The Thiessen Talk'O
Sharing The Love of God in La Paz, BCS, Mexico
Missionaries To Mexico, Serving With TEAM & Associate Missionaries with EMC
An Urgent Prayer Request
Our summer letter is still in process but there is an urgent, prayer
request that we need to share with you. As you know, we are presently in
Canada on Home Assignment and are excitedly waiting to get the green
light clearance to head back to Mexico. Our teammates are doing an
amazing job of carrying on the ministry and we are grateful for their
commitment, faithfulness and hard work! This past week, upon arrival at
the court, they received some difficult news that has all of us
wondering what the future holds for our Transformados ministry. In the
words of our teammate, Pattie, here is what has transpired so far:
"Last night when we came to practice at
the middle school where we hold all of our basketball clubs and camps,
the director pulled Phil into his office to speak with him. Apparently,
his boss had informed him that he was concerned about liability issues
and so he didn't want us to use the court any more. He gave us through
Saturday (today) to use it. The director is supportive of what we are
doing and suggested we go to the administrative offices and speak with
them to see if we can work something out."
For 3 years, we have been blessed to be able
to use the court at this public middle school, free of charge. We have a
good relationship with the Directors of the school, who have even given
us keys for the gate and permission to use not only the court, but the
common area on Saturday nights and even during our summer camps. We
realized early on what a blessing this was when a local Pastor
exclaimed, "How did you manage to get into a Public School? It's unheard
of, it never happens." We are grateful for God's favour and making it
possible for us to have access to this school from the time
Transformados started until now! God's hand has been in this from the
beginning and we know that He will continue to provide.
At this moment, we are not sure what that provision will look like, so
we ask you to join with us in prayer for the future of this ministry!
Especially in light of the outcome of the meeting with the Director's
Boss. This meeting took place on Friday and afterwards our teammates
shared the following:
"We wish we had better news for you.
Unfortunately, the administrator that Phil met with appeared to have
already made up his mind. Phil was told to submit a letter with an
official request. However, Phil and the missionary who accompanied him
both got the sense that it will likely get buried in piles of paperwork
on the desk. We will proceed with the letter and are planning to ask the
parents, kids and youth to write letters as well to accompany ours."
This was not the news we were hoping to
receive but we continue to pray and trust. Several of the Transformados
youth are joining us in praying for this situation and we find this
super encouraging and exciting because we know God will use this
opportunity to show His power and grow their faith!
We know that while this caught us by surprise, it did not catch Him by
surprise so we wait expectantly to see what He will do. As of now, today
is our last day to use the basketball court and have access to the
school. Parents and members of the community have come forward to show
their support and along with our youth, are talking of writing letters
and creating a petition in favour of Transformados. Our teammates have
been advised to meet with a different, higher level education official
to discuss this issue and yesterday afternoon, a community member told
Phil that this official is a close family friend. She stated that she is
going to put in a good word for Transformados with him in hopes that He
will grant us permission and continued access to the school.
This is an unexpected turn of events but we echo the thoughts and words of our teammates when they say:
"One of our dreams for Transformados is
that we would eventually have a piece of land we could develop with a
court and larger community center for outreach. This situation has made
this need seem even more urgent. We have loved partnering with the
school but would also love to have a court without restricted access.
Perhaps this is the Lord's way of nudging us towards that even more
quickly...[With this in mind we've decided as a team to] begin more
proactively raising funds towards purchasing land to build our own court
and community center. If you feel led to give towards this need,
Transformados has an account at TEAM for receiving donations. This is a
link for making donations directly to Transformados:
Some great news is that our clubs have
been growing to the point that we had been discussing needing to split
the groups, to work more effectively with each one. We've recently had
29, 28 and 26 at different practices. The growth and need for more
groups is a great problem to have."
Physical growth is exciting but it's even
more exciting to witness spiritual growth! This past year we've been
praying that God would increase the spiritual interest of our youth and
it's happening! 4 young men have given their lives to Christ this year
and a 5th one made his decision this summer. We have struggled with
discouragement over this most recent development with the school, but
God is transforming lives through Transformados and we know He has
something better in mind for the ministry.
For the time being, please pray that we will be able to find another
court within walking distance that has adequate lighting, equipment and
availability. This is important since the majority of the youth, who
participate, live in our neighbourhood.
Please pray that the letters and petition will demonstrate the
community's support of Transformados and that the good word a community
member is willing to put in with the higher ranking official will be
enough to change the minds of the powers-that-be to grant us continued
access to the school.
And if God chooses to use this situation as a springboard toward the
purchase of property, then pray that He will bring in the funds
necessary to buy and build our own court and community centre.
Thank you for standing with us in prayer! We invite you to look forward with us, in anticipation of all God is going to do!
With Grateful Hearts,
Anthony, Karlene, Josiah and Keyana
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