Spring Break Zac 2013

Sembradores de Cristo Spring Break 2013 “And that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” (2 Tim 3:15) Our weary team had a final team devotional in which we encouraged Shalom, Nehemias, and Hadassah to follow Jesus all their lives, that He’s the best way. My children are always with us going up and down those treacherous mtn roads, having service when no one shows up, sharing the gospel in new places with new faces, helping their Mom with children’s ministry. We encouraged them that the adventures they are having now are exciting, few experience the adventures they do as children on the mission field, as tiring as it may be. We then spent time praying for the children of Zacatecas and in the world that they may make the decision at an early age to come to faith in Jesus. I thank God for my family that works so hard for the kingdom and I thank Him for always sending us servants to accompany us and encourage us. This past week Brother Gary of New York and Sister Joan of Dallas/Taiwan accompanied us to the new heart. Gary has a passion for children and a heart to serve. Joan has a passion for prayer and flows in the prophetic anointing. We are also now working hand-in-hand with Todas las Naciones church and Jerry Chen. The Garcia family in Palmas also accompanied us to various villages and encouraged us during our times of devotional and fellowship. I was able to send mini updates from Palmas Altas as they now have internet-not the village-just their house. This was a great unexpected blessing. When we are there we will no longer have to wait until we go through Jerez to send updates. We sent the update about our tire malfunction. Only God protected us my friends, only God. That whole tire tread had peeled off like an orange. I don’t know how long I had been driving on basically just the tube. With all the traffic near the city and lack of highway shoulders to turn off on a blow-out could have been pretty devastating. Thank you body of Christ for your prayers all week. Plan de Carrillo village “Christ is the head of the church.” (Eph 5:23) I was invited to preach and facilitate a meeting at the church in Plan de Carrillo. “El Plan” is like an oasis in the desert. It is the only village in the area that never had a Catholic church or a store that sells “cerveza.” Over the years we would pass through and encourage the local pastor, even when he wasn’t having services. One of the main ministries & spiritual gifts God has given me is the gift of encouragement. I love encouraging others in the faith. When we started visiting this summer, another church had started in this small community of 100 or so. A member of the community invited us to facilitate a meeting between the members of the new church and the former, local pastor to promote unity among the believers. Dissension amongst these precious believers had entered the body of Christ. I preached on unity in Christ, reminded them that Christ is the head of the church. My friend, the former pastor, did not want to attend but decided to at the last moment-praise God! He confessed that he did not feel capable to lead the church anymore and that despite the hurts he had experienced in the church, in time he would be willing to help out with the music and/or other areas. Rocio from Palmas went with us and did a class with the children, something that had never happened in the history of the church in that village. We do not know if the Lord will have us continue in any role in that church in the future. This community of believers is passionate about their relationship with the Lord and has great potential to reach out to the outlying villages and establish mission churches of their own. Some sow and others reap. I would love to see these folks go into Villa Hermosa and Monte de los Garcia villages to church plant and disciple the folks we have poured into for years now. It’s not about Sembradores de Cristo; we don’t have to have our name on the church-it’s His church-all about Cristo! Kingdom mentality! Villa Hermosa village “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.” (2 Cor. 10:4) Speaking of Villa Hermosa……Oh how times have changed. I shared with Gary and Joan the exciting moments we had had in the past with the area catechist trying to drive us away from preaching there and the local catechist trying to turn people against us, even using witchcraft to cast spells on us. Those strongholds the enemy once had here have been torn down and cast out in the name of Jesus! In fact, the children in the church saw us while we set up for a mini kids carnival and when the new, young catechist was finished with them she sent them over and even came herself to hear the Word of God. I thank God for the many prayers His people have poured out over the years over this place. The strongholds have been broken and there is freedom to speak in His name. We had 46 present, most there because it was volleyball/chatter time, gathered with us for a service of praise songs and preaching of God’s Word after the carnival. Joan shared her testimony to a group of some 20 women and one man. Most of them do not know or fear the Lord and did not pay much attention to her intense testimony of liberation from demonic possession. However, a few of them were keyed in on what she was saying. The Lord is opening their eyes to see the truth, that behind all of their saint idols are demonic forces that do not want them to believe in Jesus. Another positive outcome of our visit was a conversation I had with our local contact, a believer named Daniel. I encouraged Daniel to be willing to offer an area of his property for the construction of a church, that God has called him to be an active participant of the furtherance of the kingdom. He was very open and positive about the idea. May the Lord speak to Him and give him vision concerning His plans. Monte de los Garcia “Behold, darkness and sorrow; and the light is darkened by the clouds.” (Is 5:30) The Lord revealed to Joan that a great light had penetrated through the darkness covering Monte de los Garcia but that the people did not receive it and the light had thus been reflected by the darkness. Our one young faithful attendee there has been through quite a bit. Her mother has an altar to the saint of death in the home to which she worships. Mari had been allowed to attend our gatherings yet always returned to a home dedicated to demonic worship. We begin at the court by praying for her and doing spiritual warfare at the court. Word came to us that a local family had a blind family member present. Therefore, we did a service at their house and prayed for the blind man. He was not healed then physically. We encouraged to him to put his faith in Christ as did the blind man of John 9. I believe that he was not healed that day due to his lack of faith. We will continue believing for his healing. Those present included a mother and daughter who had at one point faithfully attended the services. God is working on their hearts and in their families. Back in “El Plan” they have a sister who is on-fire for God. These two had gotten very angry with me when I invited them to be baptized 5 years ago. Unfortunately our former point of contact of the village and family were not present that day but were out partying. You may recall that they refused to submit to obedience to God in baptism this July. It is apparent that they continue to love the ways of the world. God’s got to get a hold of them, but He’s a gentleman and does not force His will on anyone. Please join me in weekly prayer for them and young Mari of Monte. Tepetongo “My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land.” (Ps. 63:1) 7 years of working in the black heart/new heart and for the first time ever I saw a group of believers, in a community that has no church, actually hungry for God. When my friend Jerry Chen told me about the new work in Tepetongo starting last Saturday my heart leaped in me. Jerry and Pastor Ruben described a people hungry for God, even weeping in the presence of the Lord during the first service. Since Delia and Fransisca were not in Parral to do a service it opened up an opportunity for us to go there on Tuesday. Every time we drove through Tepetongo on the way to Mt. Escobedo we felt God had something special for that place. We had a powerful service on Tuesday. Despite me losing my voice, I was able to sing and invite the presence of the Lord into that place. Many were ministered to during worship and preaching. Unsaved visitors felt the presence of the Lord as they walked in the house. Here a lady and other believers had been praying for years that someone would come and do services. Her house is adequate and spacious for a house church. 5 adults and 4 children received Christ! Pray for Todas las Naciones church as they continue working there weekly. Monte Escobedo “But Jesus said, Let the children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 19:14) Todas las Naciones church continues making the journey through a road full of pot holes and dangerous curves to do a service every Sunday. On the avg. there have only been about 3 people come a week. The folks in Tepetongo shared with me how Tepetongo had once been hard to the gospel but now the people are receptive. Monte Escobedo is tough folks, really hard soil to preach in. It’s going to be prayer like in Villa Hermosa that is going to break the strongholds the enemy has in place. On Sunday, a believer named Sabino approached me that he wanted to be baptized. We went early on Thursday to pay the rent, utilities and decorate/pray over the church-thanks to you who adopted a month. I had been expecting Sabino to show up early to take him to be baptized before service. He got there about 30 min before service so I quickly got together a group and we went to a nearby lake. Even unsaved kids already at the church wanted to go with us. I found a perfect place with a big rock for the kids to sit on and view what was taking place. You will enjoy the pictures when you see them. You could see that the Lord was giving understanding of His Word to the children as I shared from Acts 8. Some of the older children appeared to be eager for the opportunity to be baptized themselves when I made the invitation for anyone else present to come forward. On this Thursday service we had some 50 people come, most being children. We want to see all those folks show up on Sunday mornings! May God bring them to Him just as He did in Matt 19. May they know Him at this young age and be molded like clay by Potter Jesus. Please pray that their unsaved parents will allow them to attend on Sunday mornings. We and Todas las Naciones church would love to disciple them in the ways of the Lord. I know it’s a lot to read, God did a lot of great things this past week-like He always does! On Wednesday night we had a special service at Jerry’s mother-in-law’s house in El Cargadero and there Joan shared her whole testimony of liberation from demon possession. Nacho, who got saved this New Year’s Eve brought his wife who got saved after Joan’s testimony. The host family had been through many struggles and was reunited once again in Christ. Many were liberated from various chains of depression, bitterness, and anger. Joan encouraged them that forgiveness was their ticket to freedom. I again want to thank you all who prayed for us this trip and for those who invested in the church at Monte Escobedo. We will soon be doing a monthly support-a-thon like we did with the church so we can go full-time this summer. Love ya’ll, Bro Ben & Sembradores de Cristo family Tax-exempt giving % Sembradores de Cristo Esperanza Del Rio Community Church 603 E. 17th St. Del Rio, TX 78840 www.sembradoresdecristo.com Phone: (830) 719-9731

Fiesta Navidad & New Years 2012/13

Sembradores de Cristo Fiesta Navidad & New Years 2012/13 “Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.” (Luke 14:21) “Quickly” notes a sense of urgency. Jesus in Revelations 22:20 also declares, “Surely I am coming quickly!” As servants of His church, we need to get more serious about going out and share the good news. It’s amazing how in this parable of the great supper, the man’s own friends were all too busy to come to the banquet. Isn’t it amazing how the “needy” seem to be the only ones in “need” for God? After all these needy were brought in the master sent the servant to the highways and hedges because there was still room. The servant was instructed to compel them to come. Again, a sense of urgency. There is room in heaven for so many more. The master told him, “Let’s fill this place!” We need to go out quickly and urge the people to repent and know Christ. The religious, self-righteous, apathetic, and materialistically “rich” probably won’t be interested. Those who are hurting & broken might be-hungry for some real food, some “bread of heaven.” There’s plenty of room at the table of the Master for those who will open their hearts to Jesus and dine with the King. I hope the church will have a sense of urgency this 2013 as it fulfills the Great Commission, going out quickly, compelling the sinners to come in and partake of the new covenant. Group blessings & challenges Thanks to all of you who supported us in prayer this past week and to all of you who sent those gifts full of tokens of love. All but 20 girl’s gifts were distributed this last week of the 250 total. God granted us travel mercies the whole trip, even a green light in the interior on the way down. Victor Rocha was such a blessing to have with us (the Elliott’s & Blanco’s). What a servant of God-photographer, driver, anything & everything kind of guy. This was Victor’s first mission trip-of many to come! The windshield wipers went out on the way to Zacatecas city on Monday. I’ve never had to drive without windshield wipers-now that’s an experience-ha! No mechanic shop was open all the way back from the city. God was gracious and helped us make it back safely, praise be His name. The next day it wasn’t raining in Jerez, however, halfway to Mt. Escobedo it started pouring again. We prayed (this was New Years Day) and out of nowhere there was a little auto mechanic shop on the outskirts of a town called Huejucar. He was closed but he came out to help us –hallelujah! Also, muchísimas gracias for agreeing with us for health for the team-all team members were healthy and full of energy to serve the Lord all week. However, a young sister in the Lord that accompanied our team to Zacatecas that Monday night got very sick. We laid our hands on her when we got back to her house and she almost fainted. She passed out as her parents rushed her to the hospital. Meanwhile, back at their house we kept praying for her, not accepting that the devil would have any victory in the matter. The Lord had told me that ALL of our team members would be healthy all week-I knew that included local folks who helped us, even if that meant for one day. We continued with the already planned New Year’s Eve service at her house with her grandma, uncle, his unsaved brother, and her sister and brother-in-law Jerry Chen. The unsaved relative decided to give his whole life to Christ that night, amen. Meanwhile the young sister’s parents and brothers were scared sick of losing their little angel at the hospital. We ended up having a second mini-service among our small team, strongly experiencing the presence of the Lord in that little house. We were pleased to hear the family come back from the hospital at around 2 A.M. Our young sister in Christ was fine; the cold weather had been a little too much for her that day. Mtn village work The first couple days of our trip were spent in the high mtn villages. We decided to visit Villa Hermosa village that Friday, a village we have now been visiting for almost 7 years. Here there has never been a man or woman of peace to step up and want a Bible study and/or church in their village. Gamaliel Blanco and his wife were with us there 4 Christmases ago when the catechist tried to run us off the volleyball court. We have now had no such issues with him for two years now. As a group we decided to also take Christmas presents to the precious, impoverished children of this village. We found some Christmas story puppets in our little warehouse in Palmas Altas to take to Villa with us. The children here have always been very attentive and interested. We have built very good relationships with the folks of this village over the past 6 yrs. Last August one of them told us that the lady in charge of the little Catholic church is now “adios” meaning we are free to enter now and preach without any worry. This lady had tried to run us off on our fourth trip to Zacatecas back in 2006. As we went out to invite, one young woman asked Gamaliel what time the service was going to be at the court. She did this deceitfully as to know what time to go and disturb the service by ringing the bell at the Catholic church. No one left our gathering, nor paid her any attention at all. On Saturday I did my traditional Palmas Altas mtn run. Near the end of this run is an altar to the idol “El santo niño.” We know there’s nothing “santo” about that idol but that it is “diabolico.” As I drew near to the area I saw that some farmers had burned their fields, right up to the plot of land that the idol is on. The Lord told me that He’s going to burn it down. I remembered how the prophets defended the holy name of our Lord burning the Baal’s & high places. I had told Victor, Gamaliel, and Jose Angel to drive out and pick me up there. They joined me in rebuking that evil spirit’s power in the area in the name of Jesus. Jose Angel explained to us that once a year the people gather there-the priest holds a short mass, and then people stick around to get drunk & festive. The Lord showed Gamaliel as he was praying that many devote to the idol practice sexual immorality and other abominations. From there I decided to take Victor to villages we don’t work in that belong to Fresnillo county. We got a little excited and decided to give some gifts we had left in the van to some children in the streets that were in two villages. We quickly told them that Jesus loved them, that He had given them the gift and wants to give them the gift of eternal life. We had to do it quick before all the other children of the village would see us and run over, knowing we wouldn’t have enough for Monte Escobedo and the church at Jerez. That evening we had a great service with Pastor Nacho in Plan de Carrillo. We invited the folks of Monte de los Garcia to the service but no, negative, they said they would come and did not come. It is very apparent that they are not interested in following the Lord. In Plan de Carrillo the enemy is dividing the Christians. Again, as in November, Pastor Nacho was very discouraged since most of his people had left for the other church. We encouraged the few that attended to be faithful to their pastor and congregation. Work with “Todas las naciones” church In the last newsletter we mentioned the blessing it was to have visited and preached at the church “Todas las naciones” of Jerez. We were able to visit again this past Sunday. The church is full of “niños” since the children’s home attends that church. It was a blessing to bless these precious angels with Christmas gifts. We also had some jackets left over from last year’s visit that we distributed to the men and women of the church. The Lord gave me a special blessing that day. Before service I went around the corner to a local cyber cafe to check my e-mail and ran into a familiar face from Palmas Altas. A little girl that had once lived in Palmas but now lived in Jerez was there and eager to see us. Unfortunately she, like many youth of Jerez, is allowed to run wild on the streets without any supervision in the daytime. I invited her to church-made sure she went and asked permission-ha. It was a blessing to bless her with a Christmas gift. The church accompanied us this past Friday to Parral village. Sister Amber and Brother Tony along with Jerry and Michal brought us some 30 helpers, mostly youth. Since Parral is a small village, we sent half one way to invite and the other half the other way. God brought in believers from Palmas Altas, Monte Escobedo, El Cargadero, the church in Jerez, and Parral together to glorify His name in this beautiful village. We had a “fiesta cristiana” that evening with tamales, Christmas gifts, special music, and even a drama. My wife and I improvised the “heart skit” that we hadn’t performed in more than two years-good times. The Lord led Sister Ester, Gamaliel wife, to pray for Ruben’s mother-in-law who wished to receive Christ. Ester later told me she was nervous since she had never led a sinner’s prayer with anybody before but saw that I was busy praying for somebody else and didn’t want to bother me. She spoke of the indescribable joy she experienced. I thank the leaders of “Todas las naciones” for allowing their church members to join us in going out to the streets & highways of the surrounding villages and towns. The church has also decided to support us by going to do services in the church of Monte Escobedo once a week during our absence. Praise God! He is unifying His Jesus team to make His kingdom come in every corner of the earth, in our case-Zacatecas! Monte Escobedo We spent three days in Monte Escobedo doing the first three services at our first church building. I remember being disappointed this November when those who had been faithful during our first two years of working in Colonia La Pradera had stopped coming to Ruben’s Bible study and didn’t come to our meeting. Most of those folks just avoided us when we went to look for them. Back at the motel we spent time in intense, unified prayer for His church at Monte Escobedo. The Lord told me that He was going to bring new blood into the church, folks who really love Him and want to work. Out with the old and in with the new sometimes, right? Since it was raining so much all we could do was pray and drive around to make a presence with the van the first two days. We prayed for divine appointments with lost souls and with folks who had attended our past events at the auditorium. As I was inviting folks on Wednesday I ran into a familiar face in a pharmacy from a previous event in August with PK that shared her testimony with me. She started with, “You guys are the ones that came in August, right?” She shared that her friend had invited her and that she didn’t want to go. She had been suffering from severe depression and that night that she went she felt the depression lifted during the music and hadn’t felt the same since. She told me she was a single mother that had felt she had nothing to live for but her treasured son. She got excited when I told her that the church was just around the corner and even more so when I invited her to be part of the team. She came both nights after that and even helped us pass out the gifts. Her friend, the pharmacist, had been listening to our conversation and felt the desire to receive Christ. Another man had been healed of eyesight in one eye also in August. He came all three nights; in fact, I remember him going to every previous event at the auditorium. People will not deny what God has done for them. The motel itself was a blessing, despite it being a little pricey. It is right around the corner from the church. The Lord blessed us unexpectedly with a room that had a kitchenette-kitchen and stove-since there is now no house available to stay at with Guadalupe Villarreal in Laguna Grande. The second day of services Brother Gamaliel preached and made the invitation for all to come forward to receive prayer. Many were touched by the Holy Spirit during that service. Depression seems to be a tool of the enemy particularly in Monte Escobedo. I prayed with two ladies and a man to receive Christ for the first time. The third day I decided to make the announcement as we invited and evangelized to spread the word about the Christmas gifts since such few children had went to the services the first two nights. That helped us fill the church on Thursday. We had about 97 people come, some 76 children. The Lord allowed me to share the gospel with the owner of a hardware store that morning. The Lord moved him to share with me that his wife had left him and that he now lives with a young mistress. The Lord led him to ask me what I thought about that. I did and he was penetrated to the heart by his sin and prayed for forgiveness to the Savior of all. Happy new year folks. I hope you have enjoyed reading this newsletter concerning the Lord’s work. You can be expecting the trip pictures soon. Blessings to all in the name of our Lord, Brother Ben Please consider partnering with us by supporting us on a monthly basis. Love ya’ll, Bro Ben & Sembradores de Cristo family Tax-exempt giving % Sembradores de Cristo Esperanza Del Rio Community Church 603 E. 17th St. Del Rio, TX 78840 www.sembradoresdecristo.com Phone: (830) 719-9731

Gospel Facilitators Summer Zac 2012

Sembradores de Cristo Newsletter August 15, 2012 Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” Plain and simple folks. It was written and necessary that the Son of God would suffer, die, and rise again. Now for us as His children/servants it is written and necessary that we preach repentance and remission of sins in His name to all nations. No matter what the cost may be, we are to do it. It is our commissioned duty. We have just finished another week of doing just that here in the black heart of Zacatecas with Evangelist Kevin Cole (PK). The message PK preached at the revival was a simple one: Christ was born of a virgin, He lived a sinless life, He did miracles, He was crucified for our sins, He rose again, and He is the ONLY way. PK has been coming with us now for three years. God led him to us through meeting his daughter at an outreach in Cd. Acuna. He now has a ministry called “Gospel Facilitators.” He is preaching revivals in the Philipines and aiding missionaries in Hong Kong in getting the Word of God to mainland China. He is also going to help found a Bible school in India. Fortunately, (hallelujah) he also has felt the strong call of the Holy Spirit to Zacatecas. In his ministry, he connects with missionaries and pastors on the ground in foreign countries who have a kingdom perspective (not an “I” perspective, my church, my ministry, etc.) and he aids them with teaching, evangelism, and crusades. We thank God for PK’s life & ministry. He has become part of the Sembradores family. This past week PK brought three powerful brothers, one of which has been here before. The pastoral conference in Zacatecas city a couple of weeks ago went very well. It was a joy and honor for my wife and me to be able to assist the conference once again with translating and children’s ministry. The director allowed us to bring Brother Ruben and his family with us which was a great training experience for them both. At the conference I ran into an old friend from Jerez named Jerry Chen. We had met Jerry three years ago at an outreach and had lost contact since. Jerry is a precious brother who runs a music school as a ministry in Jerez and also helps with his local church. He has a tremendous vision for Zacatecas that we will be glad to help out with in any way we can. We will share more about that with you in the future. Village ministry The first day of the mission trip Ruben and I took the men on a hardcore hike of pretty much an hour of all straight up climbing. Zacatecas has some pretty amazing mountains to go and adventure. In case you’re interested we can organize one of those hikes for you-no tourists, no forest ranger, just open range! This particular one is a real good one, huge rock formations that make the Garden of Gods look like mini mounds of clay. At the end you can see one of our villages, Parral, Jerez, and all the way to Zacatecas city (it’s high point at 8500). The summit of this hike is around 9000 ft. Enough of that fun non-spiritual stuff-ha! Our first night, Wednesday, we went to join Pastor Nacho and his service in a village named “Plan de Carrillo.” For a few years Pastor Nacho had shut the doors to the church due to lack of attendance. Jesse and I always made it a point and this summer Brother Kevin to visit him, pray with him, and encourage him to get back in the game. Hallelujah! Not long ago he opened the doors of the church again and is holding services twice a week. Two weeks ago, Ruben and I went and preached at the church and it was so full that there was not even standing space. At the end of last Wednesday’s service we blessed the adults with rice and beans and the children with backpacks. You should have seen those smiles (you will soon.) One thing PK likes is blessing these folks with rice and beans. Thank you to all of you who read this newsletters and helped PK and team come on this trip. Because of the last three years of drought, the price of beans has skyrocketed. Because of your gift, these people will have a meal for the next few weeks. Plan de Carrillo is one of the most impoverished villages in the area, as impoverished or more than Parral. At the end of the service, Brother Jeremy performed his exciting fire dance, which entertained the people a good while! On Thursday we were able to do a final service for the summer in Parral. We did it at the “Huizachito” tree like old times and saw a lot of the people who hadn’t come all summer come and rejoice with us in the name of our Lord. It was good to see Gabriel come back as well. It was a powerful service. The power and presence of the Holy Spirit was manifested and there was much tears and joy. There was much repentance and restoration during that service. Revival Monte Escobedo Where do I start? How about, it was amazing, it rocked, it was incredible! Of course it was because God was in it. God showed up. He heard our prayers and saved lives and even touched some with miraculous healing. That Friday morning before we headed out from Palmas Altas to Monte Escobedo we went to pray for Sister Angelina’s very ill mother in a nearby village. Diana and I had been very busy and hadn’t been able to make it out to her house to pray for her. The prophet Joel had clearly said that in the last days old men would dream dreams. Well, in this case, it was an elderly woman. You can choose to believe what I’m about to tell you or not, that’s up to you. The night before she had dreamed that 5 white men would show up at her house to pray for her. Indeed there were five of us: PK, Jeremy, Herb, Matthew, and of course myself. Wow! The Lord touched her and she has now been resting much better, praise the Lord for that. The first night of the revival, Friday night, we had an attendance of 79. Not bad for Monte Escobedo, a town seated right in the center of idolatry of Zacatecas-a town that was still declared 100% Roman Catholic 8 yrs ago. When PK goes to the Philipines where there is a great hunger for God he’ll have at least 500 the first night. As Ruben and I went out to put up bulletins about the revival around town we were blessed to run into a lot of the people we hadn’t seen all summer but that had come to the auditorium during previous outreaches. Every business and locality gave us the favor to put up the bulletin, hallelujah! There were approx. (God knows the real number) 5 salvations that first night. That Saturday the Lord allowed us to share the gospel with a man that knew English at the plaza. Conviction from the Holy Spirit came over him and he started confessing how he wanted to change, how he wanted to leave his drinking habit. He had witnessed some terrible things committed by the Catholic Church and pretty much hated religion-(sound familiar) just like our Lord did. At the end of the service on night 2, various people came forward and gave testimony of how God had healed them. Two had had earaches and were healed, one of a stomach ache, one of chest pain, and one of pain in her waist. There were 105 with 10 salvations. After the services on Friday and Saturday we had a great time of fellowship with the American missionary team and the local Monte Escobedo church team. For the first team we had ushers and greeters that were from the local church. That time of breaking bread with the believers is so essential for health of the church. Jeremy did and extended version of his fire dance and we were able to bless the children that are part of the church with their backpack and school supplies. Before the service and fellowship time one of the brothers had taken us to a nearby waterfall and cave where one of the brothers happened upon a coiled up rattlesnake-yikes and praise God for His protection! The last night we jumped to 185. Before service we had gone to say hello to one of the sisters and then found her mother there with much need for prayer. In fact, Elvira prayed that morning that we would come over early before the service to visit and pray for her mother-something not planned with our extremely busy schedule. Wow, how the Spirit works! Her mother had been suffering from much depression and spiritual attacks. We had barely started praying when we saw the Jalisco state police come in and take three men, one being a major boss from a drug cartel. One of our team members was in the van and hadn’t seen them so we quickly called him and all went inside while the officers took care of business-woo! Ruben’s wife, Carmelita, shared a powerful testimony that night of how much abuse she had suffered from her father. I almost cringed in my seat when she started bringing the heat, telling people to stop believing in the saints and the priests (that are just men as she put it). I was waiting to see people march off after she said that and to my surprise they stayed locked in on what she was saying instead of getting upset. She straight up told them that they needed Jesus! Amen. All of the adults got a bag of beans and rice and the children a bag of candy. It was harder than ever to give my farewells to the team. Diana and I love these sheep that God has delegated us to teach and care for. We really need to be here full-time now folks. Please help enable us to do that by partnering with us in financial support. Huichol Indian outreach Three years ago Diana, the kids, Jesse, and I had the amazing opportunity of going up to the Jalisco mountains and visiting a Huichol community. The Lord told us we would have that opportunity again and ever since then we had prayed for that day to come. We are working with one Huichiol woman that sells her jewelry at the plaza in Monte Escobedo. PK fought and fought to be able to change his and Herb’s flight out from Monday morning to Monday night. We slept for about 3 hrs. after the outreach and got up to drop off the other two at the airport. We saved the rest of the beans and rice and backpacks for the Huichol Indians and Pastor Ediberto’s church. I called him and he surprised us with sending a Huichol believer with us from Fresnillo. Brother Samuel had been waiting for a bus at 6 AM that never showed up. Well, what do you know; here we were going through Fresnillo three hours later. Praise God! “Keaku” is a greeting similar to “How is it going?” He shared his testimony with us on the way and tried to teach us a little Huichol-yeah right (lol). Alcoholism is rampant among the men of the tribe (a tribe of some 45,000 strong). He had been saved three years ago and lost his job at the local Huichol cultural museum since he now refused to give money and personal participate in the paganistic fiestas and pilgrimages. From the airport to the town where Pastor Ediberto lived was 3 ½ hard driving hours through the mountains. To the Huichol village from that town was another 1 ½ much harder hours-dirt roads and half roads, 100 ft. drop offs, you get the picture. Pastor Ediberto knows some of the Huichol language and two other tribal languages. He worked with the Tepehuan people for 18 yrs. One day one of them got tired of him shared about this “Jesus” and tried to hang him. The Lord loosened the rope and he escaped alive. Woo! That’s my kind of missionary contact my friends. Pastor Ediberto is the real deal. The road up the mountains was one of the most amazing we had ever seen, all the green, trees, mountains, and canyons. On the way up, Ediberto and Samuel explained to us that the village we were visiting was one of the few that the gospel was allowed to enter. Usually the tribal leaders are either shamans or very influenced by other shamans. The shamans had kicked Ediberto out before since his “Christian” people weren’t giving money or time to the paganistic rituals such as the sacrifice of bulls. The people were just precious. All the Huichol language I had tried to learn on the way up escaped me the moment I stood in front of those precious creations of God. PK again gave a simple message of salvation. He spoke in English; I translated to Spanish, and Samuel into Huichol. Awesome! The people were very orderly when we passed out the rice and beans and candy to the children. PK acted like he was the “piñata” and I the kid hitting it, him hurling out the candies. Fun, fun! In this village there is future opportunity to come again now that they have seen us. Samuel told the people to remember our faces and know that we don’t do evil but good. There is great opportunity to do VBS’s, sports camps, evangelism, and much more. Samuel would like to see a church be raised up there. In another village they burned the property and excommunicated the people out before they got the opportunity to raise up the church. I am pumped out about working there in the future. I’m not going to lie, the road is hardcore. It is very long and painful. Maybe some of you would like to go with me, you never know. Prayer requests Bible study in Laguna Grande-the Lord would give Ruben wisdom to lead the Bible study and favor with the group from Monte Escobedo and Laguna Grande Our trip back to the U.S tomorrow Potential house and building for church that we are looking at renting in Monte Escobedo Love in Christ, Brother Benjamin Elliott & Sembradores de Cristo family Sembradores de Cristo 603 E. 17th St. Del Rio, TX 78840 Owwwbenja@yahoo.comwww.sembradoresdecristo.com (830)719-9731

Spring Break 2012

Sembradores de Cristo Spring Break Trip Newsletter 2012
“And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Then he said to Him, if Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.” (Exodus 33:14-15)
Indeed His Holy Presence did go with us all week long in the black heart and the team is now getting much needed rest. I love Moses’s attitude as he lets God know how He knows that without God they weren’t going to do anything, go anywhere. He recognizes that the lost world won’t be able to recognize that they are any different than the rest of the pagan nations without God’s mighty presence. Everyday our team held intense times of worship, devo, and prayer, seeking for His presence. On Monday we climbed onto the roof of Angelina’s house and prayed in unity over the four cardinal directions. God heard us and went ahead of us preparing the territory in every village and town we worked in. From start to finish that ole toothless lion fought against us but there was our Almighty God like a shield about us. To start with, two of our team members missed their connecting flight to Del Rio, one of them also forgetting her passport at home. We were greatly amazed that their airline offered them a free connection to Zacatecas. The only problem was the passport didn’t arrive on time. Our team really prayed as we knew it was the enemy trying to deter them from being in Zacatecas as they were to play the two main parts of the drama. The passport finally arrived Monday morning and the airline graciously changed their flight to Monday afternoon. All week long we saw folks come to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, saw folks be healed physically, many folks encouraged and exhorted, and many folks blessed with a basic staple of beans and rice.
Villages
This trip we were able to visit Parral de las Huertas twice. Be encouraged that Francisca and Delia continue growing in their faith as does Gabriel. Gabriel has made the decision to be baptized this coming March. The lady from the store who had seen the mighty hand of God bring rain from heaven after spending years organizing processions up and down the mtns to call upon the dead saint idols has went back to her old vomit of idolatry. Pastor Kevin (PK) was able to exhort Arnulfo (whom we nicknamed Nuf-dog) to come back to God. PK’s New York team was the first team to go into Parral with us to evangelize back in summer 2009. Arnulfo was told he wasn’t ever going to walk again after being ridden with bullets. We prayed for him and he felt a supernatural warmth come over his leg. The rest of that summer I sent different brothers to read the Bible with him and pray over him. By the following summer, Arnulfo was up and walking just fine. His believing mother was down for the summer but he didn’t want anything to do with us, only showing up once when I cooked hot dogs. God has a calling on that young man’s life and I pray that he will stop running from it. In Villa Hermosa we visited the one believing man, Daniel, and had a little service with him right in his home. The team was surprised to see the biggest group they had ever seen come together at the court there. The people really responded to sister Pastor Mike’s word on Jonah. A few of one us went to pray with a sweet woman in her 90’s who says her leg pain goes away every time we pray for her-hallelujah! PK’s balloon making was a constant hit everywhere all week and in Villa Hsa a few men felt obligated to stay (ha) after PK made them a balloon. Monte de los Garcia continues to be the place that we see the greatest move of God among the villages. Here the team performed the drama right on the street outside the store/church. The children and the adults were cut to heart by the message of the drama (Everything by Lifehouse). One young woman couldn’t hold back her emotions after the drama and during PK’s followup message. He preached on Galatians 5 listing all the sins that were represented in the drama and how those who practice them will not enter the kingdom of heaven. She received Christ and let it all out-amen! We also handed out hot dogs at the end of the service. I had realized that I had never done a meal for the people of Monte de los Garcia. Martin, Myra, Beto, and Faviola are really starting to step it up. They were helping us out with church order, passing out Bibles, and even praying for folks with the laying on of hands. Beto was excited when I gave him the first guitar I learned guitar on which had been given to me by a border team from Illinois in Dec. 2004. Luis has declared his intention of being baptized in June. Every member of the team played their part this week. We seriously would not have been able to do it this time without all of their help. I have no idea how we did it in December with me suffering from bronchitis, gastritis, and that foot pain. My foot’s getting better again but the doctors still have no idea what the issue is. Praise the Lord, this time I had drivers, cooks, musicians, translators, greeters, children’s workers, preachers (un poquito de todo!)
Team Sembradores Spring Break 2012
One of those musicians was our beloved brother Ezequiel Hdz (Cheque) from Saltillo. Cheque really blessed our team with his tremendous anointing in worship. Those who have worked with Cheque know how much music just bubbles out of him. I call him my personal “karaoke.” With him, Jeremy Payne, Mere Limones, and Alejandra Urteaga we had quite a music group this week and guess what-I didn’t have to help out with that. Yeah! There were three preachers among the group (myself, PK, and Mike.) Again, sister Linda (Cheque’s mom) helped out with the meals in Palmas Altas and Laguna Grande and shared the gospel at every gas station, house, park, and work site. We even had someone who helped out with Hadassah since Papa Toño and Johana couldn’t make it. Brother Gary would just hold her and hold her while my wife taught the children. Sister Sarah did a great job leading the team and taking awesome “fotos” like she always does. Hector and Ana did a great job translating and doing about anything and everything asked to do. Hector and sister Jen’s humble ways of sharing their testimonies of converting from Catholicism to Christianity struck many hearts. It was brother Tim’s second mission trip ever-first to China and then to Zacatecas. It can’t get much more hardcore than that. Sister Wendy is a sweet-spirited sister who just glows as she works with people of all ages. Shalom and Nemi helped out a lot too-they took care of their own station (coloring Bible pages) at the carnival on Thursday!
Monte Escobedo
For the fourth time in a row, the deputy mayor of Monte Escobedo granted us the auditorium for the event for FREE! Normally he rents the place for $200/night. The place is a huge gymnasium, a great place for outreaches. The Lord moved so strongly that we held off with our planned evangelism day in Teul. PK and I were able to meet with the deputy mayor (Antonio) and thank him again for the permission to use the building. We were able to even encourage him with a word and pray for him. I was surprised when he allowed PK to give him a huge bear hug right in front of his armed bodyguard-hallelujah! He was excited to hear that we were going to hand out rice and beans as there was no harvest this last year. The people were hungry physically and spiritually in Monte Escobedo and all the villages. I have no idea how we had enough beans and rice to bless all the villages (Parral, Villa, and Monte de los Garcia) and also have enough to hand out bags of beans and rice two days in Monte Escobedo. We also had a lot of hot dogs leftover from the outreach in Monte de los Garcia so I decided to do a hot dog distribution there the last day. There were a lot more buns then hot dogs so one of the local sisters (Elvia) had a great idea-slicing them in half. She and Lupe have begun to grow spiritually and were a great help all three days passing out things, keeping order in lines, praying for folks, etc. Erica Bonilla also helped out and brought a friend the first night who gave her life to Christ. It was all God because she had prayed for this friend but hadn’t invited her since she hadn’t seen us and there she just showed up! Both ladies that clean the auditorium’s restrooms have now been saved and also helped out. They now let all my team members use the restroom for free! God really blessed Sister Guadalupe Villarreal this week as well. During devo one morning the Holy Spirit led me to have the team lay hands on her and she was really touched by the Spirit. On Friday morning she took us to her aunt’s home where Sister Sarah shared a testimony that identified with her life. The Lord told me that one of her family members was very wayward. As we layed hands on her and prayed for her wayward son (in an out of drugs), she got on her knees and was healed of her back pain. She told us that she hadn’t kneeled or really bent down now for years. Mike and Tim began rebuking the ugly virgin and Juan Diego idols she had in her house and then the Lord told me to be bold and tell her that the depression and anxiety she suffered would depart if she got rid of those idols. Another healing occurred as we went out to evangelize. Wendy and Sarah arrived with a lady who wouldn’t put the headphones on because she could barely hear. Wendy and Sarah didn’t give up praying until she could hear. The Lord opened up one ear completely and the other she was able to hear out of a little bit. We evangelized in the colonia that Guadalupe’s niece’s house is in. We were able to use this empty house for the two nights we stayed there. Most all teams that I sent out had great responses to the evangecube and evangelism. Mike and I got to lead the neighbor kids to Christ who later came to the carnival after apprehension about going due to the cartel violence. We also ended up at the local nursing home where two elderly men wouldn’t stop making a big deal about the virgin Mary. Hector had just given us a great devo on the wisdom of preaching the truth about the idols while respecting the local’s innocent beliefs. Since neither they nor the workers would listen we went to the lady they claimed “needed” to hear the message since she always fought with them. Guess what, she was the only one to receive Christ! On Thursday, the day of the carnival, we saw about 250 people-probably close to the number we had the first outreach and this summer with the New Covenant Woodward team. The police helped us oust some rowdy youth and men who wouldn’t submit to the rules and leave their basketballs and volleyballs out till after we were finished. Cheque overheard youth in the internet café complain about how the “Ballena” was here again meaning they couldn’t play ball and how they were surprised that the policia was on our side-ha! We rejoiced to see many folks come back on Friday even after I had told them there wasn’t going to be any “material” gift. We had already decided to specially bless that group with whatever candy, rice, and beans were left as well as the hot dogs. PK brought some thunder from the book of Nehemiah about the sacrifice and cost of rebuilding. He related the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem with the building of His church in Monte Escobedo. He encouraged those interested to submit to my leadership. I saw their serious faces as PK asked for those volunteers to raise their hands and stand up and I realized that “YES” these were the church of Monte Escobedo. There are now quite a few folks who have told me that they want to be part of our church. Hallelujah! God has done it and is doing it! It’s not about me nor has it ever been about me. He is building His church that the gates of hell shall not prevail against!
Travel mercies
I want to thank all of those that prayed for us this past week. The Lord’s hand was upon us all week. The lives of His saints our precious to Him! I do have to mention that the brakes on the Ballena completely went out as did the sliding door break again. By the grace of God we made the 12 hour trip back without any trouble even without brakes. It will probably cost some $800 to fix all of that. Let me know if you would like to help out with that.

Please pray about partnering with us financially so we can go full-time.

Love ya’ll, Sembradores de Cristo family

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Esperanza Del Rio Community Church
603 E. 17th St. Del Rio, TX 78840

www.sembradoresdecristo.com

Phone: (830) 719-9731

Summer 2011 Zac Summary

Back from Zac Newsletter /Summer Summary

“And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.” (Acts 2:42)

The Elliott family and Johanna Magaña are safely back on the border. We were able to come back a few days before work/school starts and get some much needed rest. We thank all of you who were praying for us all summer as your prayers were needed and felt. We also thank each and every one of you who contributed financially towards our summer ministry costs. We wouldn’t have been able to do the Lord’s work in Zacatecas this summer without your participation. Our goal is to raise all the needed support to stay full-time at the end of next summer. We only have an approx. $600 of a minimum $3000/mth that we will need. We encourage folks that have seen/ known our faithfulness to our calling and ministry to support us with $50/mth and churches to come on board with $200/mth. Those who support us on a monthly basis and those who have made contributions towards our trips have sown in good soil. These past five years of spiritual and physical warfare have produced fruit in the hardest area of all Mexico and possibly even of Latin America. This summer we have battled with the usual: dangerous mountain road curves, washed out dirt roads, rain interrupting outside services, the issues of having to stay in someone else’s home, very few laborers for the harvest, wavering decisions to follow Christ, and the fatigue of so much travel and having to set up and tear down for every service. We only dealt with the catechist once this summer. This last week he came into Parral trying to provoke a religious debate with us. Again, he wishes to be worshipped as a living saint and has not stopped trying to drive us out even though his authority (a local priest) has prohibited him from publicizing his propaganda. However, Miguel (continue praying for him) is nothing compared to what we came up against this summer 2011. As most of you know already, my assistant and I both were attacked in deep southern Zacatecas by drug lords early in the summer and then our team from Woodward and Acuña was attacked in our immediate area. We again thank the Woodward team for their great passion to serve the Lord amidst these incredible circumstances. We thank and praise the Lord Jesus Christ for providing safety for every member of our Sembradores team. Please do not stop praying for our people in Guadalupe Victoria, Palmas Altas, Parral, Monte de los Garcia, and Monte Escobedo, Zacatecas. They are still there my friends. Pray for their safety-in their villages, and every time they have to travel.

Ministry areas

Those who were baptized in March and July have shown great spiritual growth. Their whole outlook has changed. They have chosen to follow Christ 100% no matter what the cost may be. Last summer when I attempted to leave a service order for the villages to follow there was not a positive response. This summer was totally different. In every weekly ministry site but Guadalupe Victoria there are people that are 100% dedicated to persevere in doctrine, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and in prayer on a weekly basis. Our final visits consisted of a final word of encouragement and the delegation of responsibilities for the service order: opening service, worship time, word time, closing prayer time. A great praise report is that in Monte Escobedo Erica Bonilla felt the calling of the Lord to work with children. During the week before service the children from the colonia had come to her asking her to give them a weekly Bible class besides the one we were already having. The Lord did it my brethren! Erica has, therefore, made the decision to be the children’s teacher of the church for now. Another great personal testimony/blessing for me was that the last two weeks a little girl I had led to Christ with the evangecube with the Spring Break trip in a far off colonia had started come. Those of you who have come personally to sow seed and those of you who have sown financially have sown in good soil! One of my summer goals was to see my daughter accompany me singing-there was my little 6 yr old Shalom helping me lead worship almost every service. Erica from Monte Escobedo and Luis and Beto from Monte de los Garcia both want to learn the guitar so that they can play for the Lord. Luis used to play accordion and saxophone for the world for years! Erica had already starting taking secular lessons before this summer but we had the opportunity to work with her a little bit this summer. We have a lot of work to do this next year and will need music teachers! Soon we will have our first homegrown musical groups for Monte Escobedo and Monte de los Garcia. Luis, his wife, and younger daughter have proclaimed that they will be ready for baptism this next year as well as Gabriel of Parral. At this time we still did not find any solid properties for sale to purchase and build churches, however, we will probably paint Luis’s store and convert it into a mini temporal church for Monte de los Garcia. Luis has been faithful in allowing us to use this store for services rent free all this time. Next summer we are going to try to find a building in Monte Escobedo for rent for the church. The church there is beginning to grow and the area we have been using will possibly be unavailable for use next year. During our last visits to Parral and Monte Escobedo it rained so hard we could barely even hear each other in the homes for the remainder of the service. Thanks to all of you who prayed so hard for the rain as it had been one of the driest years on record.

Teul, Zacatecas

Three years ago at the end of our summer work 2008 we made a trip to the beach as a family and on the way we drove through one of the most beautiful mountain towns I had ever seen in my life. God told me, "You’re going to come back here one day." Last year that happened when I went with our friends from Alabama and Kentucky. This summer I made three attempts to get back to Teul, Zacatecas in deep southern Zacatecas this summer before it finally happened. Satan did everything he could to stop me from going there. The first time my assistant and I were attacked by drug lords in a nearby city. Know and understand that that attack was made in a city that is now completely controlled by the drug lords. Also know that to get to “that city” (I can’t mention the name of) one must take a highway away from Teul. One does not go through “that city” to get to Teul. The only reason my assistant and I had even gone to “that city” was because it had a hotel and we were not sure if Teul had one or not. I want that to be clear because I believe the Lord has great plans for Teul! Amen! This beautiful city in the southern Zacatecas mountains is one of the birthplaces of tequila. Obviously there is a lot of work to do there my friends! There is no Christian church in that town of 6000 nor is there is one in at least 6 other of the city/counties. These people need to hear the hope of Christ my friends! Who will go? Who will go and share with them the hope and love of Christ? I will my friends, I will go. Does it make any sense at all? Probably not. A lot of things about the cost of the Christian walk don’t make sense! Teul is a 3 hour drive from Palmas Altas. No, I have no idea how we could go on a weekly basis to this far off place (time, gas money). Nothing is impossible for Christ! I had no idea how we were going to be able to continue going to Monte Escobedo but God worked it out-we didn’t miss one week this summer. God provided us with the strength to do the 1 hour ½ haul and the gas money. Bueno, the next attempt I was going to be silly and try to go back to Teul by myself and my blessed wife reminded me of the foolishness of that. Instead she encouraged me that we would prepare better as a team and all go next week. That next week we were scheduled to go with Brother Lynn and I got sick (really sick). Finally, this last Monday it happened. I went with my friend, Rick Reeder, from the Kentucky Baptist association and ran into folks we had led to Christ and even got to meet the mayor of the city who like the mayor of Monte Escobedo gave me authorization to use the municipal auditorium for a Christian event in the future. I found a special friend I had made in the market who we had led to Christ and given a Bible. She had been waiting for us this whole year! She had been waiting for someone to teach her the words of the Bible for a whole year! Can you believe that? She quickly invited some neighborhood kids and we had a little service right there. One of my highlights of the whole summer!



Please consider supporting us on a monthly basis so we can disciple our people. Our agenda is completely open to visit your church on a weekend. Please contact me to set up an appointment.



May God bless and keep you.



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Esperanza Del Rio Community Church

603 E. 17th St.

Del Rio, TX 78840

www.sembradoresdecristo.com

(830) 719-9731

New Covenant Woodward Summer 2011

Sembradores de Cristo New Covenant Woodward Summer trip 2011

“Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me! For my souls trust in You; And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge, Until these calamities have passed by. I will cry out to God Most High to God who performs all things for me. He shall send from heaven and save me; He reproaches the one who would swallow me up.”

(Psalm 57:1-3)

Jesus said in Matthew 26:52 that those who live by the sword shall die by the sword. Let me tell you that this happened this week to those who would do harm to the servants of God. The Elliott family and New Covenant Woodward team lived Psalms 57 this past week in Zacatecas. To begin, let me give praise to the Lord that all are safe. The Woodward team is back home rejoicing in their Savior who did great things this week. Many were saved and brought into His kingdom, four were baptized, and many lives were changed including the Zacatecans, the Oklahomans, our musicians from Acuna, and the Elliott family. Jesus requires those who follow Him to be willing to give their own lives for the gospel if necessary. Taking up their cross and following Him for the first disciples required everything-their families, their jobs (livelihood), and even their very lives. Until recently the state of Zacatecas and particularly our area in Zacatecas had been a “safe” place. As Christians we know that we are only “safe” if we abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

Physical/Spiritual Warfare

I will not be mentioning the names of the locations where these events happened for security issues. However, it is important for you to know what happened. I and all the Woodward team thank those who pray for us on a constant basis from the bottom of our hearts. After you read this many of you will probably never want to come to Zacatecas and may not understand why the Lord allowed what happened to happen. Everything happens for a reason and let me tell you that if you ask any of the team members who experienced this last week they will tell you that they wouldn’t change the experience for anything. None of us will ever be the same after what happened.

It was still daytime and 7 of our team members had went to drop off Franscisca and Delia at their home after the baptisms. On their way back a certain suspicious vehicle tried to pull them over. The team driver put the pedal to the medal as to escape. The certain vehicle chased after them and bullets were fired. The chase lasted for approx 4 km all the way to the corner of our base village. They bandits were then able to cut off our team and yanked our driver out. They hurled insults in Spanish at our team proclaiming that they owned the territory and that anyone had to stop if they demanded it. They also proclaimed that they had the power to kill them if they wanted to. They took three cameras from our team and a little money. God is amazing because I had remembered to tell the team before the baptism day to neither take their money nor their passports to the baptisms as there was no reason for it. After more insults they let the team go. We spend most of the night comforting those involved and seeking the Lord. Upon inspection, we saw clearly that the bullet scratches were signs of intent by the bandits to hit the gas tank. Let me tell you that this is not the end of the story. Understand that at this point all are safe. Saved and unsaved alike in our base village surrounded us with love and gave thanks to God for our safety. Among these bandits was a woman. As we prayed with tears those involved showed no hate for these individuals but rather interceded for them knowing they are not the true enemy. They prayed for this woman who must have went through so much to have arrived at this point.

Our team evangelist made a statement last night during our final share time that is so true. He mentioned that he’s always amazed at how quickly God responds to our prayers during short term mission trips. The next day we headed to our base 2. Two of our team members were feeling ill and two were too exhausted to accompany us to the service. About an hour after service started helicopters started flying back and forth over the town and area. War was in the air. Even the firing of grenade launchers was heard. Our beloved sister in Christ from base 2 called us to tell us that the road back to base 2 was blocked-that they couldn’t come to us nor could we go to them. Terrified folks in the air came to service seeking God and protection. We were able to contact our four individuals and let them know we were okay and vice versa. The Lord provided a place to stay within an hour and again we sought the Lord. We were not able to get reunited with our team members until 1 pm the next day. Let me tell you that the Lord responded to what had happened to us the previous day! We had specifically prayed that the Lord would send His angels to the battlefield. Now did He do that! He sent them and also sent the Mexican Marines to totally wipe out these folks stronghold! The Marines didn’t stop until they had cornered these guys in their safe house-every single one of them was taken out! God said to them, “You don’t mess with my children!” Vengeance is the Lord’s my friends, not ours. Through all of this God was our refuge. He sent from heaven and saved us my friends! You must understand that because this happened our people are much safer now. We also, the Elliott family, are safer now because these events took place. God gave these bandits an opportunity to repent and they didn’t so He swallowed them up.

Outreach Monte Escobedo

The first day of our event started a little late because of all the aforementioned events. Our team was not sad nor were they without energy. We were fired up to preach the gospel! The turn out the first night was low as folks were just beginning to come out of their homes after what happened and the word spread of the event. To God’s glory, the local authorities allowed us to use their massive gymnasium for the event totally free! A few folks were saved the first night and then the second day we went out and evangelized before the event. Many of us met resistance at first but didn’t give up. We kept pressing forward. For the first time ever the whole Elliott family was able to go out-Shalom, Nehemias, and even Hadassah. God gave all teams divine appointments even with people who weren’t from Monte Escobedo. At least 50 people came to Christ that day through the evangelism and outreach. Many great contacts were made with folks interested in a Bible study and even attending our weekly church services. God continues to work through relationships with the people we already know. The people couldn’t believe we had been there the two days before when the physical/spiritual war had transpired. Neither could they believe that nor could they believe that we were willing to go out into the streets and preach the gospel. The second day the attendance at the event doubled as expected. Our team musicians from Acuna were absolutely awesome! They sang songs adequate for folks who have never sang one praise and worship song. They are used to doing revivals in Acuna where hundreds of churches and thousands will gather to praise the Lord. They had never been to Zacatecas the black heart of Mexico. They did great and our team joined in learning the songs with the people. Great joy was in the air! Then the Lord responded before the message with the rain the people had so asked us to pray for! God sent this rain so that the people would believe in the message we preached! God saved Monte Escobedo and our base 2 town from the war because of our one sister, Guadalupe Villarreal, who lives in that whole town. He did not save them because of their repentive hearts. He saved them because of that one righteous daughter of his who had been praying. The Holy Spirit really moved through our brother’s message the second night and folks came forward. Meanwhile our other evangelist led four of the policemen to Christ outside the auditorium. Cristo vive! The next day, the last day of the outreach, he led four more to Christ! Hallelujah! Our third day was our planned carnival. The second day the Lord had miraculously provided chairs-rent free-through a man who we had invited. He turned out to be a man with much political power and even received Christ! The carnival was a great success! The Woodward team had poured their hearts into preparing for this event. We were able even to provide a meal at the end and bags of beans for the attendees. Brother Jose Bonilla, his family, and some other servants of God from Monte Escobedo also helped us with the event. Brother Jose’s family heart is with us 100% my friends. You must know that they love us dearly and have been a crucial part of our ministry. Again the numbers doubled! There was the duck pond, point pong toss, ring toss, tug of war, bean bag toss, ball throw, sack races, face painting, and balloon animals. Everyone pulled their weight, even our local helpers making the event possible. I personally had the blessing of going around and encouraging everyone team and kids alike. I had a special moment when a special needs girl came in telling me she had no friends to go to the carnival stations with. I exclaimed to her, “You have friends now!” She had a blast and even got up front during the songs and helped do the hand signals with sister Johanna. I had to make a cut off time since we were having to travel back to Base 1 and needed to beat the dark but kept putting it back since new people would arrive. I finally stopped the carnival and gave them a word related to the carnival and everything their town had went through-I preached on David and Goliath. It’s not by might, it’s not by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord! Folks were also saved the last night, amen.

Water baptisms

The day the team arrived I prepared them for how many folks were to be baptized. Luis Ramirez had already declared to me that he wouldn’t be nor would his spouse or 14 yr old daughter. He chose to care more about what the rest of the village thought about him then obeying the Lord. He wouldn’t let his 14 yr old daughter be baptized because of her upcoming quinceañera. His oldest daughter and son’s hearts were set upon it. We had a great service inside Luis’s store. Many folks that never come came because of the team, to see if we would give them something. We did, we gave them the Word of God! In all we had four baptisms. Fransisca, from Parral, was 100% determined this time to make the decision. The only one wavering was Martin, Luis’s son-in-law. The Holy Spirit grabbed a hold of him because right after Fransisca was baptized he was the first one to raise his hand! It was a special moment as we then allowed him to assist in the baptism of his wife. May the Lord continue to work in Fransisca, Martin, Mayra, and Beto’s lives! Our team evangelist assisted me with the baptisms and he and his wife said that the moment we had started preaching that a beautiful dove came down and landed near the pool. These two were the only two who witnessed this. May God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit be glorified! The location we did this at was at a famous hot springs pool and so the other visitors witnessed the baptisms and heard the Word of the Lord! Unfortunately we were so busy this week and so exhausted that I was unable to get the pictures from our team photographer so you will have to wait till August when I return for the summer.



What else can I say? “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”



Please help us get to our sheep that we so love and are willing to give our lives for by supporting us monthly.

Thanks again for all your prayers and support, Sembradores de Cristo family



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% Sembradores de Cristo

Esperanza Del Rio Community Church

603 E. 17th St. Del Rio , TX 78840



www.sembradoresdecristo.com

Re: Spring Break 2011

Sembradores de Cristo Newsletter Spring Break 2011

¡Gloria a Dios! The Elliott family and Sembradores de Cristo Spring Break team 2011 are all safely back in the good old USA. We experienced great joy this past week as we served the Lord passionately as one unified body/team in Christ. We witnessed great victories, great movements by the Holy Spirit, great divine appointments, and definitely great trials and tribulations. James 1:2, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials.” 2 Timothy 2:3, “You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” God brought us some true “soldiers of Christ” this week. Before we even left last Saturday the enemy had tried to do everything he could to keep Sister Sarah Broecker from coming on this trip. Her connecting flight from NY to Houston kept getting delayed and was ultimately cancelled. She didn’t give up. She got on a standby list to Austin behind three other candidates. Praise God! They listened to her plight and gave her the priority. Once she got to Austin she realized she didn’t have her license meaning she couldn’t rent a car. I gave up sleep that Friday night before our departure and went to San Antonio to pick her up at 1:00 A.M. The last time Sarah had come to Zacatecas she had also missed a flight and they ended up losing her baggage-baggage she never recovered. Sarah is the sister who constructed our website and painted the famous “La Paloma” and “La Ballena” letters on the ministry vehicles. She is a dear friend of ours and faithful supporter of our ministry. God brought her and two other professional photographers together this past week so get ready for the pictures I will be sending soon. Before I give a detailed summary of this past week’s ministry in the black heart of Mexico let me share with you-that there were four baptism participants on two separate dates, Wednesday and Friday!

Sunday-I sent most of the team to do shopping and deliver the gospel materials to the Benedict missionary family while Brother/Professor Lynn Brandenberger and I did some agricultural work. Our host had recently planted some new peach trees in a different area so we took soil samples, and also took time to go to a nearby river to discuss the possibility of future irrigation in this area of dry-land farming. My father and Lynn spent time discussing the possibility of experimenting with wells and drop irrigation in the future. Please pray about this great possibility of helping the men/area out in the future. We had our first service that evening in Parral. Attendance was good and the Holy Spirit poured out His Spirit on the people. Many of the elderly came forward for prayer for healing. Unfortunately, prior to the service, I found our one faithful man Gabriel in the bar drinking. He did, however, come to the service. He has obviously returned to his old habits. We must pray for him that he will repent and truly give his whole life to Christ. After the service, Francisca and Delia (the two Parral baptismal candidates) desperately wanted to speak to me. They let us know that the local men had really been giving them a hard time for being Christians. They asked us if we could change the baptism location so that those men wouldn’t show up and make fun. We explained to them that they had to be willing to take any criticism the enemy would send them for making the decision to follow Christ no matter the cost. Some of the most religious folk of the area had even spread false rumors-that the Christians try to drown baptism candidates. We knew that satan was going to do everything he could to stop the baptisms from occurring. After the preaching and prayer I gave the invitation for those who wanted to be baptized and no one was interested. I could also see Francisca and Delia quivering as I mentioned their decision. One lady that had been faithful to almost every service the last two summers and had shown fruits of repentance said, “I’m not doing that, I have God in my heart.” I told her, “If you have God in your heart, then you will obey Him.” She didn’t like that and took off.

Monday-Monday and Wednesday were my two personal favorites. God had spoken to me to take the team out to the peach orchards and cry out for rain. We spent a good hour crying out to the Lord for rain even laying our hands on the trees and speaking a great harvest over them. After we had separated out to pray on an individual basis to pray we came back together and the Lord told me to have the group “SHOUT” like the Israelites did at the fall of Jericho. The group did that and interceded wholeheartedly for a physical and spiritual rain. There have now been two straights years of great drought and terrible harvest. Our first summer to visit the area, in May 2006, a believer had asked us to go out and pray for rain and lay hands on his peach trees. That summer was one of their rainiest ever. I remember how hard it was to go from village to village through the drenched/flooded dirt roads. I believe the Lord responded to us and gave us a sign that he is going to send the rain. Later that afternoon as we ministered in another village storm clouds were forming-I’ve never seen any storm clouds in March. March is always the driest month of the year in Zacatecas. We gathered the folks together in Villa Hermosa and had a great time ministering to the children and adults. We were able to distribute some hand-made blankets from a sister in Oklahoma and some backpacks to some of the kids and youth that weren’t present in December. From there we continued on to Monte de los Garcia where we also had a great service. Here we also distributed backpacks and blankets and made the invitation to Friday’s baptisms. It was great to see Luis Ramirez’s family all together at the service once again. They didn’t make the decision to be baptized but did want to accompany us on Friday even asking for a ride. I’m so blessed to see Luis’s whole family coming to the services together. Luis’s wife only recently gave her life to Christ as you might recall. I’m seeing over and over in this missionary journey that God works through relationships folks. We now have a great/established relationship with Luis after these three years. Now his whole family, even wife and son-in-law have given their lives to Christ. Martin, his son-in-law, was the one who had formerly tried to disturb our services at the volleyball court-now never misses a service with his wife. He honored me by asking me to write a letter of recommendation for him for some paperwork he’s working on.

Tuesday-Before we left the house we had our first flat of the trip. The Lord moved on our behalf, however, and we were able to get the tire changed very quickly in Jerez before our trip to Monte Escobedo area. Our Sembradores team trip finances were very low yet our team stepped it up and helped us purchase a tire (hallelujah). We now have a “Base 2” in Laguna Grande, Zacatecas-a 10 minute drive from the town of Monte Escobedo where brother Joe Bonilla lives. Sister Guadalupe Villarreal is the only believer in the town of Laguna Grande and has a brother who has an available house for us to use. Praise God! Now we don’t have to make the 2 hr trek back and forth from Palmas Altas when we are working in that area. We spent time with her husband taking soil samples from the area and even jumping from hay bales-ha! Her husband, like Angel Garcia in Palmas Altas, is a great family man that is not saved. The service that night in Monte Escobedo was fantastic. Brother Joe’s daughter Erika shared an incredible testimony. The night that her Dad Joe had had the epileptic attack (I shared about before the trip) she had been right there and had cried out to God that He would heal her Dad and not take him from her. She said he had had a pulse but would not react to anything. After Joe had come out of his convulsions he said he saw a great light-wow! She said that she had told the Lord she would do anything for Him if He would heal her Dad. The Holy Spirit really moved that night touching Sister Guadalupe who like Francisca and Delia had suffered much persecution in Laguna Grande. We placed our hands on Brother Joe and declared freedom over him from any epileptic seizures. My wife even had a word from the Lord for him, that just as the Syrian general Naaman had been healed of his leprosy after washing himself seven times in the Jordan River that Joe would be completely freed from any future epileptic attacks upon his baptism. We were trying to locate an Internet café in Laguna Grande and stopped to ask some guys outside of a bar if they could help us find one. One of them said, “At that window homey!” My first thought was to keep moving as the guy looked to weigh over 350 lbs and pretty dangerous from my former law enforcement experience. Interesting enough, as we were inside the Internet café the Holy Spirit send him to us. He spoke perfect English and shared some of his life troubles with us. He started talking about how he was scared to travel in Mexico due to the drug war. The Holy Spirit told me, “He’s afraid because he has reason to be afraid-due to the mess he’s gotten himself into.” We shared the gospel with him and gave him an opportunity to receive Christ. He told us he would look for us if he wanted to. I asked him if he were die tonight if he knew where he would go. I remember few people who have answered so honestly-immediately pointing his finger downward. The Holy Spirit told me to tell him that his heart was beating really fast because satan was telling him that he would never be able to stop doing drugs & alcohol-that he was beyond being freed from his past. He recognized that that was true and that he truly wanted to be free. Please pray for Frankie of Laguna Grande, Monte Escobedo, Zacatecas that he will get saved before it’s too late. We came out of the Internet café amazed at what had happened-that the same man that had scared us was sent to us by God, we didn’t even have to go to him-what a divine appointment!

Wednesday-Erika and her mother Aurora had originally battled with their decision to be baptized but by the end of the service on Tuesday were without a doubt committed to a decision. We decided instead of having them come all the way out to Parral for the baptisms on Friday like the original plan to do it right there in Monte Escobedo on Wednesday. Brother Joe is supposed to be on bed rest right now after his epileptic attacks and not be traveling. Part of the morning we spent evangelizing in a colonia of Monte Escobedo. Before that we went up to a beautiful outlook over the city to pray over the city. As we left the city to go up the Lord had told me to stop at that same colonia on the way back in. As we drove in and parked there were some loud drunks making a ruckus. The Lord told me, “He’s mine” as we got out. We had barely finished separating into groups and praying when he came over. He happened to be from Laguna Grande-Hallelujah! What joy it gave Guadalupe to hear that he prayed to received Christ! My team stayed in that area. I got the people from the bar together and shared the gospel with them. One was very drunk and wouldn’t let me talk while a police truck kept watching him and us. After telling him nicely to wait to talk to me till after the service, the bar owner ( a women) made him leave. I found out afterwards that she was angry with him for not paying his bill. The drunken guy told me, “You can’t prove that what you’re saying really happened.” I said that’s exactly the point-it’s faith to believe that it did. After he took off three or four of them prayed to receive Christ-another one happened to be from Laguna Grande-another great testimony for Sister Guadalupe. The bar owner really nicely explained to me that she understood everything we were saying but would never leave “the virgin.” She then, however, then said that she would go to the service anyway-hallelujah! The baptisms went great. The Bonilla family took us to a beautiful little lake outside Monte Escobedo. All three-Joe, Aurora, and Erika were baptized wholeheartedly-praise the Lord! I was a little nervous myself as it was my first time to baptize anyone. My father-in-law helped walk me through it, however. This was my most joyful moment of all the 5 years of ministry in Zacatecas. Since the baptism and our following fellowship time took a little longer than we had planned most folks had already gone by the time we got back to Joe’s house for the service. Sister Joan shared her testimony of having been freed from the demons behind the saint “idols” in Taiwan which opened up the floor for many to declare the freedom/peace they had experienced since having ridden themselves of all the idols in their households. We prayed with the Bonilla family and encouraged them to continue in the study and application of God’s Word in their lives.

Thursday-This was our Zacatecas shopping day. We went by and picked up Fransisca and Delia and they shared something terrible that had happened since our last visit. The main man that gives them trouble had killed one of their favorite puppy dogs just to make them feel bad. They were having second thoughts about their baptism since they felt so much hatred for him and his cohorts. They also shared with us that this man had called on Miguel the catechist to come and rile up the people against us in Parral. It was crazy because we were coming from such a spiritual high in Monte Escobedo to hear this. Remember that Miguel hadn’t bothered us the whole last summer. Miguel came that Monday and told the people at the “huizachito tree” that he and his cohorts would go and mess with the baptisms and the later service at the tree on Friday. We took his threats seriously and decided to move the baptisms to another location for security reasons without telling the rest of the village. We spent the whole day with Fransisca and Delia encouraging them in the Lord and praying for them.

Friday-This was the great awaited day for Fransisca and Delia’s baptisms in Parral. We had encouraged them all Thursday that neither Miguel nor his cohorts in Parral would do what they had said they would in disturbing our peaceful gathering. On the way to pick up the Ramirez family in Monte we had a flat #2-one random rock on the road penetrated an almost brand new $250 tire on “La Ballena”. After changing that we then headed to the baptism area. Then something occurred that you’re going to have a hard time believing. I gave a spiritual word on baptism, we sang, and made the invitation for Fransisca to come on down. The whole time I preached I saw her and Delia constantly fidgeting and watching the road to see if someone was coming. I called on Fransisca to come to the water. “I’m going to repent on my decision brother.” I couldn’t believe my ears-here we were all gathered together to rejoice with their decision to be baptized and she had waited till then to go back on her decision. We tried to encourage her to no avail. We then invited Delia and she said the same thing. They both declared that they had too much hate in their heart for the man who had killed their puppy and caused them so much harm that they couldn’t be baptized. All of this after having spent a whole day with them in Zacatecas encouraging them in the Lord-a decision they had made a long time ago that we had been discussing for quite some time. My heart sank to an all-time low and I literally did not know what to do. Here we were all gathered for this special moment and the candidates had rejected their opportunity/decision. Some four of us shared testimonies where we had had to forgive people who had been very evil to us-that it hadn’t been easy-that the Lord would help them do it. We urged them that being baptized didn’t mean you had to be perfect, just willing. They couldn’t get that in their heads. As I went up to change clothes my father-in-law preached to those present and my wife counseled Delia and Sister Angelina counseled Fransisca. We encouraged them that the enemy was not those men, that the enemy was satan. We told Delia that she would never be free from her bitterness until she gave it to God and “left it in the bottom of the sea.” I felt really discouraged but picked myself up while my father-in-law preached. I begin to praise God-that His will would be done. I even called upon the Lord asking him why this was happening-why I and others had spent time in prayer and fasting for this very event-and then for them to reject Him. Right after I had called everybody together to pray for the food my wife called me, “Benjamin, Benjamin! Delia is going to do it, she’s going to do it right now. It’ s hard for her to forgive them but she doesn’t want them to have the victory in her life.” We called everybody together quick-I didn’t even go change back into my clothes and dunk-al agua! After the baptisms Delia was smiling like we had never seen her smile. Fransisca still declined her opportunity as did the Ramirez family. All of them “hope” to be ready by the summer. They were explained thoroughly-that they will never be “ready” just need to be willing. Praise the Lord! I determined in my heart to praise God no matter what the outcome was. I don’t know any pastor or missionary who has went through something similar to what I went through that day. Miguel the catechist never showed up as I figured. Two young ladies from the village were there for a little while-according to Fransisca and Delia to stir up trouble-but took off way before the initial baptism attempt. We finished up in Fiesta! We ate, some swam, and some even went on a hike with Luis Ramirez. He took us to some 150 yr old unexcavated ruins of an old hot springs swimming pool. Zacatecas is full of unexpected surprises!

Please make the commitment to supporting our ministry with $50/mth so we can get to these people that need us so greatly on a full-time basis. Please e-mail me with your decision.

Special thanks-the Lord Jesus Christ, our monthly supporters, those who prayed for us this past week, all trip participants and their families/church families, & Sister Gene Shay of Stillwater, OK for the blankets

Much love in Christ, Brother Benjamin Elliott & the Sembradores de Cristo family

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Esperanza Del Rio Community Church

603 E. 17th St.

Del Rio, TX 78840

Contact # (830) 719-9731

www.sembradoresdecristo.com