| Ministry News The Christmas season was very busy. That ended abruptly, and everything came to a halt because of sickness (you’ll read about that further down under family news)!Our Christmas program was a success. We didn’t have quite the crowd that we normally have as we had to change the event from Sunday to Saturday because of the wedding. Josh, Caleb, and Abby all participated in a nativity play. We also had many unsaved visitors attend who heard the gospel. In December we celebrated our first church wedding. Luis and Karen were married. Bryan shared the challenge at the wedding and Rolland performed the service. In Mexico, you get married in a civil ceremony. They have a church wedding afterwards which is just symbolic. We held women’s Christmas parties on three different nights in three different homes. They played games, did a Christmas craft, read the Christmas story, and the gospel was shared. It was an opportunity for the women of the church to invite their unsaved family and friends. One lady had 17 at her house! A number of unsaved ladies heard the gospel. Thank you for your prayers for Gerardo. His wife went through with the divorce in December, however God is still at work! This past Sunday, Gerardo was at church with his ex-wife and kids! This was the first time that she has come to our church. She says that she made a mistake, and wants to get back together with Gerardo. Bryan will be starting marriage counseling with them next week. Salvador and Lino continue in their leadership development. We meet with them weekly to analyze the message from the previous Sunday, study a theme which will help them in ministry, and plan events for the year. On February 20th, they will run everything, as we will be at a conference in another city, and the Smith’s will be away preaching at another church. We are starting to plan our trip back to the U.S. by contacting churches. We plan on visiting all of our supporting churches as well as many new churches. We will need to raise additional support when we return to the U.S. We are currently about $1,000/month under supported. One of the reasons for this is because our health insurance has risen by over $500/month this year. Mexico News With the increase in violence along the Mexican border, we are now planning on flying back to the U.S. instead of driving. We are also considering whether it will be more cost effective to ship our car back to the U.S., or buy a car when we get back to the U.S. and sell it before we return to Mexico. This will cause a great deal more in expenses, but it is the safer route to take, as it is not recommended that anyone travel across the border at this time. The murder of the missionary lady was the final straw in making this decision. Please pray for wisdom in these decisions. Here in Texcoco, we’ve heard a few more stories about drugs and drug related murders. We feel safe, although we are always careful whenever we leave our home. Family News We have had lots of sicknesses come through since the week of Christmas. It started Christmas week, and continued on into January with all of us being sick. We would just pass it around until we all got it. We are passed the sickness for the most part now. Susan is still recovering from Hepatitis A. She was on bed rest for 3 weeks. Now, she can do a lot more, although she still is not back to 100% yet. Thank you so much for your support of the ministry in Mexico! You are an important part of our team! |
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The Christmas Program Praises
Prayer Requests
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