Summer is here!

. Wow, the time has flown. We are just about finished with our schooling the kids, and Justin is officially done as soon as he turns in his last book report! A big change to have one child less next year in our school. We are all doing, staying healthy and happy. We had people that were scared for their lives this past two months with the swine flu, wearing masks and not going anywhere. For the first week we lived in a ghost town it seemed. We do not know of any reports of the swine here in our town, and are thankful for that. We have kept busy, and have more planned for this summer. Every week we are still going to the village that invited us to teach music, and Justin and Jenna do that, while the rest of us have Sunday school lessons and crafts for the younger kids. It has been good, getting to really develop relationships with everybody in that village, and usually end up staying until about 12 midnight every week! Long night, but so worth it. Matt and I are now volunteering once a week in a feeding center. This center is in need of volunteers, and we were asked to come alongside and help. This center feeds people that are tending to their family members that are in the hospital. Down here, we were told, there are not nurses to give you your medicines, take you to the bathroom, and help with things of this nature, so the family stays and cares for the sick. So, while they are staying, most of the time they can't afford to eat 2 or 3 meals a day, so this center provides free food for them. I don't know where this well lead us, but we love it so much, and love the chance to talk with people at the dinner tables.
Once a week we have just started to have a soccer game for the youth. So far, not many, as they don't like much physical activity. I guess we need more time to get the word around and find the ones interested in this type of activity.
Our Youth Center is actually growing. We have hit upon one church in particular, and they are coming weekly. We have had around 12 people every week for the past 4 weeks, and are pleased. There are activities for them to do, and they seemed happy to be there. We are debating on how to start the Bible study, as we feel it is a good time to start opening up,as we are starting to earn their trust. Pray for us to handle it in a non-threatening way, and we would be obedient to God's leading.
This summer we have English lessons planned either 3 or 4 days a week in the daytime since kids are out of school. We are excited, as we have been asked by many if we would do this. Pray also as we are now in the plans and making flyers to pass out, that we can use this opportunity to minister to the people we come in contact with.
Tammy is going weekly and visiting with the sisters also to just encourage them. So many sisters in our church don't have the support of their husband, and it is hard for them, so just pray that we can be an encouragement as they try to raise their families and follow God and be the Godly women they are meant to be. I will add some pictures on later, internet is too slow to do it all at once. Thanks for your prayers, support and for allowing us this opportunity to minister here. God Bless, Easton Gang

Loving Mexico!

Wow, it is so awesome to be doing God's work, loving it and feeling totally at peace with where we are! That is how we are down here. We feel like this is a blessing that we are able to even be here. We are all adjusted and keeping busy, a different busy then U.S., but busy. We are busy trying to reach the kids here for our youth center, and that has been a challenge. We are different, we look different, dress a little different and not every one trusts us yet. For example, our kids are in Tae-kwo-do classes, and have been for 6 weeks. Just last week, the other kids in the class took the time to talk with ours! Sad, but an adjust we know takes time. So last week was good. Jenna has made a lot of friends already, been to their house and have had them here. Boys are boys, and talk to everyone! We spend our Friday nights in the plazas looking for teens to pass out invitations to and usually buying a plate of tacos for us! It's our way of reaching the people here, talking face to face. Just last week we went to a village that we love, and to our surprise the Pastor invited us to come and start a Bible study and a teaching of piano and guitar with his youth! We are so pumped and tonight will be the first night of it!! It is God opening all these doors, not us and we are so thankful. Other times it is hard to be here. The church service is so different and a little condemning or guilt filled. They preach so much on blessings and curses that we think the people have it all wrong. That is one reason we believe we are here. To show God's love, that God is a God of love, not punishment, not judgement. The people here seem to live in fear of making God "mad." So, we are working on just being Jesus here, to the Christians and non-Christians. Thanks for reading this, we will try better to keep this updated, just seems that time is always short!! God Bless, Eastons

Our Adventures!

First of all, we are in a safe place! We have been asked quite a few times, and we are in a good area. We are moved in our house now, and there are some pictures here of our house. We had the kids pick some paint out and decorate their rooms. The house fits us perfectly, and we are so thankful. This is such a blessing for us to have this place. Today as we were just finishing school, we had a dust tornado come right down the street into and into our house, so we are busy trying to "clean up" before we get more dust! We are enjoying our dog Brownie, who is our guard dog also. This week we have been making curtains- Matt- to cover all the windows. Yesterday, Justin preached his first message in Spanish, and he did very well. He talked a little about what our purpose in life is, and it is to bring pleasure to God, and to love others.
Jenna, Tammy, Corey and Justin are also helping to teach English classes with Spanish students once a week. Each one of us are working with the same people, hoping to build relationships. This is a great time for us to practice with our Spanish, as we are always trying to improve it. We are still "patiently" waiting on securing our building for the youth center. Sometimes we just forget that this is not America, and things go so much slower, and we are still trying to remember this. We hope to get it started within the next few weeks, and are praying that maybe this is just a time that God is preparing for us to be more ready. We asked the lady to come down on the rent a little, and that is what is holding it up a little. We are taking a step of faith on this building, trusting that God will supply all our needs, but also feel that this vision is from God, and when God calls, God supplies.
We thank you guys for keeping up with us, and we are also on Facebook. We thank you for your prayers, we can feel them and know God is here with us. Pray for us to prepared for whatever God has in store for us- like the youth center- or whatever else He brings upon us. We love you guys, and thank God with all our hearts for each and everyone of you!! God Bless

Our new vison

The first picture is Caleb working on homework with the neighbor boy, and the other is Jenna helping out in the English class. This week has been a fast week for us. We went back to Texas to retrieve a load of plywood for Matt to make some shelves, and we brought our bikes and rest of our stuff in with us. We have been praying and seeking God's will for what He would have us to do, and we feel confident on what He has in store. We will be searching for a little building this weekend for us to start a youth group. God has really laid on our hearts this past few weeks about the youth here. There are hardly any youth in this church here in Dr. Arroyo, and that is the heart and future here in Mexico. We are planning on starting youth night on Saturday nights, with the first week showing a Christian based movie, and from there having some game nights, and slowly turning it into small groups for us to work more one on one with the youth. We will be using flyers, and door to door to get the word out, as soon as we secure the location. Please pray for God to open hearts, we know He has laid out this plan, we are just praying we follow it in the ways He would have us do it. We will also visit with some families starting next week that have fallen away from the church this past few months, and new families also. Pray for our Spanish, and for us to always show the love of Christ in all we do, say and act!!

Our First Few Days in Mexico!

We arrived here late Wednesday night after driving for about 9 hours, and God's protection was with us. We spent the first day just resting, getting accustomed to the altitude, and dust, and visiting with old friends. We spent Friday looking at a house to rent, and it was perfect for what we needed. We are so pleased, it has the few things that we prayed for, a running toilet indoors and a kitchen sink!! Also God is so good, when we left the states last year we had to give up our chocolate labs. Our kids miss having a dog, and just on the way down were talking about having a dog, and I thought that it would be to hard to get it over the border, and the hassles with everything, and when we arrived at this house to rent, guess what... it comes with a dog!! A dog with an English name, Brownie, the kids fell in love with him immediately and again God cares about every little detail in our lives. We will help the people move out next week and then hopefully we can move in within the next 10 days. We are so excited and happy to have a place that we can call our own here!! Tomorrow is our first service, and Justin is already practicing for playing guitar in the morning and we are excited to visit with our brothers and sisters here in Mexico. We should be in a "routine" by the end of the week, and figure out a schedule of where we go and when, so pray for our adjustments and starting school with the kids again. Thank you all for your prayers and support of our family, God Bless you, Eastons

The time is here!!!

It is finally time!! We headed out on Monday morning, after a hectic weekend trying to fit everything into our trailer and Suburban. God has been so good. We needed a few things to come through for us to be able to do our ministry in Mexico, and God provided. Someone from our church was gracious enough to donate a Suburban that was much needed to reach the people in the villages, and God provided thru that. We were able to buy a little trailer at a very good price for our belongings, and another person from our church provided a storage unit for our belongings. God has been so faithful, and us being so impatient were concerned at times, when we thought things weren't going to happen in time, but again God taught us our timing is different then His!! We are still short on our monthly funding, but we are trusting God to completely supply all our needs, and we know that He is faithful!! We thank you all who have been here supporting us, and praying for us. We are excited to head down and do our mission that God has called us too, and we pray for many updates and God stories to be passed out!! God Bless, keep in touch! We are all on Facebook also, for keeping in contact!! Will write when we cross the border, Eastons

Preparing for more of Mexico

Hola, We thank all that have helped, prayed for,and supported us in this indeaver that we are in. We have had an awesome year and would not trade it for anything. We have learned so much while we were gone about ourselves on what we can do, even when we did not know that some things were possible. Like me, Matt, preaching up in front of the church. Most know I struggled with talking up in front of the groups at church last year. Tammy and Justin were able to preach also and they did well.
Well right now we are trying to raise money again. We are about 60-70 percent funded right now. We are also in need of a vehicle, like a older Suburban, to drive down there, as the roads are not very good. The two villages that we will be working down there, have long dirt, roads to access the areas. We also are needing an enclosed trailer to take our kitchen utensils, mattresses and some furniture down, as we will have our own home that we are renting this time. We are excited to be involved in teaching English through a Christian program also, and will start that in January as well. Right now, we pray for obedience, God's provisions, and for the hearts of the people in Mexico to be open to hear from God.
We are enjoying seeing everyone here again and visiting with all of you. We will try to keep this blog updated better for the rest of this year, and before we leave to let everyone know what is going on.It has been a little crazy around here lately as I have gone back to working full time in drywalling, with Tammy, Justin and Corey helping me out. It feels so much like fun doing drywall again, not. Actually doing it is supporting us while we are here, and is a blessing to be able to see how God is providing for us. If you are one of our supporters, your money is being put in a separate account, only used for mission work in Mexico. We thank you and appreciate all the support, we know that this is a hard time in our country right now, with the economy and all the fears that we have, but we also know that we need to do our part that God has called us to do, and it is now, not when times may be easier, or seem more simpler, but when God calls, we need to be obedient. We are working on our support and fundraising right now,so we would appreciate prayers for partners to join with us in reaching our friends in Mexico. God Bless, and thank you for your love, prayers and support, God Bless, Eastons