Greetings from Mexico City and the Carpenters

Life continues as busy as ever and as much like a soap opera as ever.

We find ourselves busy with the life of the North Side Christian Church and with a multitude of other activities. The ICN church has become more stable and each Sunday it is a joy to be a part of the worship and fellowship. The first Sunday of each month the provisional council meets to discuss items and make decisions. The other three Sundays of each month the men on the council meet with Vic De Leon for leadership training and the women meet together to discuss the women’s ministry. The worship team has grown from four to eight. The children’s Sunday school and the youth group have moved into the new Sunday school facility behind the “house” and are now involved in painting their respective rooms. Although we are working our way through Acts in our sermons we took a break this past Sunday for Steve to preach on the place of tithes and offerings in the life of the believer and in the life of the church. Hopefully this will help the finances of the congregation become a little more stable as well.

We welcomed three Reach Summer Interns to Mexico this week and already they are involved on several levels. Their first days in Mexico Sidney, Kristi and Shayla went shopping for groceries, paint, paint rollers and brushes and a bunch of different colors of paint. The children’s room shall be complete with painted grass, animals and many colors! They have also met with Elizabeth, their Spanish teacher and gotten started on their Spanish lessons.

We have been involved in a couple Bible studies, one in a small one room pharmacy, and many other activities. Steve has picked out the songs for the Sunday services and led the worship practices. After many weeks of looking for a person to make the canopies for the Church in a Box Steve finally found who he thought was the right person. But after not hearing from the individual and not receiving a quote for the work we are wondering if this is the right person or not. Time will tell. Well, how about that. Steve just went by the canopy business and they say they are working on it, just had some employee problems. Hmmm, again, time will tell.

Thank you for your prayers. We need them. Whether we are aware of them at the moment or not, we know they are there supporting us and raising us up before the Lord.

We are flying to Oregon on Sunday the 16th after church and returning on July 1st. Dad’s burial is the 22nd and the celebration of his life is the 24th. Thank you again for your prayers.