Our Journal: Gonzalez, Tamualipas...looks like we are staying for a bit

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Saturday (4/14) afternoon-Eddy's mom (Hna Isabel) and dad (Don Antonio) came over for lunch, and we were able to chat with them a bit. She's a pretty good cook!

Sunday (4/15) morning we went to church at Primera Iglesia Bautista (where we were dropped off on Friday). They have both Sunday school and church on Sunday morning which is fairly unusual in Mexico. They also have a service Sunday night--that's the service that most people come to. The pastor still hadn't arrived from visiting his family in Zacatecas (another state about 9 hours away). His van broke down, so it was taking longer than they thought to get back. Chris and I thought it was pretty interesting that we still hadn't met him. The people spoke highly of him, but we didn't know if something really good was going to happen or if we needed to leave as soon as we could. We just continued to pray for God to reveal this to us.

The Sunday school teacher taught from John 11--the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. He talked about how sometimes we pray for something and try to give God the answer as well; whereas, we should just let Him work it out because He has something way better than we have in mind! His goal is to grow us more into His likeness...we can't see that far ahead! One thing that really caught our eye (& ear) was the guitars and violins...I've never seen violins in a church in Mexico. (We learned on Friday that a missionary from the US lived and worked in this community and started this church from 40-50 years. She just passed away last year. I could only imagine that the violins were part of her influence. I couldn't help but wonder what other influence she had had on the church.) Another man, Hno David filled in for the pastor. Sunday morning, he spoke from Acts chapters 1-2.

Sunday afternoon, we came back to Eddy's house to eat lunch. Hna Isabel cooked and Eddy made a salsa for the meal. It was pretty tasty...but too hot for me to eat much of. Chris and Eddy ate most of it by themselves! Chris and I had pretty much decided that we were leaving on Monday morning, but we prepared to go to church just the same. We finally met Pastor Sergio...he made it back from Zacatecas where he had been visiting his family. His wife and kids didn't come to church because they had only gotten home 30 minutes before the service started. He seemed pretty nice as he greeted us as we came into church, but nothing really out of the ordinary. During the service, we were able to enjoy a special by the choir. After church, he asked to talk to us when everyone left. He asked a few more questions, and wanted to know how the church could help us...we told him just to pray! He was having a hard time understanding what we were doing because he was so tired from the travel, so he asked us if we would stay long enough on Monday to have breakfast with him and his wife, Laura. We agreed.

Monday (4/16) morning...oh what a surprise...we hit it off so well with both Pastor Sergio and Hna Laura. They are an amazing couple who are passionately in love with the Lord! We shared stories, and they asked tons of questions. They invited us to stay the week with them and work with them-sharing the Gospel, and to speak at all of the meetings that week...the discipleship class, men's and women's Bible studies, children's church, youth group, and at the main Sunday service. Before we knew it, it was lunch time, and Pastor Sergio had to go pick up Jassiel and Keyla (their youngest 2 children). By the time we were ready to eat, Isaí (their oldest) was home from school as well. After lunch, Jassiel taught Chris and I how to play chess. (It actually ended up being 3 versus 1 because Isaí was helping us since we didn't understand all of the rules.) We won, but at an extremely unfair advantage...Jassiel is really good at chess...he held us off for a couple of hours! Then we went with them to look at some German Shepherd puppies...they had a German Shepherd before, but he just died...he's the daddy of the puppies, so they get the pick of the litter.

Monday night, I cooked (for the first time in months) spaghetti (CE's favorite) for Eddy, Hna Isabel (Eddy's mom) and us. Afterwards, Pastor Sergio y Hna Laura picked us up to go to the funeral home. The daughter of a lady in the church had passed away, so they were invited to share with the family and friends there. It was interesting...not anything like I expected. The main family was in one room, but others were in this big open room. The mother had requested several hymns and asked for Pastor Sergio to share the Gospel. It was one of the clearest presentations that I have ever heard in my life. He explained God's love for us and His desire for us to live with Him forever, but the only way was through belief in Jesus Christ...not through good works or a church or anything else. I was pretty sure that Pastor Sergio was right on, but when I heard him share that message...oh, I knew it without a doubt that he is a man of God.

Tuesday (4/17) morning, we had met Pastor Sergio y Hna Laura to go out and share the Gospel. They started in one area of Gonzalez, and they are going to every house in Gonzalez to explain to them how to have a personal relationship with Jesus. They have little booklets of John and Romans that they use to explain salvation. If a person accepts Christ, they continue visiting and sharing more and more of the Bible until they come to church. Then they get those people involved in the Discipleship class to get them grounded in the Word of God. It's pretty awesome! They've begun this program to help people grow beyond baby Christians. That is the majority of what all the members of the church are right now. Unfortunately, the missionary that spent the majority of her life in this church didn't encourage growth or leaders within the church. So even though 50-60 of the people who are regular attenders at church and have been for their entire lives, they don't know how to pray, read the Bible, or share their faith. It's reallly sad...I'm sure that she did a lot of good too, but it's been a struggle for Pastor Sergio and Hna Laura to get people to step up and do things in the church.

The four of us had a great morning...2 little boys Vincente and Ivan accepted Christ at the first house that we stopped at. Two more accepted Christ at the house where Pastor Sergio & Hna Laura stopped at. Then we stopped at another house and 2 men accepted Christ--Don Crecencio (far right) and Jose Luis (left of CE)...the other man Alfredo (far left) is Don Crecencio's son and goes to the church we were working with. Another man accepted Christ with Pastor Sergio and Hna Laura. It was a great day!!

Tuesday afternoon, Jassiel played us again in chess...this time only against Chris and me, and he won! They are such a great family!!! We are really enjoying their company! Then we went to work on e-mail, pictures, etc.

Tuesday evening, we had a surprise from Isaí...he knew it was our 200th day of the road, so he thought we should celebrate with cake!! We were so pumped up! We couldn't beleive how thoughtful he was. He's very careful about how he spends his money, so we were really touched!! He told us later that he went with the intention of paying, but when he explained what it was for, they just gave it to him. Isn't God great...He knows the intentions of our hearts and gives us such great gifts! So we celebrated with cake and ice cream. We even got to meet another pastor--Maximino--who has started a brand new church plant in Gonzalez!

Wednesday (4/18) morning, Jassiel was sick and not able to go to school, so we weren't able to go out visiting again. Instead Chris and I listened to this great sermon called "The Fullness of the Holy Spirit." Wow! He was speaking straight truth from the Word of God!! He said "the problem with today's Christians is that they are trying to live the Christian life without the power of the Holy Spirit." It's so true...so often we try to do the good things or be good--act like a Christian...but if it's just ourselves making the effort, we fail! AND there's no joy! The Holy Spirit is the one who gives us "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" Gal. 5:22-23.

When we finished listening to that sermon, we had about an hour before lunch. Pastor Sergio wanted us to visit a couple of people. We went to see Julio, a man who was recently baptized, to encourage him in his faith. He desires to live for Christ, but he struggles with a drinking problem...it's a problem because it often takes the grocery money and his kids don't have food to eat. It's been a lot better since he met Christ, but he's still struggling. Please pray for him and his wife, Lety, she's got a lot of hurt inside of her because of choices that Julio has made. From there we went to visit, Juanita and her daughter, Milagros. Pastor Sergio y Hna Laura met Juanita because they learned that she was extremely depressed and thinking of suicide. She has 3 children, but her husband left over a year ago to go to the US to make more money for the family. She has no idea of when he is coming back...she is feeling the strain & her oldest son has begun to rebel. It's really sad. We talked with her and invited her to church. Please pray for her and her family as well!

Right after we left Juanita's house, Chris started feeling really sick. I felt fine, so we were pretty sure it wasn't something that he had eaten. After lunch he felt a little better, but not 100%. We've learned about spiritual warfare on this trip and how sometimes you can feel it physically. We're pretty sure that's what it was because that afternoon, Pastor Sergio and Hna Laura had a lot of questions about the Holy Spirit, and we had a really good time of sharing. Then Chris felt better...you see the power of the Holy Spirit is real, & the devil doesn't want people to know about. We must press on!! God will have the victory in the end!

Wednesday night, we went to the prayer meeting...it was really good too! So different with Pastor Sergio preaching...he's lead by the Spirit! After church we went to a Bakery that Hna Ninfa owns...we met Hna Berta (in yellow) who's a good friend on Hna Ninfa (seated) and Victoria (in tan), Hna Ninfa's daughter. We prayed for their businesses and sampled a little of the delicious bread that they made there. Hna Ninfa invited us to come back the following afternoon to share the Gospel with her husband and to pray for her son-Lazaro.

Thursday (4/19) we washed clothes and worked on writing most of the morning. That afternoon we went out as a church to knock on doors and visit people in the community. Quite a few ladies showed up...most of the men are still working at 4 pm, so they can't go. Pastor Sergio and Chris went together and he paired me up with Dora...he paired everyone so that there was one person who was comfortable sharing with people and one person who was going out visiting for the first time. The Holy Spirit was definitely leading...many people prayed to accept Christ. Dora was a perfect partner for me because I'm comfortable talking to people about Christ, but I'm not very good at reading the Bible in Spanish out loud. So Dora read the passages, and I explained them. Now she feels more comfortable sharing as well!! Chris and Sergio walked by the part of town where there was a soccer field. They handed out a bunch of tracts to the boys who were there playing, and they invited Chris to come back on Friday afternoon to play with them.

After visiting for a couple of hours, we went back to the bakery to pray for Hna Ninfa's son-Lazaro and to talk to her husband. When we got there, her husband was sleeping and her son had already left for Monterrey. He had an appointment with the doctor about his back early Friday morning. They were going to set up a time for surgery and give him a prognosis. We prayed for him anyway...knowing that God can hear us and be with him in the journey at the same time! We also had the opportunity to talk to one of Hna. Ninfa's grandsons about Jesus. He wasn't really interested though because he feels like he's too young to think about those kind of things.

From the bakery, we went to church to the discipleship class. There were quite a few people there...16 or so of us...some are new believers, but others have been Christians for a long time, but haven't grown spiritually. They are starting to get hungry now...Praise the Lord!

After the discipleship class, we went to Hno Fernando y Hna Norma's house for supper. A lot of their family was there, so we met tons of people!! We enjoyed great fellowship and food!! (And to think we worried about not having enough food to eat along the way! ha, ha, ha! God's provision is out of this world!)

Friday (4/20) morning was another workday for us in the morning...for lunch we went over to Pastor Sergio y Hna Laura's house. From their we went over to the soccer field. Chris was able to play quite a bit to start with, but then as other players started showing up, the teams had to rotate. While we were waiting for Chris's team to play again, we saw to boys sitting up in the corner of the bleachers reading the tract that Pastor Sergio and Chris had handed out on Thursday afternoon! We were so excited...and started praying for the seeds that were being planted!!

Friday evening, Chris shared at the Men's fellowship/ Bible study. He encouraged the men to step up and lead their familiies according to God's Word...to spend time with their children...throwing money at a child isn't love...that the money they earned wasn't theirs but a gift from God--use it for His glory. While Chris was sharing with the men, I shared with the Women's Auxilary. (The moment I walked in the door, Hna Ninfa called me to talk with her. Lazaro found out that he doesn't need surgery...the Lord has healed him! She was soooo excited! Praise God!!) They are having a Conference meeting soon, so they practiced some Bible trivia and Sword drills. Then I talked to them about love...you see, we can't live and walk in the power of the Holy Spirit without love...all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit are useless without love...the fruit of the Spirit can all be traced back to love. People should be able to look at our lives and know by our love that we are followers of Christ! Chris and I both really enjoyed our time with the two groups!!

Saturday (4/21) afternoon we went out visiting with Pastor Sergio while Hna Laura had a children's lesson at church. First we went to see some members of the church--Hno Catarino, Hna Marta, and their daughter-Mitzari. Hna Marta had been sick, and Pastor Sergio wanted to go by to pray for her and to see how she was doing. Come to find out, she had been given the wrong medicine at the pharmacy...she has high blood pressure, but they gave her an anti-depressant instead of her blood pressure medicine. It, of course, made her really sick. The box was exactly the same on the outside and the pills looked the same as well. Finally on Thursday, she realized that the name of the medicine wasn't right. One small word makes a big difference! She's doing better now...Praise God!

Our second visit was Pastor Sergio y Hna Laura's former neighbors-Cesar y Dora. (Cesar is also Isaí's technical drawing teacher at school.) Their daughter, Edna, lives in Lexington, NC. We couldn't believe the connection. We are hoping to connect her with some of the folks we met when we passed through Lexington almost 7 months ago on this journey! She has had a really hard time since she's been there. Her husband was very abusive and has a really strong drug addiction. She finally left him, but he has tried to take her children. Please pray for her and the children. Cesar and Dora invited us to come for Sunday breakfast with them. They wanted us to chat with Edna, so we agreed to come back.

Saturday evening we spoke to the youth group. We talked to them about being on adventure with Jesus and that He has a plan for them and a job for each of them! At the end of the meeting we chatted awhile with some of the teens...especially Elenita. She wanted to help us with some computer work and to help Chris find a new cap for his walking stick. He's worn through the one that Joey Herndon put on it in Thomasville, GA more than 6 months ago.

Sunday (4/22) morning we were walking to Cesar and Dora's house, but we had our packs on because we were going to speak to at children's church. We wanted to be authentic, so we needed the packs. I prayed specifically that day that we wouldn't have to get all sweaty before church...we had walked no more than 3 blocks, and one of the men from church stopped to give us a ride the rest of the way! Praise God! We had a good breakfast, and we were able to talk to Edna in North Carolina. Before we left, we invited Cesar and Dora to church that night to hear more of our story--What God had been doing.

Sunday school was good that morning...Pastor Sergio talked about how the religious sects of Jesus's time united despite their differences in order to kill Jesus. He asked us about our relationships with others...were they based on a mutual dislike of another person or were they based on Christ. The lesson reminded me of the message that we heard when we were in Nueva Rosita, Mexico...Jesus united people of different sects as well, but they were united because of the call He had placed on their lives...which are we? United in the love of Jesus for the sake of the call or are we united because of dislike or hate?

Chris and I spoke to the children's church during the morning service. We taught them a few new songs and they taught us a few as well. Then we shared with them about being missionaries for Jesus even now! They can ask Jesus to use their hands and feet daily to serve Him! They had questions for us, and we asked them about how they could be God's hands and feet here on earth. Then we played a few games to help them learn the memory verse, and we sang a little more.

For Sunday lunch, the Padron family invited us to eat with them because they were celebrating Sarai's 28th birthday!! It was wonderful being with a big family like that! We didn't get cake for my birthday, so we were really excited to celebrate with her and all the family! Hno Fernando played the guitar so that we could all sing Happy Birthday...her children and all of her nieces and nephews gathered around her to give her a hug and a kiss (& to get some cake!)

Sunday evening before church, Chris and I went over to Eddy's parent's house to pray for his dad, Don Antonio. He had been sick much of the week, and Hna Isabel asked us to come over to pray with him. From there we walked to church. Chris and I shared testimony of this journey...initally when we came into Mexico we were only sharing stories from the US. Although there's nothing wrong with that, God continues to move and to work in Mexico...so we wanted to share examples of the scripture from our time in Mexico. We were finally able to!! Chris also spoke with very little help from me!! Praise God for his language acquisition!! By the time we get to Peru, he won't need any help at all...He'll be helping me!! Many in the congregation were moved to surrender a little more to the Lord. It was an amazing night of the Holy Spirit just flowing. Pastor Sergio wrapped it all up so well...he had been taking notes while we spoke to offer a challenge to his flock!

After the service, we all had supper together...a Mexican covered-dish supper. Oh so tasty!! We fellowshipped with a lot of the people, sang some more with the kids, and played a little bit with the kids as well!

Monday (4/23) we worked most of the morning again...as we were leaving the Ciber Cafe, a familiar black SUV stopped right beside us...it was Prof. Aureliano who had given us a ride into Gonzalez. We had been to his house several times looking for him, but we never found him. We just thought we weren't supposed to see him again, but in God's time, he crossed our paths again. He told us that we could come by the school on Tuesday morning to see the school and visit with him. (Praise God!) It was pretty crazy because the place we were working is a different ciber than the one we had used the entire previous week. AND we were heading to Pastor Sergio and Hna Laura's house much later than we normally went to eat lunch...God's timing!!

Monday afternoon and evening we hung out at Pastor Sergio and Hna Laura's house. We played with Isaí, Jassiel, and Kenya along with Hugo and Nalleli (two kids from church) and several kids from the neighborhood. Pastor Sergio grilled out and invited all the kids to eat with us...along with the family from the church Martin and Erika (the parents) and Nalleli, Hugo and Kevin (the kids). We enjoy more good fellowship and tasty food!!

A few more pictures...1)Eddy's dog, Chispa...His name means spark because he bounces around like a little spark!! I never thought I could like a little dog like that, but he made me smile every time we got "home." No, that's not a straw around his neck...it's the plastic piece off of a toilet...he has to wear it so he can't fit through the holes in the fence!! Now you can understand why I smile!! 2) Roy Jr.--his first night at home with the family! 3) Keyla and RE with one of their rabbits...she also has a cat...I think she wants to be a vet when she grows up!!