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!

I know that’s a weird heading in the subject box of this email, but it’s true. There is no place like home. Home is a hard place to define though as a missionary. Is home the place you grow up and have the fondest childhood memories? Is it the place your Mom, Dad, brothers, and sisters abide? Is it your current place of residence? Define Residence! All these things can be difficult for a missionary.

Portage Community Chapel came down this April and worked on our house. We are grateful. They made our house feel like a home! We can wash dishes without moving buckets now! It’s great. Having PCC down here reminds us just how difficult it is to define home because we miss our church family so much. Every time we see them we are encouraged and long for more time together in fellowship and seeking the Lord.

My Dad spent a month with us this spring. He too helped us make our house feel more like a home in more ways than one. He worked on the electric and plumbing and spent hours doing meticulous work that only he and the Lord know about because it is now covered behind layers of paint, joint cement, and drywall. He also spent hours hanging out with my children and bringing back childhood memories of wrestling and airplane rides. And so my house was a home

Perla, Mark III, Abby, and I are going to be traveling across the country and arriving in Ohio by June 1st. We are trying to raise awareness about our ministry and ask our friends, family, and fellow believers to pray for us as we serve in Onnemi International Ministries. And so, once again, in a sense, we are coming home. We are coming home for the months of June and July to catch up with our loved ones.

We would love to see you when we are in the Midwest. So if you receive this email and you have not scheduled some time with us, this is your chance. Please contact us either via email or at 915-252-1507 to make time to meet with you. We look forward to hearing from you and visiting with you as much as possible. The earlier you let us know, the more time we will have to share with you.

Please pray for us as we travel. This will be the first time we drive across the country with the kiddos and that makes us nervous. We are grateful for the kind people who have offered us a place to stay as we travel. Look forward to seeing you too!

I am not including pictures in this update as I hope to share plenty of pictures with when we see you in person

Your Servant in Christ,

Mark Livengood