Dear friends, supporters and family,
Greetings from Mexico. We pray all is well with you and that you’re enjoying this spring season. It is a joy for us to be in contact once again via our newsletter to let you know what we have been doing during the last couple of months.
Ministry in Veracruz
At the beginning of the month of March we took a trip to the city of Veracruz and also Huatusco where we ministered to a group of leaders of the Centro Cristiano Church there. We spent the first day with the pastors, Gama and Paty, at the hotel where the leadership conference would be held during the next couple of days. There we enjoyed spending some time with them during the afternoon and evening Thursday. On Friday morning, the leaders began arriving around breakfast time. I opened the meetings with the first conference, and both Sara and I shared several times during the Friday-Saturday meetings.
It was very interesting to get to know some of the leaders and see how Pastor Gama and Paty work with them. The weekend was filled with different activities such as meals together, teaching sessions, workshops and games designed to teach people how to work together. We also had prayer, worship, and ministry times.
The following Sunday I preached to the church in the morning. They have a large and solid congregation, and I enjoyed ministering to them once again. We had been there before, in 2016, and on that occasion I had ministered in a men’s conference, and then Sara, in a women’s conference. It was very nice for both of us to minister together this time to leaders. We believe God is building up a solid leadership team for this church.
Online Bible School
We started our online Bible School classes in the month of February, and this semester we have around 125 students from three countries. We are building a team of facilitators and course developers to continue to build the school. I have hired a couple of people (including our son, David) to help develop visual presentations that run alongside of the video and audio. We are also making decisions about new courses, developing the software, building/developing more courses, among other things.
Sara has surgery
Sara had a complete hysterectomy on April 10. This has put her pretty much “out of service” for the last several weeks, as she is recovering. Her recovery is going well but she has been advised by the doctor to slow down and recover completely before picking up the normal pace of life, so as to avoid future complications.
Radical – Anna Starts Our Church’s Preteen Group
Anna started a youth group of preteen girls who meet each week on Friday evenings. She is teaching these young girls who are in the transition phase between children and teenagers. We have found throughout the years that many of the children who grow out of our children’s ministry have had a hard time adjusting to the regular youth ministry, which has focused on older teens. God has gifted Anna to minister to this younger age group and we are seeing very good results. We hope to soon open a second group for the boys as well.
We are also excited to see Anna grow and develop in the area of teaching and ministry. She is a gifted teacher and a great speaker. She even took charge of our church’s women’s meeting while her mother was in the hospital!
Local Church
Our local church is going through several transitions in different areas at the moment. I (David) have found the need to become directly involved in the worship ministry again. After sowing part of our worship team last August in the new church plant, our music ministry began to feel the loss. I stepped in during the month of February, then more directly beginning in April.
During the last year I had worked with some of the “younger generation” that had previously been involved in our children’s worship team. I have invited them to be a part of the main worship group, and we are seeing progress! Our daughter, Anna, is now part of the team, and it’s really fun to work with everyone again. I felt impressed by the Lord to train up a new generation in leading worship, and the opportunity has come.
Please pray that the team will continue to consolidate and that soon we’ll be able to get them to a level where I’m not quite as “needed” as I currently am. I would love to continue to be involved, but we also need to get the team working by themselves for the times when I need to be out ministering in other churches on Sundays. This isn’t all that often, but we really need things to run smoothly even if we are away.
Prayer requests
You can always help us by praying for us! Here are a few areas of need:
- Please pray for our leadership team, that God would give us more strong leaders with a heart and vision for the Lord and His church.
- Please pray for our preteen and youth ministries, that the Lord would allow us to restructure these key areas. We believe that a strong ministry to children and youth is vital for the long-term success of the church.
- Please pray for the online Bible School, as we plan to expand this project during the next few years. Please pray for our students, that they would learn and grow in God’s Word.
- Please pray for us as we prepare for a trip to Africa to minister in a large pastor’s conference. Sara will be doing women’s ministry, and Anna has also been invited to do children’s ministry during the conference.