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

Hello, this has been an awesome week here for us. We have seen 5 people give their lives to Christ this week, 3 young children and 2 men. The power of prayer and God opening the hearts of the people is so awesome. There are days when we feel like we don't do much, where maybe we are just there to encourage the people in church, visit with them and just talk, and then there are times when we get to see some of the fruits of why we are here. Whatever we do, we strive to do it in the way Jesus would want us to. This weekend we are sponsoring a youth conference here in Dr. Arroyo, and there are almost 100 youth and their leaders here. They are on fire for Jesus, and there are some here also that don't have that relationship, so we are praying to fan into flame the love of Jesus into each and every one of the youth. Our kids are loving it here, the music and the atmosphere of teens being on fire for Christ. After this weekend we only have one more week of summer groups coming from America, we spend one week packing and debriefing, saying goodbyes to people we have grown to love and appreciate and head back to Texas about the 10th of August. We have also been graciously loaned a minivan to use for us to drive back to Indiana with. We are so greatful, and have been at times frustrated and worried, but God has always provided for us, we just need to always remember this. We will return home, and get back in touch with our families and friends, and spend a few months in Indiana before returning back to Mexico. Lord willing we will be training under an awesome couple in Mexico for about 6 months, until we are more fluent and understand the culture more, and how to be the most effective in reaching the people. We are so excited and can't wait to return back "home" again. We thank you for being so faithful in your prayers for us, we know that without your prayers this would not be happening. We would not be here reaching out to the lost and working to make a difference in people's lives. May God bless all of you as he has our family. See you all soon, In Christ's service, Eastons

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July!!! It feels weird to be here and not see or hear any fireworks!! But of course we hear the donkeys and stray dogs at night, so that makes up for the other things! Each week we have a new group come, and throughout the week we spend at least 3 days doing what we would call in the U.S., Vacation Bible School. We go to the same village for 3 days and work on the Noah's ark story as our theme. We usually have at least 40 kids a day come out and spend the afternoon with us. We also have at least one adult service throughout the week, and go to the same village for that to minister with the people there. We have also had the opportunity to have a womens meeting 2 times also. Tammy loves to do this, making crafts, sharing stories about women and our faith in Christ, our families and just getting to know each other.

This week our church was able to spend the week down here in Dr. Arroyo with us. We had a blast seeing old friends and visiting with them. There were a bunch of high schoolers and college age guys that came down, and our boys had fun with them. One day all of the students and the groups poured about 20 yards of concrete in 9 hours!! They were all beat, so beat that the teenagers searched out a pizza joint!!!! Our family has been able to join right in with the groups, helping out with the translating, and working to help set up the VBS with the kids. This is a whole different aspect of the mission field for us, working with groups coming down. We are trying to learn as much as we can, not knowing if we will ever use this again, but anxious to learn as much as we can. We enjoy seeing our kids down here. We see the calling that God has put on their lives, and it is so evident in their actions and hearts. God called each and everyone of us here, and Lord Willing we want to help plant the seeds here. We have about 5 weeks left here, can't believe it, then we head to Texas for a debriefing. We are still praying for something to work out for a vehicle for us, and are doing everything we can to figure something out, and leaving the rest in God's hands. We have talked with Roger about our future and are praying about it daily, and what we will do when we finish our training. We want to talk with our Pastor before we announce it, so until then, thanks for the prayers, keep praying and we can't wait to catch up with all of you. We are so thankful for each and everyone of you, and thank God daily for you guys. God Bless you, and keep watch over you, Love you guys, Eastons

This photo here is of Caleb and Matt eating pancakes. We went with the group this week to an old mining town called Real De Catorce, and it has a lot of little restaurants, and shops. Well we started talking about hotcakes on the menu, and Caleb could not remember what pancakes were. Last week it was grilled cheese, and this week pancakes, so we did what we had to, and bought a plate of pancakes!!

Hello everyone. We hope you guys are all doing great and enjoying your summer. We are doing great here. We are back in Dr. Arroyo now, working with the summer groups that come down weekly on mission trips. It has been fun, but also different. The climate here is so different and we feel like we are freezing!! Before coming here, we had 1 week off from doing ministry work , after finishing our Outreach in Veracruz and Oaxaca. Our last 2 weeks in outreach we spent at several different missions that we had never been to. We added some pictures of the kids services along with some of our kids too. One day, we were able to go to some ancient Indian ruins in the state of Veracruz, which was cool for our first time. Other than this we have really been missing the southern part of Mexico. We left a big chunk of our heart with the people there, with the local churches, and it is our prayer that we are able to return there again soon. We fell in love with one of the local villages in Veracruz, and the Pastor and his family also. They are a young family, with a lot of passion for the ministry. We don´t know if God is working on us for this village, or if it is where we are to be, so we are praying daily for His will to be spoken to us. We sense His presence so strong in our lives, even though we had a difficult time during the outreach with all the changes and days where we felt low in our faith, God was and is still faithful to us.

Here in Dr. Arroyo we have been doing some street evangelizing and working with some of the local churches also. It is good because we will go to some of the churches weekly, and will be able to build relationships with the people. That is one thing we noticed at the end of Outreach. We had worked in the town of Tuxtepec for 3 weeks, and finally the third week, we were getting stopped daily by neighbors just wanting to talk to us, and it opened up s0 many doors to talk about God, and inviting them to services. It was sad also that it was at the end of our time there, and we saw how much time it takes to earn the trust and make friendships.

Caleb´s birthday is today, and the pastor had Caleb come in front and pray for him to be an evangelist or missionary here in Mexico, because he loves him so much!! It was so cute. During outreach Caleb saved 4 donkeys by telling them about Jesus and now he asks me all the time about people and animals having Jesus in their heart!!! Usually before every service we spend at least half an hour inviting for services, and last week he wanted to go on his own with a local boy, and they did. He completely invites in Spanish and can understand their responses!! It is so awesome to see!! Justin , Corey, and Tammy are doing the translating for the Americans coming down and it is amazing how quickly the kids picked it up. We see evidences all the time of how God not only called us as parents down here, but He called each and every one of us, and God has used each and everyone of us for His Glory here. We give God all the praise and are so thankful to be used to spread His Word here in Mexico. God Bless you all, keep in touch. Love, Eastons

Last week at the island.

Hello again. Thanks for checking up on us down here. We are still alive and kicking! We spent our last week at the island, and will miss it. We did not have as good of services this time there, and felt bad that the people did not respond as well. They are in desperate need of rain, and the last day we were there we had the most awesome thunderstorm come, with 5 hours of rain. Much needed for the people. We also counted the number of steps it takes to get down the hill and up the hill for bathing, and washing clothes and it was 950 steps. It was so hot a few days that we did not even attempt to walk it. Basically you are shooting yourself in the foot to cool off, because you know you have to walk back up the hill again and get resweated up. We have pictures of the kitchen, where the ladies are cooking, some of the kids on the island, and behind them are pictures of what all the houses look like. It is so different there, you have to see it to believe it. Not having to go to the well daily and get water is something they can not even comprehend. Having a burro is a necessity for life, as much as there water for everything. Dayspring is buying their own place on the island, and will help to have their own permanent, private place where the people can realize we are there permanently to reach out to them.

Yesterday we had an awesome free day. Being here this past few weeks on outreach has been tiring and very difficult so we decided to gather our family and us only left for the day. It is the first time in months where it was only us. We took off to Vera Cruz to the ocean!! It was awesome. The funny but sad part is, in Vera Cruz it was about 85 out and the kids didn`t know if they wanted to swim because it was cooler out. That is how much the heat is dementing our minds!! In one of the photos, Justin`s wearing a jacket and it was that temp!! Crazy!! We all swam in the warm water, kids built sand castles and we just sat and relaxed. We ate at McDonalds!! Wow!! We swam in the Gulf, and had the best day, just us!! We knew that we were missing our family time a lot, just didn`t realize how much it is weighing on us. This group living is very hard, and we know that we are sacrificing our family at this time, and it bothers us. So, yesterday was an answered prayer for us. We thank God for you guys daily, and we miss you dearly. Our outreach will be finished in 2 weeks and then we work with weekly mission groups coming to visit Mexico. Before you know it, we will be back, so that is your warning. Don`t know what the future holds for us yet, BUT God does, and we are claiming to His promises in Jeremiah 29:11. Love you all, miss you, Eastons

Halfway thru!!!?????!!!!!

Well, hope everyone is doing good that is reading this. We are glad that you are keeping updated on our everchanging life weekly!!! We have just spent two weeks living on an island, and one week in a very big city called Tuxtepec. We have lived in conditions over 100 degrees daily, and sleeping in hammocks outside or with fans on us inside. It has been fun, but very tiring with the heat. I thank those of you who are praying for Caleb to eat, he is doing fine. We are all losing weight, but we think from sweat more than anything!! We enjoyed our time on the island the most. We bathed, washed our clothes in the river and swam everyday. We were like at home there!!! The water felt so refreshing and we enjoyed it too much!! The worst part was that the path to the water was over 500 steps downhill and then back uphill to go. Some people elected to not bath because it was so steep and difficult, but you can`t keep the Easton`s away from the water!!! We look like Mexicans now, we are brown, and speaking Spanish pretty good!! We are learning hands on how to reach out to people that have never even heard of Christ. We invite people everyday to the services, and have a service everyday except Mondays. Justin, Matt and Tammy have preached, and all did good, and Justin was told he would make a good preacher one day. We are half way through our outreach of visiting all these rough, hot places, but we are enjoying them also. We are eating new foods never tried before, drinking new drinks and all with smiles!! (Most of the time)..... We can`t believe that it is May already. Before you know it August will be here and we will return freezing in the 80 degree weather, and you all will be laughing at us. We sleep in that weather at night and cover up!!!

This past week has been hard on all of us in the school though. Satan is a good discourager and has been hitting us all hard with that. We are discouraged about our house also, and just seeking God out, even when its hard and we are at a lost as to what to do. Just keep us in your prayers please, we know its Satan trying his schemes again. The kids are awesome though, they are always happy here, always content and that is such a BIG answered prayer for us as parents.

Another thing is that by August or when we get to Texas in August, we need a vehicle to get us back home, and that would relieve a lot of worries for us there to know we will find one. We have some money set aside for one, but it is not much, so pray for a great deal for us or else God to provide something for us. We are going to need like a Suburban or something to fit us and our things also.

Everybody keep up reading this, we love reading the comments and miss seeing the comments on here. We check it weekly to see who`s reading, and it always brightens our days. We love you guys and thank you for your prayers and support. We are keeping our eyes focused on Jesus, and not all these discouraging things, we miss all of you also. God Bless you all, and Happy Mother`s Day to all you mothers!!! In Christ`s service, Eastons

Surprise visit!!

We spent our first week with groups visiting from the United States this week. Unannounced to the kids was their grandparents coming down to surprise them!!! You should have seen their faces, especially Caleb's and Jenna's. They were so thrilled, and spent 2 days saying "I can't believe they actually came down to visit." It was a great week and we feel blessed that they were able to see where are hearts are, and hopefully for them to understand God's calling on our lives a little more. It was tearful again when they left, but after seeing what we do, I sense they have a better peace about it. We leave Monday, April 7 for southern Mexico. We will be living in very rough conditions, with extreme temperatures, so we would really appreciate your prayers with our safety, and also to just have the presence of God in our lives every minute of every day. We are excited yet a little apprehensive about it. We know that we are in God's hands and we are claiming to His promises that He has guided all our steps. We probably won't be able to keep this as updated until the end of May, unless we find internet down there, so keep checking up on this site. There will be a lot of pictures and blogs on Dayspring.us, click on the left side on DMT training and then once on that page the right side of the page has the different weeks with pictures that you can look at. Again, we thank you for your posts, your prayers and your friendships. We love you all and miss you. God Bless You, Eastons

The Heat Is On

Ok.... Its the middle of March, its starting to get warm here!! Laugh, go ahead, laugh what did we expect? Our cold Indiana blood is thinning out quickly and we are actually enjoying the sun EVERYDAY and the warmth everyday. Kids don't know how we are going to make it in an Indiana weather when we return!!!! Last week we spent 4 days in a row with 100 degree temperatures without electric!! That was roughing it!! God is preparing us for our outreach that we leave for in two short weeks! We are learning things so fast here, and time is flying by. All of us are doing so much better on our Spanish and are enjoying talking and sharing with the people. Today Jenna and Tammy went out visiting in the village with the other women, and prayed with them. We welcomed a new believer into God's kingdom today, and that was awesome!! God had prepared her heart already and she was so ready to accept Jesus. The boys spent the day getting the church put back together after the wedding that was here yesterday. We are absolutely loving it here, and want to stay down here. We almost feel guilty because we are loving it so much, everyday just focusing on what God has for us, digging deeper into His word and preparing our hearts to minister to the people around here. There is so much of a need here, you can just at times feel satan working here, and we pray and there is an immediate difference. We know that The Gospel needs to be spread around here, and Lord willing there will be many more opportunities to do this. We thank all of our friends and family who are praying for us, we feel it and know how good God is. There have been times when we get discouraged, but God ALWAYS lifts us back up. We just keep our eyes on Jesus every moment of every day, walking by faith!!! God gave this verse to me last night thru a sister in Christ. Exodus 34:10 I hereby make a covenant. Before all people I will perform marvels , such as have not been performed in all the earth or in any nation; and all the people among whom you live shall see the work of the Lord; for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you. This is so true in our lives, and God is faithful to His Word!! Love you all, Eastons

Drama Time

Hello, all! Can't believe it is March already. Our time here is flying by. We have started doing dramas for local churches and we were all demons except for Matt who was Jesus. It was a powerful drama and we hope to keep learning new ones to share with the people. Last weekend we went to a village that did not have a church in it, we prayed and walked around and made ourselves known there. We talked with some people and in 2 weeks are returning for a youth convention and hopefully teach the people about Jesus. They were warm and welcomed us back to return, so that was a blessing. The kids are still doing good. They are practicing their soccer right now, we seem to always attract crowds after church and play soccer games. Dayspring seems to always get beat!! So, they decided to practice every afternoon and hopefully win a game! Matt's dad came out of heart surgery great, and is home now recovering. That was such an answered prayer for us. We thank you for all your prayers for him. This last week we have been learning more on relationships, and this week we are studying some of the church doctrine of other beliefs so we can know how to encounter them with authority in God's Word. There have been times that God has blessed us with His love and grace, and there are some times that it vis hard to die to ourselves and let God take control of us and everything that we are. That is why we are here though, to die to ourselves and to be all that He wants us to become. Then and only then can He use us to bring the glory and honor to Him.

Last week we indulged ourselves in some American food, first time since down here! We had a real pizza with sausage, mushrooms and pepperoni on it. WOW The Mexicans were laughing at our family as we devoured it in less then 5 minutes!!! It was worth the laughs though!! Well keep in touch and thank you for your prayers. We know God has called us here, and we are so thankful for this opportunity to dig deeper into God's Word, to shine the light of Christ in the dark areas that need His light!! God Bless you!! P.S. The pictures are of us before we did the drama, and Caleb after a long day playing right before service started.

Settling In

Hey everybody!

Well we just finished our 5th week of schooling this week. This week seemed to be a little difficult with some things going on here at the school. I guess that is still part of our training and learning to sacrifice our wants and desires. God is speaking to us daily and we know that He is in control of our lives. We spent the week learning about spiritual warfare, and we are dealing with that! But we know that our God is bigger!!! The kids are still doing great. They are fitting right in. They are learning Spanish so well, I stand amazed! Caleb is saying phrases daily and it makes me laugh and then I wonder where he picked them up at!! We learned a drama this week and put it into practice at a youth convention last weekend, and will do the same again this weekend. It was powerful and showed satan's power and the love and power of Jesus. It's kind of funny that this is the point we are at right now, letting God outshine satan. Well thank you for your prayers, if you could remember Matt's dad is having open heart surgery on Wed. 26th and he could use your prayers. It is hard to be away when we want to be there, but we are trusting God to take care of all his needs. We love you guys and thank you for your prayers. They helped us to get through our first tough week and we are so in love with Jesus!! Oh yeah, about the pictures, Caleb has trained the students to play army guys with him some of the evenings, and we are fighting the girls away from Corey weekly!!! As you can see with his smile, its not a problem to him!! But this is his mother speaking!!! Talk to you later Love you all

Here are some of our new friends in our village. The kids have been fun getting to know, but we are really loving making the contacts with the whole families. It has been good since we have kids, and we are able to connect that way. We are working on Spanish daily and pray for God to annoint our ears and our tongues to be able to speak and understand the language completely!! Thank you for you prayers and emails, love you all!

Well, another week has gone by. The weeks seem to fly. The weather has been so beautiful and God has been speaking daily to us.

Dust Tornado

This picture is only half of the dust storm that past us when we were out inviting people in La Palma Gorda (the fat palm). The area since it is desert has not had rain in half a year. The roads in areas have several inches of dust. Just try to imagine what is like to live in these conditions, yet the people are so happy with what little they have. Why can't we be more like that?

Weekend away

We just returned today, Monday from spending the weekend down in Dr. Arroyo, in the middle of the dessert. We were a mile high up in the mountains, and it was so beautiful!! We literally walked in 6 inches of dust to get anywhere. It has not rained since the summertime and it was so dry. We did two outreach services and also a service at the church on Dayspring property so we were so busy with outreach. We are still doing great and loving it here so far. We are speaking a little more Spanish everyday too. We have seen so many new things here, especially in the churches. They are so different in their services and always provide dinner after the service to us. We have seen and heard of so much evil with idol worshippers and just feel the Spirit tugging us to reach out to so many of the lost, that need to know about Jesus and give them a hope. We went door to door Saturday inviting people to church and asking what they knew about Jesus, and there were a few people that knew nothing about Him. It is so hard to believe that we are so close but yet so far. God keeps laying on our hearts to show Christs' love and we pray that we do that with a Christlike representation!! I guess today was not the best, I cut the kids hair for the first time and with Justin I about gave him a coronary, but we made it thru!! Besides that, we are so good, and the kids are making close friends with others and our faith is definitely growing daily. This training is so good in the fact that it matters how deep and how much you put into it, and God definitely speaks through it. Thanks for checking on us and praying for us, we think of you guys daily and miss you, but we know for this time we were meant for this. Love you all!! We will try to get better at the pictures too!! Dayspring.us has a lot on their DMT click spot. There are more on the bottom of this page too.

Eastons' in Las Alazanas, Mx

Right off of the ranch town of Las Alazanas. At the river off of the Mount Horeb church by Pueublo Nuevo. Just before sunset. Had an awesome praise and worship there. The people from this ranch are so warm and welcoming to us all. It is so peaceful and beautiful there. Ten minutes before sunset.

1st week

WOW, what a week. It has flown by. We are so busy in classes and school with the kids, praiseand worship every night and church that time is going so fast. We are loving it here, and feel the presence of Christ in our lives so vividly. We are growing stronger everyday, and long to serve God daily. Matt and I had our first experience Sunday with a Hispanic man. He just came up to us and told us that he was a new believer struggling with an addiction to drugs, and wanted encouragement. We were able to talk openly and encourage him, and pray for him. The neatest thing of it all, was the night before I (Tammy) was struggling with what can we do now, as people that can't speak the language totally fluent , and here God puts him in our life the following morning. That is how it has been those whole experience. Every person in our class here is a blessing to our family, God had it all planned so well!! We gave up friends, family, and personal things, but God has given Jenna SISTERS, the boys brothers and we just love seeing how God replaced everything we thought we gave up with better. I know there will be hard days, but we are so focused on Christ right now, it seems so perfect. 1Samuel 2:2-" There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God" And right now we are standing on His rock, the strong tower and He is our Refuge!! Love all of you, and thank you sooo much for prayers, we feel them!! We are praying for you too!!

School Starts!!!!

Hey guys!! We are again students. Justin, Matt and Tammy are sitting in classes this week and learning about our spiritual gifts this week. Caleb has made a new friend here in town, that is also 6, and only speaks Spanish!! It is hilarious to see them playing together and communicating! He will learn it so quick. Jenna has 4 teenage girls from Mexico that she loves hanging out with and is learning to communicate very fast also. Justin and Corey have a 15 year old Hispanic boy that plays drums and they love hanging out with him. They are also speaking Spanish too!! Justin is playing the guitar a lot and hopes to play in front of church soon. Matt is actually picking up on Spanish good too!!! Praise God, he was worried about that!! God is so good and we feel we are right where God wants us to be!! We love it and look so forward to starting outreach next week. Look here for pics or on dayspring.us for more pics too!! Love you and please keep in contact!! Hasta luego----see you later!!!!!!!!!!!

The Day Before

We are finally in Texas at the Mission house now. We are heading into Mexico tomorrow(Sunday) afternoon and hope all will go well. We are excited and ready for our adventure. The weather is about 60 degrees here and don't know how it will be in Mexico, hopefully just as well. We have had fun spending time with the Pippengers at the mission house and relaxing here!!! We'll write after we leave. Love ya all

We're on our way!!

We left Friday afternoon and are in Southern Indiana saying goodbye to Matt's parents today. It was so hard saying goodbye to family Friday before we left!! That is the hardest part, saying goodbye to our family and friends we love!! Thank you so much for your prayers, we have felt them so strongly already.We are excited and ready to follow what God has in store for us! We love to hear from you and look forward to keeping in touch. God Bless!! Tammy

Mexico here we come!

We are planning on leaving Friday January 11th, and heading for Mexico! Our training starts January 21st, and we are looking forward to getting started! Pray for safety as we drive 30 hours South. Thank you to all of our friends and supporters for being there when we needed you most! That is true friendship.
Make sure you check in often. We will keep you updated weekly as much as possible.



En el amor de Christo y servicio,
In Christ's love and service,
The Eastons
Matt
Tammy
Justin
Corey
Jenna
Caleb