August ’20 Family Update

Church Planting Conference

From August 8th – 9th, Calvary Chapel Rosarito (CCR) held a church planting conference. Everyone who was interested in church planting was invited. The great part was seeing, hearing and talking with the different church planters who were all sent out from CCR over the last 19 years. Some of them even started their own church planting classes and have sent out church planters themselves. It was both interesting and impressive to hear what they had to share about their journey. Apart from the teachings in the sanctuary, we had the opportunity to choose from different workshops. Anja attended two workshops for church planter’s wives and Christof attended workshops about finances, marriage and church planting in persecuted areas.

Since we were about to become staff, we just jumped right in and helped where it was needed. That’s how Anja ended up watching the 0-2 year old’s for three hours on the first day and Christof helped making sure that there was always enough coffee.

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We Are Staff

Since August 10th 2020, we are officially part of the staff at Calvary Chapel Rosarito. The same day, Anja joined Christof in the church planting class. It’s definitely a step into a new season.

Despite the whole Corona crisis, we had been doing really well in every aspect. One night, however, Christof had a dream that did not quite make sense to him, until his employer called to tell him that they had to cut his hours by 50%, which also meant 50% less income. That was all it took for Christof to get the interpretation of his dream – the Lord had been telling him that it was time now, to put more emphasis on the work of the ministry.

As a next step, we reached out to Mike Vincent, the Senior Pastor at Calvary Chapel Rosarito for counsel. We presented our case and set up a meeting, where he asked us to pray about becoming staff members. He said that he would be thrilled to have such skilled people on staff and laid it out clearly, what would be expected of us. For Anja, it was a relief to hear that she could keep taking care of Ziva, and would only have to attend staff meetings on Monday morning and serve on Sunday morning as a translator for one of the Sunday school classes while Christof would also work at church for two additional days.

We really think it’s a great opportunity that Ziva can stay with a Mexican family. Not only will she have the opportunity to play with other kids, one of them is maybe a year older than her, but also has the opportunity to get to know the Mexican culture and learn Spanish.

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Let There Be Light

Joining staff I (Christof) knew that I would do at least something technical. So I started with just one project: to mount some lights in the sanctuary. What seemed to be a 15min job became a whole day of running around, gathering parts and making the sanctuary look nice. Although it was tiring, it helped me to get used to the new environment, which has also helped me with the planning of further projects.

Once the lights were up, I quickly picked up a couple of new projects, which I’m working on now. It’s so nice that my ideas are welcome and that the finances necessary for a project are being approved, instead of having to fight for even an idea to be considered. So yes, I’m not going to be bored and I’m looking forward to do whatever I can to make the lighting awesome 😉

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Fondue in summer???

Every Swiss knows that you eat fondue in winter when it’s cold outside. That’s a no-brainer, you would never even think of eating a fondue in summer. Don’t do it … noooooo, never do it! But there is always this one exception:

We still had some Emmi fondue left that we had found at the Costco here in Mexico (for the same price you would be able to buy it in Switzerland!) and because of COVID-19, and all the other craziness of 2020, we didn’t get to share the fondue experience with anyone during the “cold” time of the year. Not that it’s ever really cold here in Mexico… Since we are connected a little better with our neighbors now, we decided to invite one of them and so we ended up eating fondue during THE HOTTEST TIME OF THE YEAR! However, that didn’t really bother anyone. We had a pleasant evening and were able to pray with our neighbor and to invite her to our amazing church.

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Mexican Paperwork

Christof’s one year temporary residency is going to expire in September, so he had to start the entire paperwork madness again. Although this time, he could skip the application from the United States and could just go to the immigration office in Tijuana (INM – Instituto Nacional de Migración). Another plus was that we already kind of knew what he would have to do.

A week before Christof could hand in the paperwork, we went to the INM and asked for the necessary information. That’s always the first step, since it is impossible to find the information online and they will not give you the necessary papers either. Interesting enough, one week after handing in the papers, Christof received a notification that another document was required and just now, he was notified that his request for 3 year of temporary residency has been granted. Christof was already able to have his finger prints taken and to sign the necessary papers. All he has to do now is wait for another two weeks, until he can collect his card. One thing less to worry about 😉

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Ziva

Our youngest family member is developing at a pace we barely can keep up with! Just a day ago she found out how to climb up on the couch and she (unfortunately) loves to walk on it. Her biggest interest however seem to be balls – basket balls, soccer balls, etc. Whenever she sees someone play with a ball, she stands still and watches and/or she goes closer in the hope that she might be able to play with it herself. Two times, it happened that the guys who owned the ball allowed her to play with it for a bit. And for her age, she is really good at it, too. Sometimes, she picks it up and throws it, other times, she kicks it, running behind it just to kick it again. Ladies and gentlemen, we believe we have a future soccer player here!

What Ziva doesn’t like is when we drop her off at child care at church. It’s always a drama, but after a little while, she is doing really great. However, she loves it to be in the Sanctuary and to listen to the worship. In general, Ziva is well known among the church members and they all smile and wave at her, talk to her and want to hold her. Sometimes, Anja thinks that they only know her because she is the mother of Ziva. It happens quite often that people see Ziva, talk to her and before they leave, they say, “hi Anja!”. It’s kind of awkward, but it’s nice for Ziva and that is the most important thing. She is a great conversation starter and door opener for us.

What is really great to see though, is that Ziva is making huge progress in different areas. She used to hate the shower, now she is looking forward to it and she is getting better at drinking from cups and bottles, which makes traveling a lot easier. Another thing she started to do, is bringing us stuff, which is adorable.

All in all, she is a sunshine, a little goofball that enjoys the great outdoors, loves balls, books and music.

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