may the Almighty protect us.

I hope that you are as deeply touched by this first hand report as I am. I was among the very first outsiders (tourists) to be allowed to visit any military base in Israel, ever, in February of 2005, just as they were preparing to evacuate Gaza. I still have vivid memories of the young faces and how they told me that they hated to remove their own families from their own homes to be invaded by the enemies of God. I have photos of those faces and I can remember them without having to look through my album. How much more does YHWH remember not only their faces, but everything about them? I pray that none of the ones to whom I spoke have lost their lives. I still remember them sometimes and pray for them, where ever they are.

I shall never forget the shock of an experience there as I was about to depart. The Commander of the base at that time was a Druze. They are a branch of Islam, but they are faithful to Israel. He spoke no English. I had been asked to help a young soldier who had expressed hate for YHWH because he had lost his beloved father. The person who dragged me off the bus at the last minute to "help" the soldier thought that because I was the only Jewish person on the tour that I spoke Hebrew. The rush over getting to that soldier prevented that person from understanding that I do not speak Hebrew. I just prayed very fast that YHWH would help me. When I got to the young man, I realized that he did understand a very little of English. I mostly used hand language. I made him look into my eyes. When he looked back down, I would lift his chin and point back to my eyes to make him look. I references the Psalm about his father being in the palm of YHWH's hand and no man can snatch him from there. I added that he too was in the palm of YHWH's hand and that YHWH knows how angry he was, but YHWH is not angry with him. It worked! He collapsed in my arms. This was bringing much attention and gathering of other soldiers. Then I looked up and saw the Commander (the rough looking Druze as big as a grizzly glaring at me) because we are forbidden to witness to the troops. I had been very careful not to mention the Name of Messiah. Then YHWH told me to witnesses to that Commander! HOLY COW! Talk about being scared about being punished and all future tours being cancelled! I found myself unable to control anything. My body straightened with my back straight and my shoulders back. I could feel resolve on my face. I felt my boots hitting the ground hard and fast. I quickly was in the face of the Commander and he wasn't smiling. Other soldiers were looking at me in amazement at my boldness. All I could do was pray the same prayer I had just prayed before. When I got to the man, the soldiers told me he speaks no English. I asked for an interpreter and quickly a young man in the IDF, but from New York came. You should have seen all the looks and running to be there. With the interpreter, I told the Commander, "You see that man over there in the cowboy hat? He is my husband. I am a Jewish woman. My husband is a rubber manufacturer who does military contracts. That HumVee over there. When it takes a direct strike, you can survive. The windows can be kicked out with your combat boot. My husband manufacturers the rubber window seal that holds it in place, but allows you to kick it out." He looked at my husband who was unaware of all of this going on. Then he looked at me. He grabbed me up off the ground and bear hugged me so tightly that I almost couldn't breathe. He told me in my ear in perfect English, "I love you." As he did so, he kissed me on the check. I though he would never put me down. When he finally did, he was shaking and tears were running down his face. All the soldiers were standing around stunned by what they saw. I must explain to you that a Druze man MUST NEVER TOUCH A WOMAN IN PUBLIC, NOT EVEN HIS OWN WIFE. He just picked me up, hugged me, kiss my check and told me that he loved me.

Lesson: NEVER, NEVER, NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF A SIMPLE PRAYER AND THE ABILITY OF YHWH TO ANSWER IT IMMEDIATELY, OR TO MAKE YOU DO SOMETHING YOU CANNOT CONTROL, OR TO TOUCH THE LIFE OF SOMEONE NO ONE ELSE CAN TOUCH.

This is what Torah living is about. It is about being what you say you know in your head. It is about living on the edge. Torah is about more than hope, it is a profound and assured knowledge that you are in the kingdom of YHWH!

Blessings to all, Rivkah

Here are also 2 quick videos from the aish.com website showing the reality of what Israel (God's Chosen People) have to live with every day. Please stand up and show your support for them.
In the words of one my friends, "While there are thousands upon thousands of people may be protesting Isreal's actions, there are millions of Christians that are standing with you"
Go Israel.

If the video doesnt work follow this: http://sderot.aish.com/SderotPetitions/15Seconds.php

If the video doesnt work follow this: http://sderot.aish.com/SderotPetitions/MissilesFromGaza.php

Falling In Love all over again.

2009-01-20T09:42:00.010-06:00

Hello, HOW ARE ALL OF YOU??? It has been a while since I have taken the time to sit and do this. I recently took a personal profiling test and found out that I am the type of person that finds my most satifaction in doing things with my hands (Shocker), and I decided that doing things with my fingers doesn't count. Therefore I don't feel completed while blogging. Just Kidding. I am putting more pictures from the last couple months on at the same time as well, so I have the time. Anyhow, since I do have the time today and do this, here I go.

I was just sitting here this morning thinking about all the things in this world that surround us. I seen that Barack Obama is taking the helm of our country this morning. This is such an exciting time in the history of our world. I know that this presidency will be filled with twists and turns as our world changes very rapidly. As many of you know, my wife and I are avid students of eschatology and are even more excited about the things that are happening in other parts of the world. I am bringing this point up because if there ever was a time in our lives and the lives of the people around us to experience Jesus all over again, this is it. Things are happening on such a global scale in our world that it is impossable not to see the fact that the only peace possible is in the hands of God. I was asked this last weekend where in world I most wanted to go, or live. I thought about it for a little bit and then gave my most honest answer. The only place that I want to be is in the middle of Gods will. I am taking a class on the weekends with a group of people from all over that are all missionaries, or people getting ready to leave for the mission field. It is interresting to see how the Holy Spirit is quickening the spirits of His people all over the world and drawing us all in one direction. I love to see how we all are being united in love, kindness, and a desire to fall in love with our bridegroom Jesus all over again. It is time that the Christians learn to, or return to, the first love that we had for Jesus. There are things coming, and times coming that will challenge, stretch, push, and pull us as Christians, in this world. We need to be prepared. I was reading in Matthew, Daniel, and Revelations about how the love of many will wax cold, and there will be a great falling away from the faith, one that has not been seen since the beginning of the world. That tells me that they were in the faith, and they willingly chose to walk away, or fall away. I was given a revelation as to what that meant, and it scared me to death. As I sit and think about this more and more, I realize the need for us to press in more and more to Jesus. If we think for one minute that our actions some how justify us unto salvation, then we are kidding ourselves and stand condemned. I was just reading Mark 16 where Jesus gave us a clear defination of what believing in Him is. I challenge you all to go read that. If you don't have a bible there is one on the web http://www.biblegateway.com/ just type in Mark 16 and hit "enter". We are not saved by works, but when we are saved, these sign will follow. By default they will just happen. Jesus gave us these signs to judge ourselves by. I looked at this and cannot tell you how many times I have prayed these words as I sat down to a meal with people that I didn't know, eating food that I didn't know, in places that I didn't know, only for the brief opportunity to share the love of Christ with the company around us. God in His loving grace has placed us in many wonderful situations, being able to share His love with many wonderful people that I love from the bottom of my heart, that openly confess that they don't like the Christians. I am saddened to see that even among many brothers and sisters in the Lord there is a lot of religious mumbo jumbo that holds us down and does not allow us the freedom to walk in close communion with God. I myself am guilty of this, and I am trying to find out what is of God, and what is of man. You see, the things of man will pass away and be burned up, but the only things that will last will be the things of God. This presidency will eventually end, this country will eventually end, this world will eventually end, but our love for the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit must never end. If there is a time that we feel ourselves growing cold toward the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, we better check ourselves. I was saddened to read a report that came out that said that 90% people that confess to be Christians have never share there faith with anyone. How is that possible???? I stand back when I read the passage about the love of most will growing cold (Matt. 24) because of the increase of sin in the world, and the words of Jesus saying that many false prophets coming in the name of Jesus will lead many away from the faith. Listen, "Away from the faith". Not just in another direction, or a seperation of people, but literally away from the faith. You can't be in something and away from something at the same time. Jesus himself said these words. This has struck me to the center of who I am. I have been given a renewed spirit for searching for the face of Jesus. I am learning to not find my faith in somebody, or emotional teachings from somebody, but to seak for the face of God personally. Learning to listen to the Holy Spirit in my soul, and confirm His words through the Bible. This is the only way that we are going to stand firm and find our place in heaven, with Him. There is a reason that Matt 7 says that Jesus not only told us that the gate is narrow, but also the road is narrow as well. He specifically told us that many will walk in the road to destruction, and only a few will find real salvation. "The road is narrow and few will find it", what does that truly mean????? Don't search for the answer from somebody, seak the face of God for that answer. He is the only one that can answer that for you. I am so happy to report, however, if we push into our heavenly Father, there is nothing that can seperate us from the love of the Father, neither height, nor depth, nor powers, nor principalities, nothing above, or below the earth, nothing, nothing, nothing. If we live in the center of His will, in His loving hands there is nothing, nothing, nothing that can touch us. We just need to check our motives, hearts and what we love and make sure that we are on that little, narrow path that leads us home. Now is the time to stand up foryour faith so in the end we will hear, "Well done good and faithful servent". Why because in the end, that is all it is about.

We love you all, and can't wait to sit and visit more about our first love, Jesus.
Ross

Here is a video we thought you all might enjoy. Paul says in about one hour what we are truely trying to teach here in Mexico. Like the Lord told us when He brought us here, "This is a time of teaching us, and discipleship of younger believers". This is exactly our hearts and what we feel. Enjoy

If the video doesnt work click here ---> http://mx.youtube.com/watch?v=uuabITeO4l8

O when O when will we not be sick?

2009-01-16T16:47:00.001-06:00

Sorry for the lack of writing lately. I (Amanda) have been on bed rest for the last 4 days. I have 4 places out in my back and my nerves are pinched in these areas. I have been on bed rest since last Monday. I just returnedfrom the doctor and I am allowed to walk around a little bit now but in seven days I need to go back to the doctor so he can check out my spine again. Then another doctor friend is going to move my whole spine back into the right location. He has to move it about 10 degrees to make it correct again. These guys are so awesome they are doing this all free for us. They told us that we where here helping there people so they wanted to help us in return. God is so good! Then to fix the whole cause of the problem they are going to help me get fitted for shoe inserts because of my flat feet. Also they are fitting me for a knee brace to wear because my knee is also part of the problem. Well in all I will be corrected with physical therapy and two great doctors help. Thanks for your prayers. I do also think this was God way of saying slow down. I just wish I wasn't so stubborn and would have listened so I could have bypassed the pain. Well I need finish now because it hurts to sit up for to long. We will catch up with all our photos and the ministry we have been doing as soon as life go back to normal again. Blessings Amanda

A couple links we thought you might like to read.

2009-01-05T21:18:00.003-06:00

Here are a couple websites that explain the different holidays we have been dealing with here in Mexico. Since Oct. 31st we have seen alot of new things that keep us asking"why do you celebrate this?" Some of these holidays have the right idea just really twisted and take the truth about Jesus out of them, but then there are some pure demonic celebrations happening. Today is the "day of the magicians" or "the three wisemen". I can sure tell you a little country girl has learned alot about the different cultures of our world since I left home. The thing that amazes me though is that alot of the traditions (expecially the demonic ones) are all over the world just with different names. It makes me sad to see the people that God has placed so close to my heart celebrating such lies. If it hurts me I hate to see what it does to my Father in Heaven.

We will also be posting new pictures and blogs within the next couple days. We have been busy and I (Amanda) pinched a nerve in my back and some othe things that I have had to go to the doctor for. This has slowed us down a little. I once again realize that God will slow us down even if we are stubbern and don't like to. He knows best. I just wish it didn't have to hurt so bad :) Well better go many blessing to you all this new year. Amanda
http://www.inside-mexico.com/featurereyes.htm
http://mexico.pinnacle-travel.org/culture.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_dead Wow this one was really crazy and disturbing.

O where O where have we been?

2009-01-02T10:02:00.003-06:00

Well I finally got time to sit down and share some amazing things with all of you. God has been amazing and faithful during this holiday season. We both were a little worried about December this year knowing this is a tight season for many people and with the way the states are going we just said God its in your hands. WE have also been praying quietly for money to come home for our airplane tickets this summer for fundraising. We, like all of you, got hit with some big bills that were do around the first. Thanks to the love of our brothers and sisters in the Lord we are all caught up with them, money for airplane tickets and are being bought. Plus a little extra blessing for our childrens Christmas. We have been blown away by peoples thoughts and generosity. We see we are not down here alone. We never like to talk about money on our blog but this was such a huge inspiration and incouragement to us we had to tell of God's faithfulness and His peoples goodness.

We work with alot of new and older Christians here doing disipleship and counceling. We also work with non-chrisitans. At times it is 100% harder working with the Christians but even thought we all have our regrets as a lukewarm Chrisitan for a time we always are shown by Jesus HIs faithful children. We get frustrated at the religiousness in people but He always balances out His children in our eyes. It can become unbalanced at times when so much garbage surrounds you. You can look at the Christian bubble and become discouraged but that is always when He comes in and shows that many people are truly living a Christ inspired life not just the so called "Christian life". There are so many time we look for your emails to write and personally thank you for supporting our lives and ministry. Please if you have given at any time and are reading this now please email us at rossandmandy@yahoo.com. We want to personaly thank you for your support and tell you how your money helped us. We rememebr them all. I am also not just talking about financal gifts either. We know that alot of you are praying for us as well. This is just as powerful to us. When we have people that are faithfully praying for us this is also as beautiful as gold. We need both types to keep on going. Thanks from the deepest parts of our hearts.

We have had parties at our home, alot of counceling, many people we are with looking for a place to live, sick kids, Ross's best friend here within this last month alone.. We have set three days aside after this last crazy year here in Mexico City. We are locking our doors, closing our shades and shutting of our cell phone. We are going to spending time with the Lord, each other and our kids. Everytime we have had a break from school or work we have had large amounts of disipleship at our home and have not really been able to just take a deep breath and breath. We are very thankful for this time alone. Please be praying the next three days for us to be re- strenghtened, refreshed and most of all to be able to hear His voice speak to us. We all seem to get to busy with all the things around us to just let Him have front stage and quite time. I think even more in ministry this is true. There are times that we are doing everything for Him all the time and temporarily forget to let Him have intimate time with us personally.

Once again we would like to thank you all for this last year. Without your sacrifices we would not have been able to build heavenly friendships with many people who have not heard the great message. We promise we are wise with the money we recive from you and we make it strech as long and far as we can. Our hearts are overflowing with thanks and prayers for all of you. Thanks and we wish you a Happy and Blessed New Year or in spanish Feliz Ano Nuevo.
Ross, Amanda, Alyssa and Zoe Johnston

Interrsting article on combating hate with love

2008-12-08T20:30:00.003-06:00

I was reading tonight on a Jewish website that I frequently visit and thought you all might want to read this as well.

Former terrorist tells 'Post': Counterbalance the brainwashing tactics that are used by teaching love.

When we were in Minneapolis and we became friends with some people from the northern Africa, and they really changed my minds about the Muslim people. I used to think that most Muslims were full of hate and rage, and there was no way to control "them". Like they were a plague or something. The more that I got to know them, and the love they had in there hearts for "God" or "Allah" it became clear to me that they don't want to commit radical acts, it is just false teaching. We see some of this in our own modern day societies in our religious circles. As I sit here I can think of more than one abortion clinic bombing, or gay rites bashing. When we stoop to the level of violence and hate, we as Christians are no better than anyone else. We have the truth and we need to share it. I loved how this article put this, "You have to teach love. You have to counterbalance the brainwashing tactics that are used." I was compelled to write this on the blog tonight because this is the first time that I have ever seen anyone write about loving those that are against us as a form of combating it. Here is the link.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1228728114280&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
If this link doesnt work, just cut and paste it into your web browser.

Thank you and have a blessed night. Ross

Esta tiempo es un tiempo muy bueno en nuestras vivas, y para el Reino del Dios.

2008-12-06T22:29:00.003-06:00

(This time is a very good time in our lives, and for the Kingdom of God.)

I know that I have to keep up on my blogs, but to be honest this is not easy. I keep falling behind, and then when I seem to find time, something always comes up. I cant hardly remember the last time that I sat down to blog, and I have so many stories that I don't know where to start. I will just fill you all in a little bit of over history from the past few weeks.

I want to fist start out by saying "Thank you Jesus, we have water again..........................kinda" We have been without water now for about 2 or 3 weeks. Well, that is not entirely true, we have had water on and off for about the last two weeks. It was 10 days with no water all, then the last week or so it has been on and off. One hour on here and half an hour there, or maybe 15 minutes, or whatever it feels like. As soon as everyone in the building flushed there toilets, we are about done. It was all good though. God is faithful and it was a miracle that we had water at all. Of all the neighbors around us, we were the only building getting a little bit here and there. God is so awesome!! Talking about the neighbors we have to tell you about our friends.

When we first moved into Mexico City we had several people that did not like us. The first reason was that we were Christians and the second was that we were Americans. We tried and tried to make friends with them. It has taken along time to get into the these families, but I have a story of something that happened a couple nights ago. We were sitting at home getting the kids ready for bed and getting ready to call it day for us as well. Soon there was a knock at our door, it was our neighbors (across the hall), and they told me somebody was downstairs waiting for me in front of our building. So I went down there and found a neighbor from across the street waiting for me. This is one of the guys that we have been talking to since we first got here. He told me to come to his house. I was kinda apprehensive at first but then I realized that this is what I am here for. When I got there his wife and kids had supper waiting for us. He told me that he had remembered me talking one day about our favorite food here in Mexico. His wife and kids had prepared us a homemade traditional Mexican supper. Mandy and I spent the night eating and eating until we were stuffed!! He told me that we were so different from all the other people in the church because we would stop and ask him about his family, his kids, and ask him how he is really doing. He said that we would stop and take the time to care for him, and because of that he was welcoming us into the community. Another neighbor told us that in 18 years this family has never given anything away to anyone. We were blessed to have that warm welcome by him. He is not a Christian and makes it very clear to everyone what he believes. We were told by the church, in the beginning, to just be careful because of the clash of religions here in Mexico. Now the very people that we were told to be careful of, are the ones that have accepted us into there homes. It is so wonderful to see the hand of God working in the lives of those that He has chosen to place in our path. I feel humbles that He is using us to touch the lives of the people that are geographically close to the church that have rejected "Christianity". I have decided that they have not rejected Christianity at all, they have just rejected the lifestyle of a "Christian in the the church, but a sinner outside the church". They all want to know the true savior they are just looking at the actions of the people that call themselves Christians and are rejecting that lifestyle. This is a HUGE open door for us because we are saying the same thing. These friends are listening, and this also keeps us accountable.

I also wanted to talk a little bit about the missions trip that I just got back from and the next one that I am planning now. We went to a place called Tlapachaloya, in the mountains of Mexico. While we were there, we did a church support mission. We went to basically the end of the road to offer support to a struggling church. While we were there we did a training program for the leaders of the children's ministry (all 3 of them) and we put on a children's activity time concurrent to the adult training time. We had stations with dancing, music, arts, games, crafts, teachings, and etc. We got the whole community involved in what the church is. We also had a doctor and a dentist with us. They worked tirelessly for 3 days helping as many people at they could while they were there. There is no doctors, no hospitals, no medicine, no police, no nothing that we consider "necessity". It did however, much to my shock and horror, have Coca Cola, and Pepsi. This was a church started by a Christian missionary from the U.S. about 20 years ago and now I have the privaledge to carry on that torch a little further. The Americans are now gone, but the church still remains. It is a testament to the importance of the American people and the opportunity we have in our country to send missionaries in the middle of nowhere with the ability to help. With our technology and money in our system we are able to bless others with that and see many people enter heaven because of it. I am humbled and blessed to be a part of it.

Anyhow, we went there, and we are now planning another trip back up there. This trip however will be a bit different. We are going into that village and meeting up with the pastor. I connected well with the Dentist and he asked me if I would go with them on trips in the future. We are going under the leadership and guidance of CNM (Christ for the Nations, Mexico). We are going back to the village and putting all our stuff on pack mules, and horses. Then we are going to walk into the jungle from this village. There are mountainous tribal people that have no connection to the outside world. It is hard to think that there are people like that living so close to us, but in the jungles of Mexico they are definitely there. There is a group of 3 ladies that has been coming out of one of these villages looking for help (food and when we were there medical). They found that church was open and willing to help them, and they have accepted Christ because of it. Because we have helped them, told us that they would come out of the jungle and get us, and take us in with them. We are prayerfully considering this, and planning on going in, around the middle of Feb. Please keep us in your prayers as we work towards making this happen. We want to do medical and dental work first and foremost because most of these people have never even seen a doctor before. If this goes well and we get this accomplished we are going to go back in a few months after. Our goal is to first help with food and medical, and second reach them with the gospel. Lots of these people don't speak Spanish, but we are blessed that the doctor speaks the native tongue. God is SO AWESOME how he is connecting all our paths and making Himself famous in the world that we live in. They told me that they need someone who knows about mechanical, and electrical on there team because this is a huge problem they have with all there equipment. Keep in mind all the doctoring and dentistry equipment needs to fit on the back of a mule, but it isn't there first time doing this. They just got back from Morocco Africa doing this so it isn't completely uncommon. I will tell you more as the time draws closer.

I wanted also real quickly to tell you about the food and ministry program that we went on in the north part of the city. We were blessed to take around 30 pre-teen, and teenagers on a day of social help. We went into a part of the city that is much less fortunate than we are. I was surprised at how different parts of the city are so much different. When we were about 20 minutes away from the place that we were going (driving time) my eyes started watering, my neck started getting itchy, and I started feeling bad. This was because of the amount of pollution there. It is bad here, but it was horrible there. We blew our noses for 2 days after that and had black stuff in our Kleenex's. It was amazing! We once again did a children's ministry running stations for the kids to go through. Before that however we did a time of praise of worship to get things started right. Then after the time with the kids we went back inside and did a drama. While we were outside with the kids, the pastor of the church gave a message to the parents. We then did a drama about how it isn't important if you live on the street, or what you have, but what is in your heart is the most important thing. This was a reality for the people that we were working with. Then we fed everyone, nobody was left out. The food was not exactly what Mandy and I thought was good or actually even edible, but the people there, and our friends Loved it!! ((For all our friends from Mexico reading this, I am sorry, but in my culture, this is just wrong))They said that it was great. It was a traditional meal of spicy salsa covering soggy pig skin cut into strips. (People here love it, it just is hard for me to understand some things.) That wasn't what was important however. After they got done eating we took bags of food that we had prepared before hand, working at AINDAC. We had a bag of cereal, a kilo of beans, a kilo of sugar, powered milk, some crackers, some soup, and some candies in every bag. We then handed them out to the people as they left. This included the people that worked in the church because a lot of them were just as destitute as the people coming for the help. What a blessing that was to do. I was brought to tears as I watched the smile on the faces of the people that were going to be eating a hot meal that night. It is quite possible that except for the meal at the church this may have been the only hot meal that they have had in a long time. I have pictures of my kids drinking coffee. That is because all the kids there drink coffee. It is cheap, and warm. They have no milk, and the water needs to be boiled to kill some of the disease in it, so they just make coffee. I was amazed at all the 3, 4, and year olds drinking coffee running allover. My kids thought it was great!! This is a hard thing to grasp for us because we came from an area of such wealth and blessing. I have more photos of that on our flicker if you want to see them as well.

People often ask me what the hardest thing about living here is, and I am beginning to think that the answer to that is the injustice in this world. When we as humans begin treating people like dogs in the streets, or garbage that needs to be taken out. That is the hardest thing. I have many, many other stories about that as well, for instance my wife picking the local drunk up out of the road and cleaning the puke off his face, and giving him bread and coffee because, "He is a person before he is anything else". This has made even me stop and think, what is the hardest thing in this type of life that I live? I think it is that. Because of us living in the biggest city in the world we see the biggest crimes against humanity here, and that is the hardest thing. The thing that drives me the maddest is when it is seen in the homes of the "Christians". We are supposed to know better. I never dreamed, when I said that I would take this job, about the amount of ministering I would do in Christian homes. I should have known, but my eyes are being opened to reality the longer that I do this job.

Thank you all for the love and support that you are showing our family here. I can assure you that your prayers and sacrifices are being felt in the south of Mexico City. This is not because of how cool we are, or any amount of anything like that. It is simply because living in the center of God will in the most rewarding, most fulfilling, and the most powerful place to be. When we learn to submit to God wholeheartedly he will begin using us for the furthering of His Kingdom way beyond anything that we could hope or imagine. As the passage in the Bible says, can a pot look at its maker and say that it doesn't know what is best for it? This is the same in our lives. We cannot look at our maker and say anything about our lives except for I am Sorry, because when we pull away from Him we will always fail. But when we walk in his path, and let Him lead the way we can become a very powerful tool to reach many for His Kingdom.

I want to finish tonight repeating the words of My Lord and My Savior, "My King I worship you, not for me, but because you are worthy and you paid a price for me which is far over and above anything that I will ever have do. I dont want my will, but your will to be done, right here in this life at this point in time, just like it is being done in heaven at this time. If you choose to give to give me food and life for another day, it is yours, and if you choose to take this food, or this life from me, it is yours to take. But please forgive me from all the stupid things that I have done and all the times that I have turned my back on you and hurt you. As you forgive me, I also forgive those that done anything painful, hurtful, and evil against me. Please help me keep my eyes, my hands, my mouth, and especially my mind clean before you and free from evil. Keep me pure and search my heart O God, and know that every breath I take has your name written on it." Amen

Luke 11:2-4
Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”
Lucas 11:2-4
Cuando oréis, decid: "Padre nuestro que estás en los cielos, santificado sea tu nombre. Venga tu Reino. Hágase tu voluntad, como en el cielo,así también en la tierra. El pan nuestro de cada día, dánoslo hoy. Perdónanos nuestros pecados,porque también nosotros perdonamosa todos los que nos deben. Y no nos metas en tentación, mas líbranos del mal".

A little catch up.

2008-12-06T20:43:00.002-06:00

Hello have not talked in a while. Our lives have been very busy lately. I (amanda) am sick again. I think it is God way of telling us to slow down sometimes. Besides the stomach flu or food poisoning I am very blessed tobe ab;e to preach tomorrow for two services. Within the two services we will be able to talk to about 70 teenagers. God is so good. Last Sunday while we were praying in the Tripolantes group we work with, God revialed a sermon for me to preach on. Just thought that I could share it with you guys. I need to go now to get some more rest.
Blessings in His Name, Amanda

What is a Christian?
What does the world see a chrisian as?
How do we need to change? And Why?
By the help of who?

I honestly am amazed when I see someone comitt to Jesus whole heartedly. Why because of how a majority of the christians in the world present themselves. We are far from the body of believers that Jesus tells us to be like in the Bible. Now before anyone gets all upset about this comment please think of the question I asked you guys a couple weeks ago. I asked for you to look around for one week and see how many christians lived a life of love to the people around them. How many did you see? It is time for the true christians to stand out from the church crowd and start to live the life that Jesus has comanded us to live. If you did look and see people living a life of love “praise God”. But that number I can guarentee was less than one percent of the believes in Amistad alone. How is that suppose to look to people when the 99% of the church lives like the unchurched. The world has a reason not to want to become a chrisitan if they look at the so called chrisitans actions. But they don't have a excuse when they watch the life of a true born again beliver whose whole life has been transformed by the love of Christ. Why because then they would see the LOVE OF THE FATHER. This was Gods plan. He knew that the majoity would fail Him. That is why He talked about the road being narrow and that few would pass through it. Also He spoke of the great falling away in the end times. It is not because He didn't know that there would be a false religion that had nothing to do with Him. He knew it very will. It is because He knew that their would be that 1% that would truly live the life of Love. Just like He showed us when He was on this earth, and is still doing to this day.
To answer my first question “What is a Chrisitan” I want to open up in prayer first. Lets ask Jesus to reveil in our spirits the places that we are all failing in as a body of believers.
The requierment of a christian is this;
Love the Lord your God with all your heart soul and Mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. Then love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets are in these two commandments. Mathew 22:37
I understand that you need to believe that Jesus died on the cross for you and that He raised from the dead and is seated at the right hand of God the father. That He will come to judge the living and the dead, but after that? What are the requirements? Mathew 22:37 is the requirment. LOVE
Look at our generations. What do you see? I see a bunch of people that have been rejected from someone and they are searching for love in any place that they can find it. People see movie stars and want to be like them because they are famous, many people love them and they are never alone. How many people in this room feel the need to be loved? Raise your hands. Everyone of you feels the need to be loved because God put that in your heart. He put it there so that HE could fill you up with His love. Know can you see why God gave us the command to Love. Now if all the people who claim to be Christians did this then we would not have the reputaion that we do.
Now to answer the second question “What does the world view a Chrisitan as”
Well I was very sad to read that the four most common things were Hypocritical, Angery, Judgemental and anti-gay. Everyone of these words goes against the number one commandment the Jesus gave to us. LOVE I understand that we are suppose to confront sin but I also know we are to do it in LOVE. Chrisitans are really good at pointing a finger at someone but they forget the whole love thing when they do it. Yes we are against gay relationships but we are not against the person. Yes we are against abortion but we are not against the person. Jesus has the same kind of love for these people as He does for us, but He also has the same Hate for the sins that they do, just like He does for our sins.
Now I have another homework assignment for you this week. Instead of looking for Chrisitans who showed love for others. I want you to look in the mirror and look at yourself. See if you are the 1% christian or if you are the 99% chrisitan.
Now to answer the third question “How do we need to change and Why” This answer is simple to say but one of the most difficult to do. LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF. I know that you guys all love Jesus or you wouldn't be here today. But my questions for all of us is “ARE WE LOVING JESUS THE WAY HE ASKED US TO LOVE HIM” and “ARE WE SERVING HIM THE WAY HE WANTED US TO SERVE HIM”? Why because we don't want any more people to go to hell then is need. God gave all of us a great task to help accomplish. Go out and preach the gospel to the whole world. That don't mean you have to go across the ocean but the person you withness to might need to.
Ok so how do we do this. First we need to clean house. Now by that I mean we need to know how to except love before we can give it wholeheartedly. Ask the Holy Spirit to take out all the walls that don't allow us to truly feel Gods love for us. Because we need His love to penatrate others hearts. On our own we are unable do help lead a person to Christ but with His love and His Spirit guiding us we could help change the path to hell for a person and help lead them down the road to Heaven . Like one of my friends told me “Let's make Jesus famous” Lets get rid of the religious spirit that has tried to push Jesus to the side. Lets give the world the answer that they have been asking for! Lets give the love of Jesus. Instead of us asking “Will the true Jesus please stand up”! Let's say “will the true Christian please stand out”. Let's now end in pray. I will like if my husband lead this prayer.

A blessing from the people we are here to love:)

2008-11-21T13:47:00.002-06:00

Here is a song that one of our friends in Acapulco sent us. See said that whenever she hears this song she thinks of our lives. Thanks you Jesus for the encouragement that you send us throught the people you have placed so dearly to our hearts. Many blessing to all of you back home and we wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving:) Truley give thanks for all that God has given you. Many Blessings, Amanda
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m36OWibR6nk

time to think

2008-11-10T22:58:00.002-06:00

As I sat here tonight thinking about life and what we are experiencing here in Mexico I am beginning to see a face of God emerge that is totally different than anything that I have ever seen, thought, focused my attention on, or even dreamed about. I was always raised to see the importance of the things around me, and to make sure and provide for my family, and do all that I can do to make sure that they have enough. Then I was confronted with something totally out of this world. God began by showing us the things that are truely important; family, friends, accountability, and most of all Him. This is nothing new to me, or really any of us. Then I was confronted with the idea of having to do without. This idea I have been thinking about recently and pondering while we have been living here. What would happen if the financial markets fell out, what would happen if our country imploded, what would become of Mexico, and what would become of us living here. There is so much to do, so many to disciple, so many to help! This is what was so different for me to sit and ponder. I was not worrying, just talking to God about it as I contemplated what we would do, how we would live and etc. This quickly became the main topic of my prayers. I wanted God to show me what He though about this, then graciously gave me my answer, by the people around me, what living without is like. We have to admit that while mandy and I live in what is considered a third world country, we still have the availability to the USA if need be, and living in Mexico City we still have a WalMart, and Sears. This is no shocking revelation, or new news, but then God let me spend some time with people that literally have nothing. Let me tell you a little about this.
We were able to go help out a place that has people that literally have nothing. Kids coming up without shoes, with old clothes, but with big smiles on there faces. They have nothing earthly that we as productive citazens of society strive after, but they have Jesus. I was astounded at the idea of this, so I began asking questions. What I found out was that these kids do not actually live in the cities. They are native kids from mountain villages where they live like they have for hundreds or maybe thousands of years. I began asking them how things were going in the little villages where they lived and they began telling me stories that are incredable. I later began asking the adults in charge about the stories that they told me, and here is what the adults told me. Jesus is alive and real. He hasn't forgot about the people that the rest of the world has forgotten about. Jesus has been showing himself to the people in the rural villages, and they are getting saved, day after day, more and more people turning from there demon worship after a divine visitation from God. Jesus has been meeting kids in there bedrooms, in dreams, sometime actually there standing in front of them, while they are out in the woods, Jesus is coming and meeting them. Or sometime He calls them to a place where He is there waiting for them. One kids felt inside of him that Jesus was there and was running all over looking for Him. He ran all over the village looking for Jesus, because he just knew that Jesus was there. Finally he found Him, or Jesus ound him. Jesus has been telling them about how they are worshipping false Gods and they need to turn and leave that behind and follow Him. These are real occurences, and they are truning to the christians looking for discipleship and training because they are so hungry to know about this guy that they visited with. No just a single case, but many cases. The people that we were helping are now, are going there, to these villages (2 hours driving one way) to share about Jesus with them. One day in a little vilage they decided to hold a meeting to tell just kids about the love of Jesus, and they had over 400 people show up. You need to understand that most of the villages up there are little, and 400 people showed up!!! I was talking to a couple of kids 8 years old, and 10 years old and they kept wanting to talk about the bible so I asked them what they already knew so we could skip that part. They told me about the two parts of the Bible, the new and old testament. Then they told me how many books the bible has, and what they all were called. Then they went on to tell me in what language they were originally written in, and who wrote them, and they they started telling me, from memory, different verses of the Bible!!! Here is what I found most amazing of all, they didnt help each other, they had it memorized, both of them!!! These kids 8 years old, and 10 years old knew more about the Bible than me and most Bible teachers that I know. I asked myself how is this possible????? And I was shown the answer a little later in the night. Later that evening I was talking to a man that has dedicated his life to doing what we are now involved in, and he told me that he makes it a priority to spend atleat 3 days a week teaching these kids the Bible. They are so hungry to hear about Jesus they are taking parts of the Bible and memorizing it. They know that that face of Jesus is found on the pages of this incredable book, and that through Him and His Holy word they will find life, and life more abundantly.
As I have been praying about my life and how I can make the most impact what I am still alivem and what is truely important, God has been revealing that it is not about what we have and dont have that makes us who we are, it is Him who gives us our identity. Then finally, when I think that He felt I was ready, He showed me how much of an absolutely impossible task it is to actually think that I can provide anything for my family. According to the words of God, "My words will not return to me void, I make things happen that I want to happen, and I make them do things that I want to do". This I memorized years ago but the significance of it hit me like a Japanese gong. If God wants to give me a cattle on a thousand hills, and a house worth 10 million dollars, then He is going to do it, and there is NOTHING that WE can do for it, or against it. The same is true for the opposite, if God wants to withhold the things in life that make us "blessed" as we call it, He will do just that. We absolutely cannot sway the desires of God one little bit. What God wants, He gets, and that is that! These kids have shown me what a true blessing life is. When they dont have boots, or even shoes, to cover there feet in the winter snow, they are smiling. When they are wearing a t-shirt and it is only 20 deg. outside, they are still smiling. And when we pulled up in a vehicle full of cloths, and shoes, and other things, there was no pushing, pulling, fighting, crying, or anything, they just respectfully accepted what we gave, thanked us and then thanked God.

As I stood there in a dirty field, with sweat dripping off my foreheard, listening to the sound of worship music playing in the background in the church, watching my kids playing soccer in an open field with all the local kids, and watching the joy on the faces of the moms and dads, uncles, and brothers, daughters, and counsins. Listening to sounds of laughter and people swapping cloths for a size a little closer to something that they might wear, I thanked God for the amazing amount of Joy, Love, Peace, Goodness, Giving, and Life that He pours out on the people that He loves.
There is a song here that we sing in spanish that says, "Thank you, thank you for everything, for your love, for your salvation, and for the cross" These are the words that are now resounding through my body as I walk the streets of this city, and as I put my hands to the work that we are doing here. I have a new, revived energy to get the most out of every day, and every minute of every day to make sure that Jesus is made famous throughout my little part of the word that He has given me. No compramise, No change, No backing down.

A little catch up.

2008-11-09T21:56:00.003-06:00

We have not wrote in a little while. We have been very busy at our home lately. Last weekend we had twenty teenagers spend the night with us on Oct. 31. We celebrated a night of life instead of a night of death. On Oct. 31, Nov. 1 and 2 Mexico celebrated it most famous holiday. It is called el dia de muertos (the day of the dead). We had a great time with this awesome group of teens. Needless to say we were very tired the next day but we were blessed right after the teens left to be able to go and hand out clothes to a shelter that our ministry helps with. This was a awesome experience for us and our daughters. God did many great things there and He was glorified. We have many pictures on our flicker account if you would like to see how our last weekend went.

Now for this weekend we were able to go to another town and hand out clothes, food, and help with another ministry our ministry provides supplies for. This has been our favorite place we have worked in. We are so blessed to have the boss that we have. Him and his wife have really taken us under there wings and blessed us with their family. This is also a great time for us and our spanish because none of them know english. Makes for some really memorable times. Then after being in the viliage for the day on Saturday we went to one of our friends birthday party. This woman is such a awesome person to us and we truly love that the Lord has blessed with her. She is searching for God in a way that I wish many people would. He is always faithful to the people who love Him.

We are very tired after our busy weekend. We were able to rest after our work with the teenagers this morning and after church. We are very thankful for these times of rest as a family. Our daughters always make us laugh and smile on these days of blessings. Please be in prayer for us for this very busy week we are coming upon. We have to have all our donations bagged and ready for our annual social help day coming up next Monday. There are around two thousand bags we need to prepare. Also Ross will be leaving for a missions trip on Friday through Sunday with the teenagers to a little village. We will write later to inform you with more information on these ministrys. Many blessings to you all and thanks again for your continued support of our ministry the Lord has placed us in. Amanda

The last of the questions from the teen in Acapulco

2008-11-03T15:01:00.004-06:00

Here ya go. Hope they are informative for you. If you would like to comment on any of them please send a reply back to us. We would love to hear your input alsoo. This is the way we learn from each other. Iron sharpens iron. Later Amanda
Where do animal go when they die? Do they have spirits?
Animals simply die when they die. God made them a part of creation. Animals do have souls. We know this because they can think, feel, simulate love but they cannot truly love like humans can. They do not have spirits. You need to understand that God made man in His image. Not animals, trees and nature. This is all part of creation. This is a big difference. In the end all of creation will be made perfect and whole just like it was in the Garden of Eden. This is why we are alowed to eat animals and it is not wrong. Animal do not understand the concept of death. Please know that this does not allow us to be cruel to animal though. God says to take care of them and tend to them. When someone kills an animal for any reasons other than to eat them, we need to look at that person and see why they choose to do the things that they are to that animals. If people are hurting animal just to hurt them they are probably dealing with other issues in there heart.

How can I know when God is talking to me?
One way is by knowing the scriptures. God will never go against His word. If you are told to do something that the Bible says is wrong, it is not the Holy Spirit talking to you. You have to first start to trust in God in the small things. Some people would call Gods voice your conscience, but we as Christians know it is Gods voice. It is most likely not going to be a voice that booms down from Heaven. It can happen like this, but more than likely not. It is that voice that is inside of you that helps you make your everyday decisions. You can go against this voice and that is usually when you choose to sin and do something wrong that you feel is wrong. That is why when you choose to sin and you feel like you did something wrong or you feel bad about the choice you made. Gods choice will always lead you to peace in the end. God is not fear or chaos. He is a God of order and peace.

Are all the mental disease in the world spiritual problems?
No this is a good lie for Satan to get you scarred that there is a demon under every rock and around every corner. This way you will become fearful and for you to not understand the true power we have in God over demons. Yes obviously some of the mental diseases are caused by demons. It says it in the Bible, but why would God have given humans the knowledge to make medicines for these conditions. Some are simple chemical conditions in the brain. This is because the fall of man. When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden sickness and pain came upon mankind. The choice was made by man not God. He intended to live in perfect harmony with mankind but we chose to disobey His commands. So with telling you this you also need to know that God can choose to heal these conditions. He has the power to do that. Have faith and talk to your Heavenly Father. He will talk back to you. Please also know this about depression our choices can be the cause of this disease. If we continually choose to sin against God and do the things He tells us not to do, depression can eventually come from this. Not because God is striking down punishment on you, but because He tells us not do these things because He knows what they lead to. Example: if you are having sex before marriage then your heart can be broken from that person. You gave a piece of yourself to that person. If you continue to keep giving pieces to people you are going to eventually have a broken heart. He tells us not to do this because He cares and doesn't want us to be hurt.

Can we be discriminated by the way we dress in church? Can we be seen as a bad infulence by the way we dress?
Ok yes and yes are your answers. I wish that the people in the church would confront people more often about this issue. Have you looked at the church women lately? You never know the difference from the Christians and the non-Christians anymore. If a woman has her goods hanging out, how are men around her suppose to be able to worship with a clear mind? We are suppose to be set apart from the world not the same as them. You may also be coming at this from a different perspective so I am going to also write about the other angle. There is also a difference in generations we have to look at. The older generations might not like the way you dress because they think you look sloppy. This is where the generations need to realize they are different and not everything is going to look the same. The older generations need to learn they are not in the 50s anymore and the younger generations need to learn how to respect the older generations. The new look now is all black and skulls and crossbones. This is one I would have to take the older generations side on. If you look dark they are probably going to think you are living that way. I love to where dark clothes but if you like that style you need to show them with your life that you don't believe in darkness, not just with your words. If you are living the true life of a Christian then they problably won't question you on this. But if you are living a luke warm christian life then they have reason to question. This all comes down to the way you live your life and the Christian testimony you show to people. This is why a relationship is important not a religion. If people your age would realize this, then your generation would be the one to help change the world of religion. You decide!!!!! OK with the skulls in this generation I do believe you need to skip this style. If you are a child of the light then you will not want to be associated with death. This can from a generations that is hurting and that death is try to destroy. Don't buy into this style. This is not the way of God. It is another spirit that you are suppost to be fighting against, and not by sporting its style. Think about it!

Why do many people laugh at the sins of other people?
Because they are ignorant and are not acting like a real Christian. People who are not christians love sin and they love to watch others fail. This is a good way for you to look at a person and see if they are truly a Christian or if they are just talking the talk. You need to be able to confront this person in love. If you don't pray first about confronting this person you will not have the Holy Spirit guiding your words. Read Matthew 18:15-17.The church has become a den of hypocrites, because they are not running the church how God tells us to. We shouldn't be supprised that the world doesn't want to hear what we have to tell them. True Christians need to step up to the plate and start living the life of Christ. I am so tired of luke warm christians it make me sick. This is why Jesus says if you are luke warm He is going to vomite them out of His mouth. Make sure you don't fit into this category! Your future depends on it!

Why do people with high positions in the church laugh at others when they are the ones who helped make them sin?
This also goes along with the last answer. Our churches need to go back to what the Bible has to say about its leaders and deacons. The church is not a place for a popularity contest. It is suppose to be the House of God. We are to follow His way on how to chose the leadership of our churches. This is found in 1 Timonthy 3:1-16.

How do I stand up in a difficult moment?
By testing your faith in everyday choices. This goes back again to what we drilled inside of you guys over the youth conference. It is not a religion it is a relationship. If you are only wanting a piece of Jesus during church, church events and to please your parents. You will never be able to stand strongh during times of troubles. Jesus is picking our His followers now during this time in history. Find out who this Jesus really is to you, and how He fits into your life. Be in prayer and thanksgiving during the easy times. So that you will stand strongh during the difficult times.

Is it true that God don't forget all the sin that we do just so we can remember how He saved us?
No this is not true. In the bible God tells us in Psalm 103:12 “ As far as the east is from the west, that's how far He has removed our transgressions(sins) from us”. He also give a lot more verses that say this. Now this doesn't mean that you will not have to deal with the consequences of your actions. This means that He will not remember them on the day of Judgement. Even if you were a chrisitan your whole life and have always been a good person. You still have to give Him thanks and remember what He did for you. You are a human and because of the sin of mankind you were born into sin. You didn't need to do something really bad for you to have to remember to give thanks to God. Giving thanks is an act of worship which we are to do nonstop. The only sin that will not be forgiven is to blasphemy the Holy Spirit. I am sure that you have not done this one. One thing I do want to say is Jesus died for all of mankinds sins so we wouldn't have to. He didn't die in vain. Remember He died for you. Keep this in mind. It will help you to remember to give Him Glory.

How will I know if I am a good servant of God?
If you are living like Jesus did in the Bible! Have you ever wondered why we call Jesus Lord? This is a very powerful word. A Lord is someone over us. Someone we will serve, obey, give honor, and do whatever is told of us to do. Think of the knights who served a king. They were loyal, trustworthy, honest and would died to defend the king and his kingdom. Do you live this way for God? This is what HE asks of us as His servants. Here are a couple verses that talks about a servant in the Bible. 1 Timothy 4:6-10 and Luke 19:17. Here is a poem that I hold very close to my heart. This is why I live the life that I do so that one day I might hear this from my King.

Welcome home my child, My son your work on earth has been well done. You have been a witness to many while on this earth. And you've shared the story of My miracle birth. You never hid the fact that you loved Me. You shared My Word no matter what the need might be. You spoke of me often to family and friends, and you showed how faith can streghten and often mends. You did your best to always give the glory to me; And, for this you will live eternally. And now the time has come for you to rest; I'm taking you home as my special guest. Welcome home My child, My son – your work on earth has been well done.

I was very hypocritical with so many people and I feel terrible. How do I make this right?
Well first of you have to be humble. Which it sounds like you are already trying to do. Admit that you were wrong and vow not to do it again. This is a question that I wish more people would ask more often. If people are not willing to hear you, then that is not your problem. It will become your problem again if you don't keep your word. Remember your word is your life. You are not to vow to anything because nothing is really truly yours to vow against. It all belongs to God. When you speak let it be like you are talking to God. This will help you be accountable to others. Remember that you are held accountable to God and not man. If they will not hear you will at least know your are right with the person that really matters. If they do hear you, then you need to forgive them completely and then forgive yourself.

I just wanted to thank you guys for such a awesome 8 days. You are all great young adults. We hope to get to spend sometime with you again soon. If you have any other questions please feel free to write us or call us anytime day or night. Blessing in His Name. Amanda Johnston

Using circumstances around us to learn about God

2008-11-02T12:38:00.003-06:00

I really want to blog this time about what God has been teaching me lately. He has been teaching me about using the circumstances aroud us to propel us forward in our relationship with Him. The question that I have been asking is what does it take to live a life of excellence and not settling for a life of mediocrity. The first thing that I seen is that we need to be willing to have a change of heart before God will do anything with our lives. One thing that I am learning is that God is a gentlemen. In this day in age that we live in, commonly called the age of grace, God will not force himself on anyone. I have been asking somethings about our lives and why they are there. The answers that I have been getting are not what I was expecting. Instead of an easy answer, like I was expecting, God began showing me some negative things and how to turn them around for the positive. This is a concept that is not new, and I guess you could say that I am a slow learner. They are similar to ancient martial arts concepts. Using the force of your enemy against them. These things teach patience and perseverence, which is the only thing that will carry us through in these trying time that we live. I know that there are alot of people out there that are very worried about the financial market and what is going on with the politics in our country. These things I also spend a lot of time thinking about as well, but God has been showing me that it is not up to me to worry about it. Showing me that His will is being done in the world no matter what. Then I was given somethings that we might be able to use in our daily live. It is not much more than a paridime view. For example, we can us a time of trial, also as a time to learn perseverance.Also problems create perseverance, and in a time of what we feel as if we are defeated to learn about how to handle victories. We need to check our intentions and then we will learn consistancy, and also a time of cronic testing to learn to live in a state of constant fighting. This will produce a life of excellence and not a life of mediocracy. This is all fine and good and then I realized that in order to achieve that place, we need to go through those times of testing first. This is best seen in the world around us at the wellness centers. What does it take to make muscle??? This is the same with "spiritual muscle". I am learning to be quiet and still before God, and wait on Him for whatever comes my way.
I need to go now and get to bed and rest. I am so tired after the last few days of hosting parties, and a missions trip and other things. We have posted some new photos on our flickr account so you can see some of what we have been doing lately. Thank you for all of your support and for prayer. We have had some attacks lately from the enamy because he is scared. This means that we are making ground and pushing the kingdom forawd. We do need prayer for continued protection and provion while we push back the darkness and reveal the light.

Very fast update

2008-10-30T22:58:00.005-05:00

Hello again, I am sorry that it has been a few days since we have had time to sit down and do this. We are very busy with all that is going on here. We are planning times for people to come over and hang out this weekend, also teaching english, hosting a bible study, and also working with AINDOC. We are very busy right now planning a day of social help in the community. Aindoc is heading a day of social help on the 17th of November and we need gifts for around 1000 people, and food and bathroom supplies and many other things. Anyhow we are planning on about 25 youth this weekfor for a sleepover during the night of the 31st and 1st. Please keep us in your prayers as we are planning on doing this. Today we had 18 other youth over for a day of American Food Cooking class headed up by Amanda. It was fun and I think that most of them enjoyed the mashed potatoes, with meatballs and gravy. It was hard to think about what food we could serve that is authentic American. Well, we will have more time to sit down and tell you about the weekend and what is happening there early next week.
I need to keep this short because I am very tired and need to get to bed. I took another missionary about 1 hour from here this morning at 5:30am so I am starting to feel it. Last night we only got about 4 1/2 or 5 hours of sleep because we had Bible study last night as well.
I wanted to let you know that we have a new video online at our youtube account that was made by Amistad Christian, and Colegio Patria Juarez (the girls school) and it has the students from the school in it so we wanted to share it with you. It made us cry and we were so blessed to be able to get a copy of it. God is really blessing our family by allowing us the opertunity to live and work for Him in this wonderful country. Thank you all for your prayers and we will blog again soon. God Bless You All!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is the video

or follow this link: http://www.youtube.com/user/heartformissions

Catch the Fire.

2008-10-13T21:01:00.014-05:00

Hello, I am sorry that it has been awhile since I have had time to write. Thank you Jesus that my beautiful wife is here for me, keeping up on all this. We have been so busy with the donations at AINDOC, and now for the last week, this week, and next week I am teaching english in the school system here (PLEASE PRAY FOR ME!!!!!!!) J/K. It actually has been very great. We were talking about rock stars the other day and there assignment was to write down what rock stars do, as rock stars! This was interresting, but thankfully I had did my homework and was able to show the negative side of being a star. I told them about the drugs, and the influence of the occult, the disease's and other things. This was an AWESOME opportunity to show the life of Christ and what he wants for us. I told them that many of the rules that are put in place by Jehova are not for Him, but for us!! To save us from the pain!! There eyes were glued and I had 18, 12 and 13 year old students not saying a word!! God is so good. There are many more things to add, but that is not what I wanted to write about tonight. I wanted to say thank you to Jesus for providing us that opportunity to be here doing this work. The other day I got a message from a girl that is becoming more of apart of our family everyday. We just love her so much and are so excited to see how God is moving in the hearts of the people here. I received permission from her to post this so you all can see how people are crying out for God. This is not the first time that we have heard something like this, this is just the first time that I have received permission to share it with the world, and all of you. (I deleted anything that might give away who she is, for her privacy.) Here is what it said,

Hey!!! How are you guys doing?? I have been very blessed through “*******************” Mexico City I learned a lot! And I think it’s time to start putting in practice what I know…. God spoke about making Jesus famous!!! To ask Jesus in our daily prayers to use our lives to make Him famous, whatever way He wants, but we need to be utile for His renown!! You know what??? Recently I have been feeling a huge worrying about my country!!! Because of *************, I am getting really involved with México, I’ve got to read the newspaper, go deep in some crimes, investigate murderers, etc!! It’s being very difficult knowing all stuff, sadly, real. There’s a big need to change and to fight for Mexico!!! You guys have been a great model for me… watching that you have done lots more things for a Country that’s not even yours … you have left your family!! Well we all know how difficult this has been for you… then why I’m I just standing and watching and clapping you??? I should feel ashamed! I call myself a Mexican!! Ok I’m so proud… and then??? What’s next?? This can’t continue the ways it goes…. I’ve got to change first if I want people to change.. I believe there is still hope for Mexico!!! Something new is growing in my heart!! I want to go share the gospel to jails! I know sounds crazy but I also know Jesus is the only solution. It’s not increase punishments, it’s not put criminals into death,. Jesus is the only way to stop such evilness!! I don’t know what but I need to do something!! Jesus is coming soon and there’s no time to waste…. Let’s make Jesus famous!!! Now, I want you guys to continue helping me, I need discipleship, I would like that u share your knowledge with me!! For I know being willing is important but not enough. I need to be prepared! It’s sounds difficult ha?! But I know God will make his part… mean while here I am to do mine!!! Thanks for reading… Love you!!!

This is why our family is here. The other day I was walking around the house complaining about something and then I realised the blessing that God has given us. I was brought to tears this weekend when we were with some friends and I realized again the life that God is blessing us with. We are able to take that blessing and like the Bible says, it is a cup overflowing. We cannot help but share the love of Jesus with those around us. It is truly like a fire that once it is lit, anything that comes in contact with it will also burn. Sure I am human and make stupid human mistakes, but God is SOOOOOOOO much bigger than that!! If he can use a donkey, he can use little old me. The other day I was working on a project and I started laughing because I was just like a little school girl who is going out with a boy. I realised that I had spent the last couple hours not saying a word to anyone, but just letting my mind wander into the presence of Jesus and allowing His love to wrap around me. While I was working on that project, I was just trying to imagine what it will be like when we stand before Him. When we are able, when ever we want, to worship Him live and in person. What He must look like, and what kind of person He is, what kind of love he must have for us, and what His plans for our life are. He has planted this love in my heart is at the core of who I am. Even though the love is in my head, it is not centered there, and while the love is in my heart, that is not the core of it either. This love is something that is in center of who I am, set deep inside, and unable to be removed by anything. It is so powerful that is changes the physical person on the outside. He has sparked this love, and as the Bible calls it, it is the "love of the bridegroom". The wedding feast is not far off, and we that are alive in Christ will be caught up in the air to meet Him. I don't know if this generation will see the end or not. One thing is for sure, one day our world (personally)will come to an end, and then it will be our turn to stand before Him and present ourselves to the Father. I look forward to the day when I can present my body as the living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to Him, trying my best to live in peace with all man. Thank you Jesus for this life, and this wonderful opportunity to serve you. The people of Mexico are also catching this vision and the more that we share your message, the more that it effecting those around us. We have found out that this is the hour for Christians to stop taking the back seat. The other day one of my friends said it best, he said, "I am beginning to think that, instead of taking the hits of satan, we start hitting him, and if there was ever a time to take up our cross to follow Jesus...... this is the time." This is the time, and this is the truth.

I have to quite now, because I could go on for hours. Thank you all for your love and support, and don't forget to keep your eyes on the King. Ross

Just a catch up

2008-10-09T11:24:00.002-05:00

Just to catch you up with last week and this weekend. We have all been sick in our home. The pollution has been really bad and the mix of the cold weather has not helped in us getting better. We are now on the mend. Just in time because we are going to have a very busy weekend ahead for us. Tonight after work we are going to help the teenagers and start to plan our missions trip that is going to be coming up first week of september. Friday through Sunday we have a little boy staying with us will his mom go to a work seminar. Along with that we are also helping on friday and saturday with the church for the annual church conference. This is a huge event in the church. Sunday we are going across town to a fiesta with a family. On top of all this and our regular work schedule Ross is also teaching at the school for three weeks. We aer vfery excited about this. So please be in prayer for us as he is working with teenagers between 12-15 years old. Thankfully we are able to have our daughters with us. They are such a huge help and they have such big hearts to help people. Our neighbors are in need of serious prayer right now. She is 6 1/2 monhts pregnant and she started to have contractions. She has a very serious infection and her and baby are at risk. Please be in prayer for them. She is suppose to be on bed rest and we all know how hard that is for a young mother of two. The kids will also be with us for the next to days when they get out of school. I am going to be answering more questions the teens in acapulco asked sometime next week. Keep posted. They are very good questions worth reading. Many blessing to all. amanda

For our loved ones

2008-10-02T12:20:00.010-05:00

In my quite time today I felt so strongly to pray for you guys. I want to let you know that we have not forgotten any of you guys. We didn't leave you for no reason at all. We didn't leave you to go and love others. We didn't just leave you for an adventure. We did it because it was what our family was created to do. It is the thing that gives us unbelievable peace in our hearts. As much as you guys don't understand. We are truly doing, what we are doing, for all of you. We pray that our lives will be a light for you in this dark world. It is so hard to be away from you guys. To just being able to go give you guys huges for no reason. We miss going to your games and supporting you in all that you guys do, but like I said before we are not doing it in vain. I know God sees all these things that are so hard for us and He will honor them. Maybe not here on this earth but in Heaven. Know that we are supporting you guys here. We keep up with what you are doing and we will always be intune with your lives. Please don't be upset with us for taking your little girls away from you. Know that they are our shinning lights and that we are taking care of them. Please know that they will NEVER be put on the sidelines while we do our work. They are our number one, and our gifts from heaven. We made this video for you guys hoping that our life song will sing to you guys. We love you all very much! Blessings Amanda

Questions from teens in Acapulco and our answers to them

2008-09-24T22:55:00.004-05:00

Here are some questions that were asked by the youth that we took on a weekend retreat in Acapulco. There are some really good questions that we thought you might like to read. Hope they might even answer some of your own questions. Later Amanda

Answers To Your Questions

How do I know I forgave someone that hurt me?
The first way of being able to tell if you forgave someone is if you don't get angry when you see or think of that person. The best way to forgive someone is to pray for them. This helps cleanse you of resentment and bitterness. Remember everyone has sinned and is in need of forgiveness. The bible tells us if we don't forgive then we are not going to be forgiven either(Mark 11:25-26). This is hard because a lot of us have had scrap dished out to us in our lives and we don't feel that we need to forgive, but God says that, vengeance is mine, (Romans 12-19). So to answer your question, if you can pray for that person and not get anger in your heart and be able to pray for blessings for that person then that should do it.

Why do adults judges us instead of help us?
I want to be the first person to tell all of you guys sorry for this one. I know that adults don't understand a lot of your issues that you guys go through. This is not biblical and at anytime we should be able to talk to our elders, but because this don't always happen we need to learn how to rely on the Holy Spirit more. This is also one of those things that you as teens need to start to realize that you are lacking in. If you are all having a hard time with this then you need to start to stand with each other. You need to understand that you are going to be the ones that reach your generation. Why because you understand the problems each other is going through. Also you need to learn patience with your elders. Our generations don't do this any more. It is biblical that we have respect for our elders. Learn to ask your questions when you are not so angry or upset. Control your temper and remember just because they don't always understand you does not mean that they don't love you. They just want whats best for you. It is hard as a parent to let your child grow up. We do understand this because we are parents ourselves. Your parents are also learning how to be parents just like you guys are learning on how to be adults. Just want to let you know though that you always have us to talk. We are good listeners a lot of times. We may not always have the answers for you but we will try the best we can. We are always here for you guys.

How can I be passionate about Jesus without religion and customs?
This is such a great question. The answer is by having a real relationship with Him. If you just want to do the church thing on Sundays or when your parents tell you to you will NEVER have this happen. What do you want from a friend? Do you want someone you can talk to about anything and everything? Someone that will listen to you without judging you? Someone to show you love? Someone that understands you, this is possible if you want it. Jesus will do all these things for you, but to have a good friend that means you have to BE A GOOD FRIEND. If you want to be passionate about Jesus then you need to show Him passion also. I read a great book one time that talked about out heart and how it is Jesus' home. If we put crap into it we will receive crap in return. SPEND TIME WITH HIM, TALK TO HIM, WORSHIP HIM IN EVERYTHING THAT YOU DO. You don't have to be a cheesy Christian to do this, you just need to pray, read and spend time with HIM not only the church. The church is great for learning and fellowship but it will never be the thing that will get you close and personal with God.

How can I be happy when horrible things have happened to me?
Because this is one of the fruits of the spirit that God talks about. I always tell my daughter that if she can try to see the positive things out of life then she will be a happier person. I am not saying to just forget about all the horrible things that happened but you need to first start off with the process of forgiveness. Because if you don't do this then you will always be hurt and unhappy. It is amazing how the cloud of depression will lift if you are willing to forgive. Everyday you need to wake up and say it is going to be a great day and thank God for all the things that you do have. I am not talking about only material things either. I am talking about the health that you have, the breath that you breath, the freedom that you have. These are the things to be thankful for. If you can be thankful for the little things God will trust you with you bigger things. Keep your head up high. I know that our world is a unfair place but know that we have a King that see all our pains and sorrows. He will someday soon take all the pain that is in that world. Till then keep searching for His face and accept the healing power that can come through knowing Him as you Redeemer.

Is religion contagious?
HAHA this is a question I have asked myself at times. Yes I believe it can be, not like a sickness but by a religions spirit. I am going to give the same answer I gave for one of the last questions. If you are only in the church to do the whole church thing than yes you will get infected by this. IT IS A RELATIONSHIP THAT IS WHAT IS IMPORTANT NOT A RELIGION. Be sure that you are not one of those people because you will be one of the worst witnesses for Jesus if your are religious. Do you know the reason more people are not coming to Christ. It is because Christians are not doing our job. If we would get the whole relationship thing down and actually care and love people, then we could be a better example. If your are going to talk the talk of a Christan you better do the walk also. Don't be a transformer and change when you leave the church doors. Because us Christians that are living the life Jesus asked us too don't need any more work to load us down. If you want to change this then you need to look in the mirror and first look at yourself to see if you are the religious hypocrite that you are asking about.

Why did God say he would never kill man again with a flood? Why did the tsunami happen then? Because there is sin in the world and people don't want to admit it. God said he would never destroy the whole world again with a flood but HE never said that storms wouldn't come. This country was also a closed country to the Gospel of the Lord. They didn't even want God's name to be spoken there. If you ask God to leave, He won't leave but He will allow Satan to do what He wants. He gives us the freedom of choice. Remember after this storm happened, this was the first time in years that any body in that country was able to hear about the love of Jesus. Many peoples lives were forever change. Some for the good and some for the bad. The Christians that went to help showed the light of God. People were hungry to hear about the saving grace that so many of us in free countries take for granted. We need to realize though that this life on earth is not what is the most important. We need to remember that there is a eternity and if we are not willing to except God's love now then we will not be able to accept it when our life on this earth is finished. God is love, He does all things for the good of us even if we can't see it in the mist of the storms of life that we go through.

When I receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit and I do something that is wrong, can I loose the gift of the spirit forever?
The answer is no, unless you have blasphemed the Holy Spirit. I first want to ask you if you know you truly were baptized in the spirit. Because if you just were water baptized and can't speak in tongues or if you just don't feel close to God then these are two totally different things. If you were filled with the spirit you would know without a shadow of a doubt that you received it. The thing to think about is if you feel like you are not close to Jesus or are not hearing from Him, then maybe you should look at yourself and see if you have any sin that is blocking that passage way. The Holy Spirit is always there with you and is always willing to speak to you. If you asked for it to enter your life then it is there even if you have made a mistake, but you may have other sins that are speaking louder than the Holy Spirits voice. Be sure to pray to God and ask Him what it might be that is in the way of you hearing from Him. Because He never leaves unless we ask Him to, but remember this is not just with the words that we speak but also with our actions. If we are constantly in sexual sin are we going to be hearing correctly or if you have not forgiven someone then this also can be a action that is pushing the spirit away. Remember though that if you pray to Jesus HE will always answer you. Even if it seems a little quieter than the everyday voices that are around us.

How can I understand my family?
Wow, I don't know if I can answer this one. The only thing that I can say is that people that are in a family are usually very similar to each other in one way or another. First look at yourself and see if you have some of the same flaws that they have and then first work on them in your life. Then you maybe able to understand them more. Remember Mathew 7:5 says that, you need to first remove the plank (piece of wood) from your own eye before you can see clearly enough to pick out the plank in your brothers eye.

How can I know what is correct in my life?
You need to pray and ask God this one. No one on this earth can give you the answer for this except the Holy Spirit.
Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find: knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened (Mathew 7:7-8).

Our time with our family.

2008-09-20T14:27:00.004-05:00

The last couple weeks we have had a lot of fun but have not had much time to update what has been going on. My mom (Ross) and Mandy's mom came down from the states and spent some time with us. We were able to take a little time off and do some fun things, but we also were able to use there willing hands to help us out. All in all, we had tons of fun over the last couple weeks. We will be updating our pictures tonight so that you all can see where we went and what we did. We were able to go to Acapulco for a three day vacation and stay in an apartment that was for rent. We spend some time on the beach hanging out and we able to reconnect with some of the teens we ministered with last month. We were also able to see a little bit of Mexico City together. In the mist of this we were able to put our moms to work. As many of you know Sept. 15th is Mexico's independance and it is a long weekend of partying and celebrating. Our church put on a BBQ for 3 or 4 thousand people. Mandy, Linda, Polly, and I were able to spend two day cooking and preparing food. Also we did a lot of setting up tables and chairs, moving cases of pop, husking corn, and other things in preperation. It was a blessing to be able to offer our hands as a blessing for the church in that way. The main person of AINDOC was the also the leader of the people for the BBQ, so we were automatically selected as help for the event. We took some good pictures, and if you go to our flickr account you will be able to see them.
Since that time we have some new things on our plate now for us to do here. Ross has signed up for the missions school and are now attending class. We are still working full time for AINDOC, attending spanish class's, ministering almost full time with people hungry to hear about God, starting an indepth Bible study, working with the youth, working with the young adults and trying to balance our family time in the middle of it.
Please keep us in your prayers as we approach the church this week about expanding the ministry of AINDOC which will require more space and more work. It is not that we are trying to go looking for more things to do, but God is opening doors for us to help more people. We see that the more people we help the more that Jesus name is shown as a God of love and peace, and in return more people cry out to God. This is very exciting to us, and it is the reason that we are alive. I have a little story to tell you that I had a lady tell me. She was living in Mexico City and just going about life as normal. One day she ran into someone that was willing to share about the love of Jesus to her. She had never heard about this before. She was very curious and began asking more questions. The person opened up there heart to her and told her more. After a few meetings she finally accepted Christ as her savior. She then went home and told her husband that she was now a Christian. Her husbands responce was not what I expected. She told me that when she told her husband she was now a Christian, he said to her, "What is a Christian?". I was startled! Think about this, living in Mexico City for somewhere around 50 years and her husband didn't even know what a Christian was. This was not a long time ago either, it was just a couple years ago. This showed me how much work we really have to do here. Constanly we are seeing the importance of AINDOC because we are reaching people like that through this ministry. That is the reason that we are asking for more space and the ability to reach more people.
Thank you all for your prayers and support. Talk again soon. Ross, Mandy, and family.

Just a quick note for tonight.

2008-09-03T22:53:00.006-05:00

Hey, we were just going to drop a line tonight to let you know a little bit that is on our hearts. We were working today with the organization called AINDOC and just enjoying our time moving box's up 3 flights of stairs. We received donations for elderly people to help ease the pains of normal life that we in the United States don't even think of.
While we understand the importance of the work that we are doing we are not always the one's that get to see the fruit of what we are doing. Especially now, we are working so much behind the scenes that we do not get to get out and see the people that God has given us the love for. At times it is difficult, and other times it is extremely rewarding. Today was one of the days that started out difficult, but as the day went on God graciously showed us how important this time here is. As were were moving the box's we walked into an area that we now work in. When we entered the building we noticed that there were 4 people standing in a circle, in a corner, praying together. At first we didnt think anything about this, because it is fairly common. Then we noticed that we didn't recognise all the people. While we were just there moving things around, cleaning, and packing, we were able to find out what the people came there for. It was a couple that was needing help buying school suplies for their children. THis is something that we understand. Jesus literly handed the money over to us this year also for our daughters school supplies. It was so great to see God working and showing His love to others. There was something going on and AINDOC was able to help. To be real with you if you can't buy school supplies for your kids here then they don't go to school. You have to find some kind of organization that can help you. What a awesome way to be able to show people God's love:) I am not going to go into detail, because it doesn't matter, however, we were able to see the fruit of our labor being used by those that needed it the most. God did not have to show this to us, but in His grace and love, He showed us that He is still in charge, and that He has our lives in the palm of His hands. This was a wonderful time. After work, we went home and had supper together. After supper I was asked to come back to the warehouse to help a guy pickup some donations. I figured that it would just be a quick time of throwing some stuff into a vehicle and away we go. Well, we did just that. However, after I got done working with the man I was asking questions about his ministry. He told me that they help Natives that come out of the mountains and have basically nothing. They help them by feeding them, teaching them spanish (they only have there native tongue), getting them in the school systems and etc. Right now our organization supplies enough supplies for them to take care of 100 families, and in the other home roughly 800 children. This was so amazing to me, and he also gave me a couple pictures that he had in his vehicle. I just put them on our flickr account so that you all can see just a very, little glimpse of what the utilities that we are providing are going for. We were invited to come up there some weekend and help out. We are excited to take the oppertunity in the future, however, right now we have far too many commitments in Mexico City. I love how God gave us 2 things, in one day, just to confirmed again why we are here. I also meet with our attorney and they said that our paperwork should be back, hopefully, by the end of next week and we will be official Mexican immigrants in this country. Thank you JESUS!!!! Please keep us in your prayers as we continue on in thisnventure that God has placed on us. We love you all and thanks again for all the prayers and support, we can feel it daily.

PS. If you know anyone that is bored, unemployed, or just wants to get out a little bit and see another area of the world, we have a place here!! There are 46million people living in Mexico City, and is less than 2% Christian. We need people to just come and show what a Christians life is really suppose to look like. In many cases people are not taught what a Christian life is that are told to just change and not do bad anymore. We are being bombarded by questions by many, many people both Christians, and non-Christians alike. We are working hand in hand with 22 ministries strategically placed throughout this city, and they all need help as well. Please be in prayer about coming to Mexico City to spend a week, a month, or a couple years helping. Thank you all and God bless.

A little late blogging

2008-08-29T23:01:00.007-05:00

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

2008-08-19T10:05:00.003-05:00

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

2008-08-06T19:08:00.003-05:00

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.

A week of fun

2008-07-19T21:27:00.005-05:00

Hello everyone, we had a wonderful tiring week. We helped work in the childrens summer bible school. Amanda was a teacher of ten year olds and Ross worked in lighting, maintance and sound. The girls learned a lot also during this time. They were both able to be in classes. If you would like to look at pictures and videos of the work we helped with this week you can go to our flicker and youtube account.

This was a wonderful week for our spanish speaking. This whole week was in spanish, no english at all. The students and teachers that I worked with knew no english at all. This was wonderful because so many people want to practice their english with us. We have needed to ask them to speak to us in spanish so we can learn the language. This has been wonderful because we have been able to do a lot of ministry with people in our native tounge this early in our time here but it is not helping us with spanish. We do all our shopping in the markets and on the street so we can find people who only know spanish so we can practice with them. The girls are doing wonderful in spanish but still need prayer to make school and life go smoothly.

We were very blessed today from the people that we are here to help. We had a game today between all the teachers, staff, pastors and other helpers. There was about 2oo helpers there. The game was to give ribbons to people that you thought deserved them. They we different colors, the meanings of the colors were: yellow (obedients to God) red (courages & brave) blue (faithful to the Lord) white (trustworthy) green (a person that is careful with peoples hearts). We had so many people come up to us and give us all the colors but the ones that we got the most (a full hand full) where the yellow , red and blue ones. All that gave them thanked us for leaving our culture, family, homes, food and security to come and help them. There were many tears and lots of hugs. All we could tell them was that it was the desire of our hearts and that God has given us a overflowing amount of peace here. It is very hard at times being away from our families but we know that they will be richly blessed because of it. It is wonderful that we were with them for many years and we have a lot of memories that we will never forget with them. God showed us once more a lesson on how to be humbled before His throne today. It is a blessing that the people see us differnet than many christians and that they want to know what a true walk with God looks like. We have found that people here don't want to reject God but they are tired of lukewarm christianity and religion. We know that God has sent us here to show them that religion has nothing to do with a relationship with God.

Here is a short video showing some of the week and the work we were involved in. There was great ministry going on during the week and there were children that caught the fire of God and it will effect there lives forever.

Trip to El Salvador

2008-07-17T18:04:00.001-05:00

July 17th 2008

Friends and Supporters;

Hello everyone, all is well here in Mexico City. The girls are out of school now for the summer and we are busier than ever. Our language learning is going awesome. The girls are doing even better. We hope all of you got our first newsletter a few months ago. You can also keep up with us on our blog account. We write at least once a week. We also put on a lot of videos. http://rossandmandy.blogspot.com We are excited to see what God is doing here and how He is really showing Himself to us and those around us. We have many stories of Gods goodness, provision and protection for us and our family in Mexico City. We are so glad that God has brought us here, and we look forward to continuing our service to Him for a long time in Mexico.
With this in mind, we recently received a letter from some old friends in El Salvador asking for some short time help. As Gods hands and feet we feel that this is something that God has ordained for us and is asking us to go do. They are asking for help to deliver the gospel to some indigenous groups in the mountains of El Salvador. We have felt a very strong urge to go and help them out. Many of you many know the story of El Salvador and why we went there seven years ago. For the ones that have not heard the story let me tell you a short version of it. One night Ross and I prayed to God and told Him that we didn’t feel we were living out our purpose in life. We felt tired of not feeling the peace of God in our lives. The next day Ross went to the church we were going at that time to copy some papers. When he got there the pastor’s wife came and told him if he could get his passports within three days he could have a free ticket to El Salvador to help on a missions trip. He came home so excited but then he decided that he was not going to go if I was not able to go. Right after that we got a call from the pastor’s wife again and she said that another ticket opened up and asked if I also wanted to go. Many people didn’t think that we would get our passports and everything in order within that short of time. God got it done even sooner. A long story short the FED EX truck was late and they forgot our passport package but God had not. We got our passport within three days and we were off to El Salvador to help out the victims of two terrible earthquakes. While we were there God showed us this was what He wanted from us in our lives. God always works great things in numbers.
We landed back home from El Salvador and we both cried out and told God that we didn’t want to be back home. That was on Jan. 28th 2001, Jan. 28th 2002 Alyssa was born and exactly seven years later we landed in Mexico City Jan. 28th 2008. Seven is God’s perfect number. We will be going back to help in El Salvador again with those same passports we got and also with two beautiful girls.
We are praying for the money we need to be here by July 24th 2008. We want to go down July 26th thru August 9th. This is only a week away but we have seen God do great miracles within even shorter amounts of time. We ask if there is anyway that you could help our family financially. We have just received 10% of our money that is necessary to go. We had a lady here in Mexico walk up to us and give us a letter written in English with some money in it. She said she doesn’t know what the money was supposed to be for but that God will provide the all the money that we need. She said that the money she gave would multiple. God sent us once to El Salvador with a miracle and we believe that He will do it again. There will be also another attachment sent with this letter telling you the things that are happening in El Salvador. All we need help with is the money for airfare. We will also include information with who we will be working for. If you would like to donate to us, you can send money to our mission’s agency or you can get a hold of Ross’s mother Linda Hammond or Amanda’s mother Polly Jeannotte and give them your donation. They will be able to put it in our account immediately, but this way is not tax deductible. Their phone numbers are 701-572-9486 (Linda) 701-572-5582. The mailing address for our missions company is:

I.M.F. Missionaries
P.O. Box 32366
Minneapolis, MN 55436
IMF’s telephone number inside the U.S. (1-763-571-5967)
(Please don’t put our names any where on the check, place a extra piece of paper in the envelope with our name on itJ Please make donations out to I.M.F.) They also accept credit card donationsJ

Thank you for keeping up with our family, and many blessing to you and your family.
Dios Te Bendiga!
Ross, Amanda, Alyssa and Zoe Johnston
rossandmandy@yahoo.com

Splitting the Red Sea

2008-07-04T22:02:00.002-05:00

I have heard people say that if God only would work miracles again like he did in the Bible they would be able to believe in Him. For me this was the case in times past, but a while back I was challenged by God to see things for myself. I began praying for little things that were possible, but hard to get accomplished. I then started seeing these things being accomplished for us. I have lately been pushed by God to give this message to those around us. This is a hard message to share if you are not seeing miracles happen in your own life. I was not content to be telling people, "Do as I say, not as I do". Lately God has been doing great things for us and our family. I wished that I could include all the miracles in people lives that are happening around us, but I can't. I can however tell you about the latest thing that just happened to us.
As alot you know Mandy and I have seen a great need here in Mexico City for the discipleship of people that are coming to Christ. In order to be able to stay here legally we need to apply for immigration. We found attorneys that work for the church that said that they would help us with it. Somewhere around 3 months ago we gave them the paperwork for it and really nothing has happened. Now lets move forward to Wednesday. We had a friend, talking to his friend a couple days ago and God told him to ask that friend about immigration. He thought it was crazy and blew it off. This feeling that came over him just got stronger and stronger. He then finally submitted and asked her. The lady that he asked told him that in fact she did, her sister worked for immigration. A few minutes after that I just randomly walked into my friends office as they were sitting around talking. They explained everything to me and set up a meeting at the immigration office for Thursday morning. I know that God parted the Red Sea for the Israelites, and it was similar for us. There were hundreds of people standing in lines at the immigrations office here when we walked in. We talked to the front desk people and told them we needed to see a particular immigration agent. They took us, walked right past the crowds behind the front lines and we stood there visiting. They are able to help us out, and get this all taken care of quickly and effectively. Also there are some hang ups that we have with the file, but they are able to help us move around the problems for a quick approval. At this point we are just having to trust God for the final word from the governement, but we are seeing His hand moving all around us. I have other stories of Gods provision and guidance that are equally as important and amazing. As I look around I see that God is opening doors for us, and is bringing people into our lives that are not only a blessing for us, but also an encouragement. I have been told alot by people around us how amazing it is seeing Gods provision for our family but now we are seeing what living a life of expectancy is.

As I do with the people that we are talking to here, I also encourage you to seek out God and find out who He is. Find out what He can be in your life, and what His plan for your life is. Too many times we are just happy doing what we want to do with no reguard for the souls of the people around us. I am not willing to stand before God in the end and have Him say, "Saved, but life wasted!" There will be no negociating, no swaying, no arguing with the eternal label that God puts on us. For this reason I encourage everyone to push into God and see who He really is. Don't listen to the voices of man, because man will always fail us, dont listen to the voices in the street, or those in front of us. Listen to the voice of God and see what He truly wants from us. This is my word for the night, and I hope that it encourages all of you, but even more I hope it stretches all of you to finding out what God wants from you.

Our school presentation

2008-07-01T09:03:00.002-05:00

Hello again! The school presentacion went better than we could have ever planned. We had twenty students who were listening. We know that they had to listen too us because it was one of their final tests for the school year in english class:) The outline went something like this: our family, where we were from, where we have been, why we were there, why we are in Mexico and four challenges at the end of it. The challenges were; to come and ask us about our testimonies, to ask God what their purpose in life is, to be willing to see miracles in their own lives and to see Christianity for what it truly is meant to be(without legalism and religion). We have already had eight of the kids come up to us and start asking questions or questioning how to do the challenges that we gave them. We are finding that many people here have heard about the Lord but need a lot of discipling in their lives. Amistad is a wonderful church, but it also has 12-15 thousand people involved in it. Praise God He is working such awesome things through a mega-church. We feel God has sent us here for this very reason. To show what Christ is really all about, unlike many of the churches and luke warm christians have made it out to be. Please keep praying for these teenagers and for the relationships that needs to be built. We laught after we gave our presentation. Because, the things that we felt God wanted us to say were the things that the kids have been getting taught through other speakers. God is showing some of these kids who He really is before they leave for high school. There is not a christian high school around here. The high schools here are very different than the states. The kids are not kept track of like they are in the states. It is more of a honor system. If you don't go to class that's your problem. They also teach against the things the Bible teaches us to be. We have four of the students we spoke to that live really close to our home. A couple live right across the the street.Praise God for His goodness. It makes me laugh because we were not even suppose to be living where we are. It was only because of God that we got our apartment. We wouldn't be able to be doing the ministry that He has us doing right now if we lived in the apartment that was planned for us (just about a hour away). I hope all of you have a great 4th of July. Eat a yummy hamburger and some smores for us.(A good tan wouldn't hurt either:) Tell a soldier thanks also during this week. We are free because of so many of these brave men and women.
Blessings in His name,
Ross, Amanda, Alyssa and Zoe Johnston
p.s.(Amanda)I love and miss all of my family back at home. Dad and mom, I love you:)My sisters, I really love you and miss being with you. Kids, auntie loves you guys abunch, can't wait to make another movie:):)

New opportunity

2008-06-23T17:24:00.003-05:00

Hello everyone, I pray all is well with you and your families. WE are doing very well here in Mexico. We have been asked to speak to a group of teenagers in a school on Friday. It will be the students Ross is going to be teaching english to next school year. The ages will be from 12-15yrs old. We were asked to share about ourselves and whatever else the Lord puts on our hearts. We are very excited about this! We have been praying for an opportunity like this. We are also going to be starting a prayer group at our home. We have people that come to our house often and ask us how to get closer to God. I know that we don't always have the right answers to many things but we have the best answer for this question (PRAYER)!! We want our generation to be known as a praying generation and not just for mooching. Prayer is the fastest connection to God. Unfortunately this is the thing that many christians don't do. If they do do it they usually are asking God for something or only allowing a one way conversaion about themselves. They never ask how His heart is or about His opinon. We have been teaching people here that prayer is like a conversation with on of your best friends. You can't always be asking things from a friend, you also have to listen and help that friend out. What makes a true relationship? Here is a website that can answer this question for you. www.wikihow.com/Be-a-Good-Friend We are truly so happy here. It makes us even happier knowing our daughters love it here also. Of course, we have days that we wish we could see our families and give them hugs and kisses but God has been faithful to us in this area. We know that God is watching over our families and is protecting them. One thing God taught me along time ago is to tell your loved ones that you love them every time you leave them. Even if it is just a overnight stay. I know my family knows that I love with much of my heart because I have learned to do this. I hope that you guys will also do this and if there is anything that hinders you from telling them this (something unforgiven) please pray that GOd will show you it. Because, the bible tells us in matthew 6:5-15 and Mark 11:22-26 that if we don't forgive then God will also not forgive us our sins. WOW I am goig to head out now. We have to start working on our presentation for the school. Peace AMANDA

A way to change your heart

2008-06-16T08:36:00.003-05:00

Here is a sermon that I heard that I think many of you who are reading this can change your heart. This man (Mike Bickle) is from the house of prayer in Kansas City. He is a great preacher and I know he is not is it for himself like many others out there. Please take the time for God and sit and listen to this sermon. It is broken up in two, twenty minute sermons on youtube. The "one thing" is the conference title 2005. Are you ready to hear how your heart can be radicaly changed? Amanda

part 1

(if you cannot see the video, right click and copy and
paste this link into your webbrowser to watch)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZvPVWE4gDY

part 2

(right click and copy this link into your browser if you have problems)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFjO0x9rH_o

A email from a friend

2008-06-09T08:47:00.001-05:00

>> A TEENAGER'S VIEW OF HEAVEN 17-year-old Brian
>> Moore had only a short time to write something for a
>> class. The subject was what Heaven was like. 'I wowed
>> 'em,' he later told his father, Bruce. 'It's a killer.
>> It's the bomb. It's the best thing I ever wrote..'
>>
>> It also was the last. Brian Moore died May 27,
>> 1997, the day after Memorial Day. He was driving home
>> from a friend's house when his car went off Bulen-Pierce
>> Road in Pickaway County and struck a utility pole. He
>> emerged from the wreck unharmed but stepped on a downed
>> power line and was electrocuted. The Moores framed a copy
>> of Brian's essay and hung it among the family portraits
>> in the living room. 'I think God used him to make a
>> point. I think we were meant to find it and make
>> something out of it,' Mrs. Moore said of the essay. She
>> and her husband want to share their son's vision of life
>> after death. 'I'm happy for Brian. I know he's in heaven.
>> I know I'll see him.'
>>
>>
>>
>> Brian's Essay: The Room... In that place
>> between wakefulness and dreams, I found myself in the
>> room. There were no distinguishing features except for
>> the one wall covered with small index card files. They
>> were like the ones in libraries that list titles by
>> author or subject in alphabetical order. But these files,
>> which stretched from floor to ceiling and seemingly
>> endless in either direction, had very different headings.
>> As I drew near the wall of files, the first to catch my
>> attention was one that read 'Girls I have liked.' I
>> opened it and began flipping through the cards. I quickly
>> shut it, shocked to realize that I recognized the names
>> written on each one. And then without being told, I knew
>> exactly where I was. This lifeless room with its small
>> files was a crude catalog system for my life. Here were
>> written the actions of my every moment, big and small, in
>> a detail my memory couldn't match. A sense of wonder and
>> curiosity, coupled with horror, stirred within m
> e as I began randomly opening files and exploring their
> content. Some brought joy and sweet memories; others a
> sense of shame and regret so intense that I would look
> over my shoulder to see if anyone was watching. A file
> named 'Friends' was next to one marked 'Friends I have
> betrayed.' The titles ranged from the mundane to the
> outright weird 'Books I Have Read,' 'Lies I Have Told,'
> 'Comfort I have Given,' 'Jokes I Have Laughed at ' Some
> were almost hilarious in their exactness: 'Things I've
> yelled at my brothers.' Others I couldn't laugh at:
> 'Things I Have Done in My Anger', 'Things I Have Muttered
> Under My Breath at My Parents.' I never ceased to be
> surprised by the contents. Often there were many more
> cards than I expected. Sometimes fewer than I ! hoped. I
> was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the life I had
> lived. Could it be possible that I had the time in my
> years to fill each of these thousands or even millions of
> cards? But each card confirmed this truth. Each was w
> ritten in my own handwriting. Each signed with my
> signature. When I
> pulled out the file marked 'TV Shows I have watched', I
> realized the files grew to contain their contents. The
> cards were packed tightly, and yet after two or three
> yards, I hadn't found the end of the file. I shut it,
> shamed, not so much by the quality of shows but more by
> the vast time I knew that file represented. When I came to
> a file marked 'Lustful Thoughts,' I felt a chill run
> through my body. I pulled the file out only an inch, not
> willing to test its size and drew out a card. I shuddered
> at its detailed content. I felt sick to think that such a
> moment had been recorded. An almost animal rage broke on
> me. One thought dominated my mind: No one must ever see
> these cards! No one must ever see this room! I have to
> destroy them!' In insane frenzy I yanked the file out. Its
> size didn't matter now. I had to empty it and burn the
> cards. But as I took it at one end and began pounding it
> on the floor, I could not dislodge a single card. I became
> desperate and pulled out a card,
> only to find it as strong as steel when I tried to tear
> it. Defeated and utterly helpless, I returned the file to
> its slot. Leaning my forehead against the wall, I let out
> a long, self-pitying sigh. And then I saw it.. The title
> bore 'People I Have Shared the Gospel With.' The handle
> was brighter than those around it,seemed newer, almost
> unused. I pulled on its handle and a small box not more
> than three inches long fell into my hands. I could count
> the cards it contained on one hand. And then the tears
> came. I began to weep. Sobs so deep that they hurt. They
> started in my stomach and shook through me. I fell on my
> knees and cried. I cried out of shame, from the
> overwhelming shame of it all. The rows of file shelves
> swirled in my tear-filled eyes. No ! one must ever, ever
> know of this room. I must lock it up and hide the key. But
> then as I pushed away the tears, I saw Him. No, please not
> Him. Not here. Oh, anyone but Jesus. I watched helplessly
> as He began to open the files
> and read the cards. I couldn't bear to watch His response.
> And in th
> e moments I could bring myself to look at His face, I saw
> a sorrow deeper than my own. He seemed to intuitively go
> to the wor st boxes. Why did He have to read every one?
> Finally He turned and looked at me from across the room.
> He looked at me with pity in His eyes. But this was a pity
> that didn't anger me. I dropped my head, covered my face
> with my hands and began to cry again. He walked over and
> put His arm around me. He could have said so many things.
> But He didn't say a word. He just cried with me. Then He
> got up and walked back to the wall of files. Starting at
> one end of the room, He took out a file and, one by one,
> began to sign His name over mine on each card. 'No!' I
> shouted rushing to Him. All I could find to say was 'No,
> no,' as I pulled the card from Him. His name shouldn't be
> on these cards. But there it was, written in red so rich,
> so dark, so alive. The name of Jesus covered mine. It was
> written with His blood. He gently took the card back. He
> smiled a sad smil
> e and began to sign the cards. I don't think I'll ever
> understand how He did it so quickly, but the next instant
> it seemed I heard Him close the last file and walk back to
> my side. He placed His hand on my shoulder and said, 'It
> is finished.' I stood up, and He led me out of the room.
> There was no lock on its door. There were still cards to
> be written! . 'I can do all things through Christ who
> strengthens me. '-Phil. 4:13 'For God so loved the world
> that He gave His only son, that whoever believes in Him
> shall not perish but have eternal life.'

Thank you Jesus for your unselfish love and grace!

Helllo from the Johnston's home in Mexico City

2008-06-05T17:36:00.003-05:00

Hello everyone, it has been a crazy week. There has been so much happen since I last blogged. Our financial paper work is well on its way for us to stay and live in Mexico. We will be both working in the school teaching english. Our paper work should be summitted this coming week. This is wonderful because if it would not have been in before June 28 then we would have had to leave the country and try to return again. We have been really working on our spanish lately also. We have had our teachers coming in the mornings and then also in the night we have another teacher come over and help us out. It has been going wonderful. At times a little frustrating but really good. Our girls are now getting better. Everyone has had a run with a crazy cold here. Our bodies are starting to get us to the pollution here. Our lungs are being nicer to us know and our allergies are not so bad. We also heared about some medicne for my ezema around my eyes. This has been the most painful thing to get us to here. I thought if I left North Dakotas cold weather that it would help with my ezema, but I forgot about the pollution. I am sure thankful for the medicated lotion that I found. Our mentors have left on furlough and will be gone from Mexico for two months. We have a lot ahead of us in these two months. Our girls will be done with school in one month. In July we are going to a little indian village for two weeks. We will be staying with some Bethany missionaries that live there. Also we are helping with and working with the childrens pastors for the church. We are going to be doing a week long childrens summer bible camp in July. I could continue to go on and on but I need to ask all my brothers and sisters in the Lord to please be praying for my father (Amanda). He had a slight stroke on Wednesday. Please be praying for a fast and healthy recovery. I thank God for giving my father a second chance at life. I also pray that my dad would see the reason for this second chance. Many blessing to all! Amanda

Asking for forgivness

2008-05-22T12:52:00.004-05:00

Here is a little caption of what I am asking for forgiveness for writing.
The catholic church should be on their knees begin for forgivness for making this statue. 50 of the popes have came and gave worship and give honor to this discusting idol. The reason she was excepted was because it was a way for them to "convert" people to their church. Well it has worked! They have officaly helped many souls go to hell to burn for all eternity instead of telling them the truth like they "so called preach." The story is that this virgin appeared to this poor indiginous man on top of a hill next to Mexico City. She told him to build her a temple in honor of her. Then she showed a miracle too one of the bishops by having this man gather wild roses in the middle of their winter. Then she had a image of herself put on the priest robe. Wow this really should have put up red flags everywhere. There is now a building in Mexico where she wanted the temple to be built so people could come and worship her "the so called mother of God." The funny thing that the catholic church has forgotten to add in this building is a representation of Jesus any where. O'ya because they don't want truth in a den where demon manifest and lies are told. The problem with the church is that they either keep Jesus on the cross or keep Him as a baby. They forget to tell the people that Jesus grew up and He got off that cross and that He was resurrected and is now at the right hand of God the Father. One question I would like to ask priests or catholics is "how many times have you been asked to read your bible other than the little scriptures given to you in church? Do they encourage you to have a relationship with Jesus. That He loves you and wants to be your best friend. That you are to go tell other people and tell them about His goodness. Also that the veil was torn right before Jesus died on the cross so we no longer have to tell our sins to a priest. That we can talk one on one with God ourselfs.

God Himself has taught me where I was wrong in writing this. I lumped a group of people together in something that they don't even understand. God has also taught me again that He came to die even for the people that hurt Him. The churches in general have done a lot of this wrong in the eyes of the Lord. A individual person can do so much harm to so many people around them, when they are not listening to the Lord. But that same person can also change the world by being obeying and listening to the Lord. All that a person needs is a repenting heart because God is the one who can see into the depts of our very soul. Please except my apology for the things I said. I have first asked the Lord to forgive me and now I am asking for the people that read this to also forgive me. I have learned again that I am to pray for the people that misrepresent the Lord even if they don't understand that they might be and also for the people who havn't come to know Jesus in a deep personal relationship like He DEMANDS us to do. We all need to come together to fight the battle that we are all having to face. The only way to do this is to show love before all things. Before ourselves, before our comforts , before our pride and anything that you feel the Lord is telling you right know. We need to remember the greatest commandments that God gave us. It is in mathew 22:37-38(Love the Lord your God with all your soul, with all your stregth and with all your might. And the second is like this, you need to love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments all the other commandments follow). Jesus also taught me that even if we were to spend all our days serving Christ and in the end we die and go to hell it was still worth it. Because we serve Him not for us but because He is deserving and worthy of our lives. Here is a song and video that really touched my heart and spoke to me as I sat done and watched it. I pray that I will do the same thing for you. Thanks for your time! Amanda

family with us this week

2008-05-20T15:22:00.007-05:00

We had the wonderful opertunity this week to have some friends and family with us this last week. Zoe had her 4th birthday party, and Ross's parents were able to be here. We had a wonderful week of playing tourist guide, and hosting everyone at our house. We had 11 people staying in my little 3 bedroom apartment for a few nights. It was incredably fun having everyone here, and people from back home blessed us with wonderful supplies that we cannot buy here. We are so thankful for all the things that we were blessed with and we wanted to say a special "Thank You" to everyone that contributed to that. We have a student that is going to be here any minute so I have to go for now but I will tell you all more about it later. Ross

Here is a photo of all of us in the Metro in down town Mexico City. For this and around 300 other photos and video's follow the Flickr link, or click on the slide show, on the right hand side of this page. --------------------------->

Thank you all again and God Bless.

moving again

2008-05-07T22:00:00.002-05:00

I bet you wonder what this is all about. Well, we found out why people do not have carpet in Mexico. We started waking up each morning with little red bumps all over our bodies. We found out that we had a little bug called a chi,chi. This is possably a bed bug or something similar. We were telling people about the problem and a man offered to fumigate our place for free. This was a huge answer to prayer and it killed off the little guys for a while. The last few day it started all over again. At the same time another apartment opened up in the same building. We took advantage of this and went to the church again telling them about our problem (along with the stove that leaks gas fumes and the boiler that wouldn't shut off). After a few days of talking back and forth they decided that we could move upstairs. We went there today and asked about it and they gave us the keys. They told us that the only thing is, they need the keys to our place by tomorrow. We had to move all out stuff out of there, and into the new place in one day. Tomorrow morning we have to get in there and clean, but we are thanking Jesus for His provision. This place is exactly the same except for the fact that we have all tile and NO carpet. They are ripping out the carpet and putting tile in our old place so that it will be ready for the next people moving here from Cancun.
We have a couple from Guadalahara that have moved here that are a huge answer to our prayers. We have hit it off so well the last week. We have been sitting up all night long talking about everything under the sun, and just encouraging each other in the Lord. They have 2 kids the same age as ours and they are also our age, and married around the same time. They are so amazing and also in love with God. They are here preparing also to go overseas but they have to study while first. They have the same heart as us as well. We stand here in awe of God as we see Him preparing the direction of our lives, and how He is providing a team of people around us to help this get accomplished. We are working every day on our language and we are seeing the hand of God moving mightly in our lives. We are excited to tell you more but that is all for now. P.S. Please pray for our family as we continue seeking the face of God in our lives. We are only willing to go in the direction that He moves us as we are starting understand the next steps. Thank you again and talk later. Ross

Another Day in the City

2008-04-30T22:47:00.001-05:00

Mandy and I just wanted to say hi to everyone. We also would like to tell you about the wonderful blessing that we were given here. We moved into our new apartement and found out that we had a nasty case of bugs. We had bedbugs in our apartment. When we moved in we saw that the place had carpet, and we were excited. Then we moved in and found out why most people dont have carpet. Incase you didnt know, carpet in Mexico is not common. To make a long story short Alyssa and I prayed about what to do and left it at that. The next day Mandy was visiting with some friends about the problem. We all were covered with little red bits and we were wondering if there was anything here to help ease the pain and itching. There was a lady there from the girls school (a teacher) who said that she knew an exterminator. That morning they called him and he came over. He showed up at 11am and it was done quickly. The best part of it all was that they did not charge us for it. They said that they wanted to do it for free to help our family out, and the guy is not even a Christian. God is using people around us for His work even when they dont know it. IT'S AWESOME!! It has been such a miracle to see how He is providing for us here. It is just one more small conformation that we are walking in the middle of His plan for our lives.

Another reason that we wanted to blog tonight is to put up the newsletter of the family that we are working with here. If you are interrested in seeing the people that are training us, working with us, teaching us, helping us, and sometimes just having to put up with us, here it is: http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs018/1101376921926/archive/1102045947266.html .

We will be excited to tell you more stories about opertunities that God is opening for us here. There are things that are beginning to fall in place for us, as we learn the language. We will blog again soon. thank you and God Bless. Ross

dia de ninos (day of the children)

2008-04-27T14:33:00.004-05:00

There are new pictures of the girls in their costumes on our flicker account. Got to the dia de ninos picture group. Hope all is well with everyone. Have a blessed day! Amanda
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rossandmandy/

The perfect day

2008-04-26T20:26:00.002-05:00

Today was a wonderful day. We got all the things done yesterday that needed to be completed so we were able to have a family day. Our family went to find a costume for Alyssa and a crown for Zoe. The girls have to dress up for church and school a couple days this coming week. This coming week is a very important week for kids in Mexico. They have huge parties for the kids all week long. They call this week "kids hero week". When the spanish came to concore Mexico there was a group of kids that would not let the spanish take down the Mexican flag. The spanish had to kill all the kids in able for them to take the flag down. It is to remember the bravery that those children had and a memorial for them. The girls have a party at church, two at school and differnet ones around town. Alyssa picked out a butterfly costume and we where very blessed by someone who gave us a beautiful princess dress for Zoe. I am happy with the amount of spanish we can use now. Every where we went today we spoke only in spanish with the people. We are able to get just about anything we need by ourselves now. It might not be perfectly put together but people have been very good about helping us learn. We where even given a compliment on how good our spanish sounds and how far we have come since arriving here. Thanks Jesus! We had to walk about 4 miles to find the costume store and after we went there we took the girls to a play area. It was wonderful to have them playing and to be able to sit and hold my husband while watching them. After that we went home and played for hours with each other. To finish off this wonderful day I was able to watch my husband read the girls stories out of the bible as they fell asleep. Hope everyone who reads this had as great of a day as we were give. "Lord we give you all the credit" Blessings Amanda

Thinking about life

2008-04-22T20:35:00.003-05:00

As I sit here this evening listening to the rumble of thunder outside and see the rain falling on the city I am reminded of what God showed me on Sunday. I was reading in Psalms 8 where David was talking about how God created the heavens with the work of His finger, the moon and stars He set in place. Then above all He placed us, lower than the angels yet He places the crown of life on us. He says that he crowns us with glory and honor, He places us above all that He had made. The thing that stood out more than anything is when he said, "What is mere men that you are mindful of him, that the Son of Man cares for him". This is such a true statement! I was woke up by my wife last night about 2:30 in the morning because she had a terrable headache. This I think would classify as a migrain. We were praying for her and after about an hour of her laying on the floor crying in pain and loosing everything in her stomach she was able to get back to sleep. We are not sure what brought this on but one thing that we are sure of, is how fragile we are as humans. As I read this scripture again tonight I loved how David started this out and ended it as well, "Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth" There is nothing more appropiate to say than that. We need to stop and look at who we are as humans. We have so blessed by the people around us here and when I think about living this life and worrying about tomarrow I have to stop myself and realise that this life is not about us, or me. It is all for His glory, no matter what. If we die tonight it was all worth it, as long as He is the one that we lived for. I long for the day that I get to see my savior face to face, but I love every single day that He has given us on this earth. I feel like I am the richest, most blessed man on this earth. Mandy and I have been approached by people living here and they have told us that even though we are still not good at communicating with locals there is a whole community of people watching us. The locals know that we are here and we have been blessed to be accepted by some that hate Christians. Gods favor is before us even though Satan is throwing his darts. We are finding the importance of prayer and utter dependence on God lately. I just had to share that with someone and now I can go to bed. 4 hours of spanish class, 4 hours of teaching english, 2 hours of playing with the girls, spending a little time with my wife and now this I am ready to call it a night. Talk later. Ross

Our lives in the city

2008-04-18T12:47:00.003-05:00

It has been 2 months now since we have began working in Mexico City. This week we have friends from Bethany that are here visiting. I think that we have done well showing them around. We have volunteered to show them the places that we know. It has been alot of fun. This week held something different for us. We were approached yesterday and asked if we are interrested in taking a job (with no pay) teaching english in a local school. They know that we are native speakers and we are able to communicate with them in spanish. This would be a win, win situation. They also know that we are Christians and they know where we stand spiritually. They cannot pay us because of the limitations that the government puts on us as Americans living here without a work visa. This is ok though because we are happy living on the support that we get from all of you back home and it makes our words more creditable when talking about Jesus. They know that we are not here for a paycheck but we are here to just show love to them. This is an avenue that Mandy and I have been praying about since we got down here. We were not sure how to make this a reality but God went ahead of us and is preparing the path. The school would give us an invite and that would open the doors (legally) for our family to stay here long term. This also would place us around some of the youth group range of kids that we have been trying to get involved in. The great thing is that we have been praying about staying here and they approached us. This is another conformation that God is in this and we are walking in the middle of His plan for our lives. They would be able to provide us with help pushing our immigration papers through the government. This is not a done deal yet and we will keep you posted as we move towards this step but please keep us in your prayers in reguards to this. We are so thankful for all of you that have made this possible. The girls have told us that they are going to stay here and marry Mexican men. Zoe is already married but she can't remember his name :-) and Lyssa has a little boy that makes her face light up when she sees him. SCARRY! We all love it so much down here and it is great to see what God is doing. We will be able to update more later. Ross

Cookie. Cookie, Cookies

2008-04-13T14:32:00.003-05:00

Hello everyone I have some awesome pictures for you guys to look at. We had four kids from Alyssa and Zoe's school come over and bake cookies the other day. (Thanks Mandie for the receipe!) We made chocolate chip cookie for the CNM missions school. It was alot of fun seeing our cookies walking down the street with people:) We have some friends staying with us from Bethany College of Missions. Their names are Mario and Jeannie Benduza. They are going to be in Mexico for about two weeks. We are going to be having alot of visitors within the next month:) Ross's old school teacher and three other people are coming down to visit and go to a little village outside of the city on a missions trip. We are very excited to see them! Also Ross's mom, stepdad and niece are coming to see us! It will be alot of fun. We are starting to get busy here. We are starting to pick up the language and are able to talk to people in small sentences. We had a lady that I(amanda) go to biblestudy with offer to teach us spanish for free! She is going to tutor us three days a week and we also have another lady teaching us for a hour everyday are impatient because we want to know more but we also know that we are doing good for how long we have been here. We were so blessed last night by a mexican couple. They took us and our friends that are staying with us downtown to Mexico's city center. They walked us around and then took us to the top of a building where there was a resturant and feed us some amazing food. We have not been on a date in awhile so it was amazing. The girls were even more excited because they had their favorite babysitter come and watch them. Zoe woke up this morning and asked if we could leave again so her babysitter could come back. We have added some new pictures and videos on our flicker account. Give us a shout on our email or skype number. We would love to here from ya. Email is rossandmandy@yahoo.com / http://rossandmandy.blogspot.com/ Later Amanda

Please pray for Mexico City

2008-04-05T15:03:00.004-05:00

I (Amanda) have been studying up on some of the demonic stautes I have seen around town. I have a Godly anger in my heart towards the lies that are being told in Jesus' name. The first one is "The Virgin of Guadalupe".
This statue is a mix between a aztec goddess and the virgin mary. The catholic church should be on their knees begin for forgivness for making this statue. 50 of the popes have came and gave worship and give honor to this discusting idol. The reason she was excepted was because it was a way for them to "convert" people to their church. Well it has worked! They have officaly helped many souls go to hell to burn for all eternity instead of telling them the truth like they "so called preach." The story is that this virgin appeared to this poor indiginous man on top of a hill next to Mexico City. She told him to build her a temple in honor of her. Then she showed a miracle too one of the bishops by having this man gather wild roses in the middle of their winter. Then she had a image of herself put on the priest robe. Wow this really should have put up red flags everywhere. There is now a building in Mexico where she wanted the temple to be built so people could come and worship her "the so called mother of God." The funny thing that the catholic church has forgotten to add in this building is a representation of Jesus any where. O'ya because they don't want truth in a den where demon manifest and lies are told. The problem with the church is that they either keep Jesus on the cross or keep Him as a baby. They forget to tell the people that JEesus grew up and He got off that cross that He was resurrected and is now at the right hand of God the Father. One question I would like to ask priests or catholics is "how many times have you been asked to read your bible other than the little scriptures given to you in church? Do they encourage you to have a relationship with Jesus. That He loves you and wants to be your best friend. That you are to go tell other people and tell them about His goodness. Also that the veil was torn right before Jesus died on the cross so we no longer have to tell our sins to a priest. That we can talk one on one with God ourselfs. Also that the virgin mary was not actualy a virgin her whole life, that she also had other children. If you don't beleive me actually look in the bible I promise that it is there. I know these questions because these where the questions I asked after I left the church. I am truly heart broken because I know that there are some people in the Catholic churches that do love God and serve Him wholeheartedly. One nun that really showed Christs love to me was Sister Rosemary. She was a example that good can come out of the lies told. She showed Jesus' love to many not just religion. I am glad that someday I will be able to see her someday in heaven and thank her.
The next idol I read about was the grim reaper. She is considered to be a women saint. Her worshipers call her the "skinny woman". The people that worship her are mostly drug dealers, prositutes, thieves, kidnapper and the poor. They say it is not satanic but they link her to the catholic virgin mary and God. They say she protects them while they are in prison or when they go commit crime. They offer tequilla, flower, drugs, music and more. There are around 500 temple or statues dedicate to her. Do you know that most religons around the world have some form of a virgin in their religions history. This is a good way for satan to come in and make people worship him instead of Jesus. It makes it seem innocent because there is still some link to Jesus involved. What does Jesus tell us? "To not worship ANY carved image" Have you seen any Chrisitan churches ever have a carved image of Jesus or Mary? If you have then you better start to question that church. We are not to worship a carved image because HE is alive not dead. He is to be our friend not a image to offer prayers to. Because He knows the condition of our heart even before we tell Him. If you have never been taught from your religion to ask for the forgiveness of your sins then here is a way for you to do that.
1. you must turn away from sin, beleive in the death and resurrection of Jesus and receive Him as Lord of your life.
2. You must consider your life and then turn away from everything in it that is contrary to what God teaches. In order to do this you have to read the word of life "the Bible". This turning away is called repentance.
3. you must ackknowledge that Jesus died on the cross to forgive you of your sins. You take Him as your savior to cleanse you. He died for you to pay the price for your sins so you don't have to.
3. You must ask Him to be Lord of your life, acknowledge openly and verbally that Jesus is not only your Savior but your Lord.
You need to remember though that just because you say this you are not free and clear. You have to actually put this all into practice. There is no quick fix way into heaven. I am not saying that Jesus died for no reason. His forgivness is there even if you are not going to practice this or not. I am saying that God asks for our whole heart, soul and mind not just what you want to give HIm. If you don't know where to start reading in your bible a couple good books to start with is the books of John and Romans. I am only sorry that it took me this long to say all this to people. It should not have taken me seeing straight out cult worship to bring me to tell people about this. I will no longer be scared to preach the only truth and that truth is only in Jesus. Please if you have a religion don't just follow it blindly. Question what you believe because some day you will be held accountable for it. Blessing to you Amanda

Revival in Mexico

2008-04-05T01:51:00.004-05:00

Hello again from Mexico. Well, another week is gone and we are still keeping up the pace. Tonight we had another teaching session in our house and then we are having revival services at the church. We have a special guest speaker here from the states. It is weird hearing services in English. We really enjoyed his service tonight on healing and deliverance. It got me thinking about how life goes and how Satan really has us convinced that there is no hope of deliverance. This is something that has been laying heavily on my heart lately. God is here with us and in His words we are supposed to do greater things than Him. So my question is, what happens when we don't? Are we truly following God if we don't do what He says? There was a speaker here the other day that said, " that we always get puffed up thinking that we somehow chose God but what we have to remember is that God chose us". We have to have a humble spirit!! I feel like we have somehow turned this walk with God into something for us and not for Him. In the words of Paris Reidhead "We have to live this life for Him, not because of what we get out of it but because He is worthy. If at the end of our lives we die and go to hell it will still be fair because we deserve that. It is only His grace and the price that He paid that will constitute anything else." This has been something that I have been thinking about lately. As I walk the streets of Mexico City and think that God loves each and every one of these people. It just seems so unfair that they have never even heard what this Jesus did. There are so many different religions here. This country is covered with religion but few people know the true gospel!! I praise God though when Sunday morning rolls around and I can see 5,000 people on there face worshiping God. I know then that there is hope for this city. We are so excited to see God's face here in Mexico City, to see the signs and wonders that are taking place here and to see the people that are coming to Christ. I was amazed this evening, there was a special service at 8pm when Mandy and I showed up and they asked for new people to stand up. There had to be around 40. On a Friday night we had somewhere around 600 - 800 people show up. The thing that is more amazing than that is that every time we have a service here people get saved. I used to be into eschatology (study of the end times) but my perspective has really changed. I weep for the people that do not know yet. There is so much work to be done but so few people want to go!! I long for the day that I can stand before my savior but there is never enough hours in the day to reach the people that need to be reached!! I am finally understanding what Jesus meant when He said, "He is not slow in coming but He is waiting so that the lost have a chance". We have found that the easiest commandment is also the hardest but most effective. The first commandment is "love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind and the second is like it," love your neighbor as yourself!!!" It is easy to love those around you but it is terribly hard to actually like them. I have found that now as I walk down the street I am praying for these people. Especially the people we see everyday. Please keep them in your prayers as well. The only way to reach them is with the true love that only comes from heaven. I have to be done writing now or there may be no end. Thank you all again for all your prayer and support of my family and I down here in Mexico City. Peace Out! Ross

Another Weekend - Another trip

2008-04-01T23:28:00.003-05:00

Hello again! Another week has gone bye already!! Wow, things are going fast. I (Ross) had the opportunity to go with Kerry (the missionary that we are working under) on a missions mobilization trip. We went to a smaller city north of Mexico City. I really enjoyed my time a lot. We meet some wonderful Christians working up there and it was great to see what God is doing out of the area that we are living in. It is always wonderful to drive into a town where you don't know anyone and the first people you meet, greet you in the name of the Lord. The city is in great need of the gospel but the Christians that are there are all joining together to reach there city for Christ. The area has around 500,000 people, and roughly 40 church's. The church's that are there are not large either, the two that Kerry spoke at were roughly 50 each. This week holds something very important for the little town though. A few days before we arrived there, all the Christian church pastors came together and were able to put aside there difference's and join together to reach their city for Christ. On Thursday of this week, they are having a city wide church service for all the Christians to get together and join forces. The problem with the city is not that they do not want the gospel, they have just never heard. This is something that I found hard to grasp in my mind until I drove down the streets and seen the people. My heart wept for the lost and rejoiced for the Christians that are on the front line fighting this battle daily. The reason that we went there was to motivate the Christians to "Go". The vision of the local church here in Mexico City and the surrounding area, is to send a tithe of missionaries to the field. This is not true across the board but in a lot of Christian church's it is. That was why I went. There is nothing like a missionary telling people to go to the mission field. This was big part of our plan when we found out we were coming here. Training locals in the way of the Bible. We felt love and acceptance from many people and received many, many hugs. It was wonderful, and we pray now that the words spoken are taken into heart and they act on them. I was so impacted when I was first told the vision of the church to send 10% of there members to the field. There vision is the middle east, Africa, etc. Please be in prayer for the church as it meets together this week and also as we continue teaching English at our house and we keep working on our Spanish. Tomorrow I will go get some beds and set up a building (that is close to our apartment) for people to live in. The bible schools is setting up a building for people in need to live in and we are planning to be involved in that later. Please keep us in your prayers as well while we are working with the local church. We want to be able to be used by God where he wants us with no limitations and we are praying about what that is in our lives. We are so much in love with life now and there is nothing like walking in the path that God planned and is taking us on. Thank you for all the continued support that you are providing for us as well. Without you we would not be able to do what we are doing. We pray continually that we never walk out of the center of the path that God has for us. Thanks again and talk soon. Ross

Veracruz

2008-03-25T22:17:00.003-05:00

Hey everyone we are back home from our trip. It was a awesome experience and we learned alot. It is great when GOd reminds you how blessed we are. We had not bathrooms, showeres, beds and little options in food. We learned to like hotdog, sleeping on cement floors and using the great outdoors for our bathroom. The girls had a blast! They thought it was great that they could go bathroom out side and that they had lizards sleeping with us. The first day we drove for 15 hours to get to where we needed to be. We didn't get to sleep till about 3:00 am. All you kids did awesome! I was so proud of how they all acted. It was great to be in the presence on many Christians sharing the Love of Jesus. The kids all did a drama and dancing during our ministry outreaches. They taught how Satan hates when we do the right thing and how he is always trying to make people stumble and fall. They showed people how to except the Lord and the parents taught them how to live as a Christian. I was able to paint hours and hours of faces for all the kids. We learned alot of Spanish this trip. Only two people could understand English alittle. We had to learn things fast. Ross's millitary trainning came in handy. The bus broke down and he was able to help with them fixing the problem. You learn how to do things like they did about thirty years ago. It was not advanced in the rural cities like it is in America. It was the best way to spend Easter. Telling others that Jesus loves them and that He died for them to be forgiven of of their sins. The best though is that He didn't just die on the cross but that He rose from the dead and is sitting on the right habd if the Father. Jesus is alive!! We need to shout it from the roof tops. He will also come back for His pure and spotless bride. Praise God! Lets not let this truth only be known by some. Tell everyone that you know. Here is a quote that I read "If God had only wanted to save us. He would have taken us to heaven the moment we believed in Him. Instead, He leaves us on this earth for a reason, to proclaim the good news to all the nations of the world that Jesus is alive and has come to set the captives free! Lets devote all our heart, time and energy to His purpose. Hosanna! Hosanna! Our king is alive! Many blessing to you all. Thanks for helping this all be able to happen. Amanda

This is Ross: I just wanted to say a few things . We have been having a wonderful time here, and God is really working. I was given a quote by a man preaching at Amistad and I have to share it with those around me. It is vitally important to people that are trying to walk a Christian walk, and it has made me stop and think. I have had to put my guard up against things that come into our lives that look inocent but only lead to eternal death. This was said one sunday morning and I think that it is something that we all need to be on the watch for. I had it translated into english so that I understood it correctly, and made sure that it was accurate. Here is what he said, "I consider that the chief dangers that confront this coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without Hell." This is something that will try and creep into every Christians life and I believe that he is 100% accurate as I stand back and look at the Christian church and see how the Christians are being attacked. If we can put up our defences on these fronts, there is nothing in this life that we have to fear.

New website

2008-03-17T12:29:00.003-05:00

We have a new website that we are going to try and keep updated. We will be able to keep all our videos, photos, etc. all together and we also will be able to monitor people coming to the website to stop people that could potentially be harmful. You will be required to sign up, but it worth it. It is simple and free to do, just do the couple things and we will be able to put photos on there that we would not be able to otherwise. For the safety of our family we are asking that you use this service for our photos and videos. Thank you very much, and God bless. the address of our new site is http://rossandmandy.hi5.com .We would love to add you as a friend also. Ross

New Video and Photos online

2008-03-16T18:55:00.005-05:00

Finally a day that we are able to sit down for a minute and do something necessary. We have uploaded a video or 2 on our youtube account and we also have added pictures of our new (again) apartment. We are so thankful for our new apartment and we love it. God has blesses us so much with a nice place to live, and it is close to the church and school. Because of the good location we are able to teach english, and we are able to have people over to our house to share the love of Christ. People have been asking why we have came here, and it is sinking in that we are here to live. We are able to tell people about the love of Christ, and what he has done for us, and about the love that people back home have shown us. I am starting to realize the importance of faith based missionaries on the field. We can tell people about all of you back home and it adds something to our testamony that is very powerful. When people see the sacrifices that others are making for us, so that we can be here people realize that this is for real. Suddenly this God that is out there somewhere, becomes real and alive. Faith in acttion is the most powerful testamony that we all carry. This is all because of you, and we are genuinely thankful. I will talk more later, but I have to go for now. Talk later, and keep in mind that these pictures and videos are all because of you. Ross J.

video link :
http://www.youtube.com/user/heartformissions

photo link :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rossandmandy

A God Send!!

2008-03-14T22:35:00.003-05:00

Hello everyone!! We are just reporting in on how everything is going. We had the Lord bless us with the family up staires from us. Their last name is Lucy. Senor y Senora have five children. One of their kids is at Bethany College of Missions in the states, one lives upstairs from us, one lives at home with them and I am not a hundred percent sure where the other two are. They also have a young lady that is living with them. They have been helping us so much with everything!!!!!!!!! The women are teaching me how to cook real Mexican food! YUM! They are also taking me to the markets with them to buy cheap food and clothing. It is very difficult to not be able to go and buy your own things because you don't understand the writing, directions how to cook, language and directions of the markets(they move). It will all come with time! Them taking me to the markets is a huge blessing becausw then I will not get riped of as often anymore with a local with me. We are able to go to Wal-Mart about two miles away but it much, much, much more expensive to go there. It is a blessing all around. Their two daughters also are very good with English. They have been translating for us for many things. Example when someone call our house phone, you don't change the phone into your name it is in the original owners name. It is because it is so hard to change over. We get many calls for people we do not know and we don't understand them. Itis very hard to understand a foreign language over the phone. They have helped us with many other items also. I could go on and on about their kindness to us but I would be writting all night. I truly mean that. They have adopted us into the family. This is very nice for all of us. THey are alot like my family and they help with missing everyone back home! On a end note please pray for two women and three children that we where able to share the love of Jesus with. Pray that the Holy Spirit would reveive Himself to them and their kids in might ways. GOd is so good. I have come to believe that it is completely impossible for even a single lost person in the world to come to know Jesus unless a great miracle takes place. Lets be in prayer for a miracle for them!!!!! Many blessing Mandy

Class's Beginning

2008-03-12T22:17:00.002-05:00

Well, we are starting to get busy now. We are offcially enrolled in UNAM (largest college in the Americas). So much for small town Trenton and Watford City schools. You can imagen what kind of zoo it is trying to get to class every morning. We are offically taking the metro(subway) to class everyday and walking about 4 miles total every day. We are learning a lot. We were able to meet some neat Christians that are here in Mexico City doing the same thing that we are doing, preaching the gospel to the Mexican People. There are no other Americans in our classes and everyone else can barely speak english, so it makes it interresting. The other students in our class are litterly from every land continunt in the world. We are also starting to teach english. We have someone coming up to our apartement in the afternoon after we get down with our school. Please keep us in your prayers as we prepare for the missions trip to Veracrus next week. We have just recently found out that school after 9th grade is not required and students are not forced to obey the rules like they are in America. If a child is in school it is because they want to be there and they want to better there lives. It is an excellent ministry opportunity and it also gets us involved in local one on one ministry. We also are praying about assisting in starting up what we in America call youth group for the church. We recently found out that the youth group in the church in actually not a youth group but a young people group for people 18 to 30 years old. We had been praying about working with the youth but every day that we tried something happened and we were not able to make it. There were things that just happened that were unavoidable. We now know that there is nothing for the 12 to 18 year olds, however, there have been people praying that something would be started for them. We have been in contact with local people that have a heart for youth and that also have wanted to start something. We are just praying now for a little while to make sure that this would be the right thing. We do not want to try and start something without God's hand in it and also by ourselves. We are willing to put all our effort into trying to help start something as long as the locals are BESIDE us not BEHIND us. We have some experience but we are not the sole leaders. We believe that in order for it to effective it must be run by locals. Plese join us in prayer as we seek the face of God for the next steps in our lives. We hope everyone has a great Easter in celebrating our Lords resurrection. We will be in Veracruz during this holiday, this very special holy week. Please be in prayer for open hearts for many to hear the TRUTH and saftey of our whole team. May the Lord lead your prayers. Many Blessings to you and your families. Ross and Amanda Johnston

Fun weekend planned

2008-03-07T10:05:00.002-06:00

Hello again, we have a busy weekend ahead of us. Friday we are going to the markets to find a clay vase. Last Sunday the Lord gave me (Amanda) a vision during worship. He showed me how I used to be and how He fixed all the broken pieces in my life. He showed this to me through a clay vase that had butterflies on it and He gave we words to write on it. I will put a picture on this blog account soon. Also I have a womens conference Friday night. This will be all in Spanish so I hope to understand some of it and am able to minister and to minister to others also. Saturday we are having a large group of people over to our apartment to have lunch and hang out. Sunday we get to go to church, it is so wonderful. Even thought we can`t understand all of it, the Holy Spirit is so heavy and present that we always get minister to in some way. He has been teaching us thankfulness. We have much to be thankful for. We have also been blessed to start to teach one of our good friends English on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We have also been asked to teach English to high school students at our home. What a AMAZING ministry opportunity. Please be in prayer with us that this ministry will flourish. We are also still in prayer about something that the Lord has put in both of our lives. We will be talking with the right connections within about a 3 week time span. Please lift our family up in prayer when you think of us. We are so amazingly thankful for the prayer and finacial support you have given us. Please email us is you are not on our mailing list and also we don`t have any emails so we need to have you email us so we can send monthly emails to you and your families. Have to run, O bye the ways we start UNAM University on Moday for our spanish classes. Later Amanda P.S. I have the most AWESOME husband in the WORLD!!!!!!!!!

We are moved in!

2008-03-02T19:08:00.003-06:00

We are into our new and final apartment. We tried to go to a girl in Alyssa class's birthday this weekend but MAndy and Zoe got very, very car sick. We drove 4 miles with another parent and it took about three hours to get home the traffic was so bad. We ended up having to turn around and not got to the party because we where both so sick. This was wicked crazy traffic. I hope to never be in again. We are very excited to have a home again. God has been so graces to us. The girls have a room they share now and are loving it. We also have beds for three extra people in our apartment so if anyone wants to come and visit us we have room. To help with this decistion for you the food is amazing down here. We are going to be a little larger than when we left. WE are meeting so many new wonderful friends. We already are having friends over we hang out and play games and visit with each other. We feel so at home. We also have a lawer in the church that specialies in immigration working on getting us to be able to stay here a year without leaving the country every 6 months. If God wills maybe to live here longer. Please be in prayer for us. We feel the Lord birthing somethings in our hearts about why we are here. Please pray that we would hear His voice clearly and that we would not add anything that the Lord doesn't want us to. This is His ministry not ours. The girls are doing very well they feel very at home. It really helps having a home of our own. Better go, we should be getting internet in out apartment by Friday. We will be able to keep up more often. Please send us your email addresses so we can send a bi-monthly newsletter by email to you. Send it to rossandmandy@yahoo.com Blessings Amanda

We move tommorrow!

2008-02-28T13:52:00.002-06:00

We will offically be in our apartmento on friday the 29th of March. We had a table with six chairs given to us and we have been able to buy for cheap a extra bed and a dresser. It was wonderful to also get a vacuum for 30 dollars american because they run around $120 and up for them here. They are not a neccesity for people so they are expensive. For Easter this year we are blessed to be able to go and witness to people. We are goin to a place by the coast and telling them about this wonderful holiday and the true meaning of easter. At least down here we don`t have to compete against the easter bunny. People`s hearts and ears are open to hear the message of the cross and the blessed resurection. Please while you are celebrating easter this year don`t forget the real reason you are celebrating it. It is ok to put cute little bunnies all over but don`t forget to give credit where credit its do. Say a prayer of thanks to our Savior as family. Teach your children about the ways of the Lord and not just the ways of this world. Ask yourself if you know why you celebrate. Have this be a time of family growth and teaching time. When you go to church remember why you are going and don`t just go for tradition. Celebrate the resurection of our King. In Mexico they celebrate for a week long. The girls get two week off from school during this time. It is more than at Christmas. Thankfully this is also the time of the missions trip we are going on. Well better head out many blessings to all. We soon with have our own internet to communicate back and forth with people. We will also be sending out a newsletter soon. If you would like to receive a newsletter please email to rossandmany@yahoo.com within the next week we ould love to put new people on our list. Blessings Amanda

Responsibilities are beginning

2008-02-23T21:37:00.003-06:00

well, we must be starting to learn the language a little bit, we are officially getting involved in the work that we came down here for. We went to the adolescent group tonight and we loved it. We are still getting to know people and building relationships. We have been able to share the love of Christ with many, many people. We are finding more and more that people are willing and eager to hear the message of the gospel. We are also getting involved in trying to start a children's ministry that is all day Saturday so that the parents of the children can go to Bible School and the kids can get a biblical basis at the same time. Currently the training center offerers the first two years of Bible training for free and then they have the training institute for the following two years for those that want to continue on. While the parents are at training, currently the children can't come or they are just left to run around the institute unchaperoned. We have been asked if we want to start up with the help of some local people a bible school for children during the day while the parents are in school. Also there is a missions trip twice a month to places around Mexico that they want us involved in if we desire. We are very thankful for the opportunity that God has placed us in at this time. There is so much work and so few hands here. We just have to remember that all is in His control.

On another note we still do not have our apartment but we hope that within the next week we will be in. We were at some friends house the other day and Mandy was washing her hands and the water got hot. This is normal for most but we have not really had hot water in a month now and the idea of it is beginning to sound strange. We heat water on a stove for dishes and we turn on a hot water heater for showers but it is propane and it sits inside with no exhaust, so we have to open all the doors to rooms with windows so we get fresh air when it is burning. We are praying that we have hot water in our new apartment. It has shown us what in life is really necessary though. It's kinda strange how God teaches us things. We were over at the other missionaries house yesterday and they turned on cartoons for the girls and the first thing Alyssa said was, "Wow these are in English" and I had to laugh because that is something else that you forget about. Tonight Mandy and I are having a date watching "A Cinderella story" in espanol. Take care and God Bless. Ross

Wow even the computers are different!

2008-02-19T11:32:00.002-06:00

It has taken me about 20 minutes to figure out how to write to you today. The key boards are different than America and everything is in spanish. This makes for a good time. Please be praying that our computer is able to be fixed. I (Amanda) was walking and tripped on something and the computer unfortantly didn´t land so graceful. We just bought this computer so it is a life line to us right now for many things, but God is good and something will work out for the best. Today was one of the first times that I really got teary eyed since I have been gone. We were able to look at one of my nieces graduation invitations over email. I am really really sad that I can´t be there for her but my life is not my own. We have been very fortuante at bening able to talk to family back home so far. Our skype phone is wonderful. We may not be able to update as often because we are having a really hard time getting internet at our apartment. O the wines of a poor pityfull missionary. At least were are not having to care our coffins and our kids coffins with us like the old missionaries of the day had to do. We are very blessed to have all that we have. It is definately not America living but I would not trade it for the world. Our daughters are waking up every morning excited to get to go to school. Alyssa practicly flys out of her bed to go and well Zoe it takes a little longer to walk up but once she is up she is just as excited. We will be moving into our final apartment at the end of the month. We are very excited to finally be done living out of a suitcase. Everyone down here has been so wonderful to work with. We already feel like part of a family. We maybe soon starting to help out with a childrens ministry on Saturdays. We will be working with children who´s parents are also going to a missions bible school. What a blessing for our kids to be able to play with future missions kids. We are very excited to bebale to start to get into ministry down here. Thankfully you don´t have to wait thought for a opportunity like this to come up, we are able to minister in our everyday lives. It is great we are starting to slowly start to pick up more and more spanish everyday. Soon they will have to put earplugs in to try to ignore us!!HAHA Today we are going to be going to the largest university in the Americas. We are going to sign up for our spanish classes. The good thing about taking a spanish class in a spanish area is that the classes will be smaller than the regualr classes because everyone already knows spanish here!HAHA Go figure! This will be a good outting with the girls, if we don´t write again for a while its because we went insane!HAHA It will just be interesting and busy. Well I better be going now, it looks like I just wrote my first best selling book how long this blog was. Pray all is well back home. God Bless. Mandy the great
P.S. I thought my niece would get a kick out of this name!

new video

2008-02-15T11:35:00.001-06:00

We have a new video on our youtube account. If you want to view it go to http://www.youtube.com/user/heartformissions and you can view it. talk later. Ross

hello everyone

2008-02-15T08:40:00.002-06:00

It has been a little while since I wrote. We are all loving Mexico very much. We have not really even went through any culture shock. The first couple days where a little intence not knowing where we were going to live or not being able to talk to anyone but that went away very quickly. We know with out a shadow of a doubt that this is where we are suppose to be!! You can not feel this knid of peace if you are not walking in the Lord will. We are slowly getting things that we need know. The little necessities you need for everyday living (pot, pans, silverware,dishes,cooking utensels, blankets,est). The girls are loving school so much, Alyssa brought home a love letter from one of her boy classmates yesterday. It was Valentines yesterday and she got a whole pile of things from him. He drew her a card that had him holding her hand and a house with heart all around it. She got embrassed when she brought it home to her dad. Zoe is as happy as she always is. She is feeling better now. She still may using the bathroom a little more but she is doing well. I am also sleeping better thanks to the prayers that have been being prayed for me. Please be praying for our clasmate that are going to be going to Tanzania, Africa. They where supposeto be going to Kenya but there has been a lot of fighting going on over there so their plans have been changed for them. They leave in March. Also please be praying for our other classmates that are in Batom, Indonegia. I must go now I was invited to a mothers tea that the girls school is putting on. Hope I can understand some of it!HAHA This is a great way to start to build relationships with other women. I was also able to meet a lady that I happened to sit by in church. She has a new baby and also is away from her family. I am very excited to be able to go and visit with her. Ross was also excited, her husband can speak english and is also a business man. They will also get along well. She also offered to to give me some makeup. Her husband has a makeup business and often goes to China to sell it. That is always a help. Many Blessings to all of you back at home! Mandy

another day of first's

2008-02-13T22:40:00.002-06:00

Ok I am going to be short tonight, but you have to see this spider that we killed in our apartment today. The only thing that came to mind was, "They dont make em like that in North Dakota!!!" This thing was huge. We posted pictures on our flickr photo journey link so you all will have to go check it out. talk later, Ross

Mexico's Earthquake

2008-02-12T20:59:00.004-06:00

Hey, well it didn't take long for us to live through a genuine earthquake. Mexico got hit with a light earthquake but like always I didn't get to feel this one. I was told by some locals that the safest place to be in an earthquake is in the tallest building around. I guess that they build counter weights into all the tall buildings down here for that reason. I was disapointed when I found out that something happend literally under me and I didn't know it. We were getting ready for school when it happened. I guess it is better this way. We are really struggling right now with internet, so if we don't blog or call it is not because we are not trying. If you could be a fly on our wall you would see me walking around our house carrying my laptop trying to find a wireless signal. We do not have internet so we are relying on the signals from the internet cafe around the corner. It is annoying trying to stand in just the right spot to pull in a signal.
Other than that things here are going well for us, we are taking spanish everyday and focusing on learning that language. We have a guy living under us that does not know any english and he came up last night and visited for around 2 hours with us. We were able to talk to him with the little spanish that we know. That is very frustrating trying to talk. The girls are loving their new school, Alyssa has a boyfriend now she was telling me. I am thinking that it is time to get that shotgun out!! Just kidding! Zoe has been a bit under the weather so it has been harder for her the last couple days but today she is doing much better. Please keep us in your prayers for Mandy's sleep issue and for Zoe to get better. The enemy will always try and attack at your weakest point and that is usually our children. So we need extra prayer for there safety and health. Also we have to praise God for His provision for us. Today we talked to a lady that said, "she had an extra kitchen table with 6 chairs given to her and she was not sure what to do with it so she came to us asking if we would take it from her for free!!" Also the church donated bed frames to us for all our beds and a fridge was given to us, which in Mexico is VERY expensive. A little 4 foot tall fridge was over $500 American dollars. That is something that not everyone has. There is alot of weird things that we have noticed like milk and eggs are stored from a shelf not a fridge. This eliminates the need for a fridge. Anyhow God has really been providing for us. The missionary family that has taken us in also has been providing us with anything that we needed. We have been able to wash our clothes over there when the water is running and if we needed anything else they have been wonderful to help us. I had better go to bed now I am tired and just rambling on. Talk later. Ross

Mexico City

2008-02-11T08:51:00.001-06:00

Another week has come and gone, and we are plunging into another week of language school, and help with the local church. We had to make a run uptown this weekend and we were able to see some sights and sounds of Mexico City that I cannot explain. We went to the city center and saw some huge church's, saw some beautiful castles, and other things that are only found in this city. We had fun seeing everything, but it is always nice to be back in a neighborhood that we are farmiliar with. We were offered some unusual things like Chili flavored Ice Cream, strange but true. I am finding that the need for Christians to come doen here is Huge.

We are starting to see what the need in Mexico City is. Like we told you a couple blog's ago there are many people that are coming to Christ down here. The need to disciple this new generation of believers is huge. Unlike America where most people are either Christians, or say that they are, people here do not say that they are Christians, and do not pretend to be. The people that are hearing the truth and accepting God as there savior are in desperate need of people showing them not only what the Bible says a Christian is, but shows them the lifestyle as well. We visited with a guy a couple days ago who said that he accepted Christ as his savior a while back and was looking for someone else who had that same fire for God in them. He prayed for someone and it seemed that there was noone there to stand with him. Mexico City is around 2% Christian and for saying that there is 26 million people here, that is not very many. We need to take the people that come to Christ and show them what a life in Christ looks like, and help them keep that fire alive. Jesus told us to go make disciples of all people. Not just converts, but disciples. If there is anyone that is bored, unemployed, or just wants a change of pace, there is alot of work here that needs to be done. The youth group here in the church has went from 1500 kids to around 120 because there is not enough help with people that care about the younger generation. Please keep us in your prayers as we start to take on alot of work with the next generation of believers that have the power to change the world for Christ.

Another Move

2008-02-06T19:58:00.000-06:00

Hello everyone we are so happy to be getting comments from you guys. We moved again today to another apartment. We posted some pictures on our flicker account. You can look at them by clicking on our link on this page. We have now lived in three places since we have been here. We were in a hotel for a week. Then we were is the Christ For the Nations building and now we are in a warehouse apartment. The amazing thing is that they are all semi close to where we need to be everyday. What a blessing! We will be moving into our final apartment the 1st of March. It is a great place. We are right next to the girls school. Like attached to the school. We will hear the girls playing outside. Life is good!!!! We love this place God will really have to change our hearts to have us come home. We are definately meant to be here. Thank you all for your support we couldn't be here without it. We also love the Olson family here. They have made us feel at home. We are having people over tonight to watch the Mexico-America soccer match. Soccer is huge in Mexico. We will have lots of fun. Better go gonna go watch the game with some friends. Later Amanda

latest update

2008-02-05T08:33:00.000-06:00

Well, we are starting to find our way around here. This city is huge and it is nothing like any city in the world. We were so blessed to have a warm shower this morning, this is something that we have not had so it feels wonderful to be clean again. We have only 5 gallons of hot water for all of us to shower so we have to be quick but it was still warm and nice. Also the girls started school today so you can be praying for them in a new enviroment and around all Spanish speaking children. Some of them know a little English but not much of it. They have made some wonderful friends right down the street and they are starting to talk in espanol already. We start class's today as well learing the language so you can be in prayer that we pick this language up quickly so we can be more involved in the work that we came down here for. We have been told that people are already talking and asking questions about why we are down here and that has been an open door for the locals to share that we are just here to show the love of Christ with them. I was thinking in my mind that everyone here has heard the gospel through all the Christian inuendo that is here, however, I was wrong. Last Sunday the message was about what Jesus did for us and how we need to follow Him and it will entail persecution, hardship, mockery and even being shunned by people closest to us. Then they asked about who wanted to follow this Jesus that they were talking about and there where between 300 and 400 people that came forward for prayer and further discipleship. Then they talked to the youth about sexual purity and asked if the kids that would make a stand for abstanence until marriage would come forward. There were around 500 teens that came forward making a stand for Christ and what He wants for them. This braught us both to tears as we looked out and saw a sea of faces that where willing to stand for Christ. This was like nothing that we have ever seen. I will comment more later but we have to get going now. Thank you all for praying for us and we look fowards to hearing from all of you soon. In Him, Ross J.
I also wanted to tell everyone about the large medical bill that I had when my ovary bursted has been payed in full by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. A $3800 dollar bill was taken care of by the hospital. We got a bill in the mail a couple days ago that said that $1200 was do now. Ross called the hospital to talk to them and they told him that the bill had already been taken care of that there was no longer a charge.PRAISE GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Blessings mandy
If any one would like to email us our email is rossandmandy@yahoo.com We love getting english emails HAHA.

where to start

2008-02-01T20:25:00.000-06:00

Ross: Where do I begin? Things here are more than we expected, the driving is nuts, the food is good, but God is awesome! We have been able to meet some great people and share the love of Christ with them. We are working hard on the language but it is amazing how many people here know a little bit of English. With the small amount of vocabulary that we do have we are able to tell how Jesus saved us from hurt, pain and restored our lives. It is wonderful to be able to tell our story, it is the strongest thing that we have to fight the forces of darkness. We have to tell you about some of the miracles that have happened to us while we have been down here. The first was HUGE for us becaues it involved Zoe. If you know our busy body little girl she was in our temporary new place and was going outside to play with Alyssa. She had her finger in the door (hinge side) and the door was pulled closed behind her. All of a sudden we heard her start screaming and then a loud crack. You can probably figure out what happendher thumb broken. It swelled instantly and was hanging over. We came inside and began praying and then I ran outside to try and find someone that we knew. There was no one around. I can't tell you what was going through my mind as a father, helpless, in a foreign country, not being able to tell anyone what happend. I went back upstairs and we laid hands on her and prayed. We then grabbed our shoes and walked over to the missionaries house that we are working with. By the time that we got there we unwrapped her finger and it was perfectly fine, the swelling was basically gone. She is perfect now. God not only heard our prayers but answered them greatly. This is one of the big things that we are seeing being done here in Mexico City. We also found out that the place that we were supposed to move into is not available until a time yet undetermined and we were offered a free effeciency apartment until then. This is a huge blessing for our family. We have a fridge, and a countertop cooking stove now. This is more than alot of people that live in the city. We were just looking at these appliances tonight but they are very expensive here in Mexico. God provided us with something that is not a necessity and all for free. What an awesome God we serve. We look forward to being able to update in a few days about more of the goodness of God.

Mandy: Wow this has been one of the most tireing and amazing weeks ever. We have learned so much and so many prayers have been answered. I am on hundred percent pleased with the girls school, the teachers and the kids are so wonderful. The girls are going to fit in perfectly. God has just been making was where there seems to been none. We are meeting so many wonderful people and learning the language faster than I thought we would. We are definatly 100% summurged in the culture. We can't read anything, this makes shopping interesting. I have to laugh at myself or I would never stay saine. The driving is crazy here, I don't know if I want to say anything on here because our parents might not come and visit then!! HAHA We are at such peace with everything that is going on in our lives right now. We are lucky to have running water and a toilet. It is amazing how much you can live without. We literly have nothing but we are maniging just fine. God is providing when we need things. It seems like if we pray for something that is in need He deleivers it in awstriking ways. God truly uses other brothers and sisters in the Lord to help each other. We need to lean on one another to help make each others loads lighter. Before I go I would like to ask for prayer in: our apartment to open up in Gods timing, the laungage learning, for our family back at home and for us to hear the Holy Spirits voice in desition making. We love you and we will keep you posted. Thank you again for the people that made this ministry possible. Your finacial support is very much appreciated. You are helping keep food in our mouths and a roof over our heads!!! What more can we ask for? Blessings Mandy

2008-01-29T09:05:00.000-06:00

Saludos en nombre de nuestro Señor Jesucristo de Ciudad de México.
Well, we are finally here. After our 12 hour train ride we were able to sleep at Bethany again for one night, and then one day of riding on 2 airbuss's we are finally in Mexico City. We were able to go around and see some of the city last night, but by the time we got in last night it was late and we all were tired. We are going out today to see the girls school, see the church, and see more of the city. We have to leave here in a just a few minutes so I do not have time to comment any more but thank you all for the prayers, and we will talk soon.

Last Week

2008-01-19T11:29:00.000-06:00

Well, we are just about ready to go. We have purchased our train tickets to get to Minneapolis so that we can catch a flight out of there. Thank you all for praying for our family as we get ready to head out. We have been so blessed to see the hand of God working in our hearts while we were getting ready to go. We have been learning dependence on God, and He has been continually reassuring us that this is the path that He has created for us. We have an unexplainable peace in our hearts even though we are not sure next week holds. Please keep our girls in prayer as they are going through a big change. They have been handling it well, but it is still a hard time of transition for them. This last week is full of packing, storing, meeting with a few more people, and tying up all our last ends. We will keep you all posted as we head out this. God Bless you. Ross

Almost There

2008-01-14T11:36:00.000-06:00

Greeting,
Ross was able to preach this last week at Johnsons Corner Christian Academy, he attended school here till he was a sophomore in high school. He also preached in a chapel at Trinity Christian School again the same day. We love to be able to speak with the youth group age kids. This really sparks our fire. We both love to be able to preach and this age group really has a special place in our hearts. We also spoke in Beach, ND at a church this last Sunday. We felt welcomed with opened arms from so many people that we didn't even know. They even had a pot luck lunch for us. You would have thought that they were our home church how well they treated us. Ross's great cousin and her husband invited us to stay at there home just out side of town. It was a very beautiful place and it was very restful to us all. We where also able to run into our favorite pastors (Carl and Dianna Bauman) at Wal-Mart this week. They are substituting for the First Assembly of God in Minot ND for three months. We are going down this week and also this Sunday to visit and listen to Pastor Carl preach. Pastor Carl was a huge foundational block in my walk with the Lord. He took the time to invest in a broken hearted young woman and I will always be eternally grateful for him. He could have just pasted me on to the youth pastor because he was to busy but he didn't he took the time to listen and teach me the ways of the Lord. Thanks Pastor Carl. We are starting to think about packing this week. Four bags sure don't take long to pack though. At lease our apartment is REALLY small, we won't feel like we over packed. HAHA Part of our class is now officially in Batam, Indonesia. They all flew out on Friday. The other half of our class is on Bethany's campus now because of all the war going on in Kenya. They will fly out as soon a it is remotely safe for them to land in the country. If you haven't been flowing this news you should check it out on the Internet. Many Christian brothers and sisters have been killed over there because of there faith in God. We are very blessed to live in a free country. Though this will not always be a true statement. Americas time is coming soon for our freedom of religion to be no more. The Christians will soon be considered the extremist terrorist. Please be in prayer for our country. Will write again soon. Blessings Mandy J

Moving Along

2008-01-07T13:06:00.000-06:00

Can you all believe that it is 2008. Where did the last year go? This last year has been a very rewarding year. We are truly blessed! We had a long weekend, we had my niece and her boyfriend come and visit us at my mom and dads house on Friday. We had tons of fun! Then Saturday my niece and I went into town for a little while before we left for Bismarck. We spoke at two churches on Sunday. One in Bismarck and one in Watford City at Johnson Corner Church. Ross really enjoyed this meeting, he was able to catch up with some old school friends and so many people that really poured love into his life growing up. It absolutely amazes me that God has provided our money within a four month span. Most missionaries take at least a year to raise the amount of money that we needed to raise. I remember in Nov. when Kerry and the school asked us if we would be able to go the end of Jan. we about fell out of our seats. We thought they must be crazy to think that we could raise all that money in that amount of time! I guess we were the crazy one's to put God in a box like that. We are about 95% there. We have one more church to visit before we leave the country. Please be in prayer that we get the rest of our money. If anyone would like to donate to our ministry all you have to do is email us at rossandmandy@yahoo.com or give us a call at 701-570-3253. We would love to hear from any of you. We would like to personally thank you for your encouragement you have given us. The girls are doing very well. Alyssa is doing great in school and Zoe is more energetic than ever before. They are both such great loves. We are very blessed to have such great kids. They both love Jesus very much and to hear them pray is one of the biggest blessing a parent could ask for. Many blessing to you all! Mandy

First Day of 2008

2008-01-01T22:01:00.000-06:00

Wow, its 2008 Happy New Year to everyone. I am glad to say that we made it into 2008 successfully. God has provided friends and family for us this last year that we could have never imagined. We are so thankful to all of you that have made us feel so loved and have cared for as we make our plans to go to Mexico. We have a big year ahead of us and as we brought in the new year with friends around us, we were flooded with the thoughts of the year ahead. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we begin traveling around the state meeting with more friends and potential supporters that make it possible for us to go do what we are doing. Without all of you, what we are doing would be impossible. We are humbled with the calling that God has placed on our lives but we are ready to go. We love you all and we really mean it when we say, "Have a blessed and Happy New Year".

Zipping through the years end

2007-12-26T15:44:00.000-06:00

Wow where to start? Well I will start off by wishing everyone a Very Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year! In michif it is pronounced Le Bon Noel and La Bonne Ann EE! We have been very blessed having all our family around us this Christmas season. I (Mandy) had a little go round at the emergency room two Saturdays ago, one of my ovaries had a large cyst burst on it. It was a VERY painful experience but all is well now. I am getting it check again this week to check if everything is healing like it should. It seem when you are very busy and a little stressed thing like this happen but I know the Lord is in control. You see this was the only month out of all the years we have been married (7) that we didn't have insurance. This morning the Lord gave me Luke 12:22-34 These verses talk about not worrying, that God will provide all our needs. This gave me much comfort. I know that He see ALL our needs and He will not leave us anxious and worried if HE is our great provider. We will be vary busy this month, we are booked every Sunday this month till we leave at churches all over the state. Please be in prayer that we would be able to receive all our funds that we need before Jan. 26th. If anyone would like to meet during the week that would be great for us. Will write again soon. Many blessing Mandy

At home with the parents

2007-12-07T14:45:00.000-06:00

Hello all we are know in Trenton. It has been fun living with our parents but will be nice to have a place of our own again. This maybe awhile but God knows what we need. Our girls are doing well and we are adjusting to yet something new. I think that this maybe our life for the next few years. We are just about there for our fundraising, we are just waiting on the Lord to finish off our amounts that we need. We know that He is faithful. One of our friends that we went to Bethany with is going to be in Williston for 10 days. Ross is very excited to get to see him again. This guy is a close friend to Ross and also his accountability partner. A fun thing about this is this guy (Chris) is also dating my best friend Mandie. Christmas is well on it way always a busy time of year for everyone. We are very glad to get to be with family this year it will be missed next year. It was interesting shopping for the girls this year beings they can only take 5 toys total with us across customs. Hope to be able to run into people when we are around town. Hope to see you soon. Later Mandy

Soon to be on the move again

2007-11-09T19:00:00.001-06:00

Hello all, we are going to be coming back to Williston the beginning of December. Alyssa starts school in Trenton with Mrs. Nelson December 3rd. It is funny how God works, I was wishing for Alyssa to be able to go Kindergarten with Michelle when we were moving back from Minneapolis but Minot opened up and I was thinking that she wouldn't be able to have her as her teacher. I am very excited that Alyssa will be doing a Christmas program out at Trenton school. It will be like going back in time about 21 years for my mom and dad. She is a little mirrored image of her mom that is for sure. Zoe found my favorite blankie today at my parents house. I showed the girls the blankie that I had from the time I was a new baby till the time I moved out and got married (Ross wouldn't let me bring it when we got married (= ) ) She has not set that blanket down since she saw it. That makes me smile! It will be a very rewarding time moving in with both sets of parents for the short time that we will be back home. It will bring back alot of very good memories for me and it will make alot of new memories for my daughters also. It will also be a very stressful time with so many different changes happening, but God will always be by our side and show us He never leaves us or forsakes us. We are ready to leave to Mexico end of Jan. beginning of Feb. We are positive that God will provide the supporters that we will need. It is all in His timing. I am sure everyone is starting to think of Thanksgiving time. I love having family around and all the food. Bring on the sweet potatoes. Shelby and I will have to fight each other for them (= This will be the time for the rush of the holiday madness. Just remember why we are celebrating Christmas. It is not about the presents it is about Jesus. That is it!!! Don't let yourself get stress over this holiday season. Cast all your cares upon HIM. When you think about all that you have to do, all the presents you have to get. Thank Him for them people that you are getting the gifts for and thank Him for that last breath you took. Because you are not guaranteed the next one. Let this Holiday season be different. Enjoy your family and tell your loved ones that you love them and appreciate them. It will give you that extra joy that is suppose to come along with Christmas. Not the scrooge attitude. Also please please please give time for your Savior that came down to earth in the most humble of was. Praise Him!! Shout Hallelujah!!!
Love ya Mandy

NEWSLETTERS

2007-11-01T22:38:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone we just got our newsletter back to our agency. It should be mailed out by the first part of next week. If you do not receive one or would like to be on our mailing list please email us at rossandmany@yahoo.com . We would LOVE to put you on our mailing list. Also if you would like to be taken off of it please also email us and tell us if you don't want to receive one. Our phone number is 701-570-3253 if you would like to set up a appointment with us. We would love to come and visit and share what the Lord has been doing so far and what we are going to be up to. These always are good if you are wondering if you what to financially give some how. This helps you know where your money is going to be going. Thanks again every one. Mandy

new beginnings to an old story

2007-10-31T22:54:00.001-05:00

We have alot to update you on. We went to Minneapolis last week and meet with the missionary the one we will be with in Mexico. Instead of us going in May we are now going to be going in late January early February. This cuts our fundraising time down six months. We are just trusting in God that He will send people to support us. We will be moving back to Williston the end of December to live with parents. This will help us cut costs. It is hard to believe that we will be leaving in just a couple of months. This has been a tuging in my heart for so long. Who knows maybe we will come home with a new addition to our family. I love kids I am a real softy when it comes to seeing them hurting. Our guys has moved out now. We got her a apartment and she started Job Corps. It is funny how God brings things about if we will what for His timing. The girls are doing wonderful. They are getting more beautiful every day. Aylssa's teacher always has something good to say about her and Zoe just absolutely loves school. She is a real social bug. Alyssa has started reading know. It is so hard to believe that they are both getting so big. We are thankful to be around family this Thanksgiving and Christmas. It will be hard to be away from them for two years. Thankfully goodbyes don't have to be a forever thing. We are very thankful for the friends that have came behind us and started to support us already. You guys are real encouragements to us. Also people that we have not seen in years are stepping up to the plate. Thanks. If there are any of you out there that would like to hear our presentation or meet with us just give us a call at 701-570-3253. Thank you once again for following up with us on our blogs, we promise to keep them updated more. Things should ease up a Tish since we are having to slow down on our contracting work. This will enable us to get all the things in line for us to go down south. =) Many blessing to you all!!!

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Kansas City move and update

long time without blogging

Waiting!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello Everyone!

Trip to Reynos, Mexico

Road Trip this weekend!

Hello :)

Check out our new newsletter

We need a time of rest!

Gracias a Dios, Somos juntos

Change of Pace

Music Video I like

We are HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Heading Back Home

Busy Time

Hello from North Dakota

Home at last

We are very excited!!!

O it feels so great to feel good!!!!!!

thankful for Him

The Joy of Life:)

From the Hospital -

What a great day!

Walking with Jesus

An Eye Opener!!!!!

Newsletter Update

Today is the day.

Alyssa's birthday party.

Jewish Post on the war in Gaza

Falling In Love all over again.

O when O when will we not be sick?

A couple links we thought you might like to read.

O where O where have we been?

Interrsting article on combating hate with love

Esta tiempo es un tiempo muy bueno en nuestras vivas, y para el Reino del Dios.

A little catch up.

A blessing from the people we are here to love:)

time to think

A little catch up.

The last of the questions from the teen in Acapulco

Using circumstances around us to learn about God

Very fast update

Catch the Fire.

More questions from the teens in Acapulco

Just a catch up

For our loved ones

Questions from teens in Acapulco and our answers to them

Our time with our family.

Just a quick note for tonight.

A little late blogging

Back to School

Our time in Acapulco

A week of fun

Trip to El Salvador

Splitting the Red Sea

Our school presentation

New opportunity

A way to change your heart

A email from a friend

Helllo from the Johnston's home in Mexico City

Asking for forgivness

family with us this week

moving again

Another Day in the City

dia de ninos (day of the children)

The perfect day

Thinking about life

Our lives in the city

Cookie. Cookie, Cookies

Please pray for Mexico City

Revival in Mexico

Another Weekend - Another trip

Veracruz

New website

New Video and Photos online

A God Send!!

Class's Beginning

Fun weekend planned

We are moved in!