23 Hours....

Two teams are going, one team is coming back—oh, wait, that's the movie version (d'oh!). Seriously, we have two great teams traveling together to Aguascalientes, Mexico tomorrow, and we couldn't be more excited!

GenONE, the High School ministry at Pathway, is fielding a team of ten teens and two adults. GenONE is prepared to reach the children of Dulce Refugio through games, crafts, VBS, and acts of service that may or may not include pouring concrete and laying pavers, but which are guaranteed to get them very, very dirty!

The family missions team, checking in with two more teens and seven more adults, will focus on practical tasks supporting the construction of the Boys' Dorm, which will provide a home for 100 boys when it is complete.

We thank you for your prayers for smooth travel and safe arrival in Aguascalientes, and for the Lord to provide each of us with clear focus on Him and on His children.

We thank the Lord for using us as His hands and feet!

Run For The Border....

With two weeks remaining until we depart for Aguascalientes, the days are starting to seem a little overwhelming. The girls are counting the days until the end of school and studying hard for finals; the parents are scrambling to get landscaping and gardening projects wrapped up, trying to get work under control, and generally preparing to be gone for nine days. We haven’t even looked at the packing list yet!

The priority over the past few weeks, though, has been preparing to serve in Aguascalientes. Two teams are actually travelling together…a team of about twelve teens from our high school youth group, GenOne, as well as a team of seven adults and two more teens (the “Family Team”). Both teams have been meeting regularly to get to know each other and to learn about the culture and needs of the children we are going to serve. Masha has been doing double-duty and participating in BOTH team preparations!

The GenOne team has been focusing on interactive things for the kids, including sports workshops, community food distribution, and VBS. The family team is expecting to help with the current phase of construction on the boys’ dorm, probably setting re-bar, pouring concrete, and laying pavers.

Aguascalientes is located on the High Plains, about 350 miles north of Mexico City. Its population is around 800,000 and is nowhere near any of the tourist areas…this is the REAL Mexico. Many have asked us about safety, but much of what we hear in the US is overblown by the media. Dulce Refugio has been host to many many teams from the US and Canada, and while petty crime (pickpocketing, etc) is not uncommon as in many urban areas, the city is otherwise very safe.

The city’s altitude is about 6,000 feet, which is a bit higher than Denver. We’ve been told that it’s very hot and very dry, and that dehydration and sunburn will be our biggest concerns. Fortunately, the folks who run Dulce Refugio have hosted many teams, and they are already coaching us how to stay healthy!

The culture in Mexico is very different from the US. It’s much more laid-back and is highly centered around relationships. People take priority, and schedules will always take a backseat just to spend time connecting with others. We’ve also learned that chivalry is a very big part of the culture, and that food and showing hospitality is the cornerstone of the people there.

We are really looking forward to learning more about the culture in Aguascalientes and to meeting the children of Dulce Refugio. We hope to learn and grow during our time there, and we expect to be changed as much as the lives we hope to impact.

Finally, and most importantly, we want to thank those of you who have so generously donated to meet the needs of the children of Dulce Refugio. Your gifts will impact the lives of the children we will meet as well as countless children in the future! For anyone who still wants to join in our journey, details for making tax-deductible donations can be found here.

Join in our Journey?

In my last post, I shared our plans to serve the forgotten children of Aguascalientes, Mexico. As we move toward this opportunity, we need your help in two areas that are essential to every mission:

1. We need your thoughts and prayers. With an opportunity to serve in this way, we expect our lives to be changed. We need partners to encourage and pray for us, to strengthen us and our team as well as the orphanage staff and, of course, the children.

2. We need financial partners to support our service to Dolce Refugio. In addition to the price of plane tickets for all four of us, the work that we will be doing at Dolce Refugio comes with a cost; we expect the trip to add up to $1,600 each, or $6,400 for the whole family. We need supporters to help us cover the costs of construction materials, clothing and food for the children, and travel expenses.

For details on how you can partner with us to help meet either or both of these needs, Click Here or print and return the form below.

We thank every one of you for your encouragement and support!

-The Niles Family
Mark, Christine, Masha, and Lena

(Please print below the dotted line and return to Pathway Community Church)

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Yes, I want to support ________________________________ in the following ways (s).
__ I/We will pray for you.
__ I/We will will support you with a contribution of $___________.

Please make you check payable to Pathway Community Church (Memo Line: Mexico Missions) and mail it to:

Pathway Community Church
C/O: Mike Ummel – Mexico Mission Trip Coordinator
9528 Yellow Feather Ct.
Leo, IN 46765

Donor Name:________________________________________

Address:_________________________ State _______ Zip ________

Pathway Community Church is a part of the Missionary Church, Inc. which is a 501©3 non-profit organization registered with the US Government. In order to comply with IRS guidelines, we ask that you do not write the team members name anywhere on the check. Please send this cut-off portion with your response and your tax-deductible donation will be properly credited to the account of the team member indicated above.

Refund Policy: Per IRS guidelines, donations are not refundable. If a team member does not go on the intended mission trip, funds will first be used to pay for his/her administrative costs and any transportation already paid for by the church. Pathway Community Church reserves the right to use any remaining funds for the referenced mission trip or another mission trip.

Sharing Our Blessings

Many of you have followed our family’s journey as we’ve gone first from a family of two to three, and then from three to four. Over these years, one of the most important things we’ve learned is that this world is about more than just us. We are blessed beyond our wildest imagination, and we want to spread these blessings to others. This June, the four of us will be joining a team from to Pathway Community Church to do just that.

The Dolce Refugio (Sweet Refuge) orphanage in Aguascalientes, Mexico provides abandoned and at-risk children an opportunity to get off the streets. These kids know hunger, they know cold, they know loss. They need a blanket, a bed, and the confidence that tomorrow, there will be food on their table. Dolce Refugio offers them hope for the future by providing clothing, food, and education. They need love that won’t let them down. Dolce Refugio seeks to disciple these children and share unfailing mercy.

The children in Aguascalientes need to encounter people who have felt the things they feel and have come out the other side. Our girls are in a unique position to connect with these kids...having lived in an orphanage like Dolce Refugio, our girls understand better than anyone what each one of these kids feels; the unnatural blend of anger and gratitude, of weakness and independence, of fear and self-reliance...and the knowledge that these kids have had to grow up much faster than children are meant to grow up.

We seek to be a blessing to this ministry in many different ways during our visit. We will be prepared to do construction, interact with the kids, share our life stories, and participate in church services, and distribute food to the needy. One of the most significant projects planned during our time there will be helping to build a dormitory that will provide a home for 100 boys.

In everything we do, we will be very intentional about loving the children who are a part of Dulce Refugio. We don’t go to “preach at” them; we go to serve children that have been left behind.

Time Flies

I have heard it said that time moves faster with each year...

Age 4: Crammed in the backseat of a light blue Volkswagon Beetle with my three closest carpool-mates, looking at my friend’s 7-year-old sister with awe, I think “I will never be that old.”

Age 14: Three years still seems a long way off, but now my thoughts are filled with “I can’t wait for graduation!”

Age 24: The years begin to flow together, but I still think I have a whole life ahead of me. “Maybe in three years I’ll think about settling down and building a family…”

Age 34: “Three years from now, I’ll be closer to forty than thirty. What have I done with my life?”

I haven’t made it to 44 quite yet (three more years, in fact!), but I hope that my perspective continues to be more influenced by eternity than by the short-term milestones that we seem to crave to mark our lives with meaning. As I think more tactically about passing through time, I realize it’s been over a year since I shared an update about the final trip to Ukraine, and about Lena’s adjustment to American life.

Below, you'll find a very abbreviated rundown of the past year (A Year and a Little More) and also my long overdue story of the second trip to Ukraine last year (Family of Four)...I think it has taken me this long to recover and be able to speak of that week without having flashbacks! Enjoy!