Our Teammates Are Here!
By Scott & Sherry | May 15, 2009
Thank you for your faithful prayers for our teammates Aaron & Gabrielle and their two daughters Mylee and Evie as they patiently waited for clearance to fly to Mexico. They arrived on Tuesday and had their first couple of days filled with new missionary orientation, immigration photos & paperwork, and testing out their new (used) van.
We drove up to meet them on Wednesday and we followed each other back to Puebla on Thursday morning (early, around 5am-in order to avoid traffic!) and got them settled into their temporary housing arrangement until they can find a house.
Please continue to lift them up as they will be looking for a house, getting acquainted with driving again (after a year of walking and taking buses & taxis) and finding their way around town.
Topics: Puebla | No Comments »
New Mission
By Scott & Sherry | May 10, 2009
Today we attended a commissioning ceremony for a new mission started by 2nd Baptist Church of Puebla, also known as Ebenezer. When we arrived a praise band was singing and the 30 or so people there were worshiping. Later we all introduced ourselves, then the pastor of Ebenezer gave the commissioning sermon to the new members of the new mission called The Great Commission. In the photo below are the new pastor and his wife.
This mission is being started in a house of one of the members. Notice how the house is unfinished and the roof is not quite complete, but these members are determined to meet anyway!
Once the services ended, the ladies served us a nice lunch of chicken, rice, bread and tortillas.
As a side note, the pastor (named Javier) of this new mission lives in a neighborhood that we are targeting to start a new church in. This neighborhood is considered a “transitional housing complex” because the houses are very simple and small, but are affordable for those considered in the upper-low income range.
In this one complex are 9,600 houses that all virtually look the same. When you consider that 4 people live in each house (which is a very conservative number), that is close to 40,000 people who need a church in their neighborhood to go to!!!
Please pray for open doors into this highly regulated neighborhood (i.e. no private gatherings in the public park areas, no meeting in the public schools located inside the complex, and currently no availability of store space to rent-only for sale).
Topics: Puebla | No Comments »
Cell Church Kick-Off
By Scott & Sherry | May 6, 2009
Please join us in praising the Lord for the success of Hananeel’s first cell church group meeting. There were 16 cell groups with over 200 in total attendance! That’s more than they have on a Sunday morning between their two services. We heard testimonies of how members invited their neighbors and how the Holy Spirit gave words to the group leaders when they were faced with tough questions. Here are a few pics from the group we participated in.
In keeping with typical Mexican hospitality, the hostesses of our group offered sweet bread, eggs, rice and tortillas with salsa, of course!
Please pray for the pastors of Hananeel as they seek God’s direction on how to transition to cell groups as well as praying for unity among these two pastors and the congregation.
Topics: Puebla | No Comments »
Cinco de Mayo…this year, just another day in Puebla…
By Scott & Sherry | May 5, 2009
Today was supposed to mark the celebration of the Mexican army’s victory over much larger French forces in 1862 in the city of Puebla. But thanks to the swine flu, the government has decided to cancel the Parade AND the reenactment of the Battle of Puebla in order to avoid further “contamination”. Boo!
We foreigners (well, most of us) think of the 5th of May as a day to binge on eat Mexican food, celebrate Mexican heritage, set off fireworks, etc. but in reality, this holiday is celebrated more like our Labor Day. Most Poblanos (natives of Puebla) get the day off work and just want to enjoy their time relaxing and spending time with family.
So what is typically a “day of rest” for most Poblanos has turned out to be for many a “week of rest” with this past week’s government mandated closings of schools, public events, etc. So hopefully the suspense of seeing photos of the colorful parades and costumes won’t be too much to bear until next year!!!
Topics: Puebla | No Comments »
Swine Flu, Delayed Team Members & Cell Church
By Scott & Sherry | April 28, 2009
This past week Mexico made headline news with the alert to the world that the Swine Flu was causing thousands of illnesses and numerous deaths. Therefore, the CDC announced also that all unessential travel to Mexico be avoided which means our team members, the Woods family, has been put on hold indefinitely. Please pray for them as they wait in Costa Rica for the “all clear” to fly to and get settled in their new home, Mexico.
Scott & I are doing well and are not worrying one bit about this flu. We have not altered our schedule to avoid public places or canceled our meetings with Nationals. We would like to thank you all for your prayers for our health and safety as we all need them wherever we live. God has been faithful to allow some of our National friends to share the reason why they don’t have fear about the flu and He has also brought good out of seemingly lousy circumstances.
This week, the Mexican government mandated all churches cancel their services for Sunday (5/3). One church we know is making lemonade out of lemons. They are anticipating having 19 cell church meetings in their member’s houses! What a great idea! The two pastors of Hananeel (pronounced On-a-nel) met together earlier this week to put together the lesson, the order of service, selected songs and even provided coloring sheets and crayons for the kids’ activities. Tonight they had a meeting of all those who will be leading the groups so that they could review the lesson and ask questions.
We are praying for God to use this time to strengthen the members and allow them to see the benefit of having small group meetings in houses throughout the week and one corporate celebration meeting on Sundays.
Topics: Puebla | No Comments »
Where does the time go?
By Scott & Sherry | March 3, 2009
Since none of you will be nominating me for Blogger of the Year, ahem, I’ve decided to catch up the blog as if I had never missed a beat during these last two and a half months of living in Mexico. Well technically, the first four weeks were spent in perpetual lostness (sounds like a spiritual condition, huh?) trying to find a house in this big city full of one-way streets, not to mention some of the street names not matching what is on the map!?!
Although I didn’t take pictures, just imagine Scott holding the map and me sitting in the driver’s seat with the two of us pointing in different directions to indicate where North was. Yep, that about sums it up. I’m sure those of you who have moved a time or two to a new city can relate. One wrong turn or missed exit will cost you 10 minutes, minimally! Thankfully, that part of our orientation is over and we’re on to bigger and more exciting things. So sit back, relax and plan to do plenty of reading!
You’ll need to scroll down to read the posts because they are in date order.
Topics: Puebla | 1 Comment »
Setting up house
By Scott & Sherry | January 24, 2009
Most of our days are spent cleaning, arranging, rearranging, more cleaning and making countless runs to Home Depot. We have been there so many times, in fact, that one of the young guys we asked for help from the first day actually remembered who we were and asked us if we were ever able to find the carpet we were inquiring about. When the employees greet you with a look of “oh, you’re back”, that’s when you know you’ve spent waaayyy too much time at Home Depot!
And along with houses, come plumbing problems and boy, have we had our share of them! All things considered, it has been worth them just to be able to have an influence in the life of this man…
Meet Tereso. He is the man we call on average every 5-6 days to tell him something else has gone wrong in the bathroom or on top of the roof. Our water supply is on top of the roof, which is both positive and negative!! Positive because gravity allows us to have water pressure that is a little more than a trickle. Negative when we forget to don’t turn the water pump off in time, which causes the water to overflow the tank and spill out on our flat roof, causing other problems!
Take a look at what he “cleaned” out of our water tank! Now you know why they say…”Don’t drink the water in Mexico”!!
Such is life these days. One day we’ll get that automatic shut-off switch fixed so it’s not Niagara Falls in our backyard!
Anyway, Tereso is more than a plumber; he’s one of the die-hard avid fans/singers/flag wavers/cheerleaders at the Puebla soccer games. His job is to sing, cheer, hold the banner and jump up-and-down the entire game. Sounds exhausting to me, but you can tell he is very passionate about it. He even sketched out how the game is played on a piece of paper for us!
These moments are how we want to spend our days. Not setting up a house, not picking out furniture, but building relationships with nationals. Please pray for us as we try to build a friendship with Tereso. Pray that he will sense his true need for the Savior.
Topics: Puebla | No Comments »
We Found a House!
By Scott & Sherry | January 12, 2009
After 4 weeks of searching for a house, the Lord has provided us a wonderful, very Orange house! It has 3 bedrooms (all upstairs), 2 ½ baths and a parking area that our truck barely fits in. Phew!
We were fortunate to be able to buy bedroom furniture, bookcases, desks and other household items from our mission that will fill all of the bedrooms and our office.
Now the search is on for living room and dining room furniture, ugh! Shopping is not really my thing! I know, some of you are wondering if I am really female, but I assure you I am. I just didn’t get the love-to-shop gene ;0
Topics: Puebla | 1 Comment »
Happy New Year!
By Scott & Sherry | January 2, 2009
This New Year’s Eve was spent with our friends Dennis & Mayela from Kansas City, MO who were visiting their family in Monterrey, Mexico. We hopped a bus to Mexico City and then caught a small plane for a two –hour flight to our destination. We had the experience of eating Cabrita (goat) for our first New Year’s feast in Mexico, compliments of Mayela’s aunt. It was delicious! Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures of the food and the pics of the celebration turned out poorly. Sorry!
While in Monterrey, we visited a bird sanctuary and just hung out with our friends. But the favorite part of our trip was getting to see our youngest prayer partners, Andrew and Matthew. They pray for us every night before they go to bed! Isn’t that the greatest?
Topics: Puebla | No Comments »
Giving thanks for You and stuff
By Scott & Sherry | December 27, 2008
This time last year we were visiting the beautiful colonial city of Grenada, Nicaragua for a short getaway before our Spanish language classes began. One year later, we are spending our time driving in and out of the streets of our new city trying to find a house.
Do you remember Scott writing in our monthly newsletter about the car that gets great “grass mileage”?
Well, we found the coordinating house, only it’s not for rent. Bummer!
All joking aside, we truly are grateful for the vehicle we’ve been given by our mission organization. Hopefully one day soon we will be giving thanks for a house too!
We are anxious to get moved in and settled so that we can make friendships with nationals and partner with them in reaching this incredibly large city for Christ! The task right now seems so great, but we are trusting in the Lord to help and guide us. Thanks to all of you who are regularly lifting us up!
Topics: Puebla | No Comments »
Merry Christmas!!
By Scott & Sherry | December 25, 2008
Topics: Other | 1 Comment »
Interesting things…
By Scott & Sherry | December 23, 2008
While driving on the streets of Puebla for hours on end looking for a place to live, we’ve come across some interesting and beautiful sites of our new home. Take a look…
Who knew that the secret to great chicken was a blow dryer? (look closely, it’s blue)
Now that’s fresh honey! BTW, he was still alive!
Christmas decorations
Puebla is famous for its hand-painted Talavera Pottery
Beautiful Sunset!
And of course, the Volkswagon plant is here!
We can’t wait to see what else there is to discover about Puebla. Remember, when you see a Volkswagon Bug where you live, please take time to pray for the people of Puebla to be open to the true Gospel!
Topics: Puebla | No Comments »
Our temporary digs…
By Scott & Sherry | December 20, 2008
As we spend our days (and some nights) driving thru the streets of downtown Puebla looking for a house to rent, our evenings are spent in this two bedroom apartment in the middle of basically nowhere. We are surrounded by fields, and if you time it just right, you can catch a whiff of manure from the donkeys plowing the fields across the road. Nice, huh?
But ohhh the views from our little apartment! Take a look at this beautiful volcano named Popocatépetl, or Popo for short. It is an active volcano with an elevation of 17,802 feet. It is located about 25 miles West of the city where frequently puffs of smoke can be seen spewing out its crater. Don’t worry though, scientists are monitoring it for strong activity.
A day or two after it has rained and the clouds clear away, you get this view…
Remember the Catholic Church built on a pyramid I mentioned in a prior post? Well, this is it…The Great Pyramid of Cholula. You can look it up on Wikipedia.org to learn some interesting things about it. They currently have tours, so maybe one day soon Scott and I will go for a visit, after we find a house, of course!
Topics: Puebla | No Comments »
Welcome to Puebla
By Scott & Sherry | December 13, 2008
Ahhh…the day we’ve been waiting for! Puebla, at long last! We arrived today (Saturday) around 3:30p to the greeting of three different welcome signs as we entered the city. I believe one of the signs indicates the population is slightly over 1 million, but judging from all of the cars and people we saw, it’s probably more like 2 million! Puebla is a very lovely city and very well developed like most cities in the U.S. I’ll write more on the city in a later post…
Tonight we spent the evening getting settled into our temporary apartment, which included a not-so-quick stop to Wal-Mart. Apparently Saturday, December 13th had been designated as “sales tax free day” at the nearest Wal-Mart (well, maybe not the closest Wal-Mart, but at least the first one we found!!). So there we were, waiting in line to checkout for an hour and a half! Fortunately, there was a little girl and her brother who were trying to speak to me in English (as prompted by their father). Of course, their side of the story to their friends and family is probably that they met a woman in line at Wal-Mart who was trying to speak Spanish to them…oh well, it helped to pass the time.
I guess the upside is that we actually have a Wal-Mart, unlike some of our friends in various places around the world. By the time we left it was 10:30pm and we were beat, but still had to find our way back to the apartment, in the dark, I might add. Todd left us that night with some crash-course directions in finding our way around the city and instructions for the best places to start looking for a house. The coming days should be very interesting……
Topics: Puebla | No Comments »
Didn’t I say we’d be eating tacos?
By Scott & Sherry | December 12, 2008
Since arriving in Mexico a few days ago, it seems that we have been eating non-stop. But with food like this, who would want to stop? Steve and Sherry B. have taken us to some incredible restaurants for tacos (of course) and Argentine steak. We’ve also found some great Italian Gelato (a creamier, slightly softer version of ice cream) here, which satisfies the longing we’ve had for 14 months to have a decent-tasting scoop of ice cream (Costa Rica is not known for having good ice cream!).
Tomorrow we will bid farewell to the crazy-driving city of Mexico City and meet up with our boss, Todd, to drive to Puebla!! Thankfully, he will be driving, which will give us some time to observe the driving habits of the locals before we venture out on our own behind the wheel of a stick shift. We will be staying in an apartment just outside of Puebla in a town called Cholula, probably most famous for the Catholic Church that was built on top of a pyramid.
Topics: Puebla | No Comments »
We’ve Arrived!!
By Scott & Sherry | December 11, 2008
Click Photo to Enlarge
Without any hitches, our flight arrived as scheduled and our 5 pieces of luggage arrived with all of the contents they left with from Costa Rica. But Mexico’s customs officials were quite eager to want to search all of our bags for goodies forbidden to be transported into their country. Thankfully Nestle’s Semi-sweet chocolate chips, Hershey’s Cocoa and pecans didn’t qualify as forbidden!
We were greeted at the customs exit by fellow IMBers (International Mission Board) Steve and Sherry B. Sherry brought me a single-stem red rose that actually made it in one piece back to the guest house where we were staying. It sure was a nice feeling being greeted by friendly faces in one of the world’s largest (and most dangerous) cities.
We also completed our paperwork today for our FM3 Visas. These are the little green booklets that allow us to be in the country legally. Every December we will have to renew our visas, which I don’t believe will require us to travel to Mexico City, which is only about a two hour drive, depending on traffic, of course!
Topics: Puebla | No Comments »
The Time Has Come…
By Scott & Sherry | December 9, 2008
Yes, the time has finally come to say goodbye to Costa Rica and Hello to Mexico!! We truly desire your prayers as we travel Wednesday evening. Specifically, please pray for us to be good representatives of our Lord Jesus Christ! Our flight leaves at 7:25pm and arrives at 10:30pm. Our itinerary for the following few days will be:
Thursday morning – Go to Immigration office to start our visa process, then eat tacos
Friday morning – Return to Immigration office to finalize our visa documents, then eat tacos
Saturday afternoon – Meet with our boss for lunch (probably more tacos) and drive to Puebla (about 2 hours south) and settle in to our temporary apartment.
We may know more information about other items on our agenda once we arrive in Mexico City. One thing is for certain, sometime in between Thursday and Saturday, we’ll receive our vehicle!!! Photos to come…
Thanks so much for lifting us up during another time of transition!
Topics: 3rd Tri-Language School | 1 Comment »
We’ve Been Here One Year!!
By Scott & Sherry | October 24, 2008
First Meal in Costa Rica
Watching Princess Bride in Spanish 1 yr later
It’s so hard to believe that just 365 days ago, we stepped off our plane into a world where food doesn’t have much spice and the language they speak is difficult to understand and speak. But, Praise the Lord for a church that lavished us with enough spice to season the entire country’s food and the ability to not only understand the language, but speak it as well!
God has been faithful thru our many trials and tests (literally) here and I hope it can be said that we were faithful too. It will be wonderful to look back over the next 365 days to see what God has done!
Topics: 3rd Tri-Language School | No Comments »
Chicken & Rice Anyone?
By Scott & Sherry | October 10, 2008
It is always a great feeling to be invited to a national’s house. They are typically very warm and aim to please, usually with food! This night was no different, except that we, the Gringas (the white girls), would be learning how to prepare the delicious Costa Rican meal from scratch that we’d all share in later that evening. Yeah, no pressure!
DeNiel, Tiffany and I stepped into Jasmina’s humble kitchen and I began taking notes on how to prepare Arroz con Pollo. After admiring that Jasmina not only had one rice cooker, but TWO, ( I still make rice the old-fashioned way, boiled on the stove, okay, maybe not THE old-fashioned way which would probably be over open fire, but close enough!) I was feeling a little envious, that is until we got to the part of the recipe where we fry up the ham and bacon. She proceeded to put oil and the aforementioned contents in the second rice cooker when the following thought ran through my head, “Ohhh, that’s what the other rice cooker is for…she doesn’t have a stove…”. My envy soon turned to shame and, in the same moment, I had an overwhelming appreciation for people who make the best with what they have. Yes, I have a special and growing admiration for resourceful people!!
While Jasmina did most of the work preparing the food, we (the ladies) hung out with her darling kids and the guys (Scott and Anthony, DeNiel’s husband) had coffee and sweet bread with Pascual. But soon, it was dinnertime! Jasmina served up each plate with the Arroz con Pollo and potato chips, yep potato chips (think Lay’s plain potato chips). I don’t ask, I just eat! And eat we did, until we were stuffed!
After dinner, we brought out the playing cards and the games began. Jasmina was becoming so good at the game that Pascual accused her (jokingly) of “playing dirty”! We had a great time and the kids had a great time playing with each other, even though, they don’t speak each other’s language. Take a look at the slideshow above to get a better idea of our time together. If you are not able to see the slideshow, please visit our blog by clicking on Bennetts OnMission above.
P.S. Oh yeah, when we get to Mexico, I’m buying a rice cooker!
Topics: Outreach/Ministry | 1 Comment »
Dinner with Pascual & Jasmina
By Scott & Sherry | October 4, 2008
I just love to see God’s hand at work in just the simple things, like dinner. I didn’t fix anything spectacular that evening, in my opinion, but the clean plates served as a “two thumbs up” of sorts. Our dinner guests that evening were Pascual, Jasmina, Jasmine and Sarita. You may remember them from our second Bible study. They have recently moved to a different apartment complex and have graciously offered for their house to be used for a separate Bible study. Because we currently lead two Bible studies and are in our final semester of language school, we have summoned the help of some new missionaries who will carry on the work after we leave.
Our fellow missionaries, the Gillens, were also there as a way for us to introduce them to Pascual and Jasmina. Our goal that evening was to simply introduce friends, but what came out of our meeting was sheer amazement at God’s work in progress! After dinner, while the kids were getting acquainted with each other, the adults broke out the playing cards. Typically quiet people, Pascual and Jasmina quickly came out of their shells. The night was filled with laughter and a real sense that they were starving for fellowship. They had such a great time that they invited us all to their house for the following Friday for more games and fellowship. Jasmina also agreed to show DeNiel and me how to make Arroz con Pollo (chicken and rice)! I can’t wait!
Topics: Outreach/Ministry | No Comments »