AUGUST UPDATE

Greetings from Washington State! It has been an enjoyable month visiting family and friends.  Our plans are to begin our trek back to Mexico and leave from Washington on August 9.  We’ll be heading down via I-5 and staying with family in California for the next couple of weeks and speaking in Bakersfield on the 21st just before we cross the border.

As many of you know through facebook, all nine of our Passports were stolen out of our truck along with a checkbook, $50, our dog’s vaccination papers, and a few other less important things.  Everything has been recovered except our checks, the $50, and one passport!  Within a day, three of our passports were found along side the road in different locations.  A couple days later, four more were found and just a week ago one more was found.  We are so grateful for those of you who have been praying.  We have been at peace and our hearts go out to the people who felt the need to take these things and pray for them to be able to find hope in Jesus!

GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD, FOR HE IS GOOD; HIS LOVE ENDURES FOREVER!

Last month, we asked you to pray for... 

1. Religious Association Status.  We are still waiting for the government to respond and finalize our paperwork; the financial need is still at hand. 
2. Drug Rehab Center.  We are still praying for a place to be able to house these people who need help. 
3. Trip to the States.  Thank you for your prayers!  We are enjoying our time as we visit family, friends, churches, and have even had the opportunity to go camping. 
4. EL RETO 2016: Thank you to those who have already began to send in contributions for this outreach!  We do not charge the students to attend so your help is very appreciated.  Our goal each year is $2,000 to pay for transportation, materials, prizes, and snacks; we are almost at 50% of that goal.

Here are some links to more:

• **NEW** Pastoral Perspectives: Click here to read bi-annual reports from three of our Pastors.
• Last Month’s Update.
• A Quick Look into our Ministry: A two minute clip of some of the activities and more.
• EL RETO 2015
• What is EL RETO
• “Dwellings” candidates in Cofradia: Meet two families that are in need of a home.
• Cofradia’s Short-Term Missions Manual explains more of our mission in detail.
  

This month, will you please pray for...

1. The final passport to be found. 
2. Religious Association Status.  $2,000 USDollars. Donate here to help.  
3. Drug Rehab Center. Please pray that Amado would be able to raise the $20,000 he needs to get things going.  What the Lord has called him to do will put a dent in the Kingdom of Darkness and Satan will not be happy and try to impede this work.  Please pray for protection over him, his family, his staff, and all of those involved.  Let me know if you would like to help make a dent in the financial need he has. 
4. Trip to the States. Continue to pray for travel safety, good visits, and time to rest. 
5. EL RETO 2016.  Pray for all of the planning that is happening right now and the Pastor Luis, the Leadership team, and the team captains who are currently preparing for this event.  We still need just over $1,000 to reach our goal in order to pay for transportation, materials, prizes, and snacks.  Donate here to help.  Click here to view a video spot for this year’s event. 
6. Speaking in churches.  Hosanna Bellevue on August 7 and Templo Calvario Bakersfield on August 21. 
7. Birthdays this month.  Rebecka turns 14 (13th) and Mackenzie turns 4 (31st).

SPECIAL NEEDS:  We are looking for: old iPhones, old macbook laptops, mountain bikes, RETO raffle items (cameras, cell phones, tablets, instruments, etc).  Let us know if you have anything you’d like to donate before we leave.

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever!

Thank you so much for being part of our team as we work together to RAISE UP LEADERS IN RURAL MEXICO!!!!

Blessings,

Steve, Geña, Rebecka, Emma, and Mackenzie Silberman
Missionaries to Mexico
Alternative Missions
Cofradia Area Director
--- JOIN OUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT TEAM ---
OPTION A---ONLINE:
Online, you can make a one-time, tax-deductible gift, or set up to make automatic monthly donations to our personal support here.

OPTION B---BY POSTAGE MAIL/CHECKS: 
Send a check made out to Alternative Missions to Alternative Missions / PO Box 3107 / Ferndale, WA 98248.  On a separate note, indicate that it is for The Silbermans.

Pastors' Perspectives

Here are recent updates from three of our Pastors in Cofradia.  If you would like to make a special donation to them or support them on a monthly basis, just click on their name which will take you to their donation page.

Pastor Gregorio Hernández

Centro Cristiano Cofradia

Lead Pastor

Over the course of this year we have experienced different events in the church, such as opening the Bible school and the opportunity to emerge as a church totally dependent on God. But I thank God for the event of new believers being baptized. I find these particular baptisms very interesting, because two of the people who were baptized I see as a very slow but very effective miracle. Why do I say this? Because one of them was a woman who met  Jesus almost as long ago as when the mission first came to Cofradía--almost 23 years ago to the day! And it took until May 22 of this year that she decided to take that step of faith. That is why I consider this a long-term miracle. On May 24 of last year, we also had the privilege of baptizing her husband, and I think that was a significant motivation for her to finally take this step herself.

            The other person I mentioned, also met the Lord many years ago, just like the  woman, and also finally decided it was time to be baptized. It was such a special event, especially because of all that God has been doing in this season of the church’s life. We had a time of preparation for those who were going to be baptized; it was not as a rule to participate, but it was strongly recomended for them so they would understand the basics of baptism. Thus they will begin their journey with feet firmly established, and understanding the step they have already taken. It is worth mentioning that it was necessary for them to make this decision for themselves, and not see it as an requirement on the part of the church.

We greatly appreciate all the contributions made by this ministry, both through prayers and support with finances. All this abounds in thanksgiving. We thank the Lord for all of you.

Sincerely,

Pastor Gregorio Hernández Galván, my wife Maty, and family

 ____________________________

Pastor Luis Vazquez

Centro Cristiano Cofradia

Student Ministries

Hello. May the Lord God bless your lives now and forever in all your needs. We are well as a family and as children of God. We are working in various areas of ministry, but especially with young people, as I have mentioned before. Since last year’s EL RETO event, a pastor and his youth group have traveled every Saturday to Cofradía to join us for our weekly youth group meetings. This is something I have always and continued to yearn and long for--that we labor and grow together.

I am grateful to God, on June 19 we celebrated our first college graduation: I and my wife and all the leaders who help me in the youth ministry received our degrees.. I think it is a great blessing that we were able to have such a lovely experience all together; it brings me great contentment that through this training we can be better as teachers and counselors.

This year we will once again put on EL RETO, which begins on August 27 and ends on October 1. So I ask for your prayers, for your financial support, and for you to share about this event, if possible, with friends and/or relatives. I know that the support you give me is wonderful, and my family and I thank you for it.

Our goal for EL RETO this year is to focus our young people on the things of God and diminish their focus on the things that distract them from God, such as technology, lust, unforgiveness, and lack of purpose, among other things. I also plan to focus more this year on the team captains who help me in EL RETO so as to be preparing them so that they may continue afterward as part of the youth group leadership and in that way to be fulfilling the Great Commission that Christ left us, which is to raise up leaders.

I appreciate again your generosity, which is huge, because we have been blessed more than you can imagine. My daughter is studying at college, and your generosity has been such a huge support for that; she wants to be a chemical engineer, and I believe she can do it.

The Vazquez-Sicairos family is eternally grateful to you.

Please pray for:

1. A good time in EL RETO
2. Finances for EL RETO
3. A calling in the hearts of this year’s team captains for EL RETO
4. Open doors for young people who want to continue studying

5. That my children do not lose their vision

6. Growth in leadership and in the youth group

________________________________

Pastor Horacio Garzon

Centro Cristiano Cofradia

Arrayanes and Indigenous

Brothers and sisters, it is with great pleasure that I greet you, and I desire God’s continued blessing upon you. We have spent this full week supporting a ministry in the mountains with work activities, doing repairs, and painting some buildings of significant size. We partnered with a group from Nebraska. They brought a comprehensive work plan for sharing the hope that we have in Christ. We were ministering to a group of about eighty young people who board weekly so that they may receive basic education. They are young people who come from dysfunctional families and therefore lack the basics to enter oficial schools.

During that time, we shared boldly through devotional moments in the Word before and after daily activities. We did not escape unpleasant incidents, such as dealing with alcoholics and those who lose touch with reality because of other addictions. Also, most of us experienced the stomach flu, but thank God we are all healthy once again. To Him be the glory forever!

Brothers and sisters, thank you. We are grateful for your generosity in supporting us through your financial donations. You are a great blessing to us.

God bless you,

Horacio and Maria