Heading South -- February Prayer Update

Hola to all our friends and family around the world!  Here's a short note about what we are doing this month:

Monday morning, February 3, we will be embarking on a three-week mission to Southern Mexico.  Our final destination is Veracruz, where we will be surveying the Coyutla Totonacos, an unreached people group in Central Veracruz.  Please pray that God would give us wisdom as we look at the possibility of planting a church among them in the future.

Along the way, we will be stopping in several places to encourage the Church with outreaches and teaching times and service projects.  These places include Quimichis, Nayarit; Union de San Antonia, Jalisco; Celaya, Queretaro; Coyutla, Veracruz and Minatitlan, Veracruz.

These are all missions or people whom we have connected with in one way or another during our eight years in Mexico, and we are excited about coming alongside them in their work and also reuniting in our common love of Christ Jesus.

Five members from our home church in Oregon, including our daughter Sarah, will be joining us 10 hours south of here in Guadalajara.  We will also be bringing along four of the members of the Las Glorias fellowship.  We are expecting big things from our amazing God on this three-week journey.  Please be praying with us specifically from the prayer guide below.  Thank you so much for your support and prayers for our family and our mission.

Mission team members and their families from Las Glorias and Guasave met to pray together at our house las Wednesday.  Lupita shared with the team how God has miraculously healed a blocked artery.

Pray for the Veracruz Mission Team:

• Mexico Team members:   The Coult Family (Doug and Rebecca, Sarah, Jessee, Seth, Andrew and Evie), Julio and Lupita, Basilia, Kevin, Fabian and Pastor Misael
• Oregon Team members: Pastor David, Pastor Kevin, Gary and Bethany
• Many areas we will be going to have less than 1% evangelical Christians.  Pray that God would help us find houses of peace among them.
• Pray that God would give physical strength for each team member.  Lupita has had heart issues in the past, but has recently been (miraculously) given a clean bill of health.  Pray that God would help her to walk in this new healing.  Also, both Rebecca and Lupita are still struggling with a cough leftover from bad colds.  Pray for continued healing in their bodies and that God would protect the team from illness.
• Pray for provision of physical needs: food, gas, no car problems, no travel issues, etc. 
• Pray for Joaquin and Luz who will be staying in our house and heading up the ministry here in Las Glorias while we’re gone.
• Pray for spiritual discernment as each team member journals daily and asks God how He might want us to work long-term with the people we meet.
• Pray that if God wants to call specific team members to full-time missions, they would hear Him clearly.

October 2012 Update

Psalm 9: 1-2 “I will praise you, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will tell of all Your marvelous works. I will be glad and rejoice in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.”

We have much to be thankful for! Our time in the States during August and September was absolutely wonderful. A special thank you to the congregations in Arizona, California and Oregon which we were able to visit! Your hospitality was incredible, and we were (and continue to be) so blessed! Now that we’re back home, we’ve unpacked, done laundry, cleaned the house and are jumping back into life and ministry in Sinaloa.

Andrew and Evie step in to help with the children’s class at the church in Alamito. After being gone for over a month, they said it felt really good to be back to teaching the little kids…in Spanish. It was also wonderful to see some new faces in the kids’ class. Graciano and Diane, who moved to Tijuana a few years ago, have recently moved back to Alamito and several other children from the village have begun attending regularly, too.

 
Evie and Kelly, a missionary from Arizona who is staying with us, show our friends’ daughters the joys of finger painting. Simply living with and reaching out to the families around us is a big part of our work here. We pray that we are an encouragement to the families around us and try to be lights in our village. For the next few months, we have the pleasure of hosting a young missionary from Arizona. Kelly is getting a first-hand look at missionary life and has discovered that very little Spanish is needed to effectively finger paint with little kids!

Saying goodbye to Sarah at Rancho Tres Cruces outside of Ensenada, Mexico. What are they doing with their hands? Well, “tres cruces” means “three crosses”. Sarah is settling in at the ranch in San Antonio de Las Minas. Bible classes will be beginning soon and she’s very much looking forward to digging into the Word with the other students.

Friday night youth group in the Aposento Alto (the Upper Room). Friday nights are generally youth-led. Last week, Kelly shared a challenging message on being real and taking our faith seriously.  The youth take turns teaching and leading worship.  It's great to see God raising up young leaders!  Pray that each one of them would be standing firm in their faith.

A special gift from a church in California enabled us to purchase chairs for the conference center. We were so excited to be able to bring 56 chairs home with us from Los Mochis last weekend. Now we will have seating for everyone attending our weekly Bible studies as well as all the pastors and leaders who will be attending the Bible school at the end of this month. In the past we have needed to rent chairs and tables. Praise God for His provision!!!

Master’s Bible School will begin in two weeks. We are very excited, but also feeling the time crunch and the need to finish several projects before classes start. The teachers’ airplane and bus fares are taken care of, and the course materials are ready to be sent to the printer. We have both tables and chairs – and didn’t have to rent them!  We've talked with most of the students who attended Module 1 and most have confirmed their attendance for Module 2.  Pray for these pastors and leaders.  They see the value of solid Biblical teaching, and are willing to make sacrifices to attend the school.  The cost for the 10-day course is 150 pesos (a little over $10) which is equal to a day's wage here.  Most of the students will be taking time off work to attend and a couple have even stated that they plan to quit their jobs.  One pastor shared that his boss wasn't willing to give him time off last winter to attend Module 1, so he quit the job.  A week after the school, his boss called him back to work.

The tuition money is used to defray some of the cost of the food.  As you might imagine, $10 doesn't really cover 10 days worth of meals, so the Vida Nueva churches have been doing fund raisers to help meet this need.  This morning I was discussing the amount of money still needed for meals (about $1,200) with other pastors’ wives. Their attitudes both humbled and encouraged me. Of course, we all agreed that God will provide according to our needs and that we shouldn’t worry. But they went on to say that they believed we should be spending more time in prayer and fasting, so I really shouldn’t worry too much about the food. It would be a good discipline for the students to fast a meal each day. Please pray that God would meet the needs of the students during Master’s Bible School, and also pray that each of us attending will be open to learn every lesson that He has for us during that time.

Prayers and Praises:

• Praise God for His provision during our time in the States and as we return home. We see His hand working in our lives daily! Pray that we would continue to trust Him every moment!!!
• Praise God for the young missionary, Kelly, who is staying with us. Pray that God would speak into her life in a mighty way while she is here with us and lead her where He wants her to go.
• Pray for Sarah at Rancho Tres Cruces. Pray for God’s continued guidance in her life and that she would be hearing His voice clearly.
• Pray for Caleb as he looks ahead to his first “solo venture”. Lord willing, he will be moving to California this spring. 
• Pray for the mission team from Washington which will be arriving next week.  Pray for God's provision and protection and that their time here would be impacting and life-changing for everyone involved! 
• Pray for God’s provision for the Master’s Bible School at the end of this month. Specifically pray for the $1200 needed for meals (or the grace needed to fast!). ;^)
• Praise God for the tables and chairs and all the other "details" He's been working out for Module 2 of Master's Bible School.
• Pray that any obstacles which might hinder students from attending the Bible school would be removed. 
• Pray for the youth in Las Glorias, Boca del Rio, La Pitayha and Alamito who are attending the weekly youth group meetings.
• Praise God for our home fellowship group in Las Glorias. Pray that the group would continue to grow both in number and in maturity.
  
  

Master's Bible School -- Module 2 is coming!

Ministry in Mexico during the past three months has been phenomenal. Over and again we’ve seen God’s mighty hand at work in the lives of the people around us, as well as in our own lives. Our home fellowship group continues to grow, small weekly Bible studies are meeting three days a week and we continue to support the Vida Nueva congregations with Bible teaching, children’s classes, and our family worship band on a weekly basis. We manage to stay pretty busy!

As well as our current commitments, we are also in the planning and preparation stages for our next large-scale event: Master’s Bible School – Module 2. Module 1, which was held in the New Hope Conference Center in Las Glorias in February of this year, was a huge success and (we’ve been told) a real blessing to all who attended.

Rancho Tres Cruces is a training center based in Ensenada, Mexico, whose passion and goal is to train teachers to go into the world and teach the gospel to pastors who otherwise wouldn’t be able to receive training – for either economic or logistic reasons. To this end, they have developed Master’s Bible School, a month-long course divided into three sections, or modules. Forty-five pastors attended Module 1 in February, and we are expecting most of these pastors to attend Module 2.

During the 10-day module, students live with us, taking meals together and sleeping in the missionary dormitories a block from our house. The ladies, and sometimes men too, rise early to make breakfast and stay up late cleaning up from supper – in addition to doing homework! It’s a grueling course, but absolutely full of blessings!

In addition to full-time work at the church, most pastors in our area also work at least part-time to provide for their families. Taking ten days off work is a real sacrifice to most. To make Master’s Bible School accessible to as many leaders as possible, the cost of the course is set at the amount of an average day’s wage, which is about $10 ($150 pesos). This cost includes room and meals for ten days, as well as the materials needed for the class. Obviously $10 doesn’t cover all the costs! To raise funds for Module 1, the Vida Nueva churches made and sold tamales, our kids made and sold bread, churches and families in the States got involved, and God multiplied the income so that every need was met! Please pray with us that God would continue to provide for this work of His.

Module 2 is scheduled for October 24 through November 2, 2012. Although it’s still a bit over four months away, we know it’s time to start planning and preparing. There is much to do in those four months! You can help us by praying for every aspect of this event: meals, lodging, transportation for the teachers coming to Las Glorias, printing the materials. Those pastors and leaders who also have full-time jobs will have to arrange days off, some will need to arrange for child care. We recognize that this school is a huge undertaking, but we believe that God is the one in charge of it and will work everything according to His plan. Pray with us during the next four months!

If you’re interested in getting involved in a more tangible way, or would like to find out more about Master’s Bible School or Rancho Tres Cruces, send us a note! FLOWinternational@fastmail.fm

Taking the First Step

In case you're thinking that you couldn't possibly become a missionary, because missionaries obviously "have it all together" and just "know" the will of God in their lives, allow me to introduce you to two missionaries who -- even after severe persecution for their faith and several years on the "mission field" -- didn't quite have it all figured out.

Acts 16:6-10 Then [Paul and Silas] went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia because they had been prevented by the Holy Spirit from speaking the word in Asia. They went as far as Mysia and tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not let them. So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision. A man from Macedonia was standing there and pleading with him, "Come over to Macedonia and help us!" As soon as he had seen the vision, we immediately looked for a way to go to Macedonia, for we were convinced that God had called us to tell them the good news.

Paul and Silas, who are probably best known for the prison account of Acts 16 where the Philippian jailer was converted, are now considered spiritual giants. The above passage, however, does not paint a picture of men who have every detail planned ahead of time. This dynamic duo sometimes took steps of faith which were not in the correct direction. Sometimes God had to put huge billboards, so to speak, in front of them to get them to adjust their heading.

The Bible doesn't say that these apostles were necessarily doing anything wrong in trying to preach the Word in Asia or Bithynia. We are simply told that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus himself, would not permit it. That door was obviously closed to them. Why? Because apparently God had already made a divine appointment for them with a woman named Lydia and a jailer in Philipi. He didn't want them to be late.

Several years ago, I heard a pastor named Irwin McManus preach on stepping out in faith. The entire sermon was inspired, but the part relevant to this article is his interpretation of Philippians 4:8

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is fair, whatever is pure, whatever is acceptable, whatever is commendable, if there is anything of excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy-keep thinking about these things.

How many of us have heard sermons and studies on this scripture focusing on the traits of truth, honor, justice, purity, acceptability, commendability, excellence and praise-worthiness? But if we look at that verse from a slightly different angle, we'll notice that the repeated word -- the word used 6 times in the above translation -- is "whatever". Now, this is not an "if it feels good, do it" command! Heaven forbid!

On the contrary, Paul here is saying that if the thought you're having or work you're thinking about doing is true, honorable, just, etc., keep thinking it! Keep making your plans! As Pastor McManus says, "Don't being afraid of doing the wrong good!" Do we think that we'll somehow mess up God's plan for our life? Will God slap His forehead in frustration and say, "NO! I didn't want them to help that poor soul!"?

What, then, is the first step in becoming a missionary? It's the step that gets you moving. Whatever that step is. Spend daily time in fellowship with your Father God. Spend time reading the Word and then "...whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31) Step out to do a good thing, and trust that God will steer you in the right direction.

Don't be so afraid of doing the wrong good that you do no good at all.