Christmas fiestas

We just got back from Reynosa where the mustard seed kids had their Christmas fiesta. Last Saturday was the Matamoros fiesta. The children and their families where truly blessed! Thanks to all of you who already sponsor a child here in Mexico.

We are getting ready to expend the program and we were glad to be able to see both fiesta and appreciate the difference between the smaller group (20 children) and the larger one (63).

One of the major difference between the sponsorship program Phil and Karen started here, as opposed to what world vision does, is that they make it "up close and personal"!

Each child is placed in a Church (if they don't already attend one) where they receive biblical teaching. The parents of the sponsored child are required to attend a parenting class on a regular basis. The children participate in a special program at least once a month and they also receive the visit of the area coordinator at least once a month to ensure their basic needs are met and that the child is well adjusted at school.

The coordinators are the ones making sure the family has enough food, enough beds and make note of families who need a house. They also attend to the child specific needs regarding schooling : materiel needs but also academic needs. Some children may need tutoring.

This program has for objective to be as complete as possible. Therefore the model one the smaller group seems to best meet that objective. Even if 63 children doesn't seem that big, we could definitely see the advantages of keeping the groups small. Rather then enlarging the group, in Reynosa for exemple, multiplying the number of small groups, seems to be the way to go.

Your prayers for this ministry are greatly appreciated! It is a big step for Phil and Karen to take the ministry to the next level. We praise God for the team He is building here to help with that process and we believe there are more workers that will be joining us in the next few years.

May God bless you and may you have a Blessed Christmas.

"how is it we got heat in our house in Winnipeg?"

Jesse was asking this morning. It is cold! It's only 6 right now. We have a couple heaters going and still we have 2 or 3 sweaters on! The cold weather doesn't last here, thankfully! It's suppose to go back up to 23 by Sunday.

Thank you for praying for the children. We are adjusting to home schooling. Pray with us for a Helper for the little ones. Someone energetic and with creative ideas!

Looks like we may have 2 groups of winter texans coming to build in January. Plus two groups in February, one in March and one in April so far.

More later...

family extortion resolution

Sorry it took so long in coming. The family ended up giving them 5000 pesos to be left alone. A few days later, our neighbours got a phone call as well, several in fact. Everyone who received calls, changed their numbers. We don't know anyone else who gave them money. We heard different stories about it. One being that the people calling are making the calls from a prison cell!

Also that they were told not to extort money from foreigners (us!) or people higher up the manufactures because it brings money in the country.

For awhile now we haven't heard anymore stories.

A few people have requested an address to send cards. I decided I should just post it.

Phil and Sophie Ramer
1294 Turtle Creek Drive
Brownsville, Texas
78520

This is the head office's address. To send stuff directly to Mexico is not advisable.

Thank you for your prayers. We really feel God has answered your prayers for our language skills. This last week Sophie has been speaking Spanish a lot more. Before it was all head knowledge! She even feels comfortable speaking it on the phone!
It's amazing considering we've only been here 3 months and haven't had much teaching.

We also appreciate your prayers about the children. We felt God leading us to remove them from school to get back to home schooling. They have too much value to be left to chance and to abuse. Some children were really unkind to them. Jeremie was saying that he would go to school only after all the other kids had left. It didn't matter if the school was closed then, he would just climb the fence! He really wish he could go. He really likes his teacher but can't stand the abuse from the other kids. It was the same with Abbie and Jesse.

It'll be challenging in some ways but we believe God will help. You may pray for this area of our daily lives. We could use a helper for teaching and with children care (for the little ones).

We also want to Praise God for his faithful provision. We feel the reality of the difficult choice we made coming here but we also truly feel God's hand and blessing.

Thank you for reading and sharing this journey with us!

Winter has come to Mexico!

Well Winter is here! Today it was raining and we had a maximum of 12 degrees celcius. We could actually see our breath! It's seems to me 12 degrees wouldn't be cold enough in WPG to see your breath, but maybe I don't remember or maybe it's the humidity factor that makes a difference.

It rained all day and night and in the morning our house was flooded! A drain got plugged so we stood in cold water mopping and drying the floor with towels. It also rained all day.

It made me feel for the people who don't have windows on their houses and no source of heat what so ever. Even though it's not that cold, it can be pretty miserable! The low for Friday is suppose to be only 4 degrees at night. Humidity is what makes this weather miserable.

This Saturday we will be wrapping Christmas gifts for the Mustard Seed kids. It should be a lot of fun! The fallowing Saturday, December 12th, is the Christmas program.

We have been helping a couple Churches here with music. We are hoping to be able to do more and maybe do some teaching. John and Julie Drieger are coming down soon to help. Pray for their safety on the road. We are very happy to have them come. We know God has great plans for the ministry here in Mexico and we know that John and Julie have much to offer! We thank God for their willingness to come inspite of some difficulties.

The doors Phil taught the men to build are installed now. The Pastor of Templo Ebenezer, who has just celebrated their 5th year, was showing them off proudly the night of the anniversary. They still are in need of windows.

Phil went on a trip with Miguel to the interior in Tamazuchale, San Luis Potosi and following are some pictures he took there. They were visiting Bible school and doing prep work for an upcoming group at the beggining of February. The pictures are of a church that has been meeting for some years now. Situated on the side of a mountain in Xilitla, Mexico. They are wanting to build the new church here. The pastor of this church has 15 students in the Bible School.

numerous donations

Thank you to all who donated clothes, toys, goodies.
We haven't finished going through everything!
You have blessed more then us as we have been passing along some clothes to others in need.

Some of the clothing was especially nice and clean. It's quite the blessing. People here have a pretty small wardrobe. Nice clothing is expensive so they have one or two pair of pants and a few shirts. Used clothing is accessible cheaper (still more expensive then in Canada). But because of limited space, if the Church permits to have clothes sent again, only send that which is in the best condition.

Thanks again for the blessing us!
It's SOOOO great have an exceptional Church family lifting us up.

May God return the blessing unto you!

P.S. Take a peek, we've added pictures to our last post!

WINNIPEG CAME AND LEFT

The group from Winnipeg just left this morning. We had a great time.
The group was small; only 7 including Pastor Keith.

Pastor Keith preached on Tuesday night and a reporter was there who received healing of his ear. It was his first visit to a Christian Church. He asked to interview Pastor Keith. The article should appear in two papers in the next week or so.

We also ministered to women and Irene got to pray with a couple families in their homes. Kara played guitar for the women one morning; she did great. Irene was sharing the message those mornings and she also did fantastic!

Rob and Craig had a good time with the children and a lot of people were touched.

We finished the roof earlier then expected. We were able to do a couple extra little painting jobs, including painting the name of the Church in big letter on the front of the building.

Pray for their safety on the road.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ... OTRA VEZ

We are still in birthday mode! Today is Phil's 39th birthday. We had a nice time catching up on things as we spent the day alone without the kids. Well 5 hours. That's a day isn't it?

We bought a cheminea for his birthday. It's one of those clay pot like a vase for flowers with a hole in the front to build a fire in it. It's 4 feet tall. It cost about 12$. I guess some things are cheaper here! In Winnipeg, I probably wouldn't even looked a them!

So we had a fire in the back yard with the children after we got home. We had a good time.

Our first group is due to arrive in 2 days. Tomorrow we'll be getting the house ready. Phil has been busy all week teaching men how to build doors. They built solid pine doors for a Church here.

He has also been preaching & playing base with the worship team at "Ebenezer". They had me share a message as well on a Friday night.

The pace has definitely sped up. We have seen huge improvements in our language skills as well. We have been forced to use more working closely with locals who do not speak english at all.

Thanks for praying we know it helped!

The children on the other hand are having a harder time with school. Pray that they can quickly catch up on language as well. That would make their lives so much easier!

Keep praying for protection for our family and all involved in the work of the Lord here in Matamoros. Many men are loosing their jobs and we just heard that the city decided to start charging extra taxes to the manufactures who employ many people here. Last time the city did that they manufactures moved away, leaving many without work.

There is no social security of any kind here. Without work, things get bad. More turn to criminal options.

Your prayers are vital.

Pray for the safety of the group and for a life changing experience for them as well as the men and women they will meet here.

May God bless you as you participate from afar in the work of the kingdom in Mexico.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Today is Abbie's birthday. She turned 12. We had supper with a Pastor and his family we've been getting to know. Their sons are also teaching Abbie piano, and Jesse, drum.

We are learning much about the city, the people, the culture and still progressing with the language.

The countdown is on for the group we are expecting from Winnipeg Nov.1

It'll be our first experience receiving a group. So far, we've only had Margaret Woodason here and it was very nice to have her help in the office. She helped change the system Karen had been using for many years, bringing it up to the modern days!

Last Saturday was the mustard seed program and we helped translate some of the letters from the children to their sponsors. God has brought a young man to help teach different sports to the mustard seed kids. They all know soccer but are shy to try new things.

The kids are adjusting to school. It's not easy everyday. Your prayers help. Thank you! Keep us in your prayers. We can do nothing without God's guidance and grace.

May you be blessed!

An Update on the situation with our friends being threatened. They were on the phone for 4hrs and negotiated a deal. They were also allowed to pray with the mob on the phone. Lets continue to pray that God will use this situation for His Glory.

exciting and disturbing news

Let's start with the exciting news. It goes hand in hand with my last entry.
The pastor who showed up at our door with the youth leader from the larger Church "impacto de vida", came again today to introduce us to his wife.

Well, turns out Phil and Karen knew them from years ago, when they served in the same ministry. It was so refreshing to see God's hand again.

This pastor started a smaller Church less then a year ago, walking distance from our home here in Matamoros. It's called Cristo: La Esperanza. They put a lot of energy into discipleship.

Tomorrow morning we are going with him to a prayer meeting attended by some 40 pastors from the city.

A few hours after their visit, the coordinators from the Mustard seed program arrived for their meeting. Since Hector,the man in charge of teaching the parents of the children in the program, was not yet there, they decided to call his daughter to find out if he was on his way. On the phone, they found out that he was being held hostage at that very moment by the mafia. They were after anything he owns.

We gathered in prayer and made several phone calls. The latest I've heard is that a pastor known to the group gathered has a brother in law in the mob who had agreed to go there to negotiate with the perpetrators.

Some of you have been asked to pray for this already. Thank you! We will keep you posted as soon as we receive more news.

Please pray for a chance to win these men to God.

When God is in control

This is really neat!

We were sharing with Phil and Karen about the vision God had given us for the Churches of Mexico- to work together and help one another -as they expressed a desire for us to help with the youth in one of the Church they work with.

We had visited a larger -middle class- Church the previous Sunday. A Church God had led us to through people He had put in our path (all people unknown to Phil and Karen). As we entered that Church I really felt like the Lord wanted to use that Church to be a tool, a resource for the poorest Churches we work with.

So as we shared with Phil and Karen, we expressed a desire to go talk to the youth leader of that larger Church "Impacto de vida". Well, the next morning, arrived at our door, a long-time lost friend of Miguel, with the youth leader of that very Church!

How amazing is that!? We had an exciting visit. Margaret Woodason is here now; she can probably fill you in on it too! There are many great things God is starting here in Matamoros. It looks like we will be able to expend our sphere of influence as believers and maybe have new opportunity as a Church (COTR) to minister in Mexico!

As God lays out His plan, I'll share more with you.

We serve an amazing God!

the blessing of obedience

I was reading a book called "intimate friendship with God".

In it I read that it is important to obey God because of what he says but more importantly because of who He is. In order for God to test us on this, He often tells us to do unusual things that seem to us illogical.

I thought it was very fitting!

Even though it has not been easy to obey, because of the nature of what was asked, in the midst of the difficulties and hardship: moving away, leaving friends, adjusting to a new life... with four kids,etc., We feel totally blessed by God because of our obedience.

among those blessing:

-Karen fell in love with our kids and is turning out to be like a grandma... and a
terrific one too! That is such a blessing for us and the kids.

-My neighbor is this extra devoted friend, who goes out of her way to help others.
Abbie's teacher told her that she was going to need chicken bones for a project at school. (don't ask, I have no idea what it's for, I'll let you know when I find out!) So my neighbor took me shopping to show me a better store to buy cheaper fruit and veggies. While we were there, she bought a chicken and gave me a piece so I would have some bones to send to school with Abbie.

I can't express it well enough even through all the examples I could share. But to all of you, who God is calling to obey Him and fallow Him on a path that seems illogical, I want this to be a testimony of His immense love, care and blessing that come with total obedience.

Jump in with both feet. Although it will not always be easy, you will feel and BE blessed because of your obedience.

Sophie

Life In Mexico

I thought I'd fill you in on a few interesting happenings.

Last week, we had our front plate stolen form our vehicle. Most likely in a parking lot. When the neighbors heard about it they told us we needed to quickly report the incident as most likely, the plate would be used in criminal activities! WOW, the police could have looking for us...!

The police took our claim for 200 pesos.

Also, we had the visit, at our house, from someone working for the city who was coming around to spray for mosquito control. They go around on foot, hitting all the puddles around peoples homes. They also wanted to put some chemicals in our water tank! We declined.

The mosquitos here do bite. You feel the bite, you feel the hitch, but then after you scratch, it goes away almost instantly.

On a different note, we wanted to thank you for your prayers. God has led us to enroll the children in the Christian school. When we met with the principal, she informed us that they had a policy to help people working as ministers of the Gospel. Wow, I didn't expect that at all, they are giving us 50% off the monthly price.

God knew we wouldn't have been able to do this otherwise. The will learn spanish and english 50/50. Praise God for his provision and guidance.

It will give us more time to learn ourselves and start being more involved with the Churches here. Phil Klassen wants Phil to see about teaching carpentry to some of the men at Fe Y Poder ( a Church where Phil and Karen have been involved for years). Many people have lost their jobs recently. Maybe God can use this... Their first project will be to build doors for an other church. They call it Celso's Church.

Praise God for his hand at work through us already. Praise him for support and faithful friends who pray and give to be part of the work in Mexico.

Please pray for health, for protection on our marriage. Protection for the children as they start school and for continued guidance, wisdom and understanding from God.

This picture was taken from inside a new foundation for a church in Tamazunchale, Mexico which has been meeting in a tent for 5 years. The new church will be quite large. Seating for about 400!

This church is located in Tamazunchale about 10 hrs south of Matamoros. They had a group of 6 ready to graduate. The next picture is of the graduates.
Here are some pictures we took on our trip to the interior of mexico. This is Pastor Gildardo and his family in Herradura Xiltla, Mexico are living in a bambo and mud house with a thatch roof and dirt floor for many years now. They have had some help to get the house started but will need a roof. I believe he said the attendance in his church is around 80. This Pastor is very involved in the bible school and is supervising two schools and looking at starting another.

The Lord came through! I am writing this from home! Yes! And we also have a phone.
It's one of those 15 digit numbers... We will likely get a cell phone with Phil and Karen with a US number which should make it more affordable for people to call us.

For now, here's the number 01152 868 203 2787

Phil is visitong a Church tonight. We will be visiting a different one on Sunday. That's quite a few names to remember in a short time!

The mexicans are celebrating independance day Sept 16. It seems to last all week with celebrations at different places on different days!

We have had three invitations to celebrate it. One on Tuesday, one tonight(Friday) and one on Sunday.

Soon we will be posting some pictures of the things we see around here and people we meet.

Again, thank you for praying. We couldn't do it without those prayers. We are taking life one day at a time. More then that would be too much right now.

PLease pray with us for wisdom to make the right decisons about school for the children. Jesse is not taking to home schooling too good and it's taking too much of my time when I need to be learning the language myself.

God seems to be opening doors of opportunites for him in a catholic/christian school where, God willing, I could exchange my services as a French teacher, one day a week, for his tuition.

The school teaches half Spanish half English with an hour a week of French! I am quite happy about this but I want it to be a God thing all the way.

By the way, Jeremie's finger is healed completely. It's a real miracle how the whole thing went. It's amazing how fast he healed. Praise God! We are seeing Him around just about every corner. People He puts on our path, blessings, provisions, even an english speaking person at the right place, at the right time, when I am somewhere without Miguel and can't communicate what I need!

It is not always easy, but we are in a good place, at the center of HIS will. There is no other place I'd rather be!

God bless you and thanks for reading and sharing this journey with us!

Sophie

well what do you know! Things change and so do date!
Still no phone or internet. Not sure when now, maybe next week!??

Otherwise, we are doing well. We are back from our trip into the interior. A place that sounds like
"Thomas and Charlie". That's how Miguel teaches us to pronounce things in Spanish.
(So "Maybe" becomes "kiss ass" would you know! quizaz in Spanish)

It was a beautiful trip in the mountains. The down fall, we brought back a bit of "diahrea" with us. We have met a few pastors and will start doing home visit next week with the mustard seed program.

So our prayer requests are to get better soon and to get a connection soon too. And language of course

The children are doing so much better. It starting to feel like home.

Thank you for your prayers, encouragement and support.

one week into it

we still don´t have a phone or internet, but we have a date! September 14.

Thank you all for praying for us. Last Friday, Jeremie was trying to cut a box with a kitchen knife and got his finger good. Phil tought he needed stitches. He ended up taking him to the red cross.

They were back home 20 minutes later! No stitches, just tape. The red cross is really close to home. They were seen right away. It cost us about 25$ canadian. Jeremie´s finger seems fine, he can move it and he´s still able to do all he needs to do!

Please pray for Benjamin. He is having the hardest time adjusting to the temperature change and he is fighting a cold, maybe ear ache too.

Continue praying for home schooling, we started Monday.

Also for protection as we go on a road trip with Phil and KAren next weekend to the interior for a Bible school graduation.

When we get our own connection, we´ll post pictures.

Now I must go, half hour is all I´ve got!

We made it all the way!!!
We got to Brownsville a little before 2pm. It is very humid but not too hot. We have been on the road, visiting family for over two weeks and it feels like it's time to go home!

We will be sleeping in our new home tonight. The children are excited. On the other hand I feel a bit overwhelmed with all the information and the things we need to learn and adjust to.

We had a safe trip with a few van problems. Thanks for your prayers, it definitely helped. We are blessed to have you along for the journey. There will be more info and pictures to come.

We need to get going to Mexico soon and it could take a week or two before we have a phone and the internet.

Keep praying for protection and health. For adjustment too.

Thank you

Moving Day

Thank you to everyone who helped with our final packing and cleaning! We couldnt have done it without you.

We are mostly packed now it is time to pack up the computer! We will be traveling and visiting my relatives for the next few weeks. We are due to arrive in Matamoros, Mexico on the 31th of august, During our travels I don't know if we will have access to the internet to keep you up to date. Please pray for safe travels.

-Phil is working at getting is class 4 drivers. -- Writing the testtomorrow-- Passed 80%

-We need to tie up all our business activities.---Pretty much done---All done

-There is some work to do on the house yet before possession.---almost done, will be done tomorrow--Done

-We will need to empty the garage and haul stuff. ---2 more loads to the dump will do it---All done

NEW THINGS TO PRAY ABOUT

-Peace in a turbulent time for our whole family-- We have felt an uncommon peace thank you for praying

-Our monthly support is at about 50%--We havent had an up date lately

so we are praying for another $1000/month

-Safe traveling on the way down to Matamoros, Mexico--We leave tommorrow

-Pray that our van will run well on the trip

Farewell potluck

At Calvin and Wendy Egg's

What we are doing now?

You are all probably wondering how our preparations are going. Our list of things to do until we leave is getting much shorter. Here is the old list.

-Phil is working at getting is class 4 drivers. -- Writing the test tomorrow

-We need to tie up all our business activities.---Pretty much done

-There is some work to do on the house yet before possession.---almost done, will be done tomorrow

-We will need to empty the garage and haul stuff. ---2 more loads to the dump will do it

Thursday we head out for Church camp. I am sure we will see many of you there!

NEW THINGS TO PRAY ABOUT

-Peace in a turbulent time for our whole family

-Our monthly support is at about 50%

so we are praying for another $1000/month

-Safe traveling on the way down to Matamoros, Mexico

It is coming up very soon! We depart Winnipeg Aug 13!

Today we had our BBQ funraiser, hosted by our home group. Many others came to help. Thank you for your gift of time. It was a success! We had to run to the store between the service to get more food!

We raised just under a thousand from the sales.

NExt weekend we will be in Red LAke, where Phil grew up, saying good-bye to family and friends.

August long weekend will mark our last Sunday at COTR. We plan on being at camp yet and we'll head off on the 13th of August.

Thanks for your prayers for peace, safety and health.

We will miss all the great people God has brought in our lives through COTR. Come see us!

Well, there is now less then a month left before our anticipated departure date. Our home group is helping us again this week end fundraise for our moving expenses.

We are SO BLESSED to have faithful friends to stand alongside us at this time.

Many people are asking how they can help.

Prayer is always needed. We are more tired out by the mental stress of the preparations then the preparations themselves!

We don't have to do much packing as the man who bought the house is planning to use it as a recovery center for women and wants all the furniture, linen, dishes etc...

-Phil is working at getting is class 4 drivers.

-We need to tie up all our business activities.

-There is some work to do on the house yet before possession.

-We will need to empty the garage and haul stuff.

So people with trucks or hitch and trailer to take a load away would be greately appreciated.

The best way to reach us is to call Phil at 295-2488 or Sophie at 297-9480

See you on Sunday!

Sophie for the Ramers

This Blog is to keep you posted on the progress of our move to Matamoros, Mexico. We are planning to leave Winnipeg August 13, 2009. Our home group did a fund raiser selling and giving ice cream to people after church this weekend and what a blessing. We were able to raise a significant amount towards our move to Mexico, Praise the Lord! Thank you to all who volunteered and to all those who bought ice cream or gave money God bless all of you.

We sold our house on June 16th after having it listed for 3 days! Thanks to alot of hard work by friends, our home group and of course our own hands, lets not forget God. We had several offers.