8 days, 1600 patients, 1000 Bibles, many stories!

Each year we have had the opportunity to host Rocky Mountain Ministries from Montana who put on a medical clinic here in San Carlos and surrounding area. For a total of 8 days we go to different locations and setup a clinic offering free medical care, medications, and reading glasses to all who came. By 10:00 am the clinic would be up and running and accepting patients. By the times the last tent came down on any given day anywhere from 200 to 250 people would have come through, either seeking medical attention or sporting a new pair of reading glasses.

Though it is rewarding to see so many physical needs met from people who just had bad colds to things more serious like a young woman who had appendicitis, the most rewarding part is to help meet the spiritual needs of the people. There was always a table setup, loaded up with Bibles and manned by people ready to pray, share, and speak to these deeper spiritual needs. Personally, this was the most exciting place to be! There was one woman who served in particular the entire week, Maria Jesus. She was rescued from a past of witchcraft and is now a powerful testimony for Christ, sharing boldly with anyone and everyone the truth of the Gospel.

I could share a number of stories, but one story jumps out in particular. Many times we pray in a situation like this that people would be drawn to this place, that people would see Christ in us and that they would sense His presence as they come. Well, God showed us the answer to that prayer in one man...I don't even remember his name! He approached our table and shared how he had once been a devout Christian but had walked away from the faith for the last number of years of his life. He shared how he had a gift of discernment and as he was walking in the street past the clinic he could see a light coming from this place. He could sense God's presence and knew that he needed to come and to give his life back to the Lord. So, with pleasure we prayed with him and for him, and could see the joy in his heart at having come back.

If you want to see a 20 minute video highlighting the week of medical clinics check out this video!

It's exciting to see God touch one life at a time and it's also exciting that we can be a part of that in His ordained time and way. Thanks to those who have been praying! I can't say it enough how you are an invaluable part of this ministry!

Dios te bendiga!

4 Walls and a House...

Yes, four walls usually equals a house but in this case the Winkler MB church youth and later the adult team managed to put up four walls in addition to a little one room house for a young woman in need in a needy area of Guaymas called Fatima.

I'm sure many of you have heard about the pastoral house project that we have taken on this winter and I want to share just one of the stories that have come out of working in that community.

Last spring we were handing out food hampers in Fatima with a team. Each recipient was asked if there was something that we could pray for. One young lady, Elsa shared about her lifestyle caught in drugs and how she wanted to be free from that. The team prayed for her and to God's glory, shortly after that she left that lifestyle and began regularly attending Pastor Rafael's church where she still goes.

She has two sons, one two year old and a 3 month old. Her husband left her and she was living with her mother though it was not a healthy environment for neither herself or her sons. When the youth group came on the scene, she was living in the church temporarily until something else could be arranged.

Her situation touched the hearts of several people on the team and they as a group decided to take a love offering to raise money to build her a place to live. The next day they began to put up a 12' by 16' quarter on a piece of property donated by a member of Pastor Rafael's church. They finished the house and the adult team that came in right after them were able to paint and furnish the place. The last evening they were in Mexico, they were able to deliver the keys over to her in an emotional farewell.

The pastoral house projects is still going and we praise God for providing for these types of physical needs but we praise God even more for touching people's lives as He did in Elsa's case and as He does so often!

Check out the updated photo gallery to view pictures of this and more!

Feliz Navidad!

Wow...it's hard to believe that Christmas is here! For those of you who grew up with the usual snow on the ground and Boney M version of Feliz Navidad playing on the radio in the background, you would know what I mean! (Thankfully...) there is no snow on the ground! And well, no Boney M...I think I'll survive! But Christmas in Mexico will be exciting as well! Here's a look back on the last couple of weeks and what's been keeping us hopping here since our trip into the Copper Canyon:

Putting on a church roof...

Over the past two years a church in Guaymas, Iglesia de Dios has been tirelessly working at building a new church building. A church from Crystal City, MB helped purchase the bricks over a year ago and they have been busy ever since putting up the walls. This past November a good friend Jeremy and his wife Alana came down from this same church in Crystal City with the intent to construct a metal roof for this church, a fair sized undertaking considering it is about a 30' by 60' building. And over the past couple of weeks with the help of various teams we were able to get the roof done as well as the electrical wiring for the building. Praise God! We are pretty exciting in seeing this project come to a completion! This was probably one of the first churches that I remember visiting during my first year here. I remember it quite distinctly because it was a dark, dingy, small building built of wooden pallets nailed together with a tin roof. I know that God never puts much thought into where He "takes up residence" (especially considering that His first "earthly home" as a human was in a stable of all places!) But I remember when we visited as a team, we had to cram into that place to find a place to sit! If nothing else, a larger place of worship as definitely in order!

So, to see this project come together after the sacrifice of not only a number of teams but seeing the church itself pour hours of fund raising and hard work into it as well, has been a blessing! One evening, after the first pieces of tin were fastened on, we took part in a moving evening service with them where the pastor himself was in tears overwhelmed at seeing the project coming to a completion. An elderly man shared, through tears as well, how for years he had been praying he would live to see the day when a new church building could be built to replace the old shack they used to worship in, something worthy of the God they served!

Backpack Ministry

The San Carlos Community Church, a local body of English speaking believers takes on a ministry of giving out backpacks every Christmas season. This year well over 600 backpacks were packed and distributed to different local churches in the days leading up to Christmas. Each pack is filled with some school supplies, age appropriate toys and most importantly a Bible. We visited about five or six different churches having a bit of a program with the children and then handing out the backpacks.

One boy in particular sticks out in my mind, really bringing into perspective the whole idea of gift giving in this Christmas season. He was the son of a pastor whom I had gotten to know well over the past couple of years. After receiving his backpack he came to me super exciting over one of the things in particular that he had received. He shared, almost with tears in his eyes, how he had been praying for this exact thing. Any guesses as to what it might have been? How about this: a little LED flashlight...nothing special - something you could probably pick up at a dollar store, but this more than made his day! Kinda helps to put into perspective the whole idea of gift giving...or perhaps more so gift receiving! Also kinda neat to see how God takes care of us and even these smallest desires that we have! How much joy He must have had in answering this boy's prayer of faith?!

Looking ahead...

A couple of days after Christmas things are really going to start hopping as a youth group from Winkler, MB arrives. Along with them and the financial help from their church we will begin one of the bigger projects this winter: building a pastoral house. I look forward to keeping you posted not only on the project but also the stories along the way of how we see God moving!

Thanks so much for the prayers along the way! Feliz Navidad!