The Smith Connection

Click below for some prayer items for September 2006

And He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while.” Mark 6:31 (NASB)

Dear Prayer Partner,

In the above verse Jesus encouraged the 12 apostles to "go to a secluded place and rest a while." As part of our home assignment we are certainly being refreshed in the beautiful countryside of Lancaster County PA! After five years in Mexico we are enjoying a change of pace and a ministry of a different kind. Thank you for your prayers! Our transition to Home Assignment has generally been very good.

PRAISES:
~ We praise the Lord for a good transition for our family so far:
- Kendra and Tara had their first week of school and are loving it! God sent special friends to sit with them on the bus for their ride to school the first day, and they both ended up being the girls they were assigned to sit with in their classroom as well!
- Our church family at Calvary Bible Church has been very warm and helpful in our transition
- We are enjoying our time to reconnect with our supporting churches, supporters, family, and friends
- We are benefiting from taking time to read some books that we have been wanting to read and not had the time to yet
- We are loving life in farm land again after living in a city of 2 million the last few years - having a lawn to mow is great!
- Bryan plans to attend a men's retreat from Sept. 22-24 and Lori plans to attend a women's seminar on Sept. 30
~ We praise the Lord for ministry opportunities:
- We have had three opportunities to speak in supporting churches so far, and have several more on the calendar in the coming months
- We are enjoying the opportunity to reconnect with many of our individual supporters
- We are looking forward to being involved at our church being Pioneer Club leaders and teaching Sunday School starting this month
- We are praying that the Lord would open the door to meeting and ministering to some Hispanic people who live in the Mount Joy area. There is a great little authentic Mexican restaurant and store there, with quite a large population of Mexicans surrounding it.
~ We praise the Lord for the good reports we are getting back from the New Birth Bible Church in Mexico:
- We have been told that all the seats in church have been full the last few Sundays
- We hear that the church is motivated and people are getting involved, and taking their responsibilities seriously
- Our national co-worker, Mauricio, is teaching a group of men hermeneutics and homiletics on Saturdays so that they will soon be able to help him with the preaching. Currently one of our fellow missionaries, Rick Burnam, is helping out by preaching at the church once a month

PRAYER:
~ Please continue to pray for the growth and development of the church in Mexico. Pray that the servant team of five men and their wives would be able to work well together and get excited about what God can do through them.
~ Please pray for our ministry opportunities during our home assignment. Pray that God would open the door to work with some Hispanic families here if it be His will. Pray as we do some traveling and speaking, as well as reconnecting with friends and supporters.
~ Please pray for our support level. At this point it looks like we will need to raise between $400 and $500 a month before we head back to Mexico next summer.

Thanks so much for your prayers for us! Please visit our website for recent pictures of our life and ministry here: www.smithconnection.com

Resting in God,
Bryan, Lori, Kendra, Tara, & Ben

Bryan & Lori Smith
*NEW ADDRESS AND PHONE
2062 Bossler Rd.
Elizabethtown, PA 17022
(717) 361-8804

Mission:
CAM International
8625 La Prada Dr.
Dallas, TX 75228
(214) 327-8206
http://caminternational.org

E-mail: bsmith@cam-mexico.org
Web: http://smithconnection.com

Posted by Bryan at 07:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Click below for more pictures from our life and ministry from the month of August
Click on the thumbnails for a larger image

FAMILY

Our neighbors and landlords, Jeff & Rose Aungst, left for some vacation time just as their sweet corn was getting ripe, so we picked and froze a bunch of corn for them and for us! The kids loved the experience. We also took care of their dog, Amanda, while they were gone.

A family in our church provided some bikes to use. Bryan got his first, so he gave the kids a ride.

Our kids enjoyed the petting zoo area of the Elizabethtown Fair. The cute fluffy bunnies were a big hit!

We are enjoying the farmhouse, porches, and big yard!

On August 26 we celebrated Kendra's 7th birthday with a sleep-over. Kendra invited four friends from church to join her and Tara. Lori's sister Cheryl also joined us for the party. They broke a piñata, played some games, had a yummy supper and cake, played dolls, and made LOTS of noise! It was a fun time for the girls. Poor Ben felt a little left out!

The girls headed to school on a school bus for the first time this week. Kendra started 2nd grade and Tara started Kindergarten at Bainbridge Elementry School. They are both enjoying their teachers and classes. Ben is having to adjust to being alone durning part of the day, but he has done some special things too, like taking a ride on this big tractor and seeing corn being chopped and put in the silo.

We love the scenery around our home. God has treated us to some pretty incredible sunsets! Here are some of our favorite pictures we've gotten. The barn is here on the farm that we live on. By the way, the thing on the bottom left picture is not a dead tree. It is a light post with some type of vine growing on it!

Ouch! Tara is our little accident prone girl. This time she got too close to the bat while playing baseball outside with Ben and our neighbor boy, Alex. She got a nice shiner!

MINISTRY

On August 13 we briefly shared at our home church, Calvary Bible Church, during the evening service. We have been blessed to have such a wonderful church family!

On the weekend of August 19-20 we took a quick trip to Michigan to share at Chester Gospel Church. We spent the night with Dennis and Sandy Blodgett in their camper trailer. The kids enjoyed that and playing on the swingset with Mr. Blodgett. On Sunday after we gave an update in the Sunday School class we set up a sampling of some Mexican foods for them to try. During the morning service we sang a song together as a family before Bryan shared from the Word.

One of our home assignment goals is to reconnect with our supporters. Here we hosted the Pry family for a Mexican meal. We served "pozole" - a hominy corn soup and "taquitos dorados" - fried chicken tacos. We had a great time with the Prys!

Posted by Bryan at 03:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)