Much Has Been Accomplished

Our party last night went well. There were less people than we had for our Canadian Thanksgiving back in October (For Thanksgiving, Carolyn had counted 65 visitors + the 16 people from three missionary families.) The fellow we specifically asked you to pray for didn't come last night but another night when we would have more time to spend with him would be better anyways. We did have three new people come who we were pleased to met for the first time - contacts through a soccer club and our English classes. The Mexicans were gracious with their potluck dishes and prepared the food without chili spices "for the Canadians who aren't accustomed to that." We also had traditional Mexican homemade candies and a cake made with pinenuts. Interest was expressed to continue the English classes after Christmas. The Camrose Team arrived at our home a bit weary after all the hard work at the Retreat Center and the long van ride across the city. The Mexicans noticed that the Canadian group was tired and they headed home earlier than usual. For this reason, not everyone at the party is in our group photo but it gives you an idea. Jim, Dennis, and everyone: thank you for your prayers!

Now to show you all that has been happening at the Retreat Center. Each photo can be double-clicked to show it as a larger, full screen size. Then click the blue "back" arrow button to return to our blogpage. If you click the red "x" close button, the blog will close and you will have to start again.

The Camrose Team's main goal was to tile our two huge rooms on the second floor. This was finished days ago and since then, a lot of extra projects have been completed as well. WOW! The long room that also continues on around to the right - all tiled, grouted, scrubbed, and beautiful! I had posted a "before" picture a few days ago where you can see the concrete floor before the tiles were laid. I believe that Moises and Marcel said that 4 tons of tiles were installed! That will explain the sore backs :) In the same L-shaped room, another enormous project was finished - the ceiling paint. That is a lot of square footage to paint with an extention handle roller. Next to our chapel/dining hall, I imagine that these large rooms will be the next most used for indoor activities during the afternoon rains that come each summer. Thank you!!

You would think that they had had enough tiling but they just kept going and also tiled our large stairwell steps. These are the main stairs to access the second floor for the entire building. (We will be installing a metal spiral staircase to use for emergencies at the far end of the building.) This photo shows one of the two flights of stairs. Between visiting the pyramids and carrying tiles to the second floor, these Canadians have climbed a lot of stairs during their trip to Mexico!

All the "oatmeal" color trim work around the second store windows was painted. This, again, was on the exterior of the newly tiled rooms, two large rooms that form an L shape. It is the bottom left hand area of this map. (It can't be read without double-clicking to enlarge.)



Moises' sister, Olga, cooks for the team during the week and is helped by the Camrose ladies. They have had several Mexican dishes and also some familiar ones like hamburgers and fries.

On the first floor, each of our eight couples/families rooms had the plumbing secured to the wall and painted.

During this past week, a Mexican builder has been constructing some public washrooms. As they are so new, the washrooms aren't on my little map yet but are located between the archway in the wall and the dormitory building on the side of the yard that has the fountain. This will help us when there are Mexican construction workers that we have hired to install windows or build the cistern. Rather than using a washroom inside the house, they can use this separate washroom and we will have less cleaning to do. We will also use these washrooms when people are using the chapel/dining hall or playing games outside. Again, less feet walking in and out of the house. In the photo, I see new tiles on the washroom building roof. This is to prevent leaking through the concrete roof during rainy season.

The exterior of the one room "guest speaker" house was also painted. The cistern got a matching coat of terracota paint as well.


Finally, some special swimming pool paint was purchased, not for our swimming pool - we don't have one! - but to line the inside of our beautiful fountain.

Today the team has gone a few different directions. The Ruizes have taken some people to a local soccer game, I think played by teenaged boys. Sadly, the Ruiz boys did not have any soccer games scheduled this weekend. Unusual. Some other team members are spending the afternoon relaxing at the Ruiz's house and watching some English television with Spanish commercials. My girls and I have been cleaning up from the party and will go grocery shopping. The rest of the team went downtown with Marcel and Alejandro to visit the free zoo and the Anthropology Museum that are both located in a gigantic park. They may also visit a castle if they have time.

Please Pray for Effective Outreach

Tomorrow night (Friday), the Mitchells will be hosting an "End-of-the-English-Class-Semester Party". At our last get-together to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving, we invited all of our contacts and ended up with a house full of 50 people! We are hoping for an equal number of people, if not more. Please pray especially for one person who is recently thinking about spiritual things and has questions. We are so grateful to have the Camrose Team coming to our home to help provide opportunities to practise English conversation. Many Mexicans in our area have studied English but don't have many chances to speak to English speakers. They want to hang on to everything that they have learned in English and are excited about this coming party and opportunity for conversation.
The photos I've posted are of the following: Photo 1) A beautiful building in a small alley near the Basilica of the Virgin Guadalupe. We are thinking of modeling our exterior paint color scheme at the Retreat Center after this handsome building. Photo 2) Our kitchen. It was renovated a few years ago and is beautiful but small when we are having a full camp during the summer. We have another kitchen in the new dormitory building but it is an empty room with plumbing roughed in. The cooks amaze me with how they prepare meals in our current kitchen with just this one regular sized fridge, a regular sized stove, and a couple extra burners outside the kitchen for the largest pots. The gentleman in the photo is Jim Crozier from Camp Caroline. He was here a couple weeks ago to advise us on how to run a camp/retreat center facility. Photo 3) I understand that tomorrow, the Camrose Team will be painting the exterior of this small building. It is a tiny house, just one bedroom with an attached bathroom. I believe that it was intended to be the maid's quarters when the Retreat Center had previously belonged to another owner. We have been using this room for our guest speakers to enjoy a bit of extra quiet a couple steps away from the main house. Photo 4) English classes on a night with only a few people attending. After the Spanish bible study, we finished the evening with a cake in celebration of one of the ladies' birthdays. These people and their friends and families will come to our Matthew Party tomorrow night. A Matthew Party is when Christian and non-Christians get together and God provides opportunities for the non-Christians to discuss spiritual things with the Christians in an informal way. This is an important part of church planting - building relationships with our neighbors. I'm especially hoping that my one neighbor brings her son again. At Thanksgiving, we were careful that he was included. He had lots of fun with the teens who were hanging out on our patio but was too shy to come into the house to get some food! We'll be watching for him so he won't be leaving hungry again:)

Where Are We?

Ever been on a tour and wondered, "Where are we? I'd love to see where all these places we are visiting are located on a map!" Well, here you go! 1) In the northeast of Mexico City is where you will find "The Lily of the Valley Retreat Center" in the town of Acolman, Mexico State. Acolman is on the outskirts of Mexico City and about 15 minutes away from the pyramids. 2) The Pyramids of Teotihuacan (teh-oh-tee-whah-CAN) are also in the State of Mexico near the town of San Juan Teotihuacan. 3) Iglesia Biblica Cristo Vive (Christ Lives Bible Church) is in the northeast Mexico City suburb of Ecatepec. Population of this city suburb: 3 million. Christ Lives Bible Church just recently celebrated their 12th anniversary! 4) For our current church plant, we are targeting an area on the edge of the suburb city of Atizapan de Zaragoza located in the northwest of Mexico City. There are another 2 million people in this suburb. We are making contacts with families near the southwest side of the lake you can see on the map, the Lago de Guadalupe (Guadalupe Lake). This is the area where both the Ruizes and the Mitchells live.

This coming weekend, the Camrose Team will come across the north side of Mexico City to Atizapan de Zaragoza. The Retreat Center and our Church Plant appear close on the map but those 45 miles will take at least an hour and a half to drive:) Our plans for the coming weekend: 1) a Friday evening party with our English class students where they can practise their conversation skills with some Canadians 3) on Saturday, a prayer walk and either a day trip in this area or time to just relax 4) on Sunday, participation in our small church service in our home.

Monday morning, the group returns to Acolman to do some more construction projects at the Retreat Center.

Hosting the Camrose Alberta Canada Team

The Century Meadows Baptist Church team from Camrose, Alberta, Canada have arrived safely and got right to work! After working extremely hard for three days, they set off on their two tourist days. Saturday was spent in El Centro: downtown Mexico City. They saw many things: the Bascilica of the Virgin Guadalupe (the large Catholic Church honoring Mexico's Virgin Mary figure), the Ciudadela de Artesanias (Artisans Craft Market), the Casa de Azulejos (House of Tiles), the Zocalo (the main square in downtown Mexico City), and the Metropolitan Cathedral. Rest was provided while waiting in traffic during the short-distance-but-long-time-spent trip back to the Retreat Center. Sunday brought shorter distances to travel. Igelsia Biblica Cristo Vive (Christ Lives Bible Church) was where the group worshipped with fellow Mexican Christians. Two members of the team shared their testimonies with the congregation. The preacher was animated and gave an empassioned hour and 10 minute long sermon, all in Spanish! Then we had tortas for lunch (similar to submarine sandwiches) and were off to spend the afternoon at the nearby Pyramids of Teotihuacan. The Pyramid of the Sun provides 248 steps of varying sizes to climb. The Pyramid of the Moon is built on a higher elevation and though it is smaller than the Pyramid of the Sun, the tops of both pyramids are the same altitude. What engineering! Today the group set back to work. The photos displayed above: 1) triumph on the Pyramid of the Moon with the Pyramid of the Sun in the background 2) group photo [one gentleman not in the photo] 3) admiring the Metropolitan Cathedral 4) the "before" photo of the enormous room that this team has applied 4 tons of tiles to. Today, they will apply the grout between the tiles. 5) the building where this large room is located in on the second floor. It will be our indoor games room which will be well used during the summer rainy season months! We are also delighted to have all of the toilet plumbing replaced. This coming summer, one faulty continuously filling toilet tank is NOT going to rob us of all our water in the cistern and leave us with 75 people and no water! We are so grateful and pleased by the quality and quantity of work that has all ready been accomplished. We are so blessed to have brothers and sisters in Christ from another country (in this case, Canada) who are so generous with their time, money, and hard work. The dream of a fruitful ministry at the Retreat Center grows as each construction project is completed!