Group Picture from Day Two

Cy-Fair Team; Day Two (Mar. 16)

The morning service was normal with Pastor Gollo preaching and the Cy-Fair team did a great job leading the Children’s Sunday school classes. That evening, we had group games in the new church facilities as they got to get to know each other a little better. We took a group photo which was printed out and put on mattes as a gift from our youth group to theirs. One of the neatest things was Sandra’s idea to make bolis for the group. A boli is usually frozen cool-aid in a little bag—kinda like our homemade pop-cycles—only better. Other flavors include chocolate milk, coke, and any fruit you can get your hands on. Sandra and Amber made 90 bolis for their youth group and ours to enjoy. The flavor was the best one—rum extract (non-alcoholic). Bolis, better known as “God’s teardrops” by the Pastors at Cy-Fair, are VERY good! Great thinking by Sandra!

The Bolis

Some girls from both groups hanging around and enjoying their bolis.

Cy-Fair Team; Day One

MEXICAN YOUTH GROUP--ABUNDANT LIFE

The youth decided to invite the Cy-Fair youth short-term mission team to our weekly Abundant LIFE meeting on Saturday night. The team had just arrived from getting into the airport after a late flight from Houston to Mazatlán; our youth went to the mission base to greet them and invite them to a “normal” weekly meeting. There were only two things that were not normal about the meeting: 1) barbecued hot dogs, and 2) having the team. What a great way to start the week!!! We were able to hang out for a while and all the youth (Mexican and American) were conversing back and forth, getting to know one another, reacquainting friendships, it was beautiful!

Hot Dogs for Everyone!

The Girls getting Reacquainted

Just after 6pm, we started with a game. Sandra, a Student Leader, headed up a game that was a conversation between the two youth groups. The Mexicans started by saying “Welcome”; the Americans proceeded with “Thank you …” The game’s twist was that in the competition between guys and girls, the Mexicans spelled out the words in English to the Americans and the Americans spelled out the words in Spanish—using ONLY THEIR HIPS. It was funny!

The HIP Game

Martin, another Student Leader, shared from Corinthians about running the race of life and not giving up when obstacles come our way. Jay helped out with the translation and did a great job!

Martin (in the distance) sharing with Jay interpreting

We had three small groups at the end led by Sandra, Martin, and Chuy (another Student Leader). It was amazing to see the transparency already forming amongst the two nations. What an exciting time as they talked about their daily struggles of “running the race.”

Girls' small group discussion

Guys' small group discussion with Chuy

Guys' small group discussion with Martin

EMMA ROSE BLESSING

NEW CHURCH CONSTRUCTION PROJECT

The Construction project of the new Centro Cristiano has been moving right along. A lot has been accomplished in the past few months! Here are a few pictures of what it looks like right now before the March short-term Mission teams come through. It's getting really exciting!

The sanctuary walls continue to rise and are almost at their final height!

Our local construction crew working hard to prepare the education wing for our March teams.

Toddler classroom

Classroom #2

Classroom #3

Bathrooms: Women straight ahead; Men to the right.

Men's restroom

Women's restroom

A view of the education wing from the sanctuary platform.

On Our Way Down...

The girls enjoyed the short breaks.

February Update

Greetings everyone!!!

We had a full month in February with a lot of activities. The sun has been out every day, but it’s still a little cold getting down into the 50s at night. Our family is doing well, we have had a little experience with colds, but we’re doing better.

Last month, we asked you to pray for…
* Ricardo and Jose Luis. Both Ricardo and Jose Luis have returned to Cofradía and they have expressed that the biggest thing they learned was how to listen to God and spend time alone with him each day. Jose Luis is the first person in our ministry here in Cofradía to be a missionary in a foreign country. His experience in Tunasia, Africa was unique to here because they were not able to openly share their faith; secret police constantly asked them what they were doing there. What they did was walk the streets, talk and make friends with people and take advantage of the open doors God would give them in that Muslim community. He has made a couple of friends that he continues to be in contact with from Africa, so the doors are still open. Great news!

* Student Leadership Conference. Pastors Brad Pembleton and Dave Chavez from Houston, Texas came down on Valentine’s Day and spent the weekend talking to our youth about where the Kingdom of God is and what it looks like. Many of the students were able to identify where it is and what it looks like. On Saturday night it all came alive when we walked through the village and stood in front of certain homes and places talking about how we can show God’s love to the people who are associated with those places. A big one was along the road just past the Jr. and Sr. High school where there was lots of trash that people just throw on the ground (something very common here). Many of them were able to see how they can show love to God’s creation and the town by not throwing garbage anymore or picking up garbage that isn’t theirs. What an impactful time!
* February LIFE NIGHT. This event went really well. I shared about Jonah and will continue to do so in the next couple of months amongst other activities at our weekly meeting Abundant LIFE. Attached are a couple of pictures of the Banana Eating Contest we had. One person had to feed a banana to another, but the one eating had to wear knee-highs on their head—take a look!

Thank you so much for your prayers. Other activities that happened during the month were: a Marriage Conference on February 1-3 with Doug and Jan Taylor. Geña and I were able to help them as Interpreters and it was very good information. We had our friends Jack and Vicki Angus with us for two nights in our home and what a blessing they were! We had some great conversations and unfortunately time flew by. Also, after having their travel trailer in our yard since October, the Klippensteins headed back to their home in Canada. They had a huge impact with teaching some of the students new instruments and helping others get better as well as working daily on the new church building project getting things prepared for teams when they were coming and just helping out wherever needed. Finally, we just finished a Family Conference again with the Taylors this past weekend on Feb. 29 to Mar. 2. You can see the report at this link http://thesilbermans.blogspot.com/2008/03/family-conference.html.

This month, please pray for…
* Dentists who will be coming down this week. Pray that as we meet the physical needs of the people here, their hearts will be open to spiritual matters as well (March 6,7).
* Cy-Fair Christian Church from Houston, Texas will be coming down with their youth group to work with our youth group (March 15-22).
* Doug and Jan Taylor as they return to Canada (March 24).
* March LIFE NIGHT that a youth group from Spokane, Washington will participate in with us (March 29).

Thanks again for your prayers

Blessings,
Steve, Geña, Rebecka, and Emma Silberman

Utility Trailer Adventures

One of the weirdest things that happened on our way down to Cofradia was that our trailer's tongue broke. What's weird about it is WHERE! We had driven around 3,000 miles already with the trailer jam packed. After about 500 miles into Mexico, it decided to snap on us. With the roads so bumpy, it was bound to happen sooner or later. I could see the trailer in my rear-view mirror "nodding" if you can call it that, and decided that I would check on it at the next gas station. Minutes later, the front of the trailer starts to bow down to the back of the truck and all of the sudden there was sound of metal scraping the pavement. I pulled over right away, looked back at the smoldering metal and thought, "I'm so glad this happened here and not earlier on the trip". There is quite a long section of road in the State of Sonora that has NO shoulder. There would have been no where for us to pull over. Where it did happen, the shoulder was unusually wide. Being in Mexico, it was easier to have something like this fixed. I flagged down some private police to tell them what I thought needed to be down (having it welded back together). They went to the next town, found a welder, and came back to wait for him with us. When the welder showed up, I was surprised to see that he was pulling a flatbed trailer with a big generator and weldor attatched to it! I have never seen anyone here have such a thing, it was like he was waiting for this to happen (it could be that stuff like this happens quite a bit). He backed his trailer up to ours and began working. Three hours and $50 dollars later, the trailer was fixed and we were on our way. I was encouraged to see how God looks out for us, this could have been A LOT worse!

More Later...

I have a few things to get done, but I'll be back later.

Airplane Adventures

My friend, Fabian Gomez, a pilot for United, took me up in a small airplane in December. What a fun time! I had never been in a small airplane before so this was definitely a real treat! We got in the plane in Auburn, Wa. and on our way up to Friday Harbor, we flew over Bremerton, Silverdale, and Poulsbo. It was great to see all of that from the air up close. As we flew over Silverdale, I called Geña on the cell phone and I could hear Rebecka say, "I see you papi, I see you!" That was probably the highlight of the whole trip--hearing Rebecka say that. As we approached the San Juan Islands, Fabian gave me the controls and coached me a little on how to fly the plane. I was flying it!!! That was definitely a lot of fun! In Friday Harbor, we had an early dinner and on our way back to Auburn, we flew over the Puget Sound and we got to see the beautiful Seattle lights at night. What a fun time!! Thanks, Fabian.

Here are some pictures (stills of video) of a few things we saw:

This is Fabian getting the plane ready.

Puget Sound Naval Shipyard

Downtown Silverdale

Downtown Poulsbo

Aireal view of Christ Memorial Church in Poulsbo

Hood Canal Bridge

Friday Harbor Airport getting ready to head back.

Leavenworth, Washington

We went to the Gingerbread house and got a gingerbread house to make for Christmas.

Something we've never done before is a sleigh ride. It was VERY cold. Notice Emma (poor thing).

Off we go!

They had a place to slide down a hill in town and Rebecka loved that!

WEEEEEE!!!


Rebecka even made a friend to play with.

If you haven't been to Leavenworth, it's a very pretty little town. Especially in the winter.

The ride home was very pretty over Stevens Pass. However, since we don't have 4-wheel drive, it was a little intimidating in places...

We made it and it was a very fun time together with the family.

Rebecka and Emma

We finally put some photos into our computer and now we can show you some things that have gone on the past few months. While we were in Washington, we had some snow at my parent's house and it was Emma's first time in it! She absolutely loved it!

Rebecka loves to pose!

And so does Emma!

On our way back to Mexico, we stopped in Tracy, CA to visit Gena's brother. Here are Rebecka and Emma with their cousins: L to R are Christian, Rebecka/Emma, Giselle.

Family Conference

WOW! What great teaching Doug and Jan shared with us this weekend! Friday night was special for parents; they started with questions like, "How many of us would like to see our children growing in the Lord, being obedient, and filled with the Spirit?" Well, who wouldn't? They then went on to talk the rest of the evening about how we need to be a model to our children of what we want them to be like. If we want them to be respectful, we must be respectful, if we want them to be honest, we must be honest, etc. It was great!

Saturday night was for the youth. Doug and Jan talked mostly about how we believe the lies that we are told by other people or ourselves. They mentioned that there are two Fathers: the Father of Lies (Satan), and the Father of Truth (God) and we must NOT look at them on an equal level; Satan is a created being at the same level of Michael the Archangel. This was one of the best teachings I think the youth have ever received. We can get so easily tangled up in the lies we believe, "I'm ugly", "I'm stupid", "I need to do this so people will accept me." A number of students came forward to confess that they've been believing lies, repent of the lies, then renounce them. It was a great evening as well.

SATURDAY NIGHT WITH THE YOUTH


The conference ended on Sunday morning with a look at the Ten Commandments and how we must respect God, respect others (property, marriage, reputation, etc.). It was very good and Gena translated this morning because my throat was getting pretty bad after having translated the two previous nights, leading worship in the morning, and after fighting a cold all week. She did a great job!!



Doug and Jan are definately a rare jewel to have! Thanks guys!

Family Conference

We have a Family Conference that will be led by Doug and Jan Taylor this weekend. Tonight for all, tomorrow night for youth, and Sunday morning. I will be interpreting again, so your prayers are appreciated! Also, pray that the message would be accepted and people would be moved to action.

Christmas Soccer Tournament

In 2006, we had our first youth soccer tournament here. This past Christmas, the men got involved and there were two tournaments at Christmastime; one for the youth, and one for men. We were in Washington and not able to be here, but the report is in with pictures. Gena's brother, Hugo, was on the winning team for the men! Check out the report at Amber's blog here. Amber is one of our staff members that works with Short-term mission teams and helps out with the youth.
http://amberinmexico.blogspot.com/2007/12/soccer-finals-church-pot-luck.html

Last Weekend and More

We had a really good time with Pastors Brad and Dave from Cy-Fair Christian in Houston, Texas. This was their 9th trip down here whether by themselves or with a team. Three years ago they started to come down to spend the weekend with our students and this time they spoke about where the Kingdom of God is and what it looks like. Very good information and a very simple message that really spoke to a lot of our students. I believe they all got it. And, like many of us, it's just a question of puting it into practice now. Thanks Brad and Dave!

I'm still in the process of settling into my office. One of the missionaries here put a tile floor in my office of which I'm very thankful! So before putting everything back into the office in boxes on the floor, I bought some shelving--I still need to get some 3/4" plywood, but it's slowly getting back into shape.

Rebecka is back in school and I'm teaching her phonics and writing. This is pretty hard for me to do. Please pray that I would have patience and that she would be able to put the right sounds with the appropriate letters. She gets stuck on putting two letters together. Thank you for your prayers on this. I know she can do it, she's done it before.

Emma is doing great! She still is pretty much a goofball and both of the girls are so much fun!! I cannot explain the joy God gives us through these two people!

Mili is living with us during the week again staying in the girls' room. She has been a great help around the house and it's been nice for Gena and I to get to know her a little better.

Gena's sister-in-law, Norma, had a baby on Valentine's Day!! I'm not sure they have decided on a name yet, but they are toying with "Zundury Alexandra". She's a cutie!

Thank you for your continued prayers!

JANUARY MINSITRY UPDATE

If you receive our emails, we have just sent you an update for January. If you would like to receive our emails, please let us know here.

Greetings everyone!!!

We wanted to let you all know that we have returned to Cofradía and made it home safely. There was a couple of exciting moments that we needed to work out with our trailer, but everything is fine now.

We are excited to be back! It was a great 2 1/2 months in the States visiting family and friends. We really wanted to see more people, but time didn’t allow it. A few of the many highlights were the snow on Christmas day, our girls getting to spend time with their grandparents, a trip to Leavenworth, Washington as a family, and our friend Fabian taking me up in a little airplane and letting me fly it! Thank you all for your continued prayers for our family and ministry.

While we were gone, the student leaders (Chuy, Martin, Sandra, and Julio) did a great job of keeping the youth ministry alive and active. We have heard many great reports from our staff and youth. We already have a few things on the schedule for the next couple of months that should keep us busy and bring many opportunities for God to be glorified.

Back in November, we asked you to pray for…
* Evangelistic Crusade with Pastor Rafael Gradilla in November. What an excellent time! We had our first service in the new Church and had around 200 people including children. Many people came from the surrounding villages and praise the Lord for my brother-in-law, Hugo, who went forward to receive the Lord as his Savior!
* Our trip to Washington. We had a great time and it was a great blessing to see people.
* November LIFE NIGHT. The student leaders planned and facilitated the whole service and the report was very good. I’m really excited to see that these students are taking things seriously. They’re building confidence in their abilities to lead and building trust with the students.
* Ricardo and Jose Luis. These two youth were at a DTS in Mazatlán for 3 months, then went on their 3 month mission; Ricardo went to Chiapas, Mexico, and Jose Luis went to Tunasia, Africa. I have not talked with either of them about their trips, but I do know they’re back in Mazatlán and will be returning to Cofradía in about three weeks. Thanks for your prayers for them!

Now we ask you to please pray for…
* Ricardo and Jose Luis. That as they prepare to return to Cofradía, they would be searching for clear direction for their future.
* Student Leadership Conference. Pastors Brad Pembleton and Dave Chavez from Houston, Texas will be coming down for our third annual Student Leadership Conference with the youth. Please pray for safe travel for them and open hearts for the youth (February 14-17).
* February LIFE NIGHT. I will be sharing with the youth some thoughts I’ve learned from the book of Jonah about Jonah (February 23).

Thank you so much for your prayers!

Blessings,
Steve, Geña, Rebecka, and Emma Silberman