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November 2005
Dear faithful prayer partners,
Thank you for your prayers and letters this month. It has been a
great month in our people group and we rejoice for what the Lord has
done and continues to do. We began this month with a baptismal service
here at our home. We had thirty people present and five new believers
were baptized in our portable baptistery/bath tub/cattle trough. In the
next few days we will have some of these photos on our web site and we
encourage you to look at the photos
as you may recognize some of those who were baptized. After the service
we fellowshipped with a lunch and continued to share the gospel with
some who came to observe because they had never seen a baptismal service
of adults. Each of the persons baptized shared a testimony of how this
was their decision to be obedient to Jesus. The interesting part to this
was that four of the five had been baptized as babies in the Catholic
Church, but now they were making the decision to be baptized as Jesus
himself was baptized. Thank you for your prayers for our new
believers.
Let me tell you a story now.
 Raul
is a man in his early 40’s. Every Saturday night Raul would bring his
wife and two daughters to our San Juan house church, but Raul remained
outside or in another room away from us. Raul is antagonistic towards
the Gospel and really cannot stand “evangelicals”. I don’t suppose I
need to tell you what church Raul aligned himself with. Slowly Raul
moved in closer and closer to our house church group. At times he
pretended to be asleep in a chair just outside our meeting room, but I
know he was listening to the bible stories. About a month ago Raul began
to sit in the same room as we were having house church service. About
three weeks ago we saw Raul mouthing the words to the choruses we sing.
Two weeks ago Raul read a verse when it was his “turn” to read. And last
week Raul actually smiled during the service. Well, Raul has not asked
Jesus into his heart, yet. But we believe he will do so very soon.
Would you please pray for Raul Gonzalez? Ask the Holy Spirit to
clearly present Jesus to Raul. I hope that on the next prayer letter I
can tell you that Raul was saved.
 A
praise! You remember hearing about Elena, the twenty something
lady that Jody led to the Lord this past January. Elena is growing in
her faith and participating in all of our services and events. Elena
brought her younger sister, Lupita, to house church because she couldn’t
stand the thought of her sister going to hell. Antonio presented the
plan of salvation to Lupita and she asked Jesus to be her only Savior.
Elena and Lupita were two of the five mentioned above that were
baptized. Reminds us of when Andrew found Simon Peter. Please pray
for Lupita as she is growing and now burdened for her lost mother.
Well, I want to conclude this prayer letter with a personal thank you
and a word of encouragement.
- Because of your faithful giving to international missions, Jody
and I are able to serve in Mexico and see lives changed by the
Gospel of Jesus Christ.
- In fact, because of your faithful giving, over 5000 of us are
serving all over the world in practically every nation and almost
every people group.
- And because of your faithful giving over 600,000 new believers
were baptized and over 21,000 new Baptist churches were started
around the globe last year.
- Because of your faithful giving Querétaro now has access to the
gospel that it did not have three years ago. In 2002 there were no
IMB missionaries in Querétaro. Then the Lord called Jody and me in
2003 to rural Querétaro. In 2004 the Lord called IMB missionaries
Garry & Lori Jones to the city of Querétaro. And now we also have
IMB missionaries Steve & Laura Young working with university
students and young professionals in the city of Querétaro.
We cannot thank you enough for your faithfulness in giving to the
Co-operative Program through your local church. Also to our Baptist
partners out there who monthly faithfully give to international mission
causes we owe you our gratitude. So is the task finished? There are days
that I wish it was, but it is not yet finished.
The IMB missionaries serving in Querétaro, Mexico, want to see
our people group won to Jesus and now is the time. Please prayerfully
and sacrificially give this Christmas season to the Lottie Moon
Christmas Offering. Please help the International Mission Board to reach
its 150 million dollar goal. Every penny given to the Lottie Moon
Christmas Offering goes to the mission field. Our people need your
support so they can know the Jesus you know. Please look at the
resources available to you at
www.imb.org and involve
your church, your prayer group, or your Sunday School to give to the
Lottie Moon Christmas offering.
We love you and pray you will have a blessed Christmas.
Bro. Rich & Miss Jody
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Querétaro
para Cristo