Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way. - Colossians 3:17(MSG)
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| With all the HEAT, water fun has kept our kids entertained these past few months! |
From time to time, someone will ask what a typical week looks like for us. This month I thought I'd make an attempt to provide a glance :) For one, to highlight our humanity, two, to encourage, and three, so you'll have insight in how to pray.
Week days: kids are in school, so we're up at or before 6:30 getting them dressed and breakfasted to leave by sevenish. School's about 20 minutes away. Usually, Xau drops off, I pick up. Instead of date night, he and I do breakfast once a week.
For me, Anna, the rest of the mornings are a mix of housekeeping/food prep and office work, until I leave to get kids (2pm release). Xau's mornings may include a run, taking his mom to doctor's appointments, office time, and occasionally work at the Crece site.
After school, we're intentionally generally home with the kids - alternating in playing with/watching them, doing chores, finishing ministry projects, getting lunches packed and uniforms ready. The exception is Thursday - Bible study night at Crece.
What do we do for fun? A trip to the ice cream shop, going to a movie, outings to the park, visiting Xau's parents or some friends, popcorn and a movie at home...and for a day trip: there's always something to do downtown, plus, Six Flags amusement park is just down the road.
Weekends: Sundays are "church day," and Saturdays are often "Kids' club day" or "training day" (trainings we give at churches for children's workers). It really IS most of the day, taking into account getting there and back. (Sundays we leave at nine and normally get home between four and five.) Since we don't want our kiddos to feel like they're being dragged around all the time, I'll often stay home with them on Saturday and/or Thursday.
Since we don't have many Saturdays free together, we try to take sabbath on Monday or Friday.
Break for pictures from this month:
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Crece youth group happens once a month, plus they can log-on any Wednesday evening for a video-call devo time
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A Sunday outreach event at a different church in the same region of Ecatepec
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| Xau loving on the little ones as usual - bringing milk and cookies before Sunday school. Praise God we've been seeing more kids Sunday mornings - praying and working on having equipped teachers for that space as well. |
That's the general rundown.
For the micro, here's a bit about last Thursday's visit to Crece:
Having just finished after-school lunch, and prepped the pajamas bag, we left at 3:40pm to drop the kids off at Pris' (babysitter) apartment. Then the hour trip to IKEA, where we ran in to buy a crib for a new-born on the way. From there we picked up Jocelyn (one of our young volunteers) on the way to Tulpetlac (neighborhood where the church plant is). To make the most of the 30 min. drive, I proposed to Joce the possibility of her heading up the pre-teen group...
By the time we arrived at the location Valeria had sent me, it was 6:10. Vale is a young local who started coming to church and to help at Twist Kids' club at the beginning of 2023. Then there was a lapse we didn't see her much, but she reached out to us in the fall because she wanted to celebrate her 18th birthday with a cake at church.
Shortly thereafter, she broke the news that she was expecting to our youth leader (and to us). Throughout her pregnancy, she's come to many of the youth group meetings and sometimes to Twist. This was now was her 39th week. Her partner, Jesús, helped us unload the box from the trunk, and they invited us in. As in many, many homes in Mexico, this is where the whole family lives: his parents, Grandpa, his younger brother, and the two of them, soon to be three.
After some chit-chat over general nerves of delivery, we said a few words of encouragement and prayed over them. Then, as customary, we said our goodbyes to each member of the family, and headed to church to be there before Bible study at 7pm.
That's the first half of the evening... 😅 To sum up the rest, while Xau taught, I had about three counseling sessions, then said hi - bye to everyone, got taxis for some, and took others home all to get back to our house by 10:30.
Vale delivered baby girl, Matilde, on Sunday evening! Vale is now home, but Matilde is still in the hospital 😟 We don't know exactly what her diagnosis is, but please, please pray for her - that she can come home as soon as possible.
Thank you so much for hanging with me and reading through this! It's helps me process just writing this.
(A few more shots:)
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One of our Wednesday evenings (usually every two or three weeks) of discipleship with our neighbors Ciro and Angela.
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| 7:30 am Liam eager to get into school |
I hope something from this was encouraging to your heart, leaves you a Word to pray for, and just gives a clearer idea of what's behind some of these pictures. Blessings over each of you! Just to know you are there for us, praying and lifting us up to the Father is essential.
Praise the One who is our Ever-constant, Unchanging, endless Source!
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