¡Feliz Navidad! Happy Christmas!

The Jones family dreaming of a white Christmas

We want to take this opportunity to wish you all a merry Christmas and a safe and happy new year. We also want to say thanks to everyone who has supported us, prayed for us, visited us and kept in touch throughout this year. Each one of you who maintains this connection with us, even by just reading the blog, is a massive blessing to us.

We invite you to remember the reason for the season - that the Creator God loved you and I so much that he sent his one and only Son, Jesus, to the Earth as a baby. At Christmas time we remember that Jesus was born, God in flesh and blood, living to show us what God is like and to show us how to live God's way in perfection. We also remember at Easter time his death, buying for us forgiveness of our sin with his blood. This is the good news - that God is not far off, God does not live in religious practices; God is near, a God of justice and forgiveness, a God who extends his grace to us and invites us to an intimate relationship with our Creator.

Have an excellent Christmas and don't forget the Christ in Christmas.

Phil, Sandy and Romi

RenovArte Update 30 November 2010

Grand Opening of RenovArte

On Thursday, we had our grand opening for the uni students at RenovArte Café. What an awesome day!


It gave us great joy to see God's hand at work and to see the café full of almost 20 uni students at one point during the afternoon. That is why we are here - to make connections, to live out a life transformed by Jesus Christ and to make disciples!

RenovArte - NOW OPEN!!

Thanks so much for your thoughts, prayers and encouragement over the past months. It's big news... RenovArte is NOW OPEN!!!

We are very excited by what God has done and is doing.

RenovArte opened its doors on Monday whilst we were still doing some minor renovations and installing the speakers for the audio system. We had four customers which was quite good given that it was a public holiday and there were no students in the university. We still don't have our signage up so we are working on getting the word out through the plaza and inviting the uni students.

This Saturday we will have our grand opening for friends, family and our church to celebrate God's goodness and share with them the vision for our ministry amongst uni students. The following week on Thursday we will be having an official opening for the university students and inviting them to "come and see"!

Check out this short video giving you a quick glimpse of RenovArte cafe.

RenovArte progress... 23 October... belated

We are progressing well with the cafe/gallery fitout although things have been slower than we would have liked. The video report above was prepared three weeks ago and things are considerably more advanced now - some more photos to come!

We have been troubled by slow workers doing some of the more specialised jobs and some badly completed work that we had to get the workers to come back and fix. God has been forming our character through the process and helping us to be patient and to trust in Him!!! We are very excited that things are almost ready... get excited...

RenovArte cafe is very close!!

Cafe progress

Hi all,

I know it's been a long time since we last updated and much has been happening. The reason for no updates has been our level of busyness - we're flat out!

Here are some recent photos of the constuction process - we're underway and with the pedal to the metal to get things ready. We haven't got a definite opening date because there's still many things to get done, but we are aiming for the last week of October or the first week of November.



God has been good to us and we have been given the coffee machine, grinder and coffee bar along with a few other items from the old Global Grounds café. We are managing the budget to try and fit out the café in the coolest way possible to make it an attractive hang-out for uni students.

We would love you to get excited about this ministry project and pray specifically that God would help us every step of the way in the cafe setup and opening to make an impact for the kingdom of God. Our goal is to make disciples and on the way to make some great coffee. Satan does not like it when God's people rise up to share the good news of Jesus and we have had some challenges along the way. Please pray for God's protection and strength each day as we seek to be and make disciples through all that we do, including the setup of the cafe.

We can't wait to share more of this exciting ministry project with you, so stay tuned!

Expocafe

We are SO excited about what God is doing in our ministry. We have been able to progress with the cafe/gallery plans to the stage where we are purchasing equipment and preparing the shop space. From 2-4 September, Sandy and I went to Mexico City to ExpoCafe which was a national coffee event. The purpose of our trip was to contact suppliers, look for equipment and gain information and skills in the world of coffee. It was a very beneficial time and we were able to put a deposit on the workhorse of our cafe - the espresso machine.

Check out the photos!

Thanks Reachout!

We have been so blessed by God's hand in our lives and ministry. The Reachout missions event in Katoomba (http://www.reachoutmissions.com.au/) was moved by our project and has provided a significant gift to support the opening of the café gallery ministry. If you were at Reachout, we want to say a huge thankyou and we are so grateful for the way God has worked through young people in Australia to help make this dream a reality. Here is a short video that talks about our plan for the ministry here in Queretaro - it is the extended version of what what shown at the Reachout conference.

Our vision for reaching out to Mexican university students in Queretaro with the message of Jesus through a café/gallery space.

If this ministry project moves you to pray, give or go, please email phil.jones@iteams.org!

Goodbye Carlos and Stefanie

On Wednesday night we said hi again then goodbye to Carlos and Stefanie. Carlos is one of the guys I have been investing in over the past two years and he has finally been granted his fiance visa to enter the US. He and Stefanie will be getting married on the 9th of October this year in Michigan. We have seen their journey and their love grow as they seek to live as disciples of Jesus Christ and honor Him with everything.

It was a privilege for us to be there with other young people to pray God's blessing and guidance for them in this new step in their journey of faith.

Please pray for these guys too that they would be able to give glory to God every day in the preparation for their wedding and in their new life together.

We're back!

We arrived back in Queretaro late Tuesday night again tired after more travel but excited to be home and see Sandy's side of the family. Sandy's parents took us out to eat tacos - our favourite Mexican food and they were delicious! We got straight back into things as Phil had an urgent ministry task to do on Wednesday and Sandy lots of support to give in getting groceries and starting to tidy up the house. We have been busy unpacking but we are very excited about the next phase of our ministry here. We visited the uni on Wednesday and saw lots of young people who need to hear about Jesus.

God bless guys, we'll be in touch soon!

Enjoying Australia

Just a quick update to say we are enjoying Australia and having a lot of fun. God is amazing and has given us the opportunity to experience new things, try new foods and see the diversity and richness of His creation. We have also been able to use the time to make good connections and share about what God is doing in Mexico. We are very excited about the next steps in ministry and our Lord is opening up the doors for exhilarating new opportunities. Please keep praying and more news soon!

We are currently on the Gold Coast staying with some of our dear friends and partners in ministry and we have been to visit AMT today. More updates when we have a good internet connection.

Sharing at Canterbury Gardens

Hi all,

We are having a great time here in Australia and seeing and doing lots of things as a family. Today we went to Canterbury Gardens Community Church and Phil was interviewed about our work in Mexico. He shared about our passion for making disciples and the new project we are planning to open a cafe and art gallery space for uni students to connect, express and learn about Jesus.

We have almost 600 photos already, so I will try and find a few highlights to blog over the next little while.

Take care!
Phil, Sandy and Romi

Meeting details

Hi all,

We've safely arrived in Melbourne and we're getting our heads and bodies around the time change. We are enjoying catching up and spending time with the family and Romi is having fun playing with her cousins.

For those of you who would like to see us and hear about what God is doing in Mexico, the organised meetings are as follows:

• Sunday 11 July - Balwyn Gospel Chapel - service 10am, community lunch after the service and presentation at 1pm. 2 Leonard St, Balwyn, 3103.
• Sunday 18 July - Canterbury Gardens Community Church - 10:30am http://www.cgcc.com.au/
• Sunday 1 August - EDGE church Doncaster - 10:30am http://www.edgechurch.net.au/
• Sunday 1 August - The SHIFT missions experience - 6:30pm at Montmorency Gospel Chapel http://www.montychapel.org/
• Tuesday 3 August - International Teams Journeys - 7:30pm St Jude's Anglican Church 235 Palmerston St, Carlton
  

Ready to go

Hi all,

It's late, we're tired and the cases are still open with things popping in and out. We are very excited to be travelling to Australia tomorrow and can't wait to be on our way! Please pray for us as we travel over the next 48 hours and arrive in Melbourne on Tuesday morning at about 8am. We will be flying from Mexico to LA and then to Melbourne. Please pray for our health as we've all been down with a cold and also that God would protect and guide us every step of the journey.

Our desire is to be a blessing to those around us and to bless others in our trip to Australia.

Take care and see you soon!

Phil and Sandy

The Soccer World Cup... a link to the good news

Last week we started sharing some great little booklets that have been produced by a youth ministry here in Mexico with students in the UAQ university. The booklets contain a plan of all the soccer matches during the world cup in South Africa and also the good news of Jesus with a testimony of a famous soccer player.


We have been inviting these students to our weekly outreach Bible study in the university. Please pray that God would prepare the hearts of these young people as we share a message of hope with them and that God would grow our Search group in line with His will.

Hasta luego!!

Back to the blog

Left to right - Sandy, Phil, Romi, Carlos, Ellen, Nano, Stephanie, Carlos, Laura and Ingrid

Hey all... on Sunday night we had the chance to reconnect with a great friend - Nano (Bernardo) who has been studying and volunteering in Chicago. Nano and I shared an apartment last year for about four months and we shared great times in the word of God too. It's been an exciting five months for him also as he just got engaged to a girl from the church he attends in Chicago. We got to meet Ellen who is a great girl, studying to be a doctor and with a vision for serving God.
I don't know if there's something in the coffee, but it seems the guys I have been investing in are all getting married (and all to foreigners!). I assure you that this ISN'T the focus of our discipleship times, but it is a joy to see these guys growing healthy relationships with Christian girls who have a vision to be disciples and make disciples.
So congratulations Nano and Ellen - we continue to pray for you both and God-willing we would love to be at the wedding!

God is working

Hey all,

Just a quick update to let you know that yesterday we had six uni students in our group La Busqueda UAQ (The Search). Yesterday we talked about some of the questions that the young people had and also about the revolutionary identity of Jesus Christ - the only one who can save.

It was good to see some new faces including Nyelli and Carla, and see some familiar faces return with Ere, David, Ana and Marta.

Praise God for what He is doing in our university ministry.

A great week

Can you feel the fun? This is a glimpse of the action during our holiday club last week. I am putting together a DVD for each of the families that has this video, some photos and a little message from us to each of the families.
We are planning our follow up with the kids and we are hoping to have an afternoon of activities at least once a month. Please pray for God's working the lives of these children and their families.

Day 5 - the last hurrah!

We had a fun last day of our holiday program today and God blessed us with good weather, lots of fun and great opportunities to share. We had another child come for the first time today which was good.

In the teaching time, we shared God's plan of salvation that we have been learning all week. Today, we gave the kids the opportunity to respond to God's invitation to be His friends because of what Jesus has done for us. We explained what Jesus has done for us and that we all have to make a decision to accept Jesus. We explained that we won't give any prizes for accepting Jesus and that each one has to make their own decision in their heart. Six kids responded to the invitation and asked Jesus to be their Saviour and friend. How exciting! We will continue to follow up and share with these kids as we have the opportunity.

The week of fun, tiring work was worth it. Today I went and knocked on Memo's door and he came along to the program. He's actually playing in our house at the moment because his family has all gone out. We have been able to open the door to many kids here in our neighbourhood and share with them the love and hope of God. We continue to pray that God would continue this work as we open our home and our hearts to be the hands and feet of Jesus here where we live.
It was an encouragement to receive the appreciation of one of the mums who said "Thanks so much, you guys are sunshine here. The kids loved it and I've got lots of friends that want to send their kids to the next one!" She also said that she liked that we were teaching the kids about God and the creation and things. God is at work!


So we say a tired goodbye to this week of excitement and look forward to seeing God continue to work in and through us here in Querétaro.

Holiday club day 4

Today we talked about how Jesus is God, that Jesus showed that he was God in the way he lived and the miracles that he did, and that Jesus wants to be our friend. I shared that the best decision I have ever made was the decision to believe in Jesus and to live His way. We shared how the kids can talk to God whenever and wherever and how they can accept Jesus and ask for His help.

We also had lots of fun and games, although poison ball is still the favourite!

Sandy helped the kids make creative cards to give to someone special.

And this is the "after" photo!

What a LOOONG day! (day 3)

Hey all, this is a quick video of our holiday club. We had a long day today with a bit of a mad house as all the kids went wild in the pool. Today we taught about Jesus coming to earth to live and die for our sins so that we can be friends with God and have eternal life. The great news of today is that Memo the eight year-old boy that we have been praying for came along to the club. We also met his grandma with whom he lives and we were able to offer that he comes over to our house when he's going to be home alone. Today he hadn't eaten breakfast, so he ate with us.




Ok, very tired and must go to sleep... Hasta mañana!!!

The holiday club day two

Day two of our holiday club went well. We had the same number of kids as the first day but with two new kids. It was a hot day again so we tried to keep things active. Phil shared the teaching time with the next part of the story - Adam and Eve's disobedience and our separation from God because of sin. Sandy taught the story of Noah's ark. Our craft of the day was animal cutouts and we got out the sparkly puff paint which was a real hit. The kids are addicted to poison ball, which was new to them.

Phil sharing with passion (it's my explaining pose!)

Crafting it up

Tomorrow we are going to put an inflatable pool that some friends have loaned us. We cut the grass this afternoon so now the backyard looks a lot nicer. Next stop... day 3!

We ended up worn out and tired

But happy!

Day one of the holiday club

We are praising God for His goodness on day 1 of our Holiday Club. We had 9 kids and the program ran smoothly. The kids heard the biblical creation story and did some creative arts and crafts. We played games and we all had lots of fun.

Looking out for others

Our street

We are renting our new family home in a locality with lots of families with children. The street is private (it has a closed off gate) and there are 51 houses in the street. It's cool because the kids can play on the street and as long as we keep an eye on them, it's relatively safe. We've been able to make friends with most of the kids that live in our street and they enjoy playing with Romi.
There are some kids in our street that have parents that work lots and often they are left alone at home. There's one little guy who's eight years old and spends most of his time home alone. Sometimes he doesn't even eat in the afternoon because there's nobody in his house to prepare his meal.
We really want to help out our little mate Memo so we often ask him over to our house to eat if he hasn't eaten and make sure he's okay.

In the school holidays, God has put it in Sandy's heart to run a holiday program here our garden for the kids, giving them activities during the holidays and sharing with them a message of hope in Jesus Christ. Sandy used to work as a preschool teacher as well as being a mum so she's well equipped to share with these kids.

Please pray for Memo and pray for our plans to reach out to those amongst whom God has placed us. We are building relationships with several families here and we pray that as a family, God's light would shine through us to every house in our street.

A new friend

Yesterday we made a new friend. Her name is Christian. She arrived at our Search group at the university... searching! She works full-time and is studying English at night in the university. She saw our posters and they grabbed her attention. She has lots of questions and wants to know how she can draw closer to God and how to make wise decisions.
Sandy and I were able to share with her, along with another friend there in The Search group. We gave her a lift to her work and we're going to keep catching up with her to support her and share Jesus with her.

Please pray for Christian as she's searching for God, searching for answers and I know that in a relationship with Jesus, she's going to find all that she's looking for.

Coming back to earth

Hi everyone... thanks for your patience! I'm coming back to earth after getting married, going on our honeymoon and setting up house. We are settling into a routine now and trying to make the most of every day.


At present our efforts are focussed on sharing with uni students at the main university in Querétaro, the University Autonomous of Querétaro. Please keep praying for these students and particularly for our Thursday afternoon The Search group.

More to come, with photos!