On Vacation but not free from Studies

The youth continue to meet weekly studying the stories leading up to Jesus' birth.  The group has been faithful and energetic about meeting together.  In fact, during their vacation, we got together for a games night including food and fun.  It was encouraging to have a big group show up.

PRAYER REQUEST: Moving out

We celebrated our last morning service in our “other” rented facility in “Bosques.”  With our new project of house churches, we’ll invite the families to join us in our new meeting place, a home that is nearby. We’re excited to see this project move ahead of schedule. Please pray for willing and understanding hearts.

PRAYER REQUEST: Moving ahead with “house” churches

We’ve begun speaking to three families about beginning house churches from their homes.  The three have agreed to the new project and we are creating teams that will resource each home with someone to lead a Bible study and someone to play music for the group.  It’s exciting to see the willingness of each family to participate.  Please pray for the organization to be in place before February, when we launch.

Our Sister Church

I was invited to preach in our sister church in Tizayuca.  It is always encouraging to see the congregation that meets in a park.  And we got some warm welcomes from the adults as well as the youth.

We handed out some homemade cards created by the youth to encourage the youth in this congregation.  They've been good friends for a couple of years.

All You Faithful

We’re thankful for the participation of the men in leading worship, the women in preparing some Christmas hymns, the kids in their extraordinary play and the youth for their contemporary song during our Christmas service.  There was some yummy food serviced after the service and some new families that attended.

Welcoming Keila Back

Back from College

I never thought that the youth would be so excited to see Keila, but she got a wonderful reception during youth group along with some yummy food.  Keila said that she hadn’t run that much in months playing the youth games.

Prayer Requests

1 More 4 Christ

1 We will start up “house” churches in February in key spots on the outskirts of our community with the families attending.  Please pray that this adventure excites and motivates the congregation to reach out into the community.

2 We hope to move our afternoon worship service to a morning service.  It will be a slow and deliberate process of getting people used to the idea and then coming at the right time.  It also entails convincing the local government administrator to give us the place twice on Sunday for a period of several months.  Please pray for grace, patience and favor in the eyes of the administrators.

3 It has been our hope to train our youth to eventually take over duties in the church or at least get experience in different areas of service.  Please pray that God gives us the strategy to do so.

Thanks for your faithfulness in 2015 and now in 2016.

Preparing Leaders for Leadership

 We’re ending the year strong with a great group of leaders and haven’t let up yet.  We continue to study together the elements of good leadership while enjoying working together.  Oh and of course some great brewed coffee and goodies to go along with it all.

Rescue

While we consider how to talk to people about Jesus during this season so that they’ll trust God in the New Year, Tracey set out to rescue an apparently abused and paralyzed dog found on our street.  After many days of medical care, bathing and personal attention, she began to react.  She began walking and was given to a friend of ours to take in on Friday.

New Tasks

Aside from our leadership team, we also have a full-time mission team that guides the planning and projects for the year.  There are 4 of us who serve on this and we have some big plans ahead.  

Maria who is in charge of evangelism will be working to train and form teams to reach our community for Christ, looking a changing what didn’t work last year.  

Hilario who is a recent addition will be working on materials and organizing our “house” church project.  

Tracey will be working with him to develop the logistics of putting leaders, musicians and families together to reach out to their local neighbors.  

I will be helping to open up leadership opportunities for our growing youth group so that we begin transitioning a new generation of leaders into practical service.

We would appreciate your prayers on these new endeavors.

More Leaders for 2016

Two of our men were asked to pray about helping to lead our most precious work, the youth.  One of the dads is presently serving as my assistant and I hope he’ll accept the role of co-leader in 2016.  We realize that taking leadership is the best way to learn, so I’ll be his resource as he leads.

We've also asked one of the older youth to pray about helping to lead the group this next year.

Prayer Meeting reorganization

As prayer is the engine that drives our labors, we’ve recently talked about the need to have a vibrant, creative and inspiring service to touch the needs of our community and the world through prayer.  Our first attempt was last week and turned out to be a shot-in-the-arm for those attending.  Time went by quickly and we were able to pray heart-felt needs.

Prayer Requests for 2016

Over the next couple of weeks, I’d like to share with you some of our plans and the prayer requests that go along with them.  We’re all trying to pull together this next year to help the church to grow and to mature.  We’ve got an incredible group to work with and trust that God will stretch us according to each’s ability.  Stay tuned!

A Leader's Meeting with Surprises

On Saturday all of the congregation’s leaders met to sing, read the Christmas story and eat some snacks together.  It was a time to remember the accomplishments and look ahead towards the future. 

When asked of the leaders, “Do you intend to continue in 2016?” Some said, “I’m not sure if I was able to meet the challenge, but I’m willing to continue.” 

We had one leader who decided to leave his responsibility due to family problems. 

Each leader took home lots of homemade treats and a special gift for his/her faithful service.

Men for the Task

This weekend while we had many commitments, the men in our congregation made sure that all was taken care of in our absence.  We are excited about all the tasks that we no longer have to do.  God is so good!

Another Anniversary

The Bread of Life church which we helped to establish celebrated 12 years of service in the community of La Presa.  We joined them for the service and the celebration.  It was fun to see people we haven’t seen for a few years and to see them serving and enjoying the fiesta.

Christmas Cheer

As leaders of the 1 More 4 Christ congregation, our family was invited to a special end of the year dinner at the home of the founding church’s pastor's home.  Along with the leaders of that congregation, we had a time of sharing God’s goodness, singing his blessings, and eating together.  It was both encouraging and enjoyable.

Another Test?

Our assistant youth director was put in charge of the youth group this weekend as the family and I attended a special Christmas meeting with the leaders of the founding church.  I heard that things went well.  And Diego told me that he’d like to prepare himself more for these kinds of studies.

The Test

Kiana took her SAT college exams on the tail end of just taking her PSAT.  We still don’t know what she got on the earlier test, but we’re glad that she felt good about the exam this weekend.  We trust that they will benefit her in the decisions she’ll have to make as to which university to attend.

She also applied for her driver’s permit and has got that too!

Studying to Teach

Julieta studied 1 Peter with us every Monday, and on Sunday shared what she had learned from 1 Peter 4.  She did a wonderful job sharing the text and giving us reasons why suffering is so important in our lives.  Great job, Julieta!

Growing Up

The youth got together to study a chapter of “Purpose Driven Life.”  It spoke about God’s eternal plan for us.  We had the opportunity to present Jesus’ plan of salvation to each young person.  We anticipated lots of questions.

We also got to play some games outside on the basketball court.

Thanks

Our local missionaries got together to celebrate Thanksgiving together.  There were activities, songs and best of all great food.  We are truly thankful to be serving God in Mexico.

Papers and more papers

We recently submitted our official paperwork to be recognized by the Baptist Convention as a new congregation at the annual convention's meetings.  We were accepted and welcomed into the local group of churches.  Thanks for your prayers.

Close Call

One of the pastors who was present at our doctrinal exam, Pastor Levi, was hospitalized this week with a ruptured appendix.  The doctors weren’t aware that it was his appendix due to some medicine that he had taken beforehand.  Fortunately they were able to remove it before it did any damage.  He is recuperating at this time.  God is faithful.

Youth Antics

After a busy youth concert, this week we made things light.  Besides our Bible study, we played several games.  One of them was to transport a ball on toilet-paper-roll “rails” from one end of the patio to the other.  Two teams were racing to make track while at the same time not letting the ball fall.

Out of Town Staff meeting

Before hitting the woods, we hit the open air market and had some great local meat in tacos.  The staff was starved and we filled ourselves up for breakfast before embarking on the unknown.

Nov 20 Mexican Revolution Day

So what do people do for Revolution Day in Mexico?  They take off into the wild on the Monday before and have a picnic or a long weekend camp out.  That’s what we saw when our staff went out of town to do something light for the day.

1 Peter Bible Study – the end

Our Monday night Bible study will some come to an end.  We’ve been studying 1 Peter, and some of the members of the group have preached it during church services.  This next week, Julie will share about a section of the letter.  Please pray for her.