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

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!

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

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!

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 :)

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

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!

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

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

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

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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

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

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

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

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!!!

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!!!!!!

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

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:)

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 -

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