Yes, God even provides geometry teachers!

Okay, so extraverted Holly has struggled with geometry this year. Without the benefit of a live teacher, she has struggled to be able to get all of her gazillion questions answers and to complete her geometry course through Keystone High School, an online accredited private school. So we've known all along that God has provided for us exactly where and how we needed it, but we really never expected God to send us a geometry teacher. But lo and behold, enter Patrice Steele, a member of the Orchard Lake mission work group.

Together, Holly & Patrice poured over several weeks worth of geometry problems, questions and proofs, and by the end of the week, Holly felt confident and capable of proceeding with her 5th of 6 geometry tests. In the end, she got a much needed 97 on that big test! Pray that the newfound understanding helps carry her through 1 more test and a final, but for now, let' s just say that we're grateful to God for all the amazing ways God provides for our needs! And that's to you, Patrice, for your patience, kindness and expertise!

VBS anyone?!

Vacation Bible School, or VBS, is a common outreach effort by mission groups who come to Mexico. Bible stories, fun songs and arts-n-crafts abound, but there's often one or two memories that stay with the kids. For the Orchard Lake group, there were 2.....

• The Hokey Pokey, a novel song and dance routine most American children know, and


• Individual Polaroid camera shots of each child and the frames they made to display them.

Now I must confess about the Polaroid thing.... I wasn't so sure how it would work out. Having learned the hard way years ago just how many kids can squeeze into the frame of a Polaroid camera (at least 25!) and how many of those kids can get the picture that magically appears (just 1!), I wasn't so sure this would work out the way the group envisioned. But let me tell you, it was priceless! There are few expressions quite as priceless as watching a young child examine a photograph of themselves and smile so openly and unashamedly. For the members of the Orchard Lake group, they have pictures of them doing the Hokey Pokey to savor, but for the kids with the Polaroid shots in their brightly decorated magnet frames, you can bet they'll savor and save their picture for years and years to come!

The longing to be a part of something bigger

No matter what my official "job title" is, I will always look at the world through the lens of a counselor. One of my favorite counseling theorists argues that all people must satisfy 4 primary needs:
1. For love & belonging
2. For power over one's own life
3. For a sense of productivity and contribution to something bigger than one's self
4. For fun

Every day I watch people in Mexico go to work to satisfy #3 ... striving to fulfill the longing to be productive and to contribute to something bigger than themselves. The irony is that, in almost every case, they do so with the knowledge that they will not be paid for their labors. They do so as volunteers. Sari, Jaime and Julian come to the bible school to teach. Jose Luis and Arimedia come to work with Pablo at the foundation, and Arimedia also works as the primary "staff" for our little tri-cultural mission. For years Bani worked as chief architect, secretary and group coordinator with the foundation, and only recently did she get a job as a paid architect working with the Mexican government. Even Pablo is not paid by the Mayan Synod for all the work he does here.

Paid employment is very hard to come by here, and the pay is so low it's amazing (minimum wage is the equivalent of $5 USD per DAY, not per hour, but per DAY). If life were just about having enough cash, it would be hard to imagine anyone surviving here.

On the other hand, according to Glasser, survival is not about cash. Notice that having $ is not one of the Big 4 listed above. But in fact, if satisfying the Big 4 is what's necessary for survival, then Sari, Jaime, Julian, Bani, Jose Luis, Arimedia and Pablo are in great shape for survival. In their various volunteer roles, they know that they are surrounded by people who love them and accept them (#1); they are choosing to spend their time (#2) by contributing to missions, church and responding to human need (#3), and they enjoy working together, participating in groups and life with the foundation, church and the bible school (#4). Survival, by Glasser's definition, is covered. So, compared to those who are NOT attending to all those survival needs, each of these people is surviving quite well.

Here and there all of those other needs (for money, food, housing, etc.) are somehow taken care of. I am thrilled that each of these people have found ways to survive that not only benefit others but that bring genuine satisfaction to their own lives. Now....don't get me wrong. They'd prefer to get paid! They know they should get paid! They want to get paid someday. But for now, they are willing to work with the knowledge that it's a good thing to work and to be a part of something bigger than themselves. I am proud and humbled to be around them each and every day.

2006 Annual Report

Greetings to you as we begin 2007 and consider all the ways God blessed us in 2006. As the 2nd year of our mission in Mexico begins, our sense of calling is still very clear. Certainly losing Ginny’s mother last month was very hard, yet God’s peace and love from friends and family surrounded us. We know that our Mexican friends feared that we might elect to stay in the US after that experience. Yet as we reflected on 2006 and looked ahead to 2007, it became very clear that God still has work for us here. God had opened so many doors for John, Pablo and Jan last year that really yielded great opportunities for more missions.

Blessings of 2006:
• Helped facilitate 11 US mission groups who participated in short-term medical and construction mission trips. 101 mission travelers returned to 30 churches transformed by the experience of serving and being served in Mexico. Often mission travelers are so “fired up” that their overall involvement in their churches, communities and local missions increases dramatically.
• Met the $150K fund-raising goal for Phase I to construct and equip an outpatient medical clinic in Ocosingo, Chiapas, Mexico to serve some of the 1 million people in Chiapas without access to medical care facilities. Special thanks to 1st Presbyterian in Boone, NC for their matching gift program that has helped us reach this goal. See other photos of works in progress online at http://www.flickr.com/photos/millsfamilymission/294925635/
• Helped organize the international dedication celebration with believers from across Chiapas and 5 countries to dedicate and share the first complete translation of the Holy Bible in the native Tzeltal language. It was an amazing experience to witness the multitudes line up with joy and anticipation to receive God’s word in their native tongue for the very first time!
• Received donations of school supplies and other materials for children in Plan de Ayutla and other small villages in Chiapas. Special thanks to St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Lynchburg, VA and 1st Presbyterian of Pilot Mountain, NC for their contributions in 2006.
• Participated in the planning and organization of a 2-week training in acute emergency medical techniques for “barefoot doctors,” led by Dr. Bill Herring. Following the training, Dr. Herring and the barefoot doctors provided a 3-day medical clinic in the highlands of Chiapas.
• Arranged for a donation of over $15K worth of medical equipment from the Helping Hands Ministry in Southern Pines, NC. The equipment is in temporary storage in Asheville, NC thanks to Glenn Pierce (founder of The Starfish Fund) and will be used to equip the medical clinic in Ocosingo.

Prayerful Vision for 2007:
• To recognize and act on opportunities to serve and share the love of Jesus Christ
• Good weather, consistent work crews and government support as construction progresses on the medical clinic.
• Safe travel and meaningful experiences for the participants in the 16 mission work groups who will participate in medical mission trips, village construction and clinic construction in 2007.
• Arrange for additional donations of medical clinic equipment and supplies and successful importation.
• Improvement & expansion of training for “barefoot doctors” as important extenders in the health care delivery system and improved coordination with other medical professionals in Chiapas.
• Raise funds for Phase II of the medical clinic to include surgical services & a small inpatient wing.
• Develop the “Glasses for Missions” program to provide vision screenings and glasses in conjunction with evangelism and Bible distribution.
• Extend the prison ministry begun by Sharon Heneveld and assist with the construction of a prison chapel in Ocosingo


Opportunities for you, our Partners in Missions:
• Contribute monthly to help cover our family’s mission-related expenses*
• Make a special contribution to help cover our family’s mission-related expenses*
• Make a special contribution to help fund Phase II of the medical clinic in Ocosingo**
• Pledge to pray for us regularly and to share the story of God’s work in Mexico with others***
• Facilitate communications between John and medical centers and other organizations that may be able to donate additional medical equipment or send medical volunteers for the clinic in Ocosingo***
• Join in one of the mission trips traveling to Chiapas in 2007. Information is available online at www.millsfamilymission.org/13.html. Deadline for registration for NC-originating trips is March 1. ***

For Our Family:
It was a year of real highs and lows. John began the mission year in January, 2006, leaving Ginny, Holly & Maggie to finish the school year in NC. He lived with Pablo & Jan Feliciano (fellow Presbyterian missionaries in Ocosingo) until Ginny & the girls arrived in June. We learned that, while we could survive being apart from each other, we really, really came to appreciate how much difference it made to be together as a family on a daily basis. Holly & Maggie experienced great joy, serious hard work, and a personal realization of why we are in Mexico. This was important since the transition from their teenaged world in NC had been pretty tough. We began the homeschool year after 2-weeks in Spanish immersion language school and began to settle in to life Ocosingo. John began a multi-state fund-raising tour in the US with Pablo & Jan to help "tell the story," invite mission groups, and raise interest and funds for the medical clinic. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we learned that Ginny's mom had taken a major turn for the worse in her battle against lung cancer. Ginny and the girls flew to NC to help care for Pat and enjoy several precious weeks with her before she passed into heaven on December 6, 2006. John was able to get to NC to have a few days with Pat before she died. Her life of faithful service and love was celebrated on December 10th and included a reading of Ginny's tribute to her found in this blog under the title: Love Led Her. After some important time with Ginny's dad, we returned as a family Ocosingo, rededicated to our sense of mission and eager to serve God and our Mexican brothers & sisters in any way possible.

Financial Report:
For the year, we were underbudget on overall spending ($47K vs. $50K) and received enough financial support to meet all our needs and mission-related expenses for 2006 (just over $62K, which includes some '06 contributions earmarked for '07). Our spending for the year was unusual due to being divided as a family much of the year and requiring additional international travel. We received substantial donations as memorials for Ginny's mom and hope to be able to apply much of those contributions to the medical clinic. Our $50K budget for 2007 is basically the same with line item revisions only. We hope that our financial supporters will be able to contribute as much or more in 2007 and 2/3rds of 2008 as they did in 2006 so that we will be able to focus on ministry and missions.

Roles of Partners in Missions:
---Contined prayer, encouragement and friendship
---Financial support for mission-related expenses
---Financial support for medical clinic ministry
---Faciliating communications and in-kind contributions with medical organizations, churches and others who share a passion for ministry, missions and helping others
---Participation in mission trips to Mexico

Contributions for our family’s support made by check should be written Payable To The Order of: First Presbyterian Church, with “Mills Family Mission” on the memo line and mailed to: 1st Presbyterian, 326 S. Main St., Mt. Airy, NC 27030. Contributions for Phase II of the Medical Clinic may be made by check and should be written to: Hebron USA, with “Medical Clinic” on the memo line and mailed to: Hebron USA, 6080 Old Brickstore Road, Greensboro, NC 27455. Other forms of support may be communicated via email to us at jgmills@att.net or partners@millsfamilymission.org.

As Partners in Missions, we’re all in this together. Each of us has a role to play in missions in Mexico, in our hometowns and throughout the world. Thank you for your prayers, support and encouragement in 2006. And thank you in advance for any way that you can support us in 2007.

Su hermanas y hermano en Cristo,
Ginny, Holly, Maggie & John Mills