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.

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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



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