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.
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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

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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