Illustration Possibilities!

Dear Friends,

Thank you all for your prayers this week! The Lord has really answered them!

First of all, Billy is feeling much better. Usually when he gets a cough it turns into bronchitis, but I haven't heard him cough in several days! He's also doing great in his studies, and just tonight he came home with a 99% on one of his exams. I'm very proud of my hard-working fiance.

Second, a lot of possibilities opened up this week regarding the illustrations for the chronological Bible materials. Here's what we've come up with so far:

1. We were able to cheaply purchase the rights to several sets of illustrations from an organization called The Glory Story (check out http://theglorystory.com/html/glory_picture_gallery.htm if you want to see what some of the pictures are like). Not all of the stories that we are hoping to illustrate are included, but some of them could definitely be used.

2. We've been thinking about possibly using flannel graphs to illustrate the stories. Then we would either take pictures of the scenes that we create and use those in the booklets, or use those pictures and then trace over and color them in Photoshop to create illustrations that way.

3. Just tonight I received permission to use screen shots in our booklets from The Animated Kids Bible (http://www.thekidsbible.com/), a video series for children. Again, they don't have all the stories we need, but having the permission to take screen shots gives us a lot of flexibility in choosing which images to capture for the stories.

I'm amazed at the doors that are opening up, and it's helping me remember that this really is God's project, not ours, and as long as we continue to submit ourselves to Him and ask for His help, he will move the necessary mountains. Please pray with us in the next few weeks that the Lord would lead us to His choice of method to illustrate His precious Word for the Tarahumara people.

Third, I praise the Lord for putting me so close to my students from Mexico. Yesterday one of them had a birthday, her first away from home. One's first birthday at college is always the most difficult because no one knows you well enough to make it special for you. I'm so glad that Billy and I were able to spend the day with her, and hopefully she felt special and loved even though she's so far from home.

Thank you for being such a huge part of the ministry in La Mesa. Attached at the end of this email is the picture that I have set as my desktop background this week. It's a constant reminder of what I'm working for... who I'm working for. It's never about our "service for God," but about loving God and loving the people that he has put in our lives. Thank you for loving the Tarahumara and for all you have invested into seeing them know and love God themselves.

Much love,
Erika Van Kirk

Engaged!

Billy and I got engaged on August 11, 2009. If you would like to hear the whole story of how we met, you can read about it in my most recent prayer letter:  http://www.box.net/shared/z2sies42hc

Ameritribes Merges with PIONEERS

On March 27, 2009, the Ameritribes 

Board of Directors approved a merger 

of Ameritribes with PIONEERS, a like- 

minded mission agency dedicated to 

working among unreached people 

groups (more information about the 

specifics of this strategic partnership 

will be sent out soon).  Financial 

support for our ministry can still be 

sent through Ameritribes until the 

merger is complete, at which time gifts 

may be directed to PIONEERS. Join us 

in rejoicing that God has provided for 

the advancement of His Kingdom 

among Native peoples through this vital 

collaboration. 

Thank you so much! 

Prayer for Unsaved Friends

Dear friends,

I have something that I was hoping you would pray with me about this week. On Sunday, our pastor gave a really good message about how the church often opens up it's doors and expects people to come in to find Jesus. Instead, the church should be reaching outside its doors to bring the unsaved to HIM. He encouraged us to write down the names of some people that we know who aren't saved, and then start to pray daily for them as well as begin to build relationships with them.

During that service God brought to mind three very specific people that He wants me to start reaching out to: Argentina, Rosa and Jesus. I met Argentina at a garage sale we had last year, and found out that she had recently moved to Chihuahua and still has made very few friends. Her mom is a believer, but she lives in California, and I'm still not sure why Argentina doesn't believe herself. Rosa and her grandson Jesus are extremely poor and work hours and hours at the local superstore bagging groceries, only to come away with pocket change. Jesus has some sort of disease that affects his face and his hair; he looks like a little old man even though he is only 12! Rosa suffers from a leg problem that causes her to have a shooting pain whenever she stands on her feet, which means her job must be horribly difficult!

Please pray for me this week as I have invited them each into my home in an attempt to begin to build relationships with them.. Pray that I would be a blessing to them, and that they would see Jesus reflected in my life and want to know more about Him! I have been learning lately that there is so much power in prayer, so I appreciate the part that you will play in this!

Thank you for your prayers, and I'll let you know how it goes!

My Fifth Graders

I want to take a moment to introduce you to my fifth grade class. I have the privilege of having them for two hours every morning right before lunch, during which we study language and reading.

Samantha is an English-as-a-second-language student, and I am continually amazed at how well she keeps up with the other students in my Language class. She is pretty quiet, so I am thankful for the opportunity to spend more one-on-one time with her this year.

This is Sophie. She loves gymnastics and is actually at a competition this weekend in Monterrey. She loves fashion, and I often take style tips from HER :)

John is the class clown, for sure. I'm amazed that I actually got a decent picture of him today. He works incredibly fast and I'm always trying to figure things to keep him busy while the others finish up their assignments (usually 20 minutes or so after he is done!!).

Jack is a sweet, gentle boy from England, although he has lived around American and Canadian missionaries so long that he doesn't have an English accent. Jack is always smiling.

Ben is also a sweetie, very quiet and a hard worker. He has a heart that is so sensitive to the Holy Spirit. Once, after losing his temper, he bawled and bawled and just felt horrible that he had lost control.

Allie is the principal's daughter, and actually a very good friend of mine. I love spending time with her and her mom outside of school. Allie loves hugs, and I don't think I ever see her without getting a great big squeeze from her.

Jesus Loves Me

I want to share a few things that God has done in the last day or so that have reaffirmed the fact that He loves me so very much.

1. In an attempt to organize my life, I was desperately in need of a planner. Finally, as I didn't know where to find one that would suit my needs, I just made my own out of a journal. It's working fine. The funny thing is, though, that last night I was at a family's house for dinner and I pulled out my "planner" to write something down. I explained to the family why I was using a journal instead of a planner, and the husband started giving me this weird look and asked, "so when did you make that?" I told him that I had made it the day before, to which he replied, "You are probably going to think this is weird, but last week, God told me to buy you a planner. I kept putting it off all week, and then yesterday as we were out shopping I was going to ask my wife if it was okay for us to stop and buy you a planner, but was too embarrassed, so I didn't." Wow, isn't that crazy?? God cared enough about a silly little desire to be more organized, that He actually would tell someone else to go buy me a planner!! Thank you Jesus, for caring about my life....

2. That same night, after I came home from the dinner, I was stressing about the cleaning that I still had to do. Living in the dorm with the girls, I'm responsible for a certain portion of the house cleaning every week, and the house gets checked on Thursday mornings. As I was walking up the stairs to our apartment, I was telling the Lord, "Lord, I know I have this cleaning to do, but I am so exhausted tonight (I wasn't feeling well), that I don't know how I'm going to get it done. Please help me, somehow." When I opened the door, I said hi to my roommate and told her that I would do my cleaning, but probably early in the morning because I was too tired just then. Well, she basically insisted that I go to bed and that she would do my part!! I was going to refuse, but God brought my prayer to mind, so I told her that I would LOVE the help. So she did all the sweeping and mopping for me!

3. Then, this evening I just got home and noticed my car was missing! That was strange for two reasons. First, I rarely loan my car out due to insurance reasons (Mexican's aren't supposed to drive under my insurance, I guess), and second, my car wasn't even starting due to no gas AND a bad battery... So when I noticed it was missing, I was very confused. A few minutes later, though, here comes my vehicle, RUNNING, amazingly. It turns out that the husband of the family that lives below me had put gas in my car for me, taken it to Auto Zone to check the battery, purchased a new one for me when he was told mine was trashed, AND is going to fix some of the cables that are messed up sometime tomorrow. All of these things were lingering on my to-do list, and I hadn't had time to even think about getting them done, so when I heard what he had done for me, tears started filling my eyes.

Jesus is so kind to us! "When I was in great need He saved me." Thank you, Lord.

New High School Girls

This afternoon I invited a couple of the new high school girls over to hang out, drink tea and do some homework. I don't know how much of the latter we accomplished, but we sure had fun, and I feel like I know these girls a lot better now!

After a bit, Emily and Hannah came over and brought me an Arizona Green Tea, which made me feel VERY loved...

Meet My Girls!

I was asked by the NewTribes National Training Institute to be a sort of "dorm mom" to their two out-of-town students. Let me introduce you to them:

Silvia is an 18 year-old from Tijuana, Baja California. She comes from an incredibly poor background and hopes to serve the Lord through teaching one day.

Nazareth is a 24 year old from Chihuahua. After her four years of Bible college here, she hopes to serve the Lord in missions.

Visit to Miguel's Village

During my first break from school I made a trip out to La Mesa to visit my parents with a couple of friends. While we were there, we made a hike out to visit Miguel's village. Miguel is a little boy that is living with my parents becuase his kidneys have failed and he needs dialysis three to four times a day. It was so special for him to be able to be back with his parents for a day after having been away from them for several months!

I love this little guy like he was my own brother... Please pray for him that the Lord would heal his kidneys!

Dad doing dialysis on Miguel on the floor of his primitive home.

Playing with some of the local kids (very early in the morning as you can tell by my sleepy eyes!).

Ameritribes Conference

This summer, the directors of Ameritribes asked Evan and I to be in charge of the kids program at our annual staff conference. When we were kids, this was always a highlight of our summer, so we considered this opportunity as a huge privilege and responsibility. After praying over possible themes, we decided that we needed to have both a spiritual theme as well as a fun one. We ended up choosing "The Ninja Armor of God" for our theme, and during the week we combined lessons on the Ephesians 6 passage with games and fun activities with a ninja flair.

Each day we had a teaching session, during which Evan and I took turns teaching a different aspect of the armor of God. It was interesting that the Lord led us to that particular lesson, becuase it seemed like the enemy was really out to discourage us that week, and having our hearts focused on what God's Word says regarding that particular issue helped us to keep going.

By Friday afternoon, after a week of crazy games, small-group sessions and lots and LOTS of snacks, we were pretty tired, but felt like the Lord had allowed us to establish some good relationships with the kids.