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.

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.

First missionary
We had our first missionary at the Open Bible Baptist Church. We had a Mexican missionary, Javier Martinez, who has a wife and daughter. They have been working twenty years among the Guachochi Indians in Chihuahua, Mexico. It was exciting to see a good crowd of our people there on a Wednesday evening. It was the first time most of them had ever seen slides from a missionary. He also challenged them with a good message from God’s Word. We are praying as a church about taking them on for support. To the right are some photos of the missionary.

Marriage Conference
We just had our first banquet for couples. We put a lot of work into it, especially our wives, Teresa and Maria McLain. They decorated the church all in white, and lights. We were able to serve them a delicious meal and we played games like, ‘The Newly Wed Game.’ The most exciting part of it was that along with the banquet we kicked off a Marriage Conference that will last for eight weeks.

I began by preaching a special message to the couples and to encourage them that they could improve their marriage. I concluded with the fact that they can never have the marriage they ought to have without the aid of the Holy Spirit, at which time I inserted the Gospel. Be praying as this conference could be a very helpful tool in getting more couples as the Mexicans don’t really learn anything from the Catholic church about how a home should operate according to God’s Word. We are also excited as a couple of studies will be started with visitors at the banquet. One is Eva’s mom

Blessings and Trials of Recent Converts
We started the banquet, (mentioned in the above article), with a wedding. Oscar and Eva, who we met going door to door, had already been married in a civil wedding but wanted a Christian wedding in the church. It was beautiful! In the next letter I will send photos of the wedding and banquet. Please pray for this couple and their 3 children. Oscar told us one night in his home that his family is totally against him and some, including his mother, at times will not even talk to him. I had to hold back the tears as he spoke of this. None of them came to the wedding. Most of us in America have no idea what it is to have your own family against you. He told Aaron McLain and I after the wedding that the first time we came by he was mad at his wife for having us over for a Bible Study. Now, he is so grateful and expressed it with his words. He told us that their home has improved. He said that fellow workers mock him, as he witnesses to them. He already has gone visiting with us and pitched in and helped as we gave a study to another young couple. Pray that we can reach more couples like this family!

Love you all,
Mike, Teresa & Jessica Denison