The Market

A couple of times a week we go to the market for supplies for the cafe, our home and bits and pieces. This week we have been to three different markets for various supplies.

The Cruz on Monday for trays for the cafe and a yummy breakfast of tamales. The Tepe on Thursday for mangos for the cafe, some fruit for our family and a breakfast of freshly prepared fruit juice. We have also found cheap second hand clothes in the Tepe that costs about $2.50 per piece so Sandy was able to get some new jeans and a blouse.
The big banger was Friday in the abastos (supplies) market. This is the biggest Market in Queretaro and is the source of wholesale trade. We were able to buy 5kg of strawberries for just $6.50 and 5kg of blackberries for $11.50. These are our main ingredients for our natural fruit smoothies.

Here are a couple of photos from the Tepe.

Colombian conference

We are just on our way back to Mexico after the iT Latin American conference. We had a great time getting refreshed, encouraged and sharing with others. God is doing great things in this region and we are humbled to be a part if His work.

We are stopped over in Miami and quite tired so we are going to gave a snooze. More later.

A day in the life of RenovArte Café

6:35am. Alarm sounds. Snooze. Wake up. Out of bed. Getting ready. Car. Romi to school. First visit to RenovArte – turn on the espresso machine. Home. Shower. Supermarket. Supplies. 10:00am. Arrive at RenovArte. Open doors. Tables. Pray. Clean. Devotion time. Ready…

This is how a normal day starts in our ministry at RenovArte Café, making disciples of Jesus Christ amongst uni students.

On an average day, Denise comes in for her cappuccino at around 10:30am and if she’s sleepy, it comes with a double shot of espresso. Normally, Denise stays around for a while to chat with us or sits down and talks with Sandy until her next class. Conversations range from last night’s dreams and design projects to personal problems and family stories. We have had the opportunity to share our stories with Denise including how Jesus has changed our lives. Just yesterday Denise wrote us a message in facebook saying thanking us for our friendship and saying she can’t face the day without us. God is at work.

Later, Toño comes in with his friends Sajid, Victor and Hugo. These guys study Psychology here at the uni of Queretaro. We always sit and chat for a while about all that is going on. On the first day he visited the café, Toño asked me why I came to Mexico. I told him that God had changed my life and that I have a new life and a new hope in Jesus Christ. I shared with him that this was such good news that I wanted to share it with everyone and that my heart beats for young people to know Jesus – not in a religious way, but a personal, relevant and organic way. It seems that every time he and his friends visit, they ask me more about why I’m here, why I chose to be a missionary and why all missionaries play musical instruments!!! (Yesterday Toño told me that he has several Christian friends and they all play instruments or sing. I told him that it’s a prerequisite. Joking.)

Marissa and Ere pass by in the afternoon before their first class at 4pm. Sandy takes a few minutes to talk with Marissa and listen to what’s going on in her life. Ere helps us out preparing coffee and we eat together.

In the afternoon, Ramses arrives, a few minutes late, but bursting with energy. He puts on his apron and asks “what do you need me to do?” Once a week we take a decent time out from work to chat about what’s going on in our lives and dive into the word of God, exploring what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.

This is RenovArte. RenovArte is all about seeing young lives transformed by faith in Jesus Christ and helping them grow as disciples that impact their world. There are many more stories to share and new stories that start every day. Journey with us to see God at work in the lives of young adults in Mexico.

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!

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.

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.

Romi's Christmas Party

I'm back to the blog!

Just before Christmas, we had the opportunity to host the Christmas party for Romina's class at school. Sandy had been working closely with Claudia, another mum from school, to organise the Christmas party. With lots of back and forth looking for venues, we invited the families from Romi's class to our house for the party. It worked out well since we are still lacking furniture, there's lots of space!!!
(I have moved into the house that we will be living in once we are married, Sandy is just visiting with the rest of the party)

Socialising

Romi and her friends playing on the roundabout

TACOS!!!

MORE TACOS!!!

It was a great opportunity to open our house and share with a bunch of families that don't yet have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Both Sandy and I were very excited that we could build relationships with other families and use the house we have rented to be a blessing to others. We have formed a good relationship with the other parents that helped to organise the party and we are praying for opportunites to share the good news of Jesus with them as build relationships and live a transformed life in Jesus.

Tacos with friends

Sarah is a good friend of ours who comes from the US. Sandy often goes out for coffee with Sarah to catch up and share times of encouragement together. Recently, Sarah's parents came to visit, so in our true Mexican style, we took them out for tacos!

The tacos were a BIG hit! Glad you enjoyed it guys!

Cathy and David in Mexico

My sister Cathy and her husband David came to visit Mexico and see what all the fuss is about. We had a FANTASTIC time catching up and for them to get to know Sandy and Romi. Check out their blog for all the news http://home42.blogspot.com/

They are actually very good at updating their blog, so you might need to scroll down a bit to find the Mexico bits and pieces. Have fun!

The Proposal

The time had come and all was ready. I had prayed about it, thought about it, had the ring and I was ready! My sister and her husband were with us and very excited about what was about to happen…

I took Sandy out for a romantic dinner that I had organised for the two of us. Sandy thought we were going to the restaurant, but we took a shortcut which took us to a lookout with a waiter, table and red roses waiting. We sat down to a lovely dinner and enjoyed chatting about how God had brought us together, some funny and candid moments we have shared and our dreams for the future. Sandy was enjoying herself, but had no idea what was to come…

After we had enjoyed main course, we stood up to enjoy the view. The background music playing was by Luis Miguel and Sandy started singing the first song and proceeded to tell me it was a song dedicated to a woman that he was no longer with, hmmm, I let that song pass by. The next song started and Sandy said “This song is beautiful!” so I thought, “This is the moment!”
I felt the ring in my pocket and started to pull it out as I got down on bended knee. The breath escaped from Sandy’s lungs as she gasped with surprise. “Sandra García Estrada, ¿te casarías conmigo?” (“Sandra Garcia Estrada, will you marry me?”)

“¡¡¡SI!!!” (“YES!!!!!”)

I put the ring on her finger and I couldn’t wipe the smile off her face as I gave her a big hug! We enjoyed dessert and tea and coffee as a newly engaged couple. We asked our waiter to take some photos for us to capture the moment (sorry, the proposal photos are a re-enactment, that’s why I have a goofy smile and I’m looking at the camera whilst I put the ring on her finger.) It was an amazingly special time and a celebration shared with my sister and her husband visiting from Australia.

Wahooo!!! We’re engaged!!! That’s Lord for your love, grace and faithfulness!!!

Thanks all for your support, congratulations and prayers. We still don’t have all the details for the wedding as we are praying for God’s timing and direction. We would value your prayers as we take this important step of faith and as we seek to glorify God in our decisions and our future together.

Finishing well in Costa Rica

I have had an incredible time in Costa Rica learning, growing and serving alongside an excellent team of people who love and follow Jesus Christ. I have been challenged and transformed by studying the life of Jesus chronologically and learning from the Master to be a disciple-maker and leader who serves.
I have made deep and lasting friendships here and I will miss sharing with those whom I have become so close with here. Here is a photo of the guys with whom I have shared my life and times of discipleship - being and making disciples of Jesus together.

Top row - Phil, Diego and Mark, Bottom row - Norman, Jorge and Checho.

I have been thinking about the words of Jesus' prayer in John 17 and I have been challenged by these words:

John 17:18 "As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world." (Jesus here is praying to his Father)

Jesus has given us as his disciples a sending into the world, to make disciples and to reflect Jesus to those around. As I have spent this time in Costa Rica, I have drawn closer to Jesus and I feel more than ever this call to go into the world (for me right now this is Queretaro, Mexico) and to make disciples. I know that this will mean suffering, difficulty, persecution, hard times and the need for lots of patience. But I also know that there is joy in serving God, blessing in obedience and the amazing privilege of serving the living God and being an ambassador for Christ.

Please pray for me in the coming days as I return to Mexico to continue being a disciple and making disciples of Jesus!!!

20 June Video update from Costa Rica

I hope you enjoy this video update!

Jars of clay

2 Corinthians 4:5-7
⁵For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. ⁶For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. ⁷But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

On the 28th and 29th of May, I attended and was involved in the Sonlife seminar - Jars of Clay (Vaso de barro). I both served at the seminar helping to set-up and playing drums for the alabanza and took the "Come and See" course which covers the first 29 years of Jesus' life.This was an awesome time of seeing God bring together a group of about 60-70 young leaders to worship Him, learn more about Jesus and be equipped to be and make disciples. I praise God for what He is doing here in Latin America to equip a new generation to be disciple-makers and live out what it means to be a follower of Jesus in today's world.

Some of the most impacting things for me were seeing the deep obedience to God of Mary and Joseph as parents of Jesus and the full implications of the way Jesus entered the world in the society both cultural and religious of that day. Also it has been impacting me in my study of the life of Jesus in God's word, the amazing mystery of the complete humanity and complete divinity of Jesus Christ.

I pray that you too will be challenged to take a fresh look at the Jesus of the Bible, God's Son who humbled himself and became a human being to save us from our sin, show us what God is like and reconcile us to a restored relationship with God.

Back to school

Today I had my first day of a one month intensive Spanish course here in Costa Rica. My aim is to take my now fluent Spanish to the next level. I am currently at a level where I can understand pretty much everything that people say to me, apart from technical terms or local idiosyncracies, and can be easily understood by those that hear me. I particularly want to work on my accent and correct some aspects of my grammar. Even though lots of people tell me that I speak very good Spanish for the amount of time I've been in Mexico, I still have a long way to go in terms of improving, refining, expanding my vocubulary and starting to speak more correctly and eloquently.

Today, we started with an orientation session and a written and oral exam. There are about 18 of us in the intensive course and everyone else is from the US. I'm proudly flying the flag for Australia and have had lots of questions about the good old Land Downunder.

The Spanish Language Institute is one of the largest in Latin America and caters primarily for missionaries heading out to serve in Spanish-speaking countries in the region. In our first classes today, we did some revision on past-tense verbs in grammar class and then two hours of conversation. I am struggling to get my brain back into gear to learn grammar in classroom-style repetition but I think it will be helpful. The conversation class was interesting, but I'm praying that somehow I can find the way to make it push me because I'm used to conversation all-day, every day in Spanish on a variety of subjects.

Please continue to pray for my time here in Costa Rica, I'm enjoying it and wanting to make the most of every opportunity that God gives me to learn, grow and serve Him. Please also pray for the Costa Rican family that I am staying with for this month that I reflect Jesus and point them towards His saving grace.

Over and out... Phil

Contracorriente... youth in Belen, Costa Rica

On Saturday afternoon I went with Diego and Wendolin to their youth group at Belen. On the way there we met up on the bus with three of the leaders being trained and discipled by Diego and Wendolin. Jonathon was giving out tshirts to the others and then he pulled out his first brown prototype which he gave to me! I said a big thanks and now felt part of the group!


On Saturday we went across to San Rafael and joined with their youth group to talk about discipleship. We had a good time of worship, getting to know each other and a challenging talk from Diego about discipleship.

In the gospel of John, Jesus says that he is the Way, the Truth and the Life. When we talk about Jesus as being the way, we can easily accept that... yeah, Jesus is the way, I'll cruise that way. But when we start to think of Jesus as the truth, he challenges us into deeper commitment and obedience. Finally, when we start to see Jesus as the life, it changes everything. Jesus calls us to give up everything, deny ourselves and follow Him. When we accept Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life, we start on a journey of being a disciple (learner) of Jesus. To be a disciple of Jesus is to live like Jesus did, live out the stuff that the Bible teaches, and to share Jesus, calling others to the same radical obedience to Jesus and sharing the journey with them.

Jesus has changed my life, is changing my life and will continue to change my life... where are you at with Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life? He continued to say that no-one comes to the Father (God) except through Him. Jesus is the only way and he's the BEST way because he meets you where you're at with grace, forgiveness and love and will take you on a journey of transformation that is beyond your wildest dreams.