July 16. 2009

Sembradores de Cristo July 16, 2009

Buenas tardes hermanos. Thanks to all that have been lifting us up in prayer. Your prayers have been felt. John 6:66-67, ¨From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. You do not want to leave too, do you?¨ Between the last two weeks we have lost approximately half our congregation do to the pressure put on them by Miguel the catechist. I told our few faithful this story adding verses 68-69, ¨Simon Peter answered him, ¨Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.¨ I reminded him that Jesus had suffered the same persecution (criticism, threats, opposition) that they are suffering now. We also reminded them that we are there to teach them the truth, nothing less and if we EVER teach anything other than the true gospel of Jesus Christ (1 Cor 15:3-5) than to have nothing to do with us. The few that have remained are strong (non-wavering) in their faith.
Monte los Garcia-The rains calmed down the last couple weeks, allowing us to do the baseball camp here. We started with a few and started seeing more come as the week progressed. Pastor Jared of the Illinois team did a great job teaching the camp seeing as he had to use a field that was basically full of gravel from recent construction. The kids had a great time with the group and the group came more than prepared to do the VBS portion of the camp. Even the ¨cool¨ youth boys started getting into the songs and lessons by the end of the week. During the camp week I wasn´t aware that our man of peace, Luis Ramirez, was very ill. He had been experiencing very severe kidney pain. He had missed our last services and now I knew why. A pastor friend of mine also named Luis accompanied us and he and I prayed for Luis believing for healing. We took up an offering for him to go to a good doctor in Jerez and that weekend when he went to the doctor´s office they gave him the final medicine needed. This Tuesday Luis and another sister had invited our family to their children´s elementary graduation, a special honor. Luis was walking around in high spirits-praise the Lord! I also found out from him that the day after the camp when he was still lying in bed that Miguel the catechist had came by screaming at him and his family with the loudspeaker. The Illinois team, I, and a few locals including Luis´s daughter Faviola had went on an amazing, long hike to a cave. Luis said, Ïf only I hadn´t been bedridden I would have got up and ran him off.¨ Remember that Luis is the town sheriff, praise the Lord! The other faithful sister, Yolanda, who had invited us to the graduation told us that on that day Miguel yelled at the children telling them, ¨Don´t sell out because of a baseball glove.¨ She said that the children told him to go home and that they hadn´t ¨sold out¨ because of a baseball glove but had gone to the camp because we had taught the Word of God.
Guadalupe Victoria-Miguel has really stirred up the devout, paganistic Catholics against us. Now as we walk the streets or set up for services we get dirty looks everywhere we go. We have five strong youth, adult age that continue to be faithful. My adult group has been studying the book of Genesis and wow you should see the looks on their faces when we discuss things as the age of the first humans, Noah´s ark, the creation story. We´ve been making numerous comparisons to Christ´s life and the New Testament and it´s been more than amazing seeing the scales being lifted off their eyes. There are two brothers and a girl cousin in specific that we have been spiritually nurturing for three years now. It broke our hearts like it would any pastor to see them not be able to come and still want to come. The father told me very sternly that they wouldn´t be coming back. We won´t give up praying for him and his wife´s salvation and the boys return to the church. The burnt Bibles were found between the volleyball court and their home making us believe that Miguel may have instigated that with the father. Having the Illinois team with us the day that Miguel came was a great blessing. We now have a cd of Miguel with pictures and videos reported at the state seat of religious activity of Zacatecas. They have already heard of his doings and have already forbidden him from continuing.
The Lord used the Illinois team in a mighty way. Each and everyone of the team members came willing to serve in any way possible. A few times I even sent them out to invite to the services/camps without translators and they did a wonderful job. Pastor Jared is the pastor of a young, growing congregation in Southern Illinois called The Journey. We thank the Lord for their hard work in coming down here. Three of my four summer helpers are gone now for the summer. Jeremy, Joanna, and Brenda have now returned home. Jesse went to the border to bring down a group from my home church in Oklahoma-New Covenant Fellowship. NCF will be doing a soccer camp in Guadalupe Victoria and also being teaching sewing classes. On the team are Nemi and Shalom´s grandparents, Nancy and Wayne Elliott. This will be their first visit to our Zacatecas area since we started in Nov 2005. The NCF team is also coming prepared to prayer walk the Guadalupe/Monte/Parral streets for Christ. We pray that the religious/paganistic/demonic walls will come down just like they did in Jericho .
We were able to get away for a day here in Valparaiso , Zacatecas to go to their famous hot water spring fed pools-only $1.60/person! This is a town of 15,000 that only has four churches, mainly empty where we have met a pastor with great vision for growth. Daniel had been studying to be a priest before he met the Lord. Meeting Daniel reminds me that we are not alone even though we are few. The Lord reminded the Prophet Elijah of that very thing. The Prophet Elijah had seen the vast majority of the Israelites succumb to Baal/paganism. ¨Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel-all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him.¨ (1 Kings 19:18)
Your prayers were felt this week Brothers and Sisters. I hope that you are admonished, edified, and blessed by this report and are encouraged to continue on serving the Lord in your ministries with humility and passion. Love in Christ, Ben Elliott & the Sembradores de Cristo Summer 09 team
Our need to be here full team is great-I hope that you can see that. Please pray about supporting us monthly so we can get here and disciple our people full-time. Even $25/mth would help make up the difference.
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Checks in the name of Esperanza Del Rio Community Church
Address in the name of Esperanza Del Rio Community Church
% Sembradores de Cristo or Ben Elliott
Esperanza Del Rio Community Church
603 E. 17th St. Del Rio, TX 78840