These are pictures from a recent youth group meeting. The youth were playing soccer at the park across the street from the church.
Monday, April 6, 2009
E-mail Update from April 3, 2009
As Easter draws near, we cannot help but reflect even more on the wonderful sacrifice of Christ and the privilege we have to follow Him. We are so grateful for the privilege to serve Him here and share the Good News of a Savior with those who are dying without Him. Thank you for your prayers, encouragement and support that make it possible for us to be here to share Christ.
Before beginning our ministry update, we have a personal request. About a week ago, Luke started to have more problems breathing. After visiting two doctors, he was diagnosed with having had a bad asthma attack. From what we understood, he most likely has reactive airway and should grow out of it. He is doing much better now, but we would appreciate your prayers for him to continue improving and that in spite of the dusty environment, he would not have any more major problems.
For this update, we want to focus on our youth since there are some exciting items to report as well as important requests.
SJC: Soldados de Jesucristo/Soldiers of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 6)
A short time ago, our youth chose this name for our youth group. It is a play on “words” since our city is abbreviated SJC as well. We felt the name they chose was a fitting description of our goal for them to become equipped and grounded firmly in their faith so that they will be reflections of Christ to all those with whom they come in contact.
Thank you for your prayers as we began a new “era” this year, encouraging them to be more involved with leading the group. This has been training and equipping them to serve. It continues to be thrilling to see several of them growing and maturing. As a step of maturity, two of our youth have decided to be baptized later this month.
Next week (April 9-12), we will be taking approximately 12 of our youth about 120 miles north to La Paz for a youth retreat. The theme is Breaking the Silence (Rom. 1:16), encouraging them to share their faith. The main speaker will be using the life of Daniel as an example which is the book of the Bible our youth have already been studying. We will both participate with several other adults by giving workshops to the youth on Thursday and Friday (using music-Phil & creatively sharing the gospel with children-Pattie). Please, pray for us to speak clearly and that the Lord would use the workshops for His glory in spite of our imperfect Spanish. Saturday the youth will be using the skills learned in the workshops by putting on an evangelistic outreach in a very needy neighborhood.
We pray you have a blessed time remembering and celebrating God’s greatest gift!
Phil, Pattie & Family
Before beginning our ministry update, we have a personal request. About a week ago, Luke started to have more problems breathing. After visiting two doctors, he was diagnosed with having had a bad asthma attack. From what we understood, he most likely has reactive airway and should grow out of it. He is doing much better now, but we would appreciate your prayers for him to continue improving and that in spite of the dusty environment, he would not have any more major problems.
For this update, we want to focus on our youth since there are some exciting items to report as well as important requests.
SJC: Soldados de Jesucristo/Soldiers of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 6)
A short time ago, our youth chose this name for our youth group. It is a play on “words” since our city is abbreviated SJC as well. We felt the name they chose was a fitting description of our goal for them to become equipped and grounded firmly in their faith so that they will be reflections of Christ to all those with whom they come in contact.
Thank you for your prayers as we began a new “era” this year, encouraging them to be more involved with leading the group. This has been training and equipping them to serve. It continues to be thrilling to see several of them growing and maturing. As a step of maturity, two of our youth have decided to be baptized later this month.
Next week (April 9-12), we will be taking approximately 12 of our youth about 120 miles north to La Paz for a youth retreat. The theme is Breaking the Silence (Rom. 1:16), encouraging them to share their faith. The main speaker will be using the life of Daniel as an example which is the book of the Bible our youth have already been studying. We will both participate with several other adults by giving workshops to the youth on Thursday and Friday (using music-Phil & creatively sharing the gospel with children-Pattie). Please, pray for us to speak clearly and that the Lord would use the workshops for His glory in spite of our imperfect Spanish. Saturday the youth will be using the skills learned in the workshops by putting on an evangelistic outreach in a very needy neighborhood.
We pray you have a blessed time remembering and celebrating God’s greatest gift!
Phil, Pattie & Family
Monday, January 19, 2009
E-mail Update~16 January 2009
Below you will find our most recent update. We apologize that is a bit longer than usual but hope it is a blessing to you and helps you as you pray for the work the Lord is doing in San Jose del Cabo.CELL GROUPS & THE EVANGACUBE
As you may recall, we had a short term missions team come last fall to present workshops to our church on the evangelism tool, the Evangacube. We continue to see much fruit from this ministry. Moses and his wife were approached by one of the groups who went out to practice using the cubes. They were invited to one of our cell groups and have been attending since last fall. We rejoice in reporting that Friday night at the cell group, he accepted Christ. Please pray for his spiritual growth and for his wife’s salvation.
ENGLISH CLASS (Pictured above)
We had the pleasure of hosting a senior college student, Sarah Beimfohr, the past two weeks who came to provide an advanced English class to 14 youth and adults in our church. It was a very practical help to many who wanted to improve their English skills in order to find employment or better employment. We are grateful for her willingness to come and spend part of her winter break from college to minister in such a pracitcal way.
ECONOMIC SITUATION
Below is an excerpt from an e-mail we received Wednesday from Steve, our ministry area leader. We know that the economy is struggling in the states as well and would greatly appreciate your prayers as Mexico is facing some serious problems. (Note: I have italicized in parenthesis definitions of Spanish terms.)
The Peso hit 14.32 to the Dollar this morning before the government sold 400,000,000 dollars in an attempt to stabilize the peso. It helped a bit but the Peso is still at 14.11. Add to this the 74% drop in the price of a barrel of Mexican oil since July, the large percentage drop in remesas (money sent back to Mexico from family working in other countries), the drop in tourism and the slowdown in the maquiladoras (maquiladora refers to an American company located on the Mexican side of the US-Mexican border.They are usually assembly and manual labor factories. These companies go to Mexico to save on labor costs because wages in Mexico are so low. However, they provide much needed jobs in Mexico and tend to pay more than many other jobs in Mexico do), and we are facing what could be a critical situation for Mexico. All the major sources for foreign income into Mexico are being battered. This will most likely create more unemployment, more underemployment, higher inflation and less government spending on social programs and services. this is going to create a lot of difficulty for the people in our churches. People are afraid right now and may become desperate.
Steve also noted that the peso had resumed its slide by the time he had finished writing the message. With the economic situation, there have also been more problems with express kidnappings (these are non-politically motivated kidnappings where they grab a person and try to run their ATM dry or ask ransom from family, etc.). Americans or people with family in the states who are perceived as being rich are often prime targets. While we have never felt personally threatened, we do feel that we need to be more alert and wanted to ask specific prayer for our safety and especially our children’s safety.
Shortly after reading about the increasing security risk in Mexico, Pattie read the following which we found to not only be timely but very encouraging in light of the current situation. The author is writing about the passage in Luke where Jesus said he was sending the disciples out as “sheep in the midst of wolves”. We would like to share it with you as well:
Perspective, then, is what tells us we are secure despite the environment we are in. Perspective can see an ominous situation as a great opportunity. We all need reminding at times that we are no different from the lost sheep except that we now have a Shepherd— and what a difference He makes. We do not need to fear the pack of wolves because He is with us, carries a big stick, and has a quick swing. Wherever we go, the Shepherd goes...So why are we sent to the wolves? Though He is our protection, He is also on a mission to seek and save the lost sheep, and the wolves tend to gather where there is easy prey. Jesus was sent to seek. Those who follow Him are also sent to seek. As disciples of Christ we have gone from being vulnerable prey to becoming valued members of a search-and-rescue team. (Neil Cole)
We pray this is an encouragment to you as it was to us. Even though we may be living in uncertain times and surrounded by "wolves" right now, we have a wonderful opportunity to be seeking out His lost sheep.
Seeking the lost sheep with you,
Phil & Pattie
Monday, November 17, 2008
Bits from the Baja E-mail Update
It is hard to believe we are half way through November! October seems to have just flown by on us. As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving in less than two weeks, we can’t help but reflect on all that we have to be thankful for and you are definitely at the top of the list. If you were not allowing God to use you to help pray, support, encourage, etc. we would not be here. You are an invaluable part of our team and we are so grateful for each of you. Our fall prayer letter will be completed soon, so I won’t go into too much detail and spoil it for you but here are a few updates and prayer requests:
SPECIAL VISITORS: In October, we were blessed to have several visitors. The Schwaabs, friends from our supporting church in Anchorage came down and braved the heat to help us paint most of our house. They were such a joy and encouragement to our family as they helped make our house seem much more like a home and were able to see firsthand what the Lord is doing here. The day after they headed back to Alaska, we had a group from another supporting church in Baltimore come and provide a wonderful evangelism and discipleship workshop using the evangacube. It’s thrilling to see people excited to have such a practical tool for sharing the Gospel with others and using them. A huge thank you to Warren, Jack, Ruth and Rich for their hard work and workshop presentations!(More stories about this and pictures will be in our prayer letter.)
CELL GROUP: In our last update, we were praising the Lord for Pedro’s willingness to start leading the Bible study portion of our time and asked prayer for him as he was going to be doing that for the first time. He did a wonderful job and continues to improve and grow in confidence as he shares the Word. Please, continue to pray for him and for our group. We recently had a meeting of all the core members from the 4 different groups and it was encouraging to see some of the wonderful results but there is still so much to do and so many who are still in darkness. Please pray for boldness and opportunities to invite unsaved friends, neighbors and co-workers as well as open hearts for those being invited.
YOUTH GROUP: Thank you so much for praying the Lord to provide co- leaders for the youth group. There is a newer couple in our church who is very willing to help. This is great news however; they may have no choice but to move at the end of the month back to the mainland. The economic situation in the states has affected many here. This couple was relocated here about a year ago for work but his job may have to move him elsewhere since the project he was brought over for has been put on hold due to funding problems. Please pray with them and us that if it is the Lord’s will that they would be able to stay.
FAMILY NEWS: The room is done…almost! J Thank you so much for your prayers. There are still a few things that need to be finished but we were able to move our furniture in this past weekend. (We ended up having to move in because the room is shorter than the others and the kids’ bunk beds would not fit very well.) Over the course of the next week or so, in our spare time we will be painting and moving the boys to their new room finishing up with painting their current room where Abby will be staying with a new roommate….Luke! (We think she is excited about this as she is always so eager to be mommy’s helper with him.) Thank you also for praying regarding the raising of our rent with the room’s completion…in answer to your prayers, our landlords graciously accepted only a $100 increase rather than the $250 increase they originally had mentioned. While the extra room helps in the short term towards our space problem, we appreciate your continued prayers for wisdom and guidance as to what the future might hold.
With overflowing and thankful hearts,
The Eager Family
SPECIAL VISITORS: In October, we were blessed to have several visitors. The Schwaabs, friends from our supporting church in Anchorage came down and braved the heat to help us paint most of our house. They were such a joy and encouragement to our family as they helped make our house seem much more like a home and were able to see firsthand what the Lord is doing here. The day after they headed back to Alaska, we had a group from another supporting church in Baltimore come and provide a wonderful evangelism and discipleship workshop using the evangacube. It’s thrilling to see people excited to have such a practical tool for sharing the Gospel with others and using them. A huge thank you to Warren, Jack, Ruth and Rich for their hard work and workshop presentations!(More stories about this and pictures will be in our prayer letter.)
CELL GROUP: In our last update, we were praising the Lord for Pedro’s willingness to start leading the Bible study portion of our time and asked prayer for him as he was going to be doing that for the first time. He did a wonderful job and continues to improve and grow in confidence as he shares the Word. Please, continue to pray for him and for our group. We recently had a meeting of all the core members from the 4 different groups and it was encouraging to see some of the wonderful results but there is still so much to do and so many who are still in darkness. Please pray for boldness and opportunities to invite unsaved friends, neighbors and co-workers as well as open hearts for those being invited.
YOUTH GROUP: Thank you so much for praying the Lord to provide co- leaders for the youth group. There is a newer couple in our church who is very willing to help. This is great news however; they may have no choice but to move at the end of the month back to the mainland. The economic situation in the states has affected many here. This couple was relocated here about a year ago for work but his job may have to move him elsewhere since the project he was brought over for has been put on hold due to funding problems. Please pray with them and us that if it is the Lord’s will that they would be able to stay.
FAMILY NEWS: The room is done…almost! J Thank you so much for your prayers. There are still a few things that need to be finished but we were able to move our furniture in this past weekend. (We ended up having to move in because the room is shorter than the others and the kids’ bunk beds would not fit very well.) Over the course of the next week or so, in our spare time we will be painting and moving the boys to their new room finishing up with painting their current room where Abby will be staying with a new roommate….Luke! (We think she is excited about this as she is always so eager to be mommy’s helper with him.) Thank you also for praying regarding the raising of our rent with the room’s completion…in answer to your prayers, our landlords graciously accepted only a $100 increase rather than the $250 increase they originally had mentioned. While the extra room helps in the short term towards our space problem, we appreciate your continued prayers for wisdom and guidance as to what the future might hold.
With overflowing and thankful hearts,
The Eager Family
Friday, October 3, 2008
Baja Update...what's happening
CELL GROUP:
Pedro and Irene, a couple from our cell group, had been attending Iglesia Emanuel for several years but had never become members or involved beyond attending. Several months before initiating the new cell group outreach, they felt the Lord working in their hearts and approached our co-workers and essentially said that they knew they needed to stop being parasites…they needed to become members and more than that, to be involved in ministry and outreach. Since their commitment to be involved, it has been wonderful to watch them grow. Their excitement at inviting friends, neighbors and co-workers to cell group meetings and especially seeing their friends, Edgar and Lala, attending our cell group is great. Pedro has also committed to helping lead the studies for our group. Up until now, Phil has been leading the studies. While he does not mind leading the studies, we feel it is more beneficial if a national can lead them. Pedro is nervous as he has never done anything like this before, but we know that he is able and only lacks confidence. Please, pray with us for him as he will be giving his first study tonight.
One of the major benefits of the small group setting is that you have a chance to get to know people on a more personal level than at church on Sundays. You also are able to be more involved in each other’s lives in deeper ways. Last week, Irene shared with us that their visitors, Edgar and Lala, are not legally married even though they have been together for years and have two children aged 6 and 4. (This is very common here…people will be introduced as husband and wife when in reality they are not.) The wonderful thing is that they have decided to get married and asked Irene and Pedro to be their witnesses. While Edgar and Lala have not yet made any professions of faith, we are thrilled to see that they are being influenced to start making correct decisions in their personal lives. Please pray for their family to continue to make God honoring decisions and most importantly yield their hearts and lives to Him.
YOUTH GROUP:
We greatly appreciate your prayers for the youth group. Because of over-commitment, the couple who was helping to lead the youth has had to resign. Please pray for another couple to help lead the youth alongside us as well as determining a clear vision for the future. We are holding a meeting with the parents and helpers later this month to discuss this. Please pray that a clear vision and plan for the future to be developed that everyone can take ownership of.
WOMEN’S STUDY:
Pattie has helped take over leading the women’s study and has really enjoyed the times of study and fellowship with the women. There seems to be consistently 6 or 7 women although the exact women who attend often change. There would probably be 12-14 if everyone came at the same time. Our greatest desire is to instill a hunger and thirst for studying and applying the Word among the women which will be contagious. Thank you for your prayers!
We can never say enough how grateful we are for each of you who make up part of our team. Without you, we could not be doing what we are doing! God bless you this coming month as you continue to serve Him.
By His Grace,
The Eager Family
Pedro and Irene, a couple from our cell group, had been attending Iglesia Emanuel for several years but had never become members or involved beyond attending. Several months before initiating the new cell group outreach, they felt the Lord working in their hearts and approached our co-workers and essentially said that they knew they needed to stop being parasites…they needed to become members and more than that, to be involved in ministry and outreach. Since their commitment to be involved, it has been wonderful to watch them grow. Their excitement at inviting friends, neighbors and co-workers to cell group meetings and especially seeing their friends, Edgar and Lala, attending our cell group is great. Pedro has also committed to helping lead the studies for our group. Up until now, Phil has been leading the studies. While he does not mind leading the studies, we feel it is more beneficial if a national can lead them. Pedro is nervous as he has never done anything like this before, but we know that he is able and only lacks confidence. Please, pray with us for him as he will be giving his first study tonight.
One of the major benefits of the small group setting is that you have a chance to get to know people on a more personal level than at church on Sundays. You also are able to be more involved in each other’s lives in deeper ways. Last week, Irene shared with us that their visitors, Edgar and Lala, are not legally married even though they have been together for years and have two children aged 6 and 4. (This is very common here…people will be introduced as husband and wife when in reality they are not.) The wonderful thing is that they have decided to get married and asked Irene and Pedro to be their witnesses. While Edgar and Lala have not yet made any professions of faith, we are thrilled to see that they are being influenced to start making correct decisions in their personal lives. Please pray for their family to continue to make God honoring decisions and most importantly yield their hearts and lives to Him.
YOUTH GROUP:
We greatly appreciate your prayers for the youth group. Because of over-commitment, the couple who was helping to lead the youth has had to resign. Please pray for another couple to help lead the youth alongside us as well as determining a clear vision for the future. We are holding a meeting with the parents and helpers later this month to discuss this. Please pray that a clear vision and plan for the future to be developed that everyone can take ownership of.
WOMEN’S STUDY:
Pattie has helped take over leading the women’s study and has really enjoyed the times of study and fellowship with the women. There seems to be consistently 6 or 7 women although the exact women who attend often change. There would probably be 12-14 if everyone came at the same time. Our greatest desire is to instill a hunger and thirst for studying and applying the Word among the women which will be contagious. Thank you for your prayers!
We can never say enough how grateful we are for each of you who make up part of our team. Without you, we could not be doing what we are doing! God bless you this coming month as you continue to serve Him.
By His Grace,
The Eager Family
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Abby's Song
One of the things that I love most about being a parent is witnessing my kids' creative sides emerge more every day. I also love the simple faith and love that a child has. We adults so often complicate things. I think that sometimes, we need to be more like a child when it comes to faith and love.
Below is a song written by our daughter Abby. It did my heart good to hear her sing it to me and I wanted to share it with you.
(Note: It's typed exactly as written in her journal)
Abby's Song
I love you God.
I love you God.
Win I'm alon
and I love you in the rane
and I love you in the sun
and I love you God
becus you are so pawrful
and I love you Lord
and I love you God
the Eend
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
E-mail update~03 September 2008
Please forgive us for not sending out an update sooner. We have been kept very busy these days. Below is a brief update on recent items we have requested prayer.
Thank you so much for praying for Cher! We are happy to report that the initial results of the cancer not having spread were confirmed. Please, continue to pray as she heals from the surgery and for wisdom as they will be meeting with several doctors in the coming weeks to determine the next steps of treatment.
Housing....Unfortunately, the house we mentioned in our last e-mail will not work so we continue the search. Thank you for praying for this as well. In the meanwhile, we are praying that our landlord will complete the addition to this house which began in May. Our landlord has also informed us that when the new room is completed, they would like an additional $250 in rent a month which is more than we had anticipated. According to them, it is open for discussion. Please pray for us as we try to negotiate with them regarding the increase. It is becoming clear that we need to move and possibly purchase as the cost of renting a larger house are astronomical here and purchasing seems a wiser investment.
Ministry...Please, pray for the people we have invited to our cell group. There were several weeks in a row without any visitors which has been discouraging, however, we knew that there would be ups and downs. We can definitely see how the Lord is using the cell group to mature the members of our group as one of the men has stepped forward to help lead the studies, alternating with Phil. It is exciting to see people taking more ownership of the ministry and using their gifts as never before. We were praising the Lord last week when one of the families returned to the cell group who had visited previously. The other groups have had some great turn outs which we are so thankful for. We are especially thrilled with several of our youth who have become more involved and interested in participating in the groups.
By His Grace,
The Eager Family
We are also posting the latest edition of our prayer letter, Eager Steps, at the link to the left.
Thank you so much for praying for Cher! We are happy to report that the initial results of the cancer not having spread were confirmed. Please, continue to pray as she heals from the surgery and for wisdom as they will be meeting with several doctors in the coming weeks to determine the next steps of treatment.
Housing....Unfortunately, the house we mentioned in our last e-mail will not work so we continue the search. Thank you for praying for this as well. In the meanwhile, we are praying that our landlord will complete the addition to this house which began in May. Our landlord has also informed us that when the new room is completed, they would like an additional $250 in rent a month which is more than we had anticipated. According to them, it is open for discussion. Please pray for us as we try to negotiate with them regarding the increase. It is becoming clear that we need to move and possibly purchase as the cost of renting a larger house are astronomical here and purchasing seems a wiser investment.
Ministry...Please, pray for the people we have invited to our cell group. There were several weeks in a row without any visitors which has been discouraging, however, we knew that there would be ups and downs. We can definitely see how the Lord is using the cell group to mature the members of our group as one of the men has stepped forward to help lead the studies, alternating with Phil. It is exciting to see people taking more ownership of the ministry and using their gifts as never before. We were praising the Lord last week when one of the families returned to the cell group who had visited previously. The other groups have had some great turn outs which we are so thankful for. We are especially thrilled with several of our youth who have become more involved and interested in participating in the groups.
By His Grace,
The Eager Family
We are also posting the latest edition of our prayer letter, Eager Steps, at the link to the left.
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