The Youth Conference...

The day after Christmas I took a small group from our church, one family some youth and three of my children, to a youth conference held in another city called Santa Rosalia. We always enjoy taking some from the church to these activities where they meet other Christians of like faith and doctrine and practice. It was a blessing to me as a father seeing my children develop friendships with their Mexican counterparts. My son Timothy believes the Lord wants him to be a missionary here in our area, what a blessing that would be! We just want each of our children to follow the Lord's will for their lives.  

    While at the hotel with the men/ boys, I was able to lead to Christ one of the teens who has attended our church since he was 8 years old. What joy it brought to our hearts to see this mischievous boy turn his life over to Christ. As he prayed he asked the Lord to clean his heart. Pray for Armando as he begins to learn how to walk with the Lord. 

A New, Old... Ministry

    We have just begun to do something that we haven't done for over 2 years, having Bible studies in peoples homes. Several of the people in our church were previously won to the Lord through the ministry of home services. But it has been quite a while since we have used that method.
    We find in the book of Acts this same principled applied. Due to great persecution, the thought of building a church building would have been absurd... kind of like painting a giant bulls eye on your chest. So houses were used for the first three centuries of church history. Is it wrong to have a church building? Of course not! A house is building as well... but this new (old) approach is wonderful way to bring new people in to hear the gospel, that wouldn't normally come.
     A catholic person might never come to our current building, but will happily come to their neighbor's house... and that is what we do. We spend an hour or so inviting the neighborhood to come to a church service in someones home, and then we have a brief service, 3 songs and a 20 minute message, to share the gospel with them. The first service we had 5 first time adults, plus their children, last night we had 2 new people. Pray that the Lord will use these opportunities to reach more for Christ, as we use this new, old way.

A Blessed Service

    I am sorry for not posting for so long... I sometimes get busy with, well, life. I have always been really bad with "homework", I would much rather be doing the ministry than "writing" about the ministry, but both are very important. Last night we were truly blessed by the church service. 

   About an hour before church started the power to the whole town went out (we never know why it happens), so I went ot the store and bought candles. Under the ambiance of candle light, we started our service. We had a full house, and everybody sang their hearts out. I reminded our people how that for the first 1900 years of Christianity this is how they had their services... with candles, and how good it was for us to have the opportunity to be thankful for the blessing of electricity.
     Last night was Brother Benito's last night with us (he was filling in for us while we were on furlough), and he preached and afterwards we had a fellowship dinner. What a blessed time! It is such a blessing to be in the Lord's house on the Lord's day, with the Lord's people listening to the Lord's Word with the presence of the Lord himself! Church is a little piece of Heaven, this side of Heaven. It is where sinners find repentance, and forgiveness for their sins, and where Christians are exhorted, edified and also rebuked! It is good to be in the house of the Lord!

     Pray for Brother Benito, that he will have a safe trip home (about 800 miles) today, and about his calling. I have offered him the opportunity to serve the Lord full time here with us, if the Lord wills. Pray that the Lord will give him clarity as to His will. Thank you all for your prayers. Please pray for us here in Mexico, and please pray for revival. God Bless.

    

The Furlough Continues...

We continue to have a blessed time visiting with friends and newly made friends. Please continue to pray for our protection as we travel we are currently traveling across America, visiting churches and people. We met the wonderful ladies at Central Missionary Clearinghouse, and saw how the ministry behind the missionary works. They work with a very small budget so that they can get more funds out to the "field". What a blessing to get to meet them in person after all these years.

We got to see the Alamo, which is such an important part of two countries history, and learned a bit about what really happened at the battle. Enjoyed a good visit with my pastor before taking off, and I am thankful for his support and encouragement. We are currently in Texas and really enjoying it, got to see Outdoor World with lots of stuffed animals (the real kind), and the kids loved it. They also had a huge aquarium. Well I hope you enjoy the pictures... have a great day!

My Pastor and I 

Our Home church building

No wonder our children are soo strange ! :-)

Where we are currently

For those of us that like to drive just a little faster... this is beautiful

A very important part of America's and Mexico's History

Family at the Alamo

Visiting our mission agency's office

The hard-working ladies at CMC

I had fun with this bear and the children ... :-)

Furlough 2011

Family bowling day

Benjamin, Isaiah, and I go flying with my brother Joseph

Benjamin had lots of fun

My Brother Joel and his wife Deborah and their 8 children

Dear friends, it has been a good trip thus far... we were disconnected from the internet for about three weeks, but it was good and just what the Lord obviously wanted. Since our last post we were in Victorville and enjoyed seeing the people once again. Then we headed up to Redding Ca, our home town. We stayed at my brother Joel's house, and had a great time. Good fellowship, late nights, lots of children.
We are heading to Arizona, please continue to pray for our safety. God bless!

At Regeneration Reservation

    My cousin Tom Lucatorta is a missionary to the Apache Indians here in Arizona. They have kindly welcomed us into their home, here where they work. They have been hosting us on the ministry compound a beautiful facility with lots of space, and dormitories the easily fit us with all the children. Everybody has their own bed, plenty of bathrooms and tons of fun. Yesterday, we killed a rattlesnake (a very poisonous green Mohave) and we were thankful that Elijah found it first.
On Thursday I had the privilege to go to Whiteriver in the ministry airplane. While I was quite nervous (mostly because my cousin had showed me lots of pictures of crashed planes :-)) I also enjoyed the view as well as the flight. It is a lot different in a small plane. Thank you for your continued prayers for us.

   

Another video from before we left

Just before we left Mexico, I recorded several short videos just to give you a glimpse into our lives and our little church here. This video was taken during our singing service about 2 weeks ago. The Mexican people (as do we) love to sing, and we usually sing about 6-7 hymns per service. They also love to learn new hymns, and sing and glorify the Lord. It is always a blessing to me to see that sometimes some of the brothers and sisters have tears in their eyes as they sing their hymns. One sister asked me once, "is it bad to cry when I'm singing a song, because I just get overcome with emotion thinking of what the Lord has done for me", I chuckled and said, "of course not", the Lord wants us to sing from our heart. That is the only true praise to the Lord... true believers, singing sincerely from their hearts, the praises, glory and majesty of the Lord. Also, you might notice that Bro. Juan is leading singing, little by little they are taking more resposibility in the ministry and this what we want, to see them grow in the Lord and run their own church. Keep them in your prayers

The Church Continues...

    How do you build a church... and what is a church anyways? These are questions I asked myself when I first started our church, things that are vitally important if you are to plant churches. Jesus said in Mat 16:18  And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. When a church is started we are do everything in our power (with His power) to keep His church going. When we leave our ministry, I try hard to make sure there is someone capable to continue the services so that the people are spiritually fed every week on the Lord's day. This is extremely important. Satan will attack but we must resist the Devil and he will flee from us. Because greater is he that is in us than he that it in the world. Jesus Christ is building His church in Insurgentes, and it must continue. God uses men to do His work among men, therefore we must work and continue the work.

    Brother Benito and his wife Monica have been doing a great job at continuing on the ministry. He called me Monday and let me know how everything went and how the services were. I was blessed to hear that it is going well. Please pray for them as they work in our place for these months that we are in the States. 

     To answer the first questions... how do you build a church? You build it on the Lord Jesus Christ... He is it's only foundation. Paul, a master arquitect of Christian New Testament churches said, For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. (1Co 3:11) 

    The second question, What is a church anyways? It is a group of believers, called out from among the world, to worship in Spirit and in in truth, the Lord Jesus Christ. I am not a church. You are not a church. We are not a church ... unless we are together. A church is a local group of believers, gathered together to worship and follow the Lord. There is much confusion about the doctrine of the church today, and it causing problems of rebellion, strife, pride and arrogancy, when a true church should to develop humility, submission, and love one toward another. I have been told by men, "I can worship God under a tree", and that is true, I agree.  However, That is no substitute for attendance at a local congration of saved people. Christ said He would build His church. Salvation is personal, but God has chosen the church to take the gospel to the world. The Jews of the Old Testament, The church in the New Testament. A true church need not have a building (although even a house is a building), parking lot, sound system, committees, traditions, etc (each of which is a tool that can be used by the Lord), but a true church must have people...true believers. a shepherd (pastor), order, baptisms, Lord's Supper, offerings, evangelism etc. Christ is still building His church, and I am especially thankful for the church he is building in Ciudad Insurgentes.

More Testimonies

This is Genesis, one of our bright young men in our church. Although I did not win him to Christ, I have had the privelege of discipling him for many years, and just last year he joined our church. He is studying at the University in La Paz, so we only get to see him during his vacation breaks... but he is a blessing to me, my family, and our church. Pray for him that God will bring  young Christian lady into his life, with whom he can begin a family some day. Oh, you probably noticed that he speaks English too... He is studying to be an English teacher and he does very well. Si lo lees Genesis, Dios te bendiga, y ya estamos aquí en los EE.UU.

Family Camp was a Blessing!

We held our fourth annual family camp of Baja South and we were blessed indeed. Since we arrived in Mexico one of our great burdens is to strengthen the Christian family. For this reason we began to host a Family Camp. Our first Family camp in 2008, 15 people from our church went. Our second year 35, the third year 31 went, and this year there was 40 from our little church. We also had three other Independent Baptist churches participate, for a total of 86 people. Everybody had a great time. They were especially blessed by the preaching focusing on the family. Please pray for continued spiritual blessing from these great retreats. Sunday morning at church everybody was a buzz telling stories about camp. It was a tremendous blessing for us. Pray for our church during our absence. 

Eating under the Palapa... we had wonderful meals

During the preaching services

Opening the camp with the rules and the schedule/program

Sports... soccer

Pool time for the men and boys

Pastor Enrique preaching one of the many services

The "Los Cabos" church preparing a meal

Personal morning devotions

Sports

Karla and Neva two of our teens

Singing action songs

Santa Rosalia singing a musical special

Singing around the bon-fire

All the different church vehicles

The pastors meeting... planning future events

Pastor Samuel preaching one of the preaching services

Group shot all the churches together

Our church group shot