NLM 2018 Letter of Thanksgiving

Dear Friends and Family,

The day of Thanksgiving has arrived again, and so quickly it seems. Once again,we thank all of you for your prayers and support for Don and I and for the ministry. We are excited to be home and are back at work. Dwight and Sarah are hosting the entire church at the Oasis for our Thanksgiving Celebration on Saturday, Nov. 24th.

Don and I have been safely in Papalote for a month now. Buzzing around getting a lot of things done that were waiting for us. I am teaching “Preparing Capable Teachers” for two weeks, beginning on Monday. I have also been doing nursing, as it comes. We are both well.

Here is a little glimpse of our scheduled agenda…

December 1-3: Trip to Vizcaino
December 15 – Jan 3: To Oregon to get Don’s last prosthesis. The process takes a couple of weeks.
January 3 – Jan 13: To Alaska with Dwight and Sarah Hires to a Mission Conference in Soldotna
January 13: Meet our new interns from Oregon and Washington to travel south to Papalote together

Churches of Baja California Norte and Baja Sur

The Lord has been good. Pastoral leadership has been solid and mature. Superintendent Ramon has been able to meet the needs of the conference churches with confidence. We met several new families who have come to Christ in the past months through the Compassion Ministry.

There are around 13 core students attending the Seminary. Several are mature couples which is exciting for the staff. They have begun fund raising activities for short-term mission trips in the spring. One trip to Vizcaino, and one of graduating students to Oaxaca.

November… month of quinceaneras here in the Papalote church. Very interesting and fun.

Mitla, the Koinonia Church

Pastor Diego and the church are beginning construction on a retaining wall and backfill in preparation for building to a “templo” (sanctuary) that can seat 300 persons. The church is full to overflowing using the classrooms for services. They and we are praying the Lord will send a team to build the sanctuary walls and roofing in the fall of 2019.

A new family group seeking the Lord has begun discipleship in the outskirt town of Mitla, called Zaaga. There are 4,000 people and the presence of an evangelical church is absent.

Chapultepec, Camino de Paz Church

Pastor Senen and Bernardita held the first Christian quincinera (15 years old) for our little Sara inChapultepec, November 15th. A real miracle happened. Five of Senen’s sister were there (see picture above). He has been rejected by them because of Christ all these years. But his testimony has remained unmovable.

Sara made a vow of serving the Lord all her life and she and Salmai were baptized in a big plastic tub there in the church following the program. Diego said it was beautiful. Not all the attendees could fit into the little chapel.

Opportunities for Intercession and Praise

Nueva Era will be starting a Sunday morning breakfast for hungry children and elderly. Pray that the coming class will inspire teachers to be prepared and to love the children.
Praise the Lord that the health concerns of our MAT staff, the Brocks, has been discovered and they are recuperating.
Keep Luz Elena, Diego’s wife, in your prayers. She is expecting a baby in April.
Teams begin coming in the month of February. Pray that we will be prepared.
Continue your prayers for Tim Warkentin (on our board) who continues in medical therapy for cancer. Praise the Lord his last CAT Scan showed that the cancer cells have reduced again some 50%.
Thank you for all your prayers for Don and me during the months we were in the US. We returned to Papalote with heavy hearts because of the deaths of two dear friends and my mom. We had not had much time to grieve and feel personal loss before arriving back in Mexico. The first two weeks here we were here their losses were very real. The Lord surrounded us with his love and compassion through others and his Word.
Praise the Lord for the opportunity to begin a new church plant in Oaxaca. Pray that many souls will come to the Lord.