The Laguna TorchThe Laguna Torch| March 2006 | Recording the spread of God's fire in the "Laguna" | Volume 4, Issue 2 |
God's grace and peace to you! Once again we simply want to share the wonderful things that God is doing here in the Laguna so that you can praise God with us!
Ah, yes, this is our token apology paragraph. We are truly sorry that between our jobs, traveling, continued house repairs, and ministry, time has once again gotten away from us. But even in times when we are "unfaithful" about communicating with you, thank you for being faithful in your prayers and support!
A lot has happened since we last wrote in October of last year. As we look back, it makes our heads spin, but to sum it all up, this has been a real time of deepening our roots, both personally and in terms of our ministry. We have had the opportunity to really reach out to some formerly backslidden members of the church, and the fruit of their ministry has again come forth. As a result, we've even seen the addition of several strong new members to our congregation, resulting in a stronger and stabler church than before, with a number of budding homegroups and significant potential for outreach.
As usual, our newsletter will certainly not do justice to all that God has done for us, but as we share a few of the details we do ask you to pray that things would continue to stabilize, and that the full potential for outreach would be exploited. Most of all, we invite you to thank God with us for how much he has done again in spite of our limited time and efforts.
Beto and Meche are helping us lead the home group in the neighborhood called "Catorce" where we started ministering last fall. They're an incredibly special couple, and we wanted to share a little of their story.
Beto and Meche came to Christ fairly soon after Daniel started planting the Vineyard Church in the Laguna. They say it was actually because of the insistence of Fili, Beto's brother. They were very fruitful soil, and soon became leaders in the church - doing kids ministry in their neighborhood, assisting with home groups, and visiting contacts for the church. However, there came a time of discouragement for them, and they attended another church for a while. Then they came back to the Vineyard, but they were still struggling, and they didn't even attend church services consistently, let alone serve in any kind of leadership role.
At the start of last summer, Fred Collom (the head of missions in Mexico) and Daniel (our local pastor) suggested that we start working with them, starting anew the ministry in their neighborhood that had come to a stop. We really liked the idea because we had gone to a conference with them at Easter and had seen their deep but frustrated desire to serve God. So we started meeting with them over the summer. All we did was encourage them by talking, listening, praying, and seeking God together about His will for outreach in their neighborhood. It became evident very quickly that God had a strong call on their lives, and soon they were excited and eager to see what He was going to do. At the end of August we started the homegroup, and we are continually amazed at the passion and commitment they display week after week! Meche is remarkable - it seems that every time she prays for someone, they're deeply touched by the Holy Spirit. And Beto is such a passionate teacher of the Word! They're also truly faithful, freely offering their house and giving of their time to visit people regularly.
In fact, God has been using them so remarkably that after only a few short months of conducting the homegroup, we are in the process of planting two new groups out of it! Let us share some of what has been going on there...
The most remarkable thing that has been happening in our home group ministry is the work God is doing in the families of Beto and Meche. Since we started the home group with them their family has always been a significant part of the group, and the prayer of both Beto and Meche has always been that their families would come to Christ. At the time that seemed like a huge prayer request. From Beto's family his mom and some of his sisters-in-law were coming, but reaching the men of the family seemed like a very formidable task. And from Meche's family the only person really involved was one of her sisters, Lupe, who had been healed of a deep depression in a remarkable way over the summer. She would come when she was able, though she and her husband had joined another church. But God is already showing that he can take care of this "formidable" outreach task quite quickly! Let us share a few of the details.
One of the most exciting events happened in one of our most recent homegroups. Beto's dad, a remarkable man with a very special character - quiet, gentle, humble, and wise - made a real breakthrough in his journey of commitment to Christ. His name is Juan, and everybody calls him "Don" Juan, a title of respect, because he deserves it. He's a lover of all that's right and good, but he had some things in his life that were getting in the way of always doing what is right and good - particularly alcohol. So even though he could see that giving his life to Christ was the best thing, he was unwilling to commit until he was sure that he was ready to do it "100%", turning over all his old ways of life and letting God have His way completely. But in a recent home group, as we were praying for his daughter Sara, Larry kept hearing him whisper "100%", "100%!" Apparently Don Juan had reached the point where he was willing to commit! Larry got to talk with him afterwards, affirming his prayer and blessing him in his simple and childlike decision to give his life to Christ. Even in the short time since then we've already seen clear evidence of God working in him in new and wonderful ways! Please pray that as the head of his family (a family which obviously has a very special calling) Don Juan will develop into the faithful and powerful servant of God that he is called to be.
Another person that God has touched very powerfully is Beto's brother Juan (named after his dad). Juan's wife, Isela, had been one of the most faithful attendees of the home group in the fall. She began with a sense of desperation, because their marriage really was falling apart and it was clear that she felt pretty hopeless. But God met her in her place of need, and she responded by faithfully seeking Him. Throughout the fall there was evident in her expression a growing sense of hope as she learned about the scriptures each week. But throughout this time Juan remained cold towards his wife and towards God, at times even physically preventing Isela from attending the group.
Juan was a pretty serious drinker, and it was ruining his life on every side, but he didn't show any sign that he was ready to change. In fact, it was very interesting because at the end of last year Larry shared with Isela that he really felt God wanted us to hold a homegroup in her house, but everyone assumed this word from God was not for the near future. After all, it wouldn't work very well to hold a home group there while the man of the house was out drinking!
But God moved so quickly! Since the end of January, in fact, we've actually been holding the homegroups in Juan and Isela's house, and one of the most active participants is Juan himself, who in the span of a week experienced a total turnaround that has changed his life forever. What happened was that Isela one week actually convinced him to attend a home group. This might well have been a total fluke, had it not been for the fact that two nights later God decided to get his attention in a very dramatic way.
True to his habit, and certainly not deterred by his anomolous visit to the home group, Juan spent the weekend drinking with his friends. He was driving home late that Sunday night when he had a totally freaky accident. His pickup truck actually got caught in the rear bumper of an 18-wheeler, and was dragged along a path headed straight for the concrete wall of an overpass! By God's grace the pickup broke loose in the nick of time. The trucker just took off, and Juan just took off as well, because he didn't have a driver's license or any other paperwork, but the whole incident really shook him up. The following night he couldn't sleep because of his nerves, so he asked Beto and Meche to pray for him. Through their prayers God gave him a wonderful sense of peace, and from that point on Juan made a commitment to follow Jesus! That very week Juan and Isela invited us to hold the home group in their house (they live only a few blocks from Beto and Meche), and that's where we've held it ever since...
Over the past few weeks we've discovered that though Juan was resistant, God has actually been preparing him in many ways. He is naturally intellectual and analytical (even though he's had very little formal education) and he had already read considerably about Christianity as well as many other religions before his conversion. Until recently he was never willing to surrender to God, but now that he has made a decision, he already has a deep understanding and insight into God's Word and what it means to live for Christ. In fact, he taught the lesson for the home group last week, on the topic of the Trinity no less!
It's such a joy to hear Juan share about the "new life" he's found. He's so excited because now he's experiencing real happiness in all sorts of ways, and he doesn't even need to take any drugs or alcohol! He also talks about the complete turnaround in every area of his life. His work is going better, he enjoys his family more, and his finances are making a major upswing - everything is sweeter since Jesus came into his life! It's also inspiring to hear him talk about his desire to reach out to others because, he says, "you can't just keep this to yourself!" Amen! May we all have the same attitude! :)
There's so much more to share! We'd love to share about the rest of Beto's family, because Beto's brother José has also become actively involved with the home group. In fact now, with so many members of his family in the home group, poor Beto can hardly get a word in edgewise! There are also signs that God is bringing about some huge changes in the life of his sister Sara and her husband Gustavo. And Meche's family is not far behind! But we'll have to save it for a future newsletter. After all, God probably has even greater things to come! :)
You may remember Hanibal from our other newsletters. He's Bernardo's son and the father of Araceli's two girls, which makes him a son-in-law to Toña, since Toña is Araceli's mother. (Be sure to study this - there will be a quiz coming out in the next letter!)
Anyway, the point of all this is that we had asked you to pray for Hanibal because he had been in jail for accusations of selling drugs. He was released late last fall at which point we were anxiously hoping for a change in his life, since he had given his heart to Christ in jail and was actually attending church services there. Sadly, though, Hanibal fell into his old temptations just shortly after being released. We were very disappointed at this, though we continued to pray and talk with him when we had the chance.
We knew that Hanibal was a very key person for the success of any future church plant in our neighborhood, since our strongest prospects have always been with both Bernardo's and Toña's families. The only problem with this was the division between the two families, since Toña had long harbored bitter resentment towards Hanibal as she disapproved of his relationship with her daughter. It was in large part because of this resentment between the families that we found it necessary to suspend formal ministry to them, and to continue talking and praying only on a neighborly basis.
For this reason we were particularly sad to see Hanibal continue in his former ways after being released from jail. To be honest, we were starting to wonder if it was God's will for us to ever work towards evangelizing our own neighborhood, and in fact we stopped visiting Toña so frequently and had gradually begun to lose touch with her. We were shocked and surprised, though, when on a recent stop that we made by her house we found that her attitude had totally changed towards Hanibal! Apparently over the past few weeks Hanibal had been changing and had actually gotten an honest job working with Toña's husband, of all people. This in and of itself was a true miracle since Toña's husband had actually threatened to kill Hanibal before on several occasions. And though Hanibal has now gone into hiding over seemingly false accusations regarding a different crime from before, we've seen in Toña a real compassion for Hanibal which we've never seen before, and the resentment we had prayed about since we met her is now gone!
Please pray that God would continue to bring these two families together, that we would find time to minister to them informally, and that if it's God's will He would prepare them for His church, whether it be the Vineyard or somewhere else.
Well, not us really ... Fred Collom, the head of missions in Mexico, asked us to look around the "Catorce" neighborhood where we're currently focusing our ministry to see if we could find a decent piece of land for the church to use. Having land makes it a lot easier to do kids ministry activities, and it also ensures we have a spot to start building on whenever God shows that it's time to actually plant a church there.
God was gracious and He led us to a piece of property that is ideal for the current ministry and for a future church building. It has a large open space that we can use for a children's feeding program, and which will also be perfect for building the main meeting room of the future church. It also has some rooms and a kitchen already built, which will provide a place for groups to stay when they come to visit. And even more, it has a decent warehouse area, so that we'll have a safe place to store supplies for the church. Another advantage is that it is on one of the main streets right in the middle of the "Catorce" neighborhood and another neighborhood, which makes it accessible to a large group of people and provides lots of opportunities for outreach.
The price of the property was also good. The owner asked for about $25000, which is actually less than it would cost to do the construction which is already done on the property, so the actual land is basically free and even the building is cheap! Fred decided that this was too good an opportunity to pass up, so he took out a loan for about $20,000 to go ahead and make the purchase. It has taken an extremely long time to do the paperwork, but it has finally gotten settled just this week. Daniel has been taking care of that process, and he wisely waited in order for some irregularities in the paperwork to get cleared up. Now that these problems have been resolved, we're finally able to start cleaning up the property and "moving in!" This is a real relief, because for a long time we were wondering if we would have to start the process over again and look for a different piece of land!
We invite you to be involved in the wonderful things God is doing here by helping to pay for this property. Buying these facilities is a huge step forward that opens up many opportunities for the growth of the church here, and whatever amount you would be able to contribute would be greatly appreciated! We're also planning on moving forward as quickly as possible to put the property to use, which does involve more costs.
Contributions toward purchasing this property and putting it into use should be sent to the following address, because they are being handled separately from our personal ministry account.
Vineyard Ministries Central Mexico
1500 N. Lincoln
Urbana, IL 61801
Please make your check out to "Vineyard MCM" and indicate that it
is for the "Torreon Property" fund. All donations will be fully tax-deductible.
The phone number for their office in Illinois is 217-384-3070 in case you have
any questions. You can also feel free to contact us - all our contact info is
at the end of the newsletter.
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