Announcing the Arrival of Nehemiah Emmanuel Lockwood

We rejoice in the Lord as we announce to you all the arrival of another precious little one who joined our family. Nehemiah Emmanuel Lockwood was born on December 18, 2006 at 9:25 am. He weighed 7 lbs 14 oz and was 20 inches long. He has a head of dark hair (like mommy) and dimples (like daddy). Nehemiah means "God has comforted" and Emmanuel means "God with us".

We are so thankful too that the Lord touched his little body and healed him. Nehemiah was born with some respitory difficulties and was kept in an incubator and on an iv for 2 days. When we brought him home, he was very sleepy and wouldn't even wake up to eat. He hardly cried. At first, we didn't think too much of it, but he continued just sleeping and he wouldn't nurse or take a bottle. The only food he ate was the little we could inject into his mouth via a syringe. He continued like this for about 10 days.

We called our church prayer line as well as family and friends and asked them to pray. The following day, we took him back to the hospital and they ran tests and all came back fine. That afternoon, he became very alert and began eating. Within a day, he was acting like a healthy newborn baby...eating every couple of hours, crying, dirtying diapers, and having awake times during the day. We know it was God's hand upon him through the prayers of His saints that made little Nehemiah whole again.

All of his brothers and sisters love him to pieces and he always has someone wanting to hold him. The joy a new little one brings to the family is like none other. Thank you all for your prayers for me during the pregnancy and delivery. We had orignally planned on traveling back to the USA to deliver the baby. We had everything set up to that end, but the Lord had other plans. Through much prayer and the counsel of our pastors and parents, we felt led of the Lord to stay here in Mexico and deliver in the local hospital here again. I roomed with another lady who had a baby that same day and was able to share the gospel with her. She lives just a few streets down from us, and we look forward to visiting their family and talking more with them about their need for a Savior. Please pray for them. Her name is Patricia.

The day before Nehemiah was born, we had a special Christmas service for our church family. We began by singing all the Christmas hymns that we had learned this year. Then the children's choir sang a couple of songs they had learned. Daniel shared from his heart a Christmas mesage, and then we all had special candlelight christmas dinner. After the dinner and time of fellowship, we had a gift exchange...it gave everyone such joy to share a gift with someone else in the church and in turn receive something special as well. Our church, though small, is growing together in the Lord and growing closer to each other too.

The construction on our house has stopped for the past couple of weeks while the cement roof has been drying. It is scheduled to resume again on January 8th. We thank all of you who have prayed for and/or provided for this home. We are so excited to see it coming together and can hardly wait to be able to move in. Since Nehemiah's arrival and the addition of a bassinet into the trailer, Timothy, Elijah, and Benjamin gave up their beds and moved into a tent in the back yard....a tent which they affenctionately call "their bedroom". The family appreciates their sacrifice as it gives us the much needed room to sleep somewhat comfortably... although I think their "sacrifice" is more like a big "adventure" to them and I haven't heard them complain yet.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!


Continue to pray for the workers as they are preparing to pour the roof this Thursday. Once the roof if poured, construction will stop for the next 4 weeks as it takes that long for the roof to dry (solid cement roof). This will give us some extra time as we enter into this Christmas Season with the special activities and outreaches that we have planned. Plus, not to mention the fact that Little Lockwood #10 should be making his appearance during that time as well.
We had a busy and blessed weekend. We spent Friday afternoon putting some decorations up at the church building enjoying some popcorn and hot cocoa afterwards. Saturday, we went to visit one of our dear widows, Hna. Carmelita. She has been ill and not able to come to church for many weeks now. Though she is blind and can't get out of her bed, her lips are full of praise and thansgiving to our Lord. Our family went with some of the children from our church to visit her, sing some Christmas Songs with her, and bring her some food. Her daughter (who takes care of her and also attends our church here) tells us that she prays everyday that she will be strong enough to join us for our special Christmas service on the 17th.
Yesterday we had services as usual and the people enjoyed not only the fellowship and time in God's Word, but also had fun planning our church Christmas service. We will be doing it a bit different this year than last year. Last year, we used the time as an outreach...we had special food, gifts, and invited the town. This year, we are keeping it as a special service for just our church family and of course, for their families as well. We are praying that some of the husbands and other family members who normally don't attend will come with their families that day. So far, the response has been favorable. The children's choir is learning 2 new Christmas hymns, some Scripture verses, and the girls are helping me make some scarves to wear when they sing. I counted yesterday that our church family knows 10 Christmas hymns now. I remember last year when we started teaching them their very first Christmas song.
Thank you for your prayers. Continue to pray for the workers safety as they are working up high on the roof now, for the people in our church as they are growing in the Lord, for the many people here who need a Saviour, especially those of our church families' families, and for safety as our new baby is due this month.
Pictures:
Top- The decorated church building :)
Next- Susannah wishing everyone a merry Christmas
3rd- Oh...I wanted to post a picture of this little toad that almost became part of our living room wall...Daniel rescued him from the cement mixture right before they poured him out.
4th-Hna. Carmelita
5th-Visiting widows this past Saturday

Another view of the house

Here is a shot of the back side of the house. You can see our travel trailer off to the right hand side.

More pictures

Rebekah wearing a new skirt she helped me sew







Front of the house and Noah at the work site







Rebekah, Elijah and Benjamin collecting seeds from the desert weeds

Many of you have asked about some updated pictures of the house. I've been having some problems uploading the pictures. I will post one picture here and then try to post another one later tonight. We praise the Lord for the continued good progress, safety of the workers, and the opportunities Daniel has had to share the gospel with the men.

It looks like we will be able to move into the house late January to early February. Little Lockwood #10 is due to arrive in about 4 weeks, so we will get to be extra cozy as we add him to the travel trailer for a few more weeks.

We are so joyful to see the continued spiritual growth in the faithful brothers and sisters in our church here in Insurgentes. The Lord continues to teach and work with each and every one and you can see our hearts being knit closer together as we grow together in Him. I don't think a day goes by without us being able to share the gospel with someone...usually with many. Pray the Lord really works in the hearts of the people here and they see their need of a Saviour.

We are planning a special church service on Christmas Eve just for our church family. The children's choir is learning some new Christmas hymns to sing and verses to recite. Hna. Maria stepped out of the van last Sunday night as she arrived at church with a big smile on her face. She walked up to me and said, "I brought a special visitor". I looked up and saw her husband getting out of the van. She had been praying that he would come for months.

Thank you for your prayers for our family and the people here. As we enter into this Christmas season, we praise the Lord for it is only through Jesus and His righteousness that we are able to have a relationship with our loving Lord. He is so good!

Little upate

The construction continues as the workers are reiforcing the walls to support the roof. The next couple of weeks they will be getting the roof ready to be poured. The electrician put all the outlets and switches in this week...I'll take some more pictures later this week of the house and post them. I do have some pictures of our current sleeping situations :)...we are all excited about having a bit more space once the house is finished! :)
Yesterday was the celebration of the Mexican Revolution. Every child who is in school is in the town parade. We got up early to watch the procession...the children of our church were so excited for us to watch them.
Rebekah began sewing class with me last week. Though I did most of the sewing, we finished a simple elastic waist skirt for her yesterday. Though I did most of the sewing, she enoyed cutting out the pattern pieces and material, helping me pin pieces together, and loved putting the elastic through the casing.
Though the 90-100 degree weather doesn't make it feel to much like "Thanksgiving", we have so much for which we are thankful and praise the Lord daily for His many blessings. Thank you for your prayers. The Lord is so good!

Joining the Family

Timothy turned 10 years old in October. We knew he really wanted a puppy for his birthday. So we kept our eyes open and prayed the Lord would help us find one.
This past weekend, we went into the city to do some errands. At one stop, we parked next to a veternarian clinic. I walked over to it and saw she had these two cute puppies outside in a cage. When we asked her if they were for sale, she said that they were free....just needed their shots.
Daniel chose the white and brown one for Timothy, but once we took her out of the cage, the other puppy looked sooo lonely....so Elijah is now the proud owner of a puppy too. :)
The boys have been working hard each day to earn money to buy dog food. At the little store here on our street, you can buy some meat scraps for animals for a good price. Timothy walked to the store last night to buy some. He came home a few minutes later and said, "I bought half a kilo of meat for our puppies for only 5 pesos (about 50 cents). I saw some other meat there too and when I asked how much it cost, the man said it was 70 pesos a kilo (about $7). That meat was for people....it is sure a lot cheaper to feed a puppy than a person!"

Quick update on the Construction

In a couple of minutes, we will be leaving to practice with the children's choir and visit our widows, but I wanted to post a few more pictures and give a quick update on the house.
We continue to praise the Lord for the good daily progress being made as well as for the safety of the workers. Continue to pray for the Lord to soften their hearts to the gospel.
They are all out working this morning and should have the walls finished by next week.

Josiah loves to pitch in and "help" with his dump truck. In the empty lot next to our property, you will find many holes, strings, wires, and pipes sticking out of the ground next to piles of dirt and sand as each of our children have begun their "own construction project"...they tell me they are building simple things like church buildings, museums, and a zoo. :) Each morning, the children sit out on chairs under the awning of the trailer for a few minutes to watch the construction before we leave to home school at the church building.

Walls going up!

Construction continues rapidly! The floor was poured on Friday and the walls began going up yesterday. The workers do all the work by hand. All the trenches...dug by hand; all the cement...carried to the right spot in wheelbarrows or buckets. They do have a small cement mixer and they get that thing going and work so well together as a team.
The walls should be completed by then end of this week or sometime next week. Then it will be on to the roof! Please continue to pray the Lord will give wisdom and safety to the workers. We are praying also that the Lord would work in their hearts during this time they are spending with Daniel and that as he shares the gospel with them, they would see their need for a Savior.
Susannah wakes up as soon as she hears the first scrape of the workers shovels. She loves to stand on the bed where she and her sisters sleep and watch the work being done from the window. :)

Daily Life

We praise the Lord for the thus far good progress on the house. The workers are doing such a good job. They arrive at 7 am on the dot and get right to work. Daniel has spent the past few days putting in the plumbing while they poured the perimeter foundation and are preparing to pour the floor by Friday.

Once the workers arrive, the children and I head off to the church building to home school, wash clothing, prepare meals, and do whatever other work needs to be done. The girls were excited to start up some more "baking classes" and enjoyed making some cupcakes and cookies for the men working on our home.

Last week, Hna. Victoria along with Hna. Josefina, taught her first Sunday School class. We have so many children that come without their parents. After we are all together to sing hymns and have a time of prayer, the children can either go to the back room with Hna. Victoria for class or to the nursery with me. It is a joy to see these ladies growing in the Lord and wanting to serve Him in teaching the children.

We have a unique opportunity this week. The town fair started this evening. We have been given permission to have a little booth there where we will be passing out free lemonade along with gospel tracts, booklets of John/Romans, along with an invitation to come to church. We all went and set it up tonight. Then I came home with the little ones while Daniel and a couple of people from the church will stay at the booth until around 10 pm. The fair lasts until Sunday, and the children and I hope to go help out too for an hour or so each evening. Please pray that we would be able to share the gospel with many and the Lord would work in the hearts of those with whom we come in contact.

More Pictures

Another picture of the beginning of the construction. The semi was dropping off 20 cubic meters of sand, the masons are working in the background, and there is our travel trailer off to the left. It took them about 4-5 hours to unload the semi... 3 men with shovels and one wheel barrel.

Breaking Ground

Well, I decided that I will have to skip a month or two of so that I can once again make this blog relevant. I was planning on giving all the details of the remainder of our furlough but It will probably take me well into next year to finish it at my current rate of progress, so I will jump to what is happening now so that you will find information here that you haven't already read about in the prayer letter.
I mentioned that we just broke ground yesterday but ironically huricane "Paul" brought a lot of rain... The workers came, worked for about an half an hour; than as it bagan to rain hard they sat in the pick-ups and under shelters to wait it out, but it never stopped. So they packed up and went home. So they will be picking it up tomorrow where they left off.
The house is supposed to be about 1650 square feet. It will be made of cement, rebar, and cinder block. It will basically be a cement box. That's how all the houses are here, all cement... floor, walls, and ceiling. Originally, I drew up the house (yes, I made my own house plans :-)) fairly spacious then I got the estimate from the local masons, and I cut it down a bit.
We have about 8 men working on it, 2 are maestros (masters, or the ones that really know what they are doing) and the other 6 are their helpers. I will keep you posted as to the progress. The sky looks clear tonight so we should be back to work tomorrow. If you will, pray that they will finish the house before January. Jaynee would like to bring the baby home to a house. She feels we have outgrown the travel trailer. :-)
Well, please check back periodically and we will keep you posted, we will try to update once a week.
This is Daniel signing off.

On to New York

From Lancaster, Pennsylvania, we went on to Cincinnatus NY. We enjoyed a great time with the people at First Baptist and were able to spend a week with them fellowshipping and eating at a different house each day. They also had a guest house that they let us stay in for the week which was very relaxing. Here is where Jaynee was able to start the homeschooling for this year.

From there we went to First Baptist in North Tonawanda, NY. I shared about the ministry and we got to go to Niagara Falls... that was fun. I put up two pictures. We mostly enjoyed visiting with Charlie and Sue, and with Mary Martinez and her children. We were blessed to get to know them several years ago.

From there we headed back west....

Into Amish Country

From Kansas we went to Lancaster Pennsylvania, which is very well known for its Amish population. During our 5 days in the area we had to pass the horse drawn buggies many times. We all got a kick out of it and enjoyed seeing them. We also enjoyed the lush greenery everywhere.

We were able to meet and spend some time with Bro. Denny and Charity Christian Fellowship, and express our gratefulness for the "Godly Home Series" (a preaching tape series). They were very hospitable to us and very gracious. They kindly put us in a furnished apartment for several days to allow us to get some rest after weary days of travelling.

Even though we were not used to some of the Mennonite traditions (although they are not Mennonite) such as head coverings and the "holy kiss", we did appreciate the warm fellowship, beautiful singing, and good preaching. We left refreshed and ready for our next church in New York... Upstate New York that is.

Going Back East

I apologize for taking so long to update it. I forgot my password on the road so I had to wait till we got back to our home town to get it again. We have so far have had an incredible journey as we've travelled across the United States visiting several supporting churches and meeting some very good friends.

For the next several entries I will give you an idea of what are trip has been like and some of the people we have been able to meet along the way that have been such a blessing.

After spending a couple of weeks in our home town, we headed back down to San Diego, actually to Escondido, where I preached at a hispanic church (Iglesia Bautista Independiente Fundamental Getsemanie), and there were about 28 professions of faith. I preached in Spanish to about 300-400 people (they were having a special service). We all enjoyed a good time of fellowship.

From there we travelled to Kansas where we were priveleged to spend an entire day with a family that we have come to really appreciate... the Maxwells. We learned about them through a book that was given to us from a home schooling family at our church..."Preparing Sons to be Fathers of Single Income Homes." (I highly recommend it) It can be found through their website at titus2.com. They took time from their very busy schedule to visit and encourage us. We had an outstanding time and thouroughly enjoyed the fellowship. We were able to see them serve together and bless our family. We praise the Lord for their godly example to others.

From the Maxwells we continued on to Pennsylvania...

I will continue with more at my next entry.

Traveling

Well this week finds us traveling up to our home church for the first time in over a year and a half to spend some time with our relatives and church family. We took an extra 2 weeks before our short furlough to get some rest and fellowship with our family and our church before starting the trek across country. We have been enjoying the wide clean roads, lack of dust, and green grass that we see here. There are many "little" things that you become so thankful for when you have been away. As we have been traveling we have taken the opportunity to take time at rest stops to play catch and kickball with the children. It makes the traveling much more fun and allows all of us to burn off some energy. My in-laws have graciously allowed us to stay in their guest house for about nine days before we head back south to the San Diego area to begin report and preach in our supporting churches.

For those that are reading this you will be interested to know that I called Brother Humberto (the pastor that is holding services in our church in our absence) since our arrival and all is going well. The Brothers at the church are praying for us and our safety, and are continuing to be faithful. Please keep them in prayer these next 2 months.

Upon arrival in the States my first order of business was to get "legal"... carseats, smog, registration, and insurance. After that I was able to cruise up the highway with a clear conscience, and no worries that the police might want to stop me for lack of a sticker.

Please pray for us... most importantly that the Lord will be glorified in the preaching, and that the Holy Spirit will work mightily

The above picture is of a very excited Abigail on the evening of her birthday as she recieved a baby doll... (she loves dollies) and other presents from the other children under the awning of our travel trailer in Mexico. (The picture is about a month old)

Have a great day and we look forward to seeing many of you on our furlough.

In Christ,

Brother Daniel

Brothers & Sisters in Christ - Welcome!

Brothers & Sisters in Christ,

Welcome to our brand new website, We thank you for coming and spending a few moments to look around. We encourage you to visit this website and especially this blog on a regular basis as we will begin putting up regular updates about the ministry. We are excited to have this little connection to the "outside world" and ability to keep you informed about all the happennings here in Baja California, Mexico.

The Lord has been very gracious to us in His provision, and direction in our lives. We are here with the sole purpose of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost souls of Mexico in the Baja Peninsula.