Laguna On Fire» Praises

Prayer Updates for Mario – July 10, 2010

Larry — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 21:31:47 +0000

Thank you to all of you who are praying for Mario and for all of your words of encouragement to us. We are eternally grateful to have you working with us for God to be glorified in this situation.

We want to ask you to please continue fervently praying. We believe that God is going to have the victory in this situation and bring many people to salvation through it. But we haven’t won the battle yet – we still need to be faithful in prayer, and cry out for God to set Mario free and do everything else He wants to do.

Praise God that we have word of Mario – He has been forced to sell narcotics in our city through a network and has already been seen by several people at a number of obvious points… This is actually good news, since many of the youth who are kidnapped are either killed or exported to work in other areas, and are never heard from again.
Praise God for the strength that Mario’s mother, family, and wife have shown in the face of this trial… They are choosing to trust God daily and even finding words of comfort to say to us. Pray that in the city which they have fled to they would find a church congregation and continue to seek His presence.
Praise God for this trial (James ch 1) and for the way we can see His hand in it, working at any cost to refine and mold Mario.
Please pray that if it’s God’s will we would have wisdom to be able to get some sort of communication to Mario… This would be extremely dangerous, but we do feel we need to somehow let him know that his family has fled from the city and are safe.
Pray that Mario would somehow be able to have access to a Bible and read it. This would be a miracle, and we are asking for a miracle.
Please pray for God to provide safe places for us to meet with the other youth, and for Him to raise up native people who have the courage to take the risk of working with them.
Please pray for the family of “Alejandro” and his brother “Cha-cha,” two other young men who were kidnapped from our neighborhood just days after Mario… As of this moment we have received no word of them.
Please pray for Mario’s protection at the selling points… Since he is forced to do business out in the open it is extremely dangerous, as it makes him an obvious target for the bullets of the opposing cartel’s gunmen… This is probably the main reason why the drug cartels often force third parties to sell for them.
Please pray for us to be able to pick up the pieces of our youth ministry after all that has happened. As we wrote to you in our last newsletter, they are dazed and confused. … And so are we.

Mario’s Precious Family

Mario’s little brother Ismael, his daughter America, and his son Chuy

Prayer Points for Mario – July 3, 2010

Larry — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 23:00:10 +0000

Praise God that Mario not only received Christ but that he’d also begun to develop a strong intimate relationship with Him before being kidnapped.
Pray for Mario’s protection during this time… And that the unimaginable trials he’s going through would only drive him closer to God.
Please cry out to God for Him to fulfill the prophetic prayer that was spoken to Mario just days before he was taken: that the forces of death had been following him, but that the angels of God were stronger, and that God would eventually raise Mario up to preach powerfully to his generation.
Pray that both we and the church would have great faith about Mario’s situation. After all the things that have happened here, the natural tendency is for people to lose hope. It is hard not to assume that, like so many others, Mario will be forced to work for the drug lords indefinitely - or get killed off… But we believe that God has a plan for Mario and that he will be set free, no matter how impossible it may seem.
Pray for us as we continue to minister to the youth in Tierra Blanca… Again, after everything that has happened, they are terrified, dazed, and confused. Please pray that God would use us in order to bring supernatural encouragement to them.
Pray for God to be glorified in the life of Mario. May his situation be an example of God’s victory over all the powers of darkness, and may he be an inspiration that transforms the entire community.
Pray for Mario’s family. They, like Mario, have grown in their faith in remarkable ways over the past few months, and are showing amazing strength as they trust God to have control in this situation. But it’s still difficult emotionally, especially since Mario’s brother Jorge was killed just a few months ago. On top of everything else, they also had to leave the city because Mario’s father received a threat a few days after Mario was taken.

Another breakthrough with the youth!

Larry — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 07:24:43 +0000

God is so awesome!

In our regular Thursday evening service, a group of 5 of our friends, some of the youth involved in the local gang, came in and joined us for the sermon/Bible discussion!

This is an awesome breakthrough, because they’ve shown a lot of interest when we talk with them and pray for them out in the plaza, and they’ve come when we do special stuff to invite them, like a movie night. But the only one who has come before to a regular service on his own is Mario. And this time a whole group of 5 of them came!

It was great, because God worked so beautifully through it all! Gera (Gerardo), a young man with a real passion for God from another church who God has called to work with the Vineyard for about the past 6 months, shared his testimony with them and talked about the amazing call that God has for them to join with Him in serving and reaching out to the other youth. And everybody else at the service had words of encouragement and wisdom for them.

Please pray with us for these youth, because the enemy will definitely attack them, but greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world, and we know without a doubt that God will have the victory in their lives! He is fulfilling His Word, rescuing those without hope, and giving them new life and a worthwhile purpose. And He’s fulfilling the vision that He had given for the Tierra Blanca Vineyard, that it would be a church that would raise up powerful radical lovers of God who would go out to transform their neighborhoods, their families – and only God knows what more? the city? the nation? … with the power of God’s redeeming love!

Praise be to the Name of Him Who Is Worthy!

Praises – Nov. 28, 2009

Larry — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 21:54:58 +0000

For our friend, Ivan, about whom we sent our last emergency email… As far as we know he has managed to stay off drugs for the past few months. Praise God.
For water. We’ve had some rain over the past few months! (Nice job prayer warriors!!:)
For generous financial support, which has allowed us to anonymously bless some families in need during the recession that Mexico is facing…
For the Expo congregation, which is now independent and growing.
That God has been faithful to raise up more leadership in all three churches…
For a recent widening in the scope of our ministry… For God’s grace in allowing us to minister not only to congregation members but also to their unchurched families. Praise Him.
Again, for the continued move of the Holy Spirit, who is so faithful to minister to our people in all of our services.
For all of our friends and family who faithfully support us in prayer… We do not know what we would do without you, since you literally pray the prayers that we do not have time to pray.

Praises – June 2009

Larry — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 04:52:48 +0000

For water. It is very scarce nowadays and in the afternoons we have had to bathe with a bucket more often than not, but we are at a point where we’re truly thankful for every bucket that comes out of our tap. Praise God for them and in His faithfulness may He keep sending them !!
For NINA’S Husband, Tavo – Do you remember him? He’d been working in another city for some months now, but when he returned on a visit he shared with us about the restoration of his marriage and his involvement in one of the local churches there. And as we talked about the scriptures over dinner, Tavo listened this time with all of the wide-eyed intent that we love to see in a new believer. Tavo is still struggling with his addictions so we do ask you to continue to pray for him …
For “Pancho”, who, coerced into selling drugs for one of the dominant trafficking rings here, was able to escape the attack of an armed group of vehicles sent to his selling site by the opposite ring. Miraculously, he was able to walk through the bullets, hail a taxi, and ride home. His sister, who is a Christian, heard the shots from blocks away and started praying and claiming the promises of Psalm 91. Please pray for the families of Pancho’s friends, since as we understand it all of his comrades died from the bullets of the attacking vehicles that day.

Praises – Jan. 6, 2009

Larry — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 05:31:41 +0000

For Kim’s cousin Marti, nicknamed “Lazarus” after waking up from a state of coma in Midland, TX this November. Doctors had diagnosed her as being brain dead, so they had chosen to take her off all life support. Two days later she woke up, and since then she has recovered perfectly. God answers prayer.
For generous gifts to our ministry that are helping us get back on our feet and also allowed us to get a more reliable car!
For God’s faithfulness in allowing us to see and minister to our friends and loved ones in the U.S.
For Kim’s sister Krissy, who (since she visited us here in Mexico) has dedicated her life to God in an awesome way and is now playing in the praise band of her church!!