What Are We Going To Be Doing?

On the map to the right you can see where the city of Cuauhtemoc is in relation to Chihuahua city and El Paso Texas. From 1993-96 I lived in Chihuahua city doing church planting and youth work. I am reasonably familiar with the surrounding area, including where we will be living now in Cuauhtemoc.

Many people are aware that there are a lot of low German speaking Mennonites who live near Cuauhtemoc and assume we will be working with them. While we will be connecting with some of them during our time down there, our work will not be with them directly but rather with the Mexican people.

The work required of us while we are down there includes taking over responsibilities that are left from the missionary lady we are replacing while she comes back to Canada for a time of rest and reporting, often referred to as furlough. We will live in her house and work in the church she was a part of.

Sandy will continue homeschooling the children (Olivia - Kindergarten, Caleb - Grade One, Andrew - Grade Three). While this is not a burden to her, doing this in a new country with less support then we are used to will be an added challenge. We are also looking for someone to come into our home a day or two a week to provide some tutoring for her as she feels the need to brush up on her Spanish as well. Pray that we would find someone, perhaps from the neighbourhood, who would be able to do that for us.

I (Gerald) will also be teaching during the last Saturday of every month at the Saturday Bible Institute that our mission is involved in. This means preparing material for two 3-hour classes (the book of Ephesians and our Conference Statement of Faith) each Saturday and then also preparing a pile of homework to send with the students who have 4 weeks to work on before the next class. All of this, of course, is in Spanish, which I know will need lots of brushing up also.

Beyond that we will be connecting with many of the pastors and leaders in our mission churches as well as lots of dialogue to determine their needs and outreach needs for future missionary teams to become involved in.

All in all it looks to be a fairly intense five months but also filled with tons of opportunities for our family to get to know a new culture, trust and depend upon the Lord, grow in unity as a family, and discover our gifts as we serve as a family.

With Thanksgiving!