As some of you know, last week we flew up to PA on a Monday and returned to Mexico City that following Thursday. During that time Mayra was able to finally complete her naturalization process, making her a U.S. citizen! This will enable the whole family to travel freely back and forth from Mexico to the U.S. without having to be concerned that Mayra’s residency could be revoked because of living so much time outside the borders of the U.S. Thanks for so many who have prayed for this.
The last two weekends have been full, with a wedding that I preached for October 20, and a 15años celebration that we helped organize this past weekend. Our little group of believers is growing by leaps and bounds. Within the last month or two we have seen 4 new families commit to faithful church attendance. Two of these families are Christians already, two are totally new to following Christ, and are in the process of making that step of faith. Another 3 families (or parts of families) have attended fairly regularly, either Sunday morning or during another prayer meeting or Bible study during the week.
All that to say that we do not fit in our little ministry center anymore. Tomorrow we will begin to make modifications that are permissible without any sort of municipal permit, and over the next week will be submitting a building permit for approval. The idea is to knock out some walls, change the location of the stairway and put a roof over spaces that currently are open, in order to maximize space and also create more rooms for Sunday school classes. We are doing about 2/3 of this remodeling through gifts already received from you, and 1/3 through offerings here. We still lack about $12,000 to be able to pretty much liquidate the mortgage and have more monies available to support national workers.
Pray for our Christmas Drama outreach December 21,22. We will be doing it near the church, and also in a municipal property that we have received permission to use. Some of you have asked about the property that we have permission to use, but that the neighbors objected to our using. We are in the process of making current the permit under the new municipal administration, and will be taking steps in the coming months to inform the neighbors as to our intentions. Hopefully we will be able to use the property again for special events in 2007.
Pray also for a Christmas Bazaar that the ladies are beginning, making Christmas crafts and foods to sell to raise funds for the church. Pray for a brand new couples study beginning this Saturday at 8 p.m. That will pretty much fill up Saturday with studies…a men’s meeting at 10 a.m., a Bible study at 5 p.m. and a marriage study at 8 p.m. We already have volunteers of couples to host the study in their house for the next 3 weeks. Marriage is a huge area of need here…so many broken homes, so much conflict.
David Gómez, our co-worker, suddenly has a youth group of 8-12 kids. He just also began a study on the Survey of the O.T. three weeks ago, every Wednesday at 8 p.m.
There is so much more I could write…please pray for unity in the church. So many times when things are going well we have seen the enemy foster gossip and division. Please pray that the Lord would guard His church from that, and also from other winds of doctrine that are contrary to the Word of God. Mayra and I are convinced that much of what we are seeing here is a result of your prayers. Please keep praying!
