Some Meandering Thoughts on Life Here & Prayer Request

When we started this blog, I honestly thought that I would be posting at least weekly. Unfortunately, the reality of our busy schedule has made that difficult. I envisioned sharing cute stories about the kids, ministry news and other interesting experiences in our lives here in the southern Baja of Mexico. (In fact, I sometimes feel guilty for not posting more often.)

It has started to really warm up here and I must admit, this mom is no fan of the heat like my husband is. Today, when I walked into my kitchen to start getting our lunch ready, it was absolutely stifling and knowing this is just the beginning can be a pretty depressing thought to say the least. My wonderful husband did get me a new blender for Mother's Day so I can at least make fruit smoothies and frapacinos to help us get through the heat a little more comfortably. Doing school in the heat can also be challenging at times, but with a little grace and lots of patience with each other, we are doing it. I love to home school and the flexibilty really helps so much as missionaries but I do find myself envying those who have 3 months off from school right now. The up side is that my kids won't have much time off so they won't forget as much (at least that is my hope) and having a routine (as much as possible down here) really does help every one. We are all much happier and do so much better.

Something really cool has happened for our family esecially for our daughter, Abby. (I shared this in our most recent prayer letter...if you want to see the letter, follow the link to the left and select the Sping 2009 letter) Magy and her oldest daughter, Elisa, just "happened" to come by our church on the Sun. evening last month when we were celebrating Mother's Day. We do not normally have meetings at the church on Sunday evenings so we know this was not just a coincidence. Her family had moved here from Mex. City a while ago and they were trying to find a church that also had meetings in the evenings since her husband, Enrique, often has to work Sunday mornings. After talking some more, we discovered that Magy is home schooling their oldest daughter who also happens to be close in age to Abby. Their family has been faithfully attending our cell group as well as church services and Elisa and Abby have become good friends. In fact, we had been praying for more girl friends for Abby, especially in our cell group as she is surrounded my boys. Last week, Magy and Elisa also shared with us that they had been praying too. Elisa had been praying for another little girl like her who is home schooled. (Home schooling is not very popular here and this is the first Mexican family we have met here who home schools.) Enrique and Magy are having a difficult time right now and we would appreciate your prayers. On Thurs. Enrique began experiencing severe abdominal and back pain. After going to the ER in the middle of the night, he was sent home with pain meds to control the pain for suspected kidney stones. Yesterday morning, they called us around 5:30 to ask for a ride back to the ER because the pain had worsened in spite of the pain meds. After an entire day of waiting on lab results, it was confirmed last night that he has kidney stones in both kidneys. They are still waiting today to hear from a specialist regarding what course of treatment they can provide, if any, beyond pain meds. Please pray for strength and energy for Magy since someone has to stay with Enrique at the hospital all the time to care for his needs. (The socialized health care system here does not provide for full nursing care in the hospital.) Please also pray for special grace on behalf of Enrique's employers. With the economy the way it is here, many are losing their jobs. Missing work, even for a medical emergency, could cost him his job.

Bits from the Baja E-mail Update: June 2, 2009

The end of April and May were very eventful to say the least! We had a great turnout for the Children’s day Mini-Olympics event. On the heels of this came the influenza scare. Thankfully, there have not been any cases reported here in our area. As you already know, the economic crisis was taking a toll on many but with the influenza scare, the situation has worsened considerably with many more losing their jobs because of the further decline in tourism and halting of many construction projects. Please, pray for the Church to be a light amidst the financial crisis and for us to learn to depend more fully on Him as a result.

We had a few firsts this past month that we are excited about…On Sunday, May 24th we had almost 200 people attend. We also had our second baptism in the space of about a month- another incredible first! Lives are being changed and people are choosing to follow Christ and it is exciting to play a small part in it. Please, rejoice with us over these two couples who have committed to following Christ: Abel & Wendy and Yudith & Pedro. We also had our first division of cell groups, birthing two new cell groups. We are looking forward to having two more additional ones be birthed in a few months.

Keep an eye out for the Spring edition of our newsletter, “Eager Steps” which will be coming out soon, including more pictures. Thank you for your faithful prayers, encouragement and support. We pray you are able to rejoice with us in all the Lord is doing here in the Baja of Mexico!

By His Grace,
The Eager Family

I am having a hard time editing and arranging the photos and am too tired to figure it out right now-sorry.

Top Left: Entire group with church leadership at the baptism

Top Right: Phil congradulating Abel

Bottom Left: Phil had the blessing of assisting for the first time

Middle Right: Kids lining up to receive their medals after the competion

Bottom Right: One of the games during the mini-olympics