Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Gospel Facilitators Summer Zac 2012
Sembradores de Cristo Newsletter August 15, 2012
Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”
Plain and simple folks. It was written and necessary that the Son of God would suffer, die, and rise again. Now for us as His children/servants it is written and necessary that we preach repentance and remission of sins in His name to all nations. No matter what the cost may be, we are to do it. It is our commissioned duty. We have just finished another week of doing just that here in the black heart of Zacatecas with Evangelist Kevin Cole (PK). The message PK preached at the revival was a simple one: Christ was born of a virgin, He lived a sinless life, He did miracles, He was crucified for our sins, He rose again, and He is the ONLY way. PK has been coming with us now for three years. God led him to us through meeting his daughter at an outreach in Cd. Acuna. He now has a ministry called “Gospel Facilitators.” He is preaching revivals in the Philipines and aiding missionaries in Hong Kong in getting the Word of God to mainland China. He is also going to help found a Bible school in India. Fortunately, (hallelujah) he also has felt the strong call of the Holy Spirit to Zacatecas. In his ministry, he connects with missionaries and pastors on the ground in foreign countries who have a kingdom perspective (not an “I” perspective, my church, my ministry, etc.) and he aids them with teaching, evangelism, and crusades. We thank God for PK’s life & ministry. He has become part of the Sembradores family. This past week PK brought three powerful brothers, one of which has been here before.
The pastoral conference in Zacatecas city a couple of weeks ago went very well. It was a joy and honor for my wife and me to be able to assist the conference once again with translating and children’s ministry. The director allowed us to bring Brother Ruben and his family with us which was a great training experience for them both. At the conference I ran into an old friend from Jerez named Jerry Chen. We had met Jerry three years ago at an outreach and had lost contact since. Jerry is a precious brother who runs a music school as a ministry in Jerez and also helps with his local church. He has a tremendous vision for Zacatecas that we will be glad to help out with in any way we can. We will share more about that with you in the future.
Village ministry
The first day of the mission trip Ruben and I took the men on a hardcore hike of pretty much an hour of all straight up climbing. Zacatecas has some pretty amazing mountains to go and adventure. In case you’re interested we can organize one of those hikes for you-no tourists, no forest ranger, just open range! This particular one is a real good one, huge rock formations that make the Garden of Gods look like mini mounds of clay. At the end you can see one of our villages, Parral, Jerez, and all the way to Zacatecas city (it’s high point at 8500). The summit of this hike is around 9000 ft. Enough of that fun non-spiritual stuff-ha! Our first night, Wednesday, we went to join Pastor Nacho and his service in a village named “Plan de Carrillo.” For a few years Pastor Nacho had shut the doors to the church due to lack of attendance. Jesse and I always made it a point and this summer Brother Kevin to visit him, pray with him, and encourage him to get back in the game. Hallelujah! Not long ago he opened the doors of the church again and is holding services twice a week. Two weeks ago, Ruben and I went and preached at the church and it was so full that there was not even standing space. At the end of last Wednesday’s service we blessed the adults with rice and beans and the children with backpacks. You should have seen those smiles (you will soon.) One thing PK likes is blessing these folks with rice and beans. Thank you to all of you who read this newsletters and helped PK and team come on this trip. Because of the last three years of drought, the price of beans has skyrocketed. Because of your gift, these people will have a meal for the next few weeks. Plan de Carrillo is one of the most impoverished villages in the area, as impoverished or more than Parral. At the end of the service, Brother Jeremy performed his exciting fire dance, which entertained the people a good while! On Thursday we were able to do a final service for the summer in Parral. We did it at the “Huizachito” tree like old times and saw a lot of the people who hadn’t come all summer come and rejoice with us in the name of our Lord. It was good to see Gabriel come back as well. It was a powerful service. The power and presence of the Holy Spirit was manifested and there was much tears and joy. There was much repentance and restoration during that service.
Revival Monte Escobedo
Where do I start? How about, it was amazing, it rocked, it was incredible! Of course it was because God was in it. God showed up. He heard our prayers and saved lives and even touched some with miraculous healing. That Friday morning before we headed out from Palmas Altas to Monte Escobedo we went to pray for Sister Angelina’s very ill mother in a nearby village. Diana and I had been very busy and hadn’t been able to make it out to her house to pray for her. The prophet Joel had clearly said that in the last days old men would dream dreams. Well, in this case, it was an elderly woman. You can choose to believe what I’m about to tell you or not, that’s up to you. The night before she had dreamed that 5 white men would show up at her house to pray for her. Indeed there were five of us: PK, Jeremy, Herb, Matthew, and of course myself. Wow! The Lord touched her and she has now been resting much better, praise the Lord for that. The first night of the revival, Friday night, we had an attendance of 79. Not bad for Monte Escobedo, a town seated right in the center of idolatry of Zacatecas-a town that was still declared 100% Roman Catholic 8 yrs ago. When PK goes to the Philipines where there is a great hunger for God he’ll have at least 500 the first night. As Ruben and I went out to put up bulletins about the revival around town we were blessed to run into a lot of the people we hadn’t seen all summer but that had come to the auditorium during previous outreaches. Every business and locality gave us the favor to put up the bulletin, hallelujah! There were approx. (God knows the real number) 5 salvations that first night.
That Saturday the Lord allowed us to share the gospel with a man that knew English at the plaza. Conviction from the Holy Spirit came over him and he started confessing how he wanted to change, how he wanted to leave his drinking habit. He had witnessed some terrible things committed by the Catholic Church and pretty much hated religion-(sound familiar) just like our Lord did. At the end of the service on night 2, various people came forward and gave testimony of how God had healed them. Two had had earaches and were healed, one of a stomach ache, one of chest pain, and one of pain in her waist. There were 105 with 10 salvations. After the services on Friday and Saturday we had a great time of fellowship with the American missionary team and the local Monte Escobedo church team. For the first team we had ushers and greeters that were from the local church. That time of breaking bread with the believers is so essential for health of the church. Jeremy did and extended version of his fire dance and we were able to bless the children that are part of the church with their backpack and school supplies. Before the service and fellowship time one of the brothers had taken us to a nearby waterfall and cave where one of the brothers happened upon a coiled up rattlesnake-yikes and praise God for His protection!
The last night we jumped to 185. Before service we had gone to say hello to one of the sisters and then found her mother there with much need for prayer. In fact, Elvira prayed that morning that we would come over early before the service to visit and pray for her mother-something not planned with our extremely busy schedule. Wow, how the Spirit works! Her mother had been suffering from much depression and spiritual attacks. We had barely started praying when we saw the Jalisco state police come in and take three men, one being a major boss from a drug cartel. One of our team members was in the van and hadn’t seen them so we quickly called him and all went inside while the officers took care of business-woo! Ruben’s wife, Carmelita, shared a powerful testimony that night of how much abuse she had suffered from her father. I almost cringed in my seat when she started bringing the heat, telling people to stop believing in the saints and the priests (that are just men as she put it). I was waiting to see people march off after she said that and to my surprise they stayed locked in on what she was saying instead of getting upset. She straight up told them that they needed Jesus! Amen. All of the adults got a bag of beans and rice and the children a bag of candy. It was harder than ever to give my farewells to the team. Diana and I love these sheep that God has delegated us to teach and care for. We really need to be here full-time now folks. Please help enable us to do that by partnering with us in financial support.
Huichol Indian outreach
Three years ago Diana, the kids, Jesse, and I had the amazing opportunity of going up to the Jalisco mountains and visiting a Huichol community. The Lord told us we would have that opportunity again and ever since then we had prayed for that day to come. We are working with one Huichiol woman that sells her jewelry at the plaza in Monte Escobedo. PK fought and fought to be able to change his and Herb’s flight out from Monday morning to Monday night. We slept for about 3 hrs. after the outreach and got up to drop off the other two at the airport. We saved the rest of the beans and rice and backpacks for the Huichol Indians and Pastor Ediberto’s church. I called him and he surprised us with sending a Huichol believer with us from Fresnillo. Brother Samuel had been waiting for a bus at 6 AM that never showed up. Well, what do you know; here we were going through Fresnillo three hours later. Praise God! “Keaku” is a greeting similar to “How is it going?” He shared his testimony with us on the way and tried to teach us a little Huichol-yeah right (lol). Alcoholism is rampant among the men of the tribe (a tribe of some 45,000 strong). He had been saved three years ago and lost his job at the local Huichol cultural museum since he now refused to give money and personal participate in the paganistic fiestas and pilgrimages. From the airport to the town where Pastor Ediberto lived was 3 ½ hard driving hours through the mountains. To the Huichol village from that town was another 1 ½ much harder hours-dirt roads and half roads, 100 ft. drop offs, you get the picture. Pastor Ediberto knows some of the Huichol language and two other tribal languages. He worked with the Tepehuan people for 18 yrs. One day one of them got tired of him shared about this “Jesus” and tried to hang him. The Lord loosened the rope and he escaped alive. Woo! That’s my kind of missionary contact my friends. Pastor Ediberto is the real deal. The road up the mountains was one of the most amazing we had ever seen, all the green, trees, mountains, and canyons. On the way up, Ediberto and Samuel explained to us that the village we were visiting was one of the few that the gospel was allowed to enter. Usually the tribal leaders are either shamans or very influenced by other shamans. The shamans had kicked Ediberto out before since his “Christian” people weren’t giving money or time to the paganistic rituals such as the sacrifice of bulls. The people were just precious. All the Huichol language I had tried to learn on the way up escaped me the moment I stood in front of those precious creations of God. PK again gave a simple message of salvation. He spoke in English; I translated to Spanish, and Samuel into Huichol. Awesome! The people were very orderly when we passed out the rice and beans and candy to the children. PK acted like he was the “piñata” and I the kid hitting it, him hurling out the candies. Fun, fun! In this village there is future opportunity to come again now that they have seen us. Samuel told the people to remember our faces and know that we don’t do evil but good. There is great opportunity to do VBS’s, sports camps, evangelism, and much more. Samuel would like to see a church be raised up there. In another village they burned the property and excommunicated the people out before they got the opportunity to raise up the church. I am pumped out about working there in the future. I’m not going to lie, the road is hardcore. It is very long and painful. Maybe some of you would like to go with me, you never know.
Prayer requests
Bible study in Laguna Grande-the Lord would give Ruben wisdom to lead the Bible study and favor with the group from Monte Escobedo and Laguna Grande
Our trip back to the U.S tomorrow
Potential house and building for church that we are looking at renting in Monte Escobedo
Love in Christ, Brother Benjamin Elliott & Sembradores de Cristo family
Sembradores de Cristo
603 E. 17th St.
Del Rio, TX 78840
Owwwbenja@yahoo.comwww.sembradoresdecristo.com
(830)719-9731
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Spring Break 2012
Sembradores de Cristo Spring Break Trip Newsletter 2012
“And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Then he said to Him, if Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.” (Exodus 33:14-15)
Indeed His Holy Presence did go with us all week long in the black heart and the team is now getting much needed rest. I love Moses’s attitude as he lets God know how He knows that without God they weren’t going to do anything, go anywhere. He recognizes that the lost world won’t be able to recognize that they are any different than the rest of the pagan nations without God’s mighty presence. Everyday our team held intense times of worship, devo, and prayer, seeking for His presence. On Monday we climbed onto the roof of Angelina’s house and prayed in unity over the four cardinal directions. God heard us and went ahead of us preparing the territory in every village and town we worked in. From start to finish that ole toothless lion fought against us but there was our Almighty God like a shield about us. To start with, two of our team members missed their connecting flight to Del Rio, one of them also forgetting her passport at home. We were greatly amazed that their airline offered them a free connection to Zacatecas. The only problem was the passport didn’t arrive on time. Our team really prayed as we knew it was the enemy trying to deter them from being in Zacatecas as they were to play the two main parts of the drama. The passport finally arrived Monday morning and the airline graciously changed their flight to Monday afternoon. All week long we saw folks come to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, saw folks be healed physically, many folks encouraged and exhorted, and many folks blessed with a basic staple of beans and rice.
Villages
This trip we were able to visit Parral de las Huertas twice. Be encouraged that Francisca and Delia continue growing in their faith as does Gabriel. Gabriel has made the decision to be baptized this coming March. The lady from the store who had seen the mighty hand of God bring rain from heaven after spending years organizing processions up and down the mtns to call upon the dead saint idols has went back to her old vomit of idolatry. Pastor Kevin (PK) was able to exhort Arnulfo (whom we nicknamed Nuf-dog) to come back to God. PK’s New York team was the first team to go into Parral with us to evangelize back in summer 2009. Arnulfo was told he wasn’t ever going to walk again after being ridden with bullets. We prayed for him and he felt a supernatural warmth come over his leg. The rest of that summer I sent different brothers to read the Bible with him and pray over him. By the following summer, Arnulfo was up and walking just fine. His believing mother was down for the summer but he didn’t want anything to do with us, only showing up once when I cooked hot dogs. God has a calling on that young man’s life and I pray that he will stop running from it. In Villa Hermosa we visited the one believing man, Daniel, and had a little service with him right in his home. The team was surprised to see the biggest group they had ever seen come together at the court there. The people really responded to sister Pastor Mike’s word on Jonah. A few of one us went to pray with a sweet woman in her 90’s who says her leg pain goes away every time we pray for her-hallelujah! PK’s balloon making was a constant hit everywhere all week and in Villa Hsa a few men felt obligated to stay (ha) after PK made them a balloon. Monte de los Garcia continues to be the place that we see the greatest move of God among the villages. Here the team performed the drama right on the street outside the store/church. The children and the adults were cut to heart by the message of the drama (Everything by Lifehouse). One young woman couldn’t hold back her emotions after the drama and during PK’s followup message. He preached on Galatians 5 listing all the sins that were represented in the drama and how those who practice them will not enter the kingdom of heaven. She received Christ and let it all out-amen! We also handed out hot dogs at the end of the service. I had realized that I had never done a meal for the people of Monte de los Garcia. Martin, Myra, Beto, and Faviola are really starting to step it up. They were helping us out with church order, passing out Bibles, and even praying for folks with the laying on of hands. Beto was excited when I gave him the first guitar I learned guitar on which had been given to me by a border team from Illinois in Dec. 2004. Luis has declared his intention of being baptized in June. Every member of the team played their part this week. We seriously would not have been able to do it this time without all of their help. I have no idea how we did it in December with me suffering from bronchitis, gastritis, and that foot pain. My foot’s getting better again but the doctors still have no idea what the issue is. Praise the Lord, this time I had drivers, cooks, musicians, translators, greeters, children’s workers, preachers (un poquito de todo!)
Team Sembradores Spring Break 2012
One of those musicians was our beloved brother Ezequiel Hdz (Cheque) from Saltillo. Cheque really blessed our team with his tremendous anointing in worship. Those who have worked with Cheque know how much music just bubbles out of him. I call him my personal “karaoke.” With him, Jeremy Payne, Mere Limones, and Alejandra Urteaga we had quite a music group this week and guess what-I didn’t have to help out with that. Yeah! There were three preachers among the group (myself, PK, and Mike.) Again, sister Linda (Cheque’s mom) helped out with the meals in Palmas Altas and Laguna Grande and shared the gospel at every gas station, house, park, and work site. We even had someone who helped out with Hadassah since Papa Toño and Johana couldn’t make it. Brother Gary would just hold her and hold her while my wife taught the children. Sister Sarah did a great job leading the team and taking awesome “fotos” like she always does. Hector and Ana did a great job translating and doing about anything and everything asked to do. Hector and sister Jen’s humble ways of sharing their testimonies of converting from Catholicism to Christianity struck many hearts. It was brother Tim’s second mission trip ever-first to China and then to Zacatecas. It can’t get much more hardcore than that. Sister Wendy is a sweet-spirited sister who just glows as she works with people of all ages. Shalom and Nemi helped out a lot too-they took care of their own station (coloring Bible pages) at the carnival on Thursday!
Monte Escobedo
For the fourth time in a row, the deputy mayor of Monte Escobedo granted us the auditorium for the event for FREE! Normally he rents the place for $200/night. The place is a huge gymnasium, a great place for outreaches. The Lord moved so strongly that we held off with our planned evangelism day in Teul. PK and I were able to meet with the deputy mayor (Antonio) and thank him again for the permission to use the building. We were able to even encourage him with a word and pray for him. I was surprised when he allowed PK to give him a huge bear hug right in front of his armed bodyguard-hallelujah! He was excited to hear that we were going to hand out rice and beans as there was no harvest this last year. The people were hungry physically and spiritually in Monte Escobedo and all the villages. I have no idea how we had enough beans and rice to bless all the villages (Parral, Villa, and Monte de los Garcia) and also have enough to hand out bags of beans and rice two days in Monte Escobedo. We also had a lot of hot dogs leftover from the outreach in Monte de los Garcia so I decided to do a hot dog distribution there the last day. There were a lot more buns then hot dogs so one of the local sisters (Elvia) had a great idea-slicing them in half. She and Lupe have begun to grow spiritually and were a great help all three days passing out things, keeping order in lines, praying for folks, etc. Erica Bonilla also helped out and brought a friend the first night who gave her life to Christ. It was all God because she had prayed for this friend but hadn’t invited her since she hadn’t seen us and there she just showed up! Both ladies that clean the auditorium’s restrooms have now been saved and also helped out. They now let all my team members use the restroom for free! God really blessed Sister Guadalupe Villarreal this week as well. During devo one morning the Holy Spirit led me to have the team lay hands on her and she was really touched by the Spirit. On Friday morning she took us to her aunt’s home where Sister Sarah shared a testimony that identified with her life. The Lord told me that one of her family members was very wayward. As we layed hands on her and prayed for her wayward son (in an out of drugs), she got on her knees and was healed of her back pain. She told us that she hadn’t kneeled or really bent down now for years. Mike and Tim began rebuking the ugly virgin and Juan Diego idols she had in her house and then the Lord told me to be bold and tell her that the depression and anxiety she suffered would depart if she got rid of those idols. Another healing occurred as we went out to evangelize. Wendy and Sarah arrived with a lady who wouldn’t put the headphones on because she could barely hear. Wendy and Sarah didn’t give up praying until she could hear. The Lord opened up one ear completely and the other she was able to hear out of a little bit. We evangelized in the colonia that Guadalupe’s niece’s house is in. We were able to use this empty house for the two nights we stayed there. Most all teams that I sent out had great responses to the evangecube and evangelism. Mike and I got to lead the neighbor kids to Christ who later came to the carnival after apprehension about going due to the cartel violence. We also ended up at the local nursing home where two elderly men wouldn’t stop making a big deal about the virgin Mary. Hector had just given us a great devo on the wisdom of preaching the truth about the idols while respecting the local’s innocent beliefs. Since neither they nor the workers would listen we went to the lady they claimed “needed” to hear the message since she always fought with them. Guess what, she was the only one to receive Christ! On Thursday, the day of the carnival, we saw about 250 people-probably close to the number we had the first outreach and this summer with the New Covenant Woodward team. The police helped us oust some rowdy youth and men who wouldn’t submit to the rules and leave their basketballs and volleyballs out till after we were finished. Cheque overheard youth in the internet café complain about how the “Ballena” was here again meaning they couldn’t play ball and how they were surprised that the policia was on our side-ha! We rejoiced to see many folks come back on Friday even after I had told them there wasn’t going to be any “material” gift. We had already decided to specially bless that group with whatever candy, rice, and beans were left as well as the hot dogs. PK brought some thunder from the book of Nehemiah about the sacrifice and cost of rebuilding. He related the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem with the building of His church in Monte Escobedo. He encouraged those interested to submit to my leadership. I saw their serious faces as PK asked for those volunteers to raise their hands and stand up and I realized that “YES” these were the church of Monte Escobedo. There are now quite a few folks who have told me that they want to be part of our church. Hallelujah! God has done it and is doing it! It’s not about me nor has it ever been about me. He is building His church that the gates of hell shall not prevail against!
Travel mercies
I want to thank all of those that prayed for us this past week. The Lord’s hand was upon us all week. The lives of His saints our precious to Him! I do have to mention that the brakes on the Ballena completely went out as did the sliding door break again. By the grace of God we made the 12 hour trip back without any trouble even without brakes. It will probably cost some $800 to fix all of that. Let me know if you would like to help out with that.
Please pray about partnering with us financially so we can go full-time.
Love ya’ll, 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
Phone: (830) 719-9731
“And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Then he said to Him, if Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.” (Exodus 33:14-15)
Indeed His Holy Presence did go with us all week long in the black heart and the team is now getting much needed rest. I love Moses’s attitude as he lets God know how He knows that without God they weren’t going to do anything, go anywhere. He recognizes that the lost world won’t be able to recognize that they are any different than the rest of the pagan nations without God’s mighty presence. Everyday our team held intense times of worship, devo, and prayer, seeking for His presence. On Monday we climbed onto the roof of Angelina’s house and prayed in unity over the four cardinal directions. God heard us and went ahead of us preparing the territory in every village and town we worked in. From start to finish that ole toothless lion fought against us but there was our Almighty God like a shield about us. To start with, two of our team members missed their connecting flight to Del Rio, one of them also forgetting her passport at home. We were greatly amazed that their airline offered them a free connection to Zacatecas. The only problem was the passport didn’t arrive on time. Our team really prayed as we knew it was the enemy trying to deter them from being in Zacatecas as they were to play the two main parts of the drama. The passport finally arrived Monday morning and the airline graciously changed their flight to Monday afternoon. All week long we saw folks come to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, saw folks be healed physically, many folks encouraged and exhorted, and many folks blessed with a basic staple of beans and rice.
Villages
This trip we were able to visit Parral de las Huertas twice. Be encouraged that Francisca and Delia continue growing in their faith as does Gabriel. Gabriel has made the decision to be baptized this coming March. The lady from the store who had seen the mighty hand of God bring rain from heaven after spending years organizing processions up and down the mtns to call upon the dead saint idols has went back to her old vomit of idolatry. Pastor Kevin (PK) was able to exhort Arnulfo (whom we nicknamed Nuf-dog) to come back to God. PK’s New York team was the first team to go into Parral with us to evangelize back in summer 2009. Arnulfo was told he wasn’t ever going to walk again after being ridden with bullets. We prayed for him and he felt a supernatural warmth come over his leg. The rest of that summer I sent different brothers to read the Bible with him and pray over him. By the following summer, Arnulfo was up and walking just fine. His believing mother was down for the summer but he didn’t want anything to do with us, only showing up once when I cooked hot dogs. God has a calling on that young man’s life and I pray that he will stop running from it. In Villa Hermosa we visited the one believing man, Daniel, and had a little service with him right in his home. The team was surprised to see the biggest group they had ever seen come together at the court there. The people really responded to sister Pastor Mike’s word on Jonah. A few of one us went to pray with a sweet woman in her 90’s who says her leg pain goes away every time we pray for her-hallelujah! PK’s balloon making was a constant hit everywhere all week and in Villa Hsa a few men felt obligated to stay (ha) after PK made them a balloon. Monte de los Garcia continues to be the place that we see the greatest move of God among the villages. Here the team performed the drama right on the street outside the store/church. The children and the adults were cut to heart by the message of the drama (Everything by Lifehouse). One young woman couldn’t hold back her emotions after the drama and during PK’s followup message. He preached on Galatians 5 listing all the sins that were represented in the drama and how those who practice them will not enter the kingdom of heaven. She received Christ and let it all out-amen! We also handed out hot dogs at the end of the service. I had realized that I had never done a meal for the people of Monte de los Garcia. Martin, Myra, Beto, and Faviola are really starting to step it up. They were helping us out with church order, passing out Bibles, and even praying for folks with the laying on of hands. Beto was excited when I gave him the first guitar I learned guitar on which had been given to me by a border team from Illinois in Dec. 2004. Luis has declared his intention of being baptized in June. Every member of the team played their part this week. We seriously would not have been able to do it this time without all of their help. I have no idea how we did it in December with me suffering from bronchitis, gastritis, and that foot pain. My foot’s getting better again but the doctors still have no idea what the issue is. Praise the Lord, this time I had drivers, cooks, musicians, translators, greeters, children’s workers, preachers (un poquito de todo!)
Team Sembradores Spring Break 2012
One of those musicians was our beloved brother Ezequiel Hdz (Cheque) from Saltillo. Cheque really blessed our team with his tremendous anointing in worship. Those who have worked with Cheque know how much music just bubbles out of him. I call him my personal “karaoke.” With him, Jeremy Payne, Mere Limones, and Alejandra Urteaga we had quite a music group this week and guess what-I didn’t have to help out with that. Yeah! There were three preachers among the group (myself, PK, and Mike.) Again, sister Linda (Cheque’s mom) helped out with the meals in Palmas Altas and Laguna Grande and shared the gospel at every gas station, house, park, and work site. We even had someone who helped out with Hadassah since Papa Toño and Johana couldn’t make it. Brother Gary would just hold her and hold her while my wife taught the children. Sister Sarah did a great job leading the team and taking awesome “fotos” like she always does. Hector and Ana did a great job translating and doing about anything and everything asked to do. Hector and sister Jen’s humble ways of sharing their testimonies of converting from Catholicism to Christianity struck many hearts. It was brother Tim’s second mission trip ever-first to China and then to Zacatecas. It can’t get much more hardcore than that. Sister Wendy is a sweet-spirited sister who just glows as she works with people of all ages. Shalom and Nemi helped out a lot too-they took care of their own station (coloring Bible pages) at the carnival on Thursday!
Monte Escobedo
For the fourth time in a row, the deputy mayor of Monte Escobedo granted us the auditorium for the event for FREE! Normally he rents the place for $200/night. The place is a huge gymnasium, a great place for outreaches. The Lord moved so strongly that we held off with our planned evangelism day in Teul. PK and I were able to meet with the deputy mayor (Antonio) and thank him again for the permission to use the building. We were able to even encourage him with a word and pray for him. I was surprised when he allowed PK to give him a huge bear hug right in front of his armed bodyguard-hallelujah! He was excited to hear that we were going to hand out rice and beans as there was no harvest this last year. The people were hungry physically and spiritually in Monte Escobedo and all the villages. I have no idea how we had enough beans and rice to bless all the villages (Parral, Villa, and Monte de los Garcia) and also have enough to hand out bags of beans and rice two days in Monte Escobedo. We also had a lot of hot dogs leftover from the outreach in Monte de los Garcia so I decided to do a hot dog distribution there the last day. There were a lot more buns then hot dogs so one of the local sisters (Elvia) had a great idea-slicing them in half. She and Lupe have begun to grow spiritually and were a great help all three days passing out things, keeping order in lines, praying for folks, etc. Erica Bonilla also helped out and brought a friend the first night who gave her life to Christ. It was all God because she had prayed for this friend but hadn’t invited her since she hadn’t seen us and there she just showed up! Both ladies that clean the auditorium’s restrooms have now been saved and also helped out. They now let all my team members use the restroom for free! God really blessed Sister Guadalupe Villarreal this week as well. During devo one morning the Holy Spirit led me to have the team lay hands on her and she was really touched by the Spirit. On Friday morning she took us to her aunt’s home where Sister Sarah shared a testimony that identified with her life. The Lord told me that one of her family members was very wayward. As we layed hands on her and prayed for her wayward son (in an out of drugs), she got on her knees and was healed of her back pain. She told us that she hadn’t kneeled or really bent down now for years. Mike and Tim began rebuking the ugly virgin and Juan Diego idols she had in her house and then the Lord told me to be bold and tell her that the depression and anxiety she suffered would depart if she got rid of those idols. Another healing occurred as we went out to evangelize. Wendy and Sarah arrived with a lady who wouldn’t put the headphones on because she could barely hear. Wendy and Sarah didn’t give up praying until she could hear. The Lord opened up one ear completely and the other she was able to hear out of a little bit. We evangelized in the colonia that Guadalupe’s niece’s house is in. We were able to use this empty house for the two nights we stayed there. Most all teams that I sent out had great responses to the evangecube and evangelism. Mike and I got to lead the neighbor kids to Christ who later came to the carnival after apprehension about going due to the cartel violence. We also ended up at the local nursing home where two elderly men wouldn’t stop making a big deal about the virgin Mary. Hector had just given us a great devo on the wisdom of preaching the truth about the idols while respecting the local’s innocent beliefs. Since neither they nor the workers would listen we went to the lady they claimed “needed” to hear the message since she always fought with them. Guess what, she was the only one to receive Christ! On Thursday, the day of the carnival, we saw about 250 people-probably close to the number we had the first outreach and this summer with the New Covenant Woodward team. The police helped us oust some rowdy youth and men who wouldn’t submit to the rules and leave their basketballs and volleyballs out till after we were finished. Cheque overheard youth in the internet café complain about how the “Ballena” was here again meaning they couldn’t play ball and how they were surprised that the policia was on our side-ha! We rejoiced to see many folks come back on Friday even after I had told them there wasn’t going to be any “material” gift. We had already decided to specially bless that group with whatever candy, rice, and beans were left as well as the hot dogs. PK brought some thunder from the book of Nehemiah about the sacrifice and cost of rebuilding. He related the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem with the building of His church in Monte Escobedo. He encouraged those interested to submit to my leadership. I saw their serious faces as PK asked for those volunteers to raise their hands and stand up and I realized that “YES” these were the church of Monte Escobedo. There are now quite a few folks who have told me that they want to be part of our church. Hallelujah! God has done it and is doing it! It’s not about me nor has it ever been about me. He is building His church that the gates of hell shall not prevail against!
Travel mercies
I want to thank all of those that prayed for us this past week. The Lord’s hand was upon us all week. The lives of His saints our precious to Him! I do have to mention that the brakes on the Ballena completely went out as did the sliding door break again. By the grace of God we made the 12 hour trip back without any trouble even without brakes. It will probably cost some $800 to fix all of that. Let me know if you would like to help out with that.
Please pray about partnering with us financially so we can go full-time.
Love ya’ll, Sembradores de Cristo family
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Esperanza Del Rio Community Church
603 E. 17th St. Del Rio, TX 78840
www.sembradoresdecristo.com
Phone: (830) 719-9731
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