Pastor Figur visited one of the Lutheran churches in Tijuana. Here is saying: “This is going to end up on the blog, right?”  He knows me already!

The Pastor’s wife treated us to a delicious breakfast of “picadas” which are handmade corn tortillas with beans, salsa and mexican cheese on top.

From there we toured the CPTLN DayCare and Community Center. I hadn’t been there in a while to see it’s progress.  It is one its way to being done!  From there we went to one of the community elder groups.  In this particular group about 200 senior citizens gather to provide each other with mutual support.  We visit and take a topic, read from Scripture, pray with small groups from among them about 2 times a month.  This day, we greeted them and Pastor Figur had special words of comfort and encouragement to share with them. We shared a special word of comfort with the gentleman pictured in this photo as his grandson has been kidnapped for 2 months and they still don’t have word on him. Please join us in this prayer.

Another volunteer is busy taking blood pressure and checking blood sugar.  This equipment was donated by IOWAY in one of their prior visits.

Today is a holiday in Mexico, where the Mexican Revolution is celebrated.  These children were walking to school in the afternoon to participate in a special parade and are dressed up as “Adelitas” of the REvolution.

We made our way back to the office to meet with the staff and gather together for a devotional. It was a good time to look ahead to what God might want to accomplish through us in the CPTLN ministry in Tijuana as we journey into the future.  One final surprise.  Legna had requested some design software for the preparation of her Proyecto JOEL (youth) magazine.  One special, annonymous donor purchased the COREL design software for us and Legna was delighted!

We ate together at the Casa de Mole.  Mole is a national dish in Mexico made with 100 ingredients…..with the main ingredientes being chocolate, nuts and chili!  Pastor Figur has a missionary stomach too!  He had never tried this dish but enjoyed it very much.  It was a very long but very productive day to see the work we do in communities throughout Tijuana.  Tomorrow Legna will lead and show Pastor Figur the impact Proyecto JOEL has in Tijuana.  Stay tuned…..

Pastor Figur has enjoyed learning about the mission field in Tijuana.  There is so much going on here! We took him for a hearty lobster lunch by the ocean……then we drove to Poway, California to meet the LWML Pacific Southwest District President Linda Koch and finally give a presentation about the ministry in Tijuana to the LWML ladies of Mt. Olive Lutheran Church in Poway.  It was a long but very productive day!

Here is Pastor Figur working from the CPTLN Mexico office.

Talking about ministry opportunities at lunch time in Puerto Nuevo!

It is great to sing praises to God.  Then I gave a one hour presentation of our work in Tijuana. It was a great time with the sweet ladies of Mt. Olive Lutheran Church in Poway.

We have a new Area Director for Latin American offices of Lutheran Hour. Pastor Nilo is a native of Brasil, most recently serving as a professor in the Communications Department of Concordia University Austin, Texas.  We are delighted to have his wise counsel in ministry in Mexico.  Please pray for him as he walks alongside the many servants of the Lord throughout Latin America.

Welcome Pastor Figur!

Legna, director of Proyecto JOEL/CPTLN launched a new magazine for youth of Tijuana.  This magazine enters the world of the border youth and challenges youth to think “outside the box” and join the movement of caring for God’s world, living as God’s people, being a part of the healing that God desires for their generation and for all time!

I am grateful for the Sunshine Zone of the Lutheran Laymen’s League. I was invited to give a ministry update yesterday and they established an endowment fund for the purpose of advancing ministry.  Among those they will support is the work in Tijuana.  A camp property was sold and now those funds will go to work funding work throughout the region and beyond.

I was happy to give an update of our work south of the Border.  Thank you LLL leaders for caring about those things that God cares about!

Lay missionary, Francisco, began outreach to families of kidnapped victims in Tijuana. He also takes trips twice a year to visit the Yaqui tribe, an indigenous people in the interior of Mexico.  He takes them words of encouragement and hope from God’s word and also blesses them with providing some clothing, school supplies, basic food items …. and even some packaged underwear from the “Undie Sunday” effort!

It was great to visit our supporters in the great state of Iowa.  It was warm … unusually warm for Iowa for this time of year…..and harvesting time in the corn fields.  I visited a small beautiful country church in Garner at a LLL rally organized by Ronald Bratmiller (thanks Ron!) on Saturday. 

The next day I spoke to the people of Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Denison.  They have a wonderful Kingdom focused pastor, Rev. Loeschen (I’ve probably misspelled his name…..all I remember is it rhymes with “Lotion”!…..) We then went to visit Zion Lutheran Church in Denison also.  There is a large chicken processing plant and beef slaughtering house in Denison……so, there is a hispanic congregation!  The hispanic people I talked to enjoy living in Iowa because they say it is a great place to raise their children.  I am so proud of this congregation (and district…IDW and President Sieveking) and the efforts of their pastor Rev. Vogel….that many of these hispanic children have scholarships to attend the local Lutheran school.  That blew my mind and made me so proud.  How critical this is for the raising of the next generation of hispanic leaders and pastors!  I had some great questions from one little boy (he is defintely pastor material…..I am praying!) I think I was an encouragement to them….they certainly were to me!

Everywhere we went, we traveled through beautiful corn fields……I don’t really remember where the next stop was but it was a beautiful reserve where they have a great banquet room.  There I got to see volunteers from the IOWAY group…..friends I have met throughout the last four years that Ioway groups have come to Tijuana.  About 100 people came for a reunion and talked about the work they have done together …. a special work of blessing!  Dr. Porter of the inner city Nehemiah project in Los Angeles was their speaker last year and this year it was me!  My update of the ministry in Tijuana was dotted with blessings from the IOWAY group….from new ministry starts, to daycare/community center support, to evangelism support……to the puppet ministry that started as a creative idea from the IOWAY group on how they could use a puppet to teach the children in Tijuana about dental hygiene.

It was great to be able to hang out with friends Kathryn Sprecher, former IOWA LWML District President and Lynn and Ellie Menz, who lead the IOWAY efforts….more than efforts, IOWAY is movement of God!  It is such a blessing to me to talk to people that are always thinking about how to serve others as a blessing from God and for His glory!  We are brewing up some creative and continued parnterships…..pray with us for God’s direction.

They grow tall corn and tall people in Iowa!

Jose Antonio, the son of Tere M., CPTLN staff member works through his trauma with a visual account of what happened when they were in a Burger King that was held up recently.  CPTLN friend, collaborator and therapist from one of our supporting congregations in the Pacific Northwest  who has come to Tijuana on yearly mission trips, encouraged Tere to let her son express himself as much as he could through the visual record.  He was quite prolific and sent 5 drawings.  Please pray for Jose Antonio.

In today’s paper we are told that Tijuana grows by 2 1/2 hectares every day! That’s about 6 1/2 acres!   The growth of this city has not slowed down.  This presents many challenges for Tijuana’s infrastructure and economy as well as many opportunities.  Please pray that we can leverge opportunities for the Gospel in Tijuana!

Here is a link to the Fronter newspaper which carried the article.

http://www.frontera.info/EdicionDigital/EdicionImpresa.aspx

…. this is a never ending petition, I know. Two Sunday’s ago, Legna and Jhoselyn walked into a Walmart  for just one thing before heading out to church…..the next thing they knew there were automatic weapons shot at the glass cases in the Electronics Department.  They hit the floor and thankfully the assailants left the building shortly thereafter.  We are thankful no one was hurt.

Last Saturday, after Tere took her family to help distribute school supplies to a shelter for children, little Ivan had been asking for a time to go to Burger King so the family went.  Little Ivan was enjoying the play structure that is attached to the Burger King.  Tere’s husband Sadoc got up to go to the bathroom and an young man entered with a gun.  He told Sadoc to hit the ground and pointed the weapon Tono, Tere’s 12 year old son, said he had the gun pointed directly at him.  He froze but Tere pulled her son down and they crawled under the table bench.  Tere could see little Ivan through the glass playing happily and prayed he would stay there oblivious to everything going on inside.  Tere was worrying that the assailants would collect purses (she just finished replacing her Ids and documents from when her wallet was stolen in the office a month ago)….but money was taken from the register and they were gone in just a few more minutes.  Please pray for Tere and her son who have had some physical reactions to the scare and trauma.  In that case, the weapon was not discharged and the 7 young children that were playing out in the play structure stayed there the whole time.  We are grateful no one was injured …. and that Tere got to keep her purse this time!

Tere said the gunman was about 16 or 17 and unable to communicate very clearly.  Pray for those who are lost in drug use and in the drug trade. That they may be freed from these terrible addictions and everything that seems to accompany drug addition!