Friday, September 30, 2011

Prayer Requests


Hello Friends and Family!

Today we want to write you to ask you to specifically pray for several things. Especially the trip that we are taking to Saltillo in Northern Mexico tonight and our return Sunday night. We are going by bus, but things aren't very secure. So please be praying that we have a safe trip.

Also we would like to ask you to pray for:

-Jennifer to have a wonderful class this weekend as she teaches "Communicating Christ Cross-Culturally." Pray for her Spanish to flow and for the class to go smoothly.

- Josh as he prepares to teach "The Synoptic Gospels" in a month. He still has lots of preparation to do.

-Our church group. That it would continue to discover who Christ is and the power of the Holy Spirit. For transformed lives.

-Our friend Lety. She is in a very difficult job situation right now and needs a new job or her current situation to improve.

We praise God for what he is doing in the lives of those around us and in our own lives. He is moving and we are excited!!!!

Thanks for praying for us and praising God with us!

You are appreciated!

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Reasons to Celebrate







This past week we had several reasons to celebrate. Thursday was Jennifer's birthday and Mexico's Independence Day, and Friday we officially started our church plant as we began talking about the indwelling life of Christ. After our meeting we celebrated Mexico's Independence with the traditional dish of "posole," a filling soup, and laughed and shared our lives with one another. In addition, we have several answers to prayer. One is that Rodrigo was able to be with us and share with the group on Friday. The other is that a couple who are neighbors of ours started attending the group and want to be a part of the church. This is a HUGE answer to prayer.

After an amazing week we went with some friends and Rodrigo to Mexico City to be a part of a house church plant there. It was a blessing to spend time with other believers who are taking the same route we are as being with them is such and encouragement. We plan to be traveling a little more this Fall and Rodrigo will be traveling a lot to be with us here in León. Please continue to pray for us as we travel and that we will have the finances available in order to do so.

Sometimes we can be rather focused on the things that aren't going smoothly in our lives and we forget to take time to celebrate what the Lord is doing in and around us. What are your reasons to celebrate?

Thursday, September 15, 2011

¡Viva México! (Long Live Mexico)





Greetings from sunny Central Mexico! Today is Jennifer's birthday and it also happens to be Mexico's Independence Day. So we are preparing to go downtown to eat some yummy Mexican food and watch fireworks with friends. We are thankful for this beautiful country even though it is struggling with its economy and organized crime. We still think it is a great country and we are grateful to call it home!

This past sunday we had a wonderful get together to celebrate Jennifer's birthday and the birthday of someone else in our group. It went well as everyone was able to attend and we spent the whole afternoon and evening together getting to know one another better. Tomorrow night we are starting our church meetings officially and are excited about what God is going to do among us. Please be in prayer for our meeting which starts at 8pm Central time followed by a dinner.

Jennifer asked you to pray for a neighbor with whom she was going to be starting a Bible study. We are thankful to report that they had their first meeting yesterday and it went very well. The neighbor responded positively to the study and then opened up to Jennifer and talked to her for hours about her life's story. Would you continue to pray for this neighbor and that the idolatry in her life would be revealed and God would reign in her heart! She knows NOTHING about the Bible and doesn't know any Bible stories even though she grew up catholic. Therefore, Jennifer is starting from scratch and doing a panoramic study of the Bible with her.


Thanks for your prayers and support as always! We could not minister without you.

Pictured: Birthday party
Iván and Pedro playing music during one of our home group meetings

Friday, September 9, 2011


The most interesting thing happened yesterday...I went to visit one of my neighbors, which I do fairly often, when my neighbor took me by surprise completely. She asked me when we could study the Bible together. I was a little shocked because if you knew my neighbor you wouldn't think that she would want anything to do with protestantism, but she knows us very well and stated that she realized we had studied the Bible a lot. My neighbor said that she has been around a lot of people lately who know something about the Bible and she doesn't know anything about it. Most catholics here, not all, don't know anything about the Bible except for what they might hear at mass, and many don't even go to mass. I am praising God for this hunger that he has put deep down in her heart to know more. I've been praying for my neighbors ever since I met them several years ago. Since then one has accepted Christ. Never in my wildest dreams did I think this other friend of mine would want to study the Bible with me and ask "when can we start?" Josh and I decided that our church plant would not be the best place for her, at least not yet, but I am going to meet with her once a week to study the Bible. Who knows what God will do during our times together. Please pray for our neighbor and that the Holy Spirit would work in her life use this Bible study to open her eyes to know Christ. I've spent so much time with my neighbors and sometimes I think they will never want to follow the Lord, but little by little we have seen open doors and things changing. Praise the Lord!

Thanks,
Jennifer Rebecca

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Cultural Experiences and Expanding Our Ministry






This past weekend we had the wonderful opportunity to go to one of our friend from our group's house and ranch (or town) about an hour and a half away. Our time with her family and seeing the local festival was truly remarkable as we had the chance to talk with our friend's grandmother who is eighty-eight years old and had all kinds of stories to tell. We learned more about small town Mexican culture and had the pleasure of getting to know our friend's family. This is the friend who stayed in our apartment while we were in the States. So she is a pretty close friend and has wanted us to meet her family for a long time. Our friend tells us that her grandmother doesn't like to talk with everyone, but we were fortunate enough to win her approval and she talked our ears off. =)

In the meantime we are working on getting our church-plant off the ground. In our next newsletter you will hear about this, but the missionary couple with whom were going to work with is not able to work with us and therefore we were left feeling rather alone this summer. Instead, we are going to partner with a Mexican national who shares our calling to plant home churches that reflect the indwelling life of Christ. We've mentioned our friend Rodrigo before and you will hear is name again in the future. We're thankful for this partnership as it came just at the right time for us. We will even be expanding our ministry by helping Rodrigo plant churches in Mexico City and in the nearby city of Querétaro. These are not big huge churches, at least not yet, but rather they are intimate groups of people seeking Christ together on a weekly basis and living life together throughout the week. Next week we will be starting to talk about Christ's life in us with our church here in León and we are praying that the right people will participate as we begin this journey. Please join us in praying for this group of people and for our new partner Rodrigo.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Answered Prayer



God answers prayer and we all know that but sometimes we neglect to give him thanks where thanks is due. We want to take a few moments and praise him for several things in our life.

First off we asked you to pray for our support and thanks to many generous people like yourselves we had a strong month of support in August. We give thanks for this wonderful gift and ask that you continue to pray for strong financial and prayer support!

Second, we had the privilege of having Bert Jones, the president of GO InterNational here with us for a few days. It was great to be able to show him León and a nearby city where we are thinking about expanding our ministry. Plus, it was encouraging to have someone from back home with us here and to be able to share life together for a brief amount of time. We are always blessed by visitors in our house. We were in need of some encouragement and God sent us just what we needed.

Third of all we are thankful for a breakfast we just had with a local pastor and his family. They too have felt lonely and would like some moral support as they church-plant. We are thankful for this family's sweet spirit and willingness to reach out to us and pray for us. We hope to support them in their ministry. We give thanks for this Mexican family!

Also, Jennifer will be starting to teach English and ballet next week to underprivileged children and adults. We are thankful for this opportunity and ask that you would be in prayer for her as she makes contacts and loves these people through teaching.

And thank you for praying!!!! God is good!!!