Youth Photo Scavenger Hunt!!

 

 

Our youth group celebrated Valentine’s Day with a fellowship outing to the village square and a wild and crazy photo scavenger hunt!  What a way to promote friendship on the "day of love and friendship" (as Mexicans refer to Valentine's Day). 

Divided into three teams, we raced to take pictures of each designated category: a tattoo, the craziest hair, a superhero pose, crammed into a tiny space, person in uniform, a romantic moment, upside down, and more!  (The more creative the photo, the more points awarded)

The game had us all laughing (both together and at one another J).  A new youth even attended, and fit right in with the group.  We pray that he will continue to attend, and that the Lord would continue to strengthen the unity and love in His body of youth! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Valentine Couples' Dinner

This Valentine’s Day, we planned a romantic, evangelistic dinner for couples in the church and the community.

The mood was successfully romantic- with red heart decorations and candles

prepared by the youth group, an Italian dinner prepared by one of the brothers in the congregation, couples’ photos, the movie “Fireproof”, a movie-ticket raffle, and a Biblical message on God’s plan and salvation for marriages in Jesus Christ.  The youth also provided childcare, so the

couples could enjoy a true date-night

Sixteen couples attended (a third of which do not attend church), and left floating-on-air!  One couple commented afterward: “Wow- is that what Christians are like?” in

amazement at the love they saw and felt.  Two of the couples had never experienced a restaurant dinner with their spouse before in all their years together- it was a romantic first for them!  Another of the new couple attended church the following week with us.

We pray that the LOVE of JESUS CHRIST will fill each of the lives and marriages of these couples!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Regional Pastors' Conference

    

Calvary Chapel held a pastors’ conference for the central Mexican churches in beautiful Cuernavaca.  Paco attended, along with another leader from our church, and other leaders in our area.  The weather was warm, the facilities stunning, and the conferences challenging- such a blessing.  Plus, Paco had the opportunity to meet other Calvary Chapel pastors in our area, and remain informed on the

plans for our church movement. 

 

 

 

"The Greatest Adventure"- New Sunday School Program

          After our evangelistic children’s events in December, we revamped our Sunday school program to more effectively minister to the children the Lord brings to our congregation. 

We formed three classes (2-6 year olds, 7-10 year olds, 11-14 year olds), which required three classrooms- a challenge for our unfinished auditorium building!   With a little ingenuity, we hung tarps in the church to form 3 class-areas (sight-proof, though unfortunately not sound-proof!), and set up a tent outside for the littlest ones.   More classes also require more teachers, and from the

congregation we recruited 9 children’s teachers for the task.

We have been studying “The Greatest Adventure” discipleship program by Samaritan’s Purse- and are having a blast!  Though we saw a drop in attendance after the first class, we cannot deny that the children the Lord returns

each week are excited and participative. 

May the Lord continue to direct us to minister to His children with His truth and love!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Celebrating Youth Service at Children's Festivals

Our youth group worked hard to make our 5 children's events possible- learning choreographies, practicing the evangelistic skit, making posters, decorating, and more.  We are so proud of and thankful for them!!

As a show of our thanks to them and to the Lord for the work in the children's festivals, we had a youth celebration.  Each youth had the opportunity to give a testimony of how they had witnessed God working in the lives of the children in the events.  3 of the youth boys even teared-up remembering the joy of the children upon receiving their gifts! They were definitely impacted by the Lord's power at these events.

After our time of testimony and thanks to the Lord, we prepared a "Disk-ada"- an iron disk skillet over a bonfire filled with all types of meat (hot dogs, ham, ground beef, bacon, sausage, steak pieces).  The youth had a blast around the bonfire, and ate meat in tortillas until stuffed! 

FESTINIÑOS Children Festival at our Church!

Festiniños- our evangelistic Christmas children´s event, was held at our church on January 4th. 

The entire congregation spent months in preparation for the event- praying for the children, making costumes, practicing the youth skit and choreography, purchasing the snacks and materials.  It was awesome to see the whole congregation united and actively working to expand the Kingdom of God!

Samaritan´s Purse blessed us with 80 gifts for the children, and, amazingly, exactly 80 children came!!  Each was given a gift as a symbol of Jesus´ love and gift of salvation for them.

These 80 children rotated though 5 different stations of activities and dialogues of Christmas characters, where they heard over and again the Gospel message of salvation in Jesus Christ.  They were also invited, along with their parents, to join us regularly on Sundays to continue learning about Christ.

Amazingly, the very next day, 50 of the 80 children arrived at church for Sunday School.  May the Lord continue to disciple these little children that He has called, and guide us as a church to minister to them!!