JANUARY-FEBRUARY NEWSLETTER 2008

Psalm 107:20 “He sent His word and healed them...”

Dr. Francisco Guillen Castro was sobbing as he was telling his wife, Chela, good bye. He had been home in Tuxtla for the past week but was returning to Mexico City for continuing medical education. We knew he really loved his wife and girls, but we were not accustom to seeing him part with such anguish.

It was the Sunday evening of the women’s conference. Following the message preached by LaNell Miller of Texarkana,TX, the US team prayed for all who came forward in response to the message. When Chela knelt in prayer for 2 of her friends that had a terminal illnesses, we did not know what she was going through personally.

Earlier that week she had seen her family physician in Tuxtla. The pain in her body was getting worst. Dr. Francisco accompanied his wife to her appointment and was very concerned when the ultrasound clearly revealed a tumor. All signs indicated cancer.

When the women laid hands on Chela and prayed, she felt a warmth in her body in the area of the tumor. Still none of us knew of her need, and Chela continued to pray for her friends. Dr. Francisco left for Mexico City, and later that week Chela returned to their family physician for an appointment in preparation for a biopsy. There were lots of questions from her physician. “Have you seen another doctor since coming to me?” “What have you been doing since your last appointment?” After a time of extensive examination and questioning came the declaration of a miracle! Yes, the second ultrasound had shown that the tumor was gone! It also revealed something else very interesting. Chela had no visible outside scar as when having surgery, but she does have a scar on the inside of her body in the exact location of where the tumor had been. This is what was so puzzling to her doctor. There was an abundance of tears again. This time for joy and thanksgiving to our Lord Jesus, the Great Physician!



Off to a Great Start!
We thank LEADNOW for helping us to begin the new year with constructing a block church for the congregation of Pantelho. Their team included students from UT Austin, Texas A&M, members of St. John’s Church in Burton, TX and several other family members. In February we hosted our first Children’s Leadership Conference with Nell Lamury of Paterson, LA and her team of workers. In the US we often take children’s ministry for granted, but it is ground breaking ministry in the mountains! We know their efforts will have eternal rewards!

Coming Events March Teams: Fort Bend Christian School The Crossing Place Youth April Teams: Crossroads Church Dedication/San Fernando

A Dear Friend Mike Anderson of Texarkana, TX, went to be with the Lord on February 4. He died while in Haiti doing missions work. Mike made many trips to Chiapas and blessed us all with his giving spirit and carpentry skills. Our prayers are with his family. He will be greatly missed!

Feeding the Multitude! We are looking forward to the Chenalho convention that will be held April 12-13. An estimated 5000 people of various indigenous groups attended the last one. It will be 2 days of services - singing, preaching, and water baptism in the nearby river. Part of our responsibilities is to provide food for all that attend for these days of encouragement. The grocery list will include at least 5 bulls, 3 tons of tortillas, and many, many kilos of beans and rice. The cost is $1000 per bull. If you would like to assist us in any way with feeding the multitude, all donations will go directly towards the conference cost.

Our prayer today is for our many friends and family members who need a miracle just like Chela. Ex. 15:26 “For I am the Lord who heals you.”

Leadership Conference February 8-14

What a rewarding experience to be in the right place at the right time doing exactly what God would have! That is how we felt about these past few days. Of course what occurred in a few days, took months of preparation by this team in raising funds and gathering materials for the workshops. In addition we all benefited from the years of experience that Nell Lamury, co-pastor of Word of Life Fellowship, Paterson, LA and her team have with teaching school and being in full time children's ministry back home.


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The team's week began in the capitol city of Tuxtla with an all day workshop. 9 churches were represented and most had a team of several people from each church. Unlike the Indian areas, these people were already doing some form of ministry to children, but were so happy to have been presented with more ideas and materials for future use. Each team made large and small puppets and were shown how to make learning fun through games. All churches represented returned home with a puppet stage made of PVC pipe, flannel boards, puppets that they made personally, DVD's of songs, balloon pumps and balloons. They also left with hearts renewed to continue reaching out to our dear little ones through means that are effective for their age.

Nell and her team did a marvelous job on Sunday morning in San Fernando where they ministered to over 80 children. Those who had attended the workshop the day before were already putting into practice some of the things they had learned. We thank God for the evidence of immediate fruit for the labor of our American team as the leaders of the children's ministry from San Fernando jumped right in and helped out.

The week continued with a few days in Chenalho at the missions facility. Members from 11 churches of the highlands attended the 2 days of workshops. It is hard for us as Americans to really comprehend how these days of classes were such a ground breaking event. But that is exactly what took place! God sent from the US and from Mexico who He had in mind to birth this area of ministry. Teaching children with special classes and materials on their level is not an idea that is common practice in the mountains of Chiapas. So it was a great privilege to introduce so many of them to this concept of ministry.

For those of you fully committed to serving the Lord, you are very familiar with the spiritual labor pains in birthing new ministry. But we praise God for His continued strength and the wonderful outcome! We also thank Him for the great harvest that is to follow! We all agree that it went extremely well and that God was pleased with the week. Olga, Pastor Alex's sister, will help to continue the flow of materials and effective tools for ministry to the children of the highlands. Please pray for her and continue to pray for the work of the Lord among these people.

Just this month the Voice of the Martyrs magazine printed a cover story of the people of this area and spoke of the persecution that takes place. We praise God for His continued protection over our teams, but we have many pastor friends who have experienced great suffering because of their stand for Christ. Please keep these people in your prayers.

To Nell Lamury, Bonnie, Brandi, Marti, Sandy and Shelly, thank you a million times over for your sacrifice and labor of love! To the congregation of Word of Life in Paterson, thank you for sending the team and helping to raise the necessary funds. To all of you who pray for us regularly and also prayed for the birthing of ministry to children, we can't thank you enough. Your rewards will be many, and they are of course also eternal! It is our belief that a multitude of children in the highlands of Chiapas will have a greater understanding of the love of God and will come to know Him as Lord and Saviour because of your efforts!

MIKE ANDERSON

Our hearts were so saddened as we received the news today that our dear friend Mike Anderson went to be with the Lord on February 4, 2008. Mike had such a heart from missions. Mike grew up on the mission field in the country of Brazil. For the past several year, Mike and few of the guys from Church on the Rock, Texarkana, TX would accompany the team of women who came to minister at the women's conferences in Chenalho. Mike and the guys did construction work while we ministered to the women of Chiapas. Mike was an excellent carpenter and made the shelves and island in the kitchen of the missions facility in Chenalho. He also made the 2 large cabinets in the hallway. He worked on Larry's house, the clinic house, Pastor Alex's house and painted many churches in Chiapas. He was a wonderful friend and was loved by everyone. Normally, he was the first one up in the mornings and had breakfast ready for the team. We spoke of him so often and would say, "We wish Mike was here. " God's plan is always the best, just sometimes hard to understand. This week Mike was with a team in Haiti building a platform for the speakers for a women's conference that would be attended by several thousand people. It is our understanding that after dinner he was sitting on a porch having a conversation and died instantly. How wonderful for Mike to be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord. Mike's heart was on the mission field, and there he spent his last days. Please pray for his wife and family. These are difficult days. There will be so many more times that we will all say, "We wish Mike was here."