Thanks for your overwhelming response of love, advice, and prayers as we journey along in these next few weeks. We feel very encouraged by your wisdom, and look forward to connecting with you more as we hear from God. One of the things I in particular have been feeling is that even while we feel paralyzed when it comes to the “How things will happen” we need to keep trucking. It’s been quite difficult trying to manage all that we need to do, but need to take our long to do list and just keep working on it and the answers will arrive in ways beyond we can imagine.
An Opportunity To Vacation With Purpose.
If you are planning on Vacationing next year and if you are looking to explore volunteering with your family we would like to invite you to come spend some time in Mazatlan with us this coming winter.
The theme of this particular week is directed towards “Vacation With Purpose” providing individuals and families a soft landing towards showing their children another part of the world where kindness is needed. Years ago both Darryl and I had a lot of fears taking our children to another country to volunteer. Darryl’s parents were a huge help with this four years ago when our family joined them in Mazatlan for two weeks on vacation. Months leading up to that trip we felt a great nudge, and calling to spend some extended time in Mazatlan.
This is the scoop!
We are putting together a group for February 6-13, 2017 so consider yourself invited whether I know you personally or not. For that week we will be feeding and eating with the poor, playing games with kids, and there will be plenty of time to swim in the ocean, eat great food, and enjoy beautiful Mazatlan!
We are having a casual information afternoon at our house this Sunday July 24th 2-5 pm. We don’t need commitments to join the group in February, we would just love to have you! Email me at jodibueckert@icloud.com if you’d like more information, and I hope to see a few of you there!
Random Praises and Prayer Items With Two Weeks Left to go.
We apologize for our absence these past six weeks. A lot has been happening here in Mazatlan and a lot of our daily life has been the same each week. Wake up, go to the church. Go home. Sleep. Repeat.
Highlights:
- The sponsorship program is at a point administratively to take on new donors. The volunteers have been working long hours in the office daily to make this happen. The Vineyard Church will soon be able to accept online donors. Yippee!
2. The Vineyard lobby is coming, and some of the building aspects are being started this week. The only problem is that we have two weeks of volunteer time left in Mazatlan. Where did the time go? Pray for success and action!
3. Emily set a goal of raising $500 Canadian dollars towards the feeding program, and I’m happy to say she has surpassed that goal bringing her total to over 6600 pesos. (Over $500). Good thing, because she is out of stock. Thank you to all who donated rainbow looms last year, as she put them to good use providing 100% profit towards her goal of feeding as many kids possible.
What is God doing in our hearts, and what is he saying to us?
God has shown me (Jodi) that I limit him far too quickly. I’ve limited his ability to use me for his glory. I see this in all aspects of my tiny design business, and my world. I’m praying that God would send a flood of open and closed doors for this spring and summer as I fully put my trust in him.
We’ve had a lot of prayerful moments of panic in the last few weeks. A lot of moments we feel like we are drowning, not knowing how to react. Our human nature wants to crawl under the covers and wait for the tidal wave to go over us. When will it be over? When will our family see the surface? Or will we ever?
Beyond all the uncertainty, we’ve seen a lot of amazing things happen in the life of our church here in Mazatlan, our home church in Langley, our family, and new friends we’ve met through the doors of the Vineyard Church of Mazatlan. We are seeing younger couples in their 30’s and 40’s asking God how they can be apart of Gods big story here in Mazatlan. It is so encouraging to see how the small seeds are growing here. Will you join me in prayer for these families? Some of them I don’t even know yet, but God does. God loves their hearts and discontent for the status quo and their love for all of Gods children.
To put all the grandparents at ease… We don’t feel called to move to Mazatlan at this time. We actually feel quite the opposite. God has placed both Darryl and I to lead a simple and sometimes awkward life in Langley. To love, give our time away, and to tell our children stories of Gods repetitive blessings. We are still waiting on Gods direction, and praying for a clear sense of his presence within our work in Langley.
We are excited to finish off our last two weeks here, please be praying that a lot can be accomplished, and for Darryl and I to have clear minds. Pray for our children Emily and Ben. They have been great troopers through these mundane weeks at the office. God has grown our children’s abilities to wait, to adjust to new challenges. One day, I’m hoping they’ll thank me.
We are deeply looking forward to a very short vacation at the beginning of April and we will be spending that time in beautiful Mazatlan. We arrive in Langley on April 6 th very late in the night, and we are so looking forward to our own beds. (Not to mention, coming home to a clean house) 🙂
Thank you for your prayers, please let us know if there is any way we can lift you up in prayer too as we talk with our Heavenly Father daily.
Darryl, Jodi, Emily, and Ben. [Read more…] about Random Praises and Prayer Items With Two Weeks Left to go.
Life as we know it: A bit of what we are doing here in Mazatlan.
Hey all! I figured it was time to let you in on a few things brewing, (besides the amazing Mexican coffee I drink every morning). Sorry couldn’t pass that one up!
This is a guess but I’m thinking that a lot of you wonder what a typical day looks like for us? Each day is different with fabulous places, feelings that come our way, and some moments more frustrating. Our days have generally looked a little like this…
5:30 am Emily wakes up… Such an early riser!
7:00 am Ben wakes up! See the difference?
When I wake up I immediately make coffee, and we enjoy breakfast together.
Mornings are for exercise, so that’s when I get my sweat on. Wow! With the bit of extra humidity, I do sweat. I’m enjoying my jogs along the boardwalk at the ocean.
We walk a lot, and this is our neighbourhood.
Classy huh? This is Mexico! Beyond these downright dirty, smelly, loud streets are really nice people, cheap limes, and a beautiful ocean one block from our house. Our Home street is super quiet with very interesting and beautiful people and perhaps we might do a video tour of our home? You never know.
School hasn’t been very strict lately, so mornings have been for doing math for both grades, some reading, but keeping it chill. Some times the kids play math games on their devices, and other times we’ve brought home work to the Church if we need to be there. We will however have to make sure that the kids get enough studies in before March as my bro and his family are coming to visit. Yippee! Can’t wait to show them here.
Most of our days are spent doing errands, grocery shopping, we go to the beach, head out to various feeding and ministry programs that the vineyard is a part of. Most of our time as of late is Darryl sitting in front of his computer doing web design for the church.
The leaders of the Vineyard are super excited that we are here. They’ve been praying for someone to come along that can help them with their website. In comes Darryl. One of the pastors said that its their prayers, and their fault we are here. Who’s really keeping track? We honestly had no idea what we would be doing down here when we made the decision to come, and now the pieces are finally coming together for us as a couple.
So back to The Vineyard ministries website, you’ll see its a bit dated, and could use some tender loving care.
The Vineyard ministries relies on donations to keep their awesomeness going, so it’s in the plan to truly show their web visitors just how important their work is for the children, and families of Mazatlan. Will keep you updated, when Darryl has something up.
I’ve been spending some of my time on Pinterest, working for the church. Yeah I know hard work…. Fill you in on that another day. Can I just say how much I miss Home magazines?
Thankfully Pinterest keeps my creative juices going.
Anyways, we feel more settled, especially at church. For awhile there it was hard feeling like the new Fam in town. I’m even going to the women’s retreat next week at church, which will be interesting. The average age attending probably will be 65, so I’m sure somehow I’ll walk away with decades of faith, wisdom, and promises from God, and maybe even an awesome manicure. Who knows?
Anyways, will let you go. We appreciate your prayers, and financially we can’t do this without you. Thank you again to those who have helped us out. Extremely humbling. God bless you!
Prayer requests: Continue to pray for Ben and Emily. Even though our kids Are having a blast, Ben asks regularly “why did you bring me here? “. It’s hard, he’s only seven. He greatly misses his complex friends and his cousin Jack. All we can do is show him the child sponsor ship website that Daddy is working on.. For .30 cents a day you and I can change a child’s life and break this awful cycle. Ben- that’s why. You’ll appreciate this experience when you’re twenty.
Thanks!
Darryl, Jodi, Emily and Ben!