JUNE 2008

Big Day on Easter Sunday
Praise the Lord for His blessings! Easter Sunday the Lord blessed as we had a record attendance of 98! We were going to set our goal for anniversary in October for 100. I guess we’ll have to set it higher. We had a great day as both classes of kids sang specials as well as the young people.
After church we all loaded up and drove by Bro. Oscar’s church as it was their first Sunday in their new building. It was good for our people to see as we trust one day to have our own building as well. Then we headed out to the institute to have a dinner on the ground and to baptize 9 precious people. Pray for their continued growth in the Lord.


A Big Open Door
“Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel, and a door was opened unto me of the Lord,” 2 Cor. 2:12. In Aguascalientes, there is a huge annual fair. It lasts four weeks. People come from all over Mexico and other parts of the world. We were given 5,000 cd’s of Bible Stories for kids. Our people made 1,000 felt wordless books and then packaged them in a bag with an explanation of what the colors mean. They also made 2,000 bracelets with beads in the same colors. We bought 3000 tracts for kids that explain the colors of the beads on the bracelet. A pastor friend of ours had his church make almost another thousand bracelets.

A booth at the fair is very expensive, more than we could even pay for one week. However, through a contact we got a booth for 10 days free! Our people got busy making a puppet stand, practicing puppet shows, putting packets together and above all praying. Our young people dressed up like clowns and passed out hundreds of tracts and wordless books while one would be explaining the wordless book. We probably won’t know the fruit from this endeavor till we get to heaven but we trust that God’s Word will not return void.

MARCH 2008

Church Building Under Construction
Thank you much for your prayers concerning this building. The pastor, Oscar Contreras, has really gone through some trials. He got the concrete poured for the roof but came up about $6,300.00 US dollars short. He gave his truck to the bricklayers as partial payment.

The bricklayer was in an accident and because the truck was previously owned by Bro. Oscar the law almost put him in jail. They wanted to fine him $3,000.00 US but he was able to get it reduced to $600.00 US. On top of that his mother is about to die with kidney failure. She was left a small house by her husband but because she has five different names they are in legal battles to get the right name before she dies or he will lose the house.

Apart from that, the landlord needed the building they were renting. So this Sunday, March 23rd, they had their first service in their own building. Pray for them, however, as they will be meeting on a dirt floor as there was not enough money left to pour the concrete. They also need a bathroom.

We are confident that the Lord will complete this building but we must continue to pray!


Training Soul-winners
We are continuing to train soul-winners. Of the fourteen, six have completed the course. They are required to know how to give the plan of salvation, and have to know the six studies we have on “Eternal Life.” They also must know the lesson on eternal security and baptism. Apart from all that they must be faithful to go soul-winning. Almost every week they are winning someone to Christ. Praise His Name!

Merry Christmas 2007

A Great Gift
We all know that this is the time of year that we celebrate the Greatest Gift of all, that is Jesus, God’s gift to man. We also recently received a tremendous gift. As you know, the Grace Baptist Church is building their own building. Some gracious people and churches have given to help. The people of the church are selling some of their own personal possessions, or taking on work to help build the building. However, we were down to $200.00 US in the building fund.

I told Brother Oscar we would trust the Lord, that He is building his church. A politician in the church said that it would really be good if they could be in the building holding services by the end of this year, even though the government has given them a year. The reason is that many elected offices will change parties. So, Maranatha Baptist Church in Yorktown, VA, (who is one of our supporting churches and home church to Bro. Doug and Roberta Weed), just sent a very generous gift of $30,000.00 to help get this building up. Praise the Lord!

I wish you could have seen the excitement in my office when we, (Bro. Oscar, Bro. Weed and myself), heard this news. This money will help them get the roof on the first floor and possibly even get the walls up on the second floor. Please continue to pray that the Lord will provide to totally complete the building. In the meanwhile, praise the Lord for His goodness to this dear church full of precious Mexicans, whose faith just soared in growth.

And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him
Matt. 2:11

The Open Bible Baptist Church
We also praise the Lord that He is doing a work in this church as well. Over the past few Sundays we have averaged over fifty and , this past Sunday evening we had 22. The children's SS Class, that was down nearly to nothing when we returned from furlough is overflowing. We now have a young youth director and that class also is growing. What’s more exciting than the numerical growth is watching them grow spiritually.

One of my first soul-winners was talking to a man at work that goes to another church about how they reach people. The man told him that they reach people by “life style evangelism.” Angel asked him how many he had won to Christ with this type and the Man replied, “none.” The man now wants Angel to train him in soul-winning. We are training 14 soul-winners at present and, two Saturdays ago had 11 people out door to door witnessing.

The church also voted this month to send a Christmas offering to each of our Mexican missionary families. We surprised them with 1500 pesos, ($150.00). They also voted to raise 2 families support to $50/month. Praise the Lord. Jesus said in Matt. 16:18, “I will build my church.” That’s what we’re trusting Him to do.

September 2007 Prayer Letter

Language Institute Underway
Greetings in the name of the Lord Jesus. As you know, apart from church planting we have the language institute. The school is underway for the Fall semester and going well. The Whitakers are called of God to take the Gospel to the Canary Islands. That island is owned by Spain, therefore they will be preaching and teaching in Spanish. Be much in prayer for this family as they face the difficulty of learning another language and mastering it well enough to preach, teach and even council in Spanish. Pray for Angelica Contreras, their teacher, as she works diligently to transfer her knowledge of the language to them. This is a real ministry for her as many servants of the Lord are winning Latin people to the Lord and working with them in various parts of the world. She also is very active in her local church and during the Summer helps other churches with VBS.

Also, we have a new teacher for the missionary children. Andrea Leslie, from Fairhaven Baptist Church, is doing a great job helping these kids, who also go thru culture shock. She is also actively involved in the church here, witnessing and starting bible Studies. Be much in prayer for her as her mother has been diagnosed with cancer.

Urgent Prayer
As you know the Mexican government gave the Grace Baptist Church of Aguas. A piece of property 800 Sq. meters. What I never told you is that the same day they gave the Catholic church in that neighborhood 3000 Sq. meters of land, which really didn’t bother us, knowing that the country is Catholic. However, recently the priest in that area has been threatening Bro. Oscar to take his land from him. The priest sent word that Oscar had only 3 months to be in his building or they would take his property. They also had the neighbors throwing rocks at the members, stealing from the property and even call his house and threaten him and his family. Bro. Oscar has since talked to a government official that told him that the gov. registered his church, that they gave him the property and that their rule of one year to be in the building still stands. Still, pray much for his safety and that of his family and church.

Please be in prayer with us as Bro. Oscar begins construction. He did a cost analysis on getting the first floor ready to move into. He believes he can do it for about 28,000 dollars US. We have about 13,000 left so we will still need about 15,000 dollars US. We are confident that the Lord can and will provide this.

Should the Lord lay it on your heart to help, send it to
FBWWM
ATTN: “Iglesia Bautista Gracia.”
P.O. BOX 341356
Memphis, TN 38184

Thank you for your prayers!

June 2007 Prayer Letter

Advancing in Missions
We recently had the privilege of having a new Mexican missionary, Jose Luis Fuentes, and his family who are going to Venezuela. He was truly a blessing to our church. He has a tremendous testimony. He was a gang member, on drugs and spent five years in prison. Upon being released from prison he went to Colima, Mexico where an American missionary led him to Christ. He became an effective witness and later was called to preach. He and his wife have since graduated from a Bible Institute and are on deputation to be missionaries.

We took advantage of him being in the Aguas area and put the whole month as Missions emphasis. We were able to have him preach twice. The other Sundays I preached on missions. We upped our faith promise giving to over 2,000.00 pesos/month. We were able to take on this new family. I also got him into other churches in the area. We took him door to door with the young men I am training so that they could learn from him. He commented to me on two occasions as to how willing and eager these guys are to learn. Now the ladies are saying they want to learn so soon Teresa will be starting a class for them on how to witness.

Ladies’ Meeting
This month we also had a Ladies’ Meeting. We invited ladies from the Paquette’s church as well. They had a great time. The theme was ‘watermelon’ and everything was decorated with that theme. Jessica and another missionary daughter made a cake and cookies that looked like watermelon. Teresa taught them a craft, making a peacock from a “watermelon.” Ladies from our church brought crafts that looked like, (you guessed it), “watermelon.” Teresa was able to share the Gospel using the colors from the ‘watermelon.’ The missionary’s wife, Adriana Fuentes brought a devotional. The Ladies played games and had a great time of fellowship. Some ladies came to this who would not go to a church service. That is what it’s all about, the Christian ladies having a good time and the lost seeing that and hearing the Gospel.

Note: I preached two weeks on “Separation of the Church from the World” and men and ladies are beginning to dress up.

Training Soul-Winners

The Lord has given me five men, (one not pictured), to train in soul-winning. The great thing is that these men are eager to learn. They pray for patience, they go out with me every week and, sometimes more than once. At least one of them is going with me every night except Friday and all of them go on Saturday. Angel, (in the Blue shirt), has won two people to the Lord by himself. He is so excited!

Fernando, (in the coat), has come very close to winning someone. He witnesses with confidence. This past week we saw 5 people saved. A couple of weeks ago we saw a Dad, mom, son and daughter, (21 & 22) get saved. The mom said, “The covering has come off my eyes.” In other words she now saw the truth. This past week, I went to see a young man that had received Christ and he wasn’t home but I won his mother and brother. Pray for these soulwinners.

Thank you for your prayers!

Prayer Letter February 2007

Praying for an Open Door
“Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving; withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ…” Col. 4:2,3a. My pastor and preacher friend visited us in Aguascalientes a couple of years ago and, after seeing the vast sea of houses with more being built, they decided to pray for the Lord of the harvest to send one hundred missionaries to Aguascalientes, Mexico. So you will understand better the need for more laborers, apart from the metropolitan city there are 1,856 villages, ranging from 2,000 to 8,000 people in each one, scattered all over the state of Aguas. That means that if 100 missionaries arrived tomorrow, each one would have to reach eighteen and a half villages. That doesn’t touch the city of nearly a million people. Please pray with us for Open Doors to be able to reach more of these precious people. Pray for laborers to go and work in this vast field of souls. “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.” Matthew 9:38. Pray also as we train the nationals to work and to harvest souls. To God be the glory for what He does.


Bound for Mexico
We have just finished a short furlough, about six months. This Wednesday we are heading for Mexico. The Lord was good in that He took good care of us while we traveled. We covered several thousand miles and were in several churches. God also blessed and used us in these churches to minister to the people, to stir them in the area of world evangelism, to share with them what the Lord is doing in Aguascalientes. We were able to raise the extra needed support. The Lord is good!

Pray for us as we travel many miles to get back to Aguascalientes. The border crossing some-times can be difficult so we are praying that it will go smooth. Of course, we are looking forward to seeing our people and getting back into the work there. The construction is going well. I talked with Pastor Oscar this morning and he was going to start pouring the concrete into the columns around the walls.

The next step will be preparing to put the roof on the first floor. Pray that this will go up very quickly. It appears that they will be able to be in the building way before the year deadline. He was also encouraging about the report of the second work and the good attendance they had Sunday.

Prayer Letter December 2006

Review of the Year 2006
Praise the Lord for another year to serve Him. He has been gracious to us, far more than we deserve.

This year has been a whirlwind as we look back upon it. We began the year after just having celebrated the first anniversary of the Open Bible Baptist Church. At the same time the Grace Baptist Church of Morelos was trying to obtain land from the government, (which they did). LAMTI was starting the second semester for the language students. Then, on top of all that we had four church groups come to visit. If that’s not enough, in the middle of the year our partners left us to return to the States. By the way, this term, we have seen three families come to help and then leave. Please pray that God will call and send missionaries with stickability, (is that a word? Ha!) Well, you know what I mean. So, now we had the responsibility of LAMTI and kindergarten graduation on our shoulders with the responsibilities of the new church and a group coming to do construction on the new building of the Grace Baptist Church. Did I fail to mention we were due a furlough at the beginning of this year? Well, there was no way we could take a whole year so we were given permission to take 5 months. So, in the midst of the institute, the church building, the new church and help leaving, we had to prepare to leave for furlough. We are very grateful to the Clark Paquette family who stepped up to help with our church and with the institute. We have just wrapped up our furlough traveling. We were on the road for the entire month of Sept. I had meetings close to home in Oct and then gone again the entire month of Oct. We traveled well over 10,000 miles and stayed in all different places. The Lord was so good to us as He protected us and provided for us. We saw a lot and met a lot of great Christians. Now pray for us as we have one more meeting in Dec. and then pack to return to Mexico. We have stayed in touch with the people there and all is well as they anticipate our return .

Plans for the New Year 2007

After returning and settling in it will be back to all the duties at the institute, teaching, planning activities, maintenance, etc. Also, we plan to take a day with our workers at the Open Bible Baptist Church and plan the calendar for the rest of the year, activities for SS, Youth, and Adults. Also, the Missions Conference and other events, such as Vacation Bible School, Camp, etc. I plan to really train, not just soul-winners but trainers of others. Please pray with me as I would like to give one day a week to help Bro. Oscar and his men on the construction of the building.

Speaking of the building, one of our main goals is to get that building up by the end of this year at least enough that they can meet in it and hold services. Praise the Lord we now have another group of men, Eastside Baptist in Greenville, TN, that are coming down this Summer to help with the construction. We also are so grateful to the Lord that Temple Baptist in Herndon, VA recently sent another $15,000.00 toward the building. WOW! I wish you could’ve heard Oscar’s excitement when I told him. Our main goal is that the people grow in their relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ

Prayer Letter July 2006

FRIEND DAY
Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We thank the Lord for His continued blessings. We are starting new Bible Studies and have seen a few saved. One way we start studies is by door-to-door visitation. I recently lost my American partner, who took his family back to the States. But, I still have two Mexican men who go faithfully with me soul-winning every week. They also go with me to the studies and are learning how to both go from house to house, get a study started and then do the study in their home. Fernando Nava just did his first study solo this past Saturday. It went well and he will continue the study with the young man and his wife. Pray for Fernando and Emanuel, his brother, as they witness for Christ. Fernando also leads the singing for us now and they both sing specials.

Another way is by church groups coming and flooding a neighborhood with tracts. We have had four groups this year. One group was form Fairhaven Baptist church and we had 3 new families visit and started one new study from all the tracts they passed out. The other group just left but I’m sure someone will visit from their efforts. The last group is here now and I will mention them in the next letter.

Yet another way is by special days. We recently had ‘Friend Day.’ We had each person put the name of a friend who they would invite and we all prayed together for these friends. We had the Paquette Family, some missionary friends of ours come and preach and sing. Bro. Clark preached on ‘How to be a Friend to Jesus.’ His kids sang beautifully as his wife, Robyn, played the keyboard. It was a blessing to the people. We thank the Lord for the 65 present but mostly that they learned to be a friend to Jesus. Pray for their continued growth.


PUTTING THEM IN PLACE OF SERVICE
We are trying to get the people involved more in their church. We now have a man who is in charge of making sure somebody cleans the church each week. He also opens on Sunday. As mentioned above, I am training two young men, not just to witness, but to be trainers themselves.

Jeremy is training Angel to teach the Young people. He told me Sunday that he is ready as soon as Jeremy says, ‘Take it.” He trains men where he works at Nissan and said the best way to learn is just dive in and start doing it.

Teresa is also training his wife, Elizabeth to take the children. She is teaching a series of stories in the Bible that deal with water; that’s why the room is decorated as you see it. You know that the people who grow the fastest are those who are involved in the work. Pray for them as teaching and witnessing is a new step for them, and news steps always bring a little preoccupation with them.