Baptisms

A lack of blogging certainly does not mean a lack of activity! Actually, it usually means quite the opposite!

Since the last blog post we have:

• held a weeklong crusade to Chiapas
• bid farewell to the Marshall family as they departed on their month long trip to the U.S.
• enjoyed recent high school graduate, Brighton Ballmer's, three week visit to Refuge Ranch and his participation on the crusade to Chiapas
• were blessed by Dr. Bill Karkow (Fishers of Men Board of Directors member) and Krista Wyntheim, from Iowa, both on the crusade to Chiapas and then for a week at Refuge Ranch
• have held two one-day local crusades
• had another visit by the Mexican architect working on the main house project here at Refuge Ranch! (This is so exciting! Could 2012 be the year the Lord has for at least the first floor to be built?)
• enjoyed a daylong visit here at the Ranch by our friend Irma and the grandmother of our newest five children (her visits get easier each time:-)
• presented an orginal drama for Father's Day at our church with all 17 of our kids involved
• celebrated Lolis' 14th birthday and Miguel's 8th birthday

And that's just the "special" stuff, not including daily life and ministry loving 17 children, getting ready for the next crusade and leading staff into all that the Lord has prepared for Fishers of Men!

AND THEN THERE WAS TODAY!

I very rarely write anything at night! Those of you who know me (Julie) know that I am a morning person - I love the newness, the freshness, the hope and promise of each morning, the way my brain works better and, not to mention, sunrises behind the volcano that God has blessed us with, Popocatepetl! But, tonight is different! I fear that if I do not capture at least a part of today I will not be able to accurately express all that God brought together and all that He has begun!

Today was our church's yearly baptism outing to a nearby waterpark. The park is fed by natural springs, so there are both natural fed swimming pools and a beautiful springfed stream.

The location of the baptisms.

Over 40 people from our church waiting to be baptized.

Since the last time our church held baptisms (in a swimming pools set up in our church sanctuary!), both Martha and Lolis had expressed interest in being baptized at the next opportunity. So, our family had been planning on them participating in today's baptisms. (I can already tell that simple words are not going to do this topic justice, so may the Holy Spirit translate for you my feeble attempts at sharing His workings!)

As this past week progressed and we came ever closer to today's baptism celebration, Ruth, one of our five year old's, began to express her desire to be baptised! "Can Daddy baptize me on Sunday?" Two days later: "So, am I going to be baptized?" The next day: "Huh? Is Daddy gonna baptize me on Sunday? Huh?" The following day: "So, the day after tomorrow is Sunday, right? When I am going to be baptized, right?" We got the picture! So, Ruth was added to the list!

Then, day before yesterday, Leo began asking more questions about baptism. Yesterday I heard, through another sibling, that Fatima wanted to be baptized! So, last night, I was trying to put the younger kids to bed so that Victor and I could meet with those interested in being baptized and make sure they fully understood what they were going to be doing and try and "feel out" which kids were being sincerely drawn by the Holy Spirit. But, everytime I would go into a room to try and put those kids to bed, somebody in that room would start asking questions about baptism, which peeked everybody else's interest. So, we finally basically called a family meeting to talk about baptism, it's meaning and what our motivations should be in being baptized.

The end result? Today:

• Lolis
• Martha
• Fatima
• Leonardo
• Miguel
• Ruth

were baptized by Victor!

Martha

Lolis

Fatima

Leo

Miguel

Ruth

Ruth afterwards

Six of the children whom the Lord has blessed us with; whom the Lord has entrusted into our care were baptized!

Ruth, Leo, Fatima, Lolis, Martha and Miguel

These children join Angie, Diana, Martita and Josiah, who have already been baptized. Is there any greater joy? And even more so when I know all too well where they have each come from, what has led them each to this place and time in their lives, the joys and oh so many struggles along the way. For some, that way with us has been shorter (Fatima, Leo and Miguel have only been a part of our family for five months) and for others, like Martha who joined our family over seven years ago, the journey as been longer. While I have seen only parts of where each child has come from; while I have been there every step of the way once they joined the Zaragoza family; I have NO IDEA what the Lord has for each of them in the future, I know it is something incredible...because that is just the kind of God that we have!

So, today God brought together weeks, months, years of sowing His Word and His love in our children's hearts, but today He began the greatest adventure of their lives...the adventure of following Jesus Christ!

Please praise Him with us!

A Formal Dinner

A week ago Friday night turned into a very special night in our household! Earlier this month, the youth group at church announced a Formal Dinner in July for the high school age young people. While our three eldest daughters do not normally attend youth group at church, partially due to the distance we live from the church (over one hour one way), they began to talk about the possibility of their attending this special event. As soon as the younger kids, especially five year old Ruth, heard about the Formal Dinner (Cena de Gala) they immediately started asking why they didn’t get to attend a Formal Dinner. Angie, our eldest daughter who has a special gift with children, including her younger siblings, took it upon herself to start planning a Formal Dinner just for them! What makes this event so much more special is that Angie, Diana and Martita, due to certain circumstances, will not even be able to attend their own formal dinner in July. Despite her own disappointment, Angie continued forward with her plans to make a special evening for her little siblings.

Victor and I had the honor of helping her out a bit, as well as the rest of the older kids. So, on Friday at 5 p.m., Angie opened up “Angie’s Styling Salon” and began braiding hair, doing makeup and picking out pretty dresses, lacy socks and polishing up high heeled shoes. Diana joined in with her own barbershop, taking charge of all of the little men’s hair, faces, dress clothes and shoes. Martita, Lolis and Martha became interior decorators under Victor’s guidance, while Fidel exercised his lungs and cheeks blowing up a TON of balloons. Fatima and I made a special apple desert. She and I have made several deserts lately and she is quite the cook! (In fact, when I made cookies without her….I burnt them! So, the key to success is Fatima, not me!)

Ana and Miguel

Ruth

Fatima

Right before 6 o’clock, Victor, Angie and I got our own “Formal Dinner attire” on and we were ready to go!

The violinist and the waiter!

I took my position as the provider of the violin dinner music and stood in the corner of the staff quarters hallway where we had set up the “dining room” for the dinner. Angie lined up the kids in age order from youngest, David, to the oldest who participated in the dinner, Josiah, and walked them up to the basement of the main house from our house.

The kids, in age order from youngest to oldest, being led by Angie from our house to the basement of the main house for the Formal Dinner.

The transformation in the kids was incredible! They walked in in an orderly manner, quietly, listening to the violin music, waited to be seated, sat straight in their seats, folded their hands in their laps(!) and waited while the waiter, Victor J, served them each their plate of food lovingly prepared by Rosa (breaded chicken breast, cooked vegetables and pasta)! At our normal meals we serve the younger kids their plates of food before we pray in order to not have to take the time to serve them, cut up meat, etc. after praying. We have the hardest time keeping them from eating until we are all seated and done praying. (Quite regularly we end up blessing the food already in little David’s tummyJ) However, during the Formal Dinner two year old David didn’t even touch his food until we prayed! Fatima’s face shone so brightly we could have used her as a lamp! She said: “Mom, we could hear you playing the violin while we walked up here and we saw you standing there in the corner.” The kids conversed together so quietly and politely as they ate!

The two tables of "older" children and myself providing dinner music.

One of the highlights of the dinner for the kids was the ability to boss their dad around! Since he was the waiter, they found great delight in being able to say: “waiter” and have him bring them what they wanted or needed.

Papa, the waiter, dishing out dessert to be served.

We ended the evening with a rousing game of Bingo, playing until everybody had called Bingo! Finally, an informal raffle in which everybody won a small prize finished our time together.

The three youngest kids playing Bingo: David (2), Daniel (3) and Ana (4). Angie was helping them and she was soooo patient!

Ana and her raffle prize!

I was so proud of Angie for her great idea, her perseverance and her passion to bless her siblings this way.

Angie serving her little siblings - thank you, Jesus!

I was so proud of Victor for taking part in something so foreign to his own experience growing up in a gang, yet willing to love his kids this way; of the older kids by jumping in to help, even though there was no reward in it for them other than the satisfaction of seeing the happiness of others; of Martita for hanging around during the entire dinner and taking pictures, which goes against the grain of her personality, which prefers to be alone; of the younger kids who fully took advantage of and enjoyed this special time. Thank you, Jesus, for moments like these!

Fighting With a Shadow

We witnessed an hilarious scene earlier this week here at Refuge Ranch thanks to our youngest son, two year old David. I came out of school and he was standing on the sidewalk between the main house and our home, pointing at something on the ground and babbling away to Vero, one of our staff members. I sauntered up to observe and join in the "conversation." David was fervently pointing out a small shadow on the ground and blabbing away - obviously something in relation to the shadow. Now, mind you, it was about 1:00 p.m., so there were lots of shadows! This particular shadow was created by a tarp that is tied onto the porch roof next to our laundry area to help protect those working in that area from the sun and wind. Due to so much wind recently, the tarp has torn and one torn edge was creating a peculiar, triangular shadow on the ground, probably no more than 7 inches in diameter. Well, it was peculiar enough to totally grab David's attention, and even create some concern in him. (We will never know why!)

Our precious David!

Vero and I began to "converse" with David about the shadow. This means we would ask him questions and he would give us perfectly passionate, and totally intelligible, answers! At one point, he finished babbling, turned around and walked very purposefully towards the house. I turned to Vero and said, giggling: "He knows exactly where he's going and what he's doing." Within a few seconds, he came back out of the house with a large tupperware container in his hands. He promptly walked up to the shadow and plopped that tupperware container down over the shadow. He was trying to catch the shadow!

Vero and I both just stood there with our mouths draping open! David then lifted up the container and, seeing that the shadow was still there, dumped the container on it again. This happened several times, until he just decided to keep the container over the shadow. It was, after all, the most effective way to keep that nasty shadow trapped!

Wanting to test our theory, I moved the container a few inches to one side of the shadow. David immediately moved the container back over the shadow. We continued this little game for a few more minutes. David took a few steps back and pondered his predicament of the shadow that would not go away!

He then ran up to the shadow, gathering speed as he came, and kicked that shadow with all his might, stomping and kicking repeatedly on that funky little triangle! (What made this all more fun is that the shadow was caused by the tarp, which kept blowing in the wind and moving the shadow all around!) Seeing that this strategy did not work either, little David took off again...obviously on another mission clearly known to him, but hidden to all of our understanding. So, Vero and I waited for his return. Sure enough, within a few seconds he reappeared...this time with a rock in his hand! He walked right up to that shadow and threw the rock on it! We asked him: "Did you kill it?" He babbled something back at us, picked up the tupperware container and returned it to the house. So, I guess he had declared the shadow dead.

Wow! I was amazed at this whole little adventure and witnessing David's decisiveness in trying to get rid of this shadow, in his passion to rid the world of this great evil! What enthralled me was all of the thought and energy that David was putting into...a shadow...an "object" that does not even exist! Wait a few hours and it will be gone! Stand between the real object and the source of light and you make it disappear! But, to David, this shadow was serious business and a serious problem that needed to be resolved.

The Bible talks about two kinds of figurative shadows. The first kind of figurative shadow is when the Bible teaches us, repeatedly, that our lives and this world are like a shadow in two ways. First of all, our days are fleeting, like a shadow. Wait a few hours and the shadow disappears as the sun changes position. Our lives, from an eternal perspective, last just a few hours, if not minutes or seconds!

The Bible also tells us that what we see, hear and experience now is just a shadow of things to come! I can tell you that the shadow of the tarp did not at all look like the original piece of tarp causing the shadow! The tarp is a bright blue, the shadow was a dull gray. The torn edge of the trap had frayed corners, folds and waves in it. The shadow was totally flat. I could see how the small piece of tarp was attached to the entire tarp and even tied to the house. The shadow seemed independent, small and insignificant. That is what life on earth is like! Even the marvelous creation that we see, the mountain outside my office window, is a flat, gray copy of the marvels waiting for us in heaven! We may not understand or see now, but all that happens around us and to us is part of something greater and much more significant.

The second figurative meaning of a shadow in the Bible refers to our moving and existing under the shadow of God's mighty hand, or His wings. This implies our being protected from the heat and onslaught of daily life and problems. There is still light, the problem is still there, but God's hand, His wings, take the onslaught and leave us with just a shadow of the situation.

Part of what made the experience with David so hilarious was watching him fight with a shadow! How ridiculous can that be! But, how many times do we act like David - getting all bent out of shape, consumed and absorbed by this shadow of a life that we are living! So, today, when you are tempted to go bizerks...just remember...it's not worth fighting with a shadow!

"These are a shadow of the things that were to come;
the reality, however, is found in Christ."
Colossians 2:17

EMMC to Michoacan: May 15-21, 2011

I am excited to be translating this blog from Spanish into English in order to share it with you. Adrian and Vero (two of our staff members at Refuge Ranch and Victor's two right hands on crusades) keep up a Spanish Fishers of Men blog where they do a great job sharing about all that the Lord does on the crusades. Since my world is nearly consumed by all that happens at Refuge Ranch, I sometimes forget to share with you all that the Lord does OUTSIDE of Refuge Ranch! So, enjoy a trip outside of Refuge Ranch!

On this last crusade, we visited the beautiful state of Michoacan. We worked in two different locations: in the city of Morelia with Pastor Pinon and in Copandaro with the missionary pastor Israel Arroyo. Why have we decided to call this crusade the "humility crusade"? Because in this crusade we saw the power of God in his servants that are humble and we were witnesses of the spiritual and physical needs of the people of Michoacan.

We were blessed once again with the presence of Dr. Miguel Angel, one of the most recognized dentists and professors in Morelia, who gave his time, along with Dr. Leslie, to attend to the needs of individuals who had never before been to a dentist. Brother Juan is one of the most recognized hairdressers in Morelia, who normally only accepts clients by appointment (most hairdressers in Mexico work with walk-ins), but on this crusade he made an appointment with God to be able to attend to others with love and give encouragement to the newest and most humble believers. Together with his coworker, Dolores, they were able to physically and spiritually transform lives. In the same way, Dr. Martin Cortes, an orthopedic doctor, helped us out with his specialty, as well as donating medicine and Christian literature to help spread the gospel. We glorify God that Fishers of Men is able to provide such excellent and free care to those who attend the crusade.

In the city of Morelia we were able to serve in Becky’s church, one of the evangelists on the crusade team. We saw powerful testimonies of people who received treatment. One example was Guadalupe, who visited the gynecologist, Dr. Elizabeth. Besides the physical treatment she received, she experienced spiritual healing from the trauma caused by her husband who repeatedly told her that she was a piece of garbage. She discovered that God Almighty didn’t think that about her and that He loved her and wanted to restore her life. Guadalupe had previously met Brother Joaquin, Becky’s own father. While Brother Joaquin had shared the Gospel with Guadalupe, she had never made a decision for Christ. Now Becky had the opportunity to harvest the seeds previously planted by her own father as she led Guadalupe to pray and accept Jesus Christ. Glory to God!

Pastor Pinon, pastor of the church in Morelia, has a musical group, along with his sons, of Norteno style music (from northern Mexico). It was a great opportunity to sing a new song to the Lord!

On our day off we went to visit the pastor on the island of Janitzio, where we held a crusade several years ago. (There is a large lake in the state of Michoacan. The island of Janitzio is situated in middle of that lake.) The local Christian brothers and sisters invited us to a delicious meal consisting of the island’s traditional foods. We ate in their new church building, which was built with much hard work and love offerings from generous brothers and sisters in Christ. We were able to tentatively plan a crusade to Janitzio for next year, 2012, Lord willing.

The second place where we worked was the town of Copandaro with Brother Israel Arroyo and we saw God’s powerful hand as the Good News was spread. Do you remember the day of Pentecost where there were people from all over the ancient world celebrating Passover? A similar situation happened here. There were people from many communities surrounding Copandaro present in order to participate in a governmental social program “Opportunities.” We weren’t expecting that, but the Lord worked it out so that those individuals had the best opportunity of their lives – to know Jesus Christ! Many of those present for the government handouts took advantage of the chance to get a free medical exam and, through the crusade, found the Lord of lords. People from many different towns accepted Jesus Christ.

One of the women who accepted Christ was a prostitute, but the love and dignified treatment she received from the crusade team moved her heart and sensitized her to God’s call on her life to rescue her. She later went and got a friend of hers, also a prostitute. The result was the same! After feeling loved, respected and dignified, she opened her heart to the Lord.

The place where we held the crusade in Copandaro was the home of Mr. Jose, an elderly man, widower and who lived alone. He agreed to loan us his home because his grandson, Manuel, is one of the few members of the congregation of Copandaro. Throughout the days we were there, Mr. Jose could see Jesus in each member of the crusade team and he ended up accepting Christ! He cried and could not contain his excitement, calling each of his children who live in other states to tell them that he was a Christian. As fruit of his conversion, he offered to donate a piece of land so that a church can be built and to sell another piece of land in order to help with the cost of building the church!

We would like to share with you a bit of the testimony of Brother Israel, a servant of the Lord and a man of prayer. Having been pastor in a comfortable situation with a strong church, he left it all to become a missionary in the town of Copandaro, obeying God’s call. Copandaro is a town full of idolatry and he was asked by some of the local people to leave. Brother Israel responded that he would leave town when there were no more alcoholics, prostitutes or drug addicts. Even though he has very few financial resources, when there is a family in need, he gives all that he has. We ask you to pray for him – that the Lord may continue to strengthen and bless him. He has a special prayer request – that the Lord would send him a wife, his helpmate, since he is single and, as a responsible and respected pastor, knows that he needs a woman who loves God in order to minister to the women and share her life with him.

We glorify God that we were able to attend to 574 patients and that 205 souls accepted Jesus Christ in our five days of work. We know very well that without Jesus and his backing nothing of this would be accomplished. We are simply instruments in His hands and we feel honored to have the opportunity to serve Him. We thank each of one you for your collaboration, prayers, offerings and attention and we pray that the Lord may continue to bless you. May you know that you are very much loved in the Lord!

Team members on the Michoacan crusade, May 15-21, 2011: Victor, Dr. Escamilla, Dr. Martin, Adrian, Dr. Elizabeth, Dr. Leslie, Dr. Miguel Angel, Dr. Isabel, Miram, Magda, Becky, Marisol, Dolores, Juan, Rosa, Dulce, Vero, Amado, Mark, Gaby, Helen, Martha and Mimi.