Sembradores de Cristo New Covenant Woodward Zacatecas 2010,
I’m finally getting over a horrible bronchitis that hit me the day before the New Covenant team arrived here on the 6th. That morning I had to leave by 3:00 A.M. to drop off my nephew Judah at the Aguascalientes airport. The early cold mountain air went right into my lungs making the already developed bronchitis even more intolerable. All day long I was coughing up a storm and putting up with never ending hiccups. I praise the Lord for my companion Abem that the Lord sent us because without him I don’t know how I would have been able to get myself around, find a doctor, simply be at peace, and still get to our group. The doctor showed me that I was in the beginning stages of pneumonia and that I would probably have to be admitted overnight. I didn’t accept that in the name of Jesus knowing that our team was to arrive and that Abem did not know the way back to our base camp in Palmas Altas. Praise the Lord! His supervisor looked at my X-Ray and said I was okay to leave-just to give me an extra strong antibiotic and be on bed rest. Halleujah! That part was over. The next part was even more difficult-the drive back. I just held my chest and grinned and beared it my friends asking the Lord to give me strength to make it home. This wouldn’t have been possible nor any of the work we accomplished for the kingdom without your prayers my friends. Muchas gracias!
Monte de los Garcia-Upon the doctor’s orders I had to stay back the first day while the team went to do a service in Monte. The Lord really responded to our prayers regarding the need for rain and therefore the team had to move the service to a home. We also held a service here the last night of the team. Luis’s son-in-law came again, the one who had got saved when the New York team was here-praise the Lord! It was a miracle that our team evangelism Charles Keim and I even made it because “La Paloma” had broken down in a remote area of the mountains. We thought the battery had died but we started banging on the terminals and suddenly it started up-hallelujah! We’ve had more trouble with the Paloma this summer than ever before. That same day Charlie and I also had a flat. Then there came by some local folks from Palmas to help out and the Lord gave Charlie the opportunity to share the gospel with a lost young man. We’ve had 4 flats on “La Paloma” this summer already.
Susticacan-I had been back and forth between two places to take the team to do evangelism and a VBS. I had felt strongly from the Lord that he wanted me to take the team to an unevangelized, populated area. The moment my wife and I entered into Susticacan we knew that it was the place. The lady at the park told us that we didn’t need permission from the city to use the park, electricity, and bathrooms. She changed her mind the first day we brought the team embarrassing me in front of the locals that we needed to go to the city office to request permission. Praise the Lord-the city administrators had no problem at all. We did three days of evangelism, VBS’s, and services here. The first day my evangelism team was met with much resistance and apathy. It made us laugh that some of these men were too busy to take time to hear the Word of God seeing as they were the most unbusy people we had ever seen. One man told me that the Jehovah’s witnesses come by all the time anyway to give him “explanations.” I told him that God had sent us today to give him the true explanation-that we were not random religious people, but were God’s servants-that Jesus Christ is the truth (John 14:6). He was, however, too “busy.” Many children and women came to the park, many giving their lives to Christ during those three days. Evangelist Charles gives “chalk talks” to illustrate Bible stories and then gives the chalk painting away to a local. On the last day, we saw many give their lives to Christ as we went out to do evangelism. We were greatly blessed to have three young people from Steve Benedict’s children’s home with us for the evangelism. These young people had recently given their lives to Christ and were a great asset to our team. We were also able to bring one of our disciples from Parral with us to aid in the work. We came prepared the last day to do VBS’s, preaching, hot dogs, beans and rice, and gifts for the kids. Pastor Ed Dowty’s wife Shirley had gone above and beyond to prepare VBS materials and arts & crafts for the kids and women. The New Covenant team was also able to purchase much needed tables for our ministry-much needed for VBS type ministry. The people of Susticacan were truly able to see that we loved them. We weren’t random religious people. We were simple humble servants of the King there to love His children. We found out that in Susticacan that were a few believers that go to churches in Jerez. One couple volunteered to help us make the hot dogs and even brought sodas. There’s nothing like working in a team my friends! We had some hilarious moments there in Susticacan with a special needs young man named Ricardo who had decided to cling to our team. First he told my wife that he couldn’t hang out with us because his god was the virgen but by the next day he was there beside us shouting “Cristo vive.” The day of the fiesta nothing seemed to be going right. We got there super late due to the bagging of the beans and then we got a flat on the way. To top it off we realized at the park that we left all of our sound system cables and the 500 water balloons. We prayed hard knowing that Satan was mad. That was before we went out to evangelize and saw a great response. It was amazing to see how God worked. Our evangelism team went to the edge of the town and it rained on us where we were at but it didn’t rain but a drizzle over the team at the park-Praise the Lord! At this time there were not any homes that opened up for a Bible study. Many people came up to us thanking us for coming and inviting us back but not specifically to their home. We will see what the Lord does.
Monte Escobedo-By far, our day to Monte Escobedo was our favorite. We cried out to God that He would show Himself strong as we went out to evangelize and He did! We were driving around and interceding in the Spirit as to where to park and the Lord said to me, “The Catholic church.” We start to unload and Charlie heads over to evangelize a lady and her granddaughter and the Lord told me to take my team over towards the Catholic church. I always know it’s the Lord when the direction He’s telling me to go is the one that makes me the most fearful. I know that if I don’t obey then I’m going to pay for it. We started out with a couple roasting corn. The lady thought that she couldn’t receive Christ because she had been baptized in the Catholic church. She smiled when I told her that she could be saved no matter what her background was. Her husband was busy roasting the corn so I told him that he could listen to the evangecd without having to look at the cube. He also prayed to receive Christ. Meanwhile, Charlie’s team was also seeing every person they talked to receive Christ. My friend Mandy’s team, however, was seeing everyone run away from her, even locking themselves into their houses. A great servant of the Lord that was with us, Israel from Michoacan state, told us that they were probably witches seeing the angels surrounding God’s servants. This would concur with our last visit in which a young man had told us there was much witchcraft in the area. Either way, the Lord used them to invite many children to our service that we were going to hold in a colonia outside of the city. Mandy and her team were excited to see these children be the first to show up at the service later that night. As we were evangelizing the couple roasting corn, people were walking by to go into the Catholic church for mass. A certain gardener was hungry for the Lord and kept peering at us to see what we were doing. At the end of the block we were able to share the gospel with two men who were so surprised that we were not there to preach religion but to share the gospel. The Lord moved on my heart to give my brand new, big lettered Bible to one named “Lover” who couldn’t believe it. We then went back to share the gospel with the corn roaster’s daughter who had arrived and kept peering at us while we were talking to Lover and his friend. She received Christ and then two ladies sat down where Lover had sat and they received Christ. Wow! All this time we had not moved from the Catholic church. The Lord put it on Sister Sandy’s heart to share the gospel with a certain lady from Kansas near the taco stand who knew English. From there people just kept coming to us. A little girl asked me for one of my evangelism coins and I told her, “I’ll give you one if you listen to this.” She listened to the cd and received Christ and suddenly we didn’t have enough evangecds to go around. In fact one that wasn’t even working started working. Hallelujah! That evening’s service was fantastic. Our friend Joe, who speaks English, was super glad to see us. He and a neighbor had asked us to do a service there next time instead of the recreation park where we had done the last one. It worked great because Joe allowed us to hook up the electricity. At the end of the service a sister in Christ came up and told the people that we all needed to pray for peace for their colonia-that there had been much friction between families in this small colonia. God is bringing peace and salvation to this colonia folks. That night ¾ of the people there were from that colonia and had not come to the park for the last service with the NY team. In fact a Jehovah’s witness brought his family and some of his disciples and they prayed to receive Christ. At first I noticed they were a little suspicious of us but the Holy Spirit got a hold of them and they actually got excited when Pastor Charlie declared, “Jesus Christ is Lord.” He did a chalk talk on Zaccheus which was perfect since there was an oak tree right there perfect for climbing. I climbed it during the piñata and the people got excited. We almost ran out of Bibles for the rest of our summer ministry because everyone seemed to need one. Hallelujah! Joe told Brother Charlie, “Brother Ben is welcome here to do a service whenever.” Abem was extra blessed when he saw a sweet little girl named Guadalupe show up. I was equally surprised when I saw her and her brother because both of them lived at the recreation center-a good distance from this colonia. I thought to myself, “There’s no way this sound system carries that far.” No, they told us that in these two weeks they had moved to this colonia and now lived in both places-wow! Abem kept praising God!
Other Ministry/news-Our people were able to see how the Lord has been moving in Parral de las Huertas. These people truly love us and have given their lives to Christ. Francisca and Delia even invited us all over for tacos after service. In Guadalupe Victoria there seems to be less and less interest. Many of our normally faithful young people chose the volleyball game over the service, however, one young lady invited us to to do services at her house so as not to conflict with future games-hallelujah! We also saw a great miracle of God coming back from Monte the last night. A young man was broken down and needed a ride back to the village where his in-laws lived. It turned out that his wife was from Villa Hermosa, the village where we have shaken the dust off of our feet. We did not only know his family but happen to be personal friends with their family. He received Christ on the road back to Villa and then his wife did as well when we arrived. Her mother, Antonia, which is our friend got on to us for not going back so I explained to her why we had discontinued ministry there and invited her to Parral’s services. She blessed me by telling me that her daughter Alma who we had led to the Lord almost 4 yrs ago reads her Bible almost everyday. Praise the Lord for that seed that was sown in fertile soil. After our share time the last night Sister Angelina surprised us all with the washing of our feet. We were also able to wash her and her children’s feet and all were greatly humbled before the Lord.
My wife and family headed back to the border tomorrow. Please pray for her that she will receive due rest before the baby comes. I will be here a few more weeks doing ministry in the villages and assisting the Kentucky Baptist team in Southern Zacatecas and a pastoral conference.
Special thanks
Mandy & Shirley Dowty, New Covenant Church Woodward, OK
Evangelist Charlie Keim & wife Glenda
Abem Falcon & the brothers in Oklahoma who invested the gospel into his life
Israel of Michoacan
All our prayer and financial supporters
Urgent need/monthly support
We had really wanted to go full-time this next year but at this time we have not seen anywhere near the response we need to receive monthly support. Remember we have to raise our own support. We are not supported by a big organization that takes care of our financial needs. We really need you to pray about supporting us with $50/month. Our full-time budget is $3500/month and we are almost at 1/5 of that. We continue to be very active in seeking opportunities to speak at churches. If you represent a church, are a family or you are simply an individual that reads this newsletter we really need you to consider supporting us with $50/month. God has called us to bring His good news to Zacatecas. I hope our 4 years of perseverance in the area has showed you our dedication. Please respond to this e-mail with your commitment. If we have the support by the end of this next summer we will go. I also ask you to send me names/e-mails or info of any pastors of churches/individuals that might be interested in receiving me at their church on a Sunday.
Thanks again for all your prayers and support, 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
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Re: Sembradores de Cristo NY Zac 2010
Sembradores de Cristo NY mission Zacatecas 2010,
Today our mission team from NY returned home after finishing 10 days of spiritual warfare here in the black heart of Mexico. We thank God that He sent us 8 soldiers of Christ to the battlefield. The Lord has already won the war against Satan. Until His coming however, we will be in constant sometimes even daily battles.
Por Venir-Por Venir is the town we had evangelized in March and seen much response from the people. As mentioned in the prior e-mail, the emotion had worn off and all of the youth had acted as if they didn’t know us. The persecution has kicked in and since these folks haven’t taken root in God’s Word they fell easily. The team came prepared to do a basketball camp here. We didn’t know that they had a virgin fiesta already planned for that same week. The camp was planned for Monday-Thursday, the same week as the virgin festival. As we were going around to invite and remind folks of the camp, the men at the bar invited us to walk in the virgin procession. The Holy Spirit came upon me and I proclaimed, “My God doesn’t share His glory with anyone. He’s a strong and jealous God.” The priest had gone by their bar and told them that if anyone even glanced at the basketball court where we were holding services that he would excommunicate them. Pastor Kevin of New York lightened them up a bit by making them balloons-you should have seen these 60 yr old men going at it with these balloon swords. A woman came to me and told me that she didn’t like what we were doing since we were trying to change their faith-Ha! That’s the Holy Spirit’s work my friends. He wants them to put their faith in Him and not all the idols. Needless to say the Lord knew exactly what He was doing. Because of this, we were able to take the team to all the villages we normally work in and more. I’ll never forget the faces on those people in the virgin procession as we drove by. They looked and sounded like wandering zombies-all wandering astray.
Monte Escobedo-Go big or go home! This is a saying that Pastor Kevin of New York has taught me these past two years. He and Cayleigh, the leader, asked me what I would like to do for Monte Escobedo, Zacatecas. At first I told them 300 lbs of beans and rice. No Brother Ben-what do you want to do. Then I added on hot dogs for 300 people. Come on Ben this is a town of 5000, you’re only going to prepare for 300? I then pushed it to 500 lbs of each plus hot dogs for 500. The Lord miraculously intervened allowing us a 10% discount on all the hot dogs and fixings’ plus a drop from 12.5 pesos/kilo for the beans to 10/kilo. This allowed enough for two piñatas with candies, and chicharrones-Woooooooooo! When Diana and I had went the week before to prepare the ground the Lord had told me exactly which colonia to start in. We evangelized in Monte Escobedo last Friday & Saturday. This last Friday & Saturday was the first time we were able to take two sisters in Christ who got saved during our ministry in Parral de las Huertas. The Lord used these two in mighty ways in Monte Escobedo and then did something even more awesome that I will share with you about when I talk about Parral. The devil tried to stop us from going from the get out as we got the weirdest flat tire any of us had ever seen on the way to Parral to pick up the sisters. The outside rubber just busted-these being pretty new tires. It would have been understandable that a rock would have penetrated the tread since there are rocks everywhere but it wasn’t a rock. We praised our King, changed the tire, and found one of the exact size in the first tire shop of Jerez. Hallelujah and off to Monte Escobedo! The first day of evangelism was a great success. There was surprisingly little rejection and much acceptance. My team spent two hours with some men at a construction site. They had been hounded by the Jehovah’s witnesses and were not happy to hear that yes hell does exist as a price for our sin. At the same rate no one had ever told them that Jesus loved them. One in particular had many questions about drinking. He was surprised to know that if he showed up at our church in Parral-the one that meets at the tree-that he would be welcomed there with open arms even with beer in hand. The Lord then permitted us to share the gospel at another household where the lady and her children received Christ. Meanwhile, God was doing something amazing with Pastor Kevin and his team. I didn’t have a translator for that team so they were going in full-faith in the Holy Spirit’s leading. There, a man named Joe who speaks perfect English truly met the Lord that day. After praying to receive Christ he asked Kevin, “What just happened to me? Why do I feel something great inside of me?” Hallelujah! “Where were you 14 years ago when I needed to hear this?” That evening at the park, there was not a great turnout for the service. As I went to invite folks I ran into a lady who told me, “We’re Catholic and not interested.” Not like I haven’t ever heard that before. After we had already started the service with some 15 folks she came by and motioned to them to leave. They automatically got up and left at her command. I realized then that she was a local Catholic leader. You’re not going to believe what happened the next day Saturday. There was a big funeral in town and guess who didn’t show up to run people off? Ha! God had it worked out perfectly. She, being a Catholic leader, had to make an appearance at that funeral and therefore did not come to run people off at the service. Saturday was the most hard-core day of ministry of the whole mission trip. We got back to Palmas at 12:30 and I had my team up by 5:00. The lone sister of Laguna Grande Guadalupe Villarreal invited us to breakfast and on the way we picked up a pastor to join the team. My team ate the best and fullest breakfast they had ever eaten in their lives-gorditas, spinach, fresh cheese, and eggs & ham. We parked and prayed at 12:15 P.M. I don’t know who was praying in that moment but I thank you. We felt a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit and boldness to go and share the good news. I knew the Lord had told me He was going to give me a divine appointment. At the first house, the lady invited us in-very uncommon in Zacatecas. She put the evangelism cd in the DVD of the TV and her and her oldest daughter prayed sincerely to receive Christ. I asked her afterwards if there was anything we could pray for her about and she said that it was not a coincidence that we were there that day. She asked us to pray for patience because her patience for her alcoholic spouse had run out. He was in and out of prison and had just banged up their car. We prayed for her and she cried like a baby. One of our team members, Jeremy, had been going through a similar situation with his spouse and so he encouraged her. It was awesome when we saw the whole family at the service that night! Wooo! Her husband sincerely prayed to receive Christ that night-oh what miracles our Lord does! In every evangelism team folks came to Christ. Pastor Kevin was surrounded by children as always because of the balloons. After we had ministered to a young couple for about 25 minutes the young man comes running after us really nervously. Did you take a picture of me? I don’t like it when they take pictures of me and I don’t know. Why. He was lying. He definitely knew why he didn’t like the pictures. He told us that he wanted to take the one picture we had taken of him erased and wanted to see it erased. “Here there’s some much witchcraft going around.” We assured him that we don’t practice witchcraft-that those who do are of the devil. We encouraged him to pray for peace. God would protect him and his household from any spell cast on him in the name of Jesus surrounding him with a hedge of protection. The Lord used this my brothers and sisters in a mighty way. Delia who was in my team that day then shared with me part of her testimony how she had almost died because of spells being cast on her. I will share about that in more detail when I share about Parral.
The service that evening was great. As previously mentioned, that Catholic leader wasn’t there to run off folks. Only about 80 showed up so everyone got extra hot dogs, extra beans and rice, and the kids got extra turns at hitting the piñatas. The NY team was great. Everyone pitched in to do their part-hot dogs, food distribution, dramas, preaching, pinastas, etc. Many stood up to receive Christ when presented the opportunity including Guadalupe Villarreal’s husband who had never stepped foot with her in any church-hallelujah! Because so few showed up we were able to have beans and rice to hand out in every village and more the rest of the mission trip!
Parral de las Huertas-We had great services in Parral. God is adding to the number of hermanos practically every service. After the service we were visiting with Francisca and Delia and they shared with us more of their story. Years ago before receiving Christ, Delia had fallen in love with a traveling construction worker from Mexico City. Another local girl was jealous who then placed spells on her and her boyfriend. She got really sick with nausea, fainting, and even welts on her skin. He also got really sick and their relationship ended. Ignorantly her and her mother went to another witch to counteract the first spell. That didn’t turn out well as the witch tried to seduce her. Things were so bad that her believing brother in Cd. Juarez told them both to go live with him-Praise the Lord! They did for two years. Listen to this-they had barely came back to Parral last year when we first showed up. I can remember last year how Delia at first didn’t come to the services and was quite stand-offish. She explained that the devil had left her without the desire to live. She didn’t want anybody to look at her or touch her. She told us how the Lord had later used us to bring her to Christ and that she is now free! Pastor Kevin, Sister Cayleigh, Mama Linda, and I anointed that house with oil and cast out any remaining demonic presence from that household in the name of Jesus! We also encouraged Delia to pray for and love the girl who had cast the spell on her who still lives in Parral. This is not going to be an easy thing for Delia so please pray for her. I praise the Lord my brothers and sisters! If it wasn’t for that awkward experience with that young man in Monte Escobedo I don’t know when Delia would have opened up and shared this testimony with us! Another great testimony in Parral is that Arnulfo is walking and came to the service on Sunday. Last summer we had sent a team every week to pray and read the Bible with Arnulfo every week. Arnulfo had been shot in the leg and wasn’t expected to walk again for a long time. The Lord had healed him last summer and this summer he is now walking. Arnulfo had not been coming to the services. Pastor Kevin confronted him in front of his friends about whether or not God had indeed healed him. In front of his peers Arnulfo gave the glory to God for his healing-hallelujah! He also told him that it would break his son’s heart if he heard that Arnulfo was walking and wouldn’t attend service since his son had prayed for him last summer. Amen! God is raising up an army in Parral my friends! This village will be a crucial ministry base in the future to see the surrounding villages come to Christ.
Guadalupe Victoria-Since the parents wouldn’t let their kids go to the basketball camp in Por Venir due to the virgin festival we were able to take the team to Guadalupe Victoria. One of the boys who had been previously forbidden to go to the volleyball court due to threats by the cathecist was there-hallelujah! The team did a great job here with VBS’s and another ministry.
Monte de los Garcia-The people flooded the volleyball court on this first visit back. They did this last summer too and then little by little started backing off even talking bad about us and spreading rumors. A great miracle occurred however, this last Wednesday. The same son-in-law and daughter of Luis the sheriff who had obnoxiously interrumpted many of our services last summer by playing basketball were present during the service and prayed to receive Christ. Another miracle was that I won 21-a basketball game-even with my 15 yr old nephew here who is in great shape-ha!
Santa Rosa-This Thursday was our last day of ministry. We awoke to a constant, steady rain. This was part of the same hurricane that hit the Tamaulipas coast a few days ago. We were saddened to hear that people had died and lost their homes in other parts of Mexico. However, for our people in Zacatecas it was a great blessing. The farmers were beyond blessed with this great, soaking rain. It had been two years since we had done anything in Santa Rosa-in fact it rained that day too. We drove around and interceded over the town. The Lord led us to a store where a couple received Christ. People kept coming into the store and Pastor Kevin made balloons for them and we gave them rice and beans. Then something really amazing happened. Four police officers from the city of Jerez stopped by. We blessed their families with rice and beans and asked them if we could pray for them. This was one of the most amazing moments of my life-praying for these four tough police officers. The men in our team laid hands on them praying for protection and blessing on their families. As we were about to leave we ran into the sheriff, who we also blessed with rice and beans and he gave us the thumbs up to come back and do ministry at any time. Praise the Lord for His many blessings!
His many blessings-On Tuesday we took the team to some natural hot springs that only cost $1.70/person-wow! It was a great rest for the team after the hard core ministry in Monte Escobedo. There in Valparaiso we blessed Pastor Daniel who has 7 mission churches with three sacks of beans and rice to hand out. The hot springs were exactly what our team and my family needed to relax a little bit. The team God gave us this last week really loved each other. Every single member of the team that was not one of the leaders was on their very first mission trip this included my nephew Judah and a young man from Monclova, MX named Abem who God had blessed us with to help translate. Never was there one word of complaining on any of their lips! We also got to do the most amazing hike ever. We got to such a high altitude that we were able to see Parral, Jerez, and even the city of Zacatecas which is at 8,500 ft. above sea level! The Lord gave us a special blessing yesterday when we went to Zacatecas to do the team’s shopping. The little observatory tower happened to be open and the meteorologist let us go to the top and look out-something he said he never does!
Special thanks
Cayleigh Blumrick, Pastor Kevin Cole & the New York mission team
My sister and brother-in-law Matt & Robin Maxwell who sowed into the life of my nephew Judah by sending him here for two weeks
Abem Falcon & the brothers in Oklahoma who invested the gospel into his life
All our prayer and financial supporters
Urgent need/monthly support
We praise the Lord that recently a new family made the decision to support us on a monthly basis. We had really wanted to go full-time this next year but at this time we have not seen anywhere near the response we need to receive monthly support. Remember we have to raise our own support. We are not supported by a big organization that takes care of our financial needs. We really need you to pray about supporting us with $50/month. Our full-time budget is $3500/month and we are almost at 1/5 of that. We continue to be very active in seeking opportunities to speak at churches. If you represent a church, are a family or you are simply an individual that reads this newsletter we really need you to consider supporting us with $50/month. God has called us to bring His good news to Zacatecas. I hope our 4 years of perseverance in the area has showed you our dedication. Please respond to this e-mail with your commitment. If we have the support by the end of this next summer we will go. I also ask you to send me names/e-mails or info of any pastors of churches/individuals that might be interested in receiving me at their church on a Sunday.
Thanks again for all your prayers and support, 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
Today our mission team from NY returned home after finishing 10 days of spiritual warfare here in the black heart of Mexico. We thank God that He sent us 8 soldiers of Christ to the battlefield. The Lord has already won the war against Satan. Until His coming however, we will be in constant sometimes even daily battles.
Por Venir-Por Venir is the town we had evangelized in March and seen much response from the people. As mentioned in the prior e-mail, the emotion had worn off and all of the youth had acted as if they didn’t know us. The persecution has kicked in and since these folks haven’t taken root in God’s Word they fell easily. The team came prepared to do a basketball camp here. We didn’t know that they had a virgin fiesta already planned for that same week. The camp was planned for Monday-Thursday, the same week as the virgin festival. As we were going around to invite and remind folks of the camp, the men at the bar invited us to walk in the virgin procession. The Holy Spirit came upon me and I proclaimed, “My God doesn’t share His glory with anyone. He’s a strong and jealous God.” The priest had gone by their bar and told them that if anyone even glanced at the basketball court where we were holding services that he would excommunicate them. Pastor Kevin of New York lightened them up a bit by making them balloons-you should have seen these 60 yr old men going at it with these balloon swords. A woman came to me and told me that she didn’t like what we were doing since we were trying to change their faith-Ha! That’s the Holy Spirit’s work my friends. He wants them to put their faith in Him and not all the idols. Needless to say the Lord knew exactly what He was doing. Because of this, we were able to take the team to all the villages we normally work in and more. I’ll never forget the faces on those people in the virgin procession as we drove by. They looked and sounded like wandering zombies-all wandering astray.
Monte Escobedo-Go big or go home! This is a saying that Pastor Kevin of New York has taught me these past two years. He and Cayleigh, the leader, asked me what I would like to do for Monte Escobedo, Zacatecas. At first I told them 300 lbs of beans and rice. No Brother Ben-what do you want to do. Then I added on hot dogs for 300 people. Come on Ben this is a town of 5000, you’re only going to prepare for 300? I then pushed it to 500 lbs of each plus hot dogs for 500. The Lord miraculously intervened allowing us a 10% discount on all the hot dogs and fixings’ plus a drop from 12.5 pesos/kilo for the beans to 10/kilo. This allowed enough for two piñatas with candies, and chicharrones-Woooooooooo! When Diana and I had went the week before to prepare the ground the Lord had told me exactly which colonia to start in. We evangelized in Monte Escobedo last Friday & Saturday. This last Friday & Saturday was the first time we were able to take two sisters in Christ who got saved during our ministry in Parral de las Huertas. The Lord used these two in mighty ways in Monte Escobedo and then did something even more awesome that I will share with you about when I talk about Parral. The devil tried to stop us from going from the get out as we got the weirdest flat tire any of us had ever seen on the way to Parral to pick up the sisters. The outside rubber just busted-these being pretty new tires. It would have been understandable that a rock would have penetrated the tread since there are rocks everywhere but it wasn’t a rock. We praised our King, changed the tire, and found one of the exact size in the first tire shop of Jerez. Hallelujah and off to Monte Escobedo! The first day of evangelism was a great success. There was surprisingly little rejection and much acceptance. My team spent two hours with some men at a construction site. They had been hounded by the Jehovah’s witnesses and were not happy to hear that yes hell does exist as a price for our sin. At the same rate no one had ever told them that Jesus loved them. One in particular had many questions about drinking. He was surprised to know that if he showed up at our church in Parral-the one that meets at the tree-that he would be welcomed there with open arms even with beer in hand. The Lord then permitted us to share the gospel at another household where the lady and her children received Christ. Meanwhile, God was doing something amazing with Pastor Kevin and his team. I didn’t have a translator for that team so they were going in full-faith in the Holy Spirit’s leading. There, a man named Joe who speaks perfect English truly met the Lord that day. After praying to receive Christ he asked Kevin, “What just happened to me? Why do I feel something great inside of me?” Hallelujah! “Where were you 14 years ago when I needed to hear this?” That evening at the park, there was not a great turnout for the service. As I went to invite folks I ran into a lady who told me, “We’re Catholic and not interested.” Not like I haven’t ever heard that before. After we had already started the service with some 15 folks she came by and motioned to them to leave. They automatically got up and left at her command. I realized then that she was a local Catholic leader. You’re not going to believe what happened the next day Saturday. There was a big funeral in town and guess who didn’t show up to run people off? Ha! God had it worked out perfectly. She, being a Catholic leader, had to make an appearance at that funeral and therefore did not come to run people off at the service. Saturday was the most hard-core day of ministry of the whole mission trip. We got back to Palmas at 12:30 and I had my team up by 5:00. The lone sister of Laguna Grande Guadalupe Villarreal invited us to breakfast and on the way we picked up a pastor to join the team. My team ate the best and fullest breakfast they had ever eaten in their lives-gorditas, spinach, fresh cheese, and eggs & ham. We parked and prayed at 12:15 P.M. I don’t know who was praying in that moment but I thank you. We felt a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit and boldness to go and share the good news. I knew the Lord had told me He was going to give me a divine appointment. At the first house, the lady invited us in-very uncommon in Zacatecas. She put the evangelism cd in the DVD of the TV and her and her oldest daughter prayed sincerely to receive Christ. I asked her afterwards if there was anything we could pray for her about and she said that it was not a coincidence that we were there that day. She asked us to pray for patience because her patience for her alcoholic spouse had run out. He was in and out of prison and had just banged up their car. We prayed for her and she cried like a baby. One of our team members, Jeremy, had been going through a similar situation with his spouse and so he encouraged her. It was awesome when we saw the whole family at the service that night! Wooo! Her husband sincerely prayed to receive Christ that night-oh what miracles our Lord does! In every evangelism team folks came to Christ. Pastor Kevin was surrounded by children as always because of the balloons. After we had ministered to a young couple for about 25 minutes the young man comes running after us really nervously. Did you take a picture of me? I don’t like it when they take pictures of me and I don’t know. Why. He was lying. He definitely knew why he didn’t like the pictures. He told us that he wanted to take the one picture we had taken of him erased and wanted to see it erased. “Here there’s some much witchcraft going around.” We assured him that we don’t practice witchcraft-that those who do are of the devil. We encouraged him to pray for peace. God would protect him and his household from any spell cast on him in the name of Jesus surrounding him with a hedge of protection. The Lord used this my brothers and sisters in a mighty way. Delia who was in my team that day then shared with me part of her testimony how she had almost died because of spells being cast on her. I will share about that in more detail when I share about Parral.
The service that evening was great. As previously mentioned, that Catholic leader wasn’t there to run off folks. Only about 80 showed up so everyone got extra hot dogs, extra beans and rice, and the kids got extra turns at hitting the piñatas. The NY team was great. Everyone pitched in to do their part-hot dogs, food distribution, dramas, preaching, pinastas, etc. Many stood up to receive Christ when presented the opportunity including Guadalupe Villarreal’s husband who had never stepped foot with her in any church-hallelujah! Because so few showed up we were able to have beans and rice to hand out in every village and more the rest of the mission trip!
Parral de las Huertas-We had great services in Parral. God is adding to the number of hermanos practically every service. After the service we were visiting with Francisca and Delia and they shared with us more of their story. Years ago before receiving Christ, Delia had fallen in love with a traveling construction worker from Mexico City. Another local girl was jealous who then placed spells on her and her boyfriend. She got really sick with nausea, fainting, and even welts on her skin. He also got really sick and their relationship ended. Ignorantly her and her mother went to another witch to counteract the first spell. That didn’t turn out well as the witch tried to seduce her. Things were so bad that her believing brother in Cd. Juarez told them both to go live with him-Praise the Lord! They did for two years. Listen to this-they had barely came back to Parral last year when we first showed up. I can remember last year how Delia at first didn’t come to the services and was quite stand-offish. She explained that the devil had left her without the desire to live. She didn’t want anybody to look at her or touch her. She told us how the Lord had later used us to bring her to Christ and that she is now free! Pastor Kevin, Sister Cayleigh, Mama Linda, and I anointed that house with oil and cast out any remaining demonic presence from that household in the name of Jesus! We also encouraged Delia to pray for and love the girl who had cast the spell on her who still lives in Parral. This is not going to be an easy thing for Delia so please pray for her. I praise the Lord my brothers and sisters! If it wasn’t for that awkward experience with that young man in Monte Escobedo I don’t know when Delia would have opened up and shared this testimony with us! Another great testimony in Parral is that Arnulfo is walking and came to the service on Sunday. Last summer we had sent a team every week to pray and read the Bible with Arnulfo every week. Arnulfo had been shot in the leg and wasn’t expected to walk again for a long time. The Lord had healed him last summer and this summer he is now walking. Arnulfo had not been coming to the services. Pastor Kevin confronted him in front of his friends about whether or not God had indeed healed him. In front of his peers Arnulfo gave the glory to God for his healing-hallelujah! He also told him that it would break his son’s heart if he heard that Arnulfo was walking and wouldn’t attend service since his son had prayed for him last summer. Amen! God is raising up an army in Parral my friends! This village will be a crucial ministry base in the future to see the surrounding villages come to Christ.
Guadalupe Victoria-Since the parents wouldn’t let their kids go to the basketball camp in Por Venir due to the virgin festival we were able to take the team to Guadalupe Victoria. One of the boys who had been previously forbidden to go to the volleyball court due to threats by the cathecist was there-hallelujah! The team did a great job here with VBS’s and another ministry.
Monte de los Garcia-The people flooded the volleyball court on this first visit back. They did this last summer too and then little by little started backing off even talking bad about us and spreading rumors. A great miracle occurred however, this last Wednesday. The same son-in-law and daughter of Luis the sheriff who had obnoxiously interrumpted many of our services last summer by playing basketball were present during the service and prayed to receive Christ. Another miracle was that I won 21-a basketball game-even with my 15 yr old nephew here who is in great shape-ha!
Santa Rosa-This Thursday was our last day of ministry. We awoke to a constant, steady rain. This was part of the same hurricane that hit the Tamaulipas coast a few days ago. We were saddened to hear that people had died and lost their homes in other parts of Mexico. However, for our people in Zacatecas it was a great blessing. The farmers were beyond blessed with this great, soaking rain. It had been two years since we had done anything in Santa Rosa-in fact it rained that day too. We drove around and interceded over the town. The Lord led us to a store where a couple received Christ. People kept coming into the store and Pastor Kevin made balloons for them and we gave them rice and beans. Then something really amazing happened. Four police officers from the city of Jerez stopped by. We blessed their families with rice and beans and asked them if we could pray for them. This was one of the most amazing moments of my life-praying for these four tough police officers. The men in our team laid hands on them praying for protection and blessing on their families. As we were about to leave we ran into the sheriff, who we also blessed with rice and beans and he gave us the thumbs up to come back and do ministry at any time. Praise the Lord for His many blessings!
His many blessings-On Tuesday we took the team to some natural hot springs that only cost $1.70/person-wow! It was a great rest for the team after the hard core ministry in Monte Escobedo. There in Valparaiso we blessed Pastor Daniel who has 7 mission churches with three sacks of beans and rice to hand out. The hot springs were exactly what our team and my family needed to relax a little bit. The team God gave us this last week really loved each other. Every single member of the team that was not one of the leaders was on their very first mission trip this included my nephew Judah and a young man from Monclova, MX named Abem who God had blessed us with to help translate. Never was there one word of complaining on any of their lips! We also got to do the most amazing hike ever. We got to such a high altitude that we were able to see Parral, Jerez, and even the city of Zacatecas which is at 8,500 ft. above sea level! The Lord gave us a special blessing yesterday when we went to Zacatecas to do the team’s shopping. The little observatory tower happened to be open and the meteorologist let us go to the top and look out-something he said he never does!
Special thanks
Cayleigh Blumrick, Pastor Kevin Cole & the New York mission team
My sister and brother-in-law Matt & Robin Maxwell who sowed into the life of my nephew Judah by sending him here for two weeks
Abem Falcon & the brothers in Oklahoma who invested the gospel into his life
All our prayer and financial supporters
Urgent need/monthly support
We praise the Lord that recently a new family made the decision to support us on a monthly basis. We had really wanted to go full-time this next year but at this time we have not seen anywhere near the response we need to receive monthly support. Remember we have to raise our own support. We are not supported by a big organization that takes care of our financial needs. We really need you to pray about supporting us with $50/month. Our full-time budget is $3500/month and we are almost at 1/5 of that. We continue to be very active in seeking opportunities to speak at churches. If you represent a church, are a family or you are simply an individual that reads this newsletter we really need you to consider supporting us with $50/month. God has called us to bring His good news to Zacatecas. I hope our 4 years of perseverance in the area has showed you our dedication. Please respond to this e-mail with your commitment. If we have the support by the end of this next summer we will go. I also ask you to send me names/e-mails or info of any pastors of churches/individuals that might be interested in receiving me at their church on a Sunday.
Thanks again for all your prayers and support, 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
Monday, March 22, 2010
Spring Break 2010
Sembradores de Cristo March 21, 2010,
“Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving; meanwhile praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains, that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.” (Colossians 4:2-4)
Your prayers were felt this past week my brothers and sisters! There were many churches and individuals interceding for our Spring Break trip. Truly many doors were opened for us to share Christ. Many received Christ as the Holy Spirit was manifested. The Holy Spirit had been preparing the soil of Porvenir to receive the Word of God for quite some time now. Souls were saved, friendships were made, sicknesses were healed in the name of Jesus, disciples were encouraged, and more than anything the name of our Lord Jesus Christ was lifted high. Porvenir is the first village/town we have visited in the Jerez municipality area that had been evangelized before. But not by Christians my brethren-by the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The people in Porvenir were more receptive to our presence and to the Holy Spirit then the people in the higher mountain villages we had been dealing with for years now. Because the Jehovah’s witnesses had visited the area the people were used to being visited by folks from “other religions” like ourselves. Of course “other religions” would refer to anything other than Roman Catholicism. The Lord sent us to this place right at the perfect time. Until now the majority of the people in this village who have received the Jehovah’s Witness’s doctrine agreed that Jesus Christ is the Lord, is the Son of God, and is their only Savior. According to them the Jehovah’s witnesses have been teaching them that (we know that’s not true) or they haven’t learned much yet. We know the latter to be true. One day one of our groups found a group of Jehovah’s witnesses in an elderly lady of 95’s house. They actually very respectfully told our group to go ahead and left. I’m telling you my friends that your prayers were felt this week. The Lord gave us so many victories that I’m going to have to share them to you day by day.
Monday March 15, 2010-
The village of Porvenir is a 45 minute daily commute from Palmas Altas. Before we entered we pulled off the side of the road, circled up, and interceded for Porvenir. We declared that the Lord would send His angels to the battlefield before we even arrived and prepare hearts. We started by looking for the sheriff of the village who had already given us permission to be there in December. Professor/Brother Lynn was going to speak with him about a new corn seed that he would experiment with as well. He wasn’t there but his father was. His father not only gave us the authorization to evangelize but also to use the basketball court for services and VBS’s! Each day we split into different evangelism teams using the evangecube/cd. My team went back to the sheriff’s father area. He prayed to receive Christ but considers himself to be a Jehovah’s Witness. He didn’t believe that they don’t believe that Jesus Christ is Lord. His grandson also received Christ with much joy. In our team we ran into many individuals who would either hide from us or declare, “I’m Catholic and not interested.” Another team, however, had folks receive Christ and even invite them into their homes. My wife had a great group of kids for the VBS’s. This group of children was faithful every day (M-T) to the VBS’s and more obedient/serious about the lessons than other groups of children we had dealt with in the area-ha-ha! The first day’s service was great. Sister Joan of Taiwan shared her testimony in Chinese (Mandarin), Nika translated it into English, and then myself into Spanish. Joan has an amazing testimony of how she grew up in Catholicism in Taiwan (how rare is that!) She was always empty and looking for something to fill the void in her life. She turned to the idols and gave more of her heart to each one. She began to become demon possessed (she recognizes now). After much persistence of a Christian friend, she allowed that friend to pray for her. The demons didn’t want to let go and left her mute until the friend’s pastor and others came over to pray over her whole household. She confessed her sins to Jesus and was freed! The jaws were dropping as Joan shared how the demons would grab a hold of her throat and torture her. That first night we had more folks present than the second night on Tuesday. The locals were taken back at our group’s enthusiasm during the worship, Joan’s testimony, and the preaching of the Word of God. It was kind of funny that a man named Mario Dominguez came before the service during the VBS’s with his “burro.” Professor Lynn and I had spent talking in the local “cantina” telling the men about our plan to experiment with a new corn. Professor Lynn is 100% dedicated to helping these men out in their agricultural. The local idea is that the “grass is greener” in the United States . Working in the United States to them is their only hope. We know that that is not true. God can bless their crops/livestock and provide them above and beyond they can imagine without them having to go and work illegally in the U.S. Back to my story (ha) with Mario. He was one of the men in the bar who was sober and had a burro. He brought it to me at the basketball court and I asked, “What’s it’s name?” He said that it didn’t have a name. I asked him if he would like for me to name it. He said he did. The first name that popped in my head was the name of “Josafat” (Jehosophat) since I was going to be preaching on King Jehosophat during the service. He liked the name and adopted it. He then listened to the evangecube/cd and prayed to receive Christ!
Tuesday March 16, 2010
On Tuesday the whole crew went by Guadalupe to look for Artemio Dorado to see if he wanted to participate in the maize experiment. Our group got the opportunity to eat some 100% natural corn tortillas and freshly made cheese-probably ate one of the best meals of our lives there with Manuela and Artemio. We took advantage to invite folks to our service the following evening. Guadalupe Victoria is the village we have worked in now for 4 years this March. Brother Lynn and I stuck around to look for Lorenzo the sheriff of Porvenir in the fields and sent the team ahead to evangelize. It was funny because he asked me when I would need to use the basketball court for services I had to say, “Umm, yesterday, and tomorrow through Thursday.” He is a man with a very kind heart and had no problem. May God reward him for his kindness! Remember how the sheriff of Cargadero refused to give us permission in June. As we drove towards Porvenir we stopped in Parral to show Lynn the agriculture there. It’s interesting that only in Parral are apricots, avocados, and quince fruit grown. As we were leaving we ran into two of our disciples in Parral-Francisca and Delia. They were going to have to walk three miles up the mountain on an errand so we offered them a ride and invited them to go with us to Porvenir. Wow! Meanwhile the team back in Porvenir experienced more rejection than the previous day and more people not home. Once again, my wife’s group of children were faithfully obedient to the Bible lesson. The second evening’s service at Porvenir was incredible! I gave an altar call to receive Christ or prayer and almost all the ladies went forward. One later told us that the Holy Spirit touched her in a powerful way when we prayed for her. Our group had many prayer warriors present including Ester Blanco, Joan, and Ana Urteaga.
Wednesday March 17, 2010
Without a doubt, Wednesday was my personal favorite. Once again, we parked outside of the village, grabbed hands, and prayed for Porvenir with fervor in one accord. The Lord had told me to have a team go to a really small village nearby to Porvenir called Jomulco to evangelize while the other two would finish the rest of Porvenir. I figured, of course, that I would personally need to take the small team to Jomulco. As we drove around and prayed over Porvenir the Lord said otherwise. You know that it’s the Lord when He speaks. It’s that still small voice that speaks clear direction to our hearts. I was fighting over it a little feeling bad about sending a team to Jomulco without the missionary leader. The Lord told me not to worry about it but to send Brother Lynn with the other members. I’m so glad I listened and obeyed His voice. Right away, our team of three won a man to Christ and then ending up spending two hours at the “cantina.” It’s interesting to note that that day there were two groups of men at the bar. One was the drunk group and the other across the street was the sober group. This is because on one side of the street the bar was open and on the other side the bar was closed. Joan, Gamaliel, and I went up to the drunk group first with the plan to share the gospel to all of them with the evangebox. A certain man would not let Gamaliel speak two words without interrupting him going off on tangents. He was about as drunk as either of us had ever seen. There were, however, men that were trying to listen and actually made good comments and questions. The Lord told me to go across the street to the sober men. These men listened to me more intently than any other men had before. They all prayed to receive Christ. The Holy Spirit spoke through me convicting their hearts. I won their confidence and one of them showed me his necklace and asked me what I thought since his nine children in the U.S. disagreed with him having it. It was a traditional picture of Juan Diego in his vision of the Virgin of Guadalupe. He asked so I told-ha! First I explained that Juan Diego never existed historically and that historically the priests knew the story was made up and tried to stop it but let it continue since the masses were convinced. Biblically I explained to him that even if Mary was renamed “Guadalupe” she has no power to pass from heaven to earth and back. Thirdly I explained that the virgin of Guadalupe was not of God because she did not give the glory to God but told Juan Diego, “Tell the people that I came.” In the story she does not say tell them Jesus Christ is Lord. She gives herself glory. Sound familiar? Sounds like Satan in his jealousy to me, glorying himself instead of God-still mad he can’t be bigger than God. One of the men turned out to be three of our VBS’ kid’s father. Praise the Lord! Just like our church here in Del Rio , Esperanza, we want to see whole families came to Christ. Another man joined us later sharing with us how his father-in-law had recently passed away in an automobile accident. We prayed with him and then he also wanted to receive Christ. God still wasn’t done with our evangelism team. At the next house we led a couple to Christ. She had had four miscarriages. We shared hope with her, sharing the stories of Sarah and Ana and then prayed for her. I’m looking forward to hearing from her next visit believing God’s touch on her womb. At the last house a precious older woman received Christ. Jesse’s team had the experience with the 95 year old lady who was with the Jehovah’s witnesses and also saw others came to Christ. Meanwhile in Jomulco, there were both rejections and decisions for Christ. One person thought that the Jehovah’s Witness tract was the Bible which Sister Ana explained was not. After my wife’s precious Bible study with the VBS group we headed up to Guadalupe Victoria for the service. We were excited to see not only our normal faithful folks there like Liliana and her mother, Checo , Israel , Yanet, Gloria, and Victor but also some of our “banned” disciples. Remember that in July the cathecist threatened their families with curses and other things and that we had lost half of our people from one service to another. We saw one girl come back and two of our precious boys. These two boys did not sit down with us but stood behind us and listened. Before, they were not even allowed to listen from far off. It was great to see our precious sheep in Guadalupe and encourage them once again to persevere in the faith.
Thursday March 18, 2010
Thursday morning was spent on agriculture prep work. I drove Lynn around the area to show him how numerous the villages are that don’t have the gospel. By Thursday our contacts with the men began growing into trusted friendships. Many have not made a decision to receive Christ but have began to seen that we love them no matter what. The rest of the team went out to purchase the hot dogs/condiments. Before our hot dog feast/party Diana had her group of kids participate in a contest to see who could tell the best Bible story from (M-T) from start to finish. The first boy, Cesar, told the best Samson story I have ever heard. You should have seen how the locals were listening to him and the others tell these stories so intently-totally impressed at how much they knew. It was great to see a lot of young people came out for the hot dogs and fellowship. Nika, a young college student from China , particularly bonded with many of them exchanging Facebook-ha! We encouraged other shy passerbys to come by and get the hot dogs no matter that they hadn’t come for any of the services/VBS’s. It was truly a great time of fellowship-I think you will enjoy the pictures. From there we went to Parral de las Huertas for our scheduled service. We were a little late getting there and all the elderly ladies that normally come were there waiting for us. I had struggled getting a word from the Lord for this village but the Lord is faithful and gave it to me during the worship and confirmed it when Sister Ana shared her testimony mentioning 2 Timothy 3:16, “All scripture is inspired by God.” A few new folks also visited our service there that evening. The Holy Spirit was manifested and a lady’s back, arm, and leg pain was healed. These precious sheep again told us how much they missed us and would be waiting for us. It pleased me to see the demon possessed man again-the one who believes the saint of death saved him from “death.” He’s the same one man who wouldn’t let us share the gospel with him in December but definitely wanted the chicken we offered him-Hallelujah!
Our group wept together, rejoiced together, served together, and ultimately finished the week strong. Please pray that the maize experiment will go well. There are three farmers who are going to put the new maize seed to test. We will then know which seed will be the best for their area. As Professor Lynn put it, “If none of them work out better than the seed you’re already using then I’ll send more next year.” God’s hand was on our team this week. My heart is still there in Zacatecas my friends. I desperately want to be there with my people teaching them God’s ways. God is mobilizing his church in our area. One of the ladies in Porvenir told us that she had been praying that God would send her somebody to teach her the Word of God. She would sometimes go all the way to Fresnillo (almost two hours away) to go to church. She is excited that we will be going to her village this summer. Please pray/interecede ferverently for the holy protection of the Lord on the seeds that were sown this past week. We know that the devil would love to snatch up, scatter, and destroy this precious seed. These men, women, young people, and children are precious in the eyes of the Lord. Diana and I love them dearly. The people of Guadalupe do not even think twice about our return. They have seen our loving faithfulness for four straight years now. We both feel very strongly that we will be with them on a full-time basis very soon.
Special thanks
Thanks to all our monthly supporters: Without you neither this trip or any other trip would be possible.
Team members: Thank you Gamaliel for giving up a week in your church in Acuna to come and lead worship for us and do so many things for God this week. Thank you Nika and Joan for sharing your testimonies without fear and for loving our family. Thank you Jesse for continuing to be my right hand man in Zacatecas. Thank you Ana and Alejandra for coming on this trip and being such a blessing. Thank you Oscar for your humble service this week to the King. Thank you Garcia family for hosting us again and again. Thank you Ester and Diana for allowing Gamaliel and I go out and evangelize while you watched our precious children. Thank you Diana and kids for always accompanying me to Zacatecas no matter what the cost (weather, bumpy roads, lack of food, uncomfortable lodging, long ride from border, etc.) Thank you Lynn for your dedication to our farmers and your great friendship.
Rich Kirby: Thank you for sending Joan and Nika our way.
Urgent need/monthly support
We praise the Lord that recently a new family made the decision to support us on a monthly basis. We had really wanted to go full-time this next year but at this time we have not seen anywhere near the response we need to receive monthly support. Remember we have to raise our own support. We are not supported by a big organization that takes care of our financial needs. We really need you to pray about supporting us with $50/month. Our full-time budget is $3500/month and we are almost at 1/5 of that. We continue to be very active in seeking opportunities to speak at churches. If you represent a church, are a family or you are simply an individual that reads this newsletter we really need you to consider supporting us with $50/month. God has called us to bring His good news to Zacatecas. I hope our 4 years of perseverance in the area has showed you our dedication. Please respond to this e-mail with your commitment. If we have the support by the end of this next summer we will go. I also ask you to send me names/e-mails or info of any pastors of churches/individuals that might be interested in receiving me at their church on a Sunday.
.
Summer teams 2010
Zacatecas is a great place to bring a mission team. Besides all the great mission opportunities in VBS, evangelism, sports camps, testimonies, and preaching there is phenomenal mountain hiking and Zacatecas capital city to explore. Most teams that come eat better with us than they do all year around in the states. At this time we still need teams to commit to doing a mission trip with us this summer. We need you to come and help us with evangelism, VBS’s, sports camps, etc. We have experience working with men/women, youth, college age, and families. We need a team to commit to doing a baseball camp and a basketball camp in Porvenir.
Thanks again for all your prayers and support, 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
“Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving; meanwhile praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains, that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.” (Colossians 4:2-4)
Your prayers were felt this past week my brothers and sisters! There were many churches and individuals interceding for our Spring Break trip. Truly many doors were opened for us to share Christ. Many received Christ as the Holy Spirit was manifested. The Holy Spirit had been preparing the soil of Porvenir to receive the Word of God for quite some time now. Souls were saved, friendships were made, sicknesses were healed in the name of Jesus, disciples were encouraged, and more than anything the name of our Lord Jesus Christ was lifted high. Porvenir is the first village/town we have visited in the Jerez municipality area that had been evangelized before. But not by Christians my brethren-by the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The people in Porvenir were more receptive to our presence and to the Holy Spirit then the people in the higher mountain villages we had been dealing with for years now. Because the Jehovah’s witnesses had visited the area the people were used to being visited by folks from “other religions” like ourselves. Of course “other religions” would refer to anything other than Roman Catholicism. The Lord sent us to this place right at the perfect time. Until now the majority of the people in this village who have received the Jehovah’s Witness’s doctrine agreed that Jesus Christ is the Lord, is the Son of God, and is their only Savior. According to them the Jehovah’s witnesses have been teaching them that (we know that’s not true) or they haven’t learned much yet. We know the latter to be true. One day one of our groups found a group of Jehovah’s witnesses in an elderly lady of 95’s house. They actually very respectfully told our group to go ahead and left. I’m telling you my friends that your prayers were felt this week. The Lord gave us so many victories that I’m going to have to share them to you day by day.
Monday March 15, 2010-
The village of Porvenir is a 45 minute daily commute from Palmas Altas. Before we entered we pulled off the side of the road, circled up, and interceded for Porvenir. We declared that the Lord would send His angels to the battlefield before we even arrived and prepare hearts. We started by looking for the sheriff of the village who had already given us permission to be there in December. Professor/Brother Lynn was going to speak with him about a new corn seed that he would experiment with as well. He wasn’t there but his father was. His father not only gave us the authorization to evangelize but also to use the basketball court for services and VBS’s! Each day we split into different evangelism teams using the evangecube/cd. My team went back to the sheriff’s father area. He prayed to receive Christ but considers himself to be a Jehovah’s Witness. He didn’t believe that they don’t believe that Jesus Christ is Lord. His grandson also received Christ with much joy. In our team we ran into many individuals who would either hide from us or declare, “I’m Catholic and not interested.” Another team, however, had folks receive Christ and even invite them into their homes. My wife had a great group of kids for the VBS’s. This group of children was faithful every day (M-T) to the VBS’s and more obedient/serious about the lessons than other groups of children we had dealt with in the area-ha-ha! The first day’s service was great. Sister Joan of Taiwan shared her testimony in Chinese (Mandarin), Nika translated it into English, and then myself into Spanish. Joan has an amazing testimony of how she grew up in Catholicism in Taiwan (how rare is that!) She was always empty and looking for something to fill the void in her life. She turned to the idols and gave more of her heart to each one. She began to become demon possessed (she recognizes now). After much persistence of a Christian friend, she allowed that friend to pray for her. The demons didn’t want to let go and left her mute until the friend’s pastor and others came over to pray over her whole household. She confessed her sins to Jesus and was freed! The jaws were dropping as Joan shared how the demons would grab a hold of her throat and torture her. That first night we had more folks present than the second night on Tuesday. The locals were taken back at our group’s enthusiasm during the worship, Joan’s testimony, and the preaching of the Word of God. It was kind of funny that a man named Mario Dominguez came before the service during the VBS’s with his “burro.” Professor Lynn and I had spent talking in the local “cantina” telling the men about our plan to experiment with a new corn. Professor Lynn is 100% dedicated to helping these men out in their agricultural. The local idea is that the “grass is greener” in the United States . Working in the United States to them is their only hope. We know that that is not true. God can bless their crops/livestock and provide them above and beyond they can imagine without them having to go and work illegally in the U.S. Back to my story (ha) with Mario. He was one of the men in the bar who was sober and had a burro. He brought it to me at the basketball court and I asked, “What’s it’s name?” He said that it didn’t have a name. I asked him if he would like for me to name it. He said he did. The first name that popped in my head was the name of “Josafat” (Jehosophat) since I was going to be preaching on King Jehosophat during the service. He liked the name and adopted it. He then listened to the evangecube/cd and prayed to receive Christ!
Tuesday March 16, 2010
On Tuesday the whole crew went by Guadalupe to look for Artemio Dorado to see if he wanted to participate in the maize experiment. Our group got the opportunity to eat some 100% natural corn tortillas and freshly made cheese-probably ate one of the best meals of our lives there with Manuela and Artemio. We took advantage to invite folks to our service the following evening. Guadalupe Victoria is the village we have worked in now for 4 years this March. Brother Lynn and I stuck around to look for Lorenzo the sheriff of Porvenir in the fields and sent the team ahead to evangelize. It was funny because he asked me when I would need to use the basketball court for services I had to say, “Umm, yesterday, and tomorrow through Thursday.” He is a man with a very kind heart and had no problem. May God reward him for his kindness! Remember how the sheriff of Cargadero refused to give us permission in June. As we drove towards Porvenir we stopped in Parral to show Lynn the agriculture there. It’s interesting that only in Parral are apricots, avocados, and quince fruit grown. As we were leaving we ran into two of our disciples in Parral-Francisca and Delia. They were going to have to walk three miles up the mountain on an errand so we offered them a ride and invited them to go with us to Porvenir. Wow! Meanwhile the team back in Porvenir experienced more rejection than the previous day and more people not home. Once again, my wife’s group of children were faithfully obedient to the Bible lesson. The second evening’s service at Porvenir was incredible! I gave an altar call to receive Christ or prayer and almost all the ladies went forward. One later told us that the Holy Spirit touched her in a powerful way when we prayed for her. Our group had many prayer warriors present including Ester Blanco, Joan, and Ana Urteaga.
Wednesday March 17, 2010
Without a doubt, Wednesday was my personal favorite. Once again, we parked outside of the village, grabbed hands, and prayed for Porvenir with fervor in one accord. The Lord had told me to have a team go to a really small village nearby to Porvenir called Jomulco to evangelize while the other two would finish the rest of Porvenir. I figured, of course, that I would personally need to take the small team to Jomulco. As we drove around and prayed over Porvenir the Lord said otherwise. You know that it’s the Lord when He speaks. It’s that still small voice that speaks clear direction to our hearts. I was fighting over it a little feeling bad about sending a team to Jomulco without the missionary leader. The Lord told me not to worry about it but to send Brother Lynn with the other members. I’m so glad I listened and obeyed His voice. Right away, our team of three won a man to Christ and then ending up spending two hours at the “cantina.” It’s interesting to note that that day there were two groups of men at the bar. One was the drunk group and the other across the street was the sober group. This is because on one side of the street the bar was open and on the other side the bar was closed. Joan, Gamaliel, and I went up to the drunk group first with the plan to share the gospel to all of them with the evangebox. A certain man would not let Gamaliel speak two words without interrupting him going off on tangents. He was about as drunk as either of us had ever seen. There were, however, men that were trying to listen and actually made good comments and questions. The Lord told me to go across the street to the sober men. These men listened to me more intently than any other men had before. They all prayed to receive Christ. The Holy Spirit spoke through me convicting their hearts. I won their confidence and one of them showed me his necklace and asked me what I thought since his nine children in the U.S. disagreed with him having it. It was a traditional picture of Juan Diego in his vision of the Virgin of Guadalupe. He asked so I told-ha! First I explained that Juan Diego never existed historically and that historically the priests knew the story was made up and tried to stop it but let it continue since the masses were convinced. Biblically I explained to him that even if Mary was renamed “Guadalupe” she has no power to pass from heaven to earth and back. Thirdly I explained that the virgin of Guadalupe was not of God because she did not give the glory to God but told Juan Diego, “Tell the people that I came.” In the story she does not say tell them Jesus Christ is Lord. She gives herself glory. Sound familiar? Sounds like Satan in his jealousy to me, glorying himself instead of God-still mad he can’t be bigger than God. One of the men turned out to be three of our VBS’ kid’s father. Praise the Lord! Just like our church here in Del Rio , Esperanza, we want to see whole families came to Christ. Another man joined us later sharing with us how his father-in-law had recently passed away in an automobile accident. We prayed with him and then he also wanted to receive Christ. God still wasn’t done with our evangelism team. At the next house we led a couple to Christ. She had had four miscarriages. We shared hope with her, sharing the stories of Sarah and Ana and then prayed for her. I’m looking forward to hearing from her next visit believing God’s touch on her womb. At the last house a precious older woman received Christ. Jesse’s team had the experience with the 95 year old lady who was with the Jehovah’s witnesses and also saw others came to Christ. Meanwhile in Jomulco, there were both rejections and decisions for Christ. One person thought that the Jehovah’s Witness tract was the Bible which Sister Ana explained was not. After my wife’s precious Bible study with the VBS group we headed up to Guadalupe Victoria for the service. We were excited to see not only our normal faithful folks there like Liliana and her mother, Checo , Israel , Yanet, Gloria, and Victor but also some of our “banned” disciples. Remember that in July the cathecist threatened their families with curses and other things and that we had lost half of our people from one service to another. We saw one girl come back and two of our precious boys. These two boys did not sit down with us but stood behind us and listened. Before, they were not even allowed to listen from far off. It was great to see our precious sheep in Guadalupe and encourage them once again to persevere in the faith.
Thursday March 18, 2010
Thursday morning was spent on agriculture prep work. I drove Lynn around the area to show him how numerous the villages are that don’t have the gospel. By Thursday our contacts with the men began growing into trusted friendships. Many have not made a decision to receive Christ but have began to seen that we love them no matter what. The rest of the team went out to purchase the hot dogs/condiments. Before our hot dog feast/party Diana had her group of kids participate in a contest to see who could tell the best Bible story from (M-T) from start to finish. The first boy, Cesar, told the best Samson story I have ever heard. You should have seen how the locals were listening to him and the others tell these stories so intently-totally impressed at how much they knew. It was great to see a lot of young people came out for the hot dogs and fellowship. Nika, a young college student from China , particularly bonded with many of them exchanging Facebook-ha! We encouraged other shy passerbys to come by and get the hot dogs no matter that they hadn’t come for any of the services/VBS’s. It was truly a great time of fellowship-I think you will enjoy the pictures. From there we went to Parral de las Huertas for our scheduled service. We were a little late getting there and all the elderly ladies that normally come were there waiting for us. I had struggled getting a word from the Lord for this village but the Lord is faithful and gave it to me during the worship and confirmed it when Sister Ana shared her testimony mentioning 2 Timothy 3:16, “All scripture is inspired by God.” A few new folks also visited our service there that evening. The Holy Spirit was manifested and a lady’s back, arm, and leg pain was healed. These precious sheep again told us how much they missed us and would be waiting for us. It pleased me to see the demon possessed man again-the one who believes the saint of death saved him from “death.” He’s the same one man who wouldn’t let us share the gospel with him in December but definitely wanted the chicken we offered him-Hallelujah!
Our group wept together, rejoiced together, served together, and ultimately finished the week strong. Please pray that the maize experiment will go well. There are three farmers who are going to put the new maize seed to test. We will then know which seed will be the best for their area. As Professor Lynn put it, “If none of them work out better than the seed you’re already using then I’ll send more next year.” God’s hand was on our team this week. My heart is still there in Zacatecas my friends. I desperately want to be there with my people teaching them God’s ways. God is mobilizing his church in our area. One of the ladies in Porvenir told us that she had been praying that God would send her somebody to teach her the Word of God. She would sometimes go all the way to Fresnillo (almost two hours away) to go to church. She is excited that we will be going to her village this summer. Please pray/interecede ferverently for the holy protection of the Lord on the seeds that were sown this past week. We know that the devil would love to snatch up, scatter, and destroy this precious seed. These men, women, young people, and children are precious in the eyes of the Lord. Diana and I love them dearly. The people of Guadalupe do not even think twice about our return. They have seen our loving faithfulness for four straight years now. We both feel very strongly that we will be with them on a full-time basis very soon.
Special thanks
Thanks to all our monthly supporters: Without you neither this trip or any other trip would be possible.
Team members: Thank you Gamaliel for giving up a week in your church in Acuna to come and lead worship for us and do so many things for God this week. Thank you Nika and Joan for sharing your testimonies without fear and for loving our family. Thank you Jesse for continuing to be my right hand man in Zacatecas. Thank you Ana and Alejandra for coming on this trip and being such a blessing. Thank you Oscar for your humble service this week to the King. Thank you Garcia family for hosting us again and again. Thank you Ester and Diana for allowing Gamaliel and I go out and evangelize while you watched our precious children. Thank you Diana and kids for always accompanying me to Zacatecas no matter what the cost (weather, bumpy roads, lack of food, uncomfortable lodging, long ride from border, etc.) Thank you Lynn for your dedication to our farmers and your great friendship.
Rich Kirby: Thank you for sending Joan and Nika our way.
Urgent need/monthly support
We praise the Lord that recently a new family made the decision to support us on a monthly basis. We had really wanted to go full-time this next year but at this time we have not seen anywhere near the response we need to receive monthly support. Remember we have to raise our own support. We are not supported by a big organization that takes care of our financial needs. We really need you to pray about supporting us with $50/month. Our full-time budget is $3500/month and we are almost at 1/5 of that. We continue to be very active in seeking opportunities to speak at churches. If you represent a church, are a family or you are simply an individual that reads this newsletter we really need you to consider supporting us with $50/month. God has called us to bring His good news to Zacatecas. I hope our 4 years of perseverance in the area has showed you our dedication. Please respond to this e-mail with your commitment. If we have the support by the end of this next summer we will go. I also ask you to send me names/e-mails or info of any pastors of churches/individuals that might be interested in receiving me at their church on a Sunday.
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Summer teams 2010
Zacatecas is a great place to bring a mission team. Besides all the great mission opportunities in VBS, evangelism, sports camps, testimonies, and preaching there is phenomenal mountain hiking and Zacatecas capital city to explore. Most teams that come eat better with us than they do all year around in the states. At this time we still need teams to commit to doing a mission trip with us this summer. We need you to come and help us with evangelism, VBS’s, sports camps, etc. We have experience working with men/women, youth, college age, and families. We need a team to commit to doing a baseball camp and a basketball camp in Porvenir.
Thanks again for all your prayers and support, 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
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Re: Sembradores de Cristo March 7, 2010
Sembradores de Cristo March 7, 2010,
“But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.” (Mark 4:8) When you study the parable of the sower you realize that the variable is neither the sower nor is it the seed. (the style of seed or sowing method). The variable is the soil. I really love what v. 14 says, “The sower sows the word.” We are called to preach the good news to every creature. We are called to sow his word in our Jerusalem, our Judea, our Samaria, and to our ends of the earth. Those on the wayside will allow Satan to immediately come and steal away the word. Those on stony ground will receive the word with gladness but will soon fall because the word did not take root. At the first sign of trouble (tribulation or persecution) they will fall. The ones sown among thorns will allow the things of this world including the love of money to choke it up. But what about those seeds that were sown in good soil. Will they bear fruit? Yes! Some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred. Are, therefore, our efforts as sowers of Christ worth the while for those folks in the latter group? Claro que si! Of course! Last weekend my wife and I had the opportunity to participate in a “treasure hunt.” The attached Word doc will give more details about this evangelism experience for those interested. The Lord showed us before we went out that one of the people that we would share the gospel with would reject Him. We were to blow our trumpets but he/she was not going to heed. Nevertheless, it was still the Lord’s will to go and share the gospel with this individual no matter the outcome.
The Lord had told me that January and February would be a dry time for the ministry. I spent hours sending out e-mails to churches near our Del Rio, TX area seeking speaking opportunities. There was a silence for a long period of time. During this time we also went through some very difficult personal family issues and financial difficulties. I now thank the Lord so much for this time because I again realized how much I need God’s blessing on our ministry/lives. Without Him I am nothing. Without Him “Sembradores de Cristo” is nothing. We are desperate for His anointing and blessing on our ministry. Just last week I received an e-mail from a brother of a San Antonio church with whom we will begin discussing ministry with starting in April. Right now I am writing to you from the Oklahoma City airport getting to ready to return to Del Rio. A precious congregation in Stillwater, OK invited me to come out and share a PowerPoint presentation and preach. Jesse Chaffin’s father is the pastor of New Beginnings Missionary Alliance church. The Lord gave me a word on evangelism to share, “Let your voice be heard” which was well received. Another purpose of this visit was to meet with our Spring Break 2010 Zacatecas mission trip team.
Spring Break 2010 Zacatecas mission trip (3/14-3/20)- Again, if there are any last minute individuals who would like to sign up for this trip we have plenty of room for you. The cost is $200/person plus your transportation to Del Rio. Before we ever showed up in Palmas Altas the Lord had spoken to our host Angelina Garcia that her household would serve as an int’l ministry base. Up to this point we have all been “gringos” and “mexicanos.” Sister Joan of Taiwan will be the first Asian Sembradores participant. She is a delightful young lady with a wonderful testimony. You can pray for the following team members: Joan, Ana, Alejandra, Gamaliel, Ester, Estrella, Jesse, Lynn, Oscar, and Elliotts. Last year’s Spring Break trip was our first farming trip with Brother Lynn. We are still in the beginning stages of this crucial men’s ministry. During this trip we will be studying the farming of new villages and will be introducing a new corn to the area. Each morning we will be evangelizing in “Porvenir” door-to-door and doing VBS’s with the children in the afternoons and farming work. We will be holding outdoor services as well with Gamaliel leading us in music. Gamaliel is our talented/anointed friend from Acuna who accompanied us in December 2008. We are believing that souls will be saved this coming week! I am also looking forward to our Zacatecas men seeing Professor Lynn again. Lifetime relationships are being built through this ministry. Thanks again for your prayers for this trip!
Urgent need/monthly support
We praise the Lord that recently a new family made the decision to support us on a monthly basis. We had really wanted to go full-time this next year but at this time we have not seen anywhere near the response we need to receive monthly support. Remember we have to raise our own support. We are not supported by a big organization that takes care of our financial needs. We really need you to pray about supporting us with $50/month. Our full-time budget is $3500/month and we are almost at 1/5 of that. We continue to be very active in seeking opportunities to speak at churches. If you represent a church, are a family or you are simply an individual that reads this newsletter we really need you to consider supporting us with $50/month. God has called us to bring His good news to Zacatecas. I hope our 4 years of perseverance in the area has showed you our dedication. Please respond to this e-mail with your commitment. If we have the support by the end of this next summer we will go. I also ask you to send me names/e-mails or info of any pastors of churches/individuals that might be interested in receiving me at their church on a Sunday.
.
Summer teams 2010
At this time we still need teams to commit to doing a mission trip with us this summer. We need you to come and help us with evangelism, VBS’s, sports camps, etc. We have experience working with men/women, youth, college age, and families. We need a team to commit to doing a baseball camp in Porvenir. We may also have a pretty big construction project opportunity as well.
Thanks again for all your prayers and support, 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
First treasure hunt: 2/27/2010
My beloved youth pastor and friend recently introduced me to the book "The Ultimate Treasure Hunt" which gives us an effective evangelism tool using words of knowledge the Holy Spirit gives us leading us to divine appointments with souls. The devil tried to make it really difficult for Diana and I to get on a treasure hunt seeing as last week had to be postponed due to immediate family troubles. Mama Linda surprised us yesterday with a visit and offering to take the kids to Acuna.
We began with prayer, a worship song, and opened the Bible to Jeremiah 6: 16-19. V. 17 "Also, I set watchmen over you, saying, Listen to the sound of the trumpet!" But they said, "We will not listen." I definitely gathered from the Lord that it was definitely his will to go out to blow the trumpet-share the gospel-and I gathered that there would be rejection of His Word.
We then sought the Lord and filled in our treasure maps. Diana had the park on her map seeing people running and ducks swimming. What do you know, we go to the park and there was a special elementary marathon going on! We walked towards the action and saw a man matching three of Diana's appearance clues: fat, dark-skinned, and blue However, he was not bald. We then remembered C.J telling us that one clue might be for somebody else. As we walked back by them we realized that the guy he was talking to was BALD and he was also wearing all blue. We came up to them (quite nervously, strange for me huh). I showed them that I believed they were our treasure and asked them if any of them had a scar-first the big fellow said no and then he pulled up his elbow and showed us a big one. They claimed to be saved (but I do not believe they were) and when asked if we could pray for anyone in their family (Diana's prayer category clue) sure enough a wayward brother needed prayer. As we walked back towards our vehicle Diana noticed a familiar high school student she was a sub for yesterday. The Lord prompted me to share the story of the Lord calling Peter the fisherman-they were fishing. It turns out both of them are Christians and are very involved in evangelism at Livingstone church. When we asked them if there was anything we could pray for them about they both said what-FAMILY! Ha, there was the clue again. One asked for prayer for an alcoholic uncle and the other for a chained smoker brother. The visit was a great encouragement to them to continue "fishing for men."
Now it was time to pursue my clues. My location was way over on the north side of town-I saw King's Way road that runs between a closed down restaurant (old Don Marcelino's) and an air conditioning business. There was nothing there so Diana mentioned we go check out a yard sale sign address. Sure enough amongst used furniture was a giant stuffed animal BEAR-one of my unusual category items. There were no other stuffed animals. The lady working there was wearing a white blouse one of my appearance clues. It turns out Diana had studied English with her. A spirit of distraction, pride, and rejection of salvation was all over that woman. Diana later told me that had heard the name Patty from the Lord for the name category but hadn't written it down since she had seen a Patty in Wal-mart the night before-thinking that it was an obvious flesh thought. Sure enough this was Patty and she didn't react one bit to matching our clues and being our "treasure." While being presented with the gospel her eyes were wandering everywhere and customers were arriving distracting her even more. When asked where she would go if she were to die that day she replied that she was a pretty good person, would doubtfully deserve to go to hell. Of course I explained the Romans road scriptures and others to her exposing her sin. When I mentioned the sin of adultery she gave an automatic defense that 'she's not like that." Diana later explained to me that she was known in Acuna for her sexual immorality and had been married multiple times. When asked if she would like to receive Christ today she gave the common excuse of "I can't pray here." The Holy Spirit spoke to me that she had rejected His Spirit and salvation and that there was nothing else we could do there-He told me that if she wouldn't pray and repent there that she wouldn't repent anywhere. My hope and prayer is that she will repent before it is too late.
At this point I was far from being satisfied with the day's work. I still had the clue of an old woman with stark white hair and prayer need as depression and being alone. The Lord told us to park for a minute near a nearby car wash. I saw a woman there with white hair cleaning her car but both felt it was not her. The Lord said, "Go to Wal-Mart." We decided to fill the gas tank at the Murphy's (Wal-Mart) gas station. Right after pulling out, we saw a white jeep pull in with three women inside-one being an old woman with stark white hair! I pulled around twice questioning whether they were our treasure or not. Diana even said they weren't. The Holy Spirit said otherwise. I parked the car-they were miraculously taking a really long time to fill their tank-ha-ha! I came up to them and sure enough the old lady was new to town and felt alone. She needed prayer that she could sell her belongings back in her hometown. A tall lady with them was suffering severe depression that her father also suffered. Hallelujah! Diana then came over and we joined hands in prayer. I felt power touch the tall woman (Susan). She did not claim healing or anything but all three women thanked us and asked for information about our local church.
God is good my brothers! We learned a lot this first-time around. Next time we will not repeat some of the same mistakes we made this time. All the honor and glory be to Christ who allowed us to have these divine appointments. We never know the long-term impact of such encounters. The clue that was not found was my wife’s name clue of Michael. The Holy Spirit knows when we will run into him/her.
Update 3/7/2010: Today on my flight from Oklahoma City to Houston a week later Mechelle was found. My wife wasn’t for sure if it had been the name Michael or Mechelle. It turns out that Mechelle had a shockingly similar past that I had. Like me she had been adopted and had been separated from her brother (I was separated from a younger sister). She like me had later sought to find her brother and biological parents and was successful in doing so. She also had been blessed with loving, Christian adoptive parents. The whole conversation with Mechelle only happened because I messed up with my seat number-sitting in the seat that I should have sit in from Houston to Del Rio not OKC to Houston! I should have sit in 16A not 3D. Mechelle welcomed prayer for her two sons and was encouraged as I noted to her that the joy of the Lord was her strength. She, in fact, had been going through depressing times and needed to hear that. Her testimony was a great blessing to my life as I had never met somebody with a similar background. By the end of the flight all I wanted to do was to weep for joy and shout with all my might!
God bless, Brother Ben
“But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.” (Mark 4:8) When you study the parable of the sower you realize that the variable is neither the sower nor is it the seed. (the style of seed or sowing method). The variable is the soil. I really love what v. 14 says, “The sower sows the word.” We are called to preach the good news to every creature. We are called to sow his word in our Jerusalem, our Judea, our Samaria, and to our ends of the earth. Those on the wayside will allow Satan to immediately come and steal away the word. Those on stony ground will receive the word with gladness but will soon fall because the word did not take root. At the first sign of trouble (tribulation or persecution) they will fall. The ones sown among thorns will allow the things of this world including the love of money to choke it up. But what about those seeds that were sown in good soil. Will they bear fruit? Yes! Some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred. Are, therefore, our efforts as sowers of Christ worth the while for those folks in the latter group? Claro que si! Of course! Last weekend my wife and I had the opportunity to participate in a “treasure hunt.” The attached Word doc will give more details about this evangelism experience for those interested. The Lord showed us before we went out that one of the people that we would share the gospel with would reject Him. We were to blow our trumpets but he/she was not going to heed. Nevertheless, it was still the Lord’s will to go and share the gospel with this individual no matter the outcome.
The Lord had told me that January and February would be a dry time for the ministry. I spent hours sending out e-mails to churches near our Del Rio, TX area seeking speaking opportunities. There was a silence for a long period of time. During this time we also went through some very difficult personal family issues and financial difficulties. I now thank the Lord so much for this time because I again realized how much I need God’s blessing on our ministry/lives. Without Him I am nothing. Without Him “Sembradores de Cristo” is nothing. We are desperate for His anointing and blessing on our ministry. Just last week I received an e-mail from a brother of a San Antonio church with whom we will begin discussing ministry with starting in April. Right now I am writing to you from the Oklahoma City airport getting to ready to return to Del Rio. A precious congregation in Stillwater, OK invited me to come out and share a PowerPoint presentation and preach. Jesse Chaffin’s father is the pastor of New Beginnings Missionary Alliance church. The Lord gave me a word on evangelism to share, “Let your voice be heard” which was well received. Another purpose of this visit was to meet with our Spring Break 2010 Zacatecas mission trip team.
Spring Break 2010 Zacatecas mission trip (3/14-3/20)- Again, if there are any last minute individuals who would like to sign up for this trip we have plenty of room for you. The cost is $200/person plus your transportation to Del Rio. Before we ever showed up in Palmas Altas the Lord had spoken to our host Angelina Garcia that her household would serve as an int’l ministry base. Up to this point we have all been “gringos” and “mexicanos.” Sister Joan of Taiwan will be the first Asian Sembradores participant. She is a delightful young lady with a wonderful testimony. You can pray for the following team members: Joan, Ana, Alejandra, Gamaliel, Ester, Estrella, Jesse, Lynn, Oscar, and Elliotts. Last year’s Spring Break trip was our first farming trip with Brother Lynn. We are still in the beginning stages of this crucial men’s ministry. During this trip we will be studying the farming of new villages and will be introducing a new corn to the area. Each morning we will be evangelizing in “Porvenir” door-to-door and doing VBS’s with the children in the afternoons and farming work. We will be holding outdoor services as well with Gamaliel leading us in music. Gamaliel is our talented/anointed friend from Acuna who accompanied us in December 2008. We are believing that souls will be saved this coming week! I am also looking forward to our Zacatecas men seeing Professor Lynn again. Lifetime relationships are being built through this ministry. Thanks again for your prayers for this trip!
Urgent need/monthly support
We praise the Lord that recently a new family made the decision to support us on a monthly basis. We had really wanted to go full-time this next year but at this time we have not seen anywhere near the response we need to receive monthly support. Remember we have to raise our own support. We are not supported by a big organization that takes care of our financial needs. We really need you to pray about supporting us with $50/month. Our full-time budget is $3500/month and we are almost at 1/5 of that. We continue to be very active in seeking opportunities to speak at churches. If you represent a church, are a family or you are simply an individual that reads this newsletter we really need you to consider supporting us with $50/month. God has called us to bring His good news to Zacatecas. I hope our 4 years of perseverance in the area has showed you our dedication. Please respond to this e-mail with your commitment. If we have the support by the end of this next summer we will go. I also ask you to send me names/e-mails or info of any pastors of churches/individuals that might be interested in receiving me at their church on a Sunday.
.
Summer teams 2010
At this time we still need teams to commit to doing a mission trip with us this summer. We need you to come and help us with evangelism, VBS’s, sports camps, etc. We have experience working with men/women, youth, college age, and families. We need a team to commit to doing a baseball camp in Porvenir. We may also have a pretty big construction project opportunity as well.
Thanks again for all your prayers and support, 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
First treasure hunt: 2/27/2010
My beloved youth pastor and friend recently introduced me to the book "The Ultimate Treasure Hunt" which gives us an effective evangelism tool using words of knowledge the Holy Spirit gives us leading us to divine appointments with souls. The devil tried to make it really difficult for Diana and I to get on a treasure hunt seeing as last week had to be postponed due to immediate family troubles. Mama Linda surprised us yesterday with a visit and offering to take the kids to Acuna.
We began with prayer, a worship song, and opened the Bible to Jeremiah 6: 16-19. V. 17 "Also, I set watchmen over you, saying, Listen to the sound of the trumpet!" But they said, "We will not listen." I definitely gathered from the Lord that it was definitely his will to go out to blow the trumpet-share the gospel-and I gathered that there would be rejection of His Word.
We then sought the Lord and filled in our treasure maps. Diana had the park on her map seeing people running and ducks swimming. What do you know, we go to the park and there was a special elementary marathon going on! We walked towards the action and saw a man matching three of Diana's appearance clues: fat, dark-skinned, and blue However, he was not bald. We then remembered C.J telling us that one clue might be for somebody else. As we walked back by them we realized that the guy he was talking to was BALD and he was also wearing all blue. We came up to them (quite nervously, strange for me huh). I showed them that I believed they were our treasure and asked them if any of them had a scar-first the big fellow said no and then he pulled up his elbow and showed us a big one. They claimed to be saved (but I do not believe they were) and when asked if we could pray for anyone in their family (Diana's prayer category clue) sure enough a wayward brother needed prayer. As we walked back towards our vehicle Diana noticed a familiar high school student she was a sub for yesterday. The Lord prompted me to share the story of the Lord calling Peter the fisherman-they were fishing. It turns out both of them are Christians and are very involved in evangelism at Livingstone church. When we asked them if there was anything we could pray for them about they both said what-FAMILY! Ha, there was the clue again. One asked for prayer for an alcoholic uncle and the other for a chained smoker brother. The visit was a great encouragement to them to continue "fishing for men."
Now it was time to pursue my clues. My location was way over on the north side of town-I saw King's Way road that runs between a closed down restaurant (old Don Marcelino's) and an air conditioning business. There was nothing there so Diana mentioned we go check out a yard sale sign address. Sure enough amongst used furniture was a giant stuffed animal BEAR-one of my unusual category items. There were no other stuffed animals. The lady working there was wearing a white blouse one of my appearance clues. It turns out Diana had studied English with her. A spirit of distraction, pride, and rejection of salvation was all over that woman. Diana later told me that had heard the name Patty from the Lord for the name category but hadn't written it down since she had seen a Patty in Wal-mart the night before-thinking that it was an obvious flesh thought. Sure enough this was Patty and she didn't react one bit to matching our clues and being our "treasure." While being presented with the gospel her eyes were wandering everywhere and customers were arriving distracting her even more. When asked where she would go if she were to die that day she replied that she was a pretty good person, would doubtfully deserve to go to hell. Of course I explained the Romans road scriptures and others to her exposing her sin. When I mentioned the sin of adultery she gave an automatic defense that 'she's not like that." Diana later explained to me that she was known in Acuna for her sexual immorality and had been married multiple times. When asked if she would like to receive Christ today she gave the common excuse of "I can't pray here." The Holy Spirit spoke to me that she had rejected His Spirit and salvation and that there was nothing else we could do there-He told me that if she wouldn't pray and repent there that she wouldn't repent anywhere. My hope and prayer is that she will repent before it is too late.
At this point I was far from being satisfied with the day's work. I still had the clue of an old woman with stark white hair and prayer need as depression and being alone. The Lord told us to park for a minute near a nearby car wash. I saw a woman there with white hair cleaning her car but both felt it was not her. The Lord said, "Go to Wal-Mart." We decided to fill the gas tank at the Murphy's (Wal-Mart) gas station. Right after pulling out, we saw a white jeep pull in with three women inside-one being an old woman with stark white hair! I pulled around twice questioning whether they were our treasure or not. Diana even said they weren't. The Holy Spirit said otherwise. I parked the car-they were miraculously taking a really long time to fill their tank-ha-ha! I came up to them and sure enough the old lady was new to town and felt alone. She needed prayer that she could sell her belongings back in her hometown. A tall lady with them was suffering severe depression that her father also suffered. Hallelujah! Diana then came over and we joined hands in prayer. I felt power touch the tall woman (Susan). She did not claim healing or anything but all three women thanked us and asked for information about our local church.
God is good my brothers! We learned a lot this first-time around. Next time we will not repeat some of the same mistakes we made this time. All the honor and glory be to Christ who allowed us to have these divine appointments. We never know the long-term impact of such encounters. The clue that was not found was my wife’s name clue of Michael. The Holy Spirit knows when we will run into him/her.
Update 3/7/2010: Today on my flight from Oklahoma City to Houston a week later Mechelle was found. My wife wasn’t for sure if it had been the name Michael or Mechelle. It turns out that Mechelle had a shockingly similar past that I had. Like me she had been adopted and had been separated from her brother (I was separated from a younger sister). She like me had later sought to find her brother and biological parents and was successful in doing so. She also had been blessed with loving, Christian adoptive parents. The whole conversation with Mechelle only happened because I messed up with my seat number-sitting in the seat that I should have sit in from Houston to Del Rio not OKC to Houston! I should have sit in 16A not 3D. Mechelle welcomed prayer for her two sons and was encouraged as I noted to her that the joy of the Lord was her strength. She, in fact, had been going through depressing times and needed to hear that. Her testimony was a great blessing to my life as I had never met somebody with a similar background. By the end of the flight all I wanted to do was to weep for joy and shout with all my might!
God bless, Brother Ben
Re: Sembradores de Cristo January 30, 2010
Sembradores de Cristo January 30, 2010
“Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.” (Ephesians 3:8) Paul and his contemporary Israelites were amazed that the Gentiles could also be heirs with Christ. The Gentiles and the Israelites could now be members together of one body, sharing in the promise of Christ Jesus. Paul realized that his task was an incredible one, taking the gospel to the Gentiles. God had called him to this task. (Acts 9:15 ) I today am amazed at God’s calling for my life: taking the gospel to paganistic Zacatecas. Just like Paul I know I am nothing-the least of all God’s people. It’s only by God’s grace that Sembradores de Cristo exists. This gospel of unsearchable riches is not only for the inhabitants of the United States but for all Gentile nations. Praise the Lord! The need in Zacatecas is immense. There are numerous villages, towns, and cities that are entirely without the gospel. Like Paul in vs. 7 I am a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power. His power has been shown in amazing ways this past year of 2009. This newsletter is dedicated to giving glory to God for what He has done in our ministry/lives this past year of 2009.
Personal/ministry-Praise God this past February I was able to complete a seminary master’s degree in ministry and in November receive my ministerial ordination. I finished this correspondence master’s degree in 10 months studying in the afternoons and weekends. I can remember pouring out 8-10 hours of time on Sundays after church. What a blessing it was being immersed in God’s Word on such a continued basis yet exhausting. May we never cease to hunger and thirst after righteousness! The teachable man of God will never be comfortable in his relationship with God but will always passionately seek Him for more and more. Now that I have received my documentation as an ordained minister (thanks again to Pastor Jim and Marco) my next step will to be taking out an id as a Mexican minister. As a Mexican citizen I have the right to preach the gospel without any other paperwork. Full-time missionaries in Mexico who are not citizens must apply for certain religious visas. Shalom, Nehemias, and I obtained our Mexican citizenship back in April making us dual citizens. My wife passed her American citizenship test in November and is now awaiting her formal oath. God has decided that our family needs to grow so Diana is expecting and the due date is September. After returning from Zacatecas Summer 2008 God really impressed it on me to get in shape. Doing the baseball camps in Zacatecas would always wipe me out completely because I was in no kind of shape to keep up with these guys who walk their cattle 5 miles a day. I started running 2 miles 2-3/wk and then start increasing it to 3 ½ miles 3/wk. Summer 2009 I continued running and this school year God gave me a special blessing. My work schedule worked out for me to be able to run with a coach during a lunch period. Therefore, I have strived to run 4 miles 5 days/wk (M-F). Being in shape has not only been a personal blessing but a ministry blessing. The high mountain villages being steep and 8000 ft above sea level aren’t that bad for walking short distances for out of shape people but definitely a challenge for hiking and sports.
Ministry blessings-“La Ballena” was a great blessing among many that the Lord provided for us. I remember getting on my knees seeking the Lord for a 15 passenger van and the answer coming within 2 weeks. “La Ballena” (the whale) has now been through about every mountain road of Jerez county, plowing through and getting stuck in mud, getting us through narrow mountain passages, and more than anything making it possible to get the gospel to very isolated/remote areas. Since the Lord had blessed us with summer teams who were flying directly into Zacatecas those teams would have had to rent a van locally at very high rates and now “La Ballena” is at the Lord’s service to accommodate mission teams. The Lord also blessed us with much needed musical instruments and gear such as: electric acoustic guitar, electric guitar, mics, generator, drum set, etc. In September we were able to setup a ministry website-much thanks to Sarah Broecker. We are in need of somebody who would donate their time to help us updating that website. At the same token we are in much need of a new computer-our old one being very slow and on its last days. Believers who know nothing about our ministry/who we are can be led to that website by a random search engine. Donors can now donate to our ministry electronically.
Zacatecas village ministry-Summer ministry 2009 in Guadalupe Victoria village was awesome despite the catechist’s nuisances, the loss of many sheep due to the threats, and the burning of Bibles we had donated. Doing the Bible studies at the court instead of in homes turned out to be a real winner. We went through half the book of Genesis in the adult class making comparisons to the New Testament. You would have a group’s entire concentration in the reading of God’s Word and then be randomly interrupted by a drunk guy driving up on his 3 wheeler or trotting up on his burro. What moments! The disappointing moment for me as their pastor was when they decided they weren’t ready for water baptism. They understood well that by being baptized meant they would be completely identifying with the Christian faith. They knew how they could be ridiculed by the other locals for making that step of public confession. We love them and believe that soon they will surrender themselves completely to Lord Jesus Christ. The hearts of the people of Monte de los Garcia grew colder and colder to the gospel as the summer progressed. We are now seeking the Lord as to His will for our continued minister there for Summer 2010. Working in Parral de las Huertas was a definitely a Holy Spirit initiated thing. What a response from the people! To this date the catechist has not come through to pluck the seeds we have sown. In Parral there is a faithful group of believers and potential disciples who are in much need of nurturing. This people are a humble people with no public drainage system, very little land to work unlike Palmas Altas where there is plentiful land, public drainage, running water, etc. I learned this summer that part of being led by the Holy Spirit includes sometimes having to discontinue previous work. The village of Villa Hermosa had been evangelized time and time again with no signs of fruit bearing fruit. We had invested time in a local believer who has great potential but is not teachable. We had even offered help in the area of agriculture to study the men’s soils with Professor Lynn but not even that was received. I had thought to myself, I don’t want anybody to think that I start things that I don’t finish. As I sought the Lord I knew I had to shake the dust of my feet and move on to the fertile lands He was calling me to. I do not cease praying for that village that they will repent like Nineveh before that great day of the Lord. As my beloved pastor/friend C.J. Ellis had taught me where the Holy Spirit is that’s where I need to be. I was really excited when the Lord told me that it was time to start working in the more populated towns nearer to Jerez . This Christmas trip was our first trip to the town of Porvenir and we are looking forward to going this Spring Break to evangelize there, do VBS’s, and do agricultural work with the men. It’s amazing how the Lord has led Professor Lynn Brandenberger to partner with us in our endeavor to reach Zacatecas with the gospel. The Lord had led him to a certain type of corn that he wanted to share with the men this Spring Break. It turns out the principal crop of Porvenir is corn.
Urgent need/monthly support
We had really wanted to go full-time this next year but at this time we have not seen anywhere near the response we need to receive monthly support. Remember we have to raise our own support. We are not supported by a big organization that takes care of our financial needs. We really need you to pray about supporting us with $50/month. We did see some 4 individuals make the decision in 2009 to support us. Our full-time budget is $3500/month and we are almost at 1/5 of that. I have been very active in seeking opportunities to speak at churches but have not seen any response as of yet. If you are a family or you are simply an individual that reads this newsletter we really need you to consider supporting us with $50/month. God has called us to Zacatecas to take the kingdom by force. I hope our 4 years of perseverance in the area has showed you our dedication. Please respond to this e-mail with your commitment. If we have the support by the end of this next summer we will go. I also ask you to send me names/e-mails or info of any pastors of churches/individuals that might be interested in receiving me at their church on a Sunday.
.
Summer teams 2010
At this time we only have one team committed to doing a mission trip for this summer. We need you to come and help us with evangelism, VBS’s, sports camps, etc. We have experience working with men/women, youth, college age, and families. We need a team to commit to doing a baseball camp in Porvenir. We may also have a pretty big construction project opportunity as well.
Thanks again for all your prayers and support, 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
“Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.” (Ephesians 3:8) Paul and his contemporary Israelites were amazed that the Gentiles could also be heirs with Christ. The Gentiles and the Israelites could now be members together of one body, sharing in the promise of Christ Jesus. Paul realized that his task was an incredible one, taking the gospel to the Gentiles. God had called him to this task. (Acts 9:15 ) I today am amazed at God’s calling for my life: taking the gospel to paganistic Zacatecas. Just like Paul I know I am nothing-the least of all God’s people. It’s only by God’s grace that Sembradores de Cristo exists. This gospel of unsearchable riches is not only for the inhabitants of the United States but for all Gentile nations. Praise the Lord! The need in Zacatecas is immense. There are numerous villages, towns, and cities that are entirely without the gospel. Like Paul in vs. 7 I am a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power. His power has been shown in amazing ways this past year of 2009. This newsletter is dedicated to giving glory to God for what He has done in our ministry/lives this past year of 2009.
Personal/ministry-Praise God this past February I was able to complete a seminary master’s degree in ministry and in November receive my ministerial ordination. I finished this correspondence master’s degree in 10 months studying in the afternoons and weekends. I can remember pouring out 8-10 hours of time on Sundays after church. What a blessing it was being immersed in God’s Word on such a continued basis yet exhausting. May we never cease to hunger and thirst after righteousness! The teachable man of God will never be comfortable in his relationship with God but will always passionately seek Him for more and more. Now that I have received my documentation as an ordained minister (thanks again to Pastor Jim and Marco) my next step will to be taking out an id as a Mexican minister. As a Mexican citizen I have the right to preach the gospel without any other paperwork. Full-time missionaries in Mexico who are not citizens must apply for certain religious visas. Shalom, Nehemias, and I obtained our Mexican citizenship back in April making us dual citizens. My wife passed her American citizenship test in November and is now awaiting her formal oath. God has decided that our family needs to grow so Diana is expecting and the due date is September. After returning from Zacatecas Summer 2008 God really impressed it on me to get in shape. Doing the baseball camps in Zacatecas would always wipe me out completely because I was in no kind of shape to keep up with these guys who walk their cattle 5 miles a day. I started running 2 miles 2-3/wk and then start increasing it to 3 ½ miles 3/wk. Summer 2009 I continued running and this school year God gave me a special blessing. My work schedule worked out for me to be able to run with a coach during a lunch period. Therefore, I have strived to run 4 miles 5 days/wk (M-F). Being in shape has not only been a personal blessing but a ministry blessing. The high mountain villages being steep and 8000 ft above sea level aren’t that bad for walking short distances for out of shape people but definitely a challenge for hiking and sports.
Ministry blessings-“La Ballena” was a great blessing among many that the Lord provided for us. I remember getting on my knees seeking the Lord for a 15 passenger van and the answer coming within 2 weeks. “La Ballena” (the whale) has now been through about every mountain road of Jerez county, plowing through and getting stuck in mud, getting us through narrow mountain passages, and more than anything making it possible to get the gospel to very isolated/remote areas. Since the Lord had blessed us with summer teams who were flying directly into Zacatecas those teams would have had to rent a van locally at very high rates and now “La Ballena” is at the Lord’s service to accommodate mission teams. The Lord also blessed us with much needed musical instruments and gear such as: electric acoustic guitar, electric guitar, mics, generator, drum set, etc. In September we were able to setup a ministry website-much thanks to Sarah Broecker. We are in need of somebody who would donate their time to help us updating that website. At the same token we are in much need of a new computer-our old one being very slow and on its last days. Believers who know nothing about our ministry/who we are can be led to that website by a random search engine. Donors can now donate to our ministry electronically.
Zacatecas village ministry-Summer ministry 2009 in Guadalupe Victoria village was awesome despite the catechist’s nuisances, the loss of many sheep due to the threats, and the burning of Bibles we had donated. Doing the Bible studies at the court instead of in homes turned out to be a real winner. We went through half the book of Genesis in the adult class making comparisons to the New Testament. You would have a group’s entire concentration in the reading of God’s Word and then be randomly interrupted by a drunk guy driving up on his 3 wheeler or trotting up on his burro. What moments! The disappointing moment for me as their pastor was when they decided they weren’t ready for water baptism. They understood well that by being baptized meant they would be completely identifying with the Christian faith. They knew how they could be ridiculed by the other locals for making that step of public confession. We love them and believe that soon they will surrender themselves completely to Lord Jesus Christ. The hearts of the people of Monte de los Garcia grew colder and colder to the gospel as the summer progressed. We are now seeking the Lord as to His will for our continued minister there for Summer 2010. Working in Parral de las Huertas was a definitely a Holy Spirit initiated thing. What a response from the people! To this date the catechist has not come through to pluck the seeds we have sown. In Parral there is a faithful group of believers and potential disciples who are in much need of nurturing. This people are a humble people with no public drainage system, very little land to work unlike Palmas Altas where there is plentiful land, public drainage, running water, etc. I learned this summer that part of being led by the Holy Spirit includes sometimes having to discontinue previous work. The village of Villa Hermosa had been evangelized time and time again with no signs of fruit bearing fruit. We had invested time in a local believer who has great potential but is not teachable. We had even offered help in the area of agriculture to study the men’s soils with Professor Lynn but not even that was received. I had thought to myself, I don’t want anybody to think that I start things that I don’t finish. As I sought the Lord I knew I had to shake the dust of my feet and move on to the fertile lands He was calling me to. I do not cease praying for that village that they will repent like Nineveh before that great day of the Lord. As my beloved pastor/friend C.J. Ellis had taught me where the Holy Spirit is that’s where I need to be. I was really excited when the Lord told me that it was time to start working in the more populated towns nearer to Jerez . This Christmas trip was our first trip to the town of Porvenir and we are looking forward to going this Spring Break to evangelize there, do VBS’s, and do agricultural work with the men. It’s amazing how the Lord has led Professor Lynn Brandenberger to partner with us in our endeavor to reach Zacatecas with the gospel. The Lord had led him to a certain type of corn that he wanted to share with the men this Spring Break. It turns out the principal crop of Porvenir is corn.
Urgent need/monthly support
We had really wanted to go full-time this next year but at this time we have not seen anywhere near the response we need to receive monthly support. Remember we have to raise our own support. We are not supported by a big organization that takes care of our financial needs. We really need you to pray about supporting us with $50/month. We did see some 4 individuals make the decision in 2009 to support us. Our full-time budget is $3500/month and we are almost at 1/5 of that. I have been very active in seeking opportunities to speak at churches but have not seen any response as of yet. If you are a family or you are simply an individual that reads this newsletter we really need you to consider supporting us with $50/month. God has called us to Zacatecas to take the kingdom by force. I hope our 4 years of perseverance in the area has showed you our dedication. Please respond to this e-mail with your commitment. If we have the support by the end of this next summer we will go. I also ask you to send me names/e-mails or info of any pastors of churches/individuals that might be interested in receiving me at their church on a Sunday.
.
Summer teams 2010
At this time we only have one team committed to doing a mission trip for this summer. We need you to come and help us with evangelism, VBS’s, sports camps, etc. We have experience working with men/women, youth, college age, and families. We need a team to commit to doing a baseball camp in Porvenir. We may also have a pretty big construction project opportunity as well.
Thanks again for all your prayers and support, 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
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Sembradores de Cristo January 3, 2010
Sembradores de Cristo January 3, 2010
“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” Matthew 11:12
We had a most amazing trip this last week in Zacatecas to share with you about. We had been in Oklahoma visiting with family during Christmastime and a record December blizzard hit leaving 14 inches of snow in our area. It was no doubt a white Christmas, which had been a desire of my heart. God grants his children the desires of their hearts, amen! Needless to say we got stuck there an extra day before the interstates were open giving us only a few hours in Del Rio to get things ready for the trip. God provided us with a team who took the kingdom by force. The Kirby family also came from Oklahoma traveling 30 hours one way to Zac with all the paperwork/travel delays. Our whole team demonstrated courage, unwavering faith, determination, and endurance all week long. Besides the Kirby family was Jesse & Beth Chaffin, another young man named Sterling Ellsworth, and Cheque Hernandez and mother Linda Hernandez from Saltillo. So many wonderful things happened this week that I will list them day by day.
Monday-We went to Parral de las Huertas to agree with the locals on the right day for the chicken feed/fiesta. I had asked God that He would give me a sign that it was His will for us to do the chicken feed in Parral. He told me that Gabriel would walk up to us as we were praying under the “Huizachito” tree. That’s exactly what happened, praise to His name! The local disciples who had received Christ this summer were excited to see us again and excited about the chicken feast/fiesta on Wednesday. We assigned them tasks so that they would be incorporated into the Sembradores team. That morning we also ran into a brother (Avelardo) in Palmas Altas that was from there but has lived in Ft. Worth for sometime now. He was excited to hear about our work in the area so he felt that the Lord was calling him to stay back to help us with the chicken feed and do a New Year’s Eve service in Palmas. The rest of the day was spent on logistical things such as bagging beans and rice.
Tuesday-Ever since we left in August God had impressed me to start working in more populated areas closer to Jerez-one in particular named Porvenir. Before even going to Porvenir God begin to pour out His Spirit on folks getting us pumped up for the day. In a local Oxxo (convenient store) God gave me some treasure. The moment I saw the cashier the Holy Spirit told me that that was her day for reconciliation. I told her the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman and that she was my treasure for the day. She said, “What about him?” (referring to her fellow clerk). I said, “Oh yes, him too.” They both closed their eyes and prayed to receive Christ right there in the store before other customers. We prayed all the way to Porvenir declaring the Lord would prepare the way sending His heavenly soldiers before us. Hallelujah! The Lord had everything prepared for us. The sheriff was not there, I believe for a reason, but his daughter was who said that we could come into the town with all freedom. She also told us of a baseball game. The young Kirby boys and Sterling got excited about that. We got out to spread word about a soccer game which went great. Meanwhile, a group of us went to prayer walk the streets. My team went right by the central store full of men drinking and visiting. I’ve never been so received in my four years of working in Zacatecas then by those men. They had humble receptive hearts telling me how glad we were in the village and to feel at home. They even bought us a juice-explaining to us that we couldn’t drink with them-haha! The baseball game began so a group of us went to play basketball with the younger ones. After the game the Lord impressed on me to share the story of David & Goliath since there was a small boy named Miguel that played harder and more aggressive than any others. These boys really listened to the story intently, two of them already knowing it. When one of them made a comment about God’s name being Jehova I knew he was a Jehovah witness. It turns out that 6 of them prayed to receive Christ. Just as exciting as that was for us was afterward when the same Jehovah’s witness boy wanted to show his friends a scripture related to the idols. I showed them Exodus 20 and here we were-myself and 7-11 year olds having a doctrinal discussion-how great is that! Then the same boy and I discussed whether or not Jesus was God. I saw his initial resistance to this fact but the Lord beginning to work on his young, innocent heart as we looked at revelant scriptures. Needless to say we left Porvenir rejoicing as what God has done and will continue doing in that place. We then took the hungry team of warriors up a mountain road so they could enjoy God’s beauty while eating lunch. Even though we were completely exhausted we made it a point to go by Monte de los Garcia and Guadalupe Victoria villages ultimately doing a service at the court in Guadalupe in the night and cold. The same faithful disciples from the summer were there as always. Two of our most faithful happened to be out of town.
Wednesday-Now the big day had arrived! We arrived earlier at Parral and began getting everything together for the big feed. We were excited to see our local disciples get involved with the cooking and setting up for the event. A tough guy who believes in the saint of death-actually believes this demon saved him from death from a cocaine overdose-began to soften up a little more to us this day then he had on Monday. I told him, “Jesus loves you.” “I don’t believe that,” he said. I handed him the rice and beans and said it again telling him that even though he doesn’t believe it that Christ does indeed love Him. The man right now is blinded by the enemy. I’m just glad we could show him and others the love of Christ by means of some chicken, beans, rice, and a soda. It was my honor and privilege to serve by cooking the chicken-and endeavor which had required hours of prep work the night before by the whole team. We were also able to send 40 chicken plates over to a local Christian children’s home in the area. Brother Cheque was such a blessing playing the guitar and motivating the people to worship. We even had Jose Angel (our Palmas host’s son) open the service for us. The Lord tremendously used Brother Avelardo’s testimony as a former tough/prideful Mexican from the area now humbled and transformed by the love of Christ. It turns out he was even related to one of the disciples and a child friend of another. I mention once again how exciting it was to see the disciples get involved-taking responsibility to serve the Lord.
Thursday-I took our soldiers to Zacatecas city where they were blessed and amazed by the architecture of the city. I will be putting together a photo album by Kodak gallery and be sending it shortly. Back in Palmas Altas we did a service to receive the New Year at the basketball court. We had prayed that the Lord would speak to the unbelieving husbands of the local believing women to allow them to go despite the service being late. Hallelujah! Not only did that happen but they invited some of their family members from out of town to come. Once again the Lord used Avelardo to share his testimony and lives were changed. I can’t not mention the great food we had that night as well! Also, the water came back on the village which had been off all week long!
Friday-We went to the children’s home as planned even taking two disciples from Parral with us. We had a great day there with the Benedict family and their 32 children. The Lord used Brother Rich Kirby to share how he had adopted two kids from Africa and to teach juggling. We had a great time teaching songs to the kids and doing a Bible story and arts and crafts. We are more than excited about this new friendship we have with the Benedict family! The day wasn’t over yet. We went back to Porvenir to look for the sheriff once again to get his permission to evangelize with our team in March. Oh yes! He happened to have the same humble, receptive spirit that the other men at the store had had. His eyes got really big when I told him about Professor Lynn Brandenberger’s visit in March with a new type of corn. As we drove back up the mountains to Palmas we passed through Guadalupe Victoria and saw our two faithful disciples-Mario and Sergio that had been out of town that Tuesday walking by-what a tremendous blessing!
Diana, Jesse, and I don’t doubt my friends that the catechist and other Catholic leaders will be irate once they hear of what happened in Porvenir these days. Let’s all pray that the Lord will protect the men’s humble, receptive hearts from any attacks the enemy may send their way. Let’s pray for a hedge of spiritual protection all around Porvenir.
Urgent need/monthly support
If you are a family or you are simply an individual that reads this newsletter we really need you to consider supporting us with $50/month. God has called us to Zacatecas to take the kingdom by force. I hope our 4 years of perseverance in the area has showed you our dedication. Please respond to this e-mail with your commitment. If we have the support by the end of this next summer we will go. I also ask you to send me names/e-mails or info of any pastors of churches/individuals that might also be interested.
.
Summer teams 2010
At this time we have had one team express interest in a mission trip for this summer but do not have any commitments. We need you to come and help us with evangelism, VBS’s, sports camps, etc. We have experience working with men, youth, college age, and families. We need a team to commit to doing a baseball camp in Porvenir. We may also have a pretty big construction project opportunity as well.
Special thanks
Jesse & Beth Chaffin, Sterling Ellsworth, Cheque & Linda Hernandez, and the Kirbys
Steven Ellsworth-Donating chicken feed materials
Floyd May, Dean Fesperman & New Covenant Fellowship church-Special offering towards the trip expenses
Thanks again for all your prayers and support, 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
“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” Matthew 11:12
We had a most amazing trip this last week in Zacatecas to share with you about. We had been in Oklahoma visiting with family during Christmastime and a record December blizzard hit leaving 14 inches of snow in our area. It was no doubt a white Christmas, which had been a desire of my heart. God grants his children the desires of their hearts, amen! Needless to say we got stuck there an extra day before the interstates were open giving us only a few hours in Del Rio to get things ready for the trip. God provided us with a team who took the kingdom by force. The Kirby family also came from Oklahoma traveling 30 hours one way to Zac with all the paperwork/travel delays. Our whole team demonstrated courage, unwavering faith, determination, and endurance all week long. Besides the Kirby family was Jesse & Beth Chaffin, another young man named Sterling Ellsworth, and Cheque Hernandez and mother Linda Hernandez from Saltillo. So many wonderful things happened this week that I will list them day by day.
Monday-We went to Parral de las Huertas to agree with the locals on the right day for the chicken feed/fiesta. I had asked God that He would give me a sign that it was His will for us to do the chicken feed in Parral. He told me that Gabriel would walk up to us as we were praying under the “Huizachito” tree. That’s exactly what happened, praise to His name! The local disciples who had received Christ this summer were excited to see us again and excited about the chicken feast/fiesta on Wednesday. We assigned them tasks so that they would be incorporated into the Sembradores team. That morning we also ran into a brother (Avelardo) in Palmas Altas that was from there but has lived in Ft. Worth for sometime now. He was excited to hear about our work in the area so he felt that the Lord was calling him to stay back to help us with the chicken feed and do a New Year’s Eve service in Palmas. The rest of the day was spent on logistical things such as bagging beans and rice.
Tuesday-Ever since we left in August God had impressed me to start working in more populated areas closer to Jerez-one in particular named Porvenir. Before even going to Porvenir God begin to pour out His Spirit on folks getting us pumped up for the day. In a local Oxxo (convenient store) God gave me some treasure. The moment I saw the cashier the Holy Spirit told me that that was her day for reconciliation. I told her the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman and that she was my treasure for the day. She said, “What about him?” (referring to her fellow clerk). I said, “Oh yes, him too.” They both closed their eyes and prayed to receive Christ right there in the store before other customers. We prayed all the way to Porvenir declaring the Lord would prepare the way sending His heavenly soldiers before us. Hallelujah! The Lord had everything prepared for us. The sheriff was not there, I believe for a reason, but his daughter was who said that we could come into the town with all freedom. She also told us of a baseball game. The young Kirby boys and Sterling got excited about that. We got out to spread word about a soccer game which went great. Meanwhile, a group of us went to prayer walk the streets. My team went right by the central store full of men drinking and visiting. I’ve never been so received in my four years of working in Zacatecas then by those men. They had humble receptive hearts telling me how glad we were in the village and to feel at home. They even bought us a juice-explaining to us that we couldn’t drink with them-haha! The baseball game began so a group of us went to play basketball with the younger ones. After the game the Lord impressed on me to share the story of David & Goliath since there was a small boy named Miguel that played harder and more aggressive than any others. These boys really listened to the story intently, two of them already knowing it. When one of them made a comment about God’s name being Jehova I knew he was a Jehovah witness. It turns out that 6 of them prayed to receive Christ. Just as exciting as that was for us was afterward when the same Jehovah’s witness boy wanted to show his friends a scripture related to the idols. I showed them Exodus 20 and here we were-myself and 7-11 year olds having a doctrinal discussion-how great is that! Then the same boy and I discussed whether or not Jesus was God. I saw his initial resistance to this fact but the Lord beginning to work on his young, innocent heart as we looked at revelant scriptures. Needless to say we left Porvenir rejoicing as what God has done and will continue doing in that place. We then took the hungry team of warriors up a mountain road so they could enjoy God’s beauty while eating lunch. Even though we were completely exhausted we made it a point to go by Monte de los Garcia and Guadalupe Victoria villages ultimately doing a service at the court in Guadalupe in the night and cold. The same faithful disciples from the summer were there as always. Two of our most faithful happened to be out of town.
Wednesday-Now the big day had arrived! We arrived earlier at Parral and began getting everything together for the big feed. We were excited to see our local disciples get involved with the cooking and setting up for the event. A tough guy who believes in the saint of death-actually believes this demon saved him from death from a cocaine overdose-began to soften up a little more to us this day then he had on Monday. I told him, “Jesus loves you.” “I don’t believe that,” he said. I handed him the rice and beans and said it again telling him that even though he doesn’t believe it that Christ does indeed love Him. The man right now is blinded by the enemy. I’m just glad we could show him and others the love of Christ by means of some chicken, beans, rice, and a soda. It was my honor and privilege to serve by cooking the chicken-and endeavor which had required hours of prep work the night before by the whole team. We were also able to send 40 chicken plates over to a local Christian children’s home in the area. Brother Cheque was such a blessing playing the guitar and motivating the people to worship. We even had Jose Angel (our Palmas host’s son) open the service for us. The Lord tremendously used Brother Avelardo’s testimony as a former tough/prideful Mexican from the area now humbled and transformed by the love of Christ. It turns out he was even related to one of the disciples and a child friend of another. I mention once again how exciting it was to see the disciples get involved-taking responsibility to serve the Lord.
Thursday-I took our soldiers to Zacatecas city where they were blessed and amazed by the architecture of the city. I will be putting together a photo album by Kodak gallery and be sending it shortly. Back in Palmas Altas we did a service to receive the New Year at the basketball court. We had prayed that the Lord would speak to the unbelieving husbands of the local believing women to allow them to go despite the service being late. Hallelujah! Not only did that happen but they invited some of their family members from out of town to come. Once again the Lord used Avelardo to share his testimony and lives were changed. I can’t not mention the great food we had that night as well! Also, the water came back on the village which had been off all week long!
Friday-We went to the children’s home as planned even taking two disciples from Parral with us. We had a great day there with the Benedict family and their 32 children. The Lord used Brother Rich Kirby to share how he had adopted two kids from Africa and to teach juggling. We had a great time teaching songs to the kids and doing a Bible story and arts and crafts. We are more than excited about this new friendship we have with the Benedict family! The day wasn’t over yet. We went back to Porvenir to look for the sheriff once again to get his permission to evangelize with our team in March. Oh yes! He happened to have the same humble, receptive spirit that the other men at the store had had. His eyes got really big when I told him about Professor Lynn Brandenberger’s visit in March with a new type of corn. As we drove back up the mountains to Palmas we passed through Guadalupe Victoria and saw our two faithful disciples-Mario and Sergio that had been out of town that Tuesday walking by-what a tremendous blessing!
Diana, Jesse, and I don’t doubt my friends that the catechist and other Catholic leaders will be irate once they hear of what happened in Porvenir these days. Let’s all pray that the Lord will protect the men’s humble, receptive hearts from any attacks the enemy may send their way. Let’s pray for a hedge of spiritual protection all around Porvenir.
Urgent need/monthly support
If you are a family or you are simply an individual that reads this newsletter we really need you to consider supporting us with $50/month. God has called us to Zacatecas to take the kingdom by force. I hope our 4 years of perseverance in the area has showed you our dedication. Please respond to this e-mail with your commitment. If we have the support by the end of this next summer we will go. I also ask you to send me names/e-mails or info of any pastors of churches/individuals that might also be interested.
.
Summer teams 2010
At this time we have had one team express interest in a mission trip for this summer but do not have any commitments. We need you to come and help us with evangelism, VBS’s, sports camps, etc. We have experience working with men, youth, college age, and families. We need a team to commit to doing a baseball camp in Porvenir. We may also have a pretty big construction project opportunity as well.
Special thanks
Jesse & Beth Chaffin, Sterling Ellsworth, Cheque & Linda Hernandez, and the Kirbys
Steven Ellsworth-Donating chicken feed materials
Floyd May, Dean Fesperman & New Covenant Fellowship church-Special offering towards the trip expenses
Thanks again for all your prayers and support, 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
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