September 2013 West Texas Update

Every month we are providing a CNMC update for the West Texas District. I thought I'd share them here as well.

So, catching up . . . here's September. An abbreviated version was also published in the Nazarene Communications Network Newsletter. You can find it by clicking here.

9-3-13

By now, we hope you’ve heard about Cactus Nazarene Ministry Center (CNMC)! CNMC is a new compassionate ministries site located here on the West Texas District in the diverse Panhandle town of Cactus. CNMC seeks to serve the 17+ nationalities in Cactus and surrounding areas (primarily immigrants and refugees from Central America, Africa, and Myanmar) through ESL classes, legal assistance, health clinics, sports ministries, after-school programming, family services, and more! CNMC will also host Cactus Iglesia del Nazareno, and hopefully several other congregations in the near future.

We envision that CNMC will be a Christ-centered community center offering the message of hope in Christ through services that empower people to live successful lives and to reach their full potential. We realize, though, that this will take a lot of time and work. We are finally onsite and are truly enjoying getting to know our new town. God is already opening doors that we never thought of! This week, we will meet with the program administrator of the Moore County YMCA as they’ve offered to partner with us through the Cactus YMCA.

Our biggest need right now is Work and Witness teams to get the work in Cactus started. This past week, the first load of fill dirt for the building was delivered and compacted. We have several projects that we can use your help on—construction, campus and city beautification, sports camps, Vacation Bible School, and more! Please contact us at workandwitness@cactusministries.org for more information about bringing a team.

We’d love to visit your congregation to share more about what God is doing in Cactus, and about His vision for CNMC. We can share in Sunday School classes, as a "commercial" during the worship service, preach the sermon, or do a faith-promise type of service/weekend. We're trying to book our fall calendar now, so please let us know if you'd like us to visit your church!

God is already doing amazing things in Cactus! Thank you for your prayers and support.

 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me’” (Matthew 25:40).

Vito and Jenni Monteblanco
CNMC Directors

For more information about CNMC, visit:

www.cactusministries.org – CNMC website

www.underthecactustree.blogspot.com – Monteblanco family personal blog

www.facebook.com/CNMC - Facebook page

Water, water every where, Nor any drop to drink.

It took forever for us to get internet access. The internet company told us that it would take 2-4 weeks for them to get a line run to our house. At  4 weeks, we hadn't heard anything from them. At 4 weeks and 1 day (after a few phone calls) the internet company was on our block running cables. At 4 weeks and 2 days, we waited from 8am-5pm (as they had told us to), and no one showed up. A few phone calls later we learned that our project was "complete." Ha! The cables down the street weren't hooked up to anything and no one had been here to install anything. Thankfully a very nice installation tech was nearby and came at 6pm to check things out. After just a few minutes, we had internet using the phone lines that had been on our property the whole time!! But it was just a temporary line that was strung across the yard.

The next week, after several more phone calls, the internet construction crew was here again. This time to bury the line. It was a lovely Thursday afternoon. Vito was in Wisconsin for a wedding he was officiating. The kids were playing. Life was good. Then, BOOM! They hit a water line! Thankfully they had the water back on the next day.

It took about a little over a week to finish burying the cables and fill in the trenches. And as of Friday, we have official internet. Nearly 10 weeks since moving to Cactus and we have all utilities! What a trip its been!

Nope, there's not supposed to be water here!

Eli loved the trenches. He's really enjoying living on a construction site.

Even Olivia is getting into life here--look at those bare feet!

"Let the little children come to me . . ."

Nearly 10 years ago, God added to my (Jenni) call to ministry. I had known since I was ten years old that I was called to full-time ministry. At that point, I felt called specifically to be a missionary. In 2002-2004, I really struggled with my call. I knew that God had called me/us, but what was taking Him so long to get us into ministry? So, in 2004, God whacked me upside the head (He has to do that to me from time to time), and showed me that He could use me right then and there if I was willing. Then He opened doors into children's ministries. I had always enjoyed helping out at VBS and being a camp counselor, but I had no idea the joy that would come from being a Children's Pastor. It was through children's ministries that I received the call to become ordained. It was through children's ministries that I learned about all of the strengths that God had given me. It was through children's ministries that I developed a passion for discipleship of all ages. Over the years, my involvement in children's ministries has varied dependent on where we've been and what the needs were. So it shouldn't surprise anyone that I'm already involved in children's ministries here in not one, but two churches! And it shouldn't surprise anyone that I absolutely love the days when it's my turn to teach!

On Wednesday evenings, I'm teaching the elementary class at Dumas Naz once a month. We've been using a VBS curriculum and I get the memory verse and games night. Right up my alley! I've absolutely loved teaching this class and getting to know the kids at Dumas Naz.

Ms. Rena and Ms. Jackie helping some kids with their memory verse activity.

Isn't she a cutie?

My two little monsters working on their memory verse.

And then there is Cactus Iglesia del Nazareno. I've agreed to teach children's church every Sunday evening that we're in town. So far its only worked out for me to teach twice, but we should be around for me to teach the rest of the year. The first week I taught, I only had Olivia, Eli, and a 3-year old little girl who only spoke Spanish. Thank goodness I had Iris, my teenage helper, there! She was a big help with the 3-year old. I can get along okay in Spanish, but I'm quite rusty and little kids are so hard to understand in another language. Still, it was a great class!

Iris and the kids at children's church

Then there was tonight . . . I was very excited about the lesson I had prepared from the EPIC curriculum (GREAT curriculum from www.nph.com!!). But, oh boy, was it difficult! We had 8 kids ranging from age 2 years through 4th grade. 4 spoke only Spanish, 3 were bilingual, and 1 spoke only English. Iris took the two youngest into the nursery. I asked Vito to come help me so I could teach in English and he could translate for those who spoke Spanish. I had games, crafts, Bible story, questions . . . all prepared and ready for a great class. It didn't go quite as well as planned . . . culture barriers and language barriers abounded. Let's just say that I need to get a bit more creative! Thankfully I had play doh in my bag and that seemed to do the trick!

Play doh reaches all cultures and languages!

Working on creating their favorite thing that God created. We had tigers, vegetables, and trees!

"Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Matthew 19:14