Feb 28, 2011

The Jenzen Group

Satan works against all that God desires for His children. Lately he has almost completely halted the normal flow of christians being blessed by coming to Baja California to minister by convincing them that it is too dangerous.

There is a remnant, however, that continues to come and one such example is the Janzen family. They are an especially good example of obedience despite fears because Mrs. Janzen is a widow with four young daughters. Mr. Janzen was killed in a car accident just miles from his home last year. He had been planning and organizing their first short term missions trip to Mexico. Three other families had signed up to join the Janzens. Everyone expected the trip to be cancelled but Mrs. Janzen and her girls decided to go ahead with it in honor of Mr. Janzen.



This year God was directing them to come back but they could not find anyone to come with them. Everyone was too busy or too afraid. Some even told her she was being irresponsible by taking her girls to that dangerous place. God's direction was clear, though, so she stayed the coarse. She continued to pray that God would provide someone to come with them. At the last minute a young woman who had grown up in Paraguay and spoke Spanish joined them. She was an encouraging answer to prayer and turned out to be an invaluable part of their team.


For two weeks they went daily to serve at the Torre Fuerte children's feeding program. They remembered most of the kid's names from the year before. They put on a vacation bible school most every day. The children from the area were truly impacted and blessed by their love and service.


During the first week they also managed to replace a roof on a poor family's home/shack. The structure was so poor that we had to do some reenforcement before it would hold a normal roof. When it was finished this small family had a dry house for the first time. No more sleeping on soaking wet mattresses!






During the second week we were able to bless a man with arthritis so severe that he cannot get around in his wheel chair. He also lived in a shack but his had an unlevel dirt floor, no door, and his roof wasn't only not water proof; it let some sunshine in too! They decided to expand his shack to twice it's original size, put a front door on it, and build a new roof over the whole thing. It was the most touching and meaningful construction project we have done in a long time.


When people gave her a hard time about “endangering” her children she would remind them that her husband had died just miles from home. As it turned out no one died but everyone had a very blessed time and God used them to impact many lives. It is beautiful when we obey even when it is frightening. After all, what do children of God have to be afraid of?