Surprise Visits of Friends and Soccer Balls

First, we send New-birth blessings to Ashley as we celebrate three years of her new life under the authority of her Master, Jesus. It was Nov. 2005 that Ashley came home from school and announced that she was ready to claim Jesus as her Saviour and her Lord...ahhhh...the sweetest news to a parent!!! November 23 marks the day she died to her old self and became a new creature in Christ...a clean and willing vessel of God's purposes for her. Ashley, you are a fragrant aroma to our God as you shine for your Master through good times and bad. We are so very proud of the beautiful and sweet young woman you are becoming. We love you!!!



SWEET MEMORIES OF THREE YEARS AGO...



We have enjoyed another wonderful week here in Playa Azul. It started off with a bit of a disappointment...We had made plans for Jose and Elvia and their son to join us for dinner on Tuesday evening. Elvia had volunteered to teach me how to clean and cook Huchinango (Red Snapper). Bern and I had planned to take Logan to school, then slip by the beach to buy the huchinango from the fishermen who had been out all night fishing...very fresh!!! However, late Monday night when I called Elvia, she informed me that she had to work unexpectedly...BUMMER...Soooo, I woke the next morning unenthusiastically deciding to work on a few chores that no one likes to do. However, midway through my work, a knock at the door changed our whole day (and my attitude) as dear friends from Mexico City came to visit us. Jesus and Paulina Torres, their daughter, Sara and her Italian husband, David, plus his parents (visiting from Italy) spent the whole day with us! We enjoyed a Mexican breakfast cooked by Jesus, then we took a ride around the surrounding area. The crocodiles put on a good show for us as ten were sunning themselves around the banks of the lagoon. We enjoyed the beach (the one WITHOUT crocodiles), then returned home to cook Huachinango!!!! After hearing our story of changed plans, David's parents surprised us with 10 beautiful fish. Sara cleaned and cooked them. It was quite the feast we enjoyed! As our dear friends drove away at 9:30 pm Bern and I continued to bask in the full day of laughs, talk of 20 years ago when the DF church was just beginning, memories of mutual friends...and all this in a mixture of Spanish, English and Italian...It surely must have been a glimpse of what heaven will be like.


Logan's highlight of the week came on Thursday when he awoke to a box sitting on the table with his name on it. He tore into it discovering ten red and white Upward soccer balls!!! The global director of Upward heard of Logan's attitude when he had loaned out his favourite soccer ball to his team. When the ball was returned, it was faded and ragged. Rather than become angry, Logan reasoned that his friends were more important than even his favourite soccer ball. Upward gave him the gift to share with his team and friends. I don't know which has been more fun, watching Logan open the box or watching him give away the balls to his friends. He's very proud to let the recipients know that Christian friends gave him these balls and they want to bless other people's lives....I believe our lives are even more blessed as onlookers!!! We took a ball to Feliciano where we have our home Bible study. These three families have six children...five are boys!!!! Their eyes were as big as saucers as Logan gave them their very own soccer ball. We had a great time teaching them to play...and even more, share!!! But by the time we left, they were playing quite well. It was a challenge to keep the ball away from the pig and the barbed wire, but the boys became proficient at directing the ball. Even their mom, Erica got into the action.

EVERYBODY GETS INTO THE ACTION....


Logan's best buddy, Israel, did not have a ball, so when he came over to play on Friday, Logan presented him with one of the balls. Israel could hardly believe it. He was so proud to put his name on his ball-his very own ball!!! Thank you, Upward for giving us this opportunity. Thank you, Blair Roberts for passing on Logan's story to Upward. We have been praying about wisdom in sharing the balls. We want to bless others with the balls; we don't want to cause problems in the distribution of the gifts. Images of the movie, The Gods Must Be Crazy, keep playing in my head. For those unfamiliar with the movie: Life is happy in an African village. The people share all their possessions and live in harmony one with the other...until the fateful day that an empty glass coke bottle is dropped from an airplane. The bottle is found and brought back to the village. Others see the great value of this bottle as a useful tool and begin to covet it. The people turn to fighting, stealing, and all other sorts of bad behaviour in order to possess the bottle. Finally, the tribe elder decides the evil thing must be thrown over the edge of the world... We certainly don't want the balls to become the "evil coke bottle"...so we pray for wisdom in distributing them...for a blessing, not a thing to be coveted.

Our family will be traveling 8 hours to Guanajuato for a country-wide missionary's retreat this Wednesday through Saturday. We look forward to meeting others who are labouring in this great country. Our blog will be a few days late, but we look forward to telling you about our time in Guanajuato. Until then...
Bernard, Alicia and Logan Krogsgaard