Exciting News From Hermosillo Mexico

I just received an e-mail from Pastor Hector in Hermosillo, Mexico. They installed the door on the church! They had an old rusty garage door that broke last Winter and almost hit one of the members of the church. So they had it propped up and screwed in to hold it in place. But that meant that they couldn't open the main door and get ventilation. It is VERY hot in Hermosillo and they definitely need the ventilation, plus it looks much more friendly with an open door! When we made the decision to not go there for our missions trip last summer we sent them $500 for the door. Here are the first photos of the door! All of the labor was donated, the money just went for the materials.

The other good news from our brother in Hermosillo is that the government granted them Visas!!! They want to come to the US and meet us and thank YOU in person for your contributions to the ministry in Mexico! Praise God!!! If you would like to get a hold of Pastor Hector, please email him (in Spanish) at jn316hm@hotmail.com Even if your Spanish is very basic they would love to hear from you!

Update from Pastor Hector

Pastor Hector and the church have formally invited us to join them for a missions conference that they are having in November. The dates are Friday Nov. 27 to Saturday Nov. 28. I will pass out the flyer for this at our next missions meeting, Nov. 8. He sent photos of the guest Speaker, Hermano Cuautemoc Munos. He is a missionary to the indigenous people the huícholes. I have included a link to the Wikipedia page on the Huichol. They are animist or shamanistic. Evangelicals are held with great disdain and the people have rejected Catholicism. Pastor Hector has a real heart for these people and every year takes a group of young people there to evangelize.
I believe that the Huichol people do not have a Bible in their own language and not everyone there speaks Spanish. The Mexican government has hidden the truth about the presence of the MANY indigenous people in Mexico. The need for the Gospel is great. Here is some information from Wycliffe Bible Translators about the Bible in Native tongues:
The worldwide status of Bible translation (2008):
6,909 ...the number of languages spoken in the world today
2,393 ...the number of languages without any of the Bible
200,000,000 ...the number of people who speak the 2,393 languages where translation projects have not yet begun
1,998 ...the number of translation programs currently in progress for languages without adequate Scripture
nearly 80% ...amount of the world’s remaining Bible translation needs that are located in the three areas of greatest need
1,168 ...the number of language communities which have access to the New Testament in their heart language
438 ...the number of language communities which have access to the entire Bible in the language they understand best
6,500,000,000 ...the population of the world

If any of you would like to go to the conference let me know, I will not be able to attend as I have already committed to go and visit my family. Please Pray for Pastor Hector and the church in Hermosillo and for the missions conference in November.

News from Mrs Washer

We received the following letter from Mrs. Washer:

Dear Friends and Family,

It has been too long since you have heard from me and I do want to keep in touch with my churches and the many friends God has given me. On July 10th, I had my 83rd. Birthday, so I am thankful to God for His great goodness and mercy that has followed me all of the days of my life. At present, I am having trouble with my heart, having spells of Afib or atrial fibrillation. My old heart has had a very active life in Africa (43 years) and 40 years in the states! I have good doctors that are taking good care of me. They have performed a cardioversion (shocking my heart) to make it beat in rhythm and also are treating me with heart medication. I pray I will soon be active and feeling good again.

God has made me a very rich Great grandmother and has blessed our family with 27 great-grandchildren at present, with a few more on the way! My greatest joy is to see our children and great grandchildren serving the Lord and teaching their children to walk in God's ways.

The news from Togo, Africa is exciting as I hear about the great work of Christian school teachers being trained under the leadership of Bea and Harry Ward. Christian schools being started and classrooms built by many of the churches. Some of these growing churches were started during Dal's ministry and are now very fruitful. On May 24th it has been 20 years since God took Dal home from Africa to be with Him. Today people still gather around his grave (in Africa) and remember the Gospel that he proclaimed to them.

Another exciting work is being started in the Northern region of Togo. The people there are either Muslim or they worship fetishes. They have not heard the Gospel in their language so there is a great need to reach them for Christ. Because there is no medical help in this area, ABWE will start a medical work where they can receive spiritual help for their souls and medical help for their bodies.

Much Love in Christ, Kay Washer

(by the way-we did send her an extra offering and a card for her birthday)

Update from Chase Pedron-Mission to Bulgaria

We heard a report at our monthly meeting from Chase Pedron. Chase went to Bulgaria with the Navigators. He sent this update:

Our time in Bulgaria was divided up into several pieces for various events. The first few days we were in Sofia with a couple named Marty and Didi who helped us get situated and accustomed to Bulgaria. We then traveled to Shumen, the town we spent the majority of our time in. There we got connected with Bobby and Rali Stefenov, our Bulgarian contacts and the people who directed much of our trip in Bulgaria. After arriving, we got to work. We stayed at Bobby and Rali’s house, which they had just bought and which still had plenty of work to be done before it was fully functional. We spent about a week installing walling and flooring on the upper level, chopping down plants and digging out stumps and roots in the overgrown area behind the house, clearing out an old shed (which the previous owners had left packed full of miscellaneous piles of possessions), installing cabinets in the kitchen, and shoveling out bag after bag of coal, (which we discovered in an alcove behind a door) to name a few things.
The next week we spent working at the 32,000 acres of property named “The Promised Land.” Bobby, Rali, and their whole church have such high hopes for this land. The eventual plans are to clean it and then build an orphanage, a retirement type home for the unsupported elderly people in Bulgaria, a conference center, and hopefully a house too. We then began to clean the land. This was no small project, and a few of our tasks were to: pick up the scattered rusty metal, move a large pile of logs which had accumulated in the center of the property to an out of the way storage area, clear out what used to be an old pig farming building, gather all the tires scattered across the property and put them by the wood, and build a secure cage for the dog which lives on the property.
Throughout our time working in Shumen we spent a lot of time at the church and meeting with church members. I got especially close to a guy named Kolio from the youth group. He worked at the property with us and was able to hang out with us in our spare time. I really like him and got to talk with him one on one, which was great because I got to see how he viewed his country and life in it, and we were able to discuss how God is involved in our lives. The Bulgarian church was very different from the general American church. It was a very small, but that was a neat change because everyone knew each other and cared what was going on in each other’s lives. They worshiped and prayed passionately, which was refreshing and inspiring for me to see.
During our last few days, we went to a family camp in Velingrad. By that time, the seven hour bus ride was almost routine for us after all the traveling we had done. Ed Cox and his wife, along with Marty and Didi, met us there and we got to be with them for our final few days in Bulgaria. I think one of my favorite parts of the trip was working at the property with Stefan. It was hard, physical work, yet was enjoyable because of the people I was with. I went with a superb group and I got closer to all of them. The Navigators are hoping to send a team back to Shumen next year because this trip went so well, and I am already looking forward to hearing about what they accomplish.

After Chase gave his report to us he told us that he worked along side Stefan, a retired communist officer. Stefan at the end of the trip said although he "knew" there was no God he wanted what the young people had. They worked willingly and joyfully. God was working on Stefans heart and used the actions of the Navigator's team. Also when asked by a team member is he would consider missions work he replied yes, a year and a half ago he would not have, but after experiencing Bulgaria, he would. Pray for Chase as he prepares for college next year.

Update letter from Brittney Fallon

This is the update letter we received from Brittney

As you know, I was in East Asia for 5 weeks where I was able to learn the culture as well as share my faith.
Our group was split into “families” of seven, and each family did ministry at a different campus. My family was assigned the Traffic University, where civil engineering is the main study. After one week, we were kicked off the campus. So, for another week, we sat on the side of the road with limited seating and limited shade. We continued to meet with the students off-campus, and were still able to see God move. We soon moved to another campus right around the block from our first one; it was the Trade University. At this new school, we were able to get involved in their English Club (something that might not have been possible on our first campus). Furthermore, we were able to see a large movement be created and grow. While on this second campus, our family continued to meet with the students from the Traffic School and some students we met on the Traffic school campus that attend the Art University just down the road. While we initially thought we were only going to reach one campus, God threw us a twist and had us reach three campuses.
While away, I was also able to learn quite a bit spiritually. One of my major lessons deals with 1 Timothy 4:12 (NASB) “Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe.” Growing up, I always admired this verse, and I continued to be drawn to it during my trip; however, it wasn’t until our last week abroad that I really understood what it meant. I used to think it only pertained to young kids trying to persuade adults several generations older than them. But, I discovered it didn’t mean just that at all; it was also written for people who wanted to influence those just a few years older than them or in higher authority. I had the opportunity to share my faith with the head of the English Club; however, I initially thought that my role should be filled by someone older and more experienced. With God’s help and the support of one of my “family” members, I was able to lead the head of the English Club, Maple, to Christ along with 3 of her friends and roommates (picture to the left). The very next day, Maple and a girl we named Esther led another one of their friends, Rachel, to Christ. I never thought I could have such an impact as I was the youngest one on the entire trip and most of the students we met were a couple years older than I was. God opened my eyes and showed me that age and rank do not matter. If you want to have an influence in someone’s life, you can; just ask God to lead you and come along side you. God doesn’t look down on us because of age, so neither should we.
By the end of the summer, my family was able to see 37 students on three campuses come to know Christ. As a whole group, we saw 139 new brothers and sisters join us in faith on seven different university campuses. God blew us all away; he completely out-did any expectations or requests that we had.
Please continue to pray for the students in East Asia. Pray that they will be protected from any opposition and that they can continue to grow closer to one another and to God. Thank you so much for your support--it had such an impact!

Mission Team Meeting August 16, 2009

The Mission Team met together on August 16. We had the opportunity to hear Brittney Fallon, a college student from MVBC, tell us about her short term mission trip to Eastern Asia. She went with Campus Crusade for Christ this past summer. They went with the purpose of making connections with other college students and sharing the Gospel. The teams went to a number of universities and spent time with students in a number of different setting. Brittney got to see God's hand of blessing in amazing ways. We hope to have her be a guest blogger soon so check back to see more of her amazing story.
Pastor Hector sent pictures and gave reports on the Hermosillo youth taking a mission trip to Nayarit. This past summer we collected money to send to Pastor Hector to replace the front door of the church as it finally bit the dust. See the picture on the blog. Our goal was $500 and we raised $512, mostly from our kids and change jars. The cost of wiring the money is just over $10. Praise God. I will post pictures of the new door when we get them!
The Steel family also sent us an update and told us of their new responsibilities including training new missionaries, running the missionary guest house, plus all of the administrative stuff for New Tribes Mission in Paraguay. Their daughter Laura is a junior in high school and turned 16 August 12. Their son Derek is at Camp Redcloud in Colorado as missionary staff. Their son Ryan is in Wisconsin and considering going back to school for engineering. They ask for prayer for a new missionary couple arriving in Paraguay soon. Their was some problems with the gentleman's paperwork.
The Harrisses, Don and Lois, have changed mission boards to a more fundamentalist, separatist group and we will no longer be providing them support. September is our last month of support-please pray that they will find other like minded churches to support them. They are back in Argentina and doing well.
The Wilsons are assisting a Hispanic church in west Phoenix that lost their pastor. He has been preaching there for over a month and he and Ruth have been discipling people there all summer long. He is getting antsy to start the Spanish service here at MVBC and we are praying that all of the pieces will come together to start this service in mid-October. We also will re-starting ESL in late September.
Lastly we talked about how we could let people know the amazing things that God is doing in our midst. Should we send a letter? Should we make videos to show in the lobby? Should we have announcements in church? Should we use e-mails? Should we use phone calls? What do you think? This blog was started as a result of that discussion. We look forward to you comments and other posts by guest bloggers God bless you as you seek to serve Christ and the people He puts in your life.