Work Team

What a joy to make friends with folks that come down to Mexico on short term teams... and it is an even bigger joy when they return for a second or third time to continue ministering in Mexico. In this photo, our friend Steve from Oaklahoma is working construction, for the second time in a year, on the drop in center for the street kids. It has been a joy to get to know Steve and we look forward to his return (with his wife) again in January. Short term teams are a wonderful blessing to the work in Mexico.

MOPS Get together

As we prepare to leave Mexico for two months we decided to invite the MOPS leadership team and their husbands and children over for dinner. It was a wonderful time of fellowship and it was exciting to see how each of the women are growing in their leadership roles. Please pray as the team tries to work together effectively. Pray specifically that each girl will follow through with her commitments.

Still Chasing

It's been about 7 months since Christian had contact with his friend, Sergio. Since he lost his job as a local gardener there has been no communication. Last week Sergio called Christian to ask if the invitation to go to church was still good. So, Sergio, his wife, his little boy and Christian all met at church today. Sergio says he will continue to attend the church. God never stops chasing people!

Carlos and Vanessa

Every week we meet with some dear friends, Carlos and Vanessa (and their son Moses). We praise God for their lives and for the things we are learning together. Recently our Bible Study focused on the Holy Spirit. The next week Carlos shared how he sensed the Holy Spirit's leading at work. He is a new Christian, but it obvious to see that he has been baptized in the Holy Spirit.

A new year of MOPS

Our MOPS (Mothers of Pre-schoolers) group held its first meeting for this year (we follow the school year calendar) on Tuesday the 9th and it was wonderful! The MOPS leadership team this year is incredible and they are working hard to incorporate new ideas and to reach out to the women in the community.
At our kick-off meeting we were honored to have Valetta Crumley, a dear friend of ours from Greenwood and a missionary for over 50 years, come and share with the women. Valetta's life is an incredible testimony to the ability to rejoice in the midst of horrible, hard situations. Indeed we can have joy and hope regardless of what we face when we have Jesus. Her story of living through losing her small son at age 4, her husband to cancer, years later losing her two teenage children to a car accident and being raped while on the mission field all work together to help us realize that life is only worth living in Jesus. Valetta's powerful testimony impacted the women greatly and started our year of MOPS focusing our eyes on Jesus. We praise God for this wonderful meeting.

Celebrating the First Year of House Churches

The other day, Christian had the opportunity to be a part of the First Year Celebration for one our house churches. The "House of Vicki" is the name of the church. A little over a year ago one of the ECC teams found Vicki, a person of peace, in the northwest area of Mexico City. A person of peace is someone who is open to the power of the gospel message, a new Christian, and someone who is willing to host a church in their house.

Now, a year later, Vicki and the congregation is celebrating their first year. Although not all the family is on-board, the church continues to thrive. We had 30 in attendance for the service and 5 accepted Christ! God has used 1 person of peace to grow this tiny church to 30 strong!

Isabel, the daughter of Vicki, prays at the beginning of the service.

Vicki, pictured on the left, opens the service in prayer.

Worship time was full and the presence of the Holy Spirit was clearly felt.
The "Wind" blew through the house and congregation!

One of Christian's responsibilities was to transport the youth to the local ECC office. As you can see in the pictures the house living room is very small (about 10 x 12).

Pictured is part of the youth group. By teaching kids over the year many parents have started coming to the church out of pure curiosity of the stories their kids have shared.

Faith vs. Sorcery

Last month Christian was placed on a church planting team just 25 minutes north of our house. During a house church service yesterday a lady by the name of Joany shared that her mother-in-law had "cleansed" her son, Daniel, of a recent sickness. She went on to say that her mother-in-law practices sorcery & card reading. Joany in fact had gone along with her mother-in-law on several occasions, however she is a new Christian she didn't know how sorcery stacked up against Christianity and Faith. Salvador, the team leader for this area, simply called the sorcery what it was: sin, and the backed it up with passages from Deuteronomy. Please pray for this new Christian, Joany, and her family as she puts on the full armor of God to combat this real present danger.

"Cleansing"

At a recent visit to the zoo we came upon some Aztec "cleansers." The people that are receiving this healing actually believe that ancient Indian gods can heal them of any infirmity they may have. This is just another real way that the enemy has gripped this country.