Missions in the Midwest

This weekend we are in Indianapolis, IN for the annual OMS missions retreat. We are excited to have the chance to see many of our friends and to hear what God is doing around the world through OMS. We will also have the opportunity to see many of the missionaries who are on the Mexico field and to meet some of our future colleagues that are still raising their funds.

We want to thank you for your prayers over the past few weeks as June has been a busy month. Our traveling has been a little different this month, but with trips to Iowa, Georgia, and Indiana we have certainly need your prayers for safe travel. We are looking forward to being in two camps in July - look for more details to come on those.

Some Much Needed RnR

Following the Sunday morning services this Sunday (May 31), the kids and I (Jenny) will be taking the van and driving from Marshfield, Missouri to Iowa for a mini-vacation. We'll be spending Sunday night in Fairfield, Iowa visiting my sister and her husband and then driving on to West Des Moines on Monday to spend the week with the rest of my family. Please pray for traveling mercies as we drive to Iowa and as Troy drives back home to Jackson for the week. On Friday, June 5, Troy will fly to Des Moines, as we will be speaking at our Iowa "home church", Faith EMC in Oskaloosa on June 7.

The kids are exited to attend Nana Camp for the second summer and I am looking forward to some rest and relaxation (and some good 'ole spoiling. You're never too old to be spoiled by your Mom).

Gentrys in Marshfield EMC

This Sunday (May 31) we will be speaking in both services at the Evangelical Methodist Church in Marshfield, Missouri. Please pray with us for the following:

1. That the Lord will give us traveling mercies, especially as we are taking both vehicles.
2. That the Lord will bless the meetings and services and speak through us.

We've had some really great meetings lately and are thankful for the Lord's provision. I (Jenny) lately realized the full impact we are potentially having on those who listen to our presentation. We were reminded a few weeks ago at the Central Lakes District conference that it was during a missions presentation that a teenaged Troy received his call to missions. That reminder made me realize that the Lord could be asking the same thing of someone sitting in the pews of the churches we speak in. Through our testimony of the calling that God has placed on our lives, we might just be the instruments He uses to open someone else's eyes and heart to missions. So, along with the above prayer requests, please pray that the Lord would soften the hearts of those who hear our presentation and that they will be open and sensitive to His leading. It would be awesome to hear someone say, "It was during your presentation that the Lord called me to be a missionary." Not for our glory of course, but to know that by being obedient to share the burden He has placed on our hearts, someone else took up the call as well. As always, thank you for your prayers.

On a Roll!

Troy and I really feel like we have finally gained some momentum in our fund-raising efforts. I believe that we are doing all that we can humanly do in this process and the rest is up to the Lord. We recently watched a video clip on creation and just how big the universe really is. If I can find a link to the clip, I will post it so that you can see it for yourselves, as there is no way I'll do it justice. But watching the video and realizing, perhaps for the first time, just how big the universe is (and how even bigger our God is to have created it), Troy said to me, "This is the God who is going to provide all our needs. This is the God who can and WILL get us to Mexico." It was an emotional moment, to say the least. We are in awe that He has even asked this of us to begin with. Many people have questioned our decision to have four kids (knowing we'd need to raise funds to support such a large family) and have expressed to us that it is an impossible task we are undertaking. Don't we know it! There is no way that we can personally raise these funds! And if the Lord hadn't called us to Mexico, we wouldn't be able to, either. But He HAS called us! He WILL provide.

Thank you for your prayers for us as a family. We could NOT do this without your prayers. I believe that we need prayer support far more than financial support. Without prayer, we would get nowhere, be unable to reach anyone. Please, keep those prayers coming! Pray for our travels. Pray for more people to partner with us prayerfully and financially. Pray for the more meetings, more opportunities to share in churches and with individuals. Pray that the Lord will direct our every action and step. Finally, please pray for the two of us to be steeped in the Word even more than before. The enemy hates people who are following the Will of God and will do all that he can to cause them to falter. Only by arming ourselves fully with the full Armor of God and allowing Him to be our rearguard will we repel the fiery darts of the enemy.

Best Week Ever

Last week at the Central Lakes district conference of the EMC, we had our best conference/meeting to date. We were given approximately 20-25 minutes to speak during the missions service. The Lord was with Troy and helped him to express to the conference attendees the burden we have for the Mexican people. We had been searching for several days in various stores for a laser pointer to use during our powerpoint presentation, but to no avail. Watching Troy struggle to point out some various things in our pictures, Dr. Ed Williamson handed Troy his personal pointer and then told him afterward to keep it. Thanks, Dr. Ed--you were a direct answer to prayer! After Troy spoke, Rev. Jack Conner (district superintendent for the Mid-states district) encouraged everyone to pray about supporting us. We are thankful for the support of all the denominational leaders present at the conference--it is a blessing to know we have the support of our denomination! An offering was taken up for us and several individuals gave us enough money to pay for our return trip home (this means we will have fewer receipts to submit against our missionary account). The best of all was that so many people took prayer cards that we had to order some more immediately upon leaving the camp! What a great problem to have!! Many of the pastors in attendance also indicated their desire for us to come speak in their churches. So we came away with new prayer and financial partners, a laser pointer to use in the presentation, a love offering and enough money to get home, and meetings to be scheduled. God has been so good!

Meetings, meetings, meetings!

This weekend the entire family will be traveling to Grace EMC in Haltom City, Texas for a missionary meeting at Ike Cowell's church. We will be speaking to a combined Sunday school class of adults and youth and will also have a few minutes to share in the main worship service. Please pray for safe travel and for the Lord's blessings as we share.

Literally the day after arriving back home from Texas we will pack the van up once again and drive to a conference center near the Indiana/Ohio border in order to attend the Central Lakes district of the EMC's annual conference. There we will have the opportunity to set up our display and have been granted 30 minutes to speak during the conference on Wednesday! Please pray once again for safe travel and for the Lord's blessings as we try to speak with as many pastors as possible about scheduling meetings in their home churches.

Our goal is to have missionary meetings set up at least 3 out of 4 weeks each month until we have raised enough to support full-time fund-raising. Please pray with us that the Lord helps us to reach this milestone soon! Our whole family is anxious and excited to begin the language school stage in Costa Rica but we can't do that until our financial obligations for ministry are met. Thank you so very much for partnering with us in prayer and financial support!

Atlantic District Conference

During this week I have had the privilege of being in Ridgecrest, NC at the Atlantic District Conference of the Evangelical Methodist Church. As you can see from the picture it has some great scenery to enjoy. Yet, it has been a great time to renew old friendships, to make new ones, and to enjoy powerful services. At both District Conferences that we have been at this year the Lord has really opened some doors up for us and we are grateful for all that He is doing. We have been able to pick up some support at these conference, both prayer and financial, as well as get some meetings scheduled in area churches. Pray that as we travel to two more District Conferences in the coming months that they will be as productive as these two have been.
The only thing that would have made this trip better would have been if my family had been with me.
Thank you for your prayers and support, we greatly appreciate them. The Lord is moving on our behalf and we give Him all the praise and the glory.

Mid-States District Conference

On March 26-28th we will be in Haltom City, TX at the Mid-States District Conference for the Evangelical Methodist Church. While we are there we will have the opportunity to share about our calling to Mexico in the Missions Banquet on Thursday. We will also be utilizing this time with the pastors to try and set up as many meetings as we can for the coming months. We ask that you be in prayer for our travel, our time of sharing, and that we would be able to get as many meetings as possible set up.

Language School

This week we received some news and I believe with all my heart that it is the Lord's answer to our prayer. We received an email that OMS and OMS Mexico are leaning toward sending all missionary candidates heading to a Latin field to a language school in.....Costa Rica! We were very concerned that it would raise our overall fund-raising cost but were surprised to learn that it won't change it much. Praise God! The school has 3 trimesters of study and you can enter the school virtually at the start of any trimester--which means that we won't have to wait around for the start of a new semester like we would've at the other schools had we just missed the start of the last semester. ON THE GROUNDS is a nursery school for Cody's age group with all kinds of activities (including some Spanish education) as well as a regular school for the other 3 kids! So Tori, Clayton and Tayler will be able to attend school and learn the regular subjects in English; P.E., music, and art in Spanish; along with formal Spanish training! What all this means is that Troy and I will be able to concentrate solely on our language studies without worrying about the kids' education or figuring out what to do with them during the day--and they will have the chance to learn some Spanish right along side us (something they would not have gotten at the other two schools)! I can't tell you how excited I am about all of this. Both of us are even more excited to get the funding finished than ever.
On an aside, there are a couple weeks in between each trimester, so if y'all come to visit then we'll have time to show you around Costa Rica. It's not a big country and San Jose (where the language school is located) is in between both coasts (the country is bordered by the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean) with some gorgeous mountain and waterfall scenery closeby.
If you want to see the school, just click here. On their website you will also see links to the kid’s schools as well.

Kids in Church

This last Sunday at Wesley Chapel there was a special emphasis on the children's ministry and as a result our three oldest children were involved in part of the service. Clayton and Tori recited a memory verse with the rest of the kids while they were holding on to a whale they had helped to make. They made this whale while they were learning about Jonah. Then Tayler sang "Sanctuary" as a solo. Even though she said she was nervous before hand she did a really great job. After she was finished the worship minister called her back up and had her lead the entire congregation in singing the song with the motions. She told him later that he had made her dream come true. Needless to say we are very proud parents.

Pray for our Missions Conference

Today we are headed out to Marietta, Georgia. We've been invited to a missions conference at the Gospel Light EMC. We will be participating in their children's fair tomorrow (Saturday) and have prepared a fun game that should enable the kids to learn a bit more about Mexican life and culture while having a good time. We will also be ministering on Sunday. Please pray for safe travel and that the Lord will help us to effectively communicate the calling He has placed on our lives to the people we have the opportunity to minister to. On Sunday we will also be visiting with Jenny's Aunt Donna who lives near Marietta. We are thankful that we will be close enough to have the chance to spend a few hours with her. She is undergoing chemotherapy treatments for progressed colon cancer, so please pray with us that the Lord will give her strength and enable her to be comfortable enough to enjoy our visit. Thank you in advance for your prayers for the Lord's blessing upon our ministry efforts this weekend.

4% Funded!

We finally have our first official word on how the funding is going. As of last week, we are 4% funded for the mission field! Yes, this does mean that we have 96% to go--which is a lot. But we choose to be positive and are thankful for the 4% that the Lord has helped us to raise. The Lord has called us to Mexico City and He will provide--indeed, He is providing! We do really covet your prayers in the coming weeks and months, that the Lord will help us line up more churches to speak in and more one-on-one appointments to schedule. Thank you for praying with us for our total goal of being 100% funded for our ministry in Mexico City.

On the Road Again...

October will be a very busy ministry month for us. We have four meetings lined up in three Sundays! Tomorrow we will be at the Heritage United Methodist Church in Hattiesburg, about an hour and a half from Jackson. It is World Communion Sunday and, along with our family, several others from the seminary (mainly foreign students) will be sharing with the folks there about the need for world missions. We're not giving our missionary presentation but will be each speaking in a Sunday school about the missionary needs in Mexico. Next Sunday we will be at Cruger Independent Methodist Church (it's about an hour or so from Jackson) in the morning and at Riverside Independent Methodist Church in Flowood (a suburb of Jackson) in the evening. We will be giving our full missionary presentation at both services. Finally, we will be at Vision Community Church in Brookhaven (which is about an hour from Jackson) the last Sunday in October and will give our missionary presentation. We are very thankful that the Lord has opened these opportunities up for us and are praying that we can likewise fill November and December as well. Please keep us in your prayers as we share with the people in these churches. We are praying that the Lord will soften hearts and move people to action for His kingdom.

Clayton's Missing Teeth

This summer marked another first in Clayton's life: his first loose tooth. He was very excited to see how much he could wiggle it and to catch up to big sister in missing teeth. Shortly after his first one fell out, others followed until he now has several teeth missing in his smile. It's just another reminder to the two of us that our little boy is growing up.

Miss Tori Goes to Preschool

September 2 marked a very important day for Tori--it was her first day of preschool. After watching her older siblings doing their school work for the past few years, she was excited about starting school herself. Jenny found some "get ready for kindergarten" workbooks online and bought the whole series (a total of 19 workbooks!) for Tori to work through. Some of the concepts she will learn are same vs different, colors, alphabet recognition, beginning phonics, number recognition and other simple mathematical skills. Each day she and Jenny discuss what day of the week it is and what the weather for that day is. Not only is she learning some important early learning concepts, she's having a wonderful time in the process and finding out that school is fun!

Indian Springs Holiness Camp

We are all on our way to Indian Springs Holiness Camp near Jackson, Georgia, from July 9 - 19. While there Troy and I will be leading the missionary time in the morning children's meetings each day. Although this is not a year for OMS missionaries at the camp (it's WGM's turn), we are still looking forward to meeting fellow laborers in the field. It's exciting to think that this year we will actually be able to introduce ourselves as missionaries! The kids are excited about seeing our friends, the Jelleys, and going to all the fun activities they will be involved in. Please keep the camp meetings in your prayers (all the speakers, safe travel for attendees, etc) during the next two weeks. When we get home we will have some pictures to go along with our posts, so be sure to check back soon!

Meeting at Debra Heights Wesleyan Church

I (Jenny) had the opportunity on June 29 to give my very first missionary meeting without Troy. The kids and I had gone to Iowa to visit my family and while there had the chance to speak in Grandma Harris' home church, Debra Heights Wesleyan Church. I was very nervous about speaking as I tend to get very emotional while talking about our ministry. Thankfully, the morning was covered with prayer and the Lord really helped me to express the things I felt most important for the people to hear. Everything that could've gone wrong went well (we'd spoken in a church where we couldn't get our power point presentation to work but thanks to my tech-genius Aunt Sandy, things went well)! The kids opened our time by helping me sing 3 verses of "Jesus Loves the Little Children" (bet you didn't know there were actually 3 verses did you? I'll let you puzzle that one for yourselves....). My new brother-in-law Rob and I performed a skit that could truly be called 'lost in translation'. It cracked everybody up (including us!) and was so much fun to do. Then I had my time of sharing followed by our power point presentation to wrap things up. The church took a very nice love offering for us and then prayed over the kids and me, everyone gathering around us at the altar. It was a precious time and I'm very thankful for the opportunity to be there. Now I know that if push comes to shove, I CAN speak on my own...although I'm more than thankful that Troy will be joining me for our next meeting!

Why We Are Called

Monday we visited the Basilica with Robin and Margaret. Unless you have been there it is very hard to put into words why the experience disturbed and moved us so much. As Christians we know that Jesus is our intercessor before the throne of God--there is no middle man between us and Him. The Mexicans very much believe that they need an intercessor and for them, most of the time it is Mary. While there are other saints they pray to, most often it is the Virgin (in Mexico, she is called the Lady of Guadalupe). When we first walked onto the grounds (there are several buildings built at the foot of and atop a hill with beautiful gardens, pools and paths surrounding the traditional Basilica site) there was an alcove filled with candles people had lit and placed. Many people were standing around them praying. A few feet farther was a booth where, for a fee, you could have a priest bless you with holy water.


Inside the buildings were various shrines and statues of saints and the Virgin. Many of these statues had been rubbed until they were shiny (the people will rub the statues for a blessing) and everywhere we looked we could see people praying. We saw a bit of the Mexican history in paintings--there's quite a lot of pagan beliefs and gods mixed into Latin Catholicism (Aztec in particular). The traditional Basilica is being renovated (the ground around it is sinking; if you stand with the building in profile, you will see that it is leaning forward) and so worshipers were directed to another building on the grounds.

At the back of the new Basilica was a long line of supplicants waiting their turn in the confessionals. We watched as one family literally crawled on hands and knees from the cobblestone courtyard into the building in penitence, awaiting their blessing. At the front and one side of the sanctuary was a large shroud with the image of the Lady of Guadeloupe on it. For a better view of it, we went down a corridor and, at the base of the shroud were moving sidewalks where you could stand and pray as you were slowly carried to the other side. The sight that moved me the most was a woman just to one side of the moving sidewalk, her head bowed in fervent prayer, her hands clasped in front of her. She was unnerved by the motion around her--every fiber of her being was focused on that shroud as she prayed to the image imprinted on it. As I continue to watch her, my heart broke and the tears fell.




The kids asked Margaret if perhaps Mary is sad when the people worship her instead of Jesus. We all knew deep in our hearts the answer to that question. It is why we have been called to minister in Mexico. Why we have a burden so profound that it literally brings us to tears. We have hope in Jesus and it is through His grace we are sustained and set free--not because Mary or Juan Diego or anyone else interceded on our behalf. That is what we have been called to tell the hopeless people of Mexico. That is why we are hungry to return.

Sunday Worship...Mexican Style

Sunday we had the privilege of attending a worship service with some fellow missionaries (the Mackinnon crew, Margaret and Robin). Before the service we sat down on the church grounds for a Mexican breakfast (not steak and eggs by any means but YUMMY; I think it will take me a long time to get used to eating refried beans for breakfast) and our kids had an opportunity to meet and play with the older Mackinnon kids. They all played and talked like they'd known each other for years, something that this mother's heart was thankful for. Of course, since I don't speak a lick of Spanish, as has already been stated, I mostly listened to the sounds of praise being lifted up in Spanish. Even though I didn't understand what was being said or sung my heart was content and felt at home. Half-way through the sermon I discovered that tears were streaming down my face (again) and I honestly couldn't explain why other than to say that I feel so at home among the Mexican people in the City that my heart was just crying out to be able to stay.





Another privilege for us was watching a Mexican missionary to India give his missionary presentation during the service. As something that we are currently doing ourselves, it was really neat to witness a Mexican going through the same process. Just like we are working to get to Mexico with the gospel, this Mexican is working to get to India with the gospel! Just as we will have to learn Spanish to effectively minister in Mexico, this man will have to learn the various dialects he will need to effectively minister in India.

Fun and Fellowship

We began the day (Saturday) at a Mexican kids' club with a fellow OMS couple. For the first time in their lives the kids were separated by their age and not allowed to just stay together. Tayler, who is naturally outgoing, handled this much better than Clayton who is more shy-natured. It took quite a bit of convicing for him to stay in his age group. Because the kids do not speak any Spanish and we weren't sure how many of the helpers spoke English, at least one Spanish-speaking adult stayed with each of the kids. Troy went with Clayton (who did loosen up once the kids started to play tag), Paula went with Tayler and Tori (whom we did allow to stay with her sister), John and Troy alternately took Cody, and I stayed with one of the missionaries who taught an English lesson at her station. After no time at all, the girls in Tayler's group were holding her hand, wanting to play with her and asking the missionary to give them phrases in English to say to Tayler. The other kids were fussed over as well and were a delightful change for the Mexican kids. I enjoyed helping Julie, our fellow missionary, with her English lesson and having some of the kids ask questions of me. They were trying to learn English--something I could definitely relate to as someone trying to learn their language as well.

What really touched this mother's heart was how welcoming the kids were of our children and how much they "took them into" their groups. For a long time Troy and I were not sure how well the kids would adjust to Mexico--if this weekend is any indication of things to come, we are no longer concerned about this. They have boldly eaten everything that has been served to them and have liked it (everything from tacitos to sweet coffee with milk and cinnamon) and they have liked all the places we have gone. This is a tremendous answer to prayer for Troy and I.













After church we visited the Mayan pyramids outside of the city. The 3 oldest kids, Troy, and the other missionary, Jonny, all climbed up to the top of the pyramid and took pictures. John & Paula stayed outside of the park with Diogy (their poodle), as dogs are not allowed in the park. Julie, Cody and I sat at the base of the pyramid and tried to fend off the many vendors selling trinkets and watching everyone else make the long, high climb. I, having an issue with heights, of course opted not to make the climb.













It was a great day of ministry, fun at the pyramids and fellowship as we traveled around to the various places and had an opportunity to visit with Jonny and Julie about life as missionaries on the Mexican field. Stay tuned for tomorrow's post and for pictures!