Spring Break Zac 2013

Sembradores de Cristo Spring Break 2013 “And that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” (2 Tim 3:15) Our weary team had a final team devotional in which we encouraged Shalom, Nehemias, and Hadassah to follow Jesus all their lives, that He’s the best way. My children are always with us going up and down those treacherous mtn roads, having service when no one shows up, sharing the gospel in new places with new faces, helping their Mom with children’s ministry. We encouraged them that the adventures they are having now are exciting, few experience the adventures they do as children on the mission field, as tiring as it may be. We then spent time praying for the children of Zacatecas and in the world that they may make the decision at an early age to come to faith in Jesus. I thank God for my family that works so hard for the kingdom and I thank Him for always sending us servants to accompany us and encourage us. This past week Brother Gary of New York and Sister Joan of Dallas/Taiwan accompanied us to the new heart. Gary has a passion for children and a heart to serve. Joan has a passion for prayer and flows in the prophetic anointing. We are also now working hand-in-hand with Todas las Naciones church and Jerry Chen. The Garcia family in Palmas also accompanied us to various villages and encouraged us during our times of devotional and fellowship. I was able to send mini updates from Palmas Altas as they now have internet-not the village-just their house. This was a great unexpected blessing. When we are there we will no longer have to wait until we go through Jerez to send updates. We sent the update about our tire malfunction. Only God protected us my friends, only God. That whole tire tread had peeled off like an orange. I don’t know how long I had been driving on basically just the tube. With all the traffic near the city and lack of highway shoulders to turn off on a blow-out could have been pretty devastating. Thank you body of Christ for your prayers all week. Plan de Carrillo village “Christ is the head of the church.” (Eph 5:23) I was invited to preach and facilitate a meeting at the church in Plan de Carrillo. “El Plan” is like an oasis in the desert. It is the only village in the area that never had a Catholic church or a store that sells “cerveza.” Over the years we would pass through and encourage the local pastor, even when he wasn’t having services. One of the main ministries & spiritual gifts God has given me is the gift of encouragement. I love encouraging others in the faith. When we started visiting this summer, another church had started in this small community of 100 or so. A member of the community invited us to facilitate a meeting between the members of the new church and the former, local pastor to promote unity among the believers. Dissension amongst these precious believers had entered the body of Christ. I preached on unity in Christ, reminded them that Christ is the head of the church. My friend, the former pastor, did not want to attend but decided to at the last moment-praise God! He confessed that he did not feel capable to lead the church anymore and that despite the hurts he had experienced in the church, in time he would be willing to help out with the music and/or other areas. Rocio from Palmas went with us and did a class with the children, something that had never happened in the history of the church in that village. We do not know if the Lord will have us continue in any role in that church in the future. This community of believers is passionate about their relationship with the Lord and has great potential to reach out to the outlying villages and establish mission churches of their own. Some sow and others reap. I would love to see these folks go into Villa Hermosa and Monte de los Garcia villages to church plant and disciple the folks we have poured into for years now. It’s not about Sembradores de Cristo; we don’t have to have our name on the church-it’s His church-all about Cristo! Kingdom mentality! Villa Hermosa village “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.” (2 Cor. 10:4) Speaking of Villa Hermosa……Oh how times have changed. I shared with Gary and Joan the exciting moments we had had in the past with the area catechist trying to drive us away from preaching there and the local catechist trying to turn people against us, even using witchcraft to cast spells on us. Those strongholds the enemy once had here have been torn down and cast out in the name of Jesus! In fact, the children in the church saw us while we set up for a mini kids carnival and when the new, young catechist was finished with them she sent them over and even came herself to hear the Word of God. I thank God for the many prayers His people have poured out over the years over this place. The strongholds have been broken and there is freedom to speak in His name. We had 46 present, most there because it was volleyball/chatter time, gathered with us for a service of praise songs and preaching of God’s Word after the carnival. Joan shared her testimony to a group of some 20 women and one man. Most of them do not know or fear the Lord and did not pay much attention to her intense testimony of liberation from demonic possession. However, a few of them were keyed in on what she was saying. The Lord is opening their eyes to see the truth, that behind all of their saint idols are demonic forces that do not want them to believe in Jesus. Another positive outcome of our visit was a conversation I had with our local contact, a believer named Daniel. I encouraged Daniel to be willing to offer an area of his property for the construction of a church, that God has called him to be an active participant of the furtherance of the kingdom. He was very open and positive about the idea. May the Lord speak to Him and give him vision concerning His plans. Monte de los Garcia “Behold, darkness and sorrow; and the light is darkened by the clouds.” (Is 5:30) The Lord revealed to Joan that a great light had penetrated through the darkness covering Monte de los Garcia but that the people did not receive it and the light had thus been reflected by the darkness. Our one young faithful attendee there has been through quite a bit. Her mother has an altar to the saint of death in the home to which she worships. Mari had been allowed to attend our gatherings yet always returned to a home dedicated to demonic worship. We begin at the court by praying for her and doing spiritual warfare at the court. Word came to us that a local family had a blind family member present. Therefore, we did a service at their house and prayed for the blind man. He was not healed then physically. We encouraged to him to put his faith in Christ as did the blind man of John 9. I believe that he was not healed that day due to his lack of faith. We will continue believing for his healing. Those present included a mother and daughter who had at one point faithfully attended the services. God is working on their hearts and in their families. Back in “El Plan” they have a sister who is on-fire for God. These two had gotten very angry with me when I invited them to be baptized 5 years ago. Unfortunately our former point of contact of the village and family were not present that day but were out partying. You may recall that they refused to submit to obedience to God in baptism this July. It is apparent that they continue to love the ways of the world. God’s got to get a hold of them, but He’s a gentleman and does not force His will on anyone. Please join me in weekly prayer for them and young Mari of Monte. Tepetongo “My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land.” (Ps. 63:1) 7 years of working in the black heart/new heart and for the first time ever I saw a group of believers, in a community that has no church, actually hungry for God. When my friend Jerry Chen told me about the new work in Tepetongo starting last Saturday my heart leaped in me. Jerry and Pastor Ruben described a people hungry for God, even weeping in the presence of the Lord during the first service. Since Delia and Fransisca were not in Parral to do a service it opened up an opportunity for us to go there on Tuesday. Every time we drove through Tepetongo on the way to Mt. Escobedo we felt God had something special for that place. We had a powerful service on Tuesday. Despite me losing my voice, I was able to sing and invite the presence of the Lord into that place. Many were ministered to during worship and preaching. Unsaved visitors felt the presence of the Lord as they walked in the house. Here a lady and other believers had been praying for years that someone would come and do services. Her house is adequate and spacious for a house church. 5 adults and 4 children received Christ! Pray for Todas las Naciones church as they continue working there weekly. Monte Escobedo “But Jesus said, Let the children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 19:14) Todas las Naciones church continues making the journey through a road full of pot holes and dangerous curves to do a service every Sunday. On the avg. there have only been about 3 people come a week. The folks in Tepetongo shared with me how Tepetongo had once been hard to the gospel but now the people are receptive. Monte Escobedo is tough folks, really hard soil to preach in. It’s going to be prayer like in Villa Hermosa that is going to break the strongholds the enemy has in place. On Sunday, a believer named Sabino approached me that he wanted to be baptized. We went early on Thursday to pay the rent, utilities and decorate/pray over the church-thanks to you who adopted a month. I had been expecting Sabino to show up early to take him to be baptized before service. He got there about 30 min before service so I quickly got together a group and we went to a nearby lake. Even unsaved kids already at the church wanted to go with us. I found a perfect place with a big rock for the kids to sit on and view what was taking place. You will enjoy the pictures when you see them. You could see that the Lord was giving understanding of His Word to the children as I shared from Acts 8. Some of the older children appeared to be eager for the opportunity to be baptized themselves when I made the invitation for anyone else present to come forward. On this Thursday service we had some 50 people come, most being children. We want to see all those folks show up on Sunday mornings! May God bring them to Him just as He did in Matt 19. May they know Him at this young age and be molded like clay by Potter Jesus. Please pray that their unsaved parents will allow them to attend on Sunday mornings. We and Todas las Naciones church would love to disciple them in the ways of the Lord. I know it’s a lot to read, God did a lot of great things this past week-like He always does! On Wednesday night we had a special service at Jerry’s mother-in-law’s house in El Cargadero and there Joan shared her whole testimony of liberation from demon possession. Nacho, who got saved this New Year’s Eve brought his wife who got saved after Joan’s testimony. The host family had been through many struggles and was reunited once again in Christ. Many were liberated from various chains of depression, bitterness, and anger. Joan encouraged them that forgiveness was their ticket to freedom. I again want to thank you all who prayed for us this trip and for those who invested in the church at Monte Escobedo. We will soon be doing a monthly support-a-thon like we did with the church so we can go full-time this summer. Love ya’ll, Bro Ben & 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

Fiesta Navidad & New Years 2012/13

Sembradores de Cristo Fiesta Navidad & New Years 2012/13 “Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.” (Luke 14:21) “Quickly” notes a sense of urgency. Jesus in Revelations 22:20 also declares, “Surely I am coming quickly!” As servants of His church, we need to get more serious about going out and share the good news. It’s amazing how in this parable of the great supper, the man’s own friends were all too busy to come to the banquet. Isn’t it amazing how the “needy” seem to be the only ones in “need” for God? After all these needy were brought in the master sent the servant to the highways and hedges because there was still room. The servant was instructed to compel them to come. Again, a sense of urgency. There is room in heaven for so many more. The master told him, “Let’s fill this place!” We need to go out quickly and urge the people to repent and know Christ. The religious, self-righteous, apathetic, and materialistically “rich” probably won’t be interested. Those who are hurting & broken might be-hungry for some real food, some “bread of heaven.” There’s plenty of room at the table of the Master for those who will open their hearts to Jesus and dine with the King. I hope the church will have a sense of urgency this 2013 as it fulfills the Great Commission, going out quickly, compelling the sinners to come in and partake of the new covenant. Group blessings & challenges Thanks to all of you who supported us in prayer this past week and to all of you who sent those gifts full of tokens of love. All but 20 girl’s gifts were distributed this last week of the 250 total. God granted us travel mercies the whole trip, even a green light in the interior on the way down. Victor Rocha was such a blessing to have with us (the Elliott’s & Blanco’s). What a servant of God-photographer, driver, anything & everything kind of guy. This was Victor’s first mission trip-of many to come! The windshield wipers went out on the way to Zacatecas city on Monday. I’ve never had to drive without windshield wipers-now that’s an experience-ha! No mechanic shop was open all the way back from the city. God was gracious and helped us make it back safely, praise be His name. The next day it wasn’t raining in Jerez, however, halfway to Mt. Escobedo it started pouring again. We prayed (this was New Years Day) and out of nowhere there was a little auto mechanic shop on the outskirts of a town called Huejucar. He was closed but he came out to help us –hallelujah! Also, muchísimas gracias for agreeing with us for health for the team-all team members were healthy and full of energy to serve the Lord all week. However, a young sister in the Lord that accompanied our team to Zacatecas that Monday night got very sick. We laid our hands on her when we got back to her house and she almost fainted. She passed out as her parents rushed her to the hospital. Meanwhile, back at their house we kept praying for her, not accepting that the devil would have any victory in the matter. The Lord had told me that ALL of our team members would be healthy all week-I knew that included local folks who helped us, even if that meant for one day. We continued with the already planned New Year’s Eve service at her house with her grandma, uncle, his unsaved brother, and her sister and brother-in-law Jerry Chen. The unsaved relative decided to give his whole life to Christ that night, amen. Meanwhile the young sister’s parents and brothers were scared sick of losing their little angel at the hospital. We ended up having a second mini-service among our small team, strongly experiencing the presence of the Lord in that little house. We were pleased to hear the family come back from the hospital at around 2 A.M. Our young sister in Christ was fine; the cold weather had been a little too much for her that day. Mtn village work The first couple days of our trip were spent in the high mtn villages. We decided to visit Villa Hermosa village that Friday, a village we have now been visiting for almost 7 years. Here there has never been a man or woman of peace to step up and want a Bible study and/or church in their village. Gamaliel Blanco and his wife were with us there 4 Christmases ago when the catechist tried to run us off the volleyball court. We have now had no such issues with him for two years now. As a group we decided to also take Christmas presents to the precious, impoverished children of this village. We found some Christmas story puppets in our little warehouse in Palmas Altas to take to Villa with us. The children here have always been very attentive and interested. We have built very good relationships with the folks of this village over the past 6 yrs. Last August one of them told us that the lady in charge of the little Catholic church is now “adios” meaning we are free to enter now and preach without any worry. This lady had tried to run us off on our fourth trip to Zacatecas back in 2006. As we went out to invite, one young woman asked Gamaliel what time the service was going to be at the court. She did this deceitfully as to know what time to go and disturb the service by ringing the bell at the Catholic church. No one left our gathering, nor paid her any attention at all. On Saturday I did my traditional Palmas Altas mtn run. Near the end of this run is an altar to the idol “El santo niño.” We know there’s nothing “santo” about that idol but that it is “diabolico.” As I drew near to the area I saw that some farmers had burned their fields, right up to the plot of land that the idol is on. The Lord told me that He’s going to burn it down. I remembered how the prophets defended the holy name of our Lord burning the Baal’s & high places. I had told Victor, Gamaliel, and Jose Angel to drive out and pick me up there. They joined me in rebuking that evil spirit’s power in the area in the name of Jesus. Jose Angel explained to us that once a year the people gather there-the priest holds a short mass, and then people stick around to get drunk & festive. The Lord showed Gamaliel as he was praying that many devote to the idol practice sexual immorality and other abominations. From there I decided to take Victor to villages we don’t work in that belong to Fresnillo county. We got a little excited and decided to give some gifts we had left in the van to some children in the streets that were in two villages. We quickly told them that Jesus loved them, that He had given them the gift and wants to give them the gift of eternal life. We had to do it quick before all the other children of the village would see us and run over, knowing we wouldn’t have enough for Monte Escobedo and the church at Jerez. That evening we had a great service with Pastor Nacho in Plan de Carrillo. We invited the folks of Monte de los Garcia to the service but no, negative, they said they would come and did not come. It is very apparent that they are not interested in following the Lord. In Plan de Carrillo the enemy is dividing the Christians. Again, as in November, Pastor Nacho was very discouraged since most of his people had left for the other church. We encouraged the few that attended to be faithful to their pastor and congregation. Work with “Todas las naciones” church In the last newsletter we mentioned the blessing it was to have visited and preached at the church “Todas las naciones” of Jerez. We were able to visit again this past Sunday. The church is full of “niños” since the children’s home attends that church. It was a blessing to bless these precious angels with Christmas gifts. We also had some jackets left over from last year’s visit that we distributed to the men and women of the church. The Lord gave me a special blessing that day. Before service I went around the corner to a local cyber cafe to check my e-mail and ran into a familiar face from Palmas Altas. A little girl that had once lived in Palmas but now lived in Jerez was there and eager to see us. Unfortunately she, like many youth of Jerez, is allowed to run wild on the streets without any supervision in the daytime. I invited her to church-made sure she went and asked permission-ha. It was a blessing to bless her with a Christmas gift. The church accompanied us this past Friday to Parral village. Sister Amber and Brother Tony along with Jerry and Michal brought us some 30 helpers, mostly youth. Since Parral is a small village, we sent half one way to invite and the other half the other way. God brought in believers from Palmas Altas, Monte Escobedo, El Cargadero, the church in Jerez, and Parral together to glorify His name in this beautiful village. We had a “fiesta cristiana” that evening with tamales, Christmas gifts, special music, and even a drama. My wife and I improvised the “heart skit” that we hadn’t performed in more than two years-good times. The Lord led Sister Ester, Gamaliel wife, to pray for Ruben’s mother-in-law who wished to receive Christ. Ester later told me she was nervous since she had never led a sinner’s prayer with anybody before but saw that I was busy praying for somebody else and didn’t want to bother me. She spoke of the indescribable joy she experienced. I thank the leaders of “Todas las naciones” for allowing their church members to join us in going out to the streets & highways of the surrounding villages and towns. The church has also decided to support us by going to do services in the church of Monte Escobedo once a week during our absence. Praise God! He is unifying His Jesus team to make His kingdom come in every corner of the earth, in our case-Zacatecas! Monte Escobedo We spent three days in Monte Escobedo doing the first three services at our first church building. I remember being disappointed this November when those who had been faithful during our first two years of working in Colonia La Pradera had stopped coming to Ruben’s Bible study and didn’t come to our meeting. Most of those folks just avoided us when we went to look for them. Back at the motel we spent time in intense, unified prayer for His church at Monte Escobedo. The Lord told me that He was going to bring new blood into the church, folks who really love Him and want to work. Out with the old and in with the new sometimes, right? Since it was raining so much all we could do was pray and drive around to make a presence with the van the first two days. We prayed for divine appointments with lost souls and with folks who had attended our past events at the auditorium. As I was inviting folks on Wednesday I ran into a familiar face in a pharmacy from a previous event in August with PK that shared her testimony with me. She started with, “You guys are the ones that came in August, right?” She shared that her friend had invited her and that she didn’t want to go. She had been suffering from severe depression and that night that she went she felt the depression lifted during the music and hadn’t felt the same since. She told me she was a single mother that had felt she had nothing to live for but her treasured son. She got excited when I told her that the church was just around the corner and even more so when I invited her to be part of the team. She came both nights after that and even helped us pass out the gifts. Her friend, the pharmacist, had been listening to our conversation and felt the desire to receive Christ. Another man had been healed of eyesight in one eye also in August. He came all three nights; in fact, I remember him going to every previous event at the auditorium. People will not deny what God has done for them. The motel itself was a blessing, despite it being a little pricey. It is right around the corner from the church. The Lord blessed us unexpectedly with a room that had a kitchenette-kitchen and stove-since there is now no house available to stay at with Guadalupe Villarreal in Laguna Grande. The second day of services Brother Gamaliel preached and made the invitation for all to come forward to receive prayer. Many were touched by the Holy Spirit during that service. Depression seems to be a tool of the enemy particularly in Monte Escobedo. I prayed with two ladies and a man to receive Christ for the first time. The third day I decided to make the announcement as we invited and evangelized to spread the word about the Christmas gifts since such few children had went to the services the first two nights. That helped us fill the church on Thursday. We had about 97 people come, some 76 children. The Lord allowed me to share the gospel with the owner of a hardware store that morning. The Lord moved him to share with me that his wife had left him and that he now lives with a young mistress. The Lord led him to ask me what I thought about that. I did and he was penetrated to the heart by his sin and prayed for forgiveness to the Savior of all. Happy new year folks. I hope you have enjoyed reading this newsletter concerning the Lord’s work. You can be expecting the trip pictures soon. Blessings to all in the name of our Lord, Brother Ben Please consider partnering with us by supporting us on a monthly basis. Love ya’ll, Bro Ben & 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