We are still thanking the Lord for our trip to Mexico. The people we met were such a blessing to us! One of our team members gives us her take here. Dixie was not only a blessing to our team, but a BIG HIT with the children of Tieta!

The thing that surprised me is that I could teach children.  This is something I have not wanted to do.  With the kids wanting to learn some English and I wanted to learn some Spanish, we were a good mix for each other.  One girl, Margret, touched my heart.  She wanted to learn lots of English words.  She was a good at hugging.  She did not want to let go.

The team was surprised how well the reading glasses went over. Two ladies said that they could now read their Bibles.  We had an old man that said he had hurried in from shepherding his sheep.  Once he received his glasses, he praised God.  God is good.

We experienced a earthquake.  Where Mary and I stayed at, the metal roof shook violently. One of the translators who stayed with us, said it was a tremor.  All four of us were wide awake. The earthquake struck in the middle of the night.

Stay tuned for more perspectives!

Some more pictures!

Getting to know the Sin Fronteras team and celebrating Jaime's birthday

The church in the village of Teita

Early morning work to tidy up the grounds of the church

Getting the health fair going!

The eyeglasses station was a big hit, and many people were excited to be able to sew and/or read again. 

The guys' quarters

We not only did medical consultations but got to share the Gospel with several people. Viviana, pictured above, prayed to receive Christ! 

Activities and fun with the kids

More activities and some small presents for the children

The gracious and loving family who provided our food and made arrangements for our lodging. 

Leaving the beautiful valley of Teita

Back in Tlaxiaco with Alex, Shayra, and their daughter

Am I Giving Everything toward the Great Commission?

While in Tlaxiaco where Sin Fronteras has their home base, our team was privileged to have several training sessions conducted by some of the Mexican missionaries. During one session, a question was asked that continued to echo in my mind over the days that followed: Am I giving everything toward the Great Commission?

It’s an easy question to ask, but it penetrated my heart deeply as I saw several examples of lives responding to that radical charge of Jesus to make disciples of all nations. The vision of this goal being completed is the heartbeat of Sin Fronteras’ ministry.  It’s described in Revelation 7 with the innumerable multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language crying out, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

The great challenge of reaching every tribe, language, and people group is daunting in this part of the world. Just among the Mixtecos, there are over 80 distinct languages and many more dialects! Recently, they completed the translation of the New Testament to one of the Mixteco languages, and it took 18 years to do so.

The Sin Fronteras team recognizes these challenges and is working to advance the Gospel village by village, people group by people group. When one or two of their missionaries move into a village, they are patient and methodical in their approach. They go to great lengths to adjust to the village’s culture and customs, striving to slowly break down the hostility and build a foundation of trust.  They are willing to wait for months or even years to share the Gospel, hoping that the seeds planted in the context of an authentic relationship will yield an abundant harvest.

It’s my fervent prayer that the body of Christ won’t let these missionaries feel like they’re alone in these remote communities. They need our encouragement, prayers, financial support, and more of us to labor alongside them. Their day-to-day lives aren’t easy in these villages, and they pray for God’s protection from persecution, violence, rape, and murder. Nevertheless, they would tell you that it’s more than worth it to play a small part in advancing the Gospel amongst His beloved Mixteco and Triqui peoples!

~Turner

So very much to tell about our trip to Mexico! God truly showed up every minute of the trip! We are going to give you several perspectives about the trip over the next few days.

I see the trip as a series of gifts given to us by the Father. Everywhere we went, every turn we made, we saw His mighty hand at work. Some gifts were large, others were small - but they were gifts given to us as we gave our time and lives to Him this week. I will share some of those gifts with you now.

The gifts began in the assembly of the team. When we first met, we didn't know each other at all. We didn't know who had what gifts, how we would fit together, or even what we would be specifically doing. We only knew that God put this team together and that He had a plan for our time in Tieta, the village in which we spent time. Over the next few months, as we got to know one another, He gave us more information about what we would be doing, and we divided preparation and tasks among the group. Still, we were open to His leading about what would happen once we arrived.

On Saturday morning, as we arrived at the airport, God gave us the gift of several people to pray with us and see us off. It was exciting to us, because we didn't expect ANYONE to show up at 5:15 on a Saturday morning. Thanks to those of you who came, and also to those who prayed from home. Our trip was uneventful, for the most part. We were excited and ready to arrive. After three flights, we got on a bus for a 3.5 hour ride. It was so hot on the bus, so we had no idea that it was beautifully cool outside. When we arrived in Tlaxiaco (pronounced Tla - he - a - co), it was between 55 & 60 degrees. Many of us had no jackets, but we enjoyed the weather anyway!

Sunday morning, we went to church, which was another gift. Worshiping with others who have the same heart for Jesus is so amazing. We didn't know the language, but we knew the same God, so we were able to fully participate in the worship. As an added gift, they did two songs we were able to sing in English to as our friends sang in Spanish. What a beautiful blessing and time of lifting up our voices to our King.

After a day of cultural training, we headed off to the village. It was a 2.5 hour ride through rutted dirt roads while passing livestock being moved. Sometimes it seemed that the road would never end! Arriving in Tieta, we were amazed by the gift of the generous and kind people who were taking care of feeding us. The women were precious. They wanted to serve us and make us happy while we were in their care. Wait - I thought we were there to help them.... The food was good, which we all were concerned about. Another gift. And we certainly didn't go hungry! Additionally, God placed three children in the dining area for us to play with - John was excited - 3 boys. We learned that little boys are the same everywhere!

While in the village, we conducted health fairs and gave some health education classes. On day 1, we started with what we thought would work, and fine-tuned it to make it efficient for both the villagers and for us. God gave us over 150 people with whom to interact. This number would probably be increased by about 25 or more if we count the children who came to play but didn't go through the stations at the health fair. The gifts here were amazing. We were able to pray with people, give them some them some health advice, and even saw one woman turn her life over to Christ. Please pray for Viviana as you think of her. She is a woman whose son had been murdered in Tlaxiaco, and her husband had died several years earlier. Her only other child, a daughter, lives in the village, but has her own life. She was very lonely and hopeless, but we told her about the hope we have in Jesus. It was an amazing time, and we welcomed her as a sister in Christ with tears and hugs.

We gave out over 100 pairs of reading glasses. This was very exciting for us. Another gift was people who said they would now be able to read their Bibles because of the glasses. What a blessing! Personally, I didn't think the reading glasses would be something that were needed, but I was obviously wrong. God knew. We also found out that there had been a doctor/dentist team there a couple of weeks earlier, and the people requested reading glasses. God provided those through our team. Another gift.

The gifts continued. We were sleeping (sort of) at 4:45 AM on Tuesday, and an earthquake shook the area. I understand it was a 6.1 on the Richter scale at the point of origin, but it did little more that shake us and scare us. The villagers didn't seem to even be fazed by it. God woke us up with it, but showed us that we were in His care and under His protection. What a gift.

The educational materials we took involved sex education for girls and boys, and we were able to present to a group of girls who were about 13 or 14 years old, and a large group of boys, ages 13 or so to about 20. The gift there was that they listened respectfully and were given the message about God's plan for marriage. No questions from the girls (surprise!), but Jason and Turner spent some time with Omar discussing God, the Church, hypocrisy, and much more after the presentation to the boys. We are in prayer for Omar and for the seeds planted. Additionally, we did a presentation on maternity and child care to the women and handed out about ten sets of cycle beads, a natural family planning tool.

The people of Tieta were precious. They were kind, open, and loving. That in itself was a gift. The children were a true blessing. Playing with them was fun and crazy and  awesome. We gave them each a gift bag on the last day, and they came and hugged us with genuine smiles and appreciation. What a gift.

Finally, we had the passport situation. One of our team members lost a passport before arriving in Tlaxiaco the first day. We were all concerned, but turned it over to the Lord. This was an opportunity for our leader, Turner, to show his stuff. God blessed us with Turner's calm leadership skills, and we realized that this in itself was a great gift. After turning it over to the Lord, we went ahead into the village, knowing we would return with only one day to solve this issue. Upon returning late Thursday night to Tlaxiaco, we found that Turner and the team member had to take a bus to Mexico City to take care of it. They had about an hour or so to get their first shower in days and get on the bus. Thankfully, God worked all that out so that they made the bus. After traveling all night, they arrived in Mexico City and were able to get into the Embassy first thing. Our team member had an emergency passport at 3PM. This was an amazing gift - it all went smoothly. Unfortunately, they could not board the plane in Mexico City because their tickets were for an origination in Oaxaca, so they had to take the bus back to Oaxaco (7 hours) to meet up with the rest of the team for travel. They arrived around 2:30 AM, and our taxis to the plane left the hotel at 5:20. I know they were exhausted, and their marathon was not over yet. Once we arrived at the airport in Mexico City, they had to chase down immigration, because there was an immigration form in the passport that was required to be kept until leaving the country. We prayed right there in the airport, because they had to take a taxi, leave the airport to get to another terminal, pay a fine, and taxi back to the terminal before getting a boarding pass for our trip to Atlanta. We had about 1.5 - 2 hours for all this to happen - and first, we had to figure out where to go. After being sent in several directions, those team members took off and said they would try to make it to the gate for takeoff. The rest of the team prayed. Only about 15 minutes before the door closed for boarding the plane, they arrived, safely and with the proper paperwork. We would return as a team - a great big gift!  God showed Himself mightily in this whole situation. We didn't want this to overshadow all the work and blessings of the trip, and He worked it out so that it didn't. We know it could have been so much worse, and He made it all work out. Thanks be to God.

There are so many more gifts I could tell you about. You will hear about some of them from other team members in the next few days. We are blessed to have been part of this trip, and we know that seeds were planted in Tieta. Jesus is alive and well and loves the Mixteco people. His banner was lifted high during our time there. To God be all glory and honor and power forever.

We have arrived In Atlanta and are waiting for our flight To GSO.  Can't wait to update everyone about our trip. See you at the airport at 715!!!!!

Arrived in Tlaxiaco!

After a 15 hour travel day, we arrived in Tlaxiaco around 830 pm Saturday night. Unfortunately, wifi has not worked, and we have been unable to update. Our travel day started very early, as we met at the airport at 430 am. We proceeded to check in and juggle bags, then prayed with those who came out to see us off. Our flight left at 6, and things were basically smooth. We had a slight problem or two in Mexico City, but we made it. One of our team members stepped out of bounds in the customs area and had to take his luggage up to be rechecked. Then we had a scare and thought we were going to miss our connection to Oaxaca, but God worked that out, too. After arriving in Oaxaca, we took a bus to Tlaxiaco. What an adventure. The daredevil driver had some near misses with other cars and bicyclists, and the roads were very twisty. This, paired with a very hot van, resulted in some sick stomachs. 

After finally arriving in Tlaxiaco after a harrowing three hour drive, we were greeted by our hosts and taken to the square in town for a wonderful dinner of....hamburgers. I have to tell you, these burgers were a real treat. We were able to go to bed around 11pm local time which was midnight our time. Some of the team members slept really well, while others were awakened often by the sound of barking dogs and crowing roosters ALL NIGHT LONG. Still, we had nice beds to sleep in, food in our tummies, and were very grateful for our safe travels.

One distraction - a passport has been lost. Turner has been working all day to try and figure out what we need to do to get her back in the country. Please pray that this process will go smoothly and we will have no problems. Also, we will be without internet service while we are in the village, and we need to be able to resolve this before we leave. Our God is able to fix all this!

Today was about church and training. After breakfast we headed to church. Three hours later, we emerged. Beat that, Pastor Don! What a great service. The worship was lively and beautiful. There were even some songs that we sang in English as the church family sang in Spanish. We may not have known specifically what the others were saying, but our hearts were singing the same tune to the same amazing God. The first sermon, which turned out to be a Bible study, was on fear. Amazing verses were given, and I´m sure great teaching was going on. Turner and Agustina were kind enough to keep us up to speed on where to go to follow along, but word for word translation was impossible. After a few more songs, the preaching started. The preacher was teaching on unity, so he had us all split up and sit with people not in our family. The unfortunate problem there is that many of us sat next to people who didn´t know English and couldn´t help us keep up. Pair that with little to no sleep, and it was a difficult hour. One of our hosts came and sat next to me toward the end and helped me to follow along a bit. What I took out of that is that we are all the same and that our skin color and language are irrelevant. We need to be unified and serve our Lord as one. 

We had our first training this afternoon on the village we will be visiting. We leave tomorrow afternoon and will return to Tlaxiaco on Friday. It is extremely doubtful that we will have access to internet or cell service. We are excited to visit the village and encourage the church there. Please pray that we can not only encourage the church but leave a positive impression of Christians on the unbelievers in the community. We have learned that it is a long process for people in these villages to convert, and we pray that we are a help, not a hindrance in the process.

Thank you for your prayers. We feel every one of them. We will update when we can. There are lots of good stories for when we have more time. 

Only four days remain till our trip to Mexico. We are very excited, and God is working, even as we prepare. Thank you for the donations of vitamins and glasses. We can still use some, so feel free to call if you are able to help. Our greatest need is children's and prenatal vitamins, as well as small tubes of toothpaste.

We wanted to post our prayer calendar for the trip. If you are led, please pray for our team while we are in Mexico.

Prayer Calendar – Mexico Team 2014

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Ephesians 3:20-21

Saturday, July 26^th 

Our team will be leaving Greensboro at 6am, heading to the city of Oaxaca, Mexico. We will meet from 5:00-5:15 at the airport to pray, and we’d love to have anyone who is available (and awake) to join us!

·         Pray for safe travels with 3 flights, connections in Atlanta and Mexico City, and then 2 bus rides.  

·         Also pray for the customs process to go smoothly since we’ll be carrying vitamins and medical supplies, which could get the attention of the customs officers.

·         Pray for rest while traveling and endurance to finish the day and make it to Tlaxiaco!

Sunday, July 27th

This will be our first full day in Tlaxiaco. We will go to church in the morning, where one of us will be sharing a testimony/brief message.

Later we will have a cultural training class with Alex and other missionaries.

·         Pray for the Holy Spirit to guide us when sharing at church.

·         Pray for God to help us be culturally sensitive and for Him to teach us how to love the Mixteco people in the way He loves them.

·         Pray for us to bond quickly with the Sin Fronteras team and for us to be of encouragement to them as Paul was in his travels.

Acts 15:30-35:  So when they were sent off, they went down to Antioch, and having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter. And when they had read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement.  And Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, encouraged and strengthened the brothers with many words.  And after they had spent some time, they were sent off in peace by the brothers to those who had sent them.                                                                                            

Monday, July 28th

We will finish our cultural training in the morning, and in the early afternoon we will be heading out to the remote village we’ll be in for most of the week.

·         Pray for safe travels to the village and that we’d quickly get on good terms with some of the village leaders and residents.

·         Pray for wisdom on the planning of where and when to do the health fair and health education classes, as well as wisdom on how to promote the activities in the village.

Tuesday, July 29th

We´ll be starting our activities in the village. There is a good chance that we’ll do the health fair this day.

·         Pray for wisdom while we screen, diagnose, and treat people and that God´s supernatural love would be poured out on each person. Pray especially for our medical personnel – Regina, John, and Mary.

·         Pray for the Lord to help us with the language barrier.

·         Pray for God to remove any obstacles and opposition – physical and spiritual.

Wednesday, July 30th

We’ll likely be doing our health education workshops with the following topics: Hygiene, Sexual Education and Prenatal/Child Care.

·         Pray for the Holy Spirit to guide each presentation – teaching them practical things as well as drawing them to Biblical truth.

·         Pray for Agustina and Turner as they interpret, especially Turner as he definitely feels challenged in translating some of these topics.

·         Pray that we’d have good spiritual conversations as a result of these workshops.

Thursday, July 31st

We will continue with our activities to include health fairs, health education, activities with kids, and a few surprises for sure.  This will be our last day in the village.

·         Pray for flexibility for our team – that we’d be willing to be used in any way God sees fit.

·         Pray that God would be glorified by many people learning how to take better care of themselves and getting some basic treatment.

Friday, August 1st

Either Thursday evening or Friday morning we’ll be returning from the village to Alex’s base of operations in Tlaxiaco. Then, we’ll go to the larger city of Oaxaca to spend Friday night.

·         We know that we only got to spend a few days with the people of the village, but we also know that God has an eternal plan for them. It doesn’t matter if we are gone, He will keep working in their lives. Pray that He would do just that – advancing His gospel and His kingdom in many of the surrounding villages.

·         Pray for safe travel and no logistical challenges.

·         Pray for our last day with Alex and his family – that we’d have a fun time together and encourage one another.

Acts 17:26-28   "From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. For in Him we live and move and have our being."

Saturday, August 2nd

We’re flying out early and then getting back to Greensboro at 7:15 PM.

·         Pray for safe, uneventful travels.

·         Pray that God would be causing each one of us to reflect on His goodness and the ways that He is challenging us to grow.

Thank you for your love and support. Our God is moving at Westover Church and throughout the world, and we are so grateful to be a part of His story!

     Nine days. Nine. In nine days, we will be in Mexico. This is beyond exciting! We are almost fully funded (thank you, everyone who gave), and we are in the final stages of planning our time there. We all know that our time in Oaxaca and the outlying village(s) we will visit is God's time, and that we may not be doing anything we originally planned to do. That is completely OK with all of us, and we are excited to see where God takes us and to whom He takes us. The relationships we build in the name of Jesus are so much more important than any health screening or education we offer. Those are important, too, but we are praying that we are able to touch people in His name above all else.

     The last few days are busy ones for us: we are assembling cycle beads (a visual tool for natural family planning), collecting supplies, packing, putting together educational pieces, and translating into Spanish. Individually, we are tracking down tiny sleeping bags, finding the correct clothing so we don't offend anyone, and making arrangements with our families and employers. Most importantly, we are trying to make sure to spend quiet time with the Lord during this busy season. As Turner, our leader, read in a devotional recently: Prepare your heart before you pack your bag.

We can certainly use your help now and while we are gone. Here are some ways you can help:


1.  PRAY. This is an ongoing need with any mission trip, and ours is certainly no different. Westover has a team in Zimbabwe and another leaving for China this weekend. We all need prayer for our travel to go smoothly and that God's plan will be evident and we will be able to accomplish what HE has planned for us.

2. We are still in need of a few things. We need large bottles of prenatal vitamins, children's multi-vitamins, and small tubes of toothpaste. Additionally, we will need two thermometers, preferably electronic/battery operated. Please contact one of the team members or call Mary at 420-8404 if you are able to help, and we will make sure your items are picked up. We need to pack all these items by next Wednesday, July 23, so let us know soon if you can help.

3. Join us at PTI airport on Saturday, July 26 from 5:00 to 5:15 AM for send-off prayer. We would love to pray with you before we go! As it stands now, we will arrive home on Saturday, August 2 at around 7:15 PM.

Thank you for your support and your love. This is a very exciting time - it is the first mission trip for most of us! While we don't know what we expect, we know that God goes before us. What more do we need?

Progress on support-raising

We are excited to say that our team is almost to 80% of our support goal! Thanks to all of you for your generosity as well as your prayers. We are trusting in God to provide for the remainder of our support goal as well as to prepare our hearts and minds. Take-off is less than 5 weeks away! 

Our team is working hard to prepare for our time in Oaxaca, Mexico. The dates of our trip are July 26-August 2, so we are in the planning stage for our time there. There is much to do! The plans for our time there are starting to come together. We had some time this week with Janet Ditto. She recently returned from Myanmar, where the team conducted health fairs and screenings. She gave us wonderful ideas of how to use health fairs to connect with people, which is the ultimate purpose of this trip - connecting with people and showing them the love of our Lord!

Prayers are requested for our finances, for the specific directions God wants to take our team, for preparation of our hearts and minds, and for the people we will be serving. Additionally, we will be seeking out donations of pain medicines, antibiotic ointment, vitamins, prenatal vitamins, and allergy medications. If you would like to participate by purchasing any of these items at Costco or somewhere else, we would so appreciate it! For those who have agreed to support us in prayer and/or financially, THANK YOU. We are so excited that you have partnered with us to love the Mixteco people with the love of Christ.