Herrins in Mission–June Update!

Dear Friends and Family…
We’re here!! Well, that means that we are now on the US side of the border, in our new place, settling into our new lives. Our last month in Monterrey was amazing, crazy, wonderful, exhausting. We were able to finish out our semesters at the Seminary and Laurens…and we finished well. We had a wonderful yet difficult time seeing all our friends at the end and saying good-byes. In the midst of it all, we were able to celebrate and rejoice in all that YOU helped to bring to pass….
     
     

Above pix from various good-byes and farewells…

The John Wesley Methodist Seminary has a new copier!! Thank you…to all of you who gave towards this great need in the seminary office. But, you need to know that you didn’t just give the office a copier! In giving the office a new copier, we were able to move the old, slow, somewhat functional copier to the library for the students! And, since some funds came in after the purchase had been made, we were able to use those funds for the betterment of the seminary--we were able to purchase large fans for the classrooms! Can you imagine what a difference that makes in a city where the high-temps from April through September hover around 110F?? Wow! The classrooms will now be SO much more comfortable…the students have access to a copier…and the office for the first time has a machine that copies, scans and prints…ALL IN ONE! Thank you, thank you, thank you all for your incredible gifts....

Panchita and Itzeel with their beloved new copier/printer!

The Laurens Institute is going to have reading corners for all of their primary students this Fall…for the first time ever! We have already handed over more than 1,200 books…and we have eight more boxes waiting for us to take down in two weeks!! Thank you, thank you, thank you…to all who have given so generously, who have given so many wonderful and different types of books. Because you have given, we are hoping to see a generation of students who learn to love and appreciate reading. We are part of that great host of believers who are called “people of the Book”…and it may be that one, ten or fifty! of these students will someday open THE Book and find the way of faith because of your faithfulness.

Above: Gainesville First UMC sent enough bi-lingual Bibles this year that we could give a copy to our students at the teachers’ college!  Thank YOU!!

We hope you all received our last e-update and you know that we have relocated to the US/Mexican border (http://herrinmission.blogspot.com/2011/05/transitions.html). We are in a time of deep soul-searching as we adjust to this new life. While some aspects of ministry are very clear, others are not. We plan to continue serving through education and community relationships...but we wonder if there are other areas of ministry for us as well. Please continue to pray for us, to support us, to drop your notes of encouragement as we find our new lives and ministry here.

In front of our home in McAllen….

As always, we thank you and love you. We hope that you are doing well…that this is a good summer for you all as you work, rest, play, build, plow, till, paint, wash, rake, cut, plant—whatever it is that you do this summer. May God reveal Himself to you…may you know His presence in your life…and may you share the blessings that God has given you.

With great thanksgiving for all you have done and will do to change and shape the lives of others,
Jon and Jeanne
Jesse, Megan and Andrew
3909 Zinnia Avenue 
McAllen, Texas 78504

Updated TMS Web-site...

http://www.themissionsociety.org/people/herrin/

Transitions…

 

Dear Family, Friends and Partners in Ministry,

We imagine that you are well aware that crime, violence and social instability have continued to increase in Monterrey and much of Northern Mexico. Foreigners are not immune--from an American government officer who was targeted and killed in February to an American missionary was shot and killed just two hours from where we live.

After taking into account the above, after considering the needs of our family--our children and ourselves, and after much prayer and seeking God's guidance for our lives, we believe that the time has come to move from this area and continue in ministry stateside. A confluence of life-events--no single thing--and God's leading bring us to this decision. At the end of this academic year (June 2011),  we will relocate our "base of operations" three hours north to McAllen, TX--a large "border-city" with a 90% Latino population. We believe God will have us continue to minister and serve Latinos there using experience gleaned from years of service in Venezuela and in Mexico.

We will remain with The Mission Society as we transition to the Rio Grande Valley / US-Mexico Border area. We plan to maintain an on-going connection with both the Seminary and Teachers' College in Monterrey, serving as a 'conduit' for resources for those ministries. We also plan to continue our "tent-maker" life-style (bi-vocational ministry) by serving in education as we live and minister in the McAllen/Rio Grande Valley area. 
Making this change will not be easy, but we have not sought the easy way--only God's way.  Over the past years you have been our lifeline of support through your prayers, gifts and finances. As we make the adjustment and transition of our lives to McAllen, we would ask--as God provides--for your continued support of this ministry through your prayers and your gifts. And, we ask that you continue to keep all of us in your prayers: Megan, as she begins her senior year of high school; Andrew, as he enters American high school; Jesse, as she spends the summer working and then continues her college studies; and Jon and Jeanne, as we confirm avenues of ministry through education and community outreach.

We cannot say enough nor show you sufficiently how grateful we are for your prayers and gifts through the years, for your faithful participation in this seemingly small but impactful ministry.  God has already used you to touch more lives than you'll ever know--Saturnino and his family in Boca de Garza, Venezuela; Sandra Sanchez in La Concordia, Venezuela; Cheo and Monica Gomez in Tumeremo, Venezuela; Pastora Yolanda at the Lugar Altisimo Church in Venezuela; Choco Guzman in General Tehran, Mexico; Ugan Alcaron from Sonora, Mexico; Mary Carmen in Escobedo, Mexico; Ana Lucia Alcarón in Santiago de Nuevo León, Mexico...and literally hundreds of other lives have been directly impacted by your giving, going and praying.  You have been--and have allowed us to be--conduits of God's love and faithfulness.  We thank you for caring, for sending, for praying, for giving--all of these acts of faith have worked together to see lives forever changed...and those changed lives will impact still others.  Now, as we move in ministry to the US/Mexican border, we look forward with great anticipation to what God has for us all as we work together in the days to come. May the Lord continue to bless you as you bless others!

With Great Thanksgiving, your co-laborers in Christ!

Jon and Jeanne...and the J.A.M.

May 2011

Monterrey, Mexico

I'm a Third-Culture Kid - Pt.4

So, I was born in south Alabama...moved to Guyana for four years, then to Grenada for eight years...and 1982 rolled around and we moved to the US. The plan was for me to do a year or two of high school to prepare me for American university, and then for Mom and Dad to go back to the mission field where they would open a new work on the island of St. Lucia. Life does always go as we plan.
We had arrived in Atlanta, Ga, where the Briarlake Baptist Church had allowed us to live in their mission house. The location was great--across the street from the church, a few blocks from Lakeside High School. Dad was to take a position at the Georgia Baptist Convention center in their annuity department...and Mom was going to just go on being Mom. Shortly after we arrived, I even landed my first job...at the church...working on the grounds crew. Since the church was big--taking an entire block--there were grounds enough to care for!
One of the things that the then-Foriegn Mission Board required/provided was a medical checkup after those tours of mission service. I just had a cursory look, and all was well. Mom and Dad had more extensive and intensive tests...and something came back not quite right on one of Dad's tests. So, more tests.
I suppose I'll never forget the day. I came in from work at the church for lunch...and the results were in. Cancer of the liver. Surgeries planned. Not a great prognosis. That was August...and I watched my father waste away over the next eight months...sick from chemo-therapy...weak from surgeries...until May, when he finally died, a shadow of his former self. He fought...hard! He spent time with me...good time...but not enough. Not his fault--mine. I wanted to escape, not see him like that. I suddenly had to go out with my friends a lot more...or study in my room.
Funny...I remember clearly two of our last conversations: one evening we were sitting in the den, the TV room, watching something inane (most of it was and still is), and a commercial came on. We muted it. Dad was in a recliner with a swivel base, and turned to me out of the blue and said, "Jon, I love you so much...." My dad didn't talk like that...and I didn't know what to do with it. I mumbled something like, "I know, Dad" How many times I've wished I could re-live that one, stupid moment...so I could say, "I love you, too, Dad" and could go over and hug him and he would know it was true and real and deeply felt.... But, past is past. Thankfully, after he died he visited me in some dreams and I was able to tell him then.
The other chat I recall was sitting out on the front stoop of the mission house--somewhere we almost never went. But, it was a warm, sunny Spring day, so Dad wanted to sit in the sun. I was glad to do so with him. For some reason, we started talking about motorcycles. Yes, motorcycles. I guess they've long been a part of our family--we took one to G'da in 1975...and got another in1980 for me. My brother Timothy has had several, and my brother Jeph had one that he and I shared a good bit. But, anyway, Dad and I talked about my getting a motorcycle someday. I was looking at a Honda CM200--a little street cruiser...and Dad was saying, "Yes, that might be a good idea....something to think about for next school year...." I was thrilled that I was having an honest-to-God "man-to-man" chat with my Dad and that he was encouraging me to do something that others might have thought 'dangerous' or something.
Dad died in May 1983...and my life would never be the same. Having one's father die when he is 17-years-old is hard enough...but add to it that I was still newly arrived in the US, without direction, close to graduating from high school to attend college (an appointment to the Air Force Academy, no less!)--oh, what an even more convoluted mess life had suddenly become for this kid!
One of the Scriptures we hold to claims that "we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose" (Rom.8.28 NRSV). In hind-sight, I can see this...but at the time, I hated God, I hated the world, I hated the US--and I wanted nothing more than to return to Grenada and lose myself there.
I must say that Dad--in my now-distant recollection--was nothing but hopeful and faithful through it all. I was more like Job's wife, thinking he should just curse God and die. But, no...he remained faithful, studied the Scriptures, prayed. I've found notes, scraps of paper in his Bible, from this period of his life...and he was hopeful, faithful, hoping for healing, trusting in God. I should have taken a clue from him...but, no, I had to go another direction.
I began to search in every OTHER place--philosophy, Hinduism, Buddhism, anything! After all, I had prayed to God for his healing, and nothing. In fact, I remember one night lying in bed praying, asking God to let me have all of Dad's pain and nausea for a day or two so he could just have a freakin' break!! And...nothing. But, my searches and question among the world religions and philosophies brought me the same--nothing.
Mom got a job at the Georgia Baptist Convention Center in their Public Relations department--a job MADE for her. I entered my senior year of high school and had decided to attend college close to home (Shorter College) so Mom wouldn't be left alone. I didn't get the motorcycle...got a Dodge Colt instead. My friends at the church, especially Tommy Houseworth, were my salvation in this time of being undone.
One evening, I sat in the den, in that same chair where I was when Dad told me he loved me. I looked over on the end table, and there lay a Bible. I picked it up. After staring at it for a bit, I said to God, "Okay, you got one more chance. I'm going to read this...the New Testament part...and if you reveal yourself to me, I'm yours...." I left the rest unsaid. Some days later, somewhere around Ephesians, I realized that God is real, that this world is a broken place--and that the brokenness is not God's doing!--that God does love us and wants the best for us...but best of all, God does not leave us walk through these shattered lives of ours alone. John Wesley said it well at the end of his life, just before he crossed the veil--"Best of all...God with us." Amen to that...and best of all, God is with us.

The Pits: A Time of Spiritual Defrag and Reboot

I was supposed to have turned in a blog entry to The Mission Society some weeks ago. But, to be perfectly honest, I just didn't have anything good to say! To be honest, I was...in the "pit."

Psalm 40 begins, "I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure" (NRSV). David wrote these words, that same David who was "a man after God's own heart," yet here he is, in a pit! This is not some "lost" person awaiting salvation...this is a man who has walked with God, who has faced giants, who has risen to the throne. Yet, he finds himself in a pit.

For the last week and a half, I've been in that pit as well. I had lost sight of my calling, of my faith, of my purpose in this world. Perhaps in our high-speed, high-tech, high-pressure world, this becomes easier and easier. Perhaps in our multi-cultural, multi-religious, multi-tasking world, it's hard to stay on the path that leads to life. I've tried to examine what let to my ending-up in the pit, but I can't put my finger on it. All I know is that, like David, I was in a pit...and I wasn't getting out fast.

As I look back on my life, at those dark times (John of the Cross called such times a "dark night of the soul"), at those times I've been in the pit, I realize that it is not a wholly uncommon thing--at least not in my life. Oh, I know...as a minister and a missionary I'm supposed to always 'have it together,' always walk in the light. But, Scripture seems to indicate something different--God's people, faithful as they are, sometimes end up in the pit, in the valley of the shadow of death, in a cave hiding from the world.

The good news is that God does not abandon us. However, He does sometimes allow us to be in that pit--in that darkness--for a spell. So, it is really important that David "waited patiently." And, after that time of waiting? God is faithful and lifts us from the pit and sets our "feet upon a rock"...but He doesn't stop there..He puts "a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God."

While I'm a bit reluctant to draw too many parallels between people and computers, I must say that these pits, valleys, dark-soul times seem to be like a spiritual defrag and re-boot: a time to re-sort everything, to return things to their proper places...of importance, to find new connections in life--even a renewed experience of faith. While I don't long for the pit (no!), I'm learning not to freak-out when I occasionally find myself there...and I'm learning to wait patiently each time for our God to rescue me and give me a new song. Today, I'm on a rock...and I've got a new tune floating through my life...and I think it's kind of catchy!

Easter Sunday 2011

Of course, today is THE day for Christians around the world.  Regardless of the petty theological intricacies or disciplines/practices that we tend to allow to divide us, this day is something we all agree on. 

One of Wesley’s favorite sayings (attributed to Augustine) supports and encourages this unity we should enjoy as Christians:  “In the essentials, unity; in the non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.”  And, then the question arises, what are the essentials??

Traditionally, we go back to the Apostles’ Creed or to that well-known passage of Scripture from Ephesians: “There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all” (Eph.4:4-6, NASB).

I know of no Christian who would deny the truths expressed in the Apostles’ Creed even if they don’t claim it as their own.  Ephesians teaches us that even though we may say that we’re of different churches, there is really only ONE CHURCH.  That one Church is born of the wind of ONE SPIRIT.  That one Spirit imparts to us a calling of ONE HOPE, a calling to share the unstoppable hope that is found in the Good News of Jesus Christ.  That same Jesus the Messiah is the ONE LORD.  That one Lord we may know by and through that ONE FAITH…that act of trust and confidence when we accept and receive the grace offered to us.  And, by the ONE BAPTISM, we proclaim to all that we have taken that step of faith to follow that one Lord.  And all of this possible because of our Creator—our ONE GOD AND FATHER—who permeates our reality and calls to us unceasingly and lovingly, hoping that we will turn and follow and live faithfully.

My Baptist friends and I may not see eye-to-eye on some issues regarding baptism; my Anglican friends and I may not agree on issues of liturgy; my Presbyterian friends and I may not understand the grace and call of God in the exact same way; my non-denominational friends and I tend to have divergent opinions on church government…however, we are all completely agreed on today—Easter!  Today is the day we celebrate Jesus’ triumph over death.  What a weekend!  Our sins pardoned on Friday…and our eternal hope confirmed on Sunday.  What more do we need?

We hope you have had a wonderful Easter morning, Easter day…that you know the peace that only God can give to us.  And, may this Resurrection Day be a day, a time, of new beginnings for you and yours. 

The Herrins…in Monterrey, Mexico

E-Update–March 2011

Greetings in the Name of our Lord!

    Life goes forward in ministry here as we serve the Lord through the John Wesley Methodist Seminary and through the Bilingual Education Teachers College/Instituto Laurens.  At the seminary, we'll soon be getting a brand new, computer-connected, copier/scanner--thanks to the great generosity of a number of you!!  As far as we can tell, there are a few more gifts coming in this coming week...and then we'll buy the copier and put it to work!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!  We'll have pictures soon....
    At the Intituto Laurens, we are collecting books...in the US!  So far, notes from you indicate that there are already some eight-to-ten boxes of children's books on the way--THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!  We will be going up to the border next weekend, and we hope to bring back BOXES of BOOKS for the school.  Thank you all SOOOOOO much for gathering books for this "reading corner program."  And, this doesn't end here--anytime in the next month, two months...YEAR!...that you can send books, we'll make sure that the school gets them and puts them in the hands of eager children.

    We did put together a video last month that can give you a glimpse of our life and ministry in Mexico.  You can find it here on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx1ZBU4Y1M0
PLEASE SHARE this with your Sunday School Class, your congregation, your family and friends (and share this e-mail/posting as well!!)...so that they can all see how God works through the simple gifts and prayers of people like you and me.

    In case you missed it before, here is the John Wesley Methodist Seminary's newly-developed website:
http://www.smjw.org
This was made possible in large measure by the computers donated by St.Philips UMC in Roundrock, TX.  We do have one page in English for those "up north" to read...and then for the rest you're on your own to figure out!! ha, ha....

    Jesse is having a much better semester at college this time around, but--like all the other college students--she is looking forward to summer break!!!  Her plans for now are to live at home and work this summer, saving up for a small, used car (anybody got any ideas!?!)  Megan is doing well, finishing up her junior year and looking forward to starting her senior year.  She remains VERY active in the church youth group and with her friends in the book club.  Andrew is doing really well.  His basketball team is doing ever better...and he continues to amaze us as he flies the ball around the court, dropping in those lay-ups with seeming ease.  He, too, stays active in the youth group...and plays for the church soccer team.

    Jeanne and I continue to minister, as we said above, through the Seminary and the Methodist school.  We strive to live and share the faith by word and deed.  We have had a couple of months now of questioning and searching--the insecurity of the area has increased even more; violence remains on the rise; real family concerns pull at our minds.  Please pray for us as we are in a serious discerning process at this time, striving to know God's will for our lives and ministry.

    Please, take time to check out the links we've included--those above and those below.  Jon has written several articles on life as a TCK that some will find interesting.  Please continue to pray for us as we serve the Lord here in Monterrey...and as we seek and follow God's will for the future.  You have been our life-line--your prayers, your gifts, your notes of encouragement...all these have keep us going, and with joy!

 
With much love and thanksgiving,
Jon and Jeanne...and the J.A.M.