March Monthly Update

Greetings everyone!!!

Once again, we have the opportunity to share with you what God is doing in the lives of the young people here. We really appreciate your prayers; these students are making a difference!

Last month, we asked you to pray for…
* Dentists. We had a number of dentists come to visit and spend a couple of days pulling and filling people’s teeth. This is always a huge opportunity for us to meet the needs of the town of Cofradía and many others in the surrounding area. This year, there were two teams of dentists. One team stayed here at our dental clinic on the mission base while the other went up to the indigenous community of Mojocuautla for the first time. Praise the Lord for the seeds that were planted and the needs that were met. The Founder of Alternative Missions was here with the dentists and wrote a report with pictures on his blog: http://teamhackett.vineage.com/home/cofradia-nayarit-mexico-dental-trip-march-5-9
* Cy-Fair Christian Church. In the middle of March, this team from Houston, Texas came down to work alongside our youth in various different activities. Lately, in both youth groups, we’ve been talking about how we can bring the Kingdom of God to people who don’t know Christ in order for us to show them God’s love.
As soon as this team arrived in Cofradía, they came down to our house as guests to our weekly Abundant LIFE youth group meeting. We had a pretty normal meeting and the added barbecued hotdogs were great! Martin shared about running the race and not giving up or letting obstacles that get in your way make you want to quit. You can read more about that evening on our blog: http://thesilbermans.blogspot.com/2008/03/cy-fair-team-day-one.html
The first activity working together was through an Amazing Race style event, they were to gather supplies and at the end, cook and serve a meal to a family in need of God’s love in the town of Arrayanes. It was amazing and you can read more here: http://thesilbermans.blogspot.com/2008/03/cy-fair-team-day-three-mar17.html
The next day we went to clean the park of the town of Pilas. It was completely overgrown and the job looked like more than we could handle at first. To my own personal surprise, we completely cleaned the place in two hours! And left the park and town looking like a better place. See pictures and more comments here: http://thesilbermans.blogspot.com/2008/03/cy-fair-team-day-four-mar-18.html
Finally, we had a student awards night that Cy-Fair started with us three years ago. Our students really enjoy this and it has encouraged them grow closer to the Lord and change some of their perspectives on life. We gave out five awards this year:
· Most improved Band Member
· Spirit-Enthusiasm
· Servant
· New Generation
· Braveheart
It was a very special night. You can see pictures and find out who received awards on our blog. http://thesilbermans.blogspot.com/2008/03/cy-fair-team-day-six-mar-20.html
* Doug and Jan Taylor left on March 24 for the six month stay back in Canada. We will all miss them.
* March LIFE NIGHT. A lot of fun and great to see the two nations coming together here. This was the first time that this specific team has had a chance to spend time with our youth. Click here to read about it: http://thesilbermans.blogspot.com/2008/04/march-life-night.html
Thank you so much for your prayers. Other activities that happened during the month were: Jack and Marianne Elias (Dave’s parents) arrived this month and will be here for a couple more months. They are a huge blessing and spend all of their time serving in hands on projects such as painting, fixing things, building various items like benches, etc. We’re glad they’re here. Also, I had the opportunity to preach on Easter Sunday and it went really well. I have shared the idea in other places of making a decision today to change who you will be in one year from now. I used our five students as well as the five leaders as examples of who they were a year ago and who they are now. At the end, we had the five student leaders pray for people as they came forward at the altar. It was exciting!

This month, would you please pray for…

* Emma Rose as she has her second birthday! (April 10)
* My Parents as they celebrate 39 years of marriage! (April 12)
* Missionary Care Week. We will have some visitors who are coming down to share with us ideas on how to deal with certain stresses of being a missionary. This is the first time for something like this and we’re expecting a great week. (April 14-19)
* April LIFE Night. We have invited some friends/youth groups from Sinaloa to come and join us for our next LIFE Night. (May 3)

Thanks again for your prayers

Blessings,
Steve, Geña, Rebecka, and Emma Silberman