Mexico Journal 2009

Monday, July 20^th

 

We have arrived home safely! We woke up at 3 a.m. to arrive at the airport by 4:30 a.m. We are happy to be back in Indy but already miss our brothers and sisters in Christ from Irapuato Mexico. This weekend was spent with our host families and the believers seeing some sights there as well as encouraging one another. We spent all day at the church yesterday worshipping together, eating lots of Mexican food and saying tearful good-byes.

 

In the last update on Friday afternoon we were about to go to the park and share the gospel after giving baseball instructions, ballet lessons and making crafts with the children and women. We had over 120 people show up to participate!!! The drama team performed and a man from the church shared the gospel. We gave out wordless book bracelets and tracts with directions to the church. Mexican believers were also able to obtain several names to contact in the future with an offer to study God’s Word. Please pray that the church there would be diligent in following up with many new contacts.

 

We were blessed on Sunday morning by having several new people that we had met during the week attend the worship service. One was a man that Grant, Michael and Dave had met in the mall and invited. His name is Francisco. Then there were two boys and a girl who had attended the park outreaches who walked from their neighborhood about 10 minutes away from the church. Their names are Leo, Diego and Maria. A new family came that had attended VBS all week. There was a grandma, her daughter and her husband with 2 of their children and 2 nieces.  Please pray that they would all continue to attend church and become believers.

 

Thank you for praying for us this summer. Please continue to pray for the church in Irapuato and the many who heard the gospel this past week. Pray for the team as we adjust physically and emotionally to our lives here in the states. 

 

Praise God! We had an overwhelming number of people come to our first park outreach. Over 100 people came to participate!!! Many of them were there after meeting us at the neighborhood game time we had last night. After a time of either playing baseball, receiving classical dance instruction, or making crafts, the gospel was shared to an intensely attentive audience and invitations were extended to attend VBS throughout the week and learn more about the good news of our free gift of salvation. Several church members were able to connect with a few who expressed interest in further Bible study.

 

It was exciting to see a mother and her two children in attendance who had all proclaimed Christ as Savior after last year´s visit. Sadly, after several months of Bible study, contact was lost. PLEASE PRAY for this family to reconnect to the church and to become mature disciples.

 

It seems that every year, God uses our park outreach to remind us that He is in control. This year it came in the form of a soccer tournament that was being held on every field throughout the park at the same time we had advertised our event. (Yes, we had a field RESERVED ahead of time, but reservations seem to be rather informal here. ) After some negotiations by our Mexican team member, Soraya Wesner, we were finally given a slice of field that was not large enough to play soccer, but it worked perfectly for our group. Thank you, Jesus!

 

 

Sickness has struck! We have had a powerful bug travel quickly through many of the youth and a couple of adults on our team. We think it is probably a virus, (complete with normal side effects! ) but who knows. By now, things seem to be settling down and only a couple of people are still a little weak. PLEASE PRAY for complete recovery and effective ministry.

 

Many of the large group in attendance at the park yesterday helped produce a bumper crop of VBS kids this morning. At about 65, this was easily the most children we have ever had. Yes, the neighborhood children who came to the baseball clinic and we requested you pray for were there!!! Praise God! Keep praying!!! Tomorrow, I´ll be taking an unplanned trip back to the neighborhood after VBS to play baseball with these children. They were begging me today to play again and didn´t want to wait until Friday´s clinic. PLEASE PRAY that the relationships formed with these children will take root with the people in the church.

 

Because of the sickness experienced among the church and our members, the local leadership requested that we cancel the evangelism that was planned for downtown tonight. While this came as a great disappointment, we continue to trust God to direct our paths and are looking forward to being well-rested in the morning.