Every month our staff puts together an update on different areas of our ministry here. This is our update from April...
Youth Update: Leadership
We are blessed to have leaders within the youth group. A couple of exciting things have happened recently that have brought to light how God is working in the students. Pastor Gollo’s third son, Julio, gave the bible study at our weekly Youth Home Group and did a very good job! He spoke on Respecting Leaders and it was thorough, thought-provoking, and complete. This was the first time he did an actual study and we were really impressed with how it was put together and presented.
Another exciting thing was at our monthly youth event. Martin, one of the older students who spent one year at a Bible school, has really done a great job of influencing the lives of the students in Arrayanes. He has been instrumental in bringing a number of youth to Christ, starting a rap band, and now he has put together a drama team. The eight participants did an excellent job with their skit. They portrayed four guys who were drug dealers and lived the party life, Martin came in to share the gospel and was rejected by the guys, but there were two girls that received the message. In the end, another “bad guy” came in and shot at everyone with at toy gun while another student was at the piano making gun-shot sounds. It was great! Martin shared the message of what happens when we reject God’s word and don’t live according to His will. It will be interesting to see what they come up with next!
Cofradía ChurchEnjoy April’s update from Pastor Goyo!
“In family group we are arriving at the final stage of the Bondage Breakers study, and this past week we began with the seven steps to freedom. I had reviewed the material for the two previous weeks, and the content is very helpful for the individual and general growth of the church. My expectations were met the first day of study because when we began with the question of whether anyone had participated in activities that were not glorifying to God, it was suggested that we pray a prayer recognizing God as the only God that everyone knows, who is always present, and that we would depend on him and believe the truth that all authority in heaven and on earth is given to Christ, and that we would participate in that authority.
“It was also suggested that, with all the authority of Christ, we command Satan and every evil spirit, in order to have freedom to choose the will of God, like children of God. Upon reviewing the list of non-Christian spiritual control, I was surprised by how some of the group members responded and after reading the list, the ones that impacted the most were superstition, saint-worship, and television. But the most impact came from the two additional questions which had to do with listening to or feeling the presence of spirits in your home and nightmares. It made me think of the scripture in Romans 12:2: "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--His good, pleasing, and perfect will." In this way, once we surrender our lives to God, there will be a total change of the believer in a general way, and although the time will come for this moment, I know God will make it arrive for every one who decides to accept him as Lord of their lives. Thank you for your prayers and for all your support of this town. May the Lord bless the work of His hands.”
General Update: STM
We have had a very busy but successful Short-Term Missions (STM) season so far this year. We have had 7 groups come down since January, and we are awaiting two more in June! So far we’ve seen the following outreach activities: women’s ministry, youth ministry, VBS, a youth leadership conference, construction on our central church facility, and meeting dental needs. In June our two teams will be focusing on the Cora village of Mojocuautla as well as more evangelistic outreaches into towns where we do not yet have ministry! It has been a very exciting season of short-term groups. Each one has made it’s own impact for the kingdom of God in Mexico, and we know that He will continue to plan and harvest the fruits of their labors and investment!
We have recently opened up an online photo gallery. If you would like to see photo albums from our spring groups and church construction, please go to:
www.cofradiamexico.com.
General Update: Radio Ministry
Our radio ministry is another area for which we are quite excited. The Lord opened up doors in January for Gollo, the pastor of the Cofradía church, to begin ministering by radio. Since the Mexican government does not allow religious groups to operate radio stations, we rent air time from the local station in Ruiz. Each Thursday at 11:30 in the morning, Gollo hosts a half-hour show called “Restaurando Relaciones” (Restoring Relationships). He wants to show that we all experience the impact of broken relationships in our lives and that it is the result of living a broken relationship with our Creator. However, our Creator desires to restore us to a right relationship with Him, and as a result He will begin to restore the other broken relationships in our lives. Gollo’s desire is to be able to extend the show to three times a week. However, we are in need of funds in order to be able to increase the frequency of the broadcast. If you are interested in partnering with us in this ministry, please contact us and let us know! We would love your partnership in reaching more of this area for Christ!
New Church Construction Update
New Church Electricity on its way!
The new church construction is going well. We are presently focusing on getting the sanctuary walls to the 28 feet mark so that they will be ready to receive the roof. We are still hoping to start construction of the roof this coming winter, the Lord willing.
Good news! We have been working on the installation of electricity to the new church property since January. As it turns out we are outside the service area, which means that we are financially responsible for the extension of service area (posts, cable, and transformer) plus the hook-up to the church itself. We applied for a quote from the Federal Electric Commission, the only place one is available, and were told it would cost 28,480.03 pesos, which is about $2,7000 USD. Well, that seemed like a lot to us; however, in short order the Electric Commission offered to give us, free of charge, the transformer that would be required. This dropped the quote down to 15,361.14 pesos or about $1,450 USD. At the same time it was suggested that we should consider applying for assistance with the Municipal Government because the extension of service will be of benefit to the entire community. We took this advice and applied for assistance. Glory to God, an engineer from the Municipal Government stopped by this week and handed us a check for 10,000 pesos, which is about what we spend in two weeks in the construction of the sanctuary walls. Hallelujah, two weeks of free work!
This week we will go to the city to apply and pay for this extension of service and the new church electricity hook-up. Soon we will have electricity!!
But the story does not stop there. The Lord is definitely opening doors for us in this area. When the engineer came by to drop off the check, he mentioned that the Municipal President told him to say “hi” to us and ask if we could do other projects together. We talked about the possibility of building a re-habilitation house here in Cofradía or other similar projects. They very openly invited us to continue to involve them in community-related projects. Go figure!! Only God could get even the government working on His plans.
