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Church Planting in Mexico
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April, 2005 Dear Faithful Supporters, It has been so busy that Spring is just flying by here. We are enjoying the weather (it has been in the high 80’s/ low 90’s much of the last couple of weeks and just beautiful!) We hope you all are enjoying some warmer weather too, and can get out and enjoy God’s beautiful creation. Springtime in Mexico is full of superstition. On the first day of spring every year, thousands of people flock to the Aztec pyramids that are nearby. They believe that if you climb to the top of the Sun Pyramid on that day, you will absorb all of the positive energies of the sun, and receive blessings throughout the year. It’s incredible to see all the people searching for answers, but looking in the wrong place. In ministry news, the evangelism class has finished, and we had six people finish the course. We have already seen some fruit from the course. Eulices is a 16 year old boy who finished the class. Out of all the students, he was the most faithful. He got the highest grade in the class, but more importantly, he has been applying what he learned. He has been sharing the gospel with some of his friends at school, and is very excited about serving the Lord. He and his family also invited about 80 people to come to The Passion of the Christ evangelistic activity (which we will talk about in a bit.) Miguel and Adriana, another couple that took the class, have also gotten involved with evangelism. They have been passing out tracts and are even planning a marriage dinner (pre-evangelistic) for some of their neighbors. And best of all, a teen in the class named Omar realized that he couldn’t share the gospel because he really didn’t understand it himself. He received Christ as his own Savior! One of the tracts handed out by Miguel was received by a man named Victor, who called us a few days later. We met the following day, and he put his faith in Christ! Since then, we have been doing a Bible study. He is very excited about his new faith in Christ. He asked for more tracts to give to his friends, and asked if his friends could come to our study. He hasn't been able to come to church yet, but we are looking forward to getting his new energy into the church. On Good Friday, we watched the movie, The Passion of the Christ, which we mentioned above. We had 92 people come! (We normally have around 25-30 on Sunday.) We had one person from each family fill out a response card. Out of the 29 response cards, 17 marked that they were interested in a Bible study, and another 8 put that they wanted more information about the church! So far we have one Bible study from this, but the rest have not developed into studies like we had originally hoped. Thanks for praying for Isabel, the wife of the 94 year old man, Homer. Shortly after the previous prayer update, Isabel accepted Christ. Bryan continues his Bible study with Homer and Isabel. Marriage counseling continues to be a great need here. There are several families who are still struggling with serious marriage problems, so we are focusing on that right now. For Valentine's Day, we had a marriage dinner at our house. We talked about how to better show love to your spouse. We had 20 people come – every couple from the church. It was great to see everyone come for that special day. This past Saturday and Sunday, another missionary family came to do a marriage conference. They talked about communication, love, and respect. They did a great job. It was not as well attended as we had hoped, with only three couples attending on Saturday night, but we did have a new couple come who has visited the church a couple of times, and Sunday was well attended. We are glad to have been able to get to know this new family a little bit better, and pray that God will use what was taught. We are beginning to gain the confidence of some of the couples in the church. We are meeting for counseling with one couple every Tuesday night and will begin meeting with another couple this weekend. We also have a bimonthly marriage class. Unfortunately, it seems that the ones who need it most still attend sporadically. Please continue to pray for Arturo, the man whose wife left. He still doesn't know where his wife or younger son are, and now his other son has become bitter, and very disobedient. We are still looking for a new place to rent for the church. As I mentioned last time, they want to double what we are paying now for rent, which just is not possible for us to do. We have until the end of May to find a new place. Bryan traveled back to Laredo, Texas in the beginning of March to meet Earl Thompson and Tom Koehler from Grace Baptist Church in Monroeville, PA. They brought our household belongings and furniture down from Mehoopany. Earl has a ministry of bringing things across the border into Mexico for missionaries. We really appreciate that Earl and Tom sacrificed of their time and money to bring our things down to us. They were a real blessing to us! In family news, our boys are doing well. They are growing fast. Josh likes school and is learning to read a little bit, but his favorite subject is math. Caleb sits at the table with us and is learning the alphabet too. He can say most of the letters and sounds, but still thinks they all say “apple or ant” (“C says c, c, c like apple or ant”)! He’s so excited to do anything he thinks is “big boy stuff”. Also, Susan had a mole taken off this past week. The doctor said that it could be cancerous, so they sent it in for testing. We will let you know the results. We thank you for all of your prayers. We really appreciate them. We also appreciate all of you who help us stay in Mexico with your financial support. Our support level is improving. We are now at 95% and only lack $254/month! Praises:
Prayer Requests:
In Christ's Service The Nevin Family |