December 2006

Happy New Year!  Like all the rest of you, our December was crazy!  It was complete with parties, lots of visitors, tons of food, and bunches of excitement.  On top of all that, we also had Nathan’s birthday, a few trips to the jungle and the usual office busy-ness.

(I think I mentioned this in last month’s newsletter…) The first 5 days of Dec. we were thrilled to have Steve Haag visiting from GA again.  While Steve was here, he and Nathan made some great progress in learning about several nearby villages that are very unreached, and they’ve been working on ideas and plans for getting out there and making some contact.  We also have gotten to know someone here who has been working as Peter and Jamie’s gardener.  He is such a kind and gentle man, but is really struggling to know what his beliefs are.  He has dipped into Jehovah’s Witness, Seventh Day Adventist, Presbyterian and Pentecostal churches… still, he is confused about what truth is, and has a lot of questions.  If Mariano happens to come to your mind, please pray that he will soon find the answers to his questions and that his heart will be open to the Truth.

Early on in the month we got an e-mail from a family in Switzerland who was interested in coming to Chiapas and having Nathan lead their tour!  We were so excited!  They arrived on the 29^th and Nathan spent the next 8 days showing them the different parts of this beautiful state that they wanted to see.  They had a great time, and Nathan is so excited about future tour clients!  Please pray that more doors like this one will open for him in the future. One client every two months would be enough to support our ministry here.

Nathan has been working on finishing the “Equipping Men” seminar. The audio is recorded and now they are just working on getting it synced to the video, and the DVD menus made. This discipleship material is greatly needed here in Mexico (and in the USA ) and we are really glad to finally have it ready. You can find out more about it at www.spiritofelijah.com/resources/equippingmen and we will have the Spanish material available soon at www.piedras-vivas.com

Also in the studio this month we had the amazing opportunity to film the testimonies of three ex-convicts. They all came to know Christ while in prison and are now working together in prison ministries. These short films should enable them to expand their ministry, and we are hoping to have the chance to work with them again in the future.

We are still helping the orphanage “Casa Hogar Canaan” and are looking forward to the day when they are ready to build their main meeting/dinning area on the property that God has provided for them. This month Nathan designed their logo and business / prayer card. By God’s design the wife of the tourist family that Nathan hosted is also the head of corporate logo design at a graphics company in Switzerland ! She was able to provide some professional advice for the project.

On Christmas Eve, Nathaan informed me of the biggest surprise ever!  Someone bought Cloe and me a plane ticket to go home on the 28th to see my family!!!  I was SO excited I could hardly sleep the next few nights!!!  We are SO incredibly grateful for this precious anonymous person who did that for us.  Then Christmas morning came and Nathan and I got another VERY exciting surprise… a positive pregnancy test!  Many of you know about all the miscarriages we’ve had over the last few years, so we are both a bit nervous about this pregnancy, but still thrilled!  Right now we’re at the 8 week mark.  Please be praying with us that this pregnancy will continue to be a strong and healthy one.  We’re trying to figure out where this baby should be born, what to do with the medical bills, and if or when we need to get back up to the States for the birth, etc.  We’ll keep you posted, and thank you in advance for your prayers. (Does anyone know a good midwife who would like a mission project??)

I was SO excited to see my family after 2 days of travel, and I got to see them a ton since the blizzard of `06 started the minute we landed.  Cloe and I had a ton of fun with them... it’s always good to see all my siblings, parents and grandparents.  It was a shorter trip than I would have liked, and there wasn’t time at all to visit many friends or our church family in Denver .  Hopefully the next trip will allow for more of that. The night before we were supposed to come back here Cloe got sick and shortly after came down with a double ear-infection.  We postponed our departure for one day so we could get her checked out and on the right medicine, but she seems to be better now!  We missed Nathan and it is wonderful to be back here with him, though he also managed to get a double ear-infection while we were gone!  Now, between their ears and my morning sickness, we’re quite a sight at times!

That’s all for December!  We’re already excited to write next month’s update, as January has already been quite eventful.  But we’ll just have to wait for next month!

We hope and pray that your holidays were blessed and safe, and that 2007 will bring wonderful things for you and your family!

Blessings, Julie (for Nathan and Cloe too)