Missionary Monday . . . We wait for him

For God alone my soul in silence waits; truly, my hope is in him. Psalm 62.6

Waiting, waiting, waiting.

Been doing that a lot this past month. Maybe I should say this past year. Now that I think about it, I've spent a lot of time waiting these last ten years.

In 2003, the Assemblies of God officially commissioned Stuart and I as missionaries. We traveled extensively and worked exhaustively as we waited (impatiently) for 18 months until we arrived in Jamaica on July 4, 2005.

Since then we have traveled to Costa Rica to work on learning Spanish to prepare for ministry in Mexico. Missionary colleagues promised us that magic moment when our brain would “click” and we would exclaim, “¡Aha, podemos entender español!”

Um, still waiting on that click.

God is no stranger to waiting, though. Thousands of years God waited, but when the right time came, he sent his Son, born of a woman ... (Galatians 4.4).

Through the season of Advent, our family lit candles as we waited to celebrate his birth.

We lit one Advent candle to remind us that the prophets foretold of his appearing (Isaiah 9.6). We lit two candles to remind us he was born a man in Bethlehem (Luke 2.4-7). We lit three candles to recognize that we like the shepherds must come to Christ, believe in him, and tell the good news to others (Luke 2.8-12). We lit four candles to anticipate Christ's second appearing and focus on his salvation (Luke 2.13-14).

Advent is the season of anticipation.
Of longing.
Of waiting.

But some things are worth the wait.

Merry Christmas,
Stuart & Wendy

Christmas newsletter

Missionary Monday . . . Christmas break

It's the most wonderful time of the year . . . 

when you get to pick up your university student at the airport :)

Olivia wasn't camera ready, so we use a photo from last year.

Not that you would know better.

She looks the same today.

Just a little travel weary.

Last week, IPFW Chi Alpha pastor, Laurie Atz (below), honored me with an invitation to be a part of a panel discussion on relationships with her students.

Check out their Facebook group for more details of this great ministry.

Sophia sang a solo at Leo High School's Yuletide concert.

Bright lights make for washed-out look, but her voice is still beautiful.

Our Schnauzer, Captain Jack and newcomer, Atticus, show you what friendship is all about.

Missionary Monday or better late than never

Happy Missionary Monday Evening.

Too busy writing papers all day to post earlier.

#Priorities

Not that you aren't important, but you don't give me a grade.

Well, maybe you do, but that doesn't really count.

Although the weather outside was frightful . . . 

we enjoyed Leo High School's Yuletide Festival on Saturday. 

Sophia sang beautifully like always.

Stuart's mom, Romona, joined us for the dinner and concert.

Singing the Hallelujah chorus!

Sophia is the cutie in the third row up with the green headband.

And since we've no place to go  . . . 

we worshipped at our home church, Fort Wayne First Assembly on Sunday.

Missionary Monday Meandearings

Yesterday Stuart and I enjoyed a full day of ministry with services in Clinton and Bloomington, IN.

Between services we stopped in beautiful Nashville, IN to window shop and grab a snack.

Isn't it so cool how they named a county after us.

We loved our morning at Clinton Assembly of God with Russ and Tammy Houser.

This however is not a photo of them. This is a photo of two cute little snow people because I forgot to get out my new handy-dandy camera phone and snap a photo. 

Enjoy it anyway.

Here's Stuart enjoying his mochaccino something or other at the quaint coffee and tea shop.

We had a wonderful service at Westside Assembly in Bloomington. 

This however is not Rev. Vernon Bettis.

This is a picture of Santa because I forgot to get out my handy-dandy camera phone again last night.

Anyway, if find yourself driving through Clinton, stop by and say hello to Pastor Russ.

Or if you are driving through Bloomington greet Pastor Vernon.

And by all means, don't forget to take a picture.

¡Bienvenidos a . . . Missionary Monday!

 It's Missionary Monday - time to give you some highlights of the past week.

Pastor David Eales invited Stuart to Rock Solid Ministries in Richmond, IN. Stuart spent the better part of an hour answering all kinds of wonderful questions about Mexico and our ministry.

Afterwards the youth group gave our family a gift box covered with encouraging notes from everyone. 

Thank you, Rock Solid Ministries, for partnering with us in ministry!

Yesterday we had a great time at New Life Community Church in Marion, IN. 

Pastor David and Shami Grieve invited five missionary families to be a part of A Taste of Missions to highlight our ministries and help his congregation to go Beyond, so all can hear the gospel!

Here I am serving up everyone's favorite - tacquitos with salsa verde.

We had a lot of inquiries concerning the recipe for taquitos. 

They are super easy to make.

Just roll up some shredded chicken in a corn tortilla and fry in a pan. 

*Or you can go the super-duper easy route and buy the Goya brand taquitos from your favorite international grocery :) 

Don't forget to serve with some salsa verde - La Costeña is our favorite brand.

Foto Fun Thursday

I'm joining a few of my missionary friends today for Foto Fun Thursday.

In Mexico City, we lived close by to a fairly large park. Very often on the weekend we would take Jack, our dog, to the park for a change of scenery. All kinds of food vendors, like this young woman selling cotton candy and chamoy covered apples, enticed your curiosity and your senses.

Which reminds me, this weekend we will be at New Life Community Church in Marion, IN for a Taste of Missions. If you love missions and want to sample some authentic Mexican food, join us on Sunday!

This is part of the Foto Fun Thursday Link-In, started by Tammy over at www.missionarytrek.com

NUEVO CORAZÓN

This past year, our friend Manolo Pacheco in Mexico City, asked Stuart and I, and many others in our church, to be a part of an evangelistic music video he was creating. Just recently, after months of production, the video is ready! As you will see it is professionally and creatively well-done.

So take a look, share it on Facebook and Twitter, and let me know what you think of our acting debut :)

*disclaimer - the Speed the Light (STL) vehicle we drove in the video was not actually harmed.



http://daysofdeliverance.com/nuevo-corazon/

Be free like the lilies and the sparrows: Remembering St. Francis

*photo of Saint Francis taken behind the Old North Church in Boston

Today, Christians around the world commemorate the Saint we know and love as Francis of Assisi. It seems I have always known about St. Francis; I've prayed the prayer attributed to him for as long as I can remember. And as the patron saint of the environment, we often see his likeness keeping vigil in backyard gardens.

However, today, we can remember St. Francis not just as a kindly friar who communed with nature, but as a young man who took seriously the call of God on his life. Born in 1182, the son of a wealthy cloth merchant, Francis spent his early years as a frivolous youth. 

Eventually, though, Francis became disillusioned with his carefree life and began to reflect on its true purpose. As the story goes, one afternoon, Francis heard Christ whispering to him: “Repair my church, which is in ruins.” But an act of charity toward the church outraged his father who disowned him. Francis, though, renounced his father's wealth and devoted himself to serving the poor.

A quote attributed to Francis illustrates his sentiments toward materialism: 

The more stuff we have, the more clubs we need to protect it. Be free like the lilies and the sparrows.

As a missionary, I often wonder how much more we could accomplish as the body of Christ, if we were not so worried about acquiring more stuff. If we were truly free of material concern, like the lilies and the sparrows Francis mentions.

St. Francis sought out the poor, the leper, and other outcasts. He traded a life of wealth for a life of service. He depended on the generosity of others to help those in greater need.

As Stuart and I look forward to returning to Mexico City and reaching out to those in greater need, we too, are depending on the generosity others. We ask you today, to please consider partnering with us in ministry. A one time gift or a monthly commitment will help us reach the marginalized in Mexico.

We would love to share our vision for proclaiming release to the captives of drug addiction and setting at liberty those who are oppressed by the sex trade in Mexico City with your church, your small group, or missions board. Please let us know how we can best serve you.

Blessings,

Stuart & Wendy

Lord, Make me an instrument of your peace.


Where there is hatred, let me sow love.


Where there is injury, pardon,


Where there is discord, union,


Where there is doubt, faith,


Where there is error, truth,


Where there is despair, hope,


Where there is sadness, joy,


Where there is darkness, light.


O Divine Master,

Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;

to be understood as to understand;

to be loved, as to love;

for it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen

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I am not a princess

Our women's Bible study is going through a video series taught by a popular teacher about being a woman after God's own heart. It is a good character study and I thought the speaker was doing a pretty good job until she started to describe what all girls dream about and then consequently what all boys dream about to illustrate her point.

Now in all fairness, I have gotten to an age where the moment I hear the words, “All girls like blah, blah, blah . . .” or “All women want yada, yada, yada . . .” my eyes start to roll back into my head. In my opinion, these broad strokes we paint, either over women or men, do neither of us any justice. I am not like all other women and I don't appreciate the generalizations. But I digress . . .

Back to my story.

Last night's teacher basically said, All girls dream about being princesses.

I'll let that sink in for a moment.

Now answer me this, What does a princess look like to you?

I think, for us Americans anyway, our ideas about princesses comes from our own fairy tales and animated movies. So if this particular teacher is correct, then the driving force behind all girls' dreams is the desire to look pretty and long for the day a boy rescues her and makes life worth living. Because that's what all boys dream about, being the hero.

So all girls are princesses and all boys are heroes.

Um, really?

Let me be clear. The idea that all girls are (or want to be) princesses is Disney propaganda, not Biblical theology.

If we are raising our daughters with the mistaken notion that they are helpless and hopeless until Prince Charming enters their life then we are doing them a disservice. We can and should do better.

I don't believe the Bible teaches us that all girls are princesses. But I do believe the Bible offers strong female role models our daughters (and our sons for that matter) can look up to.

Deborah for one. She was the greatest judge Israel ever had. There was no hint of unethical or immoral behavior that sidetracked Deborah's rule. In fact, the Bible says Israel enjoyed 40 years of peace under her reign (Judges 4:4-5; 5:31b).

Or how about Anna? She was the prophet who spoke about Jesus to all who longed for his redemptive work (Luke 2:36-38).

Let's not forget Junia. Commended by Paul as outstanding among the apostles (Romans 16:7).

Or what of Priscilla? A co-worker with the Apostle and a skilled teacher (Romans 16:3; Acts 18:26).

The Bible offers our daughters something much better than the anemic princess dream of our modern day fairy tales. Let's give them instead the God inspired dream of being leaders, judges, prophets, apostles, ministers, and teachers. 

Because girls can be heroes too.

I am a foreigner

I am a foreigner.

I know the anticipation and excitement of living in a foreign country, as well as the accompanying culture shock and bewilderment. I have experienced the joy of expressing myself in a new language, as well as the unease of not understanding the joke. Since I have lived outside of the U.S. for most of the last 10 years, being a foreigner has become my new normal.

And then recently I realized, I am a foreigner in more than one respect . . . continue the story on Tortilla Press

A really short history of Mexico City

In less than 4 minutes, this video relates the history of Mexico City from its inception in 1521 to our modern day. After viewing, let's see if you can pronounce the name of the former Aztec capital upon which Spanish conquistadores built Mexico City. Do you recall the tragic event that occurred 10 days prior to the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City? How about the name of a prominent Mexican artist pictured with her husband Diego Rivera?

El suelo es plano delante de la cruz // The ground is level at the cross

Tenemos un dicho en los EE.UU.: “El suelo es plano delante de la cruz.” En otras palabras, nadie tiene ventaja delante de Dios. 

We have a saying in the US. "The ground is level at the cross." In other words, no one has an advantage before God.

Dear Cape Christian School

Thank you for praying for us this year. 

We enjoyed all your sweet letters and words of encouragement.

We love serving God in Mexico, and we love that you love Mexico too!

Dios les Bendiga, Mrs Stevens and the 1st grade class at Cape Christian School in Cape Girardeau, MO.

Go Lions!

Worship in the Park // Adoración en el Parque

Last Sunday we enjoyed worship at Bosque de Tlapan with our church family.



Hoy te rindo mi ser y mi corazón
yo vivo para ti
en cada respirar
cuando estoy atento a ti
Dios haz tu obra en mi



We also enjoyed good food and a little fun.

Can you hear Stuart laughing at the end?



Then the grown men had their turn with the potato sacks - or maybe they were rice sacks :)

I Was A Stranger / Fui Extranjero

Take the "I Was A Stranger" challenge: 40 Days of Scripture & Prayer

El Desafío "Fui Extranjero" 40 Días de la Escritura y Oración

Te Queremos México

We've been relishing the opportunity to pack up our house once again in preparation for our move back to the States next month (that was sarcasm, by the way). But before we pack up all our memories, here's a few worth sharing from this past month.

Stuart preached at Asamblea Cristiana.

We spent the day with a friend from church who asked us to be a part of his music video (no worries - he is singing, we are not). The video follows the life of a young business man who is having a horrible, terrible, no good, very bad day. From what I understand, it ends well though :)

I will link the video when it is completed.

Our time is limited so we've been visiting favorite sites in Mexico City.

Old Coyoacan offers a pleasant walk in the park, an artisan market, Café el Jarocho, and crunchy churros.

Stuart and Sophia visited Chinatown in Mexico City recently. 

Can you see their reflection in the restaurant window?

They brought me home some fragrant soap and Chinese tea.

The Bojenmi Chinese Tea claims that "This tea will make women feel young and slim and full of youthpul beauty. It also rids you of bad breath and erosion of the lip and tongue."

I didn't care for it :)

Yesterday we enjoyed worship in a nearby park with our church family. 

Within the next few days, I'll share more photos and videos of our time at Bosque de Tlapan.

I am a missionary. I tell stories.

"Stories matter. Many Stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign. But stories can also be used to empower and to humanize." ~ Chimamanda Adichie

Recently, a missionary friend shared the following video of Nigerian-born novelist Chimamanda Adichie on Facebook. Her presentation, The Danger of Telling the Single Story on ted.com captivated me. "Show a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become," warns Miss Adichie.

And therein lies my dilemma.

I am a missionary. I tell stories.

But I do not want to misrepresent the people, the culture, or the nation God has called me to.

In John 8, we read a well-known story. And if your Bible is like my Bible, the title of this excerpt is, The woman caught in adultery.

As Jesus was teaching near the temple, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees bring a woman before him. They blab her story to Jesus and to the crowd gathered to hear him: "This woman was caught in the act of adultery," they say. "The Law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?" The religious leaders exploit and expose this woman by telling her story with an ulterior motive: "They were trying to trap [Jesus] into saying something they could use against him."

But Jesus does not take the bait. He does not allow them to tell her story for their purposes. If they wanted to tell a story, they would have to tell their own: "All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!"

Have you ever wondered why Bible translators titled this story the way that they did? Are we guilty of telling the single story – the woman caught in adultery – the only story the religious leaders wanted everyone else to know?

What if we told the story from Jesus' perspective? What if we called it, The woman protected, restored, and redeemed by Jesus? Or why not, The men who got caught throwing rocks, as Renovatus pastor Jonathan Martin did in a recent series, and really turn the story around.

I am a missionary. I tell stories. I have a responsibility.

I don't want to exploit or expose, like the religious leaders.

I want to restore and redeem, like Jesus.

As missionaries we believe God has commissioned us to tell His story, the story of Jesus – his life, ministry, death, and resurrection – to the nations. As missionaries we also share the stories of the people God has called us to – to the people who have sent us. We share them because we want you to know and cherish the people of Mexico (or India, or the Middle East, etc). We want you to know their culture, their beauty, their families. We want you to hear their stories because we love them.

But we have a responsibility to let you know, our stories are not the only stories. We share from our perspectives and experiences. But I trust most of us do it with sensitivity, care, and sincerity.

Jesus, I hope I do.

Stories are powerful. This Sunday your church will tell the most powerful story of all time. Pray for us as we share His story in Mexico. And pray also, that we share the stories of the people we love and serve with the dignity they deserve.

(I encourage you to watch Chimamanda Adichie's presentation. She is a powerful story teller. Her video is less than 20 minutes long, but I believe it will captivate you as it did me. And for all my Connecticut friends, Miss Adichie graduated summa cum laude from Eastern Connecticut State University in 2001 and from Yale University in 2008.)

Spring 2013 newsletter

Let Justice Roll on Like a River . . .

Discouraged. Disheartened. Depressed. Dismayed. That about sums up my week.

What is the nature of my downcast soul? I’m not sure. But it has something to do with the fact that life is not fair ... read the rest of the post on Tortilla Press.

Looking back at 2012

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What's a broken hallelujah, anyway?

So began a short conversation in our vehicle a few weeks ago after a night with the unforgettable Shrek. The question bounced around the car with a few shrugged shoulders and suggestions. I've actually listened to Leonard Cohen's song numerous times and given my daughter's inquiry quite a lot of thought these last couple of weeks, especially last Friday . . . read the rest of this story on Tortilla Press.