Well we have left our home where we have been living for the past 6 months in Sundre. We packed up our 5 by 10 trailer in the minus 27 degree temps. Let me tell you that in those temperatures we are sure looking forward to leaving! On that topic though, it has been hard. This life of transition that we "signed up for" sure isn't the easiest thing, but we wouldn't change a thing. We so completely enjoyed our time in Sundre connecting with the people from our home church - McDougal Chapel- and we truly felt loved by them. It was a wonderful 6 months with our church family. It is obvious that so many people from our church care for us so deeply. They proved it to us time and again in many different ways and it sure isn't easy to leave them all.
The kids loved their time in Sundre as well and got so connected again with their friends at church. It truly is bitter sweet for us and for our kids to leave. We are all excited- the kids included- about leaving for Mexico and getting settled in there. However it sure isn't easy to leave. Each one of us deals with the leaving a little differently. We have had times of crying as a family and times of jumping up and down as we look forward to what is coming. Just when we were ready to leave our house for good, we couldn't find Noah because he was hiding in the closet crying. It is at times like these that as a parent you wonder if it is all worth it. However God is gracious and He quickly reminds us that there is no doubt it is worth it. He gives us what we need to get through the hard times and He allowed us to stay in Paraguay long enough to experience some wonderful relationships with the Paraguayan people and that showed us that all of the hard work of learning a new language and culture was so worth it. We didn't just endure the hardship of learning and adjusting without reaping some benefits, specifically with a number of wonderful Paraguayan people.
This helps us to remember that even though we are having a bit of a hard time with the transition that is upon us again, we will get through it and we will come to love the people in Mexico that we will be serving and serving with.
We are looking forward to spending Christmas with our families and then we will be driving to Mexico shortly after Christmas sometime.
One more big goodbye, to our families! Then we can look forward to some hellos in Mexico and be finished with the goodbyes for a while!
Thanks for your prayers.
Lane for all of us
Have a look at what the Elliott's are up to in Northern Mexico
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Preparing to Leave Again
Preparing again
For those of you who aren't familiar with what we have been up to nor what we are going to be up to let me introduce ourselves.
We are Lane and Sheri Elliott, along with our kids Alexis 9, Jemma 7 and Noah 5. We lived in Paraguay as Missionaries for the last 2 years or so and now we are back here in Canada. Our plan was to stay longer, but God had other plans.
Now we are preparing to leave once again. We are committed to serving as Missionaries in Latin America and we believe God is calling us to serve in Norther Mexico in a city called Hermosillo.
Hermosillo is a city of about a million people. There is already an existing church that we are going to join. There is a Canadian Missionary family there already as well. This family is from our area of Western Canada and they have 3 children who are about the same age as our children.
Vision-
Our desire is to partner with the believers in the church that we are going to be attending with the goal of going into the poor areas of the city in order to serve. We desire to demonstrate the love of Jesus to the people of society that are often overlooked.
We see plainly all throughout scripture that God cares deeply for the poor of the world and how He warns against the exploitation of them. When Jesus walked the earth, He most often ministered to the poor and most often it was the poor who responded to Him. God loves to use the poor, and the weak and the broken to accomplish His purposes, it is a pattern in scripture.
We would love to see a church full of ex-adicts, ex- prostitutes, ex-whatevers. It is a big dream, but we serve a big God. We believe God still wants to change lives and He chooses to use broken vessels like us to do it.
We are supposed to be the hands and feet of Jesus, living here on the earth to do what He did while He walked the earth. Simply said, we should be characterized by love, by reaching out and touching the broken hearted just like Jesus did.
We believe that when we reach out and touch and love in practical ways, that people will respond to that love. Once they do, then we can share with them the best news of all, that Jesus loves them and having died for their sins, wants to enter into a loving relationship with them.
That is pretty much it. We covet your prayers as we perpare to leave for Mexico by the turn of the new year. We will do our best to continue to update this blog regularily and hopefully we will be able to add video soon as well. Alternatively, you can see pictures of our time in Paraguay and soon, of our time in Mexico at www.flickr.com/photos/elliottspics
For those of you who aren't familiar with what we have been up to nor what we are going to be up to let me introduce ourselves.
We are Lane and Sheri Elliott, along with our kids Alexis 9, Jemma 7 and Noah 5. We lived in Paraguay as Missionaries for the last 2 years or so and now we are back here in Canada. Our plan was to stay longer, but God had other plans.
Now we are preparing to leave once again. We are committed to serving as Missionaries in Latin America and we believe God is calling us to serve in Norther Mexico in a city called Hermosillo.
Hermosillo is a city of about a million people. There is already an existing church that we are going to join. There is a Canadian Missionary family there already as well. This family is from our area of Western Canada and they have 3 children who are about the same age as our children.
Vision-
Our desire is to partner with the believers in the church that we are going to be attending with the goal of going into the poor areas of the city in order to serve. We desire to demonstrate the love of Jesus to the people of society that are often overlooked.
We see plainly all throughout scripture that God cares deeply for the poor of the world and how He warns against the exploitation of them. When Jesus walked the earth, He most often ministered to the poor and most often it was the poor who responded to Him. God loves to use the poor, and the weak and the broken to accomplish His purposes, it is a pattern in scripture.
We would love to see a church full of ex-adicts, ex- prostitutes, ex-whatevers. It is a big dream, but we serve a big God. We believe God still wants to change lives and He chooses to use broken vessels like us to do it.
We are supposed to be the hands and feet of Jesus, living here on the earth to do what He did while He walked the earth. Simply said, we should be characterized by love, by reaching out and touching the broken hearted just like Jesus did.
We believe that when we reach out and touch and love in practical ways, that people will respond to that love. Once they do, then we can share with them the best news of all, that Jesus loves them and having died for their sins, wants to enter into a loving relationship with them.
That is pretty much it. We covet your prayers as we perpare to leave for Mexico by the turn of the new year. We will do our best to continue to update this blog regularily and hopefully we will be able to add video soon as well. Alternatively, you can see pictures of our time in Paraguay and soon, of our time in Mexico at www.flickr.com/photos/elliottspics
Friday, November 7, 2008
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Saturday, November 1, 2008
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