Summer Work and Ministry Team Opportunities

Dear Family and Friends,

We realize that over the past few days you have received much information from Mexico Bible Methodist Missions. However, we want to inform you of a signifigant change in facts from our monthly newsletter that we recently sent out. The TLC team will not be able to come to Mexico this summer.

Therefore, there are open dates and projects available for work/ministry teams. So many of you spoke with us during our Share Support Tour and before, telling us of your interest in coming to Mexico and participating in projects here.

The open dates are June 1 - July 10, 2009. We would be able to provide your housing (a large team may need to help with rental of a facility).

Possible projects would range between light construction, painting, cleaning, roofing, remodeling several churches and parsonages.....Ministry opportunities would include VBS and tract and Bible distribution.

Maybe you are not able to come to Mexico and work but would be interested in helping with the needed funds or items (tracts or Bibles) for these projects.

If you have interest in coming to Mexico or in contributing to these projects, please contact us at marcsankey@yahoo.com or melodiesankey@yahoo.com and we will be happy to give you more information.

Kenya

I have a little shadow...her name is Kenya. Whenever I'm over working at the guest house, arranging project items or cleaning Marc's office, she's always right there with me, helping me do whatever I'm doing. And for 5 years old, she sure knows how to use a broom! She loves to sit with me in church, and copy words out of the Bible from whatever page our text is on. She's a sweetheart!

A busy Saturday

On Saturday, I had 5 extra children - 5 of our pastor's children to be exact. (they have 6) Since Pastor Dolores and Sylvia were heading out to the desert state of Zacatecas to visit the Bible Methodist missions there and hold services and since their only means of getting there was a one bench seat pickup truck (thanks, Stetlers) I offered to keep their children for the day. They took one of the twin girls who doesn't do too well away from Mom and Dad and the other 5 spent the day here. We had so much fun! Here's a few pictures.

The Hernandez kids eating breakfast just after arriving a little after 7.

Kenya, Marlene and Cesia helped make banana muffins.

Kenya and Marlene played Memory.

The teenagers played Mexico Monopoly.

Kenya and Logan helped me with the laundry.

And did they put away the hot dogs for lunch! :)

Marlene helping with dishes.


We even had time for a scrapbook party.


And look who konked out on the couch mid-afternoon... Kenya had gone as far as she could. :)


Cesia and Cyntia had fun checking email and chatting.


Jazihiel, Cameron and Jordan playing baseball in the street.

We ended the day, meeting Dolores and Sylvia and Christy at McDonalds and enjoyed hearing the update of how their day had gone in Zacatecas. As you can imagine, my boys were thrilled having company all day long and it didn't take longer than a few minutes for all 3 to get to sleep that night. :)

Chocolate...

Just had to put a little chocolate on some of these strawberries....if you're a Sankey by birth, you don't think it's dessert unless it's chocolate...if you're a Sankey by marriage, the quicker you link the words "chocolate" and "dessert" together, the better. :)

Strawberries and more!

This week my wonderful friend, Collette Burch, gave me a big basket of fresh strawberries. I was so happy to get them! I washed them, "topped" them, sliced and covered them in sugar, then served fresh strawberry shortcake to our pastor (Dolores Hernandez) and his wife and family after church last night. Mmmm, it was good! Think the kids liked it?

Marlene is thoughtfully considering how this particular strawberry is going to taste. :)

Kristi has already taken charge of her piece. :)


..while her twin and my seat partner at church, Kenia, threatens to finish off the whole bowl...:) she was giggling when I took this picture.



A rare smile from Logan's buddy, Jazihiel.

The older girls, Cyntia and Cesia, enjoying their dessert, too.

And "strawberries" is not all...so much has been going on. The activity level is really ramping up as we head into the Institute Classes in mid-April then into our very busy but exciting summer. We are so excited about our teams and individuals who are coming to contribute to Bible Methodist Missions in Mexico this summer. If you have interest in coming or in being involved in a work or ministry project in the next few months, please contact us.

We have a 2 bedroom guest house that we've spent time (and money) working on since we moved back to Mexico in December. There's a good possibility that we could provide lodging for your family or group if you're interested in coming. The summer's filling up - but there's probably still room for you. :) It is so encouraging to our family as well as our dear Bible Methodist pastors and people here to have you involved - they love it! And they'll be happy to fix you some delicious Mexican food - you can count on that.

We are really excited about our GBS intern, Brennan Muir, who will be here with us for 6 weeks this summer. He's going to be a tremendous help to us, we know, in all of the upcoming activities. See ya soon, Brennan!

For the past few weeks, we have been so busy planning, preparing, organizing details for the upcoming week of Bible Institute Classes: April 13 - 17. Click on the highlighted words to view an announcement on our BMMissions blog. Also, an announcement with details about professors, classes, etc. is in our most recent missions newsletter being sent out tonight. If you do not receive our newsletter by email and would like to, please contact me.

Please join us in prayer for this week of intense academic and spiritual training for our BM pastors and people. We need God's Spirit to be with us in a special way.

Some of our other recent activities have included teaching Sunday School (both of us), directing and accompanying the Saltillo Youth Choir (both), singing and preaching the revival in Rio Bravo, studying, praying and preparing to teach in the Bible Institute (Marc), organizing the Pastors' Wives Project and First Aid Project (Melodie), meeting with and counseling pastors about various aspects of the work (Marc), not to mention homeschool and housework (Melodie)..smiles..

Our boys have been involved in the work, too, as their intense catch-up work in homeschool would allow. Jordan especially has been busy working at our guest house/office and helping Pastor Dolores work on the remodeling project at his house. We are thankful for well-adjusted, happy sons who are such an asset to our ministry here.

Great News!

Logan's MRI results were great! No more medication or MRIs...just a routine checkup in 4 months. This is a welcomed resolution to an 18 month ordeal. We are so thankful to God for His touch and to all of you for your love, support and prayers! God is good - all the time!

Our Weekend Revival in Rio Bravo

We had a wonderful revival in our Bible Methodist Church of Rio Bravo this past weekend. The pictures will tell the story.

Marc preaching the opening service of the revival.

After I posted the above picture, I realized it was blurry. oh well... He was wearing a jacket because it was rainy and chilly most of the weekend.

We enjoyed going out for tacos Saturday afternoon with our great friends, Eli and Isela Balderas and their boys, Ervin and Irving. Our boys love being friends with their boys. Here's Cameron, Logan and Irving.

Jordan and Ervin - the older and "more mature" set of boys. :)

Here's Bro. Eli teaching the Sunday School class.

As you know, Jordan had his 14th birthday on Sunday. As is the custom here in our churches, they asked Jordan to come to the front. Everyone came around to shake his hand, they sang happy birthday to him (in Spanish, of course), they took an offering for him and then Pastor Santiago prayed a special prayer of blessing over him. It was such a neat time.

They say here in Mexico that Jordan will be the next missionary after his dad since he has the "stomach of a missionary" - He loves Mexican food. :)

Here he is with friends after service.

He sang a special song with them in the Sunday evening service - they did a great job.

A couple shots of the crowd Sunday evening. The other border churches lifted their evening services to attend and support the revival in Rio Bravo.

The Lord helped Marc preach every night during this revival. Sunday night was a wonderful service and a special time in God's presence. After his sermon, Marc invited the 3 Bible Methodist pastors and their wives to come to the front, then invited their church people to gather in behind them for a special time of prayer and encouragement.

Pastor Santiago and wife Edith - Rio Bravo

Pastor Homero and wife Esther - Soledad

Pastor Bernardo and wife Arely - La Florida

Here's Marc praying for Bro. Bernardo and his wife

It was my privilege to pray with each of the pastors' wives, also. Here I am praying with Arely.


Bernardo and Arely's precious 3 month old baby girl - Estrella. She's such a smiling, happy baby. Here she is smiling at my friend, Isela.


We enjoyed wonderful meals and fellowship in the home of Pastor Santiago and his family. Here we're eating our Sunday night supper. After I took this photo I realized the string hanging down to turn on the light fell directly across Pastor Santiago's face. Sorry, Brother. :)

We thank the Lord for His help in this revival, for His protection over our family and our people here in this border town, and each of you for your prayers. Thank you, Bro. Santiago, for inviting us to minister and que Dios les bendiga a ustedes muy ricamente!

Happy Birthday, Jordan

Our oldest son, Jordan, turns 14 today. I can't believe I have a 14 year old. I only feel about 6 years older than that myself. :)

Jordan, we love you and we are so proud that you are our son. God has awesome plans for your life and we can already see Him working in you to make you what He has planned for you to be.

Happy 14th, son. Mom and Dad

We ask for your prayers

We have 2 special prayer requests to share with you.

• Weekend Revival in Rio Bravo. Tomorrow, we are traveling to the Mexican border town of Rio Bravo, Tamaulipas for Marc to begin preaching a weekend revival in our Bible Methodist Church there, continuing through Sunday night. We ask your prayers for God's annointing on Marc's preaching and our singing ministry this weekend and for the reviving presence of the Holy Spirit to renew and revive us and our Mexican brethren there. Due to the dramatic escalation of the drug wars and violence in border towns, we also request prayer for our family's safety. We will be staying in accomodations provided for us there in the town of Rio Bravo.

• MRI/Doctor Visit for Logan. Logan will be going in for another MRI this coming Monday morning and we will be meeting with the Infectious Disease Specialist on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the results. Logan has been taken off the antifungal medication for a month now (after having been on this expensive medication for a year)and this MRI is to see how he has done off the medication and if the swelling from the fungus is gone. We appreciate your prayers.

Thank you so much for your prayer support - we count on it!

Home Scenes

The boys are sporting their cool Oaxaca shirts that their dad bought for them on his recent trip. Never a dull moment with these 3 guys around. What one doesn't think of, the other 2 surely will. :) I'm proud to be their mom.

Here's me with another batch of these Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins that we love (and that Pastor Dolores liked when they came over for Sunday night snack).

Sisters in Ministry - Care Package Project

Thank you ladies (you know who you are..smiles..) who have taken our Mexico Bible Methodist Pastors' Wives as Sisters in Ministry! Your willingness to participate in this project has been personally encouraging to me and I know will be such a special blessing to our pastors' wives. To know they have a Sister in the US who loves them and is praying for them will be wonderful for them.

Some of you have asked what is involved in having a Sister in Ministry. I would recommend a monthly contact if you are able. This could be in one of several forms:

• You could email me at melodiesankey@yahoo.com with a special message for your Sister. I could translate your message and get it to your Sister as soon as possible.


• You could send a snail mail card. This would take a little longer for me to receive, translate and pass on, but I know would be something the ladies would enjoy. In this you could include pictures of your family, yourself, your church, etc...


• If you're interested in birthday, anniversary information, I could work on getting that together and passing along a small gift you might want to send her way for those special days.


• Any additional Thinking of You care package you send would be passed on to her as I'm able.


• Sharing prayer requests you may have and asking her for any prayer requests she may have is a good way to connect. Share about your family, your children, your ministry...ask about hers.

These are just a few suggestions. Thanks again for participating!

Just a quick reminder to those of you who are sending Care Package items: We need those items as soon as possible to put the packages together and have them ready by mid-April. Please send them to our Texas address included in the sidebar of our blog - we will pick them up there.

Enjoy your Wednesday! Melodie

Spring "has sprung" in Saltillo

Let me show you these beautiful flowers in my backyard.

Here's the beautiful red azucena - I just love it.

Just blooming out....

In almost full bloom....

And here's another one coming

Love my aguacate (avocado) plant.

Can't think of the name of this one (in either language). Flower experts, help me out.

My waist high pink geraniums - Spanish: geranio - (higher actually with the new blooms) and very tall bamboo. This photo doesn't show how deep pink the blooms really are, or of course, how tall the bamboo is. It's twice as tall as my back yard wall.

And with all this sun and these beautiful breezes, why throw these jeans in my much-loved dryer? Let's take advantage of what we have. :) I do have clotheslines but they were full. :) So goes life with 3 boys.

Hope you've enjoyed this taste of spring - I know I am.

Marc's Birthday Dinner

Here we are celebrating Marc's birthday. Thanks to Cameron, the waiters came out and sang Happy Birthday to Marc and brought this mammoth chocolate dessert - nobody complained. :) But you can see that he shared because of the number of spoons present - thanks, honey!

Happy Birthday, Marc - we love you!