Feliz Navidad de México - Merry Christmas from Mexico

Poinsettia Story

Also known as the Christmas Star and Christmas Flower, it’s said that this winter flower’s association with Christmas comes from a Mexican legend. The story goes that a child, with no means for a grander gift, gathered humble weeds from the side of the road to place at the church altar on Christmas Eve. As the congregation witnessed a Christmas miracle, the weeds turned into brilliant red and green flowers. Named after Joel Roberts Poinsett, first United States ambassador to Mexico and the amateur botanist who introduced the plant to the U.S. in 1825.

Prayer Requests and Future Plans

Pray For:

•      Summer projects planned or being planned for Summer, 2013.
•      Future plan for our church "Todas Las Naciones" (All The Nations)
•      Church planting efforts in cities that have been saturated.
•      Strength to finish the course on the Doctor of Missiology.
•      Our personal health/stamina/safety.

Shot of the Christmas program on Sunday, 12/23/2012

Some Specifics

Our church, mentioned above, has a number of grand plans which seem to be in the mind of God. A planning team is meeting regularly to pray and plan. Some of the plans include:

•    Building a new building(s) to house increasing numbers of attendees.
•   Building a new building for the children's home - Casa Betania. The building where they are currently is owned by an individual who could ask them to leave at any time.)
•    Increasing the opportunities for the music school to grow, including new building for them. (Jerry Chen is currently teaching music, keyboard, guitar lessons to young people in our church and in the community as well.)
•   Providing theological education for pastors, church planters and church workers. (This is Tony's part of the future plans. Also praying about which curriculum to use. Hoping to start training pastors in the next 2-3 months.)
•    Building dormitories for mission teams and missionaries coming to Mexico.
•    Providing language training (English for locals and Spanish for missionaries.)
•    Providing ministries to senior citizens, women, families, alcohol and drug addicts, etc.
•    Whatever else the Lord leads us to do. 

These plans depend on some government permission as well as funding, but mostly on the Lord's blessing and leading. The vision is big, but our God is bigger!

Piñata Time!

Thank you!

We are grateful for your commitment to pray for us and to give. Your partnership makes it possible for us to continue the work that God has called us to do. You may or may not be able to come to Mexico to help, but your prayers, encouragement and giving make you a part of the team. Beverly and I wish each of you and your families a very Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year.

Preparing to eat

Fellowship around the table

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Full Summer/Future Plans

Below is a summary of what has taken place this summer and what is coming up, Lord willing.

Summer Projects

Tlaltenango: After arriving on the field here in Mexico on May 26, the first project team arrived one week later. The Caldwell/Lyon Baptist Association in Kentucky brought a team of 20 to Mexico to saturate the city of Tlaltenango. In 3 days, we took the gospel to over 6,300 homes in a city of 25,000. The picture at the left is the map we used to do the saturation. During this week, 12 people were saved.

Tepetongo: Two weeks later, a team of 5 from Northside Baptist Church in Mayfield, Kentucky came to help us with the saturation of Tepetongo, a smaller city of about 2,500, In three days we covered over 500 homes and 3 people professed faith in Jesus Christ.

Pastor’s Conference: In August, we enjoyed a great pastor’s conference in Zacatecas City with pastors from many of the churches here in the state of Zacatecas and some from Durango as well. The Caldwell/Lyon Association has been providing these conferences for 6 years and the pastors receive a great blessing as well as many useful resources. Please pray for a growing sense of partnership with pastors in Zacatecas for reaching their state and country for Christ.

Follow-up

Since the summer of projects have concluded, we are working on follow-up in the cities we saturated the past two years. Attempts are being made to start Bible Studies in Tepetongo and Villanueva. Pray for individuals or businesses who are willing to provide a place for these studies.

The prospects discovered from the Tlaltenango project were given to a local Baptist pastor who has been following up on them. Also, Tony and a brother from Jerez are doing a monthly worship service with the men at the jail and a drug and alcohol rehab center in Tlaltenango.

Future Plans

High in our hopes and prayers for the next months is the possibility of starting pastor training here in Zacatecas. There is nothing available in this area for continuing education for pastors to provide them with skills and resources for their ministries. Please pray for these doors to open in God’s timing.

Tony is currently working on a Doctor of Missiology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary to better qualify him for these plans as well as to open doors for partnerships in theological education.

Thank You!

We are so grateful for your continued prayers and financial support. You are our partners in this mission that our Lord has called us to. Please keep us in your prayers

Now We're Cooking With Gas!

Not being accustomed to cooking with gas and on a stove made in Mexico that has the temps in Celsius, I decided last night I'd better read the instruction booklet before I attempted to use the oven.  Plus, I thought our landlord would not take too kindly to me blowing the place up! I find the instructions, in Spanish of course, difficult to understand due to a lot of technical terms so I resorted to using an on-line translator.  This particular one gives three translations Be sure to read each one:

1. “Turn a match and place it close to the hole of the Pan from the oven. At the same time push and turn to position 5. Visually check through the hole in the tray to the oven burner has been turned on.”

2. Turn on a knurled wheel and place it near the hole in the tray of the oven. At the same time press and turn to the position 5. Visually verify through the hole in the roasting pan to the oven burner has been turned on.

3. Light a cerillo and place it close to the hole of the tray of the stove. At the same time press and turn to the position 5. Verify visually across (through) the orifice of the tray that the burner of the stove has lit.

So, first of all, I’ve never been able to get a match to light by turning it!  Secondly, what in the world is a “knurled wheel?”  Thirdly, my stove, has no “position 5” so I had to guess at where to turn the knob.  After praying it wouldn’t be ME that got baked instead of dinner, I struck the match, followed the instructions and it lit, without any flames OUTSIDE the oven!  Thankful!!!!

Since ovens here are not known for cooking accurately or browning, I wasn’t sure how dinner would turn out but it was delicious, and browned!

One more adventure in this missionary life!

~  Bev

Mexico, at last!

Well, we have been a long time in writing on this blog. We apologize for that, but our time has been busy since we left Costa Rica. We spent nearly a month in the states getting ready to move to Mexico and then drove for three days from Kentucky down to Zacatecas. We arrived here on May 26, very tired and road weary. We are thankful to the Lord that the trip was uneventful. We did have a 3 hour wait at the border, just waiting in line behind others (mostly Mexican) coming back into Nuevo Laredo. I am glad I don't have to cross that border every day. There are quicker places to cross, but for some reason, I wanted to experience the downtown Laredo crossing. I assure you, I don't need to do that again, unless required to. Thanks go to Steve and Amber Benedict here in Jerez for their hospitality in allowing us to stay in their home until ours was livable.
We were in Mexico one week before our first team of about 20 people came down from the Caldwell/Lyon Baptist Association in Kentucky. It was a great team and we saturated the city of Tlaltenango (about 25,000 in population) with the gospel. We took a copy of the gospel of John and book of Romans plus the plan of salvation to over 6,300 homes in that city and covered it all. In addition, we had an evangelistic service at the prison outside of town there. Bro. Raul preached to the men and gave an invitation. 10 men responded to a strong and clear appeal to receive Christ and said they had given their lives to Christ. Bro. Nicolas also gave his testimony about his past life of crime and sin and how the Lord had changed him. Bro. Luis also gave a strong word to the men about the need to give their all to the Lord. The team had also purchased some food and necessary clothing and hygiene items for the men. If people do not bring food in for them, they do not get much more than soup and tortillas to eat. We know of two other people who were saved on this trip, including an 83 year old man who was very sick and may be close to eternity. Thanks to Bro. Rick Reeder and all of the team from the Princeton and Eddyville area of Kentucky for your hard work and commitment to the people of Zacatecas and to the Lord's desire to see them saved.
Finally, we have another team coming in from Northside Baptist Church in Mayfield, Kentucky tomorrow. We will be saturating the city of Tepetongo in the same way. Please pray for this team as they come and as we work here for the salvation of souls in Zacatecas. More word on this project after it is finished.
We continue to get settled into our home here in Jerez, Zacatecas. If anyone would like to know our address or phone numbers here in Mexico, we would be glad to share them on an as needed basis through email. For security reasons, we are not publishing them. Just write to us at gozacmission@gmail.com. Thank you for all of your prayers and financial gifts that keep us in the work that God has for us. We love you all.

Farewell, Costa Rica!

Today, a little after noon, we will board a plane here in San Jose that will take us away from a country that we have called home for over a year now. We have, in the mean time, acquired a better understanding and grasp of the Spanish language and, hopefully, an ability to share the good news of Jesus Christ.

There have been sorrows and joys, frustrations and blessings, hellos and goodbyes, tears and laughter, humiliation and success (in learning Spanish). But, especially, there has been growth in discovering how good and faithful our God is. He has provided for every need (using many of you) and loved us and nurtured us through a challenging year.

It has been a blessing not only to attend, but also to serve the school here. Tony served as chaplain one trimester and as student council president another. Beverly, in addition to studying, has been part of a women's Bible study group, served as cashier for the student council and as a friend and mentor to many. We have had challenges in learning a language that really likes to do strange and mysterious things with verbs and pronouns, but I think we are at a place where we can talk with people here in Latin America with some degree of dignity and something beyond a kindergarten level of communication.

We are thankful for the school and individuals such as Julie Chamberlain, director and Graziela Arguedas, academic director, as well as our teachers, Ana Silvia, Dixiana, Eugenia, Laura, Maritza, Marlene, Oscar, Patricia, Sandra and Tahiri. We appreciate the staff here as well who have been an encouragement and blessing to us. Finally, we have made lifetime friends who are going to all the world to share the good news of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We love and will miss you all.

And now it's on to Mexico - the goal and purpose of all of this. There are more friends and more challenges ahead for us and there is and always will be the same God over all of our experiences. It is such an adventure just to be obedient and watch God work. (You don't have to be a missionary, by the way, to experience that.) It is always worth the sacrifice and hardship to experience the blessing of saying yes to God's will.

Thank you again and again, to all of you who lift us up in prayer and with your support. We love you all!

Tony and Beverly

Transition Time

We are a week and a half from graduation from the Spanish Language Institute here in San José, Costa Rica and the Lord has sustained us here for nearly a year through the blessing of your prayers and support. We are grateful for His blessings and for the ability to communicate more effectively in the heart language of Mexicans and others in Latin America.

Downtown Jerez at Night

As we posted last month, we made a trip to Mexico during Holy Week (Semana Santa). We were disappointed at first to find that the house we were hoping to look at to live in was no longer available. After we got this news we went to a restaurant in Jerez to eat lunch and we asked our waiter if he knew of any houses for rent. He collaborated with some of his co-workers and they sent us a few blocks away to look at a possibility. We couldn't find the house they were talking about, but we drove into a neighborhood and found a family cooking lunch outside on the grill and, after telling them about our search, a couple of the women got into the car with us and took us to another house. We found out where the landlord lived (who was not at home that day). The next day we went back to the landlord's home and found him there. He said he had someone interested in renting it, but hadn't heard from them in a couple of months, but he wanted to check with them first. The next day he called Tony on his cell phone and said it was ours.

Our Future Home by God's Grace and Provision

We are grateful that we found a wonderful house to live in, at a very reasonable rent and that the Lord gave us several divine appointments in the process to meet some wonderful people whom we hope to continue to befriend.

We will be coming back to the United States April 26, the day after graduation and staying a few weeks to gather our belongings and prepare our van for the trip back into Mexico. We will be driving back to Mexico the week of May 20. Once we are there, we will have just barely a week before our first team of the summer arrives. As you can guess, our heads are spinning a bit with all that must be done, but our God is able to supply the strength and help to get it all done.

Please pray for all of our plans and preparations to fall into place and for God's provisions for all of our material needs to get set up in Mexico. We are so very grateful for all of your love, prayers and continued support. Please keep us before the throne.

Updates and Prayer Requests

We are eight weeks away from graduation and being finished with a year of Spanish study here in Costa Rica. We are so grateful for the prayers and gifts of you, our friends and supporters who have encouraged, prayed and given so that we can continue to pursue God's missions call to take the gospel to those in Mexico who have not heard. Without the continued blessings of God and His using His people to encourage us, we would not be able to pursue His will, but that is not a consideration we have to worry about.  God is always faithful, and where He guides, He provides!

We wanted to update you with our plans as they currently exist. We are flying on March 30 to Mexico to look for housing for ourselves and to make contacts there with people we have already met. Of course, we are always on the lookout for "divine appointments" that our Lord leads us into. Nothing in our lives as children of God is a coincidence. All is in His divine plan. We will be in Mexico until April 7 and then will be flying back here to San José. We currently have some friends in Mexico who are searching for homes for rent  that we can look at while we are there. Please pray that our Lord will provide the house (preferably furnished) we need to serve as our home base for ministry and mission.

After graduation on April 25, we will be making plans to come back to the states to gather some items we need to take with us to Mexico and within two or three weeks we will be going there. We need to be quickly on our way because we have scheduled mission teams which begin the first week of June. If you take a look at the calendar, you notice that we have a pretty quick turnaround in the United States. We will need all the strength the Lord will provide to get home, get moved and start a busy summer in Mexico. Please pray for that strength.

While we are in the states, we would love to be able to see some of you in the little time we have there. If you would like us to come visit your church in May during the time we are home, please contact us. Sundays or Wednesdays (or other days) between April 29 and May 19 will likely be available. Please make contact with us soon if you would like to schedule a visit.

We are grateful for the call of God upon our lives and humbled to be a part of God's Great Commission call. We are grateful for our many partners in this calling and mission. We love you all and plead for your constant and specific prayers.

Until all have heard,
Tony and Beverly

"Have You Lost The Good Sense God Gave A Mule?"

We are now back in Costa Rica after enjoying the Christmas holidays with family and friends. We have one more trimester of language school and then it's on to the field in Mexico, where God has called us to serve.

I always heard about missionaries who returned to the United States and felt like aliens. I didn't really understand that feeling until lately. We are aware that many people think it is a strange thing that we have decided to follow God's call to go to Mexico. There have been times, after sharing about our call, that some people have seemingly tried to explain away our story. And then there is the fact that we are going to Mexico of all places. "Don't you know how dangerous it is there?" I even had one lady in a church tell me one time, "They are going to put a rope around your neck and string you up from a tree and, when they do, I want you to remember that I told you so." There are many ways to encourage a missionary, but I assure you, that is not one of them.

We are very aware of the dangers in the field where we are going to serve. We are also painfully aware of the danger of disobeying God. We prefer the first danger to the latter. I would like to share a story from one of my first trips to Mexico, that I have not shared much publicly. I shared it with my mother over the holidays and she did not lose it too badly, so that gives me greater freedom to share it with everybody.

On my second trip to Zacatecas, I was scheduled to go with my buddy, Bro. Rick Reeder, for a pastor's conference there. The Caldwell/Lyon Baptist Association in Kentucky hosts the conference every year and funds much of the expense of the conference. Rick is the director of missions in that association. We were supposed to fly out on a Monday. The previous day, Rick called me from the hospital and said that he had developed a condition that was going to require him to spend a few days in the hospital and that I would have to go to Mexico without him. He needed me to handle all the preparations and expenditures as well as host the conference in the event that he could not make it (He did end up coming on Wednesday of that week). He told me that I would have to stop by his house on my way to the airport and pick up several thousands of dollars in cash and when I arrived in Mexico, I would have to rent the car and drive through two large cities and start setting up the conference. I had very little Spanish at this time and had never driven anywhere alone in Mexico, certainly not in any cities. I was a bit nervous, but excited and honored to have the opportunity to help out in this way.

The flight went well and I rented the car with no trouble and drove through the big city of Aguascalientes, Mexico with no problems. On the north side of town, I began to feel (to put it gently) the need to spend some quality quiet time in the restroom, so I stopped at a convenience store on that side of the city and asked where the baño was. The guy in the store told me it was around the side of the building, so I quickly moved in that direction. As I came around the corner, I noticed a gang of guys looking at me from the field beside the store. I can tell you, I did not feel comfortable about my safety. But, what had to be done, had to be done, so I prayed, "Lord, you know why you have me in this country and you know how much cash I have on me, and you know what I have to do right now, so, please, keep me safe from any danger that might exist out there." I took care of business, washed my hands and proceeded to go out the door with that prayer still on my lips. When I went out, I noticed that the gang was gone and, on either side of the door, stood two armed guards dressed as federales (federal police) and holding automatic weapons. I paused for a moment and they did not look at me or say a word, nor I to them. I did not know if I was in some kind of trouble or not, but I proceeded to go out to the rental car, hoping I would not be detained. I turned around when I got to the car and looked back at the restroom door and no one was there. I had a strange feeling, but did not think too much about it at that time. I just thanked the Lord for His protection and went on to the city of Zacatecas.

That story did not mean much to me until about two years ago, when we were praying about going to Mexcio as missionaries and in the form of an attack on my mind came a deluge of doubts and questions such as, "What are you thinking about, taking your wife and your life into that country?" "Are you crazy?" "Have you lost the good sense that God gave a mule?" These thoughts and doubts went on for days, and as I was praying for a sense of God's leading it was as if He said to my mind, "Do you remember what I did for you at the bathroom?" "I know how to take care of my own, when they are doing my will." That was it, there was no more question in my mind and there were no more doubts! That attack stopped in its tracks.

"Have you lost the good sense God gave a mule?" I remember from the Bible, not a mule but a donkey that was carrying Balaam in Numbers 22. That donkey saw the angel of the Lord and refused to go in the direction he was forbidden to go. Balaam beat the donkey three times until the donkey had to speak up and say, "Why have you beaten me these three times, have I been in the habit of disobeying you?" It was then that Balaam saw the angel of the Lord and understood and fell down and worshiped. You see, Balaam's donkey was not afraid of beatings or danger from man, but he was afraid of disobeying the God who created him.

So, no, I have not lost the good sense God gave a mule (or donkey in this case). The safest place for any of you or I to be is in the middle of God's will. If anybody ever starts to string me up from a tree in Mexico or anywhere else, I know that the angels of the Lord will be encamped around, either to take me home or to stop what is about to take place. Either way, it does not matter. I am more afraid of going in a direction that God has said I shall not go.

We are grateful for your continued love, prayers and giving. I hope you better understand how important the prayer part is. Please keep loving, please keep giving and, by all means, please keep praying! Pray, not from fear for us, but with faith, that with God all things are possible and He knows how to take care of those who are obedient to Him.

Tony