Car Wash!

Sunday, our youth held a Car Wash in the middle of the street as you arrive into Santa Fe from Cofradia. This was a fundraiser for our Youth Missions Trip to Oaxaca. It was a really fun time of team building and many more students came out to help. We washed a whopping total of eight cars, and made a grand total of just over $13usdollars. It was a blast and we have plans to do it again in the weeks to come.

If you would like to take part in the Youth Missions Trip to Oaxaca; you can donate online or see here for other options. Please indicate that it is for "Cofradia Youth Missions to Oaxaca" and it will get sent to the right place. We still need just over a $1000usdollars to reach our goal. THANK YOU!

The Missions Trip will take place on April 3-10. We will be helping a fellow Alternative Missions Missionary start a youth ministry in an Indian Village about 30 minutes out of Oaxaca City. Please keep us in your prayers.

Full of Beans

Last Friday I went out to Pastor Gollo's bean fields to take a couple pictures and some video. Before I knew it I was helping them as they were "desgranando"--taking the beans out of the pods. I thought it was a very interesting process so I stayed to help. Once they pick the dried up plants, they put them in piles so they will dry some more. Later, they put a big tarp on the ground and through all the piles of bean plants onto the tarp. Then, a tractor drives over them opening up the dried pods. After that, they whisk the flattened plants, sift out the plants and leave the beans on the tarp. From there they fill up buckets and pour beans back and forth between two buckets in order to get most of the garbage out. Pastor Gollo left with 11 gunny sacks full of beans that evening.

Little Helper

Last Friday morning, Emma hopped up on a little stool, looked at the sink and saw all the dirty dishes and said, "WOW, (cute-cute-cute-cute-cute,etc.)" and pulled up her sleeves and said, "Mommy, that"--pointing to the sponge. She didn't really say "cute, cute, cute". We don't know what she said, but it was cute!

Date Night

On Valentine's Day, our youth put together a Date Night for the couples of the church. This was a great opportunity for those who's spouses don't come to church to have them come, be part of a great event, and hear a message from the Word.

The youth decorated the new church, made and served a meal, and we even had couple games for entertainment. All of this took place in the midst of a weekend Family Conference with former Cofradia Staff members Doug and Jan Taylor as the guest speakers. It was an evening to remember!

One of the greatest things as a result is that there have been two couples since then go to the county seat to get married legally. It's very common here to just shack up and start a family and never really get around to actually getting married for whatever reason.

Amber has posted a great report about it on her blog with a lot more pictures. Click here to read more.

Just Interesting

For about a month and a half now, I've been meeting with four guys in our youth group on Tuesdays at 5:30am in my office to study the book of Mark together. It's been a real good time. The plan was to meet at 6am, but I told them if they wanted coffee to come at 5:30am...they came at 5:30am! So, I've been making them mochas with our tired espresso machine.

This week as I was meditating on Chapter one (we are only to verse 21!); I noticed something kind of interesting...

Chapter one seems to be all about Preparation. Preparation FOR Jesus, Preparation OF Jesus, and Preparation BY Jesus.

• There was Preparation FOR Jesus by John the Baptist (1-8).
• There was Preparation OF Jesus by his Baptism and the Temptation in the Wilderness (9-13).
• There was Preparation BY Jesus by establishing his ministry. Here are a few things he established: His Message (14,15); His Core Friends (16-20); His Authority and Power in three ways--1) Mentally (teaching), 2) Spiritually (casting out evil spirits), and Physically (healing) (21-34); His Purpose (35-39); and indirectly His Place in Society (40-45).

Just some interesting thoughts that came to mind this week. What kind of perspectives do you get from reading Mark 1? And what does this mean for us today? Those are things we've been talking about.

SKYPE

I've recently joined skype. It's great to be able to talk to my parents and others for FREE! I don't have a camera on my computer so it's just audio. Let me know if you are signed up for skype as well.
srsilberman

JANUARY MINISTRY UPDATE

Greetings everyone! Thank you for all of your prayers this last month. At the beginning of the year, we asked you to pray for…

* Jesús Hernández (Chuy) Chuy is back in Oaxaca and I had the opportunity to talk with him on the phone this past week. He said that the Lord has been blessing him even though it’s been a real challenge for him. They are constantly busy and are submersed in the Word. “It’s a lot of work, but I’m being blessed” were his words. Thank you for keeping him in prayer.
* New Church Construction The rafters are up! And everyone was kept safe. I posted some pictures on our blog here and here. Dave, as well, wrote a report about the three days it took to lift up and set the 11 rafters. You will find it very interesting coming from Dave first hand; he does a great job of making you feel like you were there, hoping no one falls off of the scaffolding! Read it here.
* Cy-Fair Ladies short term mission’s team came down to spend a week with the ladies of our church. They have done a great job connecting with the women here and it’s a group that they all look forward to every year.

There were a few other events that took place this month that are worth mentioning. Especially the Quinceañera that I was involved in and asked prayer for in the middle of the month. Many of you responded and said you would be praying and would continue to pray for that family. My intentions were to use this opportunity as an open door to reach out to this family and I believe that is still happening. As Christians, we believe that what they are involved in is demonic activity. They have left the church and started to attend wholeheartedly a meeting where they do not use the Bible because it’s considered a legendary book instead of the Inspired Word of God. They are wrong. Instead, they get their teachings from an actual spirit that shows up at their meetings called “father jesus” who teaches to them in parables things that are not found in the Bible. If you would like to know more about this, I would be glad to share with you. In the meantime, please keep praying for a spiritual breakthrough for this family. I had the opportunity yesterday of talking with Juan Abel (the birthday girl’s dad) about what he believes and tried to shed light on some of the false doctrine he now has. I really, really appreciate your prayers over me and others as we attended/officiated this event. A lady in the congregation who was at the event said she realized how powerful God is and the significance of the special opportunity it was to hear the Word of God at the event as she saw a bright white glow right where I was standing while I was speaking—she did not know that so many people were praying until after she shared her testimony at church and I had a chance to talk with her. Thank you!

Also, Geña and I and the girls, as well as the youth and student leaders along with a few students are going to Oaxaca City on a Missions trip! This is our first Short-term missions trip as a youth group and we are really excited about it. We are still in the planning stage, but the purpose will be to help a Missionary who lives in Oaxaca City start a youth group with a “Young Life” or “Youth for Christ” flavor; there is no church in the village where he wants to do this. This is an exciting opportunity for us and the youth! Oaxaca City is about 17 hours south of here.
Finally, there is a team here from His Place church in Mount Vernon, Washington working on smooth-walling all of the classrooms and there are a couple of people helping Dave weld the cross-beams on the roof. They are doing an excellent job as they always do when they come.

This month, would you please pray for…

* Student Leadership Conference Every year the youth pastors of Cy-Fair Church in Houston come down to share with our students on a specific area of leadership. This year they will be focusing on what motivates service using Mark 10:45 as a text. This is always a great time! Please pray for open hearts in our youth, clear understanding through the Interpreters and that the students would “get it.” (Feb 5-8)
* Family Conference Doug and Jan Taylor will be sharing with Couples, Youth, and the congregation. They will be talking to the youth about purity, so this should be very good! Pray again for open hearts in the church body and clear understanding through the Interpreters. (Feb 13-15)
* Winnipeg Team There will be a team of electricians here to accomplish quite a bit in the classrooms and putting street lights up outside the church. Pray for safety. (Feb 12-19)
* Juan Abel and his family Please continue to pray for this family. They have allowed America (the birthday girl) to come to church; she has been attending ever since the party. Specifically agree with me that the Holy Spirit will disrupt their meetings and not allow the “father jesus spirit” to have anything to do with them anymore. Let’s pray for their rescue!
* Oaxaca Missions Trip Pray for…
-- Safety in travel.
-- That the right people will go.
-- Protection of the Holy Spirit.
-- That the hearts of the youth in Oaxaca will be open to the Gospel message.
-- For finances—each team member needs to come up with +/- $120 usdollars. Geña and I will need $360 to $400 for this trip, click here to see how you can help.
-- For finances—in general, we will need around $1,200 usdollars for extra expenses: ministry projects, construction projects, emergency, etc. Click here to donate to “Cofradía Youth Missions”.
-- Anything else the Lord leads you in.
-- **The dates are April 3-10**

Thank you very much for your prayers and continued support.

Blessings,
Steve, Geña, Rebecka and Emma Rose Silberman
Missionaries to Mexico

PS-Amber Crafton, a missionary with us, has a blog as well and I recently noticed that she posted about our Christmas Dinner with the Student Leadership. She has some great pictures and does a great job in sharing about the evening (I think it’s the only picture we got of our Christmas tree this year!).

Dave's Rafter Report

Praise the Lord! The roof rafters are on. Once again God has shown His kindness and provision among us. I mean to say that the job went so smooth it was a joy to be a part. We want to thank everyone who played a part in this step. Thank you for working with us, we successfully completed a big job.

The task went smoothly from the first rafter to the last. We started Monday morning with everything on the ground, including our feet. A lot of nervous energy and anticipation walked in that morning; mixed feelings, concerns and questions. There were a lot of "how’s" flying around. But this morning there was a plan, so we started to work, one step at a time.

We finished Wednesday afternoon as the sun was cooling off with everything up in the air, including our spirits. We were tired but so excited that a soccer game of pure joy broke out.

I too have to admit that I was a bit nervous as we began to set the first rafter. "Is this really going to work," "can we pull this off," were just some of my random thoughts. But as the day progressed the nervousness was replaced by excitement as we bore witness to God’s provision rafter after rafter.

As many of you know this has been a process for us all. As a team we have accomplished a major step in the completion of this central church for the area of Cofradía.

We had a great group of church guys to work with and an excellent crane and operator.

Really I should have here a picture of hundreds of people who donated time, money, prayer, counsel, and encouragement. From all over God put together a group of servants that have made this step possible. We have done this together!

There is so much that one could imagine could have gone wrong, but it didn’t.

The provision of God was overwehlming.

In this last picture you can see the crane opperator standing just behind Dave holding up a piece of square tubing. What is he doing up there? Well, no one else wanted to stand there in the middle of no where holding that tube as it was being welded. At the office, as we were making the contract for the crane, the office manager stated in no uncertian terms that the opperator would stay on the control platform and opperate the crane. It was not to be expect that he would exicute any other labor of any sort. "Of course," we said. "We would not expect him to do anything more," and we didn’t expect more. But did he ever do more! He chipped in like it was his church. Whenever he saw us struggle, he was there lending a hand or advice. Seriouly he was like an angel. God provided for us a true servant without whom I don’t know if we could have pulled it off. God thought of everything.

We love you all and want to thank you for your generousity and support without which I know for sure none of this would have taken place; we indeed have a great future in Chirst.