SUMMER 2012

The Alperts have had a terrific summer so far. These first six weeks of summer have been FILLED with excitement. We have hosted friends, family, and groups since June 1st. It has been a wonderful blessing to me to see all three kids enjoying being here in Mexico and actually thrilled to be a part of this ministry. 
Since we received the calling to move our family to Mexico, my prayer was that God would do even more in us then He would do through us. We are definitely seeing some of that movement in our kids' hearts.
Aaron has fallen in love with building. He wants to go out every week. He also loves meeting the new teams each week and getting to know the kids.
Lexi really enjoys being a part of the VBS programs and visiting the orphanages and women's shelter. She has thoroughly enjoyed having all the interns back this summer!


 These photos were taken the week that Centerpoint Church from Prattville came down to build a house with us. Also, one of Lexi's longtime friends, Madelyn was here with us.  The picture to the left was the girls talking to the Mom that we were building the house for. Her and her husband were both 18 and expecting their 2nd child.



                                                                       Adam even getting in on some of the painting!


 Adam has really enjoyed having his new friends here. This pic was taken today. They found some pretty cool jellyfish on the beach. Thank you Lord for answering our prayers for friends!

We've also had a visitor come to stay with us for the summer. Her name is Kaitlin. She is from Alabama and we met her through a mutual friend. She was really interested in being an intern, but our interships were already full for the summer.  We offered her to come and stay with us. She helps us out with Adam while we have to work in the office and also gets to go do ministry with us when we go out as a family. This week we are doing 2 days of construction projects at a church, a day at an orphanage, and a day at the women's shelter. Kaitlin has been a blessing to us. Lexi has enjoyed having another girl in the house! There has been many "girl nights" over the last few weeks! This is a picture of Lexi, Kaitlin, and one of our favorite interns Rachel.

The interns do a really cool event every summer that they have named "Mexi-Prom". They get one night to dress up and go to a nice dinner at a beautiful restaurant on the ocean. Lexi got to go this year. Here are some of the girls before the dinner!

If you know Lexi at all, you know she LOVES anything artsy. She would love to intern with our Media Team here at EOC, but she needs her own camera.  She has been saving all of her babysitting money to buy her a nice camera. She recently found a cool website that she can sell her instagram photos for people to purchase to put on canvas. Here is the link: http://instacanv.as/ohheylexi. She gets a percentage of every sale. Pretty cool idea!

PRAISE: HEALTHY & HAPPY KIDS!!

A WONDERFUL HELPER FOR US FOR THE SUMMER!

PRAYER REQUESTS: HOMESCHOOL FOR NEXT YEAR - Need Curriculum for each child.

CONTINUED PROVISION FOR OUR FAMILY

Spring 2012

Update on Spring 2012

We have been hard at work this spring. I have spent most of my time between working in the office and homeschooling. Nate has spent his time between traveling to the different Yugo ministry centers, working in the office, and speaking to teams who come to the EOC. We had our sending church come for a week of ministry in February. We all really enjoyed the time with them and the precious family they built for.  Below is a pic of Adam hanging out with children from the neighborhood that we were building in.

Aaron and Adam both started playing baseball, although Aaron's season was cut short due to a broken arm. He tried a skateboarding trick that didn't go as planned. The hospital experience here was great! We were in and out in an hour with x-rays and a cast...all for under $200. I didn't know what we were going to do with Aaron for 6 weeks without him being able to play baseball or skateboard or surf. He has always been so active! But God has been gracious to us all and we've made it through just fine. Only 2 1/2 weeks left...:)

 Rare moment of Aaron "resting".                  He has found many things he CAN do with one arm.

Lexi has stayed busy with school work, babysitting, and working at the camp everyday. She works the coffee bar for a few hours every afternoon. I found these pics on my computer...kids showing the love...ha 

We are REALLY excited about this summer! We have many families that will be coming to be with us and do ministry. We can't wait to host them. We've been doing many projects around the house the last few weeks to get the house ready for our guests. We are going to be back in Alabama in May. We will be speaking and meeting with many churches... updating some partners on our progess after a year on the field and praying that we can recruit some new churches to be a part of what God is doing here in Baja. We have had some amazing weeks of ministry here this Spring and can't wait to see what God is going to do this summer. Here is a pic from our camp during a worship service last week....

Also, when we get back at the end of May there will be a new missionary family here from Canada. They move across the street from us on May 1st. We are super excited to have a new family and really thrilled that they have kids Adam's age! Praise the Lord who answers our prayers! Adam has had a tough year without many children his age to play with. Adam is really into skateboarding now and he can't wait to skate with his new friend, Gabe.

Here's some pics I've taken to put on his wall in his room....

PRAYER PRAISE -
Contract on our house! Please pray that all goes well and the sale goes through!
Car - We have been needing a reliable vehicle here in Mexico and we are able to bring our car back to Mexico!
School - 1st year of homeschool will be completed next Friday!! We made it!

Thanksgiving

We've been back in Mexico for a few weeks and haven't stopped for a minute! There are some big changes going on within Yugo Ministries right now. I have officially started as the Administrative Coordinator.  I register the teams for all the different ministry sites and trips. When we flew back, we stayed in California for a week so I could train in the US office. After 5 nights in a hotel, we were ready to get home!!
We had a great tour back in the states. The Lord blessed us with many wonderful church hosts. I believe we have 5 new confirmed trips for 2012! The kids enjoyed their time back with friends and family. Lexi was able to go to youth group every week, Aaron played football, and Adam played soccer. It was hard to be away from our house for that long, though! Lexi and Aaron said that they had to fill out a form and didn't know what address to put!  They have been moved around alot this year and we just continue to pray for God's grace over them.
We knew that it would be tough on the kids when we arrived back in Mexico. All the interns have gone home, there are no groups here for a while, not as much going on at the camp, and of course it is dark before 5PM! With me basically going back to work, Nate and I both knew to be ready for some transitional issues and trials...and boy, have we had them! HA! Within the first week we were home, our house flooded 2x! Within the first month, our washer bleached two loads of laundry and our kitchen sink fell apart and flooded the kitchen.  Lexi and Aaron both have gotten sick and Adam has been dealing with horrible nightmares everynight. Along with trying to figure out how to best schedule work and homeschool, its been a tough few weeks. WE HAVE DEFINITELY BEEN UNDER ATTACK!  By God's grace and strength, we are making it day by day. We find joy in the littlest things and have learned to let alot of little things go!
We do ask prayer for the kids especially right now. They have things to look forward to in the new year..the boys will be playing baseball here..groups will start coming in January...interns will arrive in spring...but we just need grace and patience until then! They really have been great about it with positive attitudes. God is good!
We celebrated Thanksgiving  with two other missionary families here. It was the first time we haven't been with extended family during a holiday, and although it was different, it was a wonderful time. We have so much to be thankful for. God continues to show us a little glimpse of His plan each and every day. Why He called us here, why He called us at this time in our lives and in the lives of our kids, and at this time within Yugo.  The Lord has blessed us and answered our prayers about Adam having a friend his age to play with.  A missionary family from Canada moved here in September and has a precious 7 yr old boy! Thank you, Jesus! He continues to give us what we need and even sometimes what we want.... Would you believe that we were able to watch the Iron bowl...from Mexico?  We never thought that would be possible, most things in the US cannot be streamed in Mexico. Now that was one game I was fine with missing, but you know...Nate enjoyed! :)  God just continues to give us little winks here and there like that.
One verse that has been on our hearts lately is:

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." We continue to rest in the fact that all these things that are going on in our lives and in the lives of our children are going to be used for good. Here are two pics that I was able to capture on my phone. The sunsets have been amazing!

Fall Schedule

We have been back in the States for close to a month now. I've lived in Alabama for 34 years and it only took 3 months to forget how HOT it is here! :) Its been great to be back and see family and close friends.
My dad had a stress test, heart cath, and pacemaker since we've been back. We are really thankful that we were able to to be here with family through those procedures. He is doing well and everything went smoothly.
 We have a super busy schedule while we are here. We are staying with my parents in Troy, AL and so we drive into Montgomery everyday for the kids practices, games, or church services.  We are in the 3rd week of homeschool and it is going well so far. We typically do school in the morning and then after lunch head to Montgomery for that day's activities. We usually get back after 8:00 pm.  So, its non-stop..but we are enjoying every minute of it.  Aaron was able to get on the same YMCA football team he's been on the last few years. It is special because it is the last year he is eligible to play for the Y. They had their first practice game on Saturday, which they won 7-6. He loves sports so much. I am beyond thankful that he gets to do this while we are back this fall!
This past Sunday was our first official church service that Nathan spoke at. We visited with Eastern Oaks Baptist Church in Montgomery and it was such a sweet family of believers. We really enjoyed our time with them.  Adam especially enjoyed it. He met a nice little girl in Sunday School class and by the time we had fellowship lunch after church this is what I found them doing...

That kid always makes us laugh!!

Nathan heard from the pastor this morning who said he was inundated with emails the day after of people wanting to go on a mission's trip to EOC! What a blessing! God is so good. 

That service really kicks off our meetings..we have 2 to 3 a week from now until we fly back.  Please pray for traveling mercies as Nathan travels all over the next 6 weeks.

Summer season is ending

It's hard to believe summer season is ending. Our last group of the season was here this week. It has been a whirlwind since we arrived on June 2nd. These three months were such a great start to our ministry here in Ensenada. We saw many homes built, many people fed, and most important of all many lives changed. We are having to say goodbye to many wonderful interns as they head home. Our team of interns are some of the most wonderful young adults that I have met in a long time. Their heart for Jesus and for others around them is contagious. We have been blessed to get to know them and for our kids to  be able to form friendships with them.
 We were able to take a family vacation to California last week. It was a great time to just be together and rest, before we gear up for our busy fall season. We will be heading back to Alabama for the fall. The kids are all going to be involved in some various activities during Sept. and Oct., and Nathan will be doing his traveling to speak at churches.

We are  going to miss our new EOC family so much over the next 2 months... And we will miss the surrounding communities and people. These pics were taken on Lexi's last day at the feeding program before she flew back to Alabama. This little girl, Sylvia, did not want to let her go. Lexi told me on the way home, "Mom, she seriously changed my life.."

We ask that you pray for our time back in the States. Our hope and prayer is that we continue to spread the word of what God is doing here in Ensenada to bring back teams that have already partnered with us before and for many new ones to be added. We would love to add new teams to the schedule for 2012 and have that many more lives changed.  I've never met anyone that has come on a trip here and not had their lives changed forever.

I will continue to update while we are back in the States this fall. I do want to thank each and everyone who has kept in touch with us, prayed for us, supported us, and loved us this year.  God has definitely blessed our family and we can't wait to see what is next!

Glory to God

Over the past two weeks, we have seen 4 people come to know Christ! Glory to God! It is so encouraging to hear these stories. I was just reading a few days ago in I Corinthians..."Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."

How very true, indeed.

Our family has been so busy the last few weeks. Lexi and Aaron have been going out with groups doing ministry. Aaron has enjoyed a wonderful week with a group from Valley Springs doing a VBS/Sports Program. He has been able to be the drummer for the praise team each day. He was upset yesterday because he had to miss the afternoon session due to an orthodontist appointment. Which, by the way, we have been able to start the "braces" process on him! Found a great doctor here that speaks English and less than half the cost of anything I was quoted in the states. He has been needing them for a while, so we are very thankful. Lexi went on a build this week..the first time by herself. Here is a picture of her and one of our interns, Rachel, who has been a dear friend.

Nate has been splitting his time between office work and building. We have been so blessed by the response of churches out there. Our fall is getting booked with dates!

We are so excited!

Here is a pic of him and a new home owner:

  I have been splitting my time between the feeding program and office work.  

 Here are a few pics from the feeding program:

After much prayer and research, we have decided to go through Evangel homeschool in Montgomery. So, I have been trying to finish up everything needed to start school in the fall. I'm almost there!

Little Adam man has came a long way since we first moved. He used to not like being at the camp. He didn't want to try to make new friends. Now, he likes to be there and is doing better meeting new people. He was over late last night with a group of kids, he met on his own playing Uno Attack. He also loves preaching now! At family devotions, he asks for everyone to listen to him. He will get behind something pretending like its a podium, and go to preaching. It is SO HARD for us to keep a straight face sometimes. This kid has such an amazing relationship with Christ. One night this week I was tucking him in and saying prayers and he said "I want to pray to you tonight, Mom." I said, "Honey, you can't pray to me..you pray to Jesus." He said it a couple more times and I would try to explain..finally I just said Ok, Adam. So, he starts praying and his prayer is "for me" not "to me".  He prayed that I would stay healthy and happy and all these others things. I couldn't believe it. At 5 years old, he's having these conversations with Jesus on my behalf! We've never even taught him how to pray for someone like that.

Here is a pic of one night when he dressed up like a preacher: 

Centerpoint

It's kind of funny how we are pretty much at the center of the summer season here and we had a small group from Centerpoint Fellowship in Prattville, AL just spend a week with us.  They wanted to experience the trip, the camp life, the people here, and see the need before they brought a church group on a trip.  We really enjoyed spending time with them. It was nice to hear a familiar accent and to see the Auburn Tigers represented! HA! Seemed like everyday someone was wearing something with AU on it! Love it! We were able to show them some builds that were going on and take them to a feeding program.  It was a great week. They absolutely believed in the ministry here and committed to bringing groups back in early 2012.

We left at 5AM on Friday morning to take them to the airport in San Deigo. We had one of the longest waits at the border yet, but we all survived. Being in the back of what everyone calls "the prison van" (because it literally was before EOC bought it) with the three kids..no air...and tight conditions for 2 hours was extremely testing, but I made it! Woo-hoo..there were times when I had my doubts. I was thinking either me or one of these kids is not making it out of this van!!  The Centerpoint group was so gracious and patient! They let Adam crawl over them about a million times as he would get antsy. It all paid off though, we had a wonderful family day in San Diego! After the group was dropped at the airport we did our monthly grocery shopping. We also found a very cool thrift store that was so much fun to explore..got stocked up on lots of good movies. We were able to take the kids to Inflatable World..which is this big park of inflatables outside. It's all fenced in and really nice. Of course, it was a high of 75 in San Diego yesterday, so the weather could not have been more perfect. The boys just ran from one to another for hours! They were definitely able to get all that stored up energy out!

We are excited to start the second half of the summer. We still have so much we want to do and get accomplished. The leaders of the feeding program in Lomas Bonitas will be out the next 2 weeks, so we are going to help there each day to keep it running.
I still need to get together a plan for homeschool. It is coming up quickly! I have researched many curriculums and umbrella schools. I wish there weren't so many choices! HA! It can be quite overwhelming, but in due time I KNOW God is going to give me a peace about which one to choose.