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

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