On the way home from school last Wednesday, I (Rachel) decided to spend a few quiet hours at a coffee shop organizing my thoughts in preparation for my OLI (Oral Language Interview) the next day. Time in class had been rough, and I was really anxious about performing well on my test. I’m not usually an emotional person, but the stress was starting to get to me and I recognized that I needed a couple hours in Scripture and prayer reminding myself of the Lord’s peace and provision.

Later that evening, I also had plans of going out for dessert with a friend from church. This is a friend we have known since our very first Sunday here in Mexico! For months we have been trying to plan a time to get together for coffee, so I was happy it worked out for us to finally get together. Even though it was the night before my OLI, I felt it was a great opportunity to practice my conversational Spanish and have a relaxing evening before my big day.

While waiting at the restaurant for her to arrive, I took one more pass over my Spanish notes and did my best to remain calm. Our time together started off well and we enjoyed about an hour of great conversation when I got a call from Tyler.

“Hey Rachel, where do you recommend we take Wrenley if I think her arm might be broken?” As Tyler asks this, I can hear Wrenley screaming through the phone. My heart sank.

My friend knew something was wrong by the way I was reacting. After talking through the scenario and determining the correct next steps with Tyler, we decided to meet at the hospital. My friend ran to pay for our food and, without hesitation, offered to come with us as well!

We got to the hospital about one minute before Tyler and my friend went inside ahead of us to find out our next steps. She helped me fill out the intake form as I gave her the answers and snuggled Wrenley. Then, as we were moved into triage, she watched Asher and Graycen while Tyler finished parking the car.

After a few hours of x-rays, assessments, and talking with multiple doctors, it was determined that she most likely doesn’t have a broken bone, but a severely sprained elbow. She got hurt by going down a slide and landing a bit funny, and then having one of her big sisters come down and land on top of her. Ouch!

She will keep a cast on for about two weeks, so next Tuesday we will be back at the hospital to have it removed and check that there no pain.

We were so thankful to have had a national friend from church with us at the hospital. She knows English fluently and was able to confirm we were understanding the doctors and helped us when we needed it. The Lord provided this comfort for us during a very uncomfortable time.

Amazingly, we also had a new friend (their family just arrived here in Mexico a few weeks ago) offer to come and stay with Asher and Graycen so that Tyler and I could be in the room together (the big kids couldn’t come into the room with Wrenley, which made it extra complicated). She was a lifesaver, caring for our kids so well and selflessly giving up time in her night to serve our family. Again, this is another way the Lord provided for us when we really needed it.

This was not exactly the relaxing night I was expecting, but honestly, it was a great distraction from my test. It gave me snuggles with my baby and showed me I have a community, a family here I can lean on, and mostly, that the Lord is in complete control.

With Love,
Tyler and Rachel

Wow, time has really flown by since our last update, and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon!

This is a huge week for both of us because we both have our next set of OLIs (oral language interviews)! Please be praying that we understand the questions asked by the interviewer, are able to communicate clearly with a high level of Spanish, and that our hearts and minds will remain calm and steadfast knowing the Lord is with us. These particular interviews will determine our next steps and timeline for moving to Guatemala this fall, therefore we are feeling a little extra pressure.

Please be praying this week, specifically on Tuesday at 4:00pm EST for Tyler and on Thursday at 7:00pm EST for Rachel. We would really appreciate it as we know none of this is possible without the Lord’s help!

Side note, we are gearing up for the end of the girl’s school year. This was Asher’s kindergarten graduation last week! So fun!

Thank you so much!

With Love,
Tyler and Rachel

Tyler and I have both had the chance to step outside of our normal routines and experience some new ministry opportunities!

A few weekends back, I (Rachel) had the opportunity to attend a women’s discipleship conference a few hours from Puebla. The conference was held by an IMB partner in Mexico City who has started a booming women’s ministry. The focus was on discipleship and the doctrines of God. And, it was all in Spanish! I will admit, there was a lot I couldn’t follow, but the parts I understood were incredible! A few highlights for me were: 

• Singing contemporary worship songs in Spanish. My favorite was “Santo Por Siempre”.
  
• The breakout time when I heard (and understood) the gospel presentation tool “3 Circles” in Spanish. This is the same tool we learned while at FPO last summer (in English). It was really neat to hear the presentation in Spanish and I’m excited for when I get the chance to use it myself. Poco a poco (little by little)!
  
• Like any women’s ministry event, the fellowship was great! I went with some of the other women in the SLAM program (our year of Spanish learning here in Puebla) and enjoyed getting to know them a bit better. And my goodness the food was great! Authentic Mexican food for a whole weekend, and not having to cook or clean up, was fantastico!

I (Tyler) also got the chance to venture outside of Puebla to spend a weekend in an indigenous community about three hours away. Last Saturday I, along with a few guys on our SLAM team, went to Tuzamapan de Galeana, a small town near the border of Veracruz, Mexico. The plan was to meet up with a small church plant and join them in visiting some community members’ homes.

After meeting up with a few of the church members, we all split up into two groups and spent the day visiting some nearby homes. It was incredible to witness the pastor and church members connect with their neighbors, share Scripture, and pray together. I even got the chance to share a Bible story in Spanish at a few of the homes we visited. I was super grateful for the opportunity to share, and pray that I will continue to grow in my ability to share God’s Word in the heart language of others.

After a full day of home visits, I enjoyed the coldest shower I have ever experienced (which felt amazing after such a hot day). The next morning the church met for Sunday service, and we were so happy that one of the families that was visited by a few church members the day before came to learn more. Please pray for this small body of believers to continue growing and reaching their community.

Thank you all so much for continuing to pray for us as we grow in our Spanish and begin to step into more regular ministry opportunities. We love getting out into the community and hope to have even more opportunities to get involved like this in the coming months.

With Love,
Tyler & Rachel

Our training in March was all about Bible Storying! We really enjoyed delving into accurately and intentionally crafting Bible stories. One of our biggest takeaways was focusing less on word-for-word memorization, and more on deeply internalizing the story, enabling us to tell it from our hearts. Please pray for us to continue internalizing God’s Word, and for us to find every opportunity to share it with those who are far from Him.

Semana Santa (Holy Week) with Noni and Gpops was such a great time to show off our city and allow the girls some special time with their grandparents! Even a bit of sickness in the girls and Rachel, we managed to have a blast! We loved taking them to some of the cool places we have discovered here as well as exploring some new places together! The girls loved playing dress-up, coloring, and snuggling with their Noni and Gpops.

We hear things are warming up back in Virginia! Here in Puebla, it has gotten super hot! Most places do not have air conditioning, including our house and our school. So when it is hot outside, it is also hot inside! We have been told that May is the hottest month here and that the rain comes in June and helps to cool things down. However, this past weekend it got cloudy and windy in the afternoon followed by some thunder and rain! It has repeated that same cycle the last couple of days and we are loving the cooler breeze in the evenings! Such a relief! We hear Xela (Quetzaltenango, Guatemala) is much cooler than it is here in Puebla, Mexico. And word is, six months out of the year, every single afternoon, it rains for a little bit! We plan to get the girls rain boots when we get there! 

Speaking of Guatemala, we are over the halfway point of our year of language learning before we move to Xela. We are so pleased with our progress in Spanish learning over the past six months (even though it has been slower than we originally thought) so we are eager to see how much we can learn in these next six months. We have almost made it to the level in school where “they say” there is minimal new information and it becomes more about honing in your skills and becoming more fluid in your speaking and understanding. We long to be able to make sense of all that is in our brains and be able to not only hear it in conversations but also fluently speak it! 

About two weeks ago I (Rachel), along with one of our good friends Anna, took my first trip out to a nearby community to share Bible stories. It reminded me so much of our work in Lesotho from before we had the girls. We drove about 45 minutes out of the city, turned onto a dirt road, and drove straight up a hill to the first house. There were children playing outside, the wind was blowing, and we were overlooking a large lake. It felt so much like our home in Lesotho. It was a sweet time of conversation and learning. Pray for Tyler as he goes out again tomorrow (Thursday, May 25th) and will share the story of the Good Samaritan.

Our church’s ministry through Operation Christmas Child has ended. We loved that time every Saturday afternoon in two local parks as we witnessed our friends share the gospel with these children week after week. Last weekend there was a closing celebration where the kids showed off the verses they had learned and performed a song. We practiced the songs so much and our girls really had fun with it! Please continue to pray for these children to seek the Lord and learn more about His love for them.

As always, thank you so much for your prayers and support as we settle into our lives on mission. Your prayers for acquiring language and building relationships have been such a blessing, and we can clearly see how the Lord has provided us with opportunities to grow in both. Please continue praying for our girls to thrive in their new home, and for their friendships here to go deep as well.

With Love,
Tyler & Rachel

Last month we sent out a prayer request for our first OLIs (oral language interviews). We received our results and both scored at the same level! We are super pleased and proud of the results we received! Praise the Lord! Thank you for praying for each of us for these interviews! Our next evaluations are scheduled for the end of June or the start of July, we will share more information about them as we get closer.

We’re incredibly thankful for the friendships we’ve formed and the chances we’ve had to immerse ourselves in Mexican culture these past few months. Sharing meals with friends, exploring new towns and markets, and diving into various ministries have all been so life giving. Thank you so much for keeping us in your prayers for our connections with nationals and friendships we are building, both for us and for our daughters. Please continue to lift up this area of our lives and work. It is hard work, but so, so rewarding.

Shortly after our OLIs, we got busy planning a few upcoming birthday parties! We have two special girls who share the same birthday, two years apart! So much fun! Asher’s 6th and Graycen’s 4th birthday was on March 13th! We had a jam-packed couple of days including a trip to a (kid-themed) spa with their best friends from school, an afternoon at the McDonald’s playground with friends who speak English, a family birthday party with cake, presents, and a FaceTime call with grandparents, and, as if that wasn’t enough, we concluded the festivities with a party at the girls school with each of their classes!

Just when we thought things were slowing down, we jumped into an amazing weekend of new experiences. The pastor of our church and his fiancée were getting married a couple of hours away from Puebla (the city we are currently living in), and we were invited to attend! We had an absolutely fantastic time celebrating their wedding (we got to sit with another family from church) and loved learning about wedding ceremonies here in Mexico. Please say a prayer for Emmanuel and Ashley as they start their life together. These two are going to do great things! They both love the Lord so much, and we can’t wait to get to know them more over the next few months. I trust our friendship will continue even after our time here in Puebla!

Which brings us to this week, SLAM Training. We are looking forward to a deeper dive into Bible Storying this week with leaders in the field. We will spend every morning together in our large group and then each afternoon with a smaller group working on preparing stories together. We are expecting this time to be busy (as always) but so, so fruitful. Please pray for our minds to be open to the teaching, and for our Spanish not to leave us during this time away from school.

Next week, drum roll please, we get a vacation week with Noni and G-Pops (Tyler’s parents)!!! We are over the moon excited to see them and for them to see the girls! We have a long list of things we want to show them and delicious food stops we want to share! The girls are mostly excited for the sleepovers, drawing together, and showing them our favorite playgrounds. Tyler is looking forward to coffee shops in the morning with his Dad and late-night taco runs to show them true Mexico! As for me, I am excited to see the girls with grandparents again; time with their grandparents is such a gift, and we are so thankful for all the time we can get with them. 

With Love
Tyler & Rachel