Typical Week

Sometimes people have ideas of what missionaries do, but do not have anything on which to gage it. So, in praying for this newsletter, I believe the Lord wants me to tell you about an average week:

ON SUNDAYS I wake and prepare for church. Have you ever seen a house of 23 children and 10 adults eating breakfast and getting ready to leave the home? Gee, it is hectic but fun. Although I live apart from Casa de Pastor, I go in for breakfast and I am the official chauffeur of Casa del Pastor. I need to corral them together to get in the van to take them to church. Oh, that reminds me! A few months ago Lisa and I were discussing the ideas and future hopes of the home, and we realized as we grew we would need larger transportation to take the ladies and their children places. So we prayed and guess what the Lord did? He provided two vans in less than three months, WOW!!

Back to the main idea. So then we go to a local service at the orphanage and they have good worship and mini services. We want a good Bible teaching church. One that will teach the cleansing word of God verse by verse and have a good pastor.

We are praying for the Calvary Chapel of Ensenada. In the future that is the church we will be attending and praying for and assisting in the planting. On April 2,3,4 of this year, we are having a ground breaking festival of life and inviting the public. Many different churches are coming together in the making of this event and Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara is the church heading up the event and Calvary Chapel San Bernardino hopes to join them seeing the Lord break the chains of sin and heartbreaking sadness in a radical way. Whoops, once again the main idea was my schedule!

Then, in the afternoon of Sundays, I have a disciple group. It is a small group of 3 young people. Rocio, Gabi, Aurea and I have been going through the Design for Discipleship, a navigator study, for the last year. It is very difficult for them because it calls them to be accountable for their actions. As youth, they are fighting the battles, however Jesus has the victory for them.

ON MONDAYS, the Casa del Pastor has devotions at 7 a.m., and then we set out the makings of the meals for the day. One child goes to school at 8 a.m., so either Juana, the mom or Lisa or I take her to school and pick up tortillas for the days meals. Then there are six of the children who go to kindergarten, and they must be there at 9 a.m. All the children are picked up at 12 noon each day. Between 8 moms and 23 children, someone is always sick, so there is doctors visits or a vaccination or errand that a mom needs to do. The youth Bible club is on this day, so I set aside 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. to study. At 6:30 we start and end at 8 p.m. We are studying the book of Acts. They are learning about the sacrifices of Paul and the growth of the Christian church.

TUESDAY is a bit different each week. It has no schedule per se. Yet I do start at 7 a.m. with the girls in devotions, as we do every day. And today I went to the store and took a mom and her one month old baby to the doctor. We had a prayer meeting also at 11 a.m. For the last three years the missionaries and pastors and leaders in the churches have been meeting once a month for prayer. It is the third Tuesday of each month. At 1 p.m. had to pick up her voters registration card. Rocio had to pick up her typewriter that had been repaired. Gabi needed black school shoes. Plus I had to pay a phone bill and buy a few things that could not be obtained in San Vicente. Each Tuesday is different and yet packed to the brim, if I can use the coffee phase.

NOW WEDNESDAYS ARE MY FAVORITE. Up at 7 a.m. for devotions, and the children needing to get to school and stuff like that - that's every weekday. Today is Bible Club Day! I prepare for club and receive children from 10:30 a.m. Club official starts at 11. We have song and worship the Lord. Boy, I love watching the kids praise Jesus. Lisa is now leading worship and we are a team once again with children's worship. It is wonderful after three years of other ministries directives. We are glad the Lord knows our hearts to once again lead worship together for Bible Club. After that is storytime directly from the Bible, and the plan of salvation. (Actually 7 years ago it was her idea to start a good news Bible club. We started it together on Easter of 1991.) We have watched children grow and learn about the love and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have watched children be saved and walk in Christ. The morning Bible Club is for the children who go to school in the afternoon as well as the afternoon session for the morning school group. I have 2 clubs - the afternoon session starts at 2, but children come as early as 1, and the club ends at 3:30.

The drama team called "Sigidores para Christo" meets at the Center for Teens at 6 p.m. We practice dramas and discuss other ways to serve Jesus. The objective of this group is to allow the Holy Spirit to move in their lives to give them an opportunity to serve and to love their own people. We go to the work camps and the local churches.

THEN FALLS THURSDAYS. The only thing different is I do not go over to the devotions, but have a longer personal time. Usually I do trips to Ensenada this day too, and last week I took a brother in the Lord to a few doctors appointments. He and his wife have been my dear friends for over 6 years. He had a stroke 7 years ago and still suffers with severe headaches and other complications.

In the evenings I go to the Center for Teens. This is a center with the intentions to befriend non-Christians, to share friendship in a Christ-like way, and to share the love He has for them. For me it is wonderful to see so many youth in one place searching. Often I see children that have been in my Bible club, si I know their face and name. Last evening I was talking to a leader of the Center and he was telling me about a gang that is attending. The group of boys all wear baggy pants, T-shirts and ball caps. To me they look like a bunch of regular boys, and yet he told me that they were real troublemakers. He has seen change in the last year. I have only been involved in the last six months. I take my Bible Club of teens and we hopefully are lights in the dark for these guys.

FRIDAY is a day full of office work and the other daily activities of running a household. The jobs of meals and buying for the home is divided between Lisa and I. We get two weeks and trade off and on. We discuss all decisions regarding the home and work well together. Along with the mom's responsibility of providing milk for their babies and diapers, each of them and the children will be expected to do chores and follow rules. All mothers and children are expected to attend devotions and Bible studies. These families are free to leave at any time. The children are expected to attend school and are encouraged to further their education. Each mom works and does different jobs to earn money for their children's milk and diapers and other needs. We offer various other jobs so they can get going in other ways. We have a food cart, sell secondhand clothing, make pens, bracelets and necklaces. We have future ideas of puppet making and blanket making and other options too. One mom has been with us a year and paid off the lot she had been buying and now is saving for the blocks to build her house. So all this takes much coordination and time to keep in order.

SATURDAYS are different. Sometimes we have groups and we often are planning the Saturdays weeks in advance. Like the month of February was a border run to bring goods for the home to the Mexico side. Then one of the women was married on a Saturday, and the next two Saturdays were filled with activities of the youth center. So, as you can see, the days fly by, and are packed with many different activities to keep me occupied.

We are still burdened for the camps and hope to fit the feedings in on Tuesdays and Fridays. There are four people who are praying to join us in the next two years and we are looking forward to the welcomed addition in co-laboring for Jesus.

So, as you can see, I keep busy and need your prayers. It really is an honor to serve Jesus here in Mexico and I pray that I may remain until the time He has another call for my life. Matthew 6:33

His Servant,
Jeanie Sue Phegley
(aka) Juanita