Well, it’s time for another newsletter, and since we didn’t manage to get anything “Christmasy” out at Christmas, we thought we’d ignore the fact that it’s already almost February and just tell you about how our holidays went anyway!

And so, as we talk about this last Christmas, we feel we should start in the same place that we know many of you start in, which is the renewed resolve we experience every mid-November to “make this year different” – that is not to allow our blood pressure to rise an average of 20 points (as it has every other year) in our efforts to “do” all of our “Christmas” things on top of our already busy schedules.

Yet even in spite of all of our fervent promises to ourselves every year to focus on the real meaning of the season, we have to admit that we would still always cringe inwardly at the word “Christmas,” since for us it usually meant trying to find gifts in Torreon for a bunch of Americans who already “have” everything, including all of the souvenirs sold in the tourist shops in Torreon (except for a few t-shirts which say “I got drunk in Torreon” on them). Christmas also means spending up to 7 hours to get across the border (due to crowds), driving across Texas at some odd hour of the night, and trying to balance visits to churches and friends along with 6 months of U.S. paperwork, visiting both families in the space of exactly 2 weeks, and driving back across the border to arrive home at 2 in the morning, unload, fall into bed, and immediately resume ministry and job activities the next day!

So needless to say, we were bound and determined that this year things were going to have to be different. One advantage we had was that we couldn’t buy gifts, since we had already sold our truck and would be having to travel home by bus. In a moment of divine inspiration, we decided to do charitable acts in the names of our family members for some of the people with needs here. That way, we could bring back pictures to show our families what we had done in lieu of presents. It seemed like our only viable option, since we knew we would be stepping off the bus on Christmas Eve directly into the arms of relatives who were eager to “have” Christmas with us. (We wanted to have something to give them, since no matter what people say it always does feel really silly to get a bunch of gifts from them without having anything to give back!)

So, to make a long story short, we had the really fun excuse of “having” to do extra charitable acts this Christmas, and we’re happy to say that it was the key to making this year truly “different.” We got to do all sorts of interesting things, like …

• buying a couple pairs of shoes for little girls who will probably never own new shoes again in their life.
• matching up “prayer partners” for people in our families as gifts, which will allow them to be involved in the lives of kids like “Heriberto,” who has had trouble sleeping since he was held at gunpoint by the drug lords warring for his neighborhood.

But probably the most amazing moment of our Christmas season was giving some gifts to “Jani” (pronounced like “Honey”), a single mother who had been struggling for some time with uterine cancer. Jani is actually part of Nina’s family, or rather her husband’s family, and we got to know her through them. (For those of you who remember Nina, we know we owe you more on that story! For now please do trust us when we say that this family is slowly but surely coming to Christ. )

Anyway, we should probably also tell you that we and members of our home group had already prayed for Jani before and that she had actually recovered considerably from her cancer. The only problem was that another lump had developed on her shoulder. It had started out small and been growing rather quickly, covering most of her shoulder area and even protruding into her neck. Jani was afraid to go back to the doctor because she hated being in the hospital for treatments, so the conversation on our visit focused mainly on convincing her to go. But as family members there continued to speculate among themselves about whether the lump would turn out to be cancer, Kim suddenly heard herself saying, “It doesn’t really matter if it’s cancer from God’s perspective. He is able to heal Jani from anything if He wants to!” And when the whole room stopped and stared at her (they were mainly new Christians) Kim realized she had to do something other than just slap her palm to her forehead and wail “Why did I have to go and say that?!”

So, since all her faith had gone to her feet (along with her blood), she glanced desperately around the room for someone to help her to pray. Larry was at home (the little scamp!) and so there was no one else there crazy enough to volunteer to pray with her. Suddenly, Kim’s gaze rested on Leonel, Jani’s 8-year old nephew. Ironically, Leonel was one of the “older” Christians in the room. He had been attending church and homegroup for over a year, and always showed marked interest in the things of God. “Aha!,” Kim thought, “the faith of a child.” This might actually work after all.

So, after what seemed like years of prompting, Leonel finally climbed up on his aunt’s bed and put his little hand on Jani’s enormous lump. Kim stood back and prayed a simple prayer, declaring God’s sovereignty over cancer. When she was just about done she noticed that Jani was sweating quite a bit and tightly grasping the small hand on her shoulder. When she straightened up after the prayer, Jani had a surprised look on her face. “I just felt something totally pop in there!” she said.

While Leonel innocently climbed down and people around started to speculate anew about what the lump had actually been and what had just happened, Kim finally caught her breath enough to say “Whatever it was and whatever happened, it happened because of God’s power.” Now this explanation was not as eloquent as she would have liked, but most people in the room seemed to understand it, so Kim was able to say good-bye to people gracefully enough before she went home – marveling at what had happened, breathing a big sigh of relief, and promising God never to open her big mouth so quickly again!

So, in reflecting upon our “Christmas presents” this year, we do think Jani’s gift was the best one. We did not give it, but God did, and what better gift could there be than a touch of His Spirit through the hand of a child? Certainly, it is reminiscent of a much greater gift He gave years ago, also granting a touch of His hand on this world through none other than a child, in that case a child who would one day be our Savior.

So, in conclusion, praise God with us. He truly answered our prayers this past Christmas, even the one about making the holiday season “different!” May Christmas continue to have fresh meaning in your heart, as you “recover” from the holidays and throughout the whole year long!

• 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!!

• For Jani, since we sense that her struggle with cancer is not yet over. Raped at the age of 8 and again at the age of 13, we pray that she would be able to overcome all bitterness and any other spiritual or emotional component that is affecting her struggle with this disease.
• For another relative of Nina’s extended family, “Mayra,” the cousin of Nina’s sister-in-law, who was kidnapped along with her husband Gerardo due to some level of involvement in the drug wars. Their two children were left behind.
• And while we’re at it, for Nina’s son, Tabito, and Alejandra, his wife. Young and recently married, they would appreciate your prayers.
• For Janice Lowe whose husband Jerry died recently. They are very dear friends from Houston who ministered to us powerfully in the years before we got married and moved to Mexico.
• That all three churches will continue to grow in size and stability. That God will raise up leaders who are passionate and committed enough to meet the growing needs of the harvest He has promised.
• For our friend and brother, Thirso, the leader of our drama group, who is recovering from a severe heart attack. That God’s perfect will would be accomplished in His life and in the drama group.

Hello again,

Since another few weeks had gone by we just wanted to write you again with an interesting story of something that happened to Kim some time ago and a couple of important prayer requests related to things going on in our area.  We also wanted to send special greetings to all our Houstonian friends, who managed to survive hurricane Ike (praise God) and the not-so-small inconvenience of being without power for some weeks afterward! (We write this under the bold assumption that you all have electricity again…!)

We have also been following all of the news on the recent election, and we want you to know that our thoughts and prayers are with you. We’re glad to have finally found the time to write you again. Hope you enjoy this update!

Well this story is somewhat overdue, since it actually happened a couple of months ago, and we feel bad for not having shared it with you for various and sundry reasons, probably in part because we were too busy, and also because we were not sure if you’d actually believe that this happened.  We know we wouldn’t believe any of you if you tried to tell us something like this.  But since we’re not responsible for whether or not you believe us, all we can do is tell you what actually happened. So here goes.

Can you believe that such a winning smile could need dentist work?

To start with, we should probably tell you that about a year ago Kim went to the dentist, who informed her that she had something like 7 cavities, plus a bunch of really worn-out crowns, and that it would cost around five hundred dollars to fix her mouth.  Now that’s a pretty cheap bill by stateside standards, but even so Kim did not know where to come up with that kind of money, especially with all of the expenses coming up in the midst of construction.  So like any good missionary, she went to another dentist, who for five bucks told her to just keep on brushing.  According to the second guy, she didn’t absolutely have to do anything until the cavities started to hurt.  Now that sounded like a plan…!  Denial!!  So Kim went away from the second dentist quite happy and murmuring “In the name of Jesus, I do not have seven cavities or any problems with my teeth…!”  So great was her faith (denial?), in fact, that she forgot about all of her cavities entirely, and with the exception of a strict brushing regimen she hardly gave another thought to her mouth, which (she continues to claim) never hurt her or even caused her so much as a minor toothache.

Anyway, here our story jumps to about a year later, this past September, on an unusually rainy Sunday night.  Both Larry and Kim were tempted to just stay home that evening, but instead gave in to the funny feeling they had that they needed to go to a revival meeting which was being held that evening in the downtown part of Torreon.  The guy who was leading it is the type of guy that people here generally call an “evangelist,” not quite like the (weird?) TV evangelists that are sometimes seen in the states. But to be sure, this guy did have a reputation for being used by God in doing certain kinds of miracles – like cancer healings, and so forth.  So since we had actually seen this guy do one other meeting before, and he had struck us as being very down-to-earth, and not at all fake or “show off,” we decided to go downtown just to check out what was happening.

By the time we got there, there was quite a crowd and the “evangelist” was right in the middle of ministry time.  Kim felt lead to pray for a lady who was standing near the front, so she worked her way up towards the platform.  After having talked to and prayed for the woman, she continued hanging out near the platform just to watch what was going on.  When she saw that the lady she had prayed for was in line to receive ministry from the evangelist, she decided to stand next to her and continue talking with the woman while she was waiting in line. Just when Kim was ready to help her new friend up onto the platform, the evangelist turned around and in a booming voice ordered Kim to step up to the platform.

Now needless to say Kim was a bit taken aback, since she’d had no thoughts of actually going up there, and she tried to explain this to the evangelist, kindly offering to help the other woman up, but the guy just kept pointing at her and saying “No! You!“ until Kim finally found herself being “ushered” up to the platform.  Standing there, she realized she was in front of quite a crowd, and she was just beginning to wonder what was going to happen to her when she heard the evangelist say “This woman is not from here, and God is going to do this for her as a sign of His love, since she isn’t even from around here!” While the crowd was cheering, and Kim was left wondering what exactly “this” was, the evangelist touched her and she felt a sort of tingling sense in her neck.  Then she got rather dizzy and sort of fell backwards (you know, like they do on TV!), but she did not lose consciousness, and so the evangelist ordered for her to be stood back up.  When she was back on her feet again he promptly told her to open her mouth.

Still wondering what was going to happen to her, Kim did as the evangelist said and opened wide.  The next thing she knew, there was a big camera being pointed at the inside of her mouth (which means it will surely come out on the flyer for the next revival), and the evangelist was saying “God put gold in her mouth! God put gold in her mouth…!”

As the crowd went wild, Kim found herself being ushered quickly off of the platform, where she was met with a sizeable number of people wanting to take pictures of her mouth with their cell phones.  After having appeased all of these anxiously-waiting crowd members, she spent the rest of the evening praying for people and sort of dancing around to lively praise music (which is what you do at these sort of evangelistic campaigns), but since she herself could not see the inside of her mouth, she couldn’t help but wonder what had actually happened there – or if the people were just getting excited because they were seeing the crowns that she had already had since high school.

Finally, at about one in the morning Larry and Kim arrived home.  Kim, still nervous about seeing the inside of her mouth, decided to get totally ready for bed and then timidly peak in the mirror to see if she could see anything in the half-light of the bathroom.  When she did so she was met with the total surprise (‘O ye of little faith!’) of seeing several little shiny little cross-like fillings in her molars! And, as evidence that God had did something in her mouth that no dentist would ever do, she noted that her wisdom tooth on the back left side (which is the only wisdom tooth she has left) had been filled to overflowing with some shiny stuff dripping down over it!  Since no dentist would ever spend money on material to fill somebody’s wisdom tooth, but instead just happily charge them the labor to yank it out, Kim knew that this was unmistakable evidence that God had done something in her mouth that night.

The next day, Kim had a great time showing all of her friends, neighbors and construction workers her molars.  To be sure, she was met with some pretty funny looks as she tried to tell people what happened, but nobody could deny or explain the unusual filling on her wisdom tooth.

So what’s the moral of our story?  Certainly, we do still recommend brushing your teeth regularly.  And try not to eat sugary snacks between meals.  But if you ever doubt God’s love or provision for you, or if you’re told at some point that you need major dental work done, just come down to Mexico.  You never know what might happen.

Praises:

1. For the restored lives and relationships that we have seen recently in our ministry.
2. That our 7-yr.-old friend Jared was healed from a serious health problem due to the wisdom and skill God granted his doctors.
3. For the unity, purity, and growth that we have seen in many Christian churches in the Laguna.
4. For the recent increase in financial support and for generous donations, which are allowing us to finish up on the house construction and anticipate increasing our time spent in ministry.

Prayer Requests:

1. For the new President Elect Obama, that he would have wisdom and guidance from the Holy Spirit, that God would touch his heart and that Obama would come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.  That the Christians of the nation would unite in praying for him.  That they would be as faithful and united in prayer for the nation as they were prior to the election.
2. For the economic crisis that is taking place in the U.S. and worldwide, that God’s purposes would be accomplished through it.
3. For the Federal Police, local police, and army soldiers here in the Laguna, who have been called to work here against continuing threats to public safety, and who risk their lives on a daily basis to keep civilians safe.  That they might know Him, experience His favor, and seek to be holy in all they do.
4. For protection for the Mexican civilians, particularly in the neighborhood of the Tierra Blanca church.  That the gang members there would NOT be coaxed, or threatened, into joining forces with the drug cartel movements.  That every last gang member as well as all of the cartel members would hear about God’s relentless and saving love for them. That they would have real opportunities to choose Him.
5. For Ana, our friend who has been ministering to a growing group of young policemen, and who recently received a threat intended to scare her out of doing so.  For protection, stamina, and wisdom on how to proceed.

We feel that we need to share a little info about the state of our finances.

Related to that, the first thing we want to say is how grateful we are for those of you who have been supporting us for the past 6 years. We are honored to represent you as ambassadors for God’s Kingdom here in the Laguna, and we praise God for the sacrifices you’ve made to allow us to be here. As you well know, God has done a lot through you, and is doing more every day.

We also want to apologize because we haven’t been at all clear or open with you, our team of supporters, in the area of our finances. After talking to various friends and family members we realized that this was really a disservice to you, because it keeps you from knowing our real needs and from being a part of what God’s doing here. The truth is that being open and honest about our needs is not at all easy. We have justified ourselves by thinking that we’re supposed to go to God for our needs and trust Him alone to provide, but the fact is that He calls us to put aside our pride and share our needs so that as a body we can fulfill His work.

The truth is that the regular financial support we have been receiving has not been enough to cover our basic needs and the needs of the ministry. We want to reassure you that we have closely examined our spending and are living as simply as possible while still being effective in ministry. In our desire to be totally open, we’ve published an estimate of our normal expenses. Anyone interested can see it on our Financial page. The summary is that in order to maintain a simple Mexican lifestyle and to be effective in ministry we need about $1850 in regular monthly support. This is in addition to the small amount we’re able to earn working part-time here in Mexico ($600 a month) and does not include extra expenses for having kids.

To give you an idea of the amount of support we’ve been receiving, here’s our regular support income over the past few months:

• January $1050
• February $725
• March $777
• April $774
• May $1076
• June $1419
• July $838

On average, that’s about $950 a month, which is $900 short of what we need in regular support. God has been really gracious and has provided some very generous special gifts so that we haven’t gone hungry or anything, but we haven’t been able to do the things the special gifts were intended for. We haven’t yet finished the repairs on our house, for example, because we’ve actually had to live off of significant portions of the construction donations. Unfortunately, not finishing those repairs is inefficient because it incurs extra expenses and causes us to be “straddled” between two houses, a state we’ve been in for over a year.

Would you, the people who care about us and believe in what God is doing here, help us to raise the financial support that we need?

• Would you really pray for God to provide for us?
• If you’re able and haven’t already done so, would you commit to supporting us regularly? Even something like $25 a month would be a big help!
• Would you help us to broaden our base of supporters?
  • Could you share what God is doing here in the Laguna and our financial needs with a friend or family member?
  • Could you give us the contact info of somebody that might be interested in getting involved in our ministry? We could then contact them and see if they were interested.
  • Are you a part of a Sunday School class or Bible study or other group that might be interested in being a part of what we’re doing? Would your church be interested?

We would really appreciate your help so we can continue with our ministry. Here’s what you can do:

If you feel led to be a part of our ministry by supporting us financially, please let us know by filling out our commitment form. We’d appreciate you doing that whether you’ve been faithfully supporting us for a while (for which we can’t tell you how grateful we are!) or whether you’d like to start supporting us now. Then we’ll know how to plan. We’ll also be able to let you know about ways to give automatically each month (which we’re working on), since we know that would probably be more convenient.

If you would like to give, click here:

I want to start or continue supporting your ministry financially.

If you could help us to get more people involved in our ministry, we would really appreciate that too. All we need you to do is to fill out our referral form. [There you can let us know about any individual or group that you think might be interested in being a part of what God's doing here in the Laguna...]

If you would like to refer someone, click here:

I want to help you broaden your team of supporters.

And of course if you’d prefer to contact us directly, we would love that too! You can actually call the U.S. phone number 713.589.5886, and through the marvels of technology it will ring in our house here in Mexico!

Many thanks! We’re so amazed at how faithful God has been to use us as a channel of His love to transform people’s lives here in Mexico! Raising support and administrating finances is not something we’re naturally gifted at, but we’re confident that God will provide everything we need to be effective in serving Him through His people!

God’s rich blessings on each of you and your families!

in Christ,
Larry & Kim

P.S. As we mentioned above, we still have a need for one-time donations to finish the construction on our house. This has also been another complicating financial factor. Please stay tuned for more specific details on the little bit that’s left to finish the project… It would be a great help to us to be able to live in our house again!

Thank you for all your support!

Since our “incident” with the Zetas (those fashionable guys who dress all in black), Kim has had a desire in the back of her mind which most people would consider absolutely crazy. God put on her heart the verse about loving your enemies (Matt. 5:44), and it inspired in her the desire to actually be able to lay hands on and pray for the Zetas. When God first gave her that desire, we couldn’t imagine any way in which it could possibly happen, but in His amazing way God has already made it come true.

The story has to do with a faithful woman from the Vineyard in Tierra Blanca called Lourdes. The problem was that her teenage son, Alfredo, was involved in small-time drug dealing there in the church neighborhood, as are many of the other gang members who hang out in Tierra Blanca. Now you remember that “los Zetas” is a military group associated with the Gulf coast drug mafia here. They want to dominate drug sales and have been working hard since they arrived to control the market in all the local neighborhoods. Their goal is to make sure that nobody sells drugs unless they agree to be affiliated with their particular ring. One day a truck full of the “Zetas” stopped Alfredo and informed him that he would now have to deal drugs in the Tierra Blanca area as part of their network or else they were going to kill him. Not having much choice in the matter, Alfredo consented to do ‘business’ under their direction and to meet them the following day at 9:00 p.m. When he told his mother, Lourdes, who actually lives two doors down from the church and is an increasingly faithful attender, she actually had a nervous breakdown and was taken to the emergency room for a few hours prior to her son’s departure for his ‘appointment’ that evening with the Zeta.

But Lourdes did not stay down for long. Even though her son had gone off to work with a militant terrorist group that evening with no hope or promise of return, she sought refuge in God and was the first person seated for the Wednesday night service the next day. There, we were able to pray with her and give her words of hope and encouragement, and during the ministry time we could see that God worked powerfully in her. He reminded her of a promise He had spoken to her recently, responding to years of heartfelt prayer on her part, that her family would come to Christ, but that they would first have to pass through a valley, and she took hope and comfort in knowing that her crisis situation was probably something God had allowed to happen as part of His divine plan to change her family. We (Larry and Kim) actually offered to spend the night with her that night, and she accepted, since it was her second night without Alfredo and her other son was away on an out-of-town visit. That night we were able to talk with her over dinner, and also with some other members of her family. Then we lied down to sleep, but not before seeing Lourdes sit down to read her Bible for a few minutes by her bedside.

The next morning, we offered to pray for Lourdes again before she went to work, since she was extremely tired, but did not feel she had the luxury of missing another day at the factory where she faithfully labors to support her family. So we sat her down on the bed and began to pray for her to receive strength for her first day back even after the tragedy of the day before. We could see that God was working powerfully once again in her during that prayer time, and so we wound up praying for about half an hour, but the most incredible thing of all was that the very instant she opened her eyes after the prayer we heard someone come through the door and suddenly there was Alfredo, standing right in front of her!

As for Larry and I, we could not believe how immediately God had answered our prayers, and we just stood there in utter shock, sort of feeling like we were imposing as we watched the two of them caught up in an embrace. Lourdes was crying like a baby, since it had been 36 hours since she had last seen her son and she’d had no idea when she was ever going to see him again. After a few minutes of hugging, Alfredo began to explain to his mom that he was going to be coming home days and only working for the Zetas at night. He tried to assure Lourdes that nothing would happen to her or to him as long as he complied with his responsabilities. At this point Larry and I entered back on to the scene, trying to encourage Alfredo to seek God and not to lose hope but to pray that God would provide him with a way out of this dangerous and seemingly hopeless situation. Alfredo said virtually nothing to us the whole time long, because of course he feels like there is no way out for him now and in fact it would technically be risking his life for him to even talk about betraying the Zetas with anybody. But he did consent for us to pray for him in accordance with his mother’s wishes, and when we did so saw the tears begin to flow from his eyes – for just a moment, that is, before he hardened himself once again.

…So our story, though touching, will have to end for now in a prayer request and be continued at some time in the future, whenever God moves powerfully once more, because for now Alfredo is staying home days and working very long nights with the Zetas. He has no human hope of ever getting out of this mafia alive, and probably can’t think about anything other than surviving and keeping his wife and son and the rest of his family from being hurt. But WE know God is big, and that He is bigger than our ‘earthly’ hopes. We know that He answers prayer – He has answered Kim’s prayers (that she would be able to pray for one of the Zetas) and the church’s prayers (for protection over Alfredo and that Lourdes would see him alive and well) and has promised that this whole situation is a part of his answer to Lourdes’s prayers for her family to come to Christ. So we ask YOU to pray with us – for Lourdes, for Alfredo, for his wife (Karla) and two year old son (Carlos). Pray also for the church, which is getting the attention of the neighborhood now that things are happening which truly drive people to seek God. May God move powerfully, may His Kingdom advance against the enemy, and may He be glorified as He deserves!

Here are a few photos:

On the days following this incident with Alfredo, the Vineyard in Tierra Blanca did a series of “peace marches” through the neighborhood to give hope to the community and to encourage them to seek God. As part of that they put up small posters with Bible verses throughout the neighborhood. Here Lourdes (on the right) and Lela are putting up one of the posters.

Each evening after the “peace march” they gathered at Lourdes’ house to worship and pray.

Click on the photos to see them larger at flickr!

Hi everyone. Thanks so much for the overwhelming response that we got from you guys after sending out our last newsletter. We just wanted to write you again with another challenge to pray since even though we haven’t been in any further direct danger, another incident did occur last week in that same neighborhood where we minister.

What happened was that at about one o’clock in the morning last Wednesday night members of the drug mafia attacked and broke into the house of a local police officer, killing him and very seriously wounding his wife.

This was another act of terror, because they left the front of the house totally pock-marked with bullet holes in order to provoke fear in everyone else in the neighborhood. There have also been other reports of many other police officers being killed in different parts of the Laguna.

Rather than allowing these events to inspire fear, we would like to take them instead as a challenge to pray. We believe that it is time for the reign of terror to stop, and that God’s people need to cry out for divine protection, especially over the police force. That is the challenge we will be sharing in the Vineyards and with the body of Christ in the Laguna, and that is the challenge we share with all of you who are supporting God’s work here in prayer.

When the darkness is greatest, the light shines the brightest

I guess our point here is that this situation is about much more than just praying for us. We believe that God is at work in this time in a powerful way, and that this time of darkness is only the necessary prelude before the light breaks forth. We believe that an incredible revival has started and will continue to grow in our area. This is part of a general revival which we believe will come to all of Latin America and we feel Mexico is going to be a key player in this movement. For that reason we do not think it’s any coincidence that the administration of current Mexican President Felipe Calderon has been marked by a severe crackdown on the trafficking activities of the formerly dominant drug lords. It is because the drug cartels feel the pressure that they are fighting back, trying to strike terror and to intimidate the government into backing down. Before, the drug related activities were actually more prominent, but they were less visible because they had no opposition.

Anyway, we know that the darkness can not overcome the light, so we are committed to shining God’s light as brightly as we can. One powerful way to do that is by prayer. The Mexican police and army will not be able to stop the violence of the drug lords without God’s help. But by praying for protection over the people who are fighting for what’s right, and for God’s blessing and favor as they seek to capture the enemy, the light will prevail over the darkness.

We thank you so much and we trust in your continual prayers – both for our people, and for all of Mexico and Latin America.

Love to you all,

Larry and Kim

Hi everyone,

1. Before you read this, sit down.

2. Don’t miss the pictures. (Though you might not open them in front of younger family members.)

3. Kim’s mom does not know about any of this yet, so please don’t mention any of this to her. We will eventually tell her about it, but we want to choose the right timing.

We just wanted to send off an emergency prayer request to you guys – We’ve decided to send a financial update this month instead of our regular newsletter, which should be on it’s way, but we did want to send this message off quick, since a few days ago something happened to us that was rather scary and we wanted to ask for your prayers.

What happened was that while we were driving home through one of the neighborhoods we minister in on Saturday night we suddenly saw a surprise, in the form of man with an automatic rifle, who had jumped out of the sidestreet and pointed his gun directly at us, about three feet away from our front windshield. Being the perceptive people that we are, we immediately understood that this guy was the type who is interested in making a real fashion statement, since he was dressed all in black, with a black cloth over his face. After getting a good look at us, and apparently realizing that we were not the person or persons he had been intending to point his rifle at ( !), he started motioning angrily for us to pull over, seeming to want us to get out of the truck. When he saw that we were too shocked, confused, and afraid to comply with his request, he and another man (similarly fashionably dressed) decided to approach the truck from either side, attempting to break the glass of the passenger side and driver’s side windows with the butts of their respective rifles. As we peeled off (since the first offender had courteously stepped out from in front of our vehicle), we heard several loud gunshots from behind (That would be “annoyingly loud,” to be accurate.)

As we ducked down and raced away from the sound of the gunshots the only place we could think to go to was to our friends house, who lived a few blocks away, and whom we had been originally going to visit. By the time we got there we could tell that thankfully the noise from the rifles had died down and that there was no evidence that the men had been following us. All the same, though, we jumped out of the truck and practically banged down the door of our friend, who happened to be just closing up his shop for the evening. He quickly tried to calm us down, and when we were sure that we were in no further immediate danger, he loaned us his phone to call 911 (actually “066″ – again, to be perfectly accurate) at which point the operator on the other line responded nonchalantly that she’d see what she could do about things. When we called once more half an hour later, to see if it might be safe for us to leave the neighborhood, she responded that the police units were still “on their way” and that it was not a good idea for us to go anywhere, since guerrilla warfare action between two warring drug lords who were fighting for control of the neighborhood was “at a climax” that evening. (Here you may refer to the ever-witty subtitle of our article… “Oh, that’s nice to hear!”)

A few minutes later the police secretary’s report was seconded by a guy on a bicycle, who, when we attempted to warn him not to go in the direction we had come from, told us that he himself had just heard a shooting a few blocks in the other direction … So since we were feeling quite tuckered out from our adventures for that evening we decided to spend the night there, where we got a (miraculous) two hours of sleep amidst the periodic shouts and cars racing furiously down the outside street.

The next morning we showered, and (since things appeared to have calmed down) groggily made our way to a ten-year anniversary event (of all things ! ) for our church, where (you can be sure) we did not miss any opportunity to talk with people about what had happened the night before. And as we discussed things, we learned that the area in which we minister is now being invaded by a coastal drug mafia (now challenging the formerly-dominant Juarez mafia) in response to a police crack-down they felt from the state of Durango, which happens to be the state we cross into to minister. What happened to us that night was that the coastal mafia was looking for a mid-level Juarez “pusher” in that neighborhood, and we just happened to be driving by in a truck very similar to his, neighbors say. Please pray for this man because later on that night they did actually find him and kidnap him. In hindsight we think the men who were looking for him had obviously mistaken us as being family members of his (it was dark, and it looked like we were driving his truck…). We suspect that when they detained us they were trying to kidnap us in order to obtain information on him.

Now with all that said, you might be asking yourself what our motive might be in sharing this, the latest of our adventures, with you. Could it be just a cruel attempt to make your blood pressure rise, or fall, (as the case may be)? No! The purpose of this email is none other than just to keep all you prayer warriors on your toes! That’s right! (You just knew you were doing something important up there on the other side of that border, didn’t you?)

No, seriously though, we don’t want this news to scare any of you or to scare any further groups from coming down, but we did feel it would be irresponsible not to tell you about these kinds of important changes in our ministry situation, since the neighborhood is just blocks away from our church and since in fact we have just started a home group there. Even before this incident we had started to see all sorts of interesting stuff there, like police convoys going in and out, and even a search inside our friend’s house in a scare about an alleged shooting, though we didn’t actually see or hear anything at that time. Anyway, though, apparently the fighting has broken out in full now, because we did in fact find two bullet holes in our truck the next day…

Our pickup

“It doesn’t look like a drug dealer’s truck, does it?” Oh, well. Anyway, does anybody want to buy a truck? We need to get at least three thousand dollars out of it to be able to buy another decent vehicle… (Alternatively, we could paint it a different color for around $400), but the real problem is that the windows are tinted glass, which is illegal here, but the tinting is not the peel off kind. We are currently looking in to having the glass in the windows changed…

Bullet Holes

From the position of these bullet holes , we can assume that the men were shooting at our tires in order to detain and possibly kidnap us. (You can see from the marks that these were not toy weapons they were shooting with.)

To see a few more photos, see the photo album of our recent adventure

Because of the way they were dressed and the particular drug dealer they were after, we can assume that these men were from the “Zeta” drug cartel faction. Apparently these guys are bona fide terrorists, recruited and trained from youth. The “Zeta” group is actually one of the groups that’s been causing trouble in Nuevo Laredo, and the ones thought to be responsible for the death of the N.L. police chief last year just hours after his inauguration. Recently the “Zetas” have been trying to get attention here in the Laguna because, as we mentioned above, the Durangan police have made them “mad.” (Here you may refer again to the subtitle of the article.)

Anyway, the reason we’re telling you all this is simply to emphasize that there is no explanation for how two highly trained gunmen could have missed taking out our tires with their automatic rifles from a mere three feet away. No explanation that is, other than the grace of God. It’s important to understand that the Zeta group takes no prisoners. The fact that they were trying to shoot at our tires that night does not mean that they were trying to avoid hurting us, but rather that they were trying to keep us alive long enough to get information about the person whose truck they thought we were driving. We tell you this not to scare you, but to honor and glorify God’s name, since we don’t know of any other precedents of people coming out of this type of encounter alive.

But God was with us that night, and we really want to give Him all the glory for His protection. Just the other day God had Kim turn in her Bible to Psalm 3 — She couldn’t remember exactly what the psalm said, until her eyes popped out as she read “But you are a shield about me oh Lord; / You bestow glory on me and lift up my head.” (v. 3) Psalm 10 is another really appropriate psalm.

So… Please pray. As we mentioned above we had already seen the signs that a situation was brewing here but did not know how to read them well enough. Apparently recently there have been quite a few people found dead, even decapitated, or missing, and there have been other sorts of threats like bomb scares and shootings, even in some of the nice residential neighborhoods. Many of the nightclubs here stayed closed last weekend and there has been talk of implementing martial law in some of the dangerous areas.

In response to this we have already adjusted our schedules, and (as we mentioned above) we’re currently working on trying to change the look of our truck in order to avoid any further “confusion” ( ) between us and the people who might be targets of drug terrorist groups. We feel that both of these things are pretty important factors, since most people say it’s still safe to be in conflict areas in the day and early evening, and that the drug cartels don’t typically target civilians, unless they’re relatives of drug cartel members or just happen to get caught in the crossfire.

Anyway, though, we do ask you and thank you for your continual and faithful prayers. Pray for the men who detained us, that God would touch their hearts. Pray for God to provide the finances for us to paint or sell the truck. Pray for the government here, which for the first time in Mexican history is refusing to bow down to the drug lords. And pray for us, since even now God is giving us the opportunity to minister to the families of people who are heavily involved in the drug movement.

Above all, praise God with us, who by means of this incident has clearly demonstrated that nothing can happen to us which doesn’t pass through His hand…

Love,

Larry and Kim

P.S. If you’d like to know more about the “Zetas,” here’s some info from Wikipedia: “Los Zetas”

Photos of the bullet holes in our pickup from when we were mistakenly stopped by members of the drug mafia. They confused our pickup with that of a drug pusher they were going to kidnap. We raced away and they shot at us, and by God’s amazing protection, only two bullets hit us, even though they were right next to us!

Click on a photo to view it larger, then you can scroll back and forth.

Bullet Holes