Clausons in Monterrey

Happy Fourth of July weekend to all of you!  Here in Mexico, this weekend is
important for a different reason; this is election time of the year.  While
this is not a presidential election year, yesterday the people voted
(haven't even seen results yet) for a new governor for the state of Nuevo
Leon and new mayors for Monterrey and the other cities.  So in June we saw a
crescendo of advertising, flag-waving and robo-calls promoting and smearing
the various candidates.

Also in June, Monterrey, and all of Mexico, experienced a frenzied attempt
to return to normalcy after having been "held hostage" for several weeks in
May by the swine flu. Everyone (schools, businesses, government, families)
had to try to cram two months of activities into just a few weeks before the
real summer season hit.  The ministries of the Family Development Foundation
(FDF) were no exception as we had a very busy month.  The following are a
few of the major events:

The first weekend in June saw the FDF's first ever youth camping trip.  The youth from the Dos Cerros community joined together with the youth from the Covenant Church plant on the other side of the city to experience a bit of nature, have fun and fellowship.  Despite high temperatures of at times more than 105F, everyone had a great time.  For some of the youth, this was their first time to sleep away from home and for many the first time to sleep in a tent.  We're really THANKFUL for Pastor Reid and the youth from Pine Lake Covenant Church in WA that were able to be with us and lead us in devotions and songs with the kids, and especially for the way all three groups connected with each other and God during the event.  THANKS also to our friends from Hillcrest and Elim Covenant Churches in IL that provided partial scholarships to make it easier for some of the kids to attend the camp!

We had a short but incredibly productive visit from about 27 people from Hillcrest and Elim Covenant Churches.  While they were only at the FDF for 1.5 days, they managed to make some huge advancements in the remodeling of our installations.  After knocking down some walls and building another, the building has a significantly different feel that we hope will allow it to be even more community friendly.  THANK YOU HILLCREST AND ELIM!

- We took two days in retreat as FDF staff to review and evaluate this
   past year and plan for the coming year.  We praise God for this chance to
   reflect on the many things he is doing in the various ministries of the FDF!

After the retreat, we celebrated with our annual volunteer event where we had a dinner to thank and encourage the many volunteers who gave so much in the past year.  It has been exciting to see how the list of invites has grown over the past couple of years as more and more people are getting involved in the different programs of the FDF.

We are actually writing this from the city of San Luis Potosi as we travel
to our summer staff retreat with all the other Covenant Missionaries in
Mexico.  When we get a chance, we will get some photo albums of all these
activities posted on our website ...and maybe a pic or two of the boys!  We
send our love, greetings and thanks to you, our partners in ministry, whom
we hope to see soon while on home assignment.  Please let us know if your
church is interested in us visiting sometime this fall, winter or next
spring.  Blessings, Nils, Erika, Matias and Lucas