Dear friends and family,

We wanted to send you a brief update to bring you up to date on our life together in Mexico.

Ministry: Erin and I continue to feel that our most important ministries are to our men’s and women’s groups. 
Erin continues to work with a group of neighbors (moms and wives).  They have just finished reading The Shack by William P. Young. This book has led to many powerful conversations. After finishing the book, Erin asked for them to share what the got out of the book. The prevailing answer was that they have learned to have faith and believe in God again. Forgiveness and not judging was another topic that really impacted the group. This topic has many practical implications for every day life that they are discussing together, from forgiving parents to not judging neighbors. We are hoping to continue these conversations and expecting God to work in redeeming ways to heal hurts in our lives and in lives around us. Another topic was God’s role with suffering in the world. One of the group members has lost a child, and has another with cerebral palsey. She had the belief that God had wanted her children to suffer these tragedies. (It is very common in this culture for people to say that tragedies happen because God wanted it to be that way, or because of fate.) This opened up a discussion about the origins of good and evil, and has renewed confidence in a good God.  The group is now interested in touching on topics related with their marriages, and raising children.  Erin is teaching them to pray, and is impressed with how they are growing in that way. 

James is currently training 5 men in spiritual formation and leadership development.  These are the five men that attended the men’s retreat in February. Together, they are looking at the life of Jesus as a man.  They are working on spiritual formation and developing spiritual disciplines.  Together, the men are vision-casting about what kind of men they want to become and what a life on mission looks like.  One of these men has never heard many basic Bible stories, so this is a fun opportunity to see him hear about the life of Jesus for the first time.

Both with the men’s and women’s ministries, we are challenging the husbands and wives in a 7 week course on restoring and creating affection and admiration in marriage, which is so easily lost in the hustle and bustle of intense city-life. We are very proud of the spiritual hunger, growth, engagement, and strength we see in these friends.

Trauma Seminar: This month we gave the first of a two part seminar on trauma healing to the group of church leaders that work with the church that meets in the Pink House. This seminar should help the leaders to continue on their own healing path, and should also equip them to help others that they minister to. The material is based on Biblical priniciples of truth, mercy, justice, peace, and reconciliation. We will give the second part of the seminar after spring break.

Apaxco Group: This month, the group in Apaxco has had some new members.  The AIM group from Lubbock visited Apaxco in February. They made some contacts with several youth that were interested in the Bible. This month we had ten new youth join our group. We will meet again with them on April 18th.

Youth Gatherings: Some of the youth from the various congregations in Mexico City have taken the initiative to begin regular city wide gatherings. These have included a retreat that occurred last weekend. James will be teaching at the next gathering, on April17th.  We are very encouraged to see the desire of these youth to encourage one another.

Safety:  Recently, our apartment complex was broken into - two cars had their tires stolen in the middle of the night.  On the same night, the same thing happened in the apartment complex across the street where our friends and house church leaders, the Ortegas, had their car tires stolen.  We and our neighbors were unsettled by the robberies as we have always felt very safe where we live.  But in talking with many good friends here and back home and in seeing the response of the neighbors in our community to heighten awareness and do a few things to increase security, we feel much better now.  We are well aware that we live in a dangerous city in dangerous times, and we have changed a few habits in order to increase our security, but we are grateful that our hearts have settled down quite a bit. God has always taken care of us.  We beg you for your prayers for our family and friend’s safety.

On the same matter, we ask that you pray for the Mexican government. We recently read that less than 3% of all crime in mexico is ever prosecuted. This reality makes would be criminals all the more bold. There has been legislation passed that each of the states are supposed to come up with a plan to change this reality. Their deadline is 2016. We are praying that the government would take this challenge seriously, and that they would come up with changes that will work, as this could significantly improve the safety of everyone living in Mexico.

Family:  The kids are on spring break for the next week and a half.  They are excited about being out of school, and we plan on escaping the city for the weekend to spend time with friends in Guadalajara at the quince-años (15 year birthday celebration) of Meloni Garcia, daughter of Gerardo and Carola Garcia.

Just before school begins again, we will celebrate Caleb’s 5th birthday. We’re so thankful for him, and he is especially thankful that his good friend Liam Rocha will be able to be at his party! We are all thankful for the arrival of the Rocha family as missionary co-workers in the city.

Thank you all for your prayers and support. We love and miss you. We hope that you are enjoying the spring, and that you have a blessed Easter Sunday celebrating the resurrection of our Lord.

Sincerely,

James and Erin Henderson