New Covenant Woodward Summer 2011

Sembradores de Cristo New Covenant Woodward Summer trip 2011

“Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me! For my souls trust in You; And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge, Until these calamities have passed by. I will cry out to God Most High to God who performs all things for me. He shall send from heaven and save me; He reproaches the one who would swallow me up.”

(Psalm 57:1-3)

Jesus said in Matthew 26:52 that those who live by the sword shall die by the sword. Let me tell you that this happened this week to those who would do harm to the servants of God. The Elliott family and New Covenant Woodward team lived Psalms 57 this past week in Zacatecas. To begin, let me give praise to the Lord that all are safe. The Woodward team is back home rejoicing in their Savior who did great things this week. Many were saved and brought into His kingdom, four were baptized, and many lives were changed including the Zacatecans, the Oklahomans, our musicians from Acuna, and the Elliott family. Jesus requires those who follow Him to be willing to give their own lives for the gospel if necessary. Taking up their cross and following Him for the first disciples required everything-their families, their jobs (livelihood), and even their very lives. Until recently the state of Zacatecas and particularly our area in Zacatecas had been a “safe” place. As Christians we know that we are only “safe” if we abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

Physical/Spiritual Warfare

I will not be mentioning the names of the locations where these events happened for security issues. However, it is important for you to know what happened. I and all the Woodward team thank those who pray for us on a constant basis from the bottom of our hearts. After you read this many of you will probably never want to come to Zacatecas and may not understand why the Lord allowed what happened to happen. Everything happens for a reason and let me tell you that if you ask any of the team members who experienced this last week they will tell you that they wouldn’t change the experience for anything. None of us will ever be the same after what happened.

It was still daytime and 7 of our team members had went to drop off Franscisca and Delia at their home after the baptisms. On their way back a certain suspicious vehicle tried to pull them over. The team driver put the pedal to the medal as to escape. The certain vehicle chased after them and bullets were fired. The chase lasted for approx 4 km all the way to the corner of our base village. They bandits were then able to cut off our team and yanked our driver out. They hurled insults in Spanish at our team proclaiming that they owned the territory and that anyone had to stop if they demanded it. They also proclaimed that they had the power to kill them if they wanted to. They took three cameras from our team and a little money. God is amazing because I had remembered to tell the team before the baptism day to neither take their money nor their passports to the baptisms as there was no reason for it. After more insults they let the team go. We spend most of the night comforting those involved and seeking the Lord. Upon inspection, we saw clearly that the bullet scratches were signs of intent by the bandits to hit the gas tank. Let me tell you that this is not the end of the story. Understand that at this point all are safe. Saved and unsaved alike in our base village surrounded us with love and gave thanks to God for our safety. Among these bandits was a woman. As we prayed with tears those involved showed no hate for these individuals but rather interceded for them knowing they are not the true enemy. They prayed for this woman who must have went through so much to have arrived at this point.

Our team evangelist made a statement last night during our final share time that is so true. He mentioned that he’s always amazed at how quickly God responds to our prayers during short term mission trips. The next day we headed to our base 2. Two of our team members were feeling ill and two were too exhausted to accompany us to the service. About an hour after service started helicopters started flying back and forth over the town and area. War was in the air. Even the firing of grenade launchers was heard. Our beloved sister in Christ from base 2 called us to tell us that the road back to base 2 was blocked-that they couldn’t come to us nor could we go to them. Terrified folks in the air came to service seeking God and protection. We were able to contact our four individuals and let them know we were okay and vice versa. The Lord provided a place to stay within an hour and again we sought the Lord. We were not able to get reunited with our team members until 1 pm the next day. Let me tell you that the Lord responded to what had happened to us the previous day! We had specifically prayed that the Lord would send His angels to the battlefield. Now did He do that! He sent them and also sent the Mexican Marines to totally wipe out these folks stronghold! The Marines didn’t stop until they had cornered these guys in their safe house-every single one of them was taken out! God said to them, “You don’t mess with my children!” Vengeance is the Lord’s my friends, not ours. Through all of this God was our refuge. He sent from heaven and saved us my friends! You must understand that because this happened our people are much safer now. We also, the Elliott family, are safer now because these events took place. God gave these bandits an opportunity to repent and they didn’t so He swallowed them up.

Outreach Monte Escobedo

The first day of our event started a little late because of all the aforementioned events. Our team was not sad nor were they without energy. We were fired up to preach the gospel! The turn out the first night was low as folks were just beginning to come out of their homes after what happened and the word spread of the event. To God’s glory, the local authorities allowed us to use their massive gymnasium for the event totally free! A few folks were saved the first night and then the second day we went out and evangelized before the event. Many of us met resistance at first but didn’t give up. We kept pressing forward. For the first time ever the whole Elliott family was able to go out-Shalom, Nehemias, and even Hadassah. God gave all teams divine appointments even with people who weren’t from Monte Escobedo. At least 50 people came to Christ that day through the evangelism and outreach. Many great contacts were made with folks interested in a Bible study and even attending our weekly church services. God continues to work through relationships with the people we already know. The people couldn’t believe we had been there the two days before when the physical/spiritual war had transpired. Neither could they believe that nor could they believe that we were willing to go out into the streets and preach the gospel. The second day the attendance at the event doubled as expected. Our team musicians from Acuna were absolutely awesome! They sang songs adequate for folks who have never sang one praise and worship song. They are used to doing revivals in Acuna where hundreds of churches and thousands will gather to praise the Lord. They had never been to Zacatecas the black heart of Mexico. They did great and our team joined in learning the songs with the people. Great joy was in the air! Then the Lord responded before the message with the rain the people had so asked us to pray for! God sent this rain so that the people would believe in the message we preached! God saved Monte Escobedo and our base 2 town from the war because of our one sister, Guadalupe Villarreal, who lives in that whole town. He did not save them because of their repentive hearts. He saved them because of that one righteous daughter of his who had been praying. The Holy Spirit really moved through our brother’s message the second night and folks came forward. Meanwhile our other evangelist led four of the policemen to Christ outside the auditorium. Cristo vive! The next day, the last day of the outreach, he led four more to Christ! Hallelujah! Our third day was our planned carnival. The second day the Lord had miraculously provided chairs-rent free-through a man who we had invited. He turned out to be a man with much political power and even received Christ! The carnival was a great success! The Woodward team had poured their hearts into preparing for this event. We were able even to provide a meal at the end and bags of beans for the attendees. Brother Jose Bonilla, his family, and some other servants of God from Monte Escobedo also helped us with the event. Brother Jose’s family heart is with us 100% my friends. You must know that they love us dearly and have been a crucial part of our ministry. Again the numbers doubled! There was the duck pond, point pong toss, ring toss, tug of war, bean bag toss, ball throw, sack races, face painting, and balloon animals. Everyone pulled their weight, even our local helpers making the event possible. I personally had the blessing of going around and encouraging everyone team and kids alike. I had a special moment when a special needs girl came in telling me she had no friends to go to the carnival stations with. I exclaimed to her, “You have friends now!” She had a blast and even got up front during the songs and helped do the hand signals with sister Johanna. I had to make a cut off time since we were having to travel back to Base 1 and needed to beat the dark but kept putting it back since new people would arrive. I finally stopped the carnival and gave them a word related to the carnival and everything their town had went through-I preached on David and Goliath. It’s not by might, it’s not by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord! Folks were also saved the last night, amen.

Water baptisms

The day the team arrived I prepared them for how many folks were to be baptized. Luis Ramirez had already declared to me that he wouldn’t be nor would his spouse or 14 yr old daughter. He chose to care more about what the rest of the village thought about him then obeying the Lord. He wouldn’t let his 14 yr old daughter be baptized because of her upcoming quinceañera. His oldest daughter and son’s hearts were set upon it. We had a great service inside Luis’s store. Many folks that never come came because of the team, to see if we would give them something. We did, we gave them the Word of God! In all we had four baptisms. Fransisca, from Parral, was 100% determined this time to make the decision. The only one wavering was Martin, Luis’s son-in-law. The Holy Spirit grabbed a hold of him because right after Fransisca was baptized he was the first one to raise his hand! It was a special moment as we then allowed him to assist in the baptism of his wife. May the Lord continue to work in Fransisca, Martin, Mayra, and Beto’s lives! Our team evangelist assisted me with the baptisms and he and his wife said that the moment we had started preaching that a beautiful dove came down and landed near the pool. These two were the only two who witnessed this. May God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit be glorified! The location we did this at was at a famous hot springs pool and so the other visitors witnessed the baptisms and heard the Word of the Lord! Unfortunately we were so busy this week and so exhausted that I was unable to get the pictures from our team photographer so you will have to wait till August when I return for the summer.



What else can I say? “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”



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