Passion for Mexico

2008-05-01T10:32:00.001-07:00

Well.. Another month gone by and only 3 months left! Time seems to be flying by a lot quicker these days, and i doubt it will be slowing down anytime soon. This past week was a great week of rest for both Kara and I, and a time of rest well served doing nothing! We were able to take things at a snail pace, and catch up on some deep sleep. As I reflect on this past week, I am beginning to see that it was more of God's doing than our own. It just so happened that we had only a few commitments. And when i think about the rest we had, i also think about the coming weeks ahead and how busy we are going to be! God knows, and He knew we needed it in order for us to make it through the marathon that is ahead of us.
So in saying all this, you are probably wondering what is ahead?? In a week a team comes from Canada which we are really excited about. Our great friend Troy is on that team, and we are excited to hang out with him and take him to all the nice restaurants we can't afford to eat at!! Haha.. mostly likely we will eat tacos the whole time he is here. (mmm.. we love tacos!!) After the team comes, Kara's parents are coming down for 2 weeks! sweet.. more expensive eating... and when i say expensive i only mean 20 canadian dollars for a whole meal for 2. During the time they are here we will hopefully get away for a night or so to Acapulco, as well as a youth retreat with a church we are involved in. After this another team is june and july.. and then my parents COME!!! sweet. And they will be coming when we are finished here. Soo we are going to do some traveling with them which will be awesome!

Ok.. thats a run down of the things ahead. Please pray for us, we are now entering a huge transitioning time in our ministries here. We finish spanish classes and are starting new ministries. We are going to be transitioning our english groups into the ALPHA course, so we are excited to see what will happen there. Please pray for our finances. We are trusting God, and are still in need of a chunk of fund raising in order to not go into debt when we return back home. So continue to pray for us and the ministries God has given us down here.

Awesome! We are praying for you back home, and pray that God will show himself in a new way these up coming weeks. Nuestro Dios es grande y todopoderoso. Ponen su fe in El.

Muchos Gracis para su todo oraciones! Que Dios los bendiga con muchos mas!

Nathan and Kara

Three Month Update... Sorry!

2008-04-16T16:59:00.001-07:00

Hi All!

Sorry so long between updates, we actually lost the password to this account! But anyway, here we are. We've had a crazy three months. This is going to be rather short because I just wrote the entire newsletter, which will soon be heading your way. And if you're not getting our newsletters, please email me, and I'll add you to that list. So here's the rundown of what we've been doing: We spent January restarting our ministries, and getting set up for the long haul of our internship here. Our ministries picked up again in February. Our English group restarted, and has gone incredibly well! We've got over 10 people attending each week, and this past week, we had a really great talk about who God is, which is really amazing given that none of the students in our group are Christians. God is good! We also started the Worship seminars, which are also going well. Now that we've got a better grasp of the language, it is far easier to teach our students! In March, we headed off to Guatemala for our border trip. We had to renew our visas, so we took of for a week. It was a fantastic experience, although a little nerve wracking at times! Once we returned from Guatemala, we picked back up our various ministries, and our language studies. Our Spanish classes are going wonderfully, and we especially love our new teacher. We are actually done classes in three weeks, which will seriously free up some time. Other than these things, we are just doing our regular routine, and loving it! God is doing wonderful things in our lives, and ministries. We are currently learning about the Sabbath, and the Daily Office practice, which is a truly challenging experience! So, I think that's about it. Hopefully you've been getting our newsletters which are much more useful! Thanks for praying with us as we continue in this journey!

Happy new year!

2008-01-12T12:05:00.000-08:00

So we are now back in Mexico after spending our Christmas holidays in Canada with Kara's side of the family. It was a great time to relax and reflect on our first three months spent it Mexico. Its amazing how much you can learn in three months in another country and not even realize it. We are excited to be back though, and it is shaping up to be a very busy year; more so than last year. We are going to be involved with a Mexican established church about 2 hours from where we live, and involved with a cell group in total about every other week. We will be under Mexican leadership working alongside Mexican pastors. We have been asked to start and help out with a worship training group for the particular church we are going to be involved with. Which means we need to learn spanish a whole lot more. Other than this we are still involved heavily with fusion ministry in Coyoacan area, and are equally excited about what God has in store for this ministry.
We started at a new spanish school which is turning out to be a really good challenge and just what we needed to learn spanish more quickly. Furthermore, of most recent changes we have also just moved into a new place where we have our own apartment, and a place which is considerably closer then our last home stay with a Mexican family.
So there is just a brief update for those of you who wanted to know, and is the first of many more to come. With such a busy schedule this new year, I am forced to become better with how I managed my time.
Kara and I are still sending out monthly newsletters, but from some feedback we have recieved we discovered that not everyone is getting our newsletters. So, we have decided to switch mail providers, and have signed up with GMAIL, and will no longer be using HOTMAIL. So if you can make a change in that, our new email is

rautenbergs@gmail.com (NEW EMAIL)

We would love to hear from you, and will be sending a mass email noting our change of email.

May God bless you all with his richest blessing. Would you continue to pray for us daily as we are making decision of what to include and exclude in our ministry here. Pray for clarity, and direction.
One last thing as well, Kara and I are still in need of more donations in order to continue to minister here in Mexico for the next 8 months we have left. If you can be in prayer, we still need roughly 14,000 dollars more to cover the expenses of our year here in Mexico. We trust in God and have seen his provision. He has placed on many of your hearts the desire to support Kara and I financially in Mexico this year, and we thank you all for your support in this way. We would not be here if it wasn't for Gods grace, your prayers, and your financially giving.

Please email us if you have any questions. We love hearing from you and all that God is doing in your lives and in your communities back home.

Dios de bendiga, Nathan and Kara

Hola amigos

2007-11-30T18:35:00.000-08:00

Hey, i hope you are all doing well. Things down here in Mexico are going really well.. Keeping busy, always stuff to do; and being stretched continually. Kara and I had the chance to go to a PUMAS game ( UNAMS soccer team, really big down here). There were at least 5,000 at the game. Crazy fans, literally cheering the whole game.. Soon enough i will post a video of some highlights of the game for you all, and put some pictures up.
Other then our outings and getting to know the culture more and more, life here is the big city has been great. God has been opening doors, and we have been meeting random people and have been able to make connections with them. We are definitely learning a great deal about Mexican culture, and the differences and similarities between Canadian culture.
Overall, we are thoroughly enjoying our experience in Mexico, and feel God stirring a passion in us for Mexico in the future.

Please continue to pray for us as we finish up this year. We have our final spanish exam on Wednesday next week, and are then heading out on vacation for 5 days. God is doing a work in us and through us these days.

If you have questions or just wanting to email us please feel free to do so.

Dios de bendiga, adios amigos!

somos beunos! (we are good)

2007-11-02T13:37:00.001-07:00

So you are all probably wondering how we have been doing these past few weeks... Well, it is only within the past few days now that we have had time to figure out our schedules and settle down a bit from the business of life and ministry here in Mexico City. God is so good. Thus far nothing dangerous has happened to us, other than a concerning cold that Kara is only now getting over after almost a month of being here. And our transition into Mexican culture has been very smooth, more-so than we ever thought. Language classes are going really well, and all in God's timing we will be speaking fluent Spanish.
There have been so many new things and changes that have taken place these last few weeks, it would surely be an overload to tell you about all of our cool and interesting experiences. That is why we will be sending out our October update soon with more info of what all has taken place in the short time we have been here.
To give you just a little update though.... We are busy like nothing we have ever experience before in ministry. Think about diving off the tallest diving board you have ever seen, and that is more or less what we have been experiencing lately and only now surfacing (learning how to tread water in a new culture). Leaving all your worries and concerns on the diving board and plunging into deep trust that God has everything in his hands.
Please continue to pray for as we need and covet your prayers greatly. A lot of things are going on all at once around us and there have been and are currently many attacks being made on us by the enemy. Please pray for safety as a general thing, but more so for wisdom and discernment as we are both being stretched physically and spiritually as we believe God has something big in store for our time spent here in Mexico.
We send our love to all of you wherever you are, and you're in our prayers.

Gum Trees! There famous for them here in Mexico. Just be careful you don't run into them.

Dios de bendega (God bless you),

Nathan and Kara

Hola?, Como esta usted? (Hi, How are you doing?)

2007-09-28T15:40:00.001-07:00

So we are in count down mode as we speak, 13 more days to go and then we head off to Mexico. Kara and I have been working hard on our spanish, and so far we are picking it up really quickly. God is blessing us tremendously in our language studies; and the speed in which we are picking up the language is just another confirmation that he is calling us to Mexico at this time. God always has more in store than we think, and this is just one reason we think our role in ministry down in Mexico will be more then we originally thought. Please continue to pray for us as our finances are not all there yet for this trip. Please consider supporting us financially as this trip would not be possible with out all of your support. Also, please continue to pray for us, as there are still many things that need we need to do before we can go. Pray for a smooth transition and that God's hand would be upon as we travel.
Feel free to email us with any questions regarding Mexico or really anything, we always like talking to new people and getting to know all of you who are supporting us through this next year.
Take care, and may the Lord bless greatly.
Nathan and Kara

Crunch TIme

2007-09-13T14:31:00.000-07:00

Greetings to everyone who reads this. I hope all is well wherever you are , and that life isn't to busy as this is the time a new school year begins. The good news is that Kara and I are doing internship this year for a 10 month stay in Mexico, which we are by the day becoming more and more excited about.
We are currently in Medicine Hat for another 4 and a half weeks upon which we will be heading out from the familiarity of our surroundings to a place we have never been before. Our Plane Tickets are now booked for the 10th of October, and we will be departing from Calgary to Mexico. As the days begin rushing by, we are discovering more and more how much we still have yet to do before we leave. Kara is currently writing an all-inclusive children's program which she hopes to have finished before we leave. It is a program that will be used for many years to come and will serve as an instruction manual for all children workers and leaders. She loves doing this kind of stuff and is putting many hours of work into it. For myself, I just finished painting along with Kara, an office at Glenview Nazarene church here in Medicine Hat. I have mostly been putting around Medicine Hat trying to keep busy and working on last minute things that need to be done before we head off to Mexico.
Please continue to pray for us as the time to leave draws near. Please pray that God will prepare us for this up and coming year and that these last minute details will be worked out before we leave. As of today we just recieved some good news from Heather Haund who will be Kara's mentor for the year, that our budget for Mexico has decreased 125$ per month per individual. Although it is not much compared to the overall budget, it is still something. To give you an update on our finances we have currently raised 2,000$, plus maybe 2,000$ in pledges. There is no way of keeping track of pledges so therefore it is hard to gage exactly how much we have raised in support finacially. This is still a long shot from the budgeted amount of 23,000 -25,000 we need to cover all expenses of our trip. We are trusting God and praying that He will provide, and that as He has called us He will provide. Please pray and consider if God is calling you to be a support financially and/or prayerfully. We cannot do this alone, and we are asking you to join Kara and I on this year long journey ahead. Partner with us, dive in with us as we trust God to do amazing things year not only in our lives but in all of your lives and the people we meet in Mexico as well. My Heart and passion is seeing missions globally connect with missions locally. Thus i feel a dual purpose to this year and potentially in the future. A passion for Mexico to serve as God has called us, but at the same time a passion for Canada. Even though we will be in Mexico impacting Mexicans for Jesus Christ, at the same time i see an impact in Canada. And this is why we are so excited for this year ahead. Although it will be a huge learning curve for the both of us, it will be an experience like none other.

We ask for your prayer, as well as your support financially. Without these this trip would be nearly impossible for us. But praise the Lord that we have a God who makes the impossible possible. That nothing is to great for our God, and that all things are possible in him.

I hope to keep you updated continually. There is a news letter going out shortly via email, so keep your eyes open for that.. thanks, peace, and love

Nathan & Kara, 2Blessed2BStressed

Road Trip

2007-08-19T15:23:00.000-07:00

Hi Everybody!

We are currently in Whitby Ontario. We've been on vacation for two weeks now, and we moved out of Calgary two weeks, and two days ago! Tomorrow, at the crack of dawn, we're heading to the Maritime Provinces, AKA Kara's home country. We've been on a whirlwind trip for these past two weeks. Nathan's brother got married last weekend which was a lot of fun. It was a medieval themed wedding, and if I can I'll put some of those pictures on here. We were all dressed up in these extremely hot costumes, but it was a lot of fun! We've otherwise been spending all of our time visiting friends and family here in Ontario. Kara's super excited now though because we're heading to New Brunswick tomorrow. We're planning to drive for about 18 hours the next two days here, and then we've got another whirl wind week around there. Nathan is finally going to meet all of Kara's extended family so that'll be fun for him! After our week in the Maritimes we're heading to Quebec for Kara's birthday, and to see Will, our fellow onsiter, and then back to Medicine Hat. We'll be staying in Medicine Hat with Kara's parents for a month and a half so that's a real blessing.

Then we're off! We're getting very excited for Mexico, and we're starting to count down the days! We got our first fundraising update yesterday, and we're feeling encouraged about that aspect of this adventure. We still have a long way to go, so prayer is still greatly needed, but we're trusting God to provide for us.

So that's the end of our current update! We'll update again once we're back in Medicine Hat!

Packing

2007-07-13T17:34:00.000-07:00

So this week is wrapping up really nicely. Kara and I both had half days of work, which allowed us some time to get our passports. But unfortunately kara is not feeling the greatest. We think that she got food poisioning from something she ate a couple days ago, and is only now starting to recover. But she is on the way back to health and things are looking good for this weekend.
So packing is a number one priority around here, or at least it should be; but some how when it comes down to it we always loose our motivation to pack. We are moving all our stuff to Medicine hat and hope that there will be enough room to store everything. Work for me is starting to wind down as people just don't seem to be wanting screens like they have in the past. But The Calgary Stampede and the extreme heat are two major factors that tend to slow us down. The city practically shuts down for the week, but thank the good Lord that its almost over.
So kara and i are planning to leave on the second of August and we just found out that John Head (my old youth pastor) now lives in Manitoba, and we are now going to be staying there after the first leg of our trip. We figure their is nothing much to see in Saskatchewan, so why not speed through as quickly as possible.

So there is a little update for you all, and I will try to keep them coming your way as frequently as possible. Take care everyone, and ill talk to you later.

Nathan, 2blessled2bstressed

Second BLOG EVER!!!

2007-07-09T20:13:00.000-07:00

WoW! Where has the time gone. It feels just like yesterday we started this blog. Not really. SO hows everyone doing!!
So things have been a little crazy here in Calgary for the past few months. I started back to Phantom Screens for the summer and Kara started a new Nannying Job. This has more or less been our lives for past few months, but we are gradually slowing down as we get closer to start of our summer vacation! Well its not really vacation as there is still much to do before we head off to Mexico. But it will be great to see people who we haven't seen in a while, and visit family and friends across Canada. Kara and I are planning (kara has done most of the planning) a road trip across Canada for the month of August. Slowly making our way to the east coast we will be taking the time to catch up with people in Toronto, Ottawa, the maritime's (did i spell this right?), and hopefully Quebec. We hope to be back in Alberta by the beginning of September in the pill popping capital of Canada (Medicine Hat), and here we will be staying at the Skidmore resident until we leave for Mexico.
This is all really vague, but we hope to update this blog more frequently then we have in the past. We greatly appreaciate the support you have all been to us in getting us started as newly weds, and furthermore with where we sense God leading us this up and coming year. Please continue to pray for us as we begin our move to Medicine Hat, and for our trip across Canada. Things are going to become extremely overwhelming as Kara and I transition from one place to another in the months ahead.
We are trusting God with our fund raising for Mexico, and praise him for the donations people have already made.

Drop us an email if we haven't heard from you in a while. We would like to visit as many people as we can across Canada. Once again, sorry for not updating this blog ages ago. We hope that everyone is well, and that you are enjoying the summer months while they last.

First Blog Ever!!!

2007-03-10T21:33:00.000-08:00

Ahhh... Yes. Our first ever blog posting. This is going to take a bit of getting used to, but i think it's going to work. For all of you who have been wanting to see some Wedding pictures, here you go.
Just to give you all a little update, Kara and I have officially been accepted for Fusion Mexico, and we'll be leaving this coming October for ten months. We're very excited about what God has been doing in this area. Not to mention the rest of our lives! We're both working at newish jobs, that we really enjoy, and are up to our eyeballs in school work.
We've created this blog so that we can keep everyone up to speed on the recent developments in our lives. We hope this will be a blessing to you, as you are to us!

Nathan and Kara