Our adventure in Cancun is over.  As of last Friday, June 19, we are no longer Mexican residents.  The kids finished school on June 12, Greg taught at the Institute one final time June 8-12, and we said adios.

Why, you ask?  Many factors,  including Greg’s calling to youth ministry, swine flu, drug cartels, volunteers, and family and financial issues.  We will return to church staff work, and we are very excited to get our kids involved in the ministry of a local church – in English! 

The Yucatan-Georgia partnership continues and is stronger than ever.  Although some groups cancelled trips for this year as a result of the economy and the (media-hyped) swine flu, things are beginning to move again.  The Institute will meet again in July, and Greg worked hard to leave it all in good shape so that the Cancun churches can continue to strengthen. 

We were incredibly blessed to live and work overseas.  It was an opportunity that we never thought we would have, and we loved the challenge.  We treasured the chance to meet and work with groups from all over the Georgia Baptist Convention.  Georgia Baptists have a heart for missions and the Mexican people, and the generous gifts of their time and expertise in the Yucatan will have a lasting impact.

A few extras………Thomas did visit the hospital again, after he slammed his finger in the door 4 nights before we left.  Laura is fluent in Spanish, Matthew is almost potty trained, and Julianna finished the first grade – IN SPANISH - with a B average!  We were thrilled.  All three of the big kids also got a gold medal for excellent conduct all year at school.   Greg was able to teach about parenting teenagers at a church, and his last class was on the Minor Prophets Jonah, Joel, and Nahum.   We provided each pastor a small library of books, including a Bible dictionary, Bible Atlas, Commentary, and Glossary of Biblical terms.  (all in Spanish) The gifts you provided helped to purchase all of those, and the pastors were thrilled.  Additionally, a pastor from Claxton, David Hagan, obtained MP3 players with 42 sermons in Spanish for the pastors.  We added those to their gifts. 

The ministry will continue, and we were greatly honored to have been a part of it.  Dr. Mike Gravette and Rev. John Tarrer at the Georgia Baptist Convention’s Missions Volunteers would love to talk with you about being a part.  1-800-RING-GBC.

For now, thank you for your prayers, comments, and encouragement.  We have been blessed to share our journey with you through this blog.

Last Saturday, April 25, Greg taught a one day seminar at the Institute on Puppet Ministry.  When we announced the seminar, we asked for reservations.  27 people reserved, and 86 showed up!  What a great response.  We made balloon animals, laughed, sang, used all the chairs, ate up all the pizza, drank up all the water and drinks, celebrated Greg’s birthday a few days early, and sweated in the heat!

To the glory of God and unity of the Christian community here, we had four new churches participate who have never come to classes at the Institute.  As good Baptists, we shared sweet fellowship between FIFTEEN different churches! 

The non-profit ministry that many of you have supported purchased $1000 worth of puppets to be used in the class and then given away to the churches.  Each church represented took home a brand new puppet, as well as four CD’s of puppet songs and skits.  Additionally, many of our churches have benefited from the puppet ministry of the Mallary Baptist Association and Raleigh White Baptist Church in Albany, GA.  Raleigh White for years had a thriving puppet ministry and great puppets.  Last year, they donated all of their puppets to our churches here.  It was like Christmas morning in puppet world!

When Greg established our non-profit ministry, All to All, last year, he based it on 1 Corinthians 9:22.  I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some.

Our prayer is that these churches use these puppets and balloons to reach a crowd of Cancunenses for Jesus!

What do bored kids do during the swine flu?  Make their own masks, of course!  You can do anything with paper, highlighters, scotch tape, and scissors!

We stayed over on Isla Mujeres Thursday and Friday night with some friends.  I’ll post on that next.  This picture was taken Friday night and is a hilarious take on the swine flu.  By the way, we belligerently refuse to stop calling it “swine flu”.  How can you make jokes about H1N1 flu???

Now, updates……Cancun is still pretty much closed down.  No churches today, and school is closed until Wednesday.  Some stores are open, and some people are wearing masks.  Masks and medicines are all sold out.  The Mexican Minister of Health stated today that new cases of swine flu are on the decline.  We will have our regular Sunday School class here at home today.

I read this morning that Delta and Continental are cutting back their service to Mexico, and the hotels are at about 30% occupancy.   (Usually 85-90%)  You can fly here and stay here super cheap!

Our Cancun Bible Institute, originally scheduled for next week, has been postponed to June 8-12.   We believe that is best, not because of contagion, but because parents can’t come to class when the kids are out of school. 

Still no reports of confirmed swine flu here in Quintana Roo (our state).

April 30 (Thursday) is the Day of the Child here in Mexico, and is a HUGE holiday.  The schools throw big parties for the kids – all day carnival type affairs.  That was all cancelled, but Friday, May 1st, was Mexican Labor Day, so it was a previously scheduled holiday, as is Tuesday, May 5.  The government here was able to tie the closures to a long weekend, and maybe things will calm down.

My passport has been printed and is on its way back to me.  Thank you for praying specifically for that little (very important) document.  I’ll post when it arrives back here – and I breathe a sigh of relief!

We continue to ask for prayers for our health and wisdom.  Many, many of you have prayed for us to have clear thoughts, and in the middle of a very hard day last Wednesday, I suddenly felt the Lord clear out my brain.  It was like He was speaking peace through clear thoughts to my soul.  He is moving and working, and He alone gets the glory!

We do not know where we will be in the future.  Greg’s heart and gifts are in youth ministry, and God is really tugging at his heart for that again.  We believe whole-heartedly in the ministry of the local church to families, and we miss that so much for our children.  We were sent here to get the Cancun Bible Institute set up and going, and we have done that.  The goal is to strengthen the local churches so that ministry continues long after we are gone.   We are confident that God, who made our move to Cancun so clear, will also make our next steps just as clear.  For now, we will stay here until school ends, and then God will show us. 

Psalm 121:5-8

The Lord is your keeper; The Lord is your shade on your right hand.  The sun will not smite you by day, nor the moon by night.  The Lord will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul.  The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forever.

There have been moments in our time here that we have to pinch ourselves to prove reality.  This is one of those.  By now, I know you’ve heard of the swine flu, and that Mexico is the “epicenter” of the epidemic.

Before I continue, though, please hear this!  This is only our opinion!  We are not the World Health Organization, and we are not medical professionals.  This is OUR experience, living here in Cancun with our family.

In the middle of March, our kids all had the flu.  They were all very sick with high fever, leg pain, sore throat, and coughing.  Antibiotics did nothing, and Greg and I assumed it was the flu.  They all recovered completely on their own.  Thanks to tylenol, advil, gatorade, orange juice, chicken soup, and kleenex, we took care of their symptoms and God’s grace got them back to normal.  I AM NOT saying that their sickness was the swine flu.  It is, however,  something that Greg and I wonder about.

We went to the states where Thomas had eye surgery for strabismus and returned last Tuesday.  The swine flu hit late Thursday night, and now is all around the world.  As of about 12 noon today, the Mexican government has closed ALL schools until next Wednesday, May 6.  That will be 7 days out of school.  I do not know if they make up days here like they do for snow days in the states.  I doubt it.

Greg picked up Julianna at school today and headed to Costco.  He called me to say that the scene there is unbelievable.  Every parking spot filled, bleach and lysol totally gone, and a long line of people at the pharmacy.  Tamiflu, Relenza, and masks are no longer available at Costco, and I doubt you can get them anywhere else in this city.  His description of the scene was any Atlanta Kroger the day before a huge winter storm hits. 

The US State Dept is considering issuing an advisory (or maybe already has), asking US citizens to stay home in the U.S. unless travel is “essential”.  I have heard – not verified – that airlines are asking Mexico inbound flight passengers to sign waivers before flights. 

Gossip here is flying like crazy, just like it does in the states.

For now, I ask for your prayers.  We need wisdom.  We need patience, because cooped up in this house with 4 kids for the next 10 days is going to challenge all we have.   We have scheduled Cancun Bible Institute for May 4-8.  Pray that we and our leaders in Atlanta have wisdom in decisions. 

I surrendered my passport to the US Cancun Consulate last Friday for renewal.  It makes me very nervous not to have it in my hands during crazy days like this.  Pray it gets renewed and back to me as quickly as possible. 

Thomas and Greg need to go back to Atlanta in 2 1/2 weeks for a post-op visit.  Please pray about that.

Don’t know what else to do except ask you to pray.  Most Cancunenses have family in Mexico City, and they are very concerned.  This is an incredible opportunity for Christian love and God’s grace.

As for us,  tonight we are eating pork chops and perhaps a side of bacon.  We will be reading the story of the Three Little Pigs, and watching old Porky Pig cartoons. Anybody know any new pig  jokes?

This article was copied from The Christian Index, the state newspaper for Georgia Baptists.  We were honored to host Dr. White and honored that he believes so fervently in the Yucatan ministry here.

The Open Door

By J. Robert White

Executive Director GBC

Published March 26, 2009

If perhaps you have contemplated taking some folks from your church on an international mission trip, but have been prevented due to distance and cost, I have a suggestion for you. Georgia Baptists have a mission partnership at an international location that can be reached in two hours and fifty minutes on a non-stop flight from Atlanta.

 It is a safe location and the needs there are very significant. The location? Cancun, Mexico and the Yucatan Peninsula.

 A well-known tourist destination, Cancun consists of many beautiful locations, comfortable and secure hotels, and good restaurants, but most important, once you leave the hotel zone, you enter an area of great need like so many third world countries.

I have just returned from teaching my book, “Healthy Kingdom Churches,” to the pastors and church leaders at our Cancun Bible institute. We had good attendance in every session and there was an apparent hunger for knowledge and experience that was refreshing. Also teaching that week were Lee Gambrell from Summit Baptist Church in Marietta and John Tarrer, consultant with the Convention in Volunteer Missions.

 The participants could not have been more responsive.

 The purpose of the Institute initiated by Georgia Baptists is to train church leaders and church planters and encourage the multiplication of the church in Mexico. We need Georgia Baptist pastors and other leaders who can teach courses of study at the Institute. Others are needed to work among the churches in evangelism and discipleship as well as church planting.

 Also present in the area while I was there teaching were a mission team from North Metro First Baptist in Lawrenceville and North Georgia College and State University campus minister, Ken Jones, and 41 of his students. All of these good Georgia Baptists were working with churches in the area to bless and strengthen their work.

 A lot has been reported about the violence taking place primarily in locations along the US/Mexican border. There was no evidence of any such problems in the Yucatan or specifically in Cancun. I never felt threatened or unsafe in any way.

 We have two employees who live in Cancun and whose responsibility is to serve the needs of Georgia Baptist mission volunteers. They are doing an outstanding job and add greatly to the security of any Georgia Baptists in the region.

 Should you feel led to become involved in volunteer mission service in this area of Georgia Baptist ministry, I encourage you to get in touch with our Mission Volunteers Ministry at the Convention. They will be more than happy to assist you. In any case, please remember to pray for Baptist work in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico

This is the parking lot at the bank near our house.  Notice how carefully the spaces are marked out and numbered on the wall.

Many, many of our volunteer groups have been able to pray and work with Pastor Javier’s church out in Las Pincas.  Because of the combined efforts and generosity of so many, this church now has walls!  Huge progress for this church which reaches so many in a very poor community.  Gloria Dios!

Greg and I went with the pastor to Home Depot and purchased 120 adult chairs, 35 child chairs, and 3 tables for them.  This is a huge improvement for this church, where the previous seats were concrete cinderblocks.  Thank you for helping us to help them!By the way, none of you who know Greg will be surprised to learn that he made friends with the Home Depot clerk, who gave us a discount on the purchase!  Even in Cancun, he has a network!

One of our newest Georgia Baptist churches in Cumming, GA, has a passion and ministry directly to orphans.  They have teamed with an orphanage here in Cancun.  Last fall, they purchased mattresses and windows, and repaired an enormous crack in the roof.

The orphanage houses 16 children, ages 2-18.  They are well taken care of and all attend school and church.  We went to Sams and got some staples for them.  I’m sure the 50 lb. bag of dried beans will disappear in a hurry in that crowd!Your gifts to the non-profit, All to All, have allowed us to help this folks.  Thank you!

One of the best things about our job here is that we get to meet people from all over the state of Georgia.  Volunteer missionaries and Institute teachers come all the time to minister to the Cancunenses.  This week, we are proud to host Dr. Robert White, Executive Director of the Georgia Baptist Convention.  He will be teaching his book, Healthy Kingdom Churches, at the Institute this week.

However, and more important for the kids, he took us out to eat at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company in the Hotel Zone.   Divine coconut shrimp, drinks served in light-up cups, and kids’ meals served in little boats.  Yum, yum!

Thank you, Dr. White!

Unfortunately, life in Cancun has taken on a new serious tone in response to violence related to drug cartels and gangs.  We have decided to make some of the posts included in our blog available for private view only.  It is a difficult choice to find the correct balance between alarmist and carefree.  Thank you for your understanding and prayers for us.