LA FOGATA



Before dark the first arrivals played volleyball.



Around 25 young people sat by a fogata (bonfire) at the church in Nuevo Progreso.  They were singing, listening to music and eating food roasted over the fire.  It was very successful because everyone asked, "When can we do it again?"

They played volleyball and other games or just visited with one another.  Four churches were involved - one from nearby La Posta, another from Rio Rico, a group from the church of Pastor Jorge Lopez from Nuevo Progreso and Pastor Gerardo's youth.  One young person said it was a great opportunity to look for a future Christian husband or wife!  The loud sounds of energetic and active youth having a good time could be heard all over the neighborhood.

The following Monday the pastors of those churches and others met to discuss and plan more such events for their youth.  Our church has a lot of room outside for large numbers of people and this seems to be what everyone appreciates.  And we can think of no better use of the facilities!

Food Tables were set up around the fire.

MIRIAM

Miriam told us all about her past schooling and we now understand how she and Gerardo qualify to teach classes in adult education. Miriam completed seventeen years of school, including time in Bible school and three years in a school of dentistry. One and a half more years of school and she will qualify as a certified dentist ready for practice! It was a surprise to hear that she worked her way through school and accomplished so much.

Some time during high school she heard God call her into ministry. She struggled over whether or not to continue dentistry, but decided it would be a way she could minister to more people. She plans to finish her schooling when their children are older and she has more time.

Gerardo attended Bible school in Guadalajara and that's where the two met. They are not only well educated, but have spiritual depth and compassion for others. We thank the Lord for sending Miriam and Gerardo to our church in Nuevo Progreso.

Miriam holds a womens' meeting once a week for Bible study, prayer and fellowship. Some weeks the meeting takes place in a member's home. The women enjoy hosting the prayer meeting so they can invite their neighbors to join the fellowship. The picture shows a recent prayer meeting held on the other side of Nuevo Progreso.

GOD'S PROTECTION

We continue to hear of spirits being seen near the church in Nuevo Progreso. You are probably saying, "How much of this can we believe?" But because of past difficulties, we tend to believe the reports. The enemy has fought against a church at this location since the beginning. But this is where God told us to build!
Last year when flood waters surrounded the church, three children were playing near the water. A ten year old named Ilsy said they saw a figure all in white dressed like a woman. The figure was walking on the top of the water!
They ran home as fast as they could and later they told their story to Pastor Gerardo. He said there are several others who claim to have seen and heard strange things in the area.
Cartel members in Mexico seem to be terrorized by Santa Muerte, the saint of death represented by a skeleton in a robe. There are altars to Santa Muerte found on the roads and lately altars with candles around the image have been found near international bridges. Human sacrifice to Santa Muerte was reported last week in northwestern Mexico.
Could God be showing us that the fear of the supernatural is protecting the church? We have long prayed that the fear of God will strike those on the dark side and bring confusion on them.

EXTREME STORMS IN TEXAS

Thursday, March 29th dangerous storms moved through deep south Texas dumping up to six inches of rain in places and a lot of hail. McAllen which is 25 miles west of our home received the worst of the storm. There were tornadoes sighted in McAllen and south into Reynosa, Mexico.
Lloyd watched that night as a river of water flowed down the street in our trailer park. Anything not fastened down floated away. News showed pictures of one inch hail covering the ground in McAllen and drifts of hail blocking roadways. Car dealerships lost their entire inventory, roofs were blown off and neighborhoods were covered in water. And it was coming our way. We prayed especially for the church in Nuevo Progreso which is only eight miles south of where we live. The storm lingered most of the evening, causing major damage north and west of us.
Two days later on our way to the church we noticed that roads were dry and there was no mud. It had not stormed in Nuevo Progreso! The night of the storm a group of ladies met at the church to pray and some of them were from Reynosa. While praying they heard the news that tornadoes had been seen in Reynosa, but it was quiet and peaceful at the church in Nuevo Progreso. Later the ladies remarked that it was a blessing to have a peaceful haven of prayer, quiet and dry, while the storm was all around them. Many prayers were answered that night on both sides of the border.

ALTAR IN THE CHURCH

Pastor Gerardo and Miriam will use one of their new eight foot wooden benches for an altar where people can kneel in prayer in the church auditorium. They have read a lot of scripture lately emphasizing the need for an altar. Many times when the Israelites didn't have a temple they built themselves an altar, even while traveling.
It's exciting because it reminds us of time we spent at such an altar, or mourners' bench as it was sometimes called. Now the church needs small squares or samples of carpet for kneeling pads. The church in Nuevo Progreso continues to be a blessing.

GUITAR

Pastor Gerardo now has a very good guitar he can use either during church services or in his music classes. Brother and Sister Gene Easley from McAllen Church of God donated the guitar to him. Brother and Sister Easley used their guitar in their ministry, but since they no longer travel into Mexico they wanted our church to have it. The guitar is specially made to produce a high quality sound. Pastor Gerardo demonstrated it's quality by playing and singing us a beautiful song. Thank you Brother and Sister Easley for your generous gift!

The picture shows Pastor Gerardo playing the guitar. Now he and Miriam are praying for a drum set for the church.

YOUNG MAN DROWNS IN THE RIO GRANDE

A family lost their 21 year old son, Guillermo, Easter Sunday in the Rio Grande River about a half mile north of our church. Guillermo was the father of two small children.

Many families take picnic lunches to the banks of the river on holidays where they spend the heat of the day in the water and on the tiny beaches. Guillermo Sr. and Leticia who live near the church had seven children, all boys. Another of their sons was killed nine months ago in an accident with a horse. He was only 14 years old.

Pastor Gerardo said the sad news makes them want even more to have lots of youth events at the church. Young people in Nuevo Progreso need activities to keep them busy and safe.

THE GOOD SAMARITAN

"As a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, robbers attacked him and grabbed everything he had. They beat him up and ran off, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road. But when he saw the man he walked by on the other side. Later a temple helper came to the same place. But when he saw the man who had been beaten up, he also went by on the other side.
A man from Samaria then came traveling along that road. When he saw the man he felt sorry for him and went over to him. He treated his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put him on his own donkey and took him to an inn where he took care of him. The next morning he gave the innkeeper two silver coins and said, 'Please take care of the man. If you spend more than this on him, I will pay you when I return.'" Luke 10:30-35 (Contemporary English Version)
Our mission is like that of the Good Samaritan. So many times we see hurting and hungry people on our travels in Mexico; and we feel sorry for them. Like the Samaritan, we are ordinary people who feel compassion and want to lend a hand. People reach out to us and we ask ourselves, "What can we do to help?"
This pattern of the gospel has to be at the core of all we do. When we help the hurting and comfort them, we earn the right to tell them about Jesus.

TEN PEOPLE

Pastor Gerardo has set a goal to intercede in prayer for ten people. These ten people are unknown to him, they may be neighbors or they may live on the other side of Nuevo Progreso. They may be connected to the cartel, but he feels an urgency to pray for their conversion and deliverance from sin. His desire is for the ten newly converted people to become disciples until they are strong church leaders. We are joining Pastor Gerardo in his goal; this is the only way to break the back of evil in Mexico.

CHURCH SERVICE IN MEXICO

Miriam teaches Sunday School outside using the new tables and benches for her students.

While most North Americans sat in climate controlled comfortable churches, we sat on wooden benches in the unfinished auditorium with no roof for shade. Fine gravel made a hard surface for a floor. Winds whipped us, but that kept us from suffering from the noonday heat.

Lloyd had a message for the church. This picture shows him standing between Melo and Mario who were going to interpret his words for the small congregation. It was going to be interesting since we didn't know how much interpreting the men had done. First there were several songs, Miriam read the 37th Psalm, they prayed for the sick and then took an offering. Then Lloyd spoke about the need for churches to be revived using the scriptures about water wells. Abraham dug wells which were later filled in with dirt by enemy nations. Isaac came along years later and re-dug the wells, cleaning them out and finding fresh water. It was hard work and it caused trouble, but it was worth the effort.

Lloyd mentioned the church's problems concerning the black water north of us and how the enemy has tried to defeat us. He read the verses about the woman at the well and how she was promised living water so she would never thirst again.

After his message, Lloyd invited people forward to pray for each other. There was special prayer for those who need jobs right now. Apolinar came forward to be prayed for because he really needs a job.

Nayeli's husband Mario joined Melo to help interpret the message. It turned out to be a challenge for both of them but they did a good job and both seemed to enjoy the experience.

ADULT EDUCATION AND THE CHURCH

Pastor Gerardo and Miriam have the unique opportunity to work with the Mexican government along with some other teachers to further adult education in Nuevo Progreso. This is something they did in another state before coming to pastor our church. They are in charge of signing up adults in their area who want to learn to read and write, teaching them, testing them and finally certifying them. And much of this will happen in our church!
Gerardo and Miriam are excited about this new project, seeing it as a chance to meet new people. Having the newly built tables and benches will be a great help in the classes even if they were built with children in mind. There will be up to 10 adults in each class and they will meet to study together once a week.
In addition to reading, writing and mathematics, the people will have lessons in history and social studies. There are other subjects such as how to have non violent homes, how to raise children to be responsible adults, how to care for the land and how to avoid drug addictions.
The Mexican government is not only promoting literacy among adults, but is addressing many of their most basic problems. It's not a church based program, but Gerardo and Miriam will have the freedom to use God's word. We are very pleased that our church can be used in this worthwhile program.

BIRTHDAY FUN!

The wind whipped us as we sat under the big shade tree in Marcelino's yard. Things that weren't held down blew away, but the wind kept us from feeling the extreme heat. Marcelino grilled chicken while we visited and the kids played. It was Belen's fourth birthday. Belen is Marcelino's granddaughter, a shy little girl with dimples who is always smiling and happy.

When the chicken was charred and steaming, the women served dishes of macaroni, mashed potatoes and lettuce salad. Then there was a white layer cake covered with diced peaches accompanied by vanilla strawberry ice cream and after that a watermelon! Nothing was too much for this special little girl!

Belen grinned when everyone sang the Mexican happy birthday song. Then she attacked her large pinata until she opened up the bottom of the Cinderella figure. But she was premature in her sneaky attack on the pinata. The candy was still hidden in the kitchen. Later Belen's mother tossed the treats into the crowd of children and everyone was happy.

One Mexican birthday tradition is to push the celebrant's face into their birthday cake when they least expect it. Jaime made sure Belen didn't miss out on this fun experience. By the look on her face in the picture, Belen didn't consider it a pleasure.

APPARITION SEEN AT THE CHURCH

Pastor Gerardo said one morning they were getting ready to take the kids to school and it was still dark outside. Nahum ran outside to be first to get in the car; and seeing it was locked he looked inside and saw the form of a man with his hands on the steering wheel. It was ugly and angry looking. Nahum screamed and ran back in the house saying he had seen santa muerte, the spirit of death.

Gerardo ran outside and looked into the car. By that time the form had shifted into the back seat and he looked into a face with enormous white eyes. Strong fear came over him when he realized that this was something supernatural.

Somehow Gerardo got the boldness to command the thing to leave. When he said the name of Jesus, it completely disappeared.

The whole family gathered close together after that to pray. Gerardo said there have been no other such sightings at the church and everything is peaceful and quiet.

We realize that our church is being built on ground that has never before been claimed for the Lord. There are probably ancient demonic beings that have never been challenged and they don't want to leave their space. Since we began to plant this church we have had heavy opposition, but we know that God is greater than the enemy. He has given us victory.

Twelve year old Nahum is shown in the picture standing by his father Gerardo at the church in Nuevo Progreso.

MIRIAM STANDS HER GROUND!

The church property has always been a short cut from one colonia to another, eliminating a lot of rough roads. Last week three expensive pickup trucks drove up to the church wanting to drive through, but Gerardo and Miriam's car was blocking the way. The lead driver honked and honked and when he didn't get results, he got out and knocked on the church door. Miriam opened the door and the man told her to move their car so he could drive through to the other side. Miriam said NO! He could not drive the narrow trail into the neighboring colonia because he would be driving over their water lines and possibly cutting them. The man said, "Excuse me, I didn't know." And he and the others backed out and drove all the way around to the other side.
Gerardo said gang members drive these expensive trucks and are easy to spot because they are very demanding and pushy. Miriam showed a lot of courage standing her ground and the men were polite as they backed away. We have discussed putting up chains or gates at the north and south entrances to the church. We also plan to display notices that this is church property and not a public road. A dusk to dawn light was given to the church and it would be good to have this installed quickly.

CAMPANA - CAMP MEETING & EASTER

April 19, 20 and 21 an evangelist is coming from Matamoros to hold camp meeting at the church in Nuevo Progreso. A car with a loud speaker will go around town announcing that there will be music, preaching and prayer for the sick. They are proclaiming miracles at the campana! Jorge Leal, the district supervisor from the Church of God in Reynosa is providing a large lighting system since there is not yet electricity in the unfinished auditorium. Let's pray for souls to be saved and people healed at the camp meeting.

According to tradition, the church in Nuevo Progreso will meet at sunrise April 8 to celebrate the day of Resurrection. This 6:00 am service will be the only service of the day, the rest of the day being set aside for family gatherings.

Work continues slowly on the auditorium walls of the church in Nuevo Progreso.

DRUG & ALCOHOL REHABILITATION CENTER

Many years we visited the rehab center on the highway outside Rio Bravo in Mexico. With as many as 100 young people there at a time, their success rate was good. Government funded, the center was religion based and Bible scripture decorated inside walls. A cross was painted on the logo outside the gates. We took gallon cans of vegetables to the rehab center plus other large food items. Once we showed the Jesus Film and gave out New Testaments. So we were surprised to drive up to the gate and see that it was abandoned.

Because of violence on the highways, we had not driven outside Nuevo Progreso for a year. But since we had so many large containers of food, we decided to drive 15 miles to the center. Before we reached the entrance we could see the weeds growing up on the lane and the broken windows. The chainlink fence was there, but the place was deserted. We later learned they moved to Reynosa one year ago.

It's reported that gangs made targets of rehab centers all over Mexico. They harassed and bullied the isolated institutions until they were forced to move or close. The rehab center in Rio Bravo is another victim of the violence in Mexico.

The picture shows me (Joyce) with two young women being treated at the rehab center the last time we ministered there.