5 Months Left!

I hope you guys enjoy my new layout! It took a me a while to figure it all out, but now that I've got it designed, I'm just so thrilled that it looks so good!

Thanks goes out to all of those who have responded to my fundraising letters. Whether you gave financially, prayerfully, or just through encouragement -- you are actively involved with the work being done in Piedras Negras. I hope and pray that one day God will bless you with the opportunity to come down and visit the church there! I am still seeking support! If you are interested in supporting me in any way, please feel free to contact me with more information! My email address and phone number are available in the column to the left of this post.

Some of you may or may not be hearing about a lot of violence going on near the border towns of Mexico and Texas. I want to update you guys on that and how it's affecting my plans to move down there in August. A few weeks ago, an elder and minister from Memorial Road Church of Christ went down to Piedras Negras to check out the safety of the town as well as discuss the situation with the members of the church there. This two day trip was very hard on them because they knew that this year they would not get the chance to come down to work and fellowship with their brothers and sisters in Christ.

MRCC cancelled their college Spring Break Campaign as well as the Summer Youth Campaigns to Piedras Negras. Max Pope, an elder at MRCC, told me there were a couple reasons why they cancelled their trips: 1.) Although the town seems perfectly safe and out of the "drug cartel violence" environment, that by cancelling both campaigns, they were preventing any sort of division among teens and their parents or vice versa, and the church is not a place for division. & 2.) While feeling confident that nothing would happen if the campaigns went down there, if anything did happen, MRCC did not want to have to explain that they could have taken precautions, and didn't. That being said, Max and Jeff, the college minister, have told me that they are NOT worried about my safety. Jeff told me when they got to Mexico, the church members had a whole long list of reasons why it was still okay to come down to Mexico. They mentioned that since I don't look like a "tyipcal American" or have the image of one parading about as a US Citizen, they and the church in Mexico believe it to be relatively safe for me to live and work down there.

I want to comfort and ease all of your minds as you continue to hear of cancelled Mexico campaigns and continued violence in Mexico. God is in control! In these situations I think of the early Christians who sacrificed so much of their lives to follow God's reign. They laid down their lives for the sake of Christ, and while that's not what I'm looking to do in Mexico, I know that God will be with me wherever I go! I am fully confident that He has placed me on this path to use me as a powerful tool for the sake of His Kingdom. While the devil tries to place one road block after another in my direction, I will faithfully keep my eyes and feet on the right path!

"That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." ~ 2 Corinthians 12:10

God Bless,
Rachel