Single Mother Group Learning to make “Fomy” Flowers

One of the single mother groups is busy making flowers out of craft foam….they call it “fomy” here.  They are pitching in to buy the forms which form the petals.  A donor is providing the wire stems.  Anyone interested in sending these ladies sheets of craft foam of all colors, and floral tape, and boxes of bic stic pens? From this initial donor assistance, the ladies will sell their handiwork and replenish their supply fund and provide items for the church and church sales.  They will also know how to make these flowers to sell themselves.  Let me know if you or your group would like to help this single mothers group out.  Email me and I will give you the address to mail the items to us for delivery.  mgsalomon@gmail.com

This is how it works!

We have been working with community groups for about 2 years now and we continue to get new requests to collaborate with new groups throughout the city.  One of those groups is close to an area served by one of our newer Lutheran mission churches called Lilly of the Valley.  They were hosting a workshop for women and Tere invited her single mother’s group to the workshop.  Tere has been working with these women for a time now and they know and trust her.  They were delighted to receive the invitation and went.  What a wonderful workshop they had.  The women learned about God and their role as women.  They worshipped and enjoyed hearing the pastor’s wife sing (she has a beautiful voice). For them it was a special day focused on them as women (something rare done)….and they felt special.

Lilly of the Valley’s partner church who helped them host the event brought, among other things, supplies for the women to do craft items…….yarn, embroidery floss, fabric, etc.  The women will learn how to do craft items which will help them supplement their income!  Workshops of craft and sewing are already scheduled for Fridays at the Lilly of the Valley Lutheran Church!  This is exactly how these community groups should be working – as a place to serve people and create relational bridges and then be the bridge to the church and a life of growing to learn more about God and how much he loves and treasures each one of us!

4 hour border wait last week…..

Yes, I got caught in major traffic last week when the border was closed and it took me 4 hours to cross the border going an alternate route at a snail’s pace!  I have had lots of questions….here is a news article about what happened.

Article from the Huffington Post

No space wasted….

In the CPTLN Community Center Miriam and Mareli we are leaving no space wasted.  We think this two story storeroom is very cool!  We are storing quilts and knit hats here, school supplies, evangelism booklets, and other items above this little bathroom tucked into the stairwell.

Joel found us!

A gentleman named Joel came into our office this week with an old, tattered copy of a booklet we published about 6 years ago called “Como Superarse en la Vida.” (How to Better Your Life) He asked very tentatively, “Does this booklet come from here?”  Jhoselyn our receptionist said, “Yes!”  He was overjoyed because he said he had been searching for us for years!  The booklet had our old address here in the same plaza and we left this plaza about 3 1/2 years ago before returning a year ago.  He told the story of finding the booklet in a shopping center many years ago.  He picked it up and read it and enjoyed it very much and has read it untold times since.  He tried to find us but we were no longer at the same address listed on the inside cover of the booklet.  Of and on, he would look and ask around.  During this most recent and renewed search, he asked around and someone told him we were located here in this shopping center.  He was delighted to actually see in person the other booklets he had seen only on the back cover of his single booklet.  When Jhoselyn saw that his copy of the booklet was so tattered, she offered him a new one.  He said no….this one stays with him.  So she just put a new sticker on the booklet so he would not forget where we are located.  He poured over the stand of booklets and very carefully chose two new titles.  His search was over and he promised to visit soon and often!

Humbled

Four years ago one of the lay ministers we work with began meeting nightly with a large family. One of the brothers had been kidnapped and they were certain he would be killed. They met together for more than 70 days to plead before God for his release. During these days they learned about the heart of God.  The brother was miraculously released.  They have continued to meet and now pray for other families of kidnapped victims.  They are know as a house of prayer and people call them to ask for their prayers on behalf of their loved ones.  Every several months over the last couple of years, Pastor Lutz and I visit the family and we celebrate Holy Communion.

We went tonight.  Every time the Lord shows me something very important.  We are studying on the topic of Sanctification using the Good News magazine.  We are spending 3 whole days on the issue which is packed with important Lutheran Christian teaching on the subject.  The sanctified life…..it takes a life time to live it…..it takes a life time to understand it.

I am humbled by the sanctified life I see in the lives of the people of this home church.  I learn by being in their presence during prayer.  1.  First, they stand and pray with hands held…..and they pray for about 1 1/2 hours.  The matriarch who is more than a decade older than I am  (and bore 9 children!) doesn’t shift around as much as I do!   Man, it makes me realize my prayer time is pretty cushy and soft.  Get together with a prayer partner and try standing and holding hands and praying for 1 1/2 hours…you will know what I mean.  2.  I love how in prayer they recall all the details of their ordeal and trial.  How their brother was in the mouth of the lion, pierced and at the brink of death and how God stretched out his powerful right hand and rescued him.  How they were suffering and He heard their plea for help and mercy, etc.  They recall their ordeal and God’s rescue in such detail, it feels like they are talking about yesterday.  Anyone new is brought right into their saga and hears about a God of rescue and power!  3.  I am bowled over by their mercy.  They pray as much for the kidnappers as the kidnapped and pray for the families of the kidnappers as much as the families of the kidnapped victims.  You would expect language that would ask God to settle accounts, to stop them, to punish them, to take the vengance that rightly belongs to Him as God.  Instead I heard, “Powerful and loving God have mercy on the kidnappers…..AS YOU HAVE HAD mercy on US.  Change their hearts of stone to flesh AS YOU DID FOR US.  Rescue them AS YOU RESCUED US.”  What?  They are putting the kindappers and kidnapped victims in the same basket!  Wow.  That kind of grace knocks me off my feet.

We celebrated Holy Communion after the extended prayer time.  What was on hand was sliced white bread and wine, served in little juice glasses.  The simple, common everyday elements made a holy and perfect offering.  The sanctified life….offering ourselves (the common elements that we are) and God making out of us a holy offering…….every day.  One of the brothers tonight commented on what is important in our lives…..”it is humbling ourself before God because He is perfect and good.”  Amen.

New Lutheran Religious Association

We have established a working relationship with a new Lutheran Religious Association and are delighted to be useful for this new ministry.  They are pastors we have worked with in the past but now as a newly organized Mexican denomination, we have a new relationship! 

They have much work to do.  In addition to providing outreach and evangelism materials, we can be useful in providing some books that will help them train and prepared new workers.  On their wish list are books from CPH.  If you would like to participate in providing good theological books for these pastors, please let me know. From a recent donation, I have committed to providing Bibles and Small Catechisms.  I have arranged for a complete set of commentaries for the pastors in a special offer through the Wisconsin Synod for $51. I have ordered four sets but if you would like to assist in providing a set of commentaries for pastors on the border, let me know also.  You can email me at mgsalomon@gmail.com

Pray for the work of this new Lutheran Association in Mexico as they work to make Jesus known throughout Tijuana and in many other areas of Mexico, as the Lord directs.  We are happy to partner with them in ways that support their ministries.

COREL for publications

Does anyone have a copy of COREL which is used to design publications that they no longer use and can donate to us?  Maybe you know someone who can help.  This is especially useful in the publishing of the PROYECTO JOEL newsletters which take several days to design and write.  Legna could utilize time when she is not in the office, to work on the newsletter if she had this software on her laptop.

Get to word out and let me know if something surfaces. Thank you so much!

Pray for us.

It is pretty obvious that we are in the middle of a spiritual battle today.  We had planned a morning of prayer, devotion to get us to another level today as part of our individual spiritual growth and the growth of our ministry.  I asked Pastor Lutz who has become a kind of Father Confessor to us (and to me) to lead us through this time of seeking and preparing.  Not only that but we also came prepared to visit a home group to serve The Lord’s Supper.  This was a group that grew out of the outreach to kidnapped victims and their families. That will take us well into the evening hours tonight.

We arrive at the office this morning and first off, we find there is no water. A water main broke and is being repaired. I have no idea how long that will take.

Then Tere and her husband come in with boxes of materials we needed to distribute to some of the pastors who are coming for a class on Sanctification today at 2pm.  A man had come in earlier asking for Tere and looking for work and he met them as they were coming in and offered to help.  Tere put some boxes down and a case with her wallet and went for other boxes. When she came back no wallet and no helper!  She had just been to the bank!  Not too much was lost but the morning became about reporting to the bank and the administrative office here in the plaza, and cancelling her card, her electoral card, etc.

Then we got a phone call from one of our pastors….the one that leads our study class…..he is very, very ill with a severe bronchitis!

We now move into our time of confession and prayer and study and pleading before God.  Pray with us. Pray for us.  Pray us through the rest of this long day.

Jesus is victorious and with him we win too. That is all we need to know.

Independence Day in Mexico

Here in Mexico celebrations begin early and extend beyond the appointed day.  Here in Mexico the celebrating of independence began last weekend and will continue into the next weekend.  When I was driving in I was wondering why there was so much traffic coming into Tijuana…..it wasn’t until I mentioned this at the office that it dawned on me…..independence day!  Already? Yes, already!