Christmas in Virginia!

After living in Mexico for 11 months, we are glad to be on vacation in the USA! On Dec. 17th we flew into Mexico City and spent the night with our very hospitable missionary friends Travis and Danielle Rann. Apparently we planned our travel itinerary just right because we were able to crash the Mexico City IMB Christmas party. . .mmm. . .the food was sooo delicious and the company was just as good.

After getting on the plane the next day it was a smooth trip to VA. Many times our Mexican friends asked us, "Are you going to see snow?" and many times we responded, "Maybe." The 20 inches of snow that dumped on VA the night we landed in DC was a shock to us but we greatly enjoyed our white Christmas!


The 3 weeks we've had in Harrisonburg reconnecting with friends and family have been great. To everyone who fed us banquets of delicious food - you rock! Besides eating, we had an awesome time just hanging out with everyone, going to botanical gardens, playing settlers, and shopping for baby. Well, Abby had a great time shopping for baby - Mark is pretty much over the pink explosion that takes up an entire 50 lb suitcase! Another highlight was making fun of the snuggie that mom got for Christmas!

So we are now staring directly at that day I knew would eventually come...flying back to Mexico. I will gladly exchange the sub-freezing temperatures here for the tropical climate of Tuxtla but the best thing about being back in Mexico is getting involved again in the great stuff that God is doing in our city.

We finished the semester with our last church service/Christmas party and had our biggest turnout of the year. Not only did many familiar faces make their way to our apartment for the evening we also had a large number of fresh faces that we and our friends had invited! At Aletheia we highly value integrating new people into our group and it has been so amazing to see how the Philippians 2 vision has become so important to our core group! Our discussion for the evening was "Who is Jesus Really?" Philippians 2:11-15 gives such a clear picture of the Deity of Christ, who he was before, during and after His life on earth. It was a great time to meditate on the incredible significance of our Lord's birth and challenge the group to re-examine their perceptions of Jesus.
Abby and I are excited to see how the momentum from this Christmas service will carry on into the new year.

With classes out and many students gone the last two weeks before traveling home Abby and I had the opportunity to travel some in Chiapas. We checked out the closest beach, Puerta Arista (where we saw baby sea turtles), and drove to a cool waterfall! It was our last chance to bone up on our tans before flying out of the country!









We've had so much fun being home. It has been wonderful to share both personally and in front of Aletheia Church and Liberty Baptist Church about what God is doing in the lives of students in Tuxtla. As we head back please pray for travel safety, a great meeting with our director Steve and his wife Laura, core members in Tuxtla to continue coming out in 2010 and for God to raise up leaders for the church and a location for us to meet in.

God Bless and Happy New Year!!