Panic Mode

I have officially entered panic mode!!

I have a paper due tomorrow and I write a final exam in one of my courses...I realized today that it's been about 10 (yes I'm old!) years since I wrote a real exam (college doesn't count...it was too easy!).

Yes...I'm panicing...but I guess I could try studying instead of procrastinating huh! Off I go...wish me luck!

We'll Let You Do The Math!

+


= ???

Seeing Jesus in the Least of These

I'm reading a book right now by Brad Jersak-fellow killarneyite (??) called Kissing the Leper-Seeing Jesus in the Least of These. It's a recommended read...

Some quotes from Mother Teresa from his book...

At the end of our lives, we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made or how many great things we have done. We will be judged by 'I was hungry and you gave me to eat. I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless and you took me in.' Hungry not only for bread-but hungry for love. Naked not only for clothing-but naked of human dignity and respect. Homeless not only for want of a room of bricks-but homeless because of rejection. This is Christ in distressing disguise.

It is not enough for us to say: 'I love God, but do not love my neighbor.' Saint John says that you are a liar if you say you love God and you don't love your neighbor. How can you love God whom you do not see, if you do not love your neighbor whom you see, whom you touch, with whom you live? And so this is very important for us to realize that love, to be true, has to hurt.

"May God break my heart so completely that the whole world falls in."

Jesus is the Hungry-to be fed
Jesus is the Thirsty-to be satiated
Jesus is the Naked-to be clothed
Jesus is the Homeless-to be taken in
Jesus is the Lonely-to be loved
Jesus is the Unwanted-to to wanted
Jesus is the Leper-to wash his wounds
Jesus is the Beggar-to give him a smile
Jesus is the Drunkard-to listen to him
Jesus is the Mental-to protect him
Jesus is the Little One-to embrace him
Jesus is the Blind-to lead him
Jesus is the Dumb-to speak for him
Jesus is the Crippled-to walk with him
Jesus is the Drug Addict-to befriend him
Jesus is the Prostitute-to remove from danger and befriend her
Jesus is the Prisoner-to be visited
Jesus is the Old-to be served

Christmas Shopping

Great places to do your Christmas Shopping...and change lives along the way!!

The Leprosy Mission Canada
http://www.leprosy.ca

World Vision
http://www2.worldvision.ca/gifts/app?mc=3221603

Operation Christmas Child
http://www.samaritanspurse.org/#

Happy shopping!!

LIFE IS GOOD...

I saw a sign today...made of cardboard, and written in black magic marker. Where did I see this sign?? Tied with a twist tie to a man's medichair...

"Life is Good"

I don't know this man...but I know of him: his wife has cancer, and he got hurt and is unable to work or walk. His take on the situation...life is still good.

His sign made me smile.

It also made me think...

Life is good...really good!!

Mexico Video 2

Hello All!

We FINALLY figured out how to get our video online!! Just click on the "Mexico 2006 Video" link to the left

If you cannot view the video, please email us and we can send you a copy of it on disk!

Be Blessed!

THE END OF AN ERA...

"Change is the law of life.
And those who look only to the past or
present are certain to miss the future. "
John F. Kennedy

This weekend marked the end of an era for the Friesen family...

We said good-bye to our faithful friend - the upstairs toilet.



My brother Darren is having a much harder time dealing with it than we are, as indicated by the email we received:

Re: The toilet is dead
I am at a loss of words I never thought I would cry for a toilet all I have now is the memories of that toilet the toilet of my dreams It had a strong flush you could hit it with a full scale attack and it would take it I could not clog that baby it was tough it would move with you when you needed to shake that last little bit oh well I feel like I have lost a friend a good friend a white porcelain king of toilets loyal and true. may that king of toilets rest easy now it has had a good run and now it can rest in the toilet grave yard knowing it did a good job. you are free now toilet thanks for being there for all my 3 in the morning sausage fixes or to much brown gravy.

Too much information?? We thought so too...
so long old friend!

LET THE BATHROOM RENO BEGIN!!

The Sights of Summer

We went to Thompson to visit Derek's brother and his family. We had a great time....



And I caught the biggest fish!!

























Family......and Friends have been the best part about being home!!

It's not summer without lots of time on the lake...but it's over soo fast!!!

Mexico Video

Hello All!

We FINALLY figured out how to get our video online!! Just click on the hyperlinck below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTGTVseU7Pc

If you cannot view the video, please email us and we can send you a copy of it on disk!

Be Blessed!

Summer

does anyone know if it's possible to post video to a blog???

We'd like to post a short video of our time in Mexico, but don't know how>

HELP!

The Birthday Party

I just realized that I never posted any pictures from our Mustard Seed Program birthday party.
They have one big birthday party for all 60 kids at once (yes...that's alot of presents!)

We had a lot of fun...

Swimming in the fountain...

The guys manned the bbq's...

It takes one Big cake to feed all those kids...

And of course...No Mexican party is complete without the pinata!!

We're back - eh!

We're back in Canada! We don't have internet access right now, so have been brutal at keeping in touch...

Here's the things we're missing from Mexico already...

Great friends...Great people...and Great food (mmm...tacos!)

Coming home has been exciting too...Here's the things we're glad to be home for...

Great Friends...Jeff & Dani's wedding was awesome! We were so glad to be able to be home and be a part of the wedding. We're so proud of them

(even though it makes us feel old...they met in our youth group!!)

Great kids!! Three youth kids got baptised this sunday...It's sooo cool to see them growing spiritually, and excited to live for God!! Makes me wish I was still their youth leader...but by the looks of it the ones they have (jeff & dani!) are doing an awesome job!!

It's such a weird feeling...glad to be home...sad to be home...missing friends...glad to see friends.

Good thing God has my life figured out...because I sure don't!!

HOME?!?

It's been like a whirlwind...but we're back in Manitoba! I would like to post some pics of our msp birthday party and some other things, but we only have dial-up right now...it's a bit rough! I think I'll wait till we have a faster connection to put pics. on!

We'll be using our cell phone again...so if you'd like to get ahold of us...our phone number is (204)523-6420

On our last excursion we took a team of dentists and one doctor to a village high in the sierra madre mountains. We drove in the back of a one ton truck on a trek of 10 km that took 2 hours. This picture is where the clinic was held also the place that 57 people gave there hearts to the lord while we were there. The town is called San Francisco.






Here is handsome dental team. Brent Wong from Winnipeg he has dental office called Shine dental that you may want to check out. Oscar Zertuche who has a practice right hear in Matomoros, also a person to check out when in Mexico you can get a cavity filled for 20 dollars. Also Kevin from our home town killarney and he works in the dental office there. All three are amazing people and also have a heart for God. With out them on the dental clinic Phil and I would have had to pull teeth with our pliers, which would not have been succesfull.




And here you have it this was our transportation up the mountain. It does not get any better here, this happens to be a government issue transport truck. The box was held on with metal straps with wood blocks put between so the wheels didn't hit the box. But the group loved it and they will forever have the numb feeling in butts to remember the ride.






And here is someone you will remember. We took this picture in Matlapa on the way down the mountain because this was our last time here and we will miss it. We lived in this area for a month and made many friends here.








Then just to change things up a little and to be totally off topic, here is a picture of my nephew Tyler snowboarding. Everyday when I come back from Matomoros dripping with sweat from the plus 40 weather i look at this picture and it cools me off abit.

more of our life

For any of you that have seen those horse drawn carts that are made in the mountains of mexico that we have curculated around, this is the man who builds them. The village name is, believe it or not, San Fransisco. We just got back from visiting this village to inquire about bringing a medical team. So in two weeks we are heading up this mountain with a team of dentists and doctors.






You think that mantoba roads are bad you should try going up the mountain with us. We drove 10 km in two hours. This guy was thinking and put about 10 people in the back for traction. This is why we do the trips with a one ton van. A ford van at that. Phil says that people that do a lot in Mexico use for vans. The reason being is that when you show up at the border in a chevy van it just sits there and shakes with fear.







This is one of the perks of mission work. We started a bible shool in a fishing village about five hours into mexico, right on the gulf of mexico. The pastors husband just happens to be a fisherman, so he invited us for supper. Fresh grouper we ate. It tasted like chicken. Phil told me a story about going fishing with this man. One time they went out in the ocean for the day, just he and phil. Later on in the day a really heavy fog rolled in and they were miles away from the village. Phil being very worried, did not say anything. You have to realize that this boat is also just a row boat out in the ocean. At the end of day the man just turned started driving in the fog(that you could not see your hand in front of your face) and a few hours later they were on shore right at the village. Phil with absoulute amazment and respect for this old school fisherman thought with all his experience he just has a keen sense of direction. So Phil told the man, how in the world did you get us back to the shore, and the man proudly replied "GPS". Just goes to show you that sometimes technology reaches third world countries aswell.

all in a day's work

Nobody ever gets to see what I do every day! Derek gets to go into Mexico, building homes for families, and building relationships....

I get stuck in the office!! Well I guess we both do different, but equally important things right!

There is so much behind the scenes stuff that happens...like any ministry!

Preparing bible school material, recording grades, planning a graduation for June (sometimes I feel like I'm still at Killarney School!!)

Besides all of the work that comes along with the child sponsorship program and all of the other parts of harvest Field Ministries...

HFM Newsletters...ready to mail FINALLY!!

Stacks of material waiting to be distributed (thanks to Derek's mom for helping me putting them all together)

My little space in the world...my desk in Brownsville!

Unfortunately (or fortunately?) there is a lot of preparation and work that goes into each trip into Mexico! Now you're so enlightened about what we do everyday! Just in case you ever wondered!

Home Again!!

After 2 very full weeks...we're home again! Last night Derek and I realized the last time we spent more than 1 or 2 days in a row alone together was 1 1/2 months ago!! WOW!

It's been fun, but very busy!

Last week we were in the interior:

• We were able to visit 2 of our existing bible schools, and start another 2 schools! The students are sooo excited and learning so much.
• We also went to check out the location of our May Medical clinic into the mountains. We travelled 14 miles in 1 1/2 hours...so the group will be in for an adventure!! There is a lot of needs in the area where we will be working, so it should be a very worthwhile trip!
• We stopped to visit and encourage a pastor in Tamuin (where our group was in February)

Pastor Samuel and his wife, Sofia in their home in Tamuin.

A view of Matlapa (where we lived in January) from up farther in the mountains...our medical team will be in these mountains.

Karen, speaking to the students in our newest bible school...located in a small fishing village called Barra Del Tordo

This plaque is located in San Fransisco, the village where we will have our medical clinic. The plaque is to commemerate electricity coming to their village...in 1995!

This is the youth group from church of the rock in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It was nice for us to work with youth agian. They were wonderful to have, they worked very hard...three days of cementing! The group stayed with us at a camp in the city of Matomoros. We had a great time...besides the fact that they had to learn to put there toilet paper in the garbage! Some of them tried to wait the whole week to go to the washroom...welcome to missions! They did a great job!

here we go again..or still???

Hi!

I forgot my camera cord, so once again cannot post any pictures...sorry!

We just spent a great week with Derek's parents. They were a very big help to us! We have a group coming today, so we had lots of prep. and running around to do!

We'll be in Mexico for a week with a group from winnipeg...

The weeek after next we're headed into the interior to do a tour of our bible schools. we need to check up and see how everyone is doing!

that's our life! talk soon!

Matlapa with Doug(brother)

We decided that Doug being the adventurous person that he is, that when he came to visit we would take him to the interior to a town called matlapa. It is 8 or 9 hours into the interior. Or Phil claims that is is 7 hours but I guess it could be if you drove 180 kmh. We stayed with a family that we know. The family is Benjamin, his wife Esther, Daughter Jasmine, Daughter Janet, son Hiudo, and son in law Fabian. The entire family is amazing. We stayed with them and had a wonderful time. The temp. was a balmy 47 degrees above. We swam in the river and there is a picture of that, also we met a boy there that did not speak a word of spanish and doug decided to take a picture of him. Also a family we met at the river asked us to stay for a meal so Doug had his first crack at mexican food, I mean real mexican food. Tortillas soaked in Chile. Anyway we had a wonderfull week with him and He loved the whole week. We also had some free time so we went to the beach, where we forgot to put suntan lotion on and were lobsters after one hour, and are still suffering from it. We also took doug and showed him around Matomoros and he helped us on a families house that we built. The house was one of the mustard seed families and were very excited to recieve a new house. Anyway this is my second crack and this blog thing so I will post it before I screw it up again. Also while we were in Matlap we went to a near by city called Hilitla. To put a long story short a man named Edward James built a Castle type place and kept 60 mexican families employed for many years. We walked around this place and it is beautiful.

A Tale of 2 Dougs

We've been busy...and completely confused the last couple of weeks...

we have had 2 Doug Friesen's with us -

Doug #1, a youth pastor from Winnipeg was with us for 2 weeks. He helped out with our work in Mexico.

Doug #2 - Derek's brother is with us right now. We are so excited that he decided to spend his spring break with us! We took a trip into the mountains, to the place we lived after Christmas. Today the guys are in Mexico working...so we're keeping him busy!!

I'll post some pics of our time in Matlapa tonight when the guys get back!

This is the first time that we have been here that we have been able to meet formally with our sponser family. We see them here and there but this is the first visit we have had. Kiko and the family. Kiko just recently found a job laying blocks that is supposed to last a full year so they are really excited. And Urias is doing well in school.






Here is one of the projects that we did for a family in the mustard seed program. This man and his wife do not have alot, and were extremely thankfull for there new house. This was the last of the winter texan projects for this year. The child in this house that is in the program is named Reynaldo. He has more than the usuall energy, and adds lots of life to the mustard seed saturdays.






This is our meal that the family served us on the last day. This is how not knowing all the words in spanish can get you into trouble. The sister asked me if the men liked a hot meal. And i asummed that she was talking about temperature. Thus we had chicken with a whole handfull of chile picin's tossed in. After the meal i explained my mistake to the winter texans and offered them some tum's.

More Pics

I'm technologically challenged and couldn't add all the pics to the last post, so here's some more!

I finally am getting our online photo album up and running...stay tuned it should be ready shortly!

Here's the pics...

We're Still Here

No, we haven't fallen into the Gulf of Mexico...we are still here! I'm so sorry for keeping you out of the loop. We have been busy...here's the coles notes version of what we've been up to:

• Took a group from Winnipeg into the interior of Mexico. We had a great time...and God showed up (as usual!). We had the opportunity to share God's love with over 200 kids in daily kids programs, cemented the floor of a church, and lots more! We saw people come to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ...which is so awesome!
• My mom and dad came to visit from Canada! We had such a great time with them, even though it was short. We kept them busy...dad spoke in our bible school and did some preaching. Mom had a chance to do crafts with the ladies and speak to them as well. We did take one day at the beach with them, which was fun. We even saw some dolphins right by the shore...it was pretty cool!
• Derek's still busy with building projects in Mexico...they went to finish a house today with the usual crew of winter Texans.
• Doug Friesen, a youth pastor from Winnipeg, is with us now. He'll be staying for a week or so, helping out where he can. It'll be great to visit with him..any visitors from MB are so great....makes us feel a little closer to home!!

We have a newsletter coming out FINALLY with more details on what we've been doing. They'll go in the mail tomorrow, so if you don't get one in the next week or two it means that we don't have your address on our list...please let us know if you would like to be added!

Some of the kids in Tamuin...

The God we serve is AWESOME!!

YOUR LOVE O LORD REACHES TO THE HEAVENS,

YOUR FAITHFULNESS REACHES TO THE SKIES.

Thank you for praying with us!

God has provided for us miraculously...AGAIN

He is so faithful!

Prayer Request

Hi Again,

We are having trouble with our truck. Derek took it to the shop today, and it's going to cost over $400.00 to fix...

We need our vehicle this weekend because we are taking a group into the interior and need it. Please agree with us in prayer on this one...we can't really afford to pay for this...but know that God is our provider.

Thanks!

On The Run

Hello!

Thought we'd give you a quick update about what we've been up to...

We moved into our own apartment last week! We are very excited! It is a 2 bedroom apartment with lots of room for visitors...We are going to be hosting some of our smaller groups in the apartment.

The cost of the apartment is a little much for us, but God is faithful! We had no furniture for this place...in the last month He has provided us with a kitchen table and chairs (donated by a church), a bed (donated by another ministry), even dishes for our kitchen (thanks to Derek's Aunt Dorothy & Uncle Leonard)...It's cool to see how God has provided, because these people didn't know that we were moving and in need of these things!!

We have been busy with groups...

• Derek is working with a group of retired men from Manitoba. He takes them into Mexico 2 or 3 days per week to do various building projects...they are currently building a home for a family, and putting an addition on a church.
• Had a group from Houston come and work with the Mustard Seed Program
• Have a group coming from Winnipeg, MB next week. We are going into the interior of Mexico to build a church and do some evangelism to help support a local pastor
• I (Jo) have had the opportunity to take 2 families from Canada to visit the children that they sponsor. It's a neat opportunity for me...and good spanish practice because I need to do some of the translating!!

Busy, busy...but having a great time...Well, I'm off...I have to get outside and stain bunkbeds (I'm procrastinating!)

We're Back!! Here's Some Pictures!

Some Pics From Matlapa...More info. to come about Bible School...



Some of the students...hard at it already!!




















The View from here...it's so beautiful...pictures don't do justice!















Jo doing laundry...with the efficient washing machine!







We were so blessed to have FRIENDS!!! God always is faithful to take care of what we need...but also what we really want (and really miss from home!!)

We are hoping to learn how to put our photo albums online...so you can just go there and check all of them out...anyone who has a hot clue how to do this...or knows a good place to do it should email and help me out!!