we found a place

We are signing a one year lease on riverside drive, close to Jubilee. We should be able to start moving in Monday. Thank you for your prayers.

We have aquired a cell phone on which we will be able to be reached at as of Monday. Many of you will be asking so here is the number. 204-887-6969.

We also request your prayers for Karen Klassen who is undergoing open heart surgery today and will need our prayers for her journey into recovery.

in need of a place to rent

We have been searching for a suitable place to rent until we can show the bank we are able to sustain a mortgage. The sooner, the better. We need to have a place to call home. We would appreciate your prayers for direction.

We are thankful for our friends in Kleefeld, whose house we live in, but it's a bit far from where we need to be to get settled back.

It was good to see some of you at Church again. We feel welcome. There's nothing like this family! Phil will be meeting with a few potential employers this week.

We also request your prayers for total healing of our hearts. Since we have had time to reflect and take a step back from our time away, we are now dealing with the pain. We know God is working through it all.

Thank you for your financial support. We feel privileged for the chance to spend time investing in the lives of our Mexican brothers and sisters and for the good things God is doing through our trials.

Back in Winnipeg

We would like to thank you all for you prayers and financial support. We haven't been keeping you very up to date and we are sorry. We have decided that we wont be returning to Mexico. We are entirely open to go wherever or stay here...at this point it looks like we are here for now. Church Of The Rock will be continuing our support until June as we transition back to Winnipeg for which we are very grateful. It never dawned on me when we left Winnipeg 9 months ago that we would be back and looking for a home this soon however we are looking not sure how or where as we sat down with a mortgage broker today and the rules have changed making it much harder for self employed people to get a mortgage. We have a place to stay in Kleefield Manitoba about 45 minutes from Winnipeg for about a month after that we don't know but God will provide. Life continues to be an adventure. Please pray for us as to find a place to settle back in. There have been many many instances where God has answered our prayer so we can only press forward in Faith.

WHAT A FEW COOKIES CAN DO

UPDATE

It's been a while since we last posted. Let me start by updating you on Karen's condition. The doctors are pretty sure now that it's mercury poisoning. She had some fillings removed a while back and she has all the symptoms. Praise God for a diagnosis! It's not too hard to fix. But because she had been weakened it will take a month as oppose to a week to fix.

Since our last post, we had a group from Church of the Rock go to the interior. It was a very good experience for the group. They slept in people's home and had some real good time connecting with the locals through worship. They worked on a few different projects. Our next group is due next week! Pray for their safety.

Phil has finished the kitchen in the ministry house and has worked on Harvest Field Ministry's web page at http://www.harvestfieldmin.org/ . He is preparing for the upcoming group and learned about life of small business owners in Mexico. All the people we see selling on the street or at the market, are subject to extortion from the "mana". They are not part of the "mafia". It's a totally different group of people, making a living by making the small business guy pay them or their stuff will be taken away. It's a different world out here!

COOKIES FOR WINDOWS

Abbie has been discovering the joys of baking. Everyday it seems, she's baking something! We found out that people here love cookies! We also quickly realized that there is not much variety in the baking here. It seems the people welcomed the new cookies Abbie was baking.

I thought we should give the recipe to someone to make money with it. We right away thought about Celso and Meli of Templo Ebenezer. They need to raise money for windows for the Church. We talked to them, had them sample the cookies, did a try out with the people during a movie night at their Church and it was a hit! So Abbie taught Meli her recipe. She came here and we baked 20 some dozen cookies to sale that night at the movie night. They sold all of them! So far, they have ordered two windows and have a third of the money saved for another one! They need a total of 8 windows.

Praise God for cookies!

TIME TO LOOK AHEAD

Our contract is soon to be completed; it was signed for a year, in June of 09. So we will be heading out to Winnipeg in May to meet with our church leadership. We have friends in Kleefeld who offered their house to us while they will be working up north. We are looking forward to spend time with our Church family, friends, and family in Winnipeg!

PLEASE PRAY

Karen Klassen's condition hasn't changed and the doctors still don't know what is wrong. They have ruled out a few things but only have theories as to what may be happening.

One of the valve in her heart is not working right although not obstructed, it seems to be pushing blood back in the heart. She is not getting enough oxygen and at times is struggling to get enough air to breath.

Please pray for her condition to be identified and dealt with properly so they can rest to restore health to their bodies.

John and Julie Drieger (also from Church of the Rock) are also here with us. They are personal friends of Phil and Karen. Yet, they have a hard time letting go and taking the necessary rest they need. When Karen started feeling bad, she still packed her bag to go with the group that went to the mountains at the beginning of February. Phil made her stay behind but went along with the group himself, leaving his brother to care for Karen, who ended up in the hospital the next day.

Phil then had to return, leaving the group with John, Julie and Miguel in charge. The rest of the time in the mountains went just great. Phil confessed that in 20 years it was the first time either him or Karen was with the group and that he couldn't stand it.

Now, Karen is feeling the same as she did when the group left for the mountains yet, Phil is planning to go along with John, Julie, Miguel and us.

It seems the main issue right now, aside from their health problems, is the need to hear from God to realize that it's OK to let go and let others do the work.

Thank you for praying.

Taxco, Mexico

While Sophie and the children were visiting in Winnipeg. I was in Mexico working. The day Sophie and the kids left I went on a trip to the interior to do some scouting for upcoming construction teams that are coming. Phil Klassen, Miguel and I went to Aldama, Altamira and Matlapa. We met with quite a few pastors and looked at a several possible building projects as well. I spent the rest of the time Sophie was gone helping to build a house for a family in the mustard seed Program. I didn't have the camera sorry. Once the family arrived home we repacked the bags and headed to Taxco, Mexico to meet up with Sophie's sister. Sophie's brother inlaw goes there to buy Jewelry there which he the sells back in Canada.

This is a picture of Taxco from where we stayed for 6 days. I was fighting bronchitis and slept a lot but the kids had a good time in the pool. The locals couldn't believe that anyone would swim at those temperatures..... it reminded me of my childhood. I believe the high we saw was 23 degrees and the water in the pool was cold. We took a 30 min. trip to a Puebla to see some of the jewelry makers in action.

The drive home was very scenic and slow due to mountains. Unbelievable views from the road curving through the mountains. We were so high at time I think a pressurized cabin would have been a good idea. The kids and Sophie were all feeling bad from altitude and curvy roads.

Often I was amazed by the contrast from the valleys to the tops of the mountains. Bananas and sugar cane growing in the valley and snow capped mountains in the background.
We met people and when they found out what we are doing in Mexico the would tell us "you need to come here" the need is huge. On the way home we spent a few days in Altamira looking at houses as we are preparing to move there. We are not sure as to when we will be moving.

While in Taxco we bought a puppy the kids named him Oscar and he quickly became part of the family. Unfortunately he got sick shortly after we got him and he died on the way home. We were 2 hrs from Matamoros when he died. We said a tearful goodbye and went on our way with heavy hearts. I think we can all smile when we think of him now but it was hard for the kids.

Right now I am building a kitchen for a house that the Ministry has rented. I am making a ceramic tile counter top. No picture yet.

Please Keep Karen Klassen in your prayers as she is in the Hospital right now. She was admitted yesterday and will be undergoing a angeogram this afternoon to determine what it is that is bothering her heart. Phil is in the interior leading a trip right now not due back until Tuesday. I stayed behind as there wasn't room to go along.

Next week we are having another team arriving from Church of the Rock in Winnipeg.

Playing in the Snow

Yes, we did! God has blessed us with a gift to go visit friends and family in Winnipeg. The children and I (Sophie) went for a little over two weeks. It was good. We all needed to be refreshed and to be around familiar things, sounds and people we love and who love us.

Philip stay back in Mexico. He traveled to the interior to prepare for an upcoming group and built a house for a new Mustard Seed family with the winter Texans.

Tomorrow we will be travelling as a family to go visit my sister in Taxco, Mexico. Along the way we will stop in Altamira, close to Tampico, where we will be moving shortly. It is about a 5 hour drive from where we presently live. We hope to locate a suitable place to move to.

There, we will be doing the ground work for short term mission groups and we will also work with some local Churches to start the Mustard Seed Program in that region.

John and Julie (from Church of the Rock) have been here for a month now. Julie is actively involved in helping Karen with the office work. They are a blessing to the ministry. As an accountant, Julie can help make the necessary changes and adjustments to prepare for expansion.
And, in spite of his fragile foot, John is helping Phil with construction projects. Phil says he won't say when it hurts, but we can tell. Please pray for his complete healing. He also has been visiting Pastors.

Together, they have been visiting families from the Mustard Seed Program in Matamoros and learning about the overall work of the ministry.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support.

N.B. Philip's paternal grandfather passed away this morning, joining his wife in heaven. Pray for the family.