Leon Founding Update

I mentioned last week that we were going to celebrate Leon's birthday with a cake.

Here's the result:


It was a family effort - Trin and I baked the cake and made the frosting, and then we all decorated it together (except Hans, unless taking it all in from his perch in the high chair counts as participation, which perhaps it does if you're six months old and have no teeth and very little hand coordination).

After the decorating, we sang and then...



After which we dug in, of course! Today all that remains of the lion cake are a few bits of tongue, nose, and mane.

***

In other news, the Synodical Council for the Mexican Lutheran Church is meeting here in Leon this week. Mike's been involved in this, and I'll be posting updates from the meetings, as well as happenings in Mexican congregations, in the coming posts.

Happy Founding of Leon Day!

Leon city gate, featuring a lion on top (photo credit)

It's a holiday here today: the city is celebrating the Fundacion de Leon (Founding day of Leon). Our girls have off school, and there is a general buzz of celebration in town.

The origins of the city date back to 1576. Leon was founded on January 20th of that year, its full name listed as "Villa de Leon."



Leon on the map (photo credit)

Today, more than 400 years later, the city of Leon is a bustling metropolis, catering to the global leather industry and serving as a business center in the heart of Mexico.

While all of this is interesting, my three- and four-year-old's have other concerns about Leon, which translates as "lion" in English. A few notes from our conversations during the week regarding today's holiday:

Noelle: It's Leon's birthday?
me: Yes, on Friday, it is.
Noelle: Do tigers have birthdays too?

Trinity: Where's the lion?
me: Remember, it's the name of the city we live in, not the animal.
Trinity: We live in Leon?
me: Yes.

Trinity, several hours later: Can we make a cake for Leon's birthday?
me: Sure.
Trinity: I know which one I want to make! (followed by her grabbing our cake decorating book and opening it to the cake decorated as a lion).

So today, we are celebrating the founding of Leon by baking a birthday cake later this evening. I'm looking forward to the Leon/lion celebration - especially the eating part!

Final Furlough Thoughts

- our family at Flandrau State Park, Minn. in early January 2012

Last night we returned to Leon, Mexico. It is great to be home!

After Mike and I tucked in the kiddos, we dove into the eight suitcases that held our things from the almost two-month trip. While we unpacked, we talked about what a special time we had in the U.S.

From English worship to delicious meals to watching cousins play together, we now have many memories to keep us going while we're back in Mexico.

And I have to say - it's good to be back. Both Mike and I feel refreshed and recharged, and ready to hit the ground running.

Here's a quick scattering of furlough pictures that made me smile when I downloaded them onto the computer this morning:

This little guy was so fun to have on furlough. During our trip, he started rolling over, sitting up, and smiling more than ever.


Have to be prepared for wintry weather in the Midwest


And Mike's love of trying new things extends to all places. Here is a German-style chimichanga he tried while in the U.S.A. It's similar to the Mexican version, which usually involves a tortilla wrapped around a filling and then fried. One difference, however: the filling in this one consisted of a bratwurst! Fun times.

Confirmations!

Shortly before 2011 drew to a close, the mission congregation Cristo Resucitado (Resurrected Christ) in Leon, Mexico, welcomed its first two members: Victor (on left) and Javier.


These two men have been active in the congregation for some time now.


You may remember Javier (pictured above with wife and friends) from a WELS Connection video that came out about a year ago. In it, Javier is pictured in his auto body shop. He expresses gratitude for finding the truth and biblical teachings at the mission. For the past year, he has helped the congregation in many ways, and also looked after the missionaries, offering things from food to car fixes and, most importantly, companionship.


Victor is an active leader in the community, and has been bringing his family to church in recent months. He donated the letters you see on the wall in these pictures (they read: Yo soy la Resurrecion y la Vida - "I am the Resurrection and the Life").


We are so thankful to have these men as members! How great God is, that He would bless this mission with the gift of active leaders, right from the start.

There are others currently enrolled in confirmation classes at the mission in Leon. We ask God's blessing on them as they complete the lessons and become members in this coming year.

Christmas on Furlough

On Christmas Day, we attended St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Sleepy Eye, Minn. The lovely church, set in the a town with a population of about 3,500, was beautifully decorated on the inside. Two large Christmas trees towered in the front, complete with angels on their tops and tasteful ornaments hanging from them. Poinsettas and banners rounded out the scene.

In addition to admiring the Christmas decorations, we appreciated worshipping in person with this congregation. Although we don't usually sit in a church pew in Sleepy Eye on Sundays, St. John's has held a special place in our hearts for some time. Back in 2010, when we first arrived in Leon to start mission work, worshipped online with this congregation. We didn't have a worship location of our own yet, so we gathered in homes of the missionaries on the field and tuned in on Sundays to participate with this congregation.

It was a special treat to be with this congregation on Christmas Day. We appreciate the efforts they take to keep putting worship online. If you're in an area or situation where you can't get to church, I strongly recommend tuning in.

Thanks Sleepy Eye for the online worship efforts and for the Christmas service!

And on behalf of our family, Merry, Merry Christmas, and may God bless the remainder of 2011 for you and yours.

photo credit: Sallie Draper

Tales from Furlough - Week 2

We're now up in the Midwest, and thoroughly enjoying our furlough. This break for us has been a wonderful time to see others, catch up on health care and miscellaneous to-do's, and just spend hours together as a family (this last one is probably my favorite part).

Here are a few of the recent highlights:


Seeing the Martin Luther College (MLC) Christmas Concert: this will stick with Mike and me (and Trinity!) for a long time. Mike sat with Trinity in the front row so she could have a close-up view of the event. She was in awe...later she mentioned the possibility of her one day being there, singing and playing an instrument. I can't think of a better thing to say to Mike and me. If we someday sit where she sat, and watch her sing in an MLC concert, I think we will consider it a dream come true.

We also got to see the Chapel of the Christ (where the concert was held) at MLC for the first time. Simply spectacular. We took the picture above shortly after Mike gave Trinity a mini-tour of the interior.



Catching up with Mexico acquaintances. Here's Noelle with a dear friend and former WELS Kingdom Worker in Mexico, Tim Patoka. We've had the chance to see various friends, relatives, and folks with a Mexico connection. While I've loved the chance to see them, I also know there are many we won't see on this trip. (If you're one of them, I sincerely apologize. We haven't been able to see everyone because A) child number three has thrown me for a loop and I regularly forget things/don't schedule stuff/act like I left my mind in the other room, which means I just don't get in everything these days, and B) I feel like we owe it to WELS, who has sent us to be missionaries and given us a time to come home and rest, to do just that - rest! If we don't, we'll go back to Mexico wiped out and not ready to hit the ground running, which isn't fair to anyone, especially those who are supporting the work there.)



Introducing the girls to new sights, like picturesque farms with cute houses and red barns that they've only seen in books. They were so enthralled (Look! A farmer!) that we stopped and took pictures to remember the occasion.



Setting new milestones. The baby continues to grow, and his latest achievements include rolling over (hurray!) and working on sitting up on his own. I have to say, watching the third one do it is fun in its own way: yesterday, Trinity showed me how she could, indeed, lay on the floor and roll over too :).

I'm looking forward to the coming days, especially as we approach more opportunities to worship in English. May God bless your upcoming Christmas celebration as well.

Saints Triumphant Sermon

Several weeks ago, for Saints Triumphant Sunday, Missionary Brad Krause preached a funeral sermon at the mission congregation Cristo Resucitado (Resurrected Christ) in Leon, Mexico. He spoke as if he himself had passed away.

Preaching a sermon on your own death may be a sobering thought, but Missionary Krause had a strong motivating factor behind it. Not long before, he had attended a funeral service in Mexico. "There was a complete lack of Biblical truth or comfort throughout the sermon," he recalls. "I thought, 'It would be nice if people could hear a biblical, Lutheran sermon to see the true comfort that God gives us in His Word.'"

Krause had also come across confusion regarding what happens after death. "Many believe you need to pray for the deceased person so that God will receive them into heaven, and if you don't pray for them, their spirit will stay around and haunt you and make your life difficult," he explains.

Another popular belief involves focusing on the good things the person who has passed away carried out during his or her time on Earth. This type of comfort doesn't work for two reasons, says Krause. First and foremost, it's false doctrine. Second, those sitting in the pew know the person better than the priest and know all of the sins in that particular person's life.

The funeral sermon Krause shared was a good opportunity to proclaim the Christian's hope and confidence. It focused on the perfect life, innocent death and resurrection of Christ. It also spoke of how God made Krause His child in baptism, how Christ gave him his body and blood for the forgiveness of sins in the Lord's Supper, and how God's law and Gospel strengthened him in the faith of Jesus Christ. "We find comfort in God's actions for us, not in our actions for God," he says.

In addition to preaching the sermon on Sunday, Krause distributed copies of it to about 70 people. "That opened the door for questions they might have had."

Thanks for the sermon, Missionary Krause, and we pray that more in Mexico may learn of the blessed Christian hope we have for life after death, thanks to Jesus Christ.