Prayerletter, May 2013

May 2013

Dear Pastor,

                We thank God for His blessing and care of us this past month, and for the faithful prayer and support from our family of churches that care for us.  We appreciate your prayer for these requests, and consider it an honor to represent Christ for you in Xochimilco, Mexico City.

                May was Family Month, and we focused on encouraging families and teaching the Bible in regards to the family.  Our church was invited to a family conference at Antioch Baptist Church in the Federal District of Mexico City, and a good portion of our church attended every service.  It was a help to each of our families, including mine!  We are seeing some of our families making good decisions in regards to serving and honoring God.  We were also blessed to see old friends there, because this church hosted us nearly ten years ago on our survey trip to Mexico City, and the missionary who established the church had flown in to preach with his family.  We were delighted to see Bro. Roberto Ramos and his wonderful family again!

Another pastor ordained to lead God's flock

Giving a message on the responsibility of the sending church

Just a couple of weeks later, I was privileged to participate in the ordination service of one of the men we worked with while establishing the church in Tizayuca.  Bro. Pedro Morales has served God faithfully for years, and now he is going on to pastor a church in Northern Mexico.  It has been an honor to serve with him and his wife, and see their dedication, faithfulness, and genuine love of God.

Praise God for spiritual victories along with the fun!

On the last Saturday of the month, we had a teen youth activity, a water fight.  There’s nothing like a good water war to get the adults wanting to participate in the youth program.  In fact, we had just as many adults as teenagers!  Before we began hostilities, I preached about our enemies as explained in the Bible and encouraged everyone to fight the good fight of faith.  Then, we had an epic battle.  The next day, one of the teen girls got saved after the morning service!  She knew she was lost, even though she had made a profession of faith when she was a young child.  Now she knows she’s on her way to Heaven!

Urgent Prayer Request:

Please pray for us as we are trying to raise the funds needed to travel to the border and renew our passports in Texas.  Gas, highway fees, passport fees, and supplies for the ministry and homeschool all add up to about $2000.  Please let us know if you feel God leading you to be a part of this need. 

It has been a wonderful privilege serving with these brethren.

We are eternally grateful for your prayer support, most of all.  Thank you, and God bless!

A Father's Heritage

Dad enjoys a new grandbaby's smile

Yesterday was Father's Day, and I called my dad, and told him how thankful I was for him.  He was a great dad to me, and my siblings.  I married a man who is a great dad, and so did my sister.  My brothers who are fathers are also great dads.  None of us have the same parenting style, although we all do our best to parent following the precepts of the Bible. I told my dad we had a good example of a man who taught us what a real man is.  A real man of God.  My dad didn't really know what I was talking about, because we both know he doesn't float on angel wings.  But I don't either, and I don't know anyone who does.

I just know that my husband and I have, nearly every month of our ministry, tried to counsel a woman weeping over the broken dreams of the man she chose, who turned out to be a selfish, spoiled man-child.  I've had my shoulder dampened by the tears of hurting women, and their hurting, often angry kids, because a man thinks he is the center of all things, and can't imagine that he has any obligation to the women he's used or the children he's fathered.  As we try to help these women pick up the shards of their girlish dreams, grow up, and take on the heavy burden of providing for their growing families by themselves, I am struck by a gratitude in me that gets stronger with every suffering woman we try to help. These kinds of men are everywhere.

Playing computer games with the girls

A real man sees these things as a no-brainer.  He can't imagine being able to live with himself without taking care of the basics.

• I thank God my dad has always loved us and is still faithful to and loves our mother.

• I thank God that he took care of us, that he prayed for us, that he sought our hearts, and that I know he still does pray faithfully for us.

• There were men who flattered me, flirted with me, and tried to buy me things, but they did not interest me in the least, because I had received enough wisdom from my dad about how a real man thinks, and how a godly man seeks out a wife.  I had also received plenty of loving attention from my dad, so I wasn't looking for that attention from someone else.  These girls get all that from a man, and it's as if their brain suddenly flies away.  They go after that attention like someone dying of thirst goes after a drop of water.

• I thank God that He led me to a man who would fast and pray, and make a decision to love me forever.

• I thank God my nephews and nieces are getting the same blessings from their dads, and so are my children.

David and his favorite buddy

Psa 16:6  The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.
It isn't good luck.  This verse was written by a man  who received a godly heritage from his father, grandfather, and great-grandparents. I pray that we pass on the blessing God gave us through our father to our children, and that they pass it on to theirs.  I hope my kids are able to look past our errors, and receive this wonderful blessing of the goodly heritage of God.

God truly blessed us!