April 21′ Family News

Ministry 

Anja

Band

Livestream

Funny enough, my livestream team is very supportive about me joining the worship team. They are all super excited to see me on stage and constantly ask me when I will be singing again. It’s really cute. I love my team!

The team leader asked me if he could schedule me for mixing the sound for the livestream. I explained my situation, having to watch Ziva before the services, and told him that the only possible day would be Wednesday, maybe once a month. Let’s see what’s gonna happen next. 

The team leader also extended an invitation for a short-term photography course (2 hours every Saturday for a month) to people who might be interested – me too, of course. It sounds interesting and I know that his pictures always turn out amazing, so I might end up going, depending if I can arrange it with Chris or someone else to watch Ziva.

Chris

Light Controller

The Light controller for our church plants is coming together slower than I would have hoped. It certainly does not help that I’m not strong in finishing projects. However, the Lord is leading me step by step and just the other day I was asking Him to help me to finish the project. His answer was quick and not what I expected, but what I needed: some pressure. He always gives us what we need.

Easter Celebration

After having a devotional every evening, we ended the Easter week with a concert on Friday and a family service on Sunday. The decoration team upgraded the stage with a cross and some extras, which allowed some pretty amazing effects. During the concert, we had a lot of singers on stage. That was a big challenge for me on the lights; to position every light correctly and also to light the right person in the right moment… But all went well and we enjoyed a good concert on Friday.

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Staff Lunch

This month, we went for staff lunch to Parque Metropolitano, a recreational park with lots of tables, benches and jungle gyms. We started with our usual sharing of something that blessed us the previous week. Then Pastor Mike gave us a Bible passage and sent us off for some quiet time with the Lord to meditate on the scripture and come back with something that it teaches us as well as a way to apply it. The passage was James 5:19-20:

“Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.”

After the quiet time, we met in an English and a Spanish group to share what the Lord had revealed to us and to talk about what we could do to keep our fellow believers from wandering away. We decided to make it a priority to talk with someone who is new to us every week at least once to build relationships and integrate people better. After all, you can help someone a lot better, when you know them. As a result, and as a “quality control”, we will share every second staff meeting who we met and what we learned about that person, instead of sharing what blessed us. 

Lunch was incredible! One of the pastors likes to cook so he prepared and grilled chicken teriyaki skewers, BBQ pork skewers and cream cheese filled jalapeños there. He also prepared seven layer bars for dessert. He is an amazing cook, so it was delicious! After lunch, whoever wanted could go on a hike up a near hill. Anja didn’t want to risk slipping, since it was only a dirt path, so she stayed with a couple of other ladies and had a good time with them. 

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Family

Marriage fellowship

Every Tuesday evening, we attend the marriage fellowship, a bible study for married couples. This semester, the leaders decided to apply more rules. For example, you stay at the same table with the same people every time, so you can get to know them better. Our challenge here is that there are hardly any English-speaking couples who attend, so there is not a lot of choice. However, we are part of a great group this semester. We all get along very well and have a lot of fun.

The leaders also decided to give us challenges that we have to face as couples, if we choose to participate. The winner receives a prize. Here are some of the challenges that we had so far: have the most creative date, find a coffee shop that is not well-known, write a poem with 50 words (including honey, river, cellphone, dolphin, fire, coffee, tire, chair, run, feet, food, mother-in-law). 

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Mexican Paperwork

After Ziva, Anja was the next one having to update her paperwork. Since we had decided to get everything ready quite early, all we had to do was wait until we could hand in the documents – not more than 30 days before expiration date of the residency card. We went to the INM (immigration office) at 12pm instead of 9am, which meant a lot less time waiting in line, which was highly appreciated. After two hours total, Anja left with her card. That’s not a lot of time considering that it took Chris 5 hours to get Ziva’s card…!

As soon as we have the birth certificate of our new baby, we can apply for permanent residency here in Mexico.

Pregnancy

Ziva

Ziva keeps surprising us with new developments. She fell asleep twice at the table during lunch time, once almost while still chewing her food. Using a stepping stool, the sink is now within reach and she loves to get up there and play with the water. It’s a good thing she usually is obedient when we tell her not to play with it. Ziva is also getting more independent on the playground. She can climb the jungle gym quite well on her own and can slide down solo, too. We only have to catch her when she comes down. 

Apparently, the Swiss German word for apple, which is “Oepfel”, is hilarious. Whenever we say it, Ziva is just cracking up. She loves to play with her magnetic tiles and even discovered that she can stick them on the wall next to the closet – apparently that only goes for pink tiles, the purple ones never end up there…. Apart from that, she also started putting the tiles into a box that we have on the shelf – through the slits made for carrying the box. When all the tiles are in, she takes the box back out, opens the lid and removes the tiles. She needs a little bit of help putting the lid back on and the box back into the shelf, but she is doing a good job.

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The most hilarious thing was when we went sandal shopping for Ziva. We went into a store and Anja showed her a pair of sandals that she liked and asked Ziva, do you like these? She shook her head. We did not expect that! However, we repeated the process with two more pairs of sandals with the same result before moving on to the next store because we ran out of options. There, they had a cheap version of Crocs, which Anja hates, but Chris wanted to show Ziva. He brought her three different colors and she immediately stretched her hands out to the red ones. We then let Ziva choose between red and black and it was clearly red she preferred. We then let her choose between red and purple. This time, Ziva grabbed both, so we decided to buy both since they were so cheap. We are using one pair as house shoes now and the other one for outside. 

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Prayer requests

• health
• Easy pregnancy, healthy baby
• Finances for hospital and paperwork after birth