Church retreat

The weekend of April 25-27th, we had our annual church retreat. This year, due to popular demand, we decided to have it in April, rather than October, since it's much warmer and there isn't rain (usually). We had our friends, David and Janie Padilla, who worship and work at Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, Texas, come to speak at the retreat. Our time as a church in the word was an incredible blessing! David did a beautiful job of speaking God's word, encouraging us and inspiring us to live victoriously for Christ.
We had a great number of people come; although, the men were clearly absent in the mix. We had many, many more women and children than men. Our prayer is that God will bring these men and draw them to what he truly wants in their lives and raise them up as leaders of this body.
We enjoyed a couple of days at a "water park" equipped with cabins for us. The kids loved being in the water, and playing endless hours with each other. We even had a talent show where everyone was good sports about participating.
We praise God for these times of getting away, refreshing and fellowshiping with one another.

One of our sessions together



Food is never lacking and we love sharing a meal together!!!




Victoria wasn't so sure about playing organized games with the rest, so she played sloth for a little while


Sofia did an excelent job with the doughnut eating contest



The swimming was a highlight, and the kids really enjoyed swinging into the water; although it was a little shallow.



Just as an update, in April before the retreat, we said goodbye to our intern, Jeanine. She was here for almost a year and did an amazing job integrating into the Mexican culture, working with us and making lasting relationships with several of the people here. We already miss her very much and our girls especially were sad to see her go. We pray that God will continue to use her mightily wherever and whatever she does stateside. The next weekend, we also hosted the annual music seminar here in Morelia. We had five other churches from central Mexico (Cuernavaca, Lazaro Cardenas, Leon, Mexico City and Tlaplan) join us in learning new songs and praising God. It was such a blessing to fellowship with other Christians and be encouraged by each other.