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September 4, 2005
Dear Prayer Partners,
Thank you for every time this month that you have prayed for our
people. Please continue interceding for the people of Querétaro.
There is a new community that we began to visit and share the gospel
called La Independencia. It is a small community of about 700 people and
it borders La Paz and Santa Cruz Nieto, where we are working. The
community is poorer than the surrounding communities so we tried a
different approach to open some doors. For four days we set up a couple
of tarps to shade us and offered free haircuts to the people who lived
there. Team member Antonia Gonzalez and Elena a new believer and Adriana
from the San Juan church cut hair. I lost count of how many people
received haircuts but it was over 100 people. When ever someone came to
the “tent” they were asked information about their prayer needs and
someone prayed with them prior to the haircut. While they were getting
their hair cut some heard the gospel presentation from a member of our
team. Also a group of five teenage girls painted fingernails for the
ladies of the community. A group of faithful workers from the Pisgah
Baptist Church in Virginia helped in the community by visiting every house
along with a national team member and presenting each household with the
Gospel of John. Evening times were reserved for a visit from our team
clown “el rabanito”. When weather permitted we presented a Billy Graham
movie for the community. Our team had conducted prayerwalks in La
Independencia a week prior and also we prayerwalked it while mapping the
community a couple days before the campaign started. As the week finished
and the dust cleared and sunburns intensified we began to tally what the
Lord had done in this community. Almost every home visited accepted the
Gospel of John with the promise to read it. Twenty seven people asked to
know more about how to become a Christian. Several of these twenty seven
repented and asked Jesus into their hearts. And several more asked us to
come back and visit them again and explain more about salvation.
We made our first follow-up visit and presented a discipleship lesson
to a group of three ladies last week. As we made plans for the second
visit with this group we asked them to also invite their neighbors. Last
night (Sunday) we made our second visit and there were seven adults
there. After our discipleship lesson I told them the story of the Good
Shepherd who knows His sheep from John chapter ten. I also asked them on
a scale of one to five with one meaning they were unsure of their
salvation and five meaning they were 100% sure of their salvation where
they fit into the scale today. Going around our circle, six of the seven
said they were perhaps a three, meaning maybe they were saved and maybe
they were not. The Holy Spirit had already done His work and when we
explained how they could change their position on the scale from a one or
a three to a five all six responded by praying and asking Jesus into their
hearts as their only Savior. Dear pray-ers, in a Catholic society where
catholics can never know their eternal destiny until they are dead this is
a HUGE victory. The joy of the Lord was written all over the faces of the
new believers. Wow! So what can I ask you to pray about for La
Independencia?
- This was the first of many homes that we have been asked to visit
so pray for the other visits we are making asking the Holy Spirit to
prepare the hearts of the people.
- La Independencia has no church of any type although the Jehovah
Witnesses have targeted this community and are working there almost
daily. Ask the Lord to grant spiritual wisdom to every home,
believers and unbelievers, to discern the True Gospel from a counterfeit
one.
- Pray that we will be able to start house churches in La
Independencia. There are seven distinct parallel streets and we
would like to open a house church on each of them.
- Pray for Francisca who was sure of her salvation, and also new
believers José, Rosi, Margarita, Alma, Juliana, and Ismael.
- Pray for our team, Antonia and Antonio, and Jody and me as we
work not only in Independencia but the other communities as well.
- Pray for Doña Josefina and her sons Herman and Lalo and daughter
Juana. They were our original contact that we visited in this
community and they also want a bible study in their home.
Thank you praying family. That is a lot of words to share with you all
at one time but we were anxious to show you what the Lord is doing in
rural Querétaro, Mexico. Thank you also fro your letters and your words
of encouragement. Thank you for your faithful attendance in your home
church and also thank you for giving to international missions.
God bless,
Bro. Rich & Miss Jody
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Querétaro
para Cristo