Back.  Long trip.  Felt too long.

Everything went well, everyone is swell.

Good trip, great trip, best so far.

Now we are back.  Reality.

Everything is slow and distant.  It’s all very real, but yet sur-.  We could really get things moving if…if… Well, things are moving, just not the big exciting, life changing things.  Right now we move a lot of paper work and manage life. Ministry is happening.  Lives are presently being changed.

Everything just feels distant; like I’ve been living in a desert and feel a bit out of touch with the pace of life out in the world.  Sometimes, I feel like we are all missing the point.  At times not even sure where the target is. What’s the goal?  What’s the point?  What’s the message?

Matthew 3 speaks of a time when people listened to a voice that spoke from the desert.  The message was clear.  Repent.  The Kingdom of Heaven in near.  When did that change?

I know that everything we are building here in Juarez is to this end.  I know that most other decisions I make revolve around this message.  I want my kids to know that the kingdom is near.  It’s important to me.

Sometimes it would be nice to walk around eating locust and honey and talking about God all the time.  Well, maybe just honey and God.

As sweet as that would be, we live in a different time.  We listen to other voices.  We don’t have time for the nutjob out in the heat.  We need to build and write and call and email and plan and strategize.  Our world is so complicated now that basic ministry is even difficult.

Today feels like defeat.  It’s not.  It’s just a feeling.  Our work is different.  Our times seem faster.  The ministry looks different.  The message is the same.  The purpose has not changed. The voice still can be heard in the desert.

Repent.  The Kingdom of Heaven is near.

Recently, we picked up some grilled chicken to celebrate a birthday with the Renteria family!  It was really good chicken and smelled great!!  The animals were camped outside the door waiting for any little morsel that might get tossed outside.  This little kitten is named, “Kitty” she was pretty persistent in her quest for food!

We are planning a basic outreach and getting to know you in the Km. 33 community this Christmas!
We have already found a handful of volunteers and an industrial two oven kitchen that will all help this project along! Many of the folks in the community don’t bake. Mexican culture is one that doesn’t bake. If someone wants a cookie or sweet bread, they go to the bakery down the street. Km. 33 has no bakery. Most of the folks in this community would be able to afford the treat anyway.

Growing up, this is something my folks always did. They would make home baked sweet bread and give it away as gifts!! My family worked in a different area of Mexico, and with a different social and economic group, but homemade bread speaks to anyone!!!

CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS!!

Another thing I want to do is bake a bunch, I mean TON, of sweet breads and go door to door and give away Christmas bread!  Something my family always did.  I don’t think ever on a large scale, but to folks we sort of knew.

People could send fruit cakes or other typical Christmas goodies.  A donation of $10 could bake quite a bit of bread!  I may get my youth group to do some of the baking.  My church may even help out.  I’m hoping we can make it pretty big.  I would like to walk around and knock on doors.  Be a great way for us to meet people.

We just got three huge boxes of materials and pillows. Thanks!!  We really did mean, “Hit me with a pillow.”

People can really decide how they want to help.  They can send money or materials.  We would like to be able to give pillows to people in the community for Christmas gifts!

Pillows & Fabrics ranges the same from $5-50.

I got this email from Sarah Fowler with the sewing stuff.  It’s a pattern that she put together for us.  You may be able to get that put up as a project that people can donate to, or even a womens ministry could sew them and send them.

We can have a handful of women sew  them and we can give them out around the community.  It could be a big help to them come the holidays.

One of the many ways that YOU can help out down here is with a simple gift!!  Currently we are making pillow cases for pillows that we can give away around the community here in Ciudad Juarez.

At the moment of this post, I do not know the cost of a pillow, but I imagine that you can find them from $10 to $100.  Depends how therapeutic you want to get.  We can also use some more fabric to make the pillow cases for the pillows!!  Again, I don’t know the cost of fabric.  I assume it could be priced much like the pillows.

If you are interested in being invloved in this project, you can mail the pillow or fabric down here, or donate the funds specifically to the project!  Either one works for us!!

We are regularly hosting a sewing “class”.  I have class in quotes, becuase it’s more of a group learning session with no REAL teacher!  Esmeralda and I are not seamstresses.  I am definitely not one.  None the less we meet.  We sew.  We talk.  We cut out bad stitching.  We laugh. We learn.  It’s a good time.

We have a variety of ladies that come.  Each week the “class” is hosted at Reuben Renteria’s home.  We have enough electricity to run two machines.  No lights, only machines.  Once dusk begins to arrive, sewing finishes.  Patty is the hostess, she invites different ladies for each class.  They range from the older lady with a blind eye that barely sees enough to sew on her own, to young girls still in middle school.  What a great bunch!  Even when it’s hard to sew, the joyful smiles that float around the room are addictive!!

The most recent project has been pillow cases.  They are so simple, I could probably make one!  I was a bit surprised that this is what we were making.  I figured curtains for windows made sense; curtains are expensive, but pillow cases?  Even though I am here and I see the conditions and I know some of the stories of need and poverty, I am still a foreigner.  I do not understand.

Imagine having to make a choice between eating this week and buying a pillow case…I would probably go with the food myself.  What a joy to have the blessing of free fabric and use of machines!!  The pillow cases are far from store quality, but they are good and free!

The last “class” we had; ended in a conversation about giving.  Giving the gift of pillows and cases!  We thought that if we could make a handful of cases and then find a store that would be willing to donate pillows, we could bless a few families!  What a wonderful idea.  So simple.

So this is where we find ourselves…looking for pillows and planning on making cases!

Hanna June PDF

You have undoubtedly heard of the Swine flu.  It seems we hear about it every day.  I don’t want to spend much more time talking or writing about it than has already been done.

I would however, ask that you keep praying for us as a family and for the folks we are here with on the Border!!  Mexico is a huge country, with many, many people.  On a whole, Mexican people are feeling hurt and abandoned by the rest of the world, feeling like they are being made to blame for the corruption and sickness on a global level.  Mexico does have its share of corruption and sickness just as every other nation on this earth has.

When I listen to the news of our world, I find it easy to grow fearful and lose compassion for others.  I find it easy to harden my heart and essentially abandon people to their own fate.  The problem is, I share that fate.  Corruption and sickness run rampant in my own heart.  Corruption and sickness have overtaken by body.  Corruption and sickness have ruined my world.  Corruption and sickness are a strain of the Sin flu.  We all have it.  Romans 3:23 tells us that ALL have sinned, later in 6:23 we see that death is a result of that sin and the only way out is Jesus Christ.

When I hear the news of the world around me, I try to remember that it is the same news day after day.  It is the news that people are suffering, people are hurting, and people are lost and afraid.  Why would I want to grow cynical and hard when there is hope of salvation?  There is hope of freedom.  There is perfect love to be spoken and shared!  We love because He first loved us!  Why live in fear?  Perfect love drives out fear!

Traveling North

I hope the title of this paragraph doesn’t confuse, but catches your eye!  This summer, our team members, the Livengood family, will be traveling north.  This trip has many goals; raise awareness of Onnemi International Ministries, raise personal support, and take a bit of time for needed rest.  They will be driving the 1500 miles to Kent, Ohio where Mark’s parents live and will be able to have a “home base”!  Will you pray with us for the Livengood family?!?!?

Pray for Mark, Perla, Mark III, and Abby.  They are good friends and ministers.  We hope they are able to have a successful trip and we look forward to their safe return!

Get that needed rest you guys!