A new letter from Pastor Hector in Hermosillo

We received a letter from Pastor Hector In Hermosillo. Here is the translated letter:
HERMOSILLO,SONORA ; 20 DE SEPTIEMBRE DE 2010

Beloved brothers in Phoenix
I greet you in the precious name that is above every name, our beloved Jesus Christ. I am hoping that when you receive this letter you are all well and enjoying the grandeur of our God and enjoying being His sons through his blessed grace.
Beloved Brothers, it is a huge blessing for me to share with you all that the Lord has been doing in my life and in the life of my family and in our Church.
To begin, I want to thank God and you for your prayers and friendship. I know that it has been a long while since you have come, but God knows the reasons. We want you to return so that we can see you all and share some time with you. Also in our prayers is the request that God would allow us to come and visit you, to know your church. We are praying that God would give us the opportunity to come and visit you in the beginning of December, and that is in the hands of our all powerful God.
On another note I wanted to let you know that every two months I will be going to Chihuahua City to teach classes at a Bible college that has opened at the church where I grew up. They have just opened the college and the classes will run four semesters and include homiletics, personal evangelism, and end times prophesies . This college is humble and each teacher will have to pay their own way to serve there. I am thanking the Lord for this new opportunity that He has given me to serve him in addition to the work in Hermosillo and the towns in the mountains. I beg you to pray for this new ministry.
In addition brothers, I want you o pray with me for three families that have been joining with us at Church, I have begun to disciple them and I want the Lord to use me and do the work in the lives of these three families. This coming Friday we are starting a home study with one of the three families. This is the poorest of the three families, their house is made of cardboard and is next to a wash where the poorest families of our city live. Pray that God would use us to make them rich in Jesus Christ and receive eternal life by the Grace of the Lord.
By the mercy of God we remain firm and going forward, besides the trials, difficulties and problems that all churches experience. We are going forward with the joy of prayer and evangelism, resting in that it is our marvelous Lord working through us, we are instruments in His hands. He is faithful and know every request from our hearts before we ask it and he knows our hearts and all of our prayers that glorify Him, the Holy Spirit intercedes to the Father on our behalf.
I have included photos of our work in the Tarahumara Mountains and the Huasteca Mountains. It is such a pleasure to travel there once a year to serve Christ en these isolated places and share with the people the glorious mercies of our Lord for them to receive also eternal life and know the Supreme King of all creation.
Brothers, let me encourage you with grace and joy to continue working for Christ, being molded by Him for His use. That He would fill us with holiness, love. Compassion to share the blessed Gospel to lost souls that can only be recued by way of the message of the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all things shall be added.
I close today, telling you, beloved brothers that the streets of gold and crystal and precious pearl in heaven do not excite me, but what truly excites me will be to wrap my arms around the God who gave His life for us. What thrills me is to know my great redeemer and savior even if I met Him on streets made of cardboard.
Brothers, we love you with the love of Jesus Christ and ask that God would allow the love between us to continue to grow.
In the great love of Christ,
Brother Hector L. Mendoza and family
Hugs to you!!!

a letter from Abby about the boys we sponsor

Here is a letter I received from Abby about the boys we sponsor:

Hey Gina,

About Eddy, he now comes to our street programs regularly and hopefully will begin sleeping in the church soon. There are 2 new homes opening up for 40 kids in our street programs to go into and we want Eddy to be given another chance in one of these homes (praise the Lord for them opening!) so within 2 weeks, as long as Eddy stays around in our programs, and I am sure because he is such a smart kid that he will, he will be going to a different home off of the streets.

Amos and Godfrey are also doing wonderfully! Amos adapted to the home the moment we brought him home. he is such a sweet, responsible, and caring kid. Godfrey is also doing great, he is passionate, caring, and loves to make people happy!

The boys are on school holiday now for 4 weeks which is exciting, Davis came home with us from boarding school and is having a blast. I bought 4 pairs of roller skates for the boys to share, it was the most hilarious thing watching them as they learned. They now have the hang of it and we often take them to the basketball court at the university nearby to practice. We are also reading through the Chronicles of Narnia series with the boys, especially on their holiday and they LOVE it, they just love books. It has all 6 or 7 of the books in one big, fat book and we ARE going to finish it! =-) We are also reading through a book about Jesus, (it goes through the New Testament- all of His teachings and His life, death, and resurection) for devotions each night and then talking about it after we read it

Pious, Dissan, and Shafik are composing more songs to sing at church- they are so cute, they love performing and writing songs to praise God for the new life that He has given them.

William, Peter, Amos, Shafik, and Kateregga also got special treats for being the "cleanest" boys in the house and doing such a great job working hard to wash their clothing and keep it clean.

God bless,

Abby

an update from Abby about Uganda

Hey family and friends

God has been so good to us, yesterday were able to move all of our big family out of the slums in Kivulu into a big and beautiful house in Wakalega, Kampala. Its a big and beautiful house were the boys can play away from the drugs, prostitution, clubs, and gambling of Kivulu! We are praying that everything will continue to move forward with our new land as well as our paperwork continues to pull through with A Perfect Injustice and as we look for land (we did find a really beautiful 22 acres at a great price and are just trying to tell now whether it is legitimate). Rent in our new home isnt cheap and we cant wait to have our own place in the village.

God is bringing many visitors in the next few months to help with the work which is also such a blessing. Please pray as we try and begin a new project for prostituted young women counseling them and teaching them how to make jewlery so that they can know how special they are and how much God loves them and have a life off of the street. It is overwhelming starting this project but I know that it is something that God has called me to do. Please pray that He will keep his hand over it, heal the girls that we are working with, and give us wisdom. We are hoping to model the project after our "bead guys" so that after a 4 or 5 months or so, lots of counseling, and love the girls will be able to run the business on their own, and that it will be "theirs". We will purchase the products from them and help them find other markets where they can sell them as well.

Things smoothed out in our street programs. We will be starting them up again in 2 months or so andd are already talking with other churches and people now about restarting them more organized then before, with as many people working together as possible to love on street children for Christ.

Thank you for all your prayers,

God bless,

Abby

John Gemmill is home! Praise the Lord Here is the trip summary

Friends,

Thank you very much for your prayers and encouragement! I am back from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The conference held at UCBC (Christian Bilingual University of Congo) in Eastern Congo was successful--we believe beyond doubt that God was at work!

SUMMARY OF THE CONFERENCE:

UCBC hosted a conference facilitated by Christian lawyers from DRC, USA, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, and Burundi to work with approximately 50 DRC lawyers, judges, and government officials from North Kivu province.

Establishing justice for the people of Congo is critical to the transformation of DRC in its early years of democracy. The four day conference addressed strategies for dealing with rule of law issues ranging from land reform and sexual violence to integrity and independence of the DRC judicial system. It resulted in a number of “firsts” for UCBC and DRC. It was the first time that international justice organizations such as Advocates International/Advocates Africa, International Justice Mission, and African Leadership and Reconciliation Ministry (ALARM) had come to Beni or to UCBC. The conference resolutions called for the formation of Christian lawyer groups for the first time in the cities of Beni, Bunia, and Butembo. Finally, in a significant vote of confidence and trust in UCBC, the delegates resolved that UCBC be the facilitating institution to coordinate the new city groups (including how they may connect in the future with each other and with NGOs in the Eastern Congo region). The city groups will be local fellowships of lawyers and judges which will provide not only encouragement and discipleship within the local group, but also a forum for addressing rule of law issues at the grass roots level.

On the final day of the conference, the lawyers from each of the six nations planted trees at UCBC to symbolize the unity of the lawyers in seeking justice for DRC. They also participated in a servant-leadership work project by buying the materials and providing the labor to paint one of the large student classrooms within UCBC. A palpable spirit of hope and commitment to employing Christian principles in the legal process in DRC built throughout the conference. Please pray that these seeds planted in the July 2010 conference will continue to grow and by God’s continuing grace produce the justice God intends for the people of Congo!

LASTING IMPRESSIONS:

First, despite very challenging difficulties and obstacles, the attendees expressed their desire and intention to grow in the Lord and to work together toward significant improvements in their legal and justice systems. Success will not be easy or quick, but there is hope.

Second, UCBC is a shining light of hope in a part of the world that hasn't had a lot of hope. We were privileged to interact with a number of students at UCBC. Many of us commented on the hope in the eyes of these bright, joyful, and committed students. UCBC is a unique and special university in my view. The vision of Dr. David Kasali and the University is to train up men and women with a solid biblical foundation, academic excellence, and a heart for their communities. More information is available at http://www.congoinitiative.org/view.cfm?page_id=108 .

Thank you again, very much, for praying for our conference and for our safety and success. Your encouragement and prayers have supported me throughout this time!

John