December Newsletter

Welcome to the Christmas season! Being in a bigger city this year, we notice much more in the way of Christmas decorations. We have even seen some stores selling live Christmas trees - of course - we haven't seen anyone actually buy a tree!! Customs and traditions are much different here - especially in the Christian church. Christians tend to shy away from putting up any type of decoration at all. We are enjoying learning more about the Oaxacan culture every day.

Speaking of Christmas, we are thrilled that we will be able to spend Christmas with our family and friends in Bradenton. We should arrive in FL by the 13th. We hope to see as many of you as we can while in FL. We have an nine minute slide presentation with many photos of our ministry here. If your family or your group would enjoy seeing it and hearing more about our ministry here, please email us at lacyalia@yahoo.com and let us know. We would love to come and share with you!

We will also be having a Oaxacan Mercado. If you'll be in Bradenton, come visit and get some Christmas shopping done. We'll have a lot of handmade jewlery, toys, clothing and accessories. Come see the beautiful artesania from Oaxaca! The mercado will be at The Bridge Church on 75th Street West on the evening of Monday, December 15th. We hope to see you!

We had our Celebration with our two Kid's Clubs. We had a total of about 35 people present. The children of our church presented two plays. Lisa presented the Gospel, using a balloon and the colors of salvation wordless book. We enjoyed refreshments before sitting down for an outdoor movie. All had a good time and the weather cooperated and it wasn't too cold! The evening ended with drawings for toys - always a hit!! Below are pictures from the celebration.

Once again, we want to thank all of you, our faithful supporters. Your prayers, financial support, and encouragement mean so much to us! We hope you all have a Very Blessed Christmas!!

For His Glory,

Carl, Lisa, Lacy, Alia, Noah, and Molly

November Newsletter

"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures." Psalm 118:1

The Lord has shown His goodness to us this month. We have started our English classes back up after our trip to Texas. We are working with one family in particular; Lisa teaches the children and Carl teaches their father who is studying for his doctorate degree. After having them come to our English classes, we invited them to our new Kid's Club that we started at our home. They arrived 30 minutes early and were very excited to be part of the club. They have been eagerly inviting others to come the club, as well.

Game time at our new Saturday morning Kid's Club

Our new Kid's Club is a 6-week program. We are learning that Jesus wants us to "Be a Good Friend," "Be Brave," "Be Gentle," "Be Happy," and "Be Kind." We are studying the scriptures, playing games, and making crafts. So far, we have had 8 kids come. This Saturday will be our third week. We are hoping to have the children from the church we are attending come and perform a play for our Kid's Club. Recently, Lacy, Alia and Noah have been involved in dramas at church. The first play was "Who is Jesus Christ?" and the second was about "Finding Joy in the Lord."

Game time at our Saturday pm Kid's Club-
had to change the water in the game to packing
peanuts for this club!

Gracia and Molly were on clean-up duty!

We are making plans to visit Florida in December. We will be attending a training/orientation with CTEN in Kerrville, TX on Dec. 9-11th and then driving to Florida. We are looking forward to seeing many of you and are already choosing what pictures we want to bring home to show you!!

Also, we are excited to be bringing home artesania from Oaxaca to display and sell in our very own "Oaxacan Mercado" to raise money for our ministries here. Details will be coming! Please plan on visiting our mercado to get a taste of Oaxacan culture and do some Christmas shopping at the same time!

Wishing you all a very Blessed Thanksgiving!!

For His Glory,
Carl, Lisa, Lacy, Alia, Noah, and Molly

October Newsletter

Happy Fall! Hope you are enjoying cooler fall weather wherever you are. Here in Oaxaca, some days feel like fall and others are warm summer days!!

We started September by celebrating Molly's 2nd Birthday!

We have made friends here in our new neighborhood. Here is a picture of one of the favorite past-times in Mexico - Soccer, or futbol, as they say!

And, of course, the fun of playing in the rain crosses all cultures!!

Our Kid's Club is going well. We have made drama a regular part of our club. We either use puppets or make up skits to go along with our bible stories. Here are pictures from our "John the Baptist" skit. Noah was John the Baptist, Dylan (son of Marisol) was Jesus, the little girls were the bees that were flying around John (because he likes honey, you know!!) and Molly brought in the dove! The little kids performed the skit for the older kids.

We started English classes for children through adults. The first week at the kid's class we had 2 students, however, by the second week we were up to 9! That is without advertising!! We also have classes for older students and adults. Hopefully, through these classes we will be able to build relationships with people and open the door for bible studies.

September ended with an unexpected trip to Texas. We needed to renew our visas so we made a trip out of it and went to visit our missionary organization, CTEN, in Kerrville. We had a great visit and enjoyed our impromptu vacation! Lacy was able to celebrate her birthday in the states - complete with dinner at Applebee's and a Carvel Ice Cream Cake!! We also had the privlege of meeting Marisol's husband, Luis, who lives in San Antonio. We were able to bring back some things for her and the boys from Luis. Here are some pictures from the trip!

At the Riverwalk in San Antonio.


On the way back to Oaxaca - what a beautiful drive!

We pray that each of you finds joy in the Lord everyday! Please let us know your prayer requests so we can be lifting you up! Thank you for your prayers and support!!

For His Glory,

Carl, Lisa, Lacy, Alia, Noah and Molly

September Newsletter

August was a very busy month! We started out by having a Vacation Bible School at our house. We had 6 people volunteer to teach or help with the VBS!! We had a total of 43 kids! The children learned that Jesus was born to be our Savior (Monday), Jesus was Baptized (Tuesday), Jesus wants us to be Fishers of Men (Wednesday), Jesus is our Good Shepherd and takes care of us (Thursday), and the Jesus died and rose to save us from our sins (Friday.) All the children memorized John 3:16 and learned what "the colors of salvation" are. A great time was had by all!!

A puppet show about the colors of salvation. (Notice where Molly is - her favorite place for the week was attached to Mommy's legs!!)

Bible Study

Craft time on the patio.

Music Time: Celebrad a Christo

The preschool hang-out (near the snacks, of course!!)





Highlights of the excitement of the children: One morning as we were getting things ready, a little boy who lives next door shouted over to me "Teacher, are you open yet?" This was before 9am and VBS started at 10am! Another parent told me that her child who usually slept in was awake at 7am every morning asking if it was time for bible school yet!




Game time with Carl outside.



Making "Colors of Salvation Bracelettes"

Yellow: Heaven - where God wants us to be
Black: Our sin - that separates us from God
Red: Jesus blood - shed as punishment for our sin
White: Pure hearts - Jesus blood makes our hearts clean
Green: Grow in God!!


Bible stories and review games inside.

A puzzle to learn John 3:16.

Our thanks again, to all our supporters who make events like VBS and our weekly Kid's Club possible!!!

August Newsletter

Blessings to Everyone! Wow - it's August. We are once again amazed at "how time flies when you're having fun!"

We would like to begin with prayer requests for our family and our VBS. We started our "Escuelita Biblica" today. Please pray for our teachers and the children that will come and hear the gospel message presented each day. Also, please pray for our family. Lisa, Lacy, and Alia are recovering from some type of stomach virus. And Noah is battling conjunctivitis - we got one eye cleared up and the other became infected! Please pray for restored health so we can focus on our VBS!

Additionally, our four months of house-sitting are almost over and we will be moving to our new home soon. House hunting was a very cultural experience for us! We learned a lot about homes in Mexico. We were able to find a small 4-bedroom house for $3000 pesos/month (roughly $300 US). We learned that when renting a house in Mexico it literally comes BARE! No cabinets, no stove, no counters, no toilet seats (!!!) , no closets.

Upstairs bathroom - note no toilet seats!! It is also common in Mexico to have no shower curtains/door. The shower is just part of the room.


Downstairs ½ bath

Kitchen


While we have been blessed to live in partially furnished apartments/houses for our first year in Mexico, we will now need to furnish our own house. We brought our futon, tables, chairs, bookshelves, and fridge that we purchased last fall in Tlaxiaco with us but we will need to buy a stove, beds, dressers, a washing machine, among other household necessities (- like toilet seats!!) We figure the cost for everything to be roughly $2200. We are asking for your help to raise these needed funds to furnish our home. You may send donations to:

Commission to Every Nation
PO Box 291307
Kerrville, TX 78029-1307

Once again, we thank you for your support, prayers and encouragement. We are blessed to have you on this journey with us!

For His Glory,
Carl, Lisa, Lacy, Alia, Noah, and Molly

Summer in Oaxaca

Hello Everyone,

Hope everyone had a fun and safe 4th of July! It was a definite reminder that we are in another country - we had to find some fireworks on the internet to watch!!

We enjoyed our visit with Lisa's parents. We had a chance to play "tourist" and visited a mineral water springs. The water is highly mineralized and effervesent and so appears to be boiling but is actually quite cool and refreshing!

Pictured are mineral formations that look like petrified cascades.

The kids enjoyed the water!!

We also took Lisa's parents to visit Tlaxiaco. We were able to return to Campo de Aviacion with blankets donated by Redeemer Lutheran Church in Bradenton. We held a fundraiser with the blankets and donated all the money back to the community for improvements.

¿Pan de mango? (Mango Bread!)

Lisa and her mom packing a basket of mango bread and banana bread to sell to people in the community. 10 pesos a loaf! A great way to meet people and practice Spanish!!

A refreshing treat from the heat - A trip to the local pool!

One of our students from our Saturday Kid's Club Bible Study invited us to her school to watch a dance performance she was in! It was beautiful!

Lacy and Alia with Xquenda

We are planning a VBS for our community, Aug. 4-8. Thank you for your prayers as we plan and staff the event. The Children's Ministry at The Bridge Church in Bradenton is partnering with us for this VBS by sending craft supplies. We are so thankful for this blessing!!

Preparing home-baked cookies and tracts for street evangelism. We passed out 25 packets this day. Please pray for those who received them.

Thank you so much for all your prayers and support! We love hearing from you all and staying connected with you! You are in our prayers!

For His Glory,

Carl, Lisa, Lacy, Alia, Noah and Molly

Relationships!

God is always teaching us - we need only to stop and listen to what He is saying. During the month of May God has been showing us the importance of relationships. "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will - to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves." (Ephesians 1:4-6) In Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren states, "Because God is love, he treasures relationships. His very nature is relational, and he identifies himself in family terms; Father, Son, and the Spirit." We were created for relationships!

Lisa has been meeting with a friend, Dulce, once a week to practice language. Dulce practices English while Lisa works on Spanish. They have begun using the bible as their textbook to practice pronunciation. Please be in prayer that God will open the door for Dulce and her husband to begin to study the bible with us.

Kid's Club is continuing to attract new children. The kids are enjoying role playing, games, and other activities to learn bible stories. Several children have already earned surprises for memorizing 5 bible verses! We are feeling more confident each week teaching the stories and playing games in Spanish.

Playing games - Which cup is Rebekah hiding in?

Lacy telling the story of the search for Isaac's wife

- from the point of view of the camel!!

Story Time!

Lacy, Alia, and Noah have completed their school year. They are now enjoying spending more time with their new friends. Lacy and Alia continue to amaze us with their mastery of Spanish. (We think they have surpassed us!) Noah has met two little boys around his age. The three of them immensely enjoy Kid's Club together - they'll even participate in the activities when we can actually catch them!! The game of chase definitely crosses cultures!!

Basketball in our driveway.

A picnic with friends!

Molly and Gracia!

Carl is continuing to improve his Spanish by meeting with Porfirio, our friend who is a pastor here. Carl is also opening the church service each week with a welcome, bible passage, and prayer in Spanish.

We are enjoying visiting with Lisa's parents this month. We are busy introducing them to our friends, new foods, and Spanish! Lacy, Alia, Noah, and Molly are enjoying Grammy and Papa being here!

Thank you for all your prayers and support! "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" 1 John 3:1

For His Glory,

Carl, Lisa, Lacy, Alia, Noah and Molly