2 Year Anniversary of the Soup Kitchen

Last Saturday we celebrated the 2 year anniversary of the soup kitchen in the Rio! It was a fantastic day filled with good food, fun, and fellowship. The comedor was packed out with people! We had worship, preaching, prayer time, children's church, slide show, and yummy arrachera!

The comedor filled with faces as we worshiped the Lord and thanked Him for the ministry in that place over the past 2 years.

I mainly help out with the children's ministry during soup kitchen Saturdays. Sticking with our theme of the fruit of the Spirit the children are doing an activity with a story that illustrates faith.

We had over 50 kids come to the class. Usually we plan for about 30. Here they are working on a craft about faith.

After the preaching and children's classes we all gathered together for an arrachera meal. It was delicious! Arrachera is a special meat that has been marinated and then grilled. It is sooo good. It was so fun to provide this meal for these people as it is typically expensive and not affordable by many of the families we serve. We also gave out elotes! Elotes are corn on the cob that have been boiled and coated with chili and mayonnaise. It is a Mexican favorite and often is preferred as a dessert of sorts.

Our great grillers who worked for hours to prepare the meat for us to eat.

Thanks to everyone who has helped support the soup kitchen financially and prayerfully over the past 2 years. God is moving and doing great things in that community. We are privileged to celebrate 2 years of ministry and thank all who have played a part. Blessings to you!

SMCA Olympic Day

In honor of our completion of a unit on Ancient Greece my students participated in an Ancient Greek Olympic day. In our 8 week unit we studied the ins and outs of ancient Greek life, culture, wars, conquerers, and of course the Olympics :) Each student (and parents) came dressed in traditional Greek costume. Although the Ancient Greeks would have participated in the nude, we decided to make an exception for our Olympics and allow contestants to wear traditional clothes :)

Here we are all dressed and ready for a day at the Greek Olympics.

Throughout our studies we learned about Greek drama and how for many drama was also a competition. My students rewrote several of Aesop's fables in play form, created masks like the Greeks would have had, and performed for the parents before the athletic competition. Here are 2 students performing, "The Lion and the Mouse."

After the opening ceremonies (complete with the 21st century Olympic soundtrack!) the students were split into teams to compete.

We had 4 stations that the students rotated through to compete. Here is Chloe with the Shot Put.

Corinna demonstrates how to throw a javelin.

Jake about to compete with the discus.

We also had long distance races. Here Cami and Mark are neck in neck for first place.

2 teams ready for the relay races!

At the end of the competition each student was awarded a certificate and a laurel wreath as the national anthem played.

Many of you know this, but I will say it again... I love my job!!!! This year teaching social studies and science has been such a pleasure. I have wonderful students, wonderful co-teachers, and wonderful parents. We are about to launch into a unit on Ancient Rome so stay tuned.... :)

Prayer...

Prayer. Wow!... Since I came back to Monterrey in August, God has done a life changing work in me. He has captured my heart with prayer and intercession for His people like never before. Never before in my life I have I felt the burden to pray as I do now. I grew up going to all sorts of prayer meetings and conferences but have never before delighted in prayer as I do now :) Starting back in September I felt the leading of the Lord to have an intercessory prayer time once a week for the B2B staff and whoever else was interested. A few of us began meeting early in the morning on Wednesdays to seek the Lord and lift up the ministry. As I started praying regularly with other believers I found that my desire and passion for prayer begin to grow. The Lord has been opening my eyes to the power of prayer in the heavenlies... and more than that, He has caused my heart to absolutely DELIGHT in it! I feel like I can't pray enough! We switched our prayer times to Tuesdays from 11am-12pm (Monterrey time) so more people could come. I've been so encouraged to see more of our staff show up to the prayer times and passionately cry out to the Lord. It has been so good! I am still feeling the draw to pray and intercede and would like to start a second weekly prayer gathering.

In our intercessory prayer times we pray about a variety of topics, really anything God lays on our hearts. Typically we find He leads us to intercede for our spiritual health as staff, ministry areas, the teens who are apart of our HOPE Program, and for God's revival to come in our midst. Recently many of us have been sensing a new move of God on the horizon... our prayer has been more focused on revival and for the teens on our campus. I know that God's heart is after our staff and these teens! I desire so badly to see more of the Lord come and ignite hearts. We are praying for hunger... and more of it! Praying for our hearts to not be satisfied with anything less than Him and ALL of Him! ... the cool thing is that we are beginning to see it. Praise God! Over the past 2 months many of our staff have had meaningful encounters with the Lord... some have been fasting, some being set free from long time bondage, some experiencing parts of the Lord they had never experienced before. In our teens as well we are seeing hunger brew and grow. Last night I was privileged to stumble upon a group of teens in the night worshiping and crying out to the Lord for more of Himself. They were hungry. They were not going to be easily satisfied. As I participated in the worship I felt so encouraged! Here come the answers to our prayers! I feel like the Lord gave me just a quick glimpse in the physical realm of what He is doing spiritually.... it's coming folks! Are we ready?

I would like to encouraged all of you to join with us in prayer and intercession for what God wants to do in B2B Mexico. Feel free to join us from afar on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11am-12pm (central time) or join with us any time in prayer. We would love for you to participate in the move of God here in Monterrey.

"If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."

- 2 Chron. 7:14

These are just a few photos of how we have felt led to take our prayer and intercession out to our ministry areas.

Praying over a mom and her twin girls in the Rio.

Prayer walk in the Rio.

A team of intercessors from Cincinnati came down to join us in prayer at the Rio and in the children's homes.

A group of children from Cincinnati praying for a child in the Rio with a terminal disease.

Visit From Friends

I was blessed last week to have Ryan and Jody Massey come visit! Ryan was my youth pastor in Oxford years ago and then he and his wife moved to Monterrey to be on staff with B2B. After 4 years in Mexico they felt called to a church in Dayton, OH. This past week they led a group of adults from their church in Dayton down to Monterrey on a mission trip. It was fantastic to see them and spend some quality time hanging out! With their team we worked in several bathrooms in children's homes, went ice skating with the kids from ERJ, and went to a Christian concert in a Rio type area. One of the Massey's last nights here we went out on the town for some BBQ Wings! Yum! Here are a few pics from a night out with them.

Ryan and Jody Massey!

Here we are out to dinner at a favorite wings place!

Here we are again... not so normal :)

Fruit of the Spirit

During Christmas break the Mexican church that supports the soup kitchen in the Rio decided to take a break for a season and invest in other areas of their church ministry. For a year and a half this church supported the soup kitchen with weekly groceries, Bible teaching, donations, and children's ministry. With them gone we knew their would be some gaps to fill. Cathy Huffer and I, the B2B ministers to the Rio, began praying that God would send His provision for these needs. We had no direct funding for the soup kitchen for the next few Saturdays but somehow God provided and we were able to serve a hot meal each week. This really caused us to trust and as a result was a huge faith builder for all of us. Soon we were told that some stateside donors had directed some money to the soup kitchen! Praise God! Each week God provides with more than enough.

Along with financial provision we also needed to see God provide spiritual provision for the soup kitchen. A friend of Meme's who is a pastor and likewise lives in a Rio-type community has been preaching the word of God each week. Praise Jesus! After prayer I felt led to help organize the children's ministry on Saturdays feeling like we needed to study the Holy Spirit with the kids focusing on the Fruit of the Spirit. This was confirmed to me by several others and we began preparing and teaching the classes each week. After introducing who the Holy Spirit is to the kids and how to have a relationship with Him, we began to target a different fruit each week. We have now done 4 fruits and we are teaching the 5th this Saturday - kindness.

I have taught children about the fruit of the spirit before, but never in Spanish. The Lord has really asked me (and helped me) step up to the plate with Spanish. Each week we practice Galatians 5: 22-23 with sign language. Then we review from the previous weeks and the kids share about their homework- usually an example of how they showed that particular fruit that week. Then we begin on the new lesson. We try to have a Bible story that illustrates each fruit of the spirit and an activity to go with it... whether it is a game involving patience or a craft of making valentines to show someone we love them. The kids love our class time!!! And honestly I DO TOO! I love that I am able to use my teaching gifts with the children I love so dearly. Each week it seems our numbers in the children's ministry are growing. I used to prepare lessons for 25 and now am preparing for 35! Praise Jesus!

Another cool thing that God is doing is raising up some of the teens on our property to minister to the children of the Rio. We have been trying to involved the teens as much as we can and as much as they are interested. While I can get through a lesson in Spanish it is so much easier (and empowering) for our teens to take the reigns. Often I prepare the lesson and let them teach it. It is beautiful to see our teens who have each come from a hurtful background pouring out and ministering to the Rio children. They do an AWESOME job and the kids absolutely love them. Please continue to pray for the Saturday soup kitchen at the Rio!

Here I am teaching the Bible verse to the children.

Some of the teens on our property teaching a lesson about Christ. These three have either graduated from the Hope Program or are currently in it. They do a great job!

Rio girls doing an activity with a Scripture verse.