Pizza, laughter, and visitating...

We(the Navarrete family) had a great time just hanging out and doing email and eating pizza and watching TV and playing board games and eating homemade blackberry pie at teammate Bethany Dean's house last night! It was the "relax and laugh a little time" before the next busy month.

We are so excited to just list our plans for you:

April 24-May 1 Shelby Road Baptist Mission Team will be here: they will participate in Youth Group, Couple Meeting, Ladies Bible Study, Church services, Cirenia and Juan's wedding, do painting and odd jobs at the church, do basketball camp, visit Missionary Baptist Church in Valle Dorado and visit with the Navarrete family! Are you tired already?

Church activities in the next month are:

Usual: Kids Club, Men's meeting, Women's Meeting, Youth group, Thursday Ladies Bible study, Special events: a wedding, and an outing to a river on May 9 for baptism of 9 brothers and sisters in Christ!

May 5-18ish: visit to field of teammates Joe and Heidi DePuy,

Wedding Bells and Basket balls...

Next week Shelby Road Baptist Church will be sending a mission team down to help at the church. They will paint, do basketball ministry and be part of Juan and Cirenia´s church wedding! Juan and Cirenia had civil wedding years ago, but never a church wedding. They were both saved in the last year and will be baptized on May 9. They want their life in order so they will be married at the church on April 26. Please pray for their unsaved family members who will attend. Please also pray for the SRT as they form friendships and minister with the church.

Is that the sound of wedding bells I hear.....

Several weeks ago I was bugging some of the older singles at church that I was in the mood for a wedding. This past Tuesday teammate Bethany Dean and long time friend, Kurt Gomez, announced they will be getting married the end of this year!

Iglesia Bautista de las Trojes....

gives new meaning to packed in like sardines! Yesterday we were so full a couple of people saw the overflow and went home. We are searching and praying for what to do!

Many of you have written asking....

about the violence in Mexico. Some of you have insisted we leave, some have changed plans about coming to visit, and some have assured us of your prayers for our protection.
We are fine. We take the precautions of not being out too late, always travelling with another person, and not waving our few dollars around. Most of the events you are hearing about are on the border or in parts of Mexico that are hours away from us. Mexico City, like any large city, has always had crime and reasons to be careful. Yes, things are"worse" than a few years ago, but that is true of the whole world. Remember also that the end times will be full of difficult and sinful things. We see the increasingly difficult times and events as an indicator of the great need for the world around us to hear of the hope we have in Christ. Antonio has been preaching through Revelations. The statement "Well praise the Lord, we won't even be here for all of this," with the next statement being, "But I am so convicted of the need to share the Gospel, so that all my friends and family can have the same hope and assurance I have," has been repeated often. The Mexican people themselves talk of the increased violence but always come back with the only solution is we must be more bold in sharing the Gospel!
Mexico like the rest of the world, is a hurting, sick with sin, and separated from God, nation. Like the painting above, she needs to simply reach out to Christ for healing, pardon and reconciliation with God. Until each individual does that, the violence, crime, corruption, lonliness, and confusion can only increase.
I want to assure you that each day we lift up prayers to our Lord for his protection and wisdom in living and ministering in Mexico. We pray for you all too. The stories that come from "home" about the crisis provoke more concern in us than the news reports you are hearing and seeing about Mexico! Stories of desperate people doing desperate and often violent things are more common everyday.