Re: New Covenant Woodward Zac 2010

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