Mexico Journal 2006

Wednesday - Our final day of ministry as an entire team! Thank you all for your faithful prayers. This day was definitely used by God in ways we never anticipated. Praise be to Him!

To begin our day, Dave Wesner and Jon Wesner made their visit to the advanced English school. This class mainly involved following the instructor's lesson and participating in staged conversations. At the end of class, though, 10 minutes or so was directed toward a discussion of Christmas - how we celebrate and WHY. Because of time, we were able to give only brief testimonies about our relationship with Christ and why Christmas is so meaningful for us as Christians. After class, however, the instructor (a member of the church we are ministering with) told us that the next day would be our REAL opportunity. (Remember, the Wesners are staying an additional week.) He asked us to give a detailed description of Easter. The students would be writing essays on Monday that reflected what we shared. WOW! The next day was incredible! We spent 45 minutes discussing the resurrection. We emphasized over and over how our salvation depends only on the act of Christ's sacrifice and that it is sufficient. Again, we were well-received and the woman we were warned earlier might be antagonistic even thanked us for our time!

As mentioned in the last entry, the other language school was cancelled for us on Wednesday because of the World Cup game. So, we went ahead and watched the game with our host families. This ended up being a neat time of fellowship on our final day. After that, we headed downtown for a time of street evangelism. Our strategy was multifaceted. Jon Wesner performed an evangelistic message rope trick and followed it up with the Evangicube explanation. Soraya translated and Dave helped distribute tracts to literally hundreds of people that came to listen. We actually ran out of tracts! Debbie, JoAnna, and the children walked around the square and shared the Gospel with other children using the Wordless Book bracelets and tracts. Again, they ran out after distributing hundreds! Peter Nevins sat down beside a busy walkway and started drawing with some oil pastels. He surrounded himself with tracts and had John King help distribute. Each drawing was given away and a huge crowd gathered with every fresh sheet of paper. The Jarretts were loaded heavily with tracts and emptied their pockets by simply walking through the shopping areas and engaging the people they met. While this event was not on our planned schedule, we could see that God used it in a mighty way!

Our final baseball clinic was the largest attendance we had. It seemed that each day it gained popularity. This was the day, though, that we had announced we would be giving away most of the donated gear we had brought. Smiling kids walked away with new gloves, balls, shirts, helmets, cleats, and even some catcher's gear! Most importantly, one of the church members gave a clear gospel presentation in Spanish that we hope planted some seeds on fertile soil.

Thank you again, for praying and giving. Your sacrifice has provided MANY with the opportunity to hear God's message of love and salvation. Please consider continuing your prayers for the people of Irapuato whenever you think of Mexico or, perhaps, when you see a baseball game.

With much love and appreciation from the team, Dave Wesner

TUESDAY - Jon Wesner and Dave started the day early by again going to the advanced language school and sharing there. The discussion centered around the confusion about why the United States is a "Christian" nation yet the movies they see portray our cities as being very evil. WOW! What an opportunity we had to clearly explain the differences in world views. Peter and John King also went to the same school in the evening after baseball.

High gear kicked in as we all descended on our other language school for what ended up being our final opportunity to share Christ there. (Mexico was to play in the World Cup the next day during our scheduled time and the students and teachers all agreed that they wanted to watch the game!) The classes went well. Each group took advantage of opportunity for testimony.

Tuesday's baseball clinic was on a different field at the park. We again had some confusion about where they wanted us, but in the end we were happy that we actually had a grass field! Dave Wesner and Jon Jarrett switched age groups for their baseball instruction. Dave took the younger kids and Jon the older ones. Debbie Wesner shared the "Wordless Book" today and we handed out the colored bead bracelets that many of you helped assemble before we left Indy. THANK YOU!

Tuesday night was again spent going to different homes and enjoying sweet fellowship with the local believers. Some of us didn't end up getting home until after midnight! Besides eating some great homecooked food, we took turns sharing our personal testimonies and words of encouragement.

Welcome BACK to our journal! Sorry for the missing entries, but we have had extremely long days and haven't been able to get to a computer until the wee hours of the night since Sunday. Except for the Wesners, everyone is now traveling home after a full and blessed week. The following will summarize our events:

Monday - Jon Wesner and Dave began the day by teaching an early lesson at a second language school that we were referred to. This school was a university level that allowed us to share in more detail our testimonies and the Gospel message. A great praise is that one of the students whom we were warned might be resistant to our mission ended up being excited about the baseball clinic and brought her son as well as a friend and daughter to two of our clinics. (She even applauded the message that was given on the final day!)

The rest of the group met up with us at our original language school and resumed our conversations. John King and John Jarrett were given the opportunity to not only share the gospel message, but were asked to explain it in more detail by their beginner students. Jon Wesner also was able to share the Evangicube presentation with his limited English class and says it was well received.

Later that day we held Day 2 of the baseball clinic. After some confusion over what field we were to use and the threat of rain looming overhead, we were wondering if anyone would even show up. We didnt see anyone for about 15 minutes. Then, suddenly, they came in droves. We had a great time playing ball and Jon Wesner shared a clear message about our need to be forgiven of our sins and how God offers us that forgiveness through His son Jesus Christ alone.

After cleaning up, the men quickly made their way to a home of one of the church members for a Bible study. Peter taught a great lesson on Gods design for the role of a man. Some delicious tostadas finished the evening.