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!

May and June

GROUPS

This year we have had more groups, 

and most of them staying for more time, 

than we have ever had before!

Pastor Tim Kelly, Beth, and Grant from Lewiston Baptist Church in ME stayed with us for three weeks.

Pastor John Burns, Bro. Jason, and Bro. Max from Gateway Baptist Church in WY brought down 5,000 John and Romans, and preached at our 7th anniversary conference.  

Emalyn (Naomi's niece) and Amy were with us for 7 weeks, and Kerigan and Cora came down and joined them for the last two weeks.  They are from Crossroads Baptist Church in NC.

Bro. Jonathan, Jimmy, Bro. Steve and his daughters Mary and Anna came from Faith Baptist Church in WV and stayed for two weeks.

Michael Deatrick (Naomi's brother) and Kenny Hafner are still with us and have two and a half weeks left of their six week stay.

The groups helped make and distribute packages of tracts, a John and Romans, and a church brochure.

They preached at most services.

The people really enjoyed all the special music they provided.

And they did anything else they could to help out.  

This job was a special blessing to Naomi!

They also gave us an excuse to get out for a little while and enjoy our city.

We've had a full table, many times two, for the past eight weeks, but it has been a blessing.

ACTIVITIES

Our first event in our new building in Luis Moya was Gloria's Quinceaños.

Gloria and her parents

A baby shower in Victoria; this is Joahna and her mother.

Alan (the assistant in Victoria) and Joahna with their baby.

Welcome Natan Ituriel!  It's hard to believe he's a month old!

We have a monthly leader's meeting.  

Every other month the whole family is invited.

Mother's day in Dios es Amor

Mother's day in Victoria

Father's day in Victoria

This year Victoria had its 7th Anniversary.

A get together after one of the services

One of our church ladies lost her mother; 

the funeral lasted a full 36 hours here at the church.

CHANGE

We have been pastoring Dios es Amor for a little over five years now.  This Sunday is our last service as Pastor and family in Dios es Amor.  We will greatly miss this 'family', but are excited to see them become independent. 

We are also anticipating a new phase of ministry opening up for us.

GRATITUDE

So many people have a part in this ministry and none of it is in vain.  We would like to mention Bro. Ted and Mrs. Dehart for their wonderful helps ministry.  This summer with so many trips to the border to take groups in and out we were able to bring in a lot of literature, chairs, marker boards, nursery toys, and many other things that are useful to the ministry.  

We appreciate them, their friendship and their part in many ministries.

EXTRAS

It was nice having family with us.  

The kids enjoyed having a cousin around for a while.

Michael is preparing to go to the Solomon Islands 

as soon as he finishes studying and raising support.  

We're privileged to have had a part in his preparation.

Enoch loves his hat.  :-)

Matt and Mercy

~Thank you for having an interest and taking the time to pray for us!

May God bless each one of you!~