We're still alive!

Dearest Friends,

 

Wow, it has been far too long since we last wrote!  So many things have been going on that we easily lose track of time.  We have been living in Mexico City since November with an extended Christmas holiday in the states for the birth of Annie.  We have been so blessed to work with Antonio and Becky Muñoz.  Antonio is the Pastor of Tlalpan Bible Church.  He grew up a few miles from the church, and was saved through the church’s ministry.  He received training at CAM’s Bible Seminary here in Mexico, then graduated from Moody Bible Institute, and finally received his Master’s from DTS.  His wife, Becky, is a missionary’s kid that was born and raised here in Mexico.  She also attended Moody and was a single missionary with CAM before marrying. This couple is not with CAM, but is intimately acquainted with it.

 

As you can quickly see, we would have been very hard pressed to find a more adequate couple to have as our orientation supervisors.  We have thoroughly enjoyed ministering alongside them, and will truly miss this, our newest church family.  

 

As we have proceeded with completing the requirements for our orientation time, we have fallen in love with Tlalpan Bible Church!  It is filled with so many wonderful families that are very willing to participate and encourage others within the church.  One ministry with which we have become involved is the local version of a community group.  We have been privileged to host eleven families in our home every Saturday for a wonderful time of fellowship.  The theme came very unexpectedly from a sermon I preached at the church (yes, I preached!).  I spoke on Ephesians 6:1-4.  If you recall, it is the passage that starts: “Children obey your parents in the Lord…”  That sermon started a string of requests for us to develop a series for the community group based on the same subject.  Using some of the concepts from Pat Morley’s lectures: The Twelve Tasks of the Effective Father, we have been having a great time!

 

Our group has been overwhelmingly fun!  Raising our children is, of course, one of our most important ministries in life.  Please pray for us as we answer many, many, questions from the group.  Many of them have never seen a Godly example of discipline, and aren’t even familiar with the basics.  Pray that we would continue to be able to give Biblical and practical examples of how to discipline correctly.  Also pray for us as we have been asked to develop the same curriculum into one day and one week seminars.  We feel that we may be able to dovetail this new and unforeseen ministry into our long term plans at the camp.  

 

God is AMAZING, isn’t He?  We seek to give Him all the glory!

 

Anyway, we will be here in Mexico City (actually Xochimilco – the Mexican version of Venice – with canals, and boats, but with questionable content in the water!) until the last part of June.  We will then head to the camp for counselor training and then four weeks of camp.  The last week of camp ends August 1^st.  We will stay there a few more days to wrap things up and get the camp back in order, and then we will come back home to pack and move long term to Amealco!  Our target date is September 1^st.  Again, please pray for safety and wisdom in working out the details.

 

We love you all, and are constantly reminded that we are simply an extension of your ministry.  We are a team, and we thank you for that!

 

His,

Brock

 

_____________________________________________________________

Brock, Heather, Tucker, Silas, Ruben, and Annie Hower

011-52-55-1731-3168 or 011-52-55-5555-3467

www.howerhighlights.blogspot.com

www.caminternational.org

 

Friends

We have enjoyed being envolved with the Iglesia Biblica de Tlalpan! The people are great and we hope that they enjoy being with us as much as we enjoy being with them!





We have learned a lot about the believers here in Mexico City. Hopefully this will help us in the future as the camp tries to minister to these same beleivers.





Last week we decided to invite some of the people from the church over to our house. I made Red Beans and Rice, Corn Bread, and Prailines. I even had the Crystals sauce out! They had a fit over the corn bread! The kids all played out side and had a great time while the adults socializzed and relazed inside.
















We took this picture once things started settling down in the evening. For the meal we had 35 adults and children! It was so nice to see that everyone fit in the house!! For those of you that saw our house in Kenner, it was quite small and would not have held all these people... The pastor that we are working with is the one in the blue shirt and that is his wife beside him (Antonio and Becky Munoz).





Thanks for your prayer!

Hower boys off to school!!

The Hower boys have started school! If we were in the states they would still be at home with me for a little longer. Here in Mexico they start sending the kids to ‘Kinder’ at three years old. They also have a program for one and two year olds if the parents want to send them. There are three different levels of Kinder before the kids start Primary School.

Back to our boys. We felt that they needed a little push to start speaking Spanish. They have heard it all their lives, but never been forced to speak it. Being at school four hours a day with other kids that speak Spanish is great for them! They are having fun and I get a few free hours every day. I will say that this forces me to wake up early enough to: pump, feed Annie, fix lunches, get three boys dressed and with food in their bellies, then to school by 8:45.

Our church here does not start until 11:00 am so we had gotten spoiled at taking our time in the mornings! Plus for those of you that know us well, we love to stay up late. Putting our boys to bed by 8pm is tough, but does make it easier in the mornings.
















They are supposed to wear a uniform every day. Since we enrolled them so late in the school year, they are not making us buy the uniforms. We just have to put the same color shirts and pants on them. Thanks to Tia Daphne’s hand-me-downs from cousins we have the white polos (that I hardly ever put on my boys because they stain so easily) they need every day.
















Here you see them right before we left our house for school the first day. You can tell that things were a little hectic! Ruben was upset because he did not get to eat for his usual 30 minuets, Silas is really trying to smile, and Tucker is a little distracted. This week they are experiencing the usual adjustments. We ARE talking about the kids that don’t even like to leave us to go to Sunday School Class! Ruben is happy once he is inside the gate at school, but cries while walking up to it. Silas is actually starting to talk to people outside our family! Tucker was sad when the weekend came because it meant no school.

Annie Jean

Brock and I decided to go ahead and dedicate our little girl to the Lord at our church here in Mexico City. She is a precious little thing and only made one little peep!




Our Pastor, Antonio Munoz, had some great words of encouragement. More than that he challenged us as parents to:
1. Raise her according the Biblical Principles.
2. Discipline her the way God outlines it in the Bible
3. Love her unconditionally
4. Show and teach her how to love God
5. Share the Gospel with her
6. Involve her in the church
7. Rely on the church to help us raise her up to be a Godly woman

It was a great service! I pray that we can live up to it for Annie’s sake.

English Camp/Howers during March

As of April 1^st we are back in Mexico City. We headed up to the camp for a few days right after Easter, during the English Camp.  We were able to see Grandmother and Granddaddy Johnson that came down from Tulsa with a work team.  There were a ton of people from the neighborhood that went to the camp.  Including the staff working there, the 25 people from the work team, and the neighbors the kitchen was feeding 190 people.  I am still amazed how much can be made out of that little kitchen at the camp.  Jody and April did not end up needing help from me, so the boys, Annie, and I just hung out and got the Airstream livable (inside that it). Brock was able to help out as Gofer #2 as Rich Musgrave was Gofer #1.  That kept him running around.  Plus he was able to help out with maintenance there at the camp.  Then in his spare time he hooked up the electrical, water, and sewer to the trailer.  Even though the trailer is just set up for two people we were able to make it quite comfortable for six!  It is great that it has an open space in the front for the pack-n-play.  Then we just borrowed a foam mat from the cabins for Tuck and Si.  Annie just slept in the bouncy seat on top of the sink.  We will have to come up with something different once she is sitting up, but for now it is fine.  One thing is true that I ended up sweeping the trailer out about twice a day with all the dirt that we tracked in!  If there is one thing that cannot be avoided at a camp with tons of red clay and three little boys is being dirty.  I cannot blame them much though because by the end of the day both Brock and I would be pretty dirty too!  Summer camps should be interesting!!  I will say that it is going to be really nice having a ‘base’ at the camp for the times we are there.      

 

While we were with Jody and Abril the boys were able to enjoy their first Easter egg hunt.  I know we are horrible parents for not introducing them to it earlier.  Brock and I started thinking and we have been on the road so much during their little lives that we have not really established many ‘family traditions.’  Maybe we will start now that we are getting settled into life in Mexico.

 

This week my washer and dryer came that I had ordered!  I have been happily doing my laundry.  For a family of six there are a TON of clothes, towels, and sheets to be washed!  

 

The boys have been enjoying playing with their toys and our two dogs.  Silas was playing on top of the dog house the other day and fell off the top.  His legs got caught and he fell flat on his face.  He scrapped it up really bad from his cheek all the way to his hair line.  One thing that we have found out is that things like that happen often with boys, especially if your name is Silas Hower.  

 

Annie is doing great.  Feedings are not a problem now.  We just have to clean out her nose a few times a day, but she does not get choked up at every feeding just about once a day.  Then it’s when I have not warmed the milk up enough, am in a hurry, or paying more attention to one of the boys.

 

Thanks for your prayers.  Life is good and we are doing great!  We are so thankful that the Lord has allowed us to be here in Mexico after so many years of working towards getting here. 

 

Pictures

Here are a few pictures so you don't forget what we look like...

Our loaded truck and trailer!

My kids all glad to be home!

It's great to be home!

After three long days of driving from New Orleans we arrived in Amealco, Queretaro.  We spent a couple of days in a cabin at Camp Koinonia.  It was nice to be able to relax there!  Well the boys and I did while Brock ran a bunch of errands… 

 

On Friday we were ready to continue on to Mexico City and arrived that evening.  We have had a great weekend getting settled back into our house.  It was also nice to get back to the church in Tlalpan.

 

Thanks for your prayers for our safe travels.  God was watching over us.  We had a little trouble with the truck, but it only set us back about 8 hours.  The kids did great on the whole trip, but were really glad when we got back home.   The border crossing was very smooth and we were able to take care of all the paperwork.  

 

We are here this week in Mexico City.  Next week we head back towards the camp for a couple of days for the annual English Camp.  I plan on taking advantage of the time to set up house in our Airstream Trailer.  Brock (with the help of Rich Musgrave – our supervisor and Dennis Kursch – a visiting staff person from Canada) was able to get the trailer set in place.  If the other guys get a chance they are going to hook it up for us too.  It will be nice having a base at the camp that is our own space.  Another perk is that Brock’s grandparents are going to be a part of the Work Team from Tulsa, OK that is coming to run the English camp.  It will be good to see them again and introduce them to our little Annie! 

 

We will keep in touch,

 

Heather

 

___________________________________________________________

Brock, Heather, Tucker, Silas, Ruben, and Annie Hower

504-390-2916 or 01-52-55-1731-3168

www.howerhighlights.blogspot.com

www.caminternational.org

 

We are heading south

We are at a hotel in Brownsville, TX right now.  The plan is to cross the Mexican border early in the morning!  We have a loaded trailer and a truck with six passengers ready to be home.  We will stop by the camp first to drop off the truck and trailer.  Then head on down to Mexico City in our mini van.  We plan on arriving at the camp on Tuesday night.

 

The trailer is doing great!  Thanks again to all of you that have prayed us through the last few months.  When I look at our newly renovated and fully loaded trailer it brings tears to my eyes.  It reminds me of a few things: I serve a very gracious and loving God; there’s a LOT of people out there that care for me and my little family; how much people have sacrificed for our ministry in Mexico; Brock and I are not alone in our ministry.  Thank you, thank you.

 

Please pray for the rest of our trip. 

   -Praise Him that we are on our way south

   -Pray for our kid’s health

   -Pray for travel safety

   -Pray for Brock’s alertness on the road

   -Pray for patience for Brock and I in dealing with four kids under four in a truck…

   -Praise that God had brought us this far safely

   -Praise that Brock and I are able to serve our wonderful God in Mexico

 

Love,

Heather

 

____________________________________

Brock, Heather, Tucker, Silas, Ruben and Annie Hower

CAM International

3801 Cleveland Place

Metairie, LA 70003

504-390-2916 or 01-52-55-1731-3168

www.howerhighlights.blogspot.com

www.caminternational.org