Meeting More People!

Jaime and Lupita have been very busy sharing their new faith in Christ with all of their families, friends, neighbors, co-workers, etc. They have especially been sharing with their families, even thought it has not always been very welcome. At last the opportunity came! Our family went to visit with the extended families of our disciplees, Jaime and Lupita. We can now say that we have met Jaime's entire family! We know his 3 brothers and their families and his mom and dad. We enjoyed talking with them. We were able to leave a good impression of Christianity with them. We say this because we have recieved feedback from his family on our visit. We have also met most all of Lupita's family. We lack one sister to yet meet. We talked well with Lupita's mom and two sisters. In the morning Jaime and his mom went to buy some bread for breakfast. On the walk his mom mentioned that we were very full of peace. I guess that is what we are called to; to be peacemakers. I hope we left some of that "peace that passes all understanding" with Jaime and Lupita's families!

We ate together with each family and had a positive time talking. They have invited us back whenever we can come. We left some Bible League materials for Lupita's family. There were no decisions, but there were seeds planted. We will be following up with them through Jaime and Lupita.

One amazing result of this time is that Jaime's mom, who has not kept in good touch with him, has begun to call regularly. Jaime had a chance in an hour long call one day to ask for forgiveness. They cried together! I believe she sees a big change in Jaime's life. Praise the Lord! He has been fasting in prayer for her, since she became really sick after our visit. He thought she might blame him and us for her sickness, saying that we put some kind of "spell" on her, but to the contrary she never said a thing!

We saw good fruits of our time and are pleased to be able to share with you all!

We were driving in the car one evening, heading over to the Northeast side of town. We had just had a wonderful evening chatting about various things, including God. Jaime stretched and put his hands behind his head as if gesturing contentment and said, "It is just so fun to be with your family. Your family is peaceful. You don't have to be drinking to have fun. And your words are positive and give life to us." Betty and I felt a great sense of satisfaction. We know why we are peaceful. We give glory to God! We know why we can enjoy life in its simplest ways. We give glory to God! We know the importance of being kind and positive and we know that our words are life giving. It is because we give glory to God, the Giver of life! We want simply to live our lives and use our words and opportunities to give glory to God and to bring all people to Christ and to maturity in Him. So when we hear words like those of Jaime we feel that we are doing just what our Lord has called us to!

I went to a store one day and began talking with the owner. Another guy came in and joined our conversation. As the owner left to do something I continued talking with the other man. By the end of our conversation he asked if he could have Bible studies. I was absolutely amazed and excited. We have seen this place to be a little bit hard in the past couple of years, but I saw a change that day. I saw a person hungry for the Lord. I saw all of your prayers and the prayers of everyone beginning to take effect. I saw God softening this man's heart and I am truly excited!

A few days ago I was given the opportunity to speak at a state pastor's conference in a state north of us. I wasn't the main speaker, I just got to say a few words about Aguascalientes and our ministry here. In front of over 350 pastors I shared about the ministry here. After the meeting I made a few contacts with people who were interested. I praise God for the time I had to plead for prayer from other pastors around Mexico and to make new acquaintences!

We continue our discipleship with Jaime and Lupe and Karen. Every week we see them grow in the Lord and we watch them mature on their own. It is an often occurence to hear them say something very fundamental and mature and we ask how they learned that. They will say, "Oh I was reading in I John the other day", or "I was reading a passage about so and so in Isaiah". We are tickled to see their hunger for God!

Our entire team is together! Edwin and Maria Giron and family and settled in and we had our first team meeting together. Our family and Andrea Byrne and Candi Foster are thrilled to have the Girones join us. We have planned many activities to help incorporate them into our ministries and missions team. We hope they feel welcome and hope to see God use all of us together to form the new local churches of Christ Jesus called "Friends" here in Aguascalientes!

Tommorow (February 21, 2008)I will be taking a conference in Puebla, Mexico and then visiting the church in Mexico City and then doing some legal visa stuff and then continuing some other conferences in Pachuca Mexico until the 1st of March. We would love for you to pray for us during this time. Edwin will be joining me and we will be leaving our families at home. Please pray for safety and fruitfulness for us and for safety and fruitfullness for our families as they stay in Aguascalientes.

Burr, it is cold outside. Days in Aguascalientes are in the mid 70's to lower 80's during the day and high 30's to low 40's during the nights. This makes for good colds and flus! We are doing pretty well, though we each have colds at the moment. We praise the Lord for the opportunity to be here to minister in the name of Jesus to our friends and acquaintences here in Aguascalientes. We continue to meet new people and have moved in to evangelism and even discipleship phases now. We share discipleship with Jaime and Lupita. They are so pleased and blessed to know the Lord and take every opportunity to let it be known. To see how their lives have changed is nothing short of outstanding. Jaime has recieved some slack from his family and co-workers, but he is proud of his relationship with Jesus and knows that there is nothing more valuable than knowing Christ.

On December 16th our team had a Christmas event for all our friends and acquaintences. About 30 people came, including some new people we had not met. We each shared a part in the event and I was privileged to lead a devotion. I asked for a time of thanking God for the blessings of the year and Jaime and Lupita both shared about coming to know the Lord. Cris, one of Andrea's friends also shared about coming to Christ this year. This event was very successful and I see the people we invite beginning to interact in a closer way each time. We try to have these events once every three months to encourage fellowship and shared time in God's word. This is in adition to our weekly or biweekly Bible studies and Celebration services we have once each month.

Betty and I enjoy talking in the evenings about the many things we see God doing in Aguascalientes. We look forward to watching God move more and more during this next year when we will be welcoming Edwin and Maria Giron and family to our team!

I think of the times when Paul would give thanks to those who had encouraged him, supported him, prayed for him and given. When I read through those passages I feel stirred in my heart by the Lord to do the same for each of you who encourage us, support us, pray for us and give to us, for us or for the Aguascalientes ministry. I want to let you know how much we appreciate you for everything you do. We praise God for caring people like each of you and we thank you so much!

Celebration Services

On November 4 our missions team gathered together with the new Christians that we have reached so far for a time of gathered celebration in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! We had 9 baby Christians gathered with us as we learned of each other, sang, and shared from God's Word on our purpose in life. Afterword we ate together and enjoyed a great time of fellowship. It was a very moving time to see the beginnings of the formation of a new local body of Jesus Christ in Aguascalientes, Mexico!

Ealier in the morning on November 4th we took our team and their disciples to a village outside town and handed out over 50 packages of blankets, baby clothes and little jars of coffee to people who desparately needed them. This was an opportunity to get to know the people, share our love with them, and help the new Christians get a flavor for physical acts of the love God gives us to give others. Everybody was impacted in a very positive way! Thank you to all the people (Arvada Friends of Colorado, Chandler Friends of Oklahoma, and all the others that I'm not immediately remembering) who sent blankets and baby clothes to Aguascalientes last year!

October 22-26 I attended a church planting conference in Pachuca, Mexico. I received some great training from the Bible League, Mexico. They have training that is proven from over 50 years of experience. I appreciated being able to learn alongside many other Mexico pastors and church leaders. I also am happy to have recieved the training in the Spanish language. This will aid in our being able to quickly use the material for discipleship and church planting!

Betty and Bethany both had birthdays in October which gave us ample opportunity to again invite our friends who we are reaching for Jesus. Bethany had 7 school friends at her little party.

We continue to meet with Jaime, Lupita and Karen regularly for discipleship. They have finished the first of several phases of discipleship. They amaze us every time we meet and bring up awesome spiritual truths that they have learned from their daily time in God's Word. Betty and I often look at each other and giggle with an astonishment at the hand of God at work in their lives! Karen has lead a person to Jesus and is now learning how to disciple her friend!

The other day Betty and I had breakfast with some of the parents of Bailey's classmates. We enjoyed meeting new people. It has become easy for us to wonder what God has in mind for the people we meet. We also had a good moment visiting with another couple that we have continued to get to know for the last year.

We had a good time of prayer walking and ministering during the "Festival of Death" that occurred here in Aguascalientes during the Halloween time. We handed out about 30 gospel tracts and enjoyed watching God's hand move and feeling the prayers of many people. We want to thank Friends Community Church of California who put on a prayer event for us during this oppresive time of year in Aguascalientes. We really felt covered, praise God!

Please pray for us during this holiday season as we continue to make friends, evangelize, and disciple those who have come to Christ Jesus as their Savior.

Betty has been meeting with a few friends for breakfast once a month or so. She has been gaining their trust and friendship. Their names are Karla, Xochitl, Veronica, and Selene. We, as a family have been to Karla's home to eat with her and her husband, Ivan and family a couple times already. We have been to Veronica's boy's birthday party and met her family. What a joy it is to see how God moves and brings us into people's lives like He does. We trust God and He leads us in incredibly ways!

On September 15 we had a Noche Mexicana party in our home to celebrate Mexico's Independence Day. Their were 43 people in our home that night with some friends from each of our team members. We had a great time of clean, healthy fun. It was a time to bring people together and have them see our tranparency and desire to let them know us. It was a wonderful trust building event. we ended about 1:00am in the morning and with a messy home, but hey!

This last weekend we were invited to go camping with a couple families from Bethany's school. Though it poured down rain right before we left and rained on us all night we had a perfect afternoon and evening and a beautiful morning in which it didn't rain. The rain made one family pack up and leave at 3:00am in the morning, but that left us with the other family to spend the next morning with, until 2:00pm in the afternoon. We were able to have some great time getting to know them and have them get to know us. We shared our testimonies with them and had some really good spiritual conversations with them. We shared with them our reason for being in Aguascalientes and shared what God has done for us. What a fantastic time it was. We felt them sensitive and understanding of our message of sharing Christ. We hope this opens up more opportunities to share more deeply and directly with them!

Wow, God begins to move and then doesn't stop! We have had a wonderful time lately working with Jaime and Lupita and their daughter Karen,and Carmen whom have just accepted Christ as their Savior! Our discipleship with them is going very well. They are like sponges at this moment; sucking up everything they can. In the last month that they have been Christians they have shared with many people. Some with good results, others not so good, but it has not deterred them. They have each shared with their family members and Jaime has shared with 3 co-workers. He even asked for a scripture portion for one of them! They told us the other day that they took down the idols, the altar to the Virgin Guadalupe and all the magazines, music and movies that they felt bad about, and destroyed it. The wonderful thing is that we didn't mention a thing to them. They themselves were convicted by the Holy Spirit and acted in obedience! We took them through the steps to freedom in Christ, due to a family history of witchcraft. That was very freeing and left us all in tears. They are so impressed with their new life in Christ and continually mention, "All the times we have been to mass and have never heard about what we are learning in the Bible". They are so thankful for what God has done for them!

These are the stories we have been waiting for. What a humbling effect it is to see the Lord works in the ways He does! We invite each of you to share with us in the lives of these people by praying for them; asking God to continue to show Himself to them and soften their hearts. Please pray for our friends Jaime and Lupita, their daughter Karen, and Carmen that God would reaveal himself more and more to them, that they would withstand any attack Satan may use to thwart them, and that they would become Christians who would stick close and grow closer to Christ for the rest of their lives! Praise the Lord!

Betty met Lupita, our family hair stylist, a little over a year ago. Lupita and her friend Carmen started their own hair salon 10 months ago and Betty followed them since she liked their abilities. They have always known we were Christians and had questions on and off during these last months. They asked about the differences between Christians and those who were not. Lupita mentioned once that she had a lady come and talk to her about Christ, but she felt forced and offended by the lady. Betty knew right away that she couldn´t use her words, but only actions to minister to Lupita and Carmen. A lot of times it is easier to talk about the Lord than it is to live your life for Him. For the last many months we have simply cared for them and loved them.

In August we began inviting them into our home to eat and visit together. This is when we met Lupita´s husband Jaime and their daughter Karen (nine years old). They enjoyed the times we spent together so much that they invited us out to eat. They started sharing their life’s stories with us. We began hearing that Jaime’s family practices different forms of witchcraft. Lupita’s and Carmen’s family are extremely devout Catholics. They eventually began sharing more and more personal things with us. Lupita, one day, shared with Betty about her life growing up with a abusive alcoholic father. Betty felt for her and understood her well. Carmen accepted Christ in her heart on a Sunday morning during one of our celebration services. We gave Carmen a gospel of John from the Bible League to start reading. She read half of it in a week (though it should normally take 4-5 weeks to get through the studies). She then lent it to Lupita to read. When Lupita would put it down Jaime would grab it and read. When there was any chance in between Karen would read little bits. Then one Saturday night we were eating together and Jaime had begun sharing about reading the book of John. He had also grabbed his Catholic Bible and read Revelation. We took advantage of the moment to ask if he wanted to know what he was reading about. Betty felt like she was playing the role of Phillip when he spoke to the eunich about understanding what he was reading. Believe it or not we spent 6 hours with them that night until a little after 1:00 in the morning! We took them home at midnight and they invited us in to their home to talk a little more. This began a four week process of sharing and talking with them about God and what He means to us.

On September 9, 2007 we had everybody over to our house to celebrate Lupita’s birthday. She was very touched that we thought of her because she hadn’t had a birthday party before. After everybody had left and we were their with just Jaime, Lupita, Karen and Carmen we began talking again and Betty began reading the first section of John and asked the questions for them all to answer. She wanted them to learn how to do the studies. We gave them all their own books. The moment came when we felt they were ready. We asked them if they understood what we were asking them and Lupita, as if she had been a Christian for years, spoke up and, between her tears said, “Yes, it means that we know we have done many bad things in our lives. We are not worthy of salvation, but Christ came to die for us and rescue us and give us eternal life. I want to believe and want to accept Jesus in my heart”. Jaime mentioned that he was ready the week before, but didn’t feel his wife was ready and wanted to wait for her! Then he started crying along with her. They hugged each other and then we prayed together to lead them to the Lord.


Jaime and Lupita then shared about what had been going on in their lives the last few weeks before this time came. Jaime’s brothers began noticing that he was not around on the weekends to hang out with them. They asked him what was going on and he shared that he had some new friends with whom he had been sharing time together and eating. He told them that his new friends were Christians. Lupita told Jaime, “Don’t tell your brothers that our friends are Christians because they might make fun of you or attack you or chastise you”. Jaime told her, “More the reason I want them to know”. He knew he wanted to become a Christian and didn’t want to hide at all! The day he accepted Jesus as Savior he mentioned that he was waiting for the phone call from his mother, asking, “What in the world did you do”? He was looking forward to telling her! Lupita said her mom and sisters may not like her choice, but her family is her husband and daughter and she feels salvation is more important. She said, “I want to thank you so much for touching my life the way you have and for being patient and just loving us”. Then Betty told them that today your names are written in the Lamb’s book of life and today is not only your physical birthday, but also your spiritual birthdays. Then everybody had another good cry! Jeremy prayed for them and asked for God’s protection over them and blessing for them as new children of His.

We have learned through this journey that it is equally important, if not at times more, to minister to others through our lives. People have heard preaching and words, and they are a little tired of it. When a person meets a Christian who loves God and lives Christ out through their lives they are touched. We have heard this different times from people we have met here. Jaime told us out of the blue one evening that he was turned off by the Catholic religiosity here. He then sighed deeply and said, “But with you guys I see fruits”! Wow! What a humbling and great feeling moment we had.

This is the most wonderful ending to their spiritual search and the most wonderful beginning of their new lives in Christ! They are finishing the Gospel of John and this next Sunday (September 16, 2007)we will begin our Bible study/dischipleship with them.

Betty met Lupita’s sister last night. Another journey has begun!

View Album

Get your own

This past week has been a very busy ministry week! We are tired, but in a great way. We visited around with several of our friends.
We clearly watch them now as they begin to open up to us in a way we hadn't seen just a month ago. Varenka and her mom spilled their lives to us last Wednesday. Betty and I prayed for them right there in there business!
In the last 3 weeks we have seen our relationship blossom with our friends Jaime and Lupita and their 9 year old daughter, Karen. Also with their friend, Carmen. They are very hungry to know about God and we have taken every opportunity to share the Good News of Jesus with them. Carmen has accepted Jesus Christ as her Savior and Jaime and Lupita are very close! We gave a book of John to Carmen and she finished it and gave it to Lupita to read. While Lupita is busy and not reading Jaime picks it up and reads it!
We went to Bethany's PTA meeting and afterword I (Jeremy) was invited to play soccer this Thursday (08/06/07) with a man named Francisco, whom I have been talking with for a year.
We are so excited! We have counted around 10 couples with families who we are working with at this moment. The number constantly changes, but the exciting thing is that we have lots of ministry opportunities!
One thing we have learned is that Aguascalientes people are open, but leary when it comes to discussing Christ and His salvation for us. They will talk, as long as each party respects the others beliefs, but living out our actually daily lives as Christians in love with God before their eyes has produced results. We believe this to be the way into people's lives. Other missionaries here have told us (and we have experienced) that Mexicans will read right through your intentions with ease. We know that being a friend who cares is extremely important and we praise God for revealing this to us!!!