viernes, 4 de octubre de 2013

Saturated September...


Bro. Angel's bedroom had a dirt floor.  
Thanks to the generosity of our people in Victoria
we were able to pour him a nice concrete pad. 

Between 8 of us church men we poured the floor 
then smoothed it to a shine as best as we could.

Here you have the finished product!
Thanks to the Dehart's ministry in Texas 
Bro. Angel now has a automatic hospital bed also.
Angel has already been to church twice since they 
amputated his second leg, he is so excited!

The 28th of August is Grandparents day and 
this year we celebrated our grandparents by 
painting them a verse plaque made by the church staff.  
Here are some of the grandparents; 
we had to celebrate the day in two shifts.


Ladies reunion at the end of August with their craft.

Another ladies meeting at the end of September.

On the 15 and 16 of September we celebrate the "Grito" 
which is to commemorate the day the Mexican Independence 
began in 1810. We celebrated it with a special service,
lot's of good Mexican food, and several of us dressing up.
We had a lot of FUN!

This is Bro. Jaime, his wife Carmen, 
their daughter Xochitle, and their grand-daughter Alexa.  
They are one of our new families from the last two months.

Matt was supposed to be General Ignacio Allende 
and Alan is dressed up as a typical "Charro" from the Zacatecas area.
The serious look goes along with the dressing up :)

This is Selah with Sister Mari, who is Bro. Angel's wife.
Mari received Christ the day they took Angel's leg a couple hours 
before the surgery.  She has really been growing and opening up.

Our little Mercy and Melissa; they are one week apart in age.

In September we went to a young ladies dedication at one 
of the missions.  The couple with her just joined our church last week! 
They are Jesus and Martha,
 and we have worked with them for over 2 years.

We continue to hand out tracts and literature to as many pastors 
as we can.  Thanks  to all the churches and ministries that 
invest money and time into this kind of ministry.  Many have been blessed 
across the country by a Bible, tracts, a John & Romans, or pamphlets.
This pastor is from Fresnillo, Zacatecas.

One of our oldest youth just got married last Saturday (28th).
Uriel and Sandra are now happily married!

Mrs. Deatrick was able to come down for a 9 day visit from 
Missouri; we thank the Lord for her life and for her willingness to 
come and visit us.  It goes without saying that the 6 grand-kids really
enjoyed having their grandma here.

Naomi gets to see her mom about once every two years, 
they enjoyed their time together also.

(Girls in order left to right)
Laura, Zeidy, and Lorena have been working with us at Victoria
for over a year now, and at the same time they have been involved in 
two of the daughter churches with Pastor Fernando (left), 
but the two sisters (in the green) 
have now decided to come on staff full time here at Victoria.  
Zeidy will be going on to her dad's ministry full time as of this week.  
We held a good-bye party for her last Wednesday.

Most of the church kids made cards for her and decorated the 
fellowship hall for the cake and ice-cream after the service. 
Zeidy has been a blessing to us and the church - we will miss her! 


On the family side... 
The kids are all growing up - too quickly it seems!!!

But, every day we are able to serve together is a fun day, 
and we try to teach the children that this is their ministry also. 

Of course, we pray that they will grow up into the boots that the Lord
would have for them in the future.  
We know that His will and plans are the best! 

We, Naomi and I, are more in love every day!   
I thank the Lord for such a wonderful wife and mother for my children,
it is amazing to count the amount of things she does in a "normal" day!
Of course, if you are from a big family,
 you know that "normal" days do not exist!

Praise the Lord for the ministry and family that He has given us.  
We also thank each one of you for your part 
in what we are allowed to do here!  
To God be the glory!

domingo, 18 de agosto de 2013

End of summer activities - August





The beautiful mountains of the state of Hidalgo, about 1 hour from where we preached last month.


Pastor Juan Grande and family - pastor of the church in Hidalgo


The kids really enjoyed the "nature" in the Hidalgo area.


Beautiful... but dangerous!



Matt preached a series on leadership based off of the life of Nehemiah.
Praise the Lord for the privilege to serve Him! 


The week we returned we held our second Pastors retreat.  
It was three days full of  fun, fellowship, learning, and prayer!  
Our crowd went form 120 - 150 throughout the three days... it was a lot of people to put up and feed!



One of the highlights for many was going bowling on Wednesday -        
it was a first for many :)


Most of our church people helped out, in one way or another. 
Here is Sister Martha, one of our newest church ladies - 
she came and helped in the kitchen, every day, all day!


I don't know what it is, but there is just something about men and grilling!


Most of the group that we had for the Pastors retreat.  
Praise the Lord for fellow - laborers!


Missionary Andrew Shields teaching his class
how to paint and prepare a clown. 
We had 11 different work shops throughout the three days; 
some of them where:
Pedagogy, Art, Getting to know Israel, Church Polity,  
How to last in the ministry, How to uphold my dads ministry, 
Confronting the Pentecostal doctrines, and hair cutting - among others.


One of our main speakers for the week was 
Brother/Pastor/Dentist Rob Wilson and family.  
During and after the conference he used his 
medical knowledge to minister to many of our people and neighbors. 


Not only did he pull teeth and give advice; 
he also brought much medicine for his patients.
(One of the young ladies, Xotchitle, was our Pharmacist.)


Praise the Lord for the new contacts we acquired 
and the love that was shown!
God bless you Brother Wilson!



jueves, 25 de julio de 2013

Watching Churches Grow!

LUIS MOYA

Our last Baptismal service as Pastor at Dios es Amor
Charlie, Antony, Kevin, Itsel, and Vanely.
We praise the Lord for these youth.
Some of them have grown up in christian homes,
others are the only one in their family that attends church, 
and others were doing drugs 5 months ago.

We've known Kevin since he was three.

Our last service at Dios es Amor en Luis Moya

Ryan's ordination

The Church praying for their new Pastor
It was a hard day for all of us, but a good one.  
How beautiful to see a church grow!

Graduations are special here in Mexico and this year
we were able to participate in two graduations in Luis Moya.
Matt and Antony

Naomi and Andrea.

Matt took several people with him when he went to preach 
at a missions conference in Tabasco.
As usual, they took several boxes of literature 
to give to the pastors that attended.
The group of pastors.


CAMP
We decided to have a different kind of a camp this year.
This is the group that we took from the three churches.
There were 36 of us.
Natan (2 months), Alan and Joahnas baby, was the youngest camper.

The first two days we actually went camping.

We swam...

we climbed waterfalls...

had hayrides and history....


we climbed small mountains (or large hills :-)

we had devotionals....

we had muddy adventures....

and we enjoyed God's creation....

more than once.

We thank God for a good week of camp and for His protection. 


VICTORIA

VBS
This year for several reasons, we also decided to do VBS differently.
Instead of doing a 3-5 day VBS, we are doing four Saturday's in a row.
So far it has seemed to work well.

The first Saturday we had 57 children, 
and the next Saturday we had 48 (it was chilly and rainy).

Here the children are painting a plaster of paris verse.

Out-reach
We've determined to reach into our city even more in this last half of the year.
We've picked up even more on literature distribution, 
painted this sign, and have another one we're working on getting finished.
Now that summer is nearly over we are picking up on our visits, 
and are praying for several different ways to 'get the word out'.

We would appreciate your prayers for God to make us effective tools in His Hands!