Each Friday evening, our church unites for prayer and fellowship. However, the location rotates each week between different homes. In early December, we hosted our church prayer group at our house- what a blessing! We had 34 people in our home! I marvel to see how the Holy Spirit draws members of our congregation to seek Him in prayer, and continues to grow our church, in just the short months we have been here. Praise His Name!!
Thanksgiving in Mexico? No, unfortunately, it is not a Mexican holiday. However, our Mexican church in Tlaxcala does indeed set apart a day of thanks to the Lord in November- the "celebration of the first-fruits".
"First-fruits" refers to the Old Testament command to set aside the "first" products, or "fruits", of the harvest to give as an offering of thanks to the Lord for his provision. None in our congregation is a farmer, and therefore, does not have a literal harvest to reap. However, each does have an income! We were encouraged to use the money the Lord had provided to "harvest" an offering of groceries to give to the Lord (imagine you are harvesting cobs of corn as you reach for cans on grocery store shelves :) ).
The celebration was indeed moving- many had tears in our eyes as we shared individual testimonies of thanks for the Lord's goodness this year, and passed forward as a family unit to give our offering. It was with great joy that much of Paco's family joined us for the event!
Afterwards we shared a "thanksgiving" potluck dinner together- I prepared the U.S. traditional thanksgiving pumpkin and apple pies to feel more at home :). Such blessed fellowship!
The offerings of groceries collected at the celebration were given to families in great need around our church. I witnessed one lady, Lupita, receive her groceries from the congregation with tears in her eyes and recognition that her God loved her and had seen her need! So exciting to be a part of God's call to others!
In November, Samaritan's Purse hosted a children's ministry training session in Huamantla, Tlaxcala (an hour from us) to train children's ministry teachers, in order to disciple the children who come to accept Christ in our upcoming Christmas evangelism events ("Operation Christmas Child"). A group of youth and adults from our church attending the training.
We received examples of songs, attention-grabbers, games, crafts, as well as were provided with complete lesson material for a 3-month discipleship course. Such a blessing! Plus, we were reminded of the great importance and Biblical command of discipling children- before the world "disciples" them in violence and self-focus through television, internet, dangerous peer influences, poor family examples, and more.
We thank the Lord for this training opportunity and material for our church. May the Holy Spirit guide and empower us to lead these children to the truth of God!!
On November 1st and 2nd, "Living Waters" hosted an evangelism conference in Puebla, Mexico. Many pastors and congregants from various churches in the region attended, including our youth group and members of our local congregation in Tlaxcala.
This region has a great need for the truth of the Gospel. Puebla, Mexico is full humanistic ideas (a.k.a. City of Ideas), idols, and false-religious traditions. The very weekend of the evangelism event, an atheism conference by Richard Dawkins was also being held, as well as the traditional ‘Day of the Dead’ holiday which Mexicans celebrate with altars in their homes giving offerings to the deceased.
In the midst of much idol and demon worship, God did an amazing work in Puebla during the conference as the biblical gospel and evangelism were taught and proclaimed over a three day period! People came up in tears after the teachings, including two pastors lamenting that they themselves had failed the ‘Good Person Test’ realizing they were guilty according to God’s standards and admitted that they had not been teaching the people in their church what they should be teaching. Our youth and church group were reminded of the dire importance of and Biblical command to share the Gospel, and were better trained to evangelize in our area.
We thank God for these conferences, and continue to pray that God would draw many to Himself in this region, turning them from idols to serve the true and living God!
