We have a new home on the web!

Dear Friends,

Just wanted to make everyone that follows our ministry here, aware that our new website is up and running!  You can now start to follow us at http://www.chrislanierfamily.org

The new site is still in the process of being completed but is very functional in its current stage.
Be sure to signup on the new site so that you will continue to receive our updates.

~Chris Lanier
Missionary to Arteaga, Mexico
(256) 797-2546
cclanier@gmail.com
chrislanierfamily.org

El Festival de la Cosecha

Dear Friends,

I wanted to give a quick report about a big day we had yesterday in church.  We called it a “Harvest Festival” and had a big day themed around the harvest (special music, preaching, kid’s play all about the harvest).  After the preaching service, we also had a party with a moon-bounce and pony rides, of course with plenty of food.

Total results were that we had 160 people in attendance, and most importantly, there were 12 folks that trusted Christ as their Savior!  God continues to bless and use the ministry here for His glory.  Each of you that prays for us will be rewarded for the souls saved from hell last Sunday.

~Chris Lanier
Missionary to Arteaga, Mexico
(256) 797-2546
cclanier@gmail.com
missionarychrislanier.blogspot.com

Rolling Along

We don't really have much to blog about.  Sunday was a good day, and the week has gone by fast with studying, church on Wednesday, Bible studies in member's homes, and soul-winning.  There was a horrible city-wide shootout yesterday--they caught a high-up thug and in trying to spring him free, various other thugs started shootouts all over the city for about 4 hours.

Tomorrow is another busy day, with promises of being more busy during the weekend.  We've started getting prepared for "Día de la Coshecha."  We're praying for folks to get saved and then praying for at least 150 folks to come out.

Gearing Up to Go Out

It's been a busy and profitable week.  We've conducted a couple home Bible studies, have one more tonight, and had good times on soul-winning/visitation.  Last night we visited a family by request of one our people and then found a little ranch about 20 minutes away from our work that is completely isolated, very poor.  I am praying God gives us the opportunity to start a mission out there very soon.

Wednesday was a good night, we had a great time around the Word of God and had great attendance.

Tomorrow will be soul-winning and visitation in the morning and evening, with studies/preparation for Sunday in between.  We're looking forward to a great service on Sunday morning--I'm praying that we'll have 10 adult men.

My wife and I were talking a bit ago about how just 3 months ago we began praying for 5 faithful men, and that now we have them plus a couple extra.  Now we are delighted to pray for 10 faithful men.  Ain't God good!?

Everyone in the church is getting excited about "el festival de la cosecha" (harvest festival) coming up on the 23rd.  They're getting excited about being there and getting excited about bringing family, friends and visitors.  They're excited about praying for 150 people to come, and that God will save souls.  What a blessing!

I had a great time in Bible study this morning with one of our faithful men.  It was refreshing to talk about the work of God and the Word of God with him, and to explain our position on things from The Bible.  He's a faithful man of the church and I look forward to using him in the ministry.  He's a teacher by trade, and obviously gifted in that area from The Lord.

Busy times--much prayers are needed.  We need to build the baptistry, organize the church, and keep going.  I need wisdom in how to lead the work--when, how, etc to do everything that needs to be accomplished.

Thanks!

Cooling Off...

It has been such a GREAT week!  It was much different than planned, but The Lord was in all of it.  It started with a call from a preacher friend in the big city who wanted some help with an evangelistic campaign he wanted to start.  "When do need us to come?"  "Today to get the material."  How's that for advance notice??  :)

It turned out that he needed help making the flyers and daily programs; which even though I really didn't have time to make them, I told him I would without reservation.  It only took a few hours anyway and it was worth to help him out.  As for the actual campaign, he wanted me to lead the singing and pray for the offerings, and to preach the closing service on Saturday (Thursday thru Saturday campaign).

The first night was my favorite night.  2 adults got saved!  Friday was a little less attended but was still had a good time.  Saturday we started out lower than ever, but as I began to preach Erika took Ashley out into the street to invite people.  A couple families actually listened to her and came!  One lady that came like that got saved, making 3 salvation decisions for the week!  It was great!

Wednesday at our church was great as well.  We had great attendance with several first time visitors.  Thursday before the campaign we spent several hours out soul-winning and visiting, and Friday we stayed at home before the campaign to clean, prepare and study for Sunday.  Saturday we went soul-winning and visiting as always, and made several visits to folks that haven't come in a while.  Before the campaign, we bought chicken for afterwards and then just had a great time in the campaign.

I'm honestly surprised none of us were attacked, in the campaign, especially the pastor in charge and I.  The campaign was in the open air and we kept the volume on the sound system loud enough to hear for blocks.  He preached against everything from sodomy and drunkenness to corruption in the government.  I preached against idolatry, "saints" and images.  Both of us preached very hard especially on salvation by grace through faith, not of works.

Today was an outstanding day as well.  We had 2 adult visitors (a couple) to come in the AM service, and the man got saved!  Yes, that's a total of 4 souls saved this week!  Tonight was a great time as well with several first time visitors and a great spirit.  I waxed eloquent for over an hour...but it went by super-fast...at least for me!

So, glory to God again!  What a tremendous opportunity we have to serve God here in Mexico.  We're proud to serve Him here and couldn't think of any other kind of life!

Tomorrow is the cooling off stage--it's family day and we look forward to catching up with each other and spending time together.

What Went Down...

Okay, so nothing special "went down."  We had 2 good, full days of soul-winning and visitation on Thursday and Saturday.  Friday we visited some family and ran errands, then had a good time around the Word of God with a family from church, in one of their twice a week Bible studies.

Sunday was a good day as well.  We prayed for 30 and had 32, which we haven't had for a couple weeks. Sunday evening the attendance was down, but we still had 5 families.

Today is our family catch up day!  I also have a few errands to run.  I need to make a "pastoral visit" to someone as well, and I need to talk to a young man about getting saved.  His name is Victor, a drug addict without hope, without Christ.

Tomorrow we're taking some breakfast foods to a public food distribution center for poor children--they feed about a dozen kids in the morning who don't have food in their own house, then around 50 in the afternoon for lunch.  Our plan is to bring breakfast once a week and have Bible time with the children.  We still have to get permission--but we're going to show up tomorrow and expect results.  We talked with the supervisor on Saturday, but she said she would have to get permission from her boss...so we'll get permission from our "Boss" and let Him work it all out.

Other than that, we have a few Bible studies to conduct through-out the week, Church on Wednesday, and evangelism on Thursday and Saturday.

Lots of work!  Please pray with us for all of these matters!

"...habiendo huido de la corrupción que está en el mundo..."

This is a great quote from 2 Peter 1:4, albeit in Spanish.  In English, our Bible reads "...having escaped the corruption that is in the world..."  To directly, word by word translate the Spanish back into English, it would say "having run for your life from the corruption that is in the world."  Striking, isn't it?

The problem is we aren't running for our life (a great picture of escaping, no?) from the corruption of the world--we running back to the world like our lives depend on it's corruption from lust.  How sad!

The Word of God is so specific.  I love it.  I preached a  message last night called "Christians with Good Vision" out of 2 Peter 1:1-10.  I mentioned far and near sighted folks, folks with blurry vision, the cross-eyed, the blind and the blind in one eye.  I applied the truth of the Word of God that if we don't have all the spiritual traits mentioned in the passage, we're blind, we can't see very far off, and that if that is the case we need to examine our salvation.

We had such a good time in the Word of God.  The people responded well and God blessed the meeting.  What a GOOD God we serve!

Weekend Recap

We had a great, Christ-honoring weekend that started on Thursday with spending about 5 hours in the streets.  The Lord laid it on my heart to re-visit some folks that had begun coming to church with us while we were still travelling on deputation but have since quit.  We had some real good visits, but as we thought, those particular people had been choked out by the thorns of the world.  One lady said she didn't believe anymore, and that she nows believes in "la santa muerte" "holy death."  We were able to find some, though, that had moved around and are excited to start coming back.

Friday we had a cleaning day and a couple families came to help us us out.

Saturday was soul-winning again all morning, then while Erika went to a baby-shower in the afternoon with the kids I did the grocery shopping.  Also, a couple pastors from the big city came by to collect John/Romans and tracts.

Sunday was a great day as well.  We had superb attendance in both services, especially in the PM.  We had 3 first time visitor ladies with their children, and one 1 first time visitor man of 26 years.  I preached on faithfulness to church in the morning and then from Acts 8 in the PM, focusing on the question of what would it take for a person to obey the great commission--as the early church stayed in Jerusalem instead of leaving to evangelize and had to be persecuted in order to leave.  Great decisions were made by many in both services and testimonies to the same.

Today is catching up on tranquility for the family.  I left early in the morning to take a man to a hospital appointment and then for some pastoral counseling, then came back to relax with the family.

Later today a construction foreman is coming to give me a quote to build a baptistry, and other than that we're free to get some much needed rest.  Tomorrow we're going visiting in the morning, then I have a class at lunch time, then a Bible study in the evening.  Wednesday is study and church, Thursday is soul-winning in the morning and afternoon, Friday is study and preparation for Sunday, Saturday is soul-winning and visitation, and of course Sunday is the Lord's day--can't wait!

Attempted, Expected, RECEIVED

Yesterday I blogged that while we attempted great things for God all week, especially Saturday, we were expecting great things from Him on Sunday.

It worked!  A man named Vicente came forward during the invitation to receive Christ and be saved.  That's 2 ADULT MEN saved in less than one week!  Hallelujah!

Just think--I could have run scared and hidden myself and my family because of the threats against us.  "I shall not be moved" !!!  We love being in the will of God.

Last night we were all so exhausted; Ashley fell asleep at 8:30, and the three of us (me, Erika, baby Charley) went to bed at 10:00.  As soon as we fell asleep, the phone rang and we talked for about an hour. After the phone call, Ashley woke up.  I took her to the bathroom and then she was wide awake.  I went to the other side of the house quick, and upon return, I got bit by a scorpion!  I quickly called Erika to get me a knife and some baking soda and water, and while she was getting that, I killed the scorpion.  Erika had the stuff ready just as fast and I got a slit in the bite, squeezed out the venom, then applied the baking soda and water paste to the bite to draw out the rest of the poison.  It worked well!

But then after we got back settled down, our neighbors had some huge party with no less than several hundred hell's angels (yes, they're in Mexico too).  Ashley kept waking up, then Charley--so I kept Ashley with me in the living room and Erika kept Charley, so at least they wouldn't wake each other up, just the 2 of us.  The party finally shut down at about 3:30am and we finally got some rest, but both of the kids still were very restless and didn't sleep well (so, nope, neither did we).  The wake-up alarm was sort of a relief to the torment of trying to sleep!

How ironic, eh?  After church everyone was so pumped up and excited!  We had a good lunch then Ashley fell asleep right away, then Charley.  So, everyone went to bed.  Just after a few minutes, though, some friends from another like-minded church in the big city came to visit.  No rest for the weary!

What a great day in the service of The King.  We couldn't be happier or more content with what God has dealt us.  Tired, yes, but secure in knowing we've done our best for The Lord.

Not too tired to blog!  :)

Thanks for praying.  It means so much!  You make us a great team!  God bless!

Attempt and Expect GREAT Things from God

We had a great day out soul-winning today.  We made several contacts and are expecting great things from The Lord tomorrow.  We started soul-winning in a new neighborhood, which means we were very kind, full of smiles, handed out tracts house to house, and looked for opportunities to share The Gospel and lead people to Christ.  The next time we will be just as friendly, but be more insistent on sharing The Gospel, and along with the tract we will give a John/Romans.  The third time we go with our faces set, just as friendly, but giving one more opportunity to either accept or reject The Gospel.  After these three times, we continue visiting the prospects, leading people to Christ from that list, and trying to make more contacts/prospects but not door to door.  We continue in this way until God moves us to the next neighborhood.  Sometimes, this entire process takes a few weeks or in the case of the last neighborhood we just moved from, nearly 4 months (nearly 300 families).

At any rate, in spite of our kidnapping threats and the sporadic shootings, robberies, public beatings and general violence, we're still attempting great things for God and expecting GREATER things from God.

No time to lose!  We're still praying/planning/preparing for the peace march, hopefully to have it the end of this month.  We are also getting ready for the Harvest Festival on October 23rd...the people from church are pumped up and excited to have goals and things to do.

Please continue to pray God will allow us to bring salvation closer to the wicked, no matter what the means.  Philippians 1:20 "According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death."  Why?  Philippians 1:21 "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."

God help us through our prayers and yours to be true to our desires and faithful to our task.

Prayer Request Update

After praying and speaking with my pastor and several other folks on both sides of the border, I felt it expedient to send Erika and the kids to my mother in law’s house for at least the afternoon.  After more prayer, I decided to chisel off the address sign we have hung on the front wall.  There are no other street signs that indicate what the name of our street is, anywhere, so it would be the only indication of our address.  My pastor specifically prayed that if someone would come to do us harm, they would be confused and not be able to find our home.  So, I felt like I needed to do my best to help them be confused!

Erika and the kids returned last night before church and stayed the night.  The night was very uneventful, not even the dogs woke up for anything!

I counseled with several friends, both American and Mexican, and I and my family feel at peace that the men that called only wanted to scare us into listening long enough to tell us a bank account number to make deposits for “protection.”  In reality, they probably wouldn’t come to the house if unsuccessful in extorting money from us, but daily prayer and consecration will definitely help keep that reality.

We attribute the prayers of hundreds of folks that had compassion on us to our present state of safety and security, and more than anything “the peace of God.”

Thank you to all those of the many churches that have prayed for us since this time yesterday.  God answered in protection according to those prayers of faith.

Please continue to pray for us, more than anything for us to stay safe in order to bring God’s peace to this war-ravaged but beloved country of Mexico.

~Chris Lanier
Missionary to Arteaga, Mexico
(256) 797-2546
cclanier@gmail.com
missionarychrislanier.blogspot.com

Urgent Prayer Request

We received 2 phone calls in our home this afternoon while I was studying, both threatening.  The last conversation ended with the caller telling me “If you hang up I will come to get you.”  Well, they would come get me if I hung up or not.  They had already recited to me our names, address and obviously had our phone #, and not wanting to continue the conversation, I hung up.

After trying to dispel the worries of my wife, I called my Pastor to ask for prayer.  Then I called my parents, then a few others that I knew I could count on to pray.  After talking again with my wife and praying, I called my mother in law to come get Erika and the kids to stay there for the afternoon until church tonight.

I believe this is a tactic of the devil to scare us away.  It won’t work.  That’s why I stayed and why I will stay.  God put us here to get people saved and to bring salvation closer to the wicked, such as this man.  A man got saved in our house last night after coming to study the Bible.  People are getting saved, right with God, making positive decisions for God and I declare, as Nehemiah “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it...?”  I say with the Psalmist in 56:3 “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.”

Please pray for God’s will to be done, and that whatever the outcome, I will bring salvation closer to the wicked (Psalm 119:155).

~Chris Lanier
Missionary to Arteaga, Mexico
(256) 797-2546
cclanier@gmail.com
missionarychrislanier.blogspot.com

Meeting with the Mayor

Everything went very well!  We arrived to find out that the mayor wasn't there, nor does he entertain folks for appointments (how weird...).  However, we had a great time handing out tracts and talking to people there in the offices about Christ and inviting them to church.  Also, we got all of the information necessary to apply for permission to have the "March for Peace," and they told me all I had to do was turn in a written request and I could even have police protection.  Why would I want the police when they're promoting the violence, drugs and instability??  Of course I didn't tell them that but I graciously thanked them for their time.

Very importantly, a man from our church named Fidel went with me to the mayor's office and helped me around.  We went to eat a light breakfast afterwards and had a great time of fellowship and handing out tracts in the restaurant.  After eating, he wanted me to meet his parents (very staunch catholics).  It was very tense and uncomfortable so I tried to be very joyful and light-hearted so I would have an opportunity later to share the Gospel with them (after a good season of prayer).

God's so good to us.  We can't wait to see what God's going to do in the next few weeks with this "March for Peace!"

Marcha Por La Paz

Tomorrow I plan on meeting with the mayor of Arteaga (our town) to talk about having a "Peace March."  My idea is simply to draw attention to the need of having Christ in order to have peace--but having a march with posters, songs, and passing out of tracts.

A man from the church (Fidel) plans on going with me which is a huge blessing.  Having support from a national will be a tremendous help, and besides, Fidel says he knows the mayor and is his friend.  We'll see!

Please pray the mayor doesn't give us a hard time and that he will participate with us.

Praise The Lord for Alabama!

Home sweet home indeed!  While praying for our supporting churches this morning, I realized that Alabama is our largest supporting state!  We have a total of 7 supporting churches in Alabama, who average $65 in their monthly support, but not including our # 1 supporting church, our home church, Madison Baptist, who supports us for 25% of our overall support.

Praise GOD for Alabama!

Lanier Family Prayer Letters

Listed below and to the right are all of our recent prayer letters.  Enjoy!  Thanks for caring!

Wedding Bells!

To complete the miracle of salvation of Ismael a week ago Monday, he was gloriously married to Mari at church on Sunday morning!  After 30 years of marriage, including 25 years of separation (with a pile of iniquity on both sides, including infidelity) the two were united in marriage before God and man with a glorious wedding service.

We combined a regular church service with a wedding--not one at a time, right after each other but truly combined.  We sang, prayed, sang, prayed, had the ring presentation, preaching, biblical vows and a great deal of rejoicing in what The Lord has done.  There were 70 in attendance, whom all heard the gospel preached and were invited to receive Christ.  Most everyone was in shock at such a dramatic combination but everything went extremely well and most importantly to the glory of God.

There was a nice reception afterwards with great food and fellowship.  Honestly, it was the most Christ-centered and Christ-honoring wedding/reception I've ever seen (not because I conducted it, but because of how The Lord directed everything to come to pass).

It was a great example of how God works to everyone in the church and to all the visitors.  The miracle of God putting the two of them back together truly was amazing.  Right now, they are celebrating on their honeymoon and will return in a few days to continue their counseling/discipleship.

Ain't God GOOD!  What an answer to prayer, and a testimony to God's answering of prayer to all of you who have prayed for this.  Thank you and thank GOD!

Did You Hear Heaven Rejoicing?

At mid-day last Monday, a man who had come to the church a couple times came to our house seeking my approval to get together again with his estranged wife, who got saved in our church last January.  She is my mother in law, which makes him by law my father in law.  Well, they came seeking my approval/church blessing to get back together, and I explained how they needed to first make sure of their salvation.

The lady, my mother in law, is in love with God and has a great testimony now that she's saved.  Him, on the other hand, my father in law that is, was under conviction because he wanted to do right and had made some positive changes, but knew he hadn't been saved for real.  He joyfully received Christ on the spot after I explained the Gospel to him and showed him from the BIBLE how he could be saved!

Afterwards, I then counseled them that whereas they are already legally married, that was 30 years ago and they have been separated for nearly 25 years.  I advised them to continue to abstain from any relations and get married as soon as possible in the church to make their vows to each other before God, both being new Christians.  They happily agreed to wait it out until we could do the wedding.  We agreed on August 28th of this month, and we're going to perform the wedding during a regular church service.

What a blessing!  What a miracle!  30 years of marriage, 25 years of that being separated, multiple boyfriends and girlfriends, wickedness between them both and the world...only God could make something like this possible.

Thank you to those of you who read the prayer request regarding all of this and responded with prayer.  It worked!  Hallelujah!

Attendance!

Just to report a praise in answered prayer, we had great attendance last Sunday morning and Wednesday night.  Last Sunday night was down, but both services before and after were very well attended and most importantly the Spirit of God worked in the hearts of the people, especially Wednesday evening!

Rolling Along

We had a low-attended service on Sunday morning, and then really low on Sunday night.  Vacation time in Mexico is a faithfulness killer!  All of our people are brand new and very immature spiritually, so they don't mind missing a couple services in order to take advantage of their time off with their families.  I've preached about faithfulness to church and being consistent but it is taking time.  It just so happened that everyone was occupied with the things of the world except for 2 faithful families this last Sunday--hopefully it will pick back up by Sunday.  Wednesday night was well attended--we had 4 first time adult visitors, but 2 of them are visiting for a conference here in Mexico and won't be back until next year's conference.  Other than that, we had a lady who hadn't come for a month to return and it was so good to have her back.

One of the visitor ladies, however, came after promising last May to come.  Her daughter came for the first time last Sunday morning, then again on Sunday night and brought her mom on Wednesday night.  Her mom came because she was hungry (physically) and needed help.  We counseled with her about salvation and she assured us she's already a believer (time will tell).  I gave her a bag of food items and advised her to keep her decision to serve God very sure and brought her home with everyone else.  She's been abused by the world, has a multitude of health issues, and is here in Mexico after spending several years illegally in the US.  Her husband is still there awaiting deportation in jail.  She had been trying to kill herself but unable (to the point of hanging herself but the rope didn't hold because of her size).  We visited her the next day and she's doing better, but told us that while she was at church on Wednesday night, someone broke into her house and stole her toilet.  Oh!  The depravity of man!!

We're really praying for a good turnout this Sunday.  We know we're going to be missing one family because they have gotten a new job for Sunday afternoons (it's hard to tell a family they can't work on Sunday when it's not you that's going to go hungry).

We have a huge prayer request.  A lady in the church has been estranged from her husband for 25 years. She left him for another, went back, then left again for good many years ago.  They both have gone through many partners since then, but never legally divorced (hallelujah!).  The lady got saved last January and we've been praying she would get back with her real husband.  What a miracle to pray for!  She would have to get rid of her live in boyfriend and her real husband would have to put out his live in girlfriend.  Well, both her and he have put out their respective partners and are now seeking each other.  Our prayer request is that now that both have made great decisions that they won't repent, will continue steadfastly  and eventually move back in together as husband and wife.  He is willing, she is willing, but there is a lot of forgiveness to be passed around from both sides and a lot of maturing.  It took a miracle of God to get this far and will take an even bigger one for them to be able to live together again after 25 years of separation.  Please pray!

Primera Etapa (first stage)

We finished the first stage in the reconstruction of the church.  It cost $250, which is what we were given extra this month to do what we needed to do.  The reconstruction right now is mainly concerned with the roof which has cracks all over.  It was very poorly done to begin with and now has to be drastically (and very expensively) redone.  After this first stage of $250, we have to pay about another $2500 to finish the 2nd stage of fixing the roof completely.  I don't know how in the world we can do it without a lot of help from our supporting churches.  It will take years and years for the people to raise enough money to do it--I would estimate at least 8-10 years.  So, we're praying fervently and effectually for the money.  The people are giving from their heart already, which is covering the normal expenses of the church (gasoline, water, electric, propane, bathroom supplies, cleaning supplies, etc).  So we are praying God would supply the needed $$ from our regular giving in our church here in Mexico by God sending more people to the church.  First for them to get saved and live for God, and then for God to touch their hearts to give as unto The Lord to fix up the church.  It would help to have help from our supporting churches but more than anything I would love to build up our church with people that have a heart to give themselves to God, first, and then give from their wallet!  :)

So, please pray with us that God would build our church and that while we do our job here in Mexico God would touch hearts in both Mexico and the US to help us rebuild God's house here in Arteaga.

Baby Dedication

We had our first baby/child dedication last Sunday morning!  It went great.  We dedicated our son Charley, and then another couple's 2 children.  One of them is turning 4 in 2 weeks and the other is Ashley's age.  Ashley was already dedicated to The Lord, but we re-dedicated her as well.  Attendance was good as well, with several first time visitors.  After the dedication, we had a luncheon and then the afternoon service directly afterwards.  After the 2nd service I had all the bus-kids to help me load the trailer full of chairs to take to another church in Saltillo, then took everyone home.

I had to run a few errands and finish preparing for the other church service in Saltillo, then we left with the trailer and picked up 2 kids that are well behaved to reward them (yes, we reward kids with godly rewards, like bringing them with us to special church occasions).

The other church service was an anniversary and they had invited me to preach.  We all had a great time--I always enjoy preaching and this was no exception.  The attendance at this other like-minded, independent/fundamental baptist church was great.  The music was good and I suppose the preaching was good!  :)

Afterwards we had a great supper and enjoyed a good time of fellowship.  I enjoyed fellowshipping especially with a man I led to Christ there a couple months ago, who is faithful to church and growing very well.

It's been a good week but very exhausting.  We had company Friday but it was a little different because they came to our house very early in the morning.  After  a couple hours, we packed up and went to register Charley (this has to be done after a baby is born here in Mexico--to be honest I don't really know what it's for other than to publicly register the child, like in the US when you apply for a SSN).  Afterwards, we went to lunch with our guests, dropped them off and then went grocery shopping.  It was funny--we had to wait until Monday because we were really "stretched" financially and we didn't have much at all in the fridge except ketchup, and then we came home with too many groceries to fit!

The rest of the week is preparation for Sunday.  Tomorrow we're dedicating to stamping Bibles, New Testaments, John/Romans and Tracts and to prayer for the people of our church and the neighborhood where we've been dedicating our time.  Also we have to pay several bills and run some errands.  Friday I'll be studying and preparing all day, then Saturday will be the final push of the week in evangelization and prayer.

Sunday we're expecting great things from God!

Escuelitas Bíblicas de Verano (VBS!!)

We had a great, Christ-honoring EBV (VBS) this week.  It was glorious and fun!  The first day we started off kind of slow, with only 14 kids, but we grew each day to a total 51 by Wednesday, July 20th (the last day).  We had a total of 12 salvation decisions, all to the GLORY of GOD!

We had several workers too that came each day.  One lady of the church even bought extra prizes for the kids, provided the snacks for one day, and brought the refreshments for the graduation on Wednesday night.  Yes, it was a huge sacrifice for her financially--may The Lord richly bless her.  Another lady came to just help with anything needed, including watching Charley for us while we were running around crazy. One other lady helped us with everything, including teaching a class to the younger class (we had 2, Erika taught the older class).

The graduation went well.  We had a demonstration of the theme song and Bible verse, an object lesson, a few songs and I preached a summary of what I preached throughout the VBS (Romans Road of Salvation).    We had great attendance and a few parents came (all claimed to be saved already, and in different churches).  Go figure.

All in all, we couldn't be happier.  The Lord miraculously saved 12 young people from hell, all to His GLORY.  Thank God the GOSPEL still works!

Flying Time!

So either the time is flying OR it's time to fly--but I really think that it's both.  Charley is already more than a month old and we are soooo busy.  We have so much going on!

Between regular church services (3 per week), soul-winning (4 per week), diaper changing (don't ask) and trying to train our children for Christ (24-7, literally) we don't have time for much of anything.  We really have enjoyed our family devotions each day, reading 2 chapters in Spanish.  I have been immensely enjoying my own personal devotions as well--I've been experiencing a more intense hunger for The Word of God over the last month and have been richly blessed and encouraged by it.  The Lord has truly been sweet through it all and I'm proud to serve Him.

Charley was pretty bad sick last week.  I prayed to know whether or not to take him to the doctor, and finally had peace 3 days later to go ahead and take him.  It was a common cold that was about to turn into a  throat infection.  The doctor also did his 30 day check-up 2 days early, and Charley had put on 2 pounds and grew almost 2 inches since birth.  Hooray for Charlie!  He's feeling much better now, even if he still cries for no reason just to get attention.

Ashley is JEALOUS.  She was okay and happy with the baby Charlie invasion for the first week, but then realized he wasn't going away and decided to act out, accordingly.

Church is going great.  We continue to have new visitors each Sunday.  Some come and go, others stay. Many don't like it that we don't have hip-hop music and don't allow dancing or tongue-speaking.  A few have asked why we don't show movies instead of having preaching services.  Most importantly, we have a core group of about 25 that come faithfully and are growing.  I couldn't be prouder with many decisions that have been made.  Each service several people either come forward to the old-fashioned altar or make decisions privately in their seats.  It's sweet to see people weep before The Lord and then to see their resolve when they finish, with a solid decision made.  It's so glorious to see those same people then give a testimony about what God has been doing in their life, showing them, or about the decision they just made.  God's so good.

In another post, I'm going to write about our VBS this week.  Other than this week, July 31st will be another special day.  We're going to have a baby parade and baby dedication in the AM service.  After that, we're going to have a simple dinner then the PM service to follow immediately.  I've been invited to preach an Anniversary service in the big city that evening, so we're going to pack up and have a 3rd service!

July is a real busy month but then we'll have a bit more calm in August.  I really hope The Lord supplies the $$ we need to make the repairs on the church building in August--at least so we can buy the materials we need.

We so desperately need to fix the roof, at least to prevent the rain from inundating the inside.  Afterwards, we equally desperately need to build a baptistry.  After all that we need to get rid of all the mold and fungus that we have because of the roof leaking, then paint everything.  Finally, there are 2 more projects that were started in the church building before we got there that have to be finished ASAP.

When we feel like we've done justice to the house of The Lord, we need to repair and raise the outside wall surrounding the property.  That will be another huge and expensive endeavor but we need to do it to protect our family and the property here that we're taking care of.

It doesn't look like we're going to have any students for the school this year.  The one young man we invited declined and his parents don't have the character to make him do what's right.  He's an academic failure already, hates studying and learning, and has absolutely no discipline.  His family began faithfully attending a couple months ago but also show no signs of growth nor desire to grow.  We had really hoped to give him a chance to turn his life around but I suppose it's better to see that him and his family don't really want that, now ahead of time.

After this month whether or not we are able to start on the construction and repair projects, we're going to be preparing for a big evangelistic outreach in late October.  Then in November, we're going to have a missionary come for a week around Thanksgiving.  Then for Christmas we'll have another big-outreach and maybe a play.  I don't really care for Christmas since I'm not catholic, but I do enjoy showing the folks we love them and impart gifts to them (especially the Christmas Shoe Boxes of Joy from Bro. Paul Deem, Directline Ministries)

Hopefully very soon I'll be able to write about VBS and the VBS graduation this coming Wednesday evening.  We can't wait!

Charley Pictures!

Christopher Charles

Christopher Charles Lanier was born (finally!) on Tuesday, June 14th at 9:55pm.  He weighed 6.8 pounds and was 19.69 inches long.

Everything went very smoothly.  Erika went through 5 hours of hard labor, but we waited until we were sure it was the right time.  They had to break her water after a couple hours of labor.  She delivered Charley 100% natural!  The doctors and nurses were amazed that she could do it and I was very proud of her.

Both Erika and Charley are doing very well.  He's a bit more active at night than he is during the day, but we'll work on that little by little.  He's eating very good, just like Ashley did.  The difference is he is easier to keep on a schedule (hallelujah!)

I'll post pictures as soon as I have time to download them from the camera and upload them to the website.

Great Weekend!

We had great services both this morning and this afternoon with many great decisions made!

Erika still doesn't want to introduce baby Charley to the world.  Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow--maybe next week.  Everything seems like it's up in the air and that there's no certainty to any plans we make!  The good thing and most important thing is that both Erika and the baby are doing fine--just that they don't want to separate just yet!

We appreciate your prayers as always.  Keep in touch!

Below and Above!

We had a bit below average attendance in the AM and PM service, but 3 saved!  I'll take the losses for the gains!

Double Blessing!

We had 2 saved on Wednesday night after church!  Praise The Lord!

New Van!

So we got the new van home, finally, and picked up 30 people the first time we used it last Wednesday (yes, of course all at once!).  It was full on Sunday morning and Sunday night, too.

We love the looks we get with the great looking van with our church name on it.  People notice us and we feel like we're making so much more of an impact in our city.  Praise God!

Grrrrrrrreat!

I always loved that Frosted Flakes commercial!

Well, things are going great here!  We now have an AM AND PM service on Sunday, as well as the Wednesday service.  We recently started 4 organized soul-winning times which have been well attended too!

We couldn't ask for anything more.  We're all excited in the work, healthy, and can't wait to see what else God's going to do on behalf of the people of Arteaga!

Pressing On

So I went last Monday, a week ago, to pick up the van that was given to us for the church here in Mexico.  I waited on the paperwork to be finished (it was supposed to be finished by the time I got there) until Thursday and finally left.

Before I got home (I had taken the bus to the border, crossed in a taxi, and stayed in a cheap hotel all week) I called Erika to pack a suitcase and be ready to go by 9:30pm.  I had bought several things while waiting, and I had to leave them in the van that was given to us.  Being that the stuff was in the van, and the lying office that was doing the work had the keys, I didn't feel comfortable leaving it there until I came back to pick up the van again.  Also, the papers on our own van and trailer were about to expire in 2 weeks, so I figured we'd get it all done in one quick trip.

That was all pretty uneventful, other than getting stopped 2x by different unlawful police officers looking for bribes. Of course, I argued and fought and finally they let me go.  Also, an apparent drug runner and definitely loser tried to stop us on our return from the border at 4:30am.  I didn't slow down, though, and on the contrary I sped up to make him realize I wasn't going to stop and he would die if he tried.  It worked, praise The Lord!  The problem is that if you slow down or come close to stopping, it's over and they already have you.  Sounds tough but that's what it takes to stay alive and protect your family.

So anyway, we left late on Thursday night and drove to the border, turned in all of our van and trailer paperwork, got all new paperwork for everything including my visa, and then went to the company that is legalizing the church van to pick up all of the stuff.  Thankfully, it was still intact and we had no problems.

We tried to get some rest on Friday once back at home but there was too much to do.  Saturday we spent most of the day soul-winning, visiting, and preparing for Sunday.  It was a great day.

Sunday was weird, to be honest.  Attendance was a bit low but there was an awful spirit and I had no liberty in the service what-so-ever.  As a family we've decided to double our prayer efforts and studies to be better prepared, and especially pray specifically for The Spirit of God to be in control.

Today a man came by while I was studying asking for work.  He has a different history which I'll share in the future if he starts coming to church and then to work for us on some projects.

PROJECTS:  New roof on the church building!!  New outside wall!!

The wall is a new project that we've really got to do for security sake.  It's only 3 feet high with a metal rail fence on top, which makes it see through to the inside of the property.  People can easily see whether I am there or not, based on whether the van is or not.  If I'm gone and Erika and the kids are there alone, anyone call easily jump/climb the low wall and get in.  These are rough and tough times in Mexico and I really need to protect them.  Along with building up the wall, I need to install solid metal swing doors so people can't see them either.

It's just that while I was gone last week someone tried to break in and assault Erika, also demanding money and food.  God protected her, praise The Lord!

Mucho trabajo!  Lot's of work!  Prayer and supplication, then by hand we'll build the work that God has called us to.

I got word today from a church that will begin supporting us.  We're so thankful.  We're at 96% and rising!

Keep in touch! cclanier@gmail.com

Decisions Decisions!

We're so happy to be sent here to Mexico.  We've seen so many people get saved, and I was just rejoicing about not only the salvation decisions, but the decisions made by the people in our church since they've been saved.  Last night I preached a simple message on faithfulness to church and several people made decisions to either continue coming faithfully or to start coming faithfully.  Last Sunday, there were also numerous decisions made about raising children and fostering a celebrative environment in the home.

I honestly don't know which is more exciting!  Of course salvation is the important and special decision someone can make, but let's hear it for all the other decisions made for Christ after salvation!  Glory!

Children's Day in Mexico

After praying about it, we decided to have a small celebration after church last Sunday.  Saturday was "Children's Day" so we thought we would do a small party for the people in honor of childrens day.  It went very well!  Some friends of ours from Texas were down and wanted to take care of most of the cost, which was a great blessing.  We had a pasta salad, cokes, drinks and a cake.  We were planning for about 50-60 and had 51!  What a blessing!

I preached a message on Celebrating Childhood and somehow waxed eloquent for 90 minutes!  The people responded very well and many adults made decisions to raise their children in an environment that would foster a celebration throughout their lives.  Aside from the loooong preaching, we had a great time of singing as well.  The entire service lasted 2 hours and was just an over all great time in The Lord.  We had one completely new family and a couple individual folks that had never come before.

Things are going well and we're excited to be here.  We're focusing on soul-winning, visitation, and informal Bible studies in people's homes.

The doctor visit for Erika went very well.  Little Charlie is not so little for his age (with 6 weeks to go he's already almost 5 pounds!)(which in comparison to Ashley, is huge--she weighed barely 5 pounds at birth!).  He's doing very well and Erika is as well.  She's very uncomfortable but hanging in.

We are excited to have a new supporting church in Plainview, TX.  Thanks to Calvary Baptist and their great Pastor for their help!

Please pray that the many churches we were in in February, March, and April will take us on for support soon.  Otherwise, even though we hate it, we'll have to raise more support.  We lack so little, though--so please pray God would touch their hearts.

Onward!

Getting It Done!

So here we are in Mexico!  We got here a couple days ago very safely and are excited to be back home.  There isn't any catastrophic damage this time to the property, thank God.  Everything was very clean thanks to our family and well attended.

Even though nothing needed worked on or repaired immediately, my family needed a time to ourselves.  We've been non-stop for two years and we needed some time just for us to enjoy each other and get ourselves charged up.  Spiritually, we just needed to get prepared for the "great work" ahead of us.

So, we took a couple days to be alone to do just that.  It is vacation time here in Mexico as well, which means everyone goes back to their original family's home, or just on a vacation.

We're feeling very good and SO ready to get started now.  God's been good to us and we're excited about finally getting officially started this week with our church.

Is No News Truly Good News?

Here I am blogging about the lack of something to blog about.  Things have been pretty uneventful, just a few items of real interest in our lives.

Last week, we went to visit some dear friends of ours for the weekend and to help out in their church.  I helped on their buses, taught SS, and preached.  It was a great time.

Then this week we were able to be in our home church again for the last time on Wednesday.  I love and appreciate Madison Baptist Church so much.  They pray for us, they provide for us, and they care about us.  I love their stand on the Bible being inspired and preserved, I love their stand on godly, conservative HYMNS, I love their stand on godly, separated living, and standards of modesty.  They inspire me with their generosity and watch care over the nearly 30 missionary families from their midst.

Last night I went to the memorial service for the mother of one of my old bus kids.  Her name was Madison and I began picking her up when she was four years old.  I still remember her first Sunday to come.  She was so enthusiastic and personable.  Through it all, good times and bad, she was always that same way and we still love her dearly.  Her mother passing was difficult for everyone, most of all Madison, but I'm glad I had the opportunity to be there at the memorial service for her and her family/friends.  Since we're going to Mexico for a long time, several years, it seems impossible that we'll ever see Madison again.  We'll continue to pray for her though and hope that one day she'll remember thatvMadison Baptist Church and old Bro. Chris love and care for her and she'll come back to us.

I just got off the phone with our tax guy and he told me we're going to receive close to $3,000 back from our federal taxes and we have to pay about $24 for our AL state taxes.  What a blessing!  Only in America.

So today we're getting ready to get back on the road and look forward with earnest expectation to being home in Mexico in just a couple weeks.  We're excited about our upcoming meetings as well.  We're trusting The Lord to send in the rest of our support (at least projected) by the 1st of May.  We only lack a couple hundred dollars (if you include "promised" but not solid support).  Also today we're scheduled to have lunch with our dear Pastor and supper with one of my closest friends.  Tomorrow Erika will be at a ladies meeting all day, and I'll be with Ashley and a friend (whose wife will also be at the ladies meeting).  Sunday morning we'll be off on yet another whirlwind adventure.

Thanks for your interest and don't forget to keep in touch!

Update and Prayer Letters

Well we're up in Ohio after a great meeting at Cranberry Baptist Church in Beckley, WV.  We were so blessed and encouraged there.  We had a long drive from Tampa, FL to get there but it was well worth it.  Even with the $90 breakdown off of I-77N--it wasn't much, just a blown heater hose.  The Lord was so good to us to put us right next to an HONEST mechanic's shop and also allowed the van to break before we got up into the mountains in no-mans-land.

So we're here in Ohio until Sunday afternoon.  We got into town last night with my parents and will leave tomorrow night to have a meeting in southern Ohio, in Waverly.  We're looking forward and praying for a great meeting there as well.

After Sunday morning, we'll be going lightning fast back to Beckley, WV for an international banquet, then drive a bit south after the evening service.  Then we'll be in Alabama for a couple weeks, then have a few meetings in and around until we head back to Mexico.

Good-Lord-a-willin' we'll be back home for good in a month.  Please pray to that end and that God will send the rest of our support by then as well.

Also, our 2 most recent prayer letters are finally posted on the website.  Enjoy!

...Must...Write...Update...

So it's been the proverbial "long time" without an update--I guess it happens to everyone that blogs.  I promised myself I wouldn't do that when I first started, but here I am blogging about my lack of blogging.

It's been pretty busy, though.  We have been in great meetings since we left Mexico on February 25th.  We had a very difficult leaving but did it because we wanted to get finished up and get back as soon as possible.  We've had meetings and travelled in Amarillo, TX, Clarendon, TX, Altus, OK, Mustang, OK, and Borger, TX.  We are praying that at least 3 of these churches will begin financially supporting us.

After all of those meetings, we visited a great Hispanic church in OKC, OK and then travelled to where we are now, Brandon, FL.  It was a long but uneventful drive.

The best things so far have been a few salvation decisions we've been a part of.  We've also enlisted a great deal of prayer support and met a bunch of great people.  We announced a need for a 15 passenger van in a church in OK and they gave us one of theirs!  We only wanted them to pray with us about it--I thought we would have to pray and raise the $$, but Tabernacle Baptist in Altus gave us one.  We weren't over the excitement of all that yet, and a man from the same church volunteered a reupholster a seat in the van, paint the exterior, put our church name on it, AND drive it to the border for us!  We couldn't believe it...what a great God, church, and people of God.  Now, we're praying for the $1500 to import it permanently to Mexico and put license plates on it.

We'll be around here in Brandon, FL until next Tuesday and then we're off to a great church in Beckley, WV.  From there we have meetings in OH, AL, and GA.  We really hope to be back in Mexico by May--and see where The Lord leads from there.  I don't have peace exactly yet nor wisdom from God--we're still praying what HE wants.

Wonderful Grace of Jesus

I don't have time to write all of the details, but we had a huge "big day" last Sunday.  It was "Dia de Vaquero" ("Cowboy Day") and we had a great turnout.  We picked up about 50 people, had about 40 walk ins, and about 40-50 drive ins, for a total of somewhere between 130-140.  We settled on 135!

Most importantly, we had 12 saved!  It was a great Spirit filled day and The Lord really performed a miraculous work on behalf of the Mexican people.

God's GOOD!

SAVED by HIS Power Divine

I was getting very troubled at the lack of people getting saved at church the last part of January.  We had the wolf problem right after 3 folks received Christ the first Sunday of January, and it took a couple weeks to get worked out of all that mess.  Then afterwards, attendance went back to normal and a couple visitors floated in and out without getting saved.

So, we began praying more.  Last Sunday we had 1 saved in the service, but it was a visitor that I didn't know.  There was another visitor that had attended faithfully for a few services that I knew wasn't saved because she told me.  She didn't want to get saved on Sunday, so that night during a Bible study with my family and hers I went over the plan of salvation again.  She told me she didn't want to get saved that morning because she was ashamed and thought everyone would laugh at her.  She told me she felt horrible because she knew she had rejected Christ and the Holy Spirit.  She still didn't want to be saved, though--something that we couldn't understand.  We prayed for her though and trusted God to work on her overnight.

However, she came back to us early on Monday morning, miserable and afraid she would be eternally lost.  She told me she couldn't sleep all night, under conviction and knew she had to get saved.  She told me she was too prideful to admit that she was a wicked person, even though she knew it, and that was the reason she didn't want to get saved.  I showed her the Scriptures again, allowing the Word of God to make a good impression on her heart and she tearfully asked me if she could receive Christ right then.  I showed her a couple more verses about receiving Christ and then told her to confess with her own mouth and believe in her heart, and that God would save her.  As always, I left her alone to talk with The Lord and went back to check on her a few minutes later.  Her countenance was changed, her burden was gone and she was joyfully reborn!

We're getting ready for the big day on Sunday, "Dia de Vaquero" (Cowboy Day).  We've been praying and preparing for a month and the people are very excited.  We'll have a big dinner, pony rides, a mechanical bull, a man to do lasso tricks, a big moon bounce, a piñata, and a few gifts to give to the people that bring the most visitors.  The nicest gift is a leather bound Bible, and for the kids we're going to give stick-horses to the boy and girl who bring the most visitors.  Of course, plastic cowboy hats for everyone!

Today (Feb 9) is the first day since last Wednesday that we've had water in the house.  It's hard to understand for many Americans, but in Mexico when the weather dips below freezing and the water pipes freeze, it causes major problems.  You have to wait for them to thaw out first, then wait and see how many pipes burst.  Finally, you fix everything and hope it doesn't freeze again.

Well, it got super cold and our pipes froze, even though the day before I re-wrapped everything above ground and got up every 3 hours that night to turn the water on.  The next day it thawed and we fixed the problems, but it froze again and stayed frozen several days.  I did all I could to thaw and fix but to no avail.  Finally, I had to tear up the concrete all around the back to find any burst pipes underneath.  I found them, fixed them, and all of that took a week, with professional help.  I did all the manual labor, and he did the technical stuff like soldering the pipes.

So, we've been limited with our time to prepare for Sunday.  We had a work day yesterday for the inside of the church and a few people came to help and did a great job.  Tonight we're going to have a regular service, but only a quick challenge about praying for the lost and then we're going to pray for the lost for a good long time.  Several people promised to pray for an hour during the week and we're really expecting the power of God to fall on Sunday.

Tomorrow we're going to beat the streets and get the word out about Sunday with special flyers.  I hope I can win the leather bound Bible!  We'll do some more soul-winning, visitation and canvassing on Saturday and make the final preparations.  Saturday night a friend is bringing his church and several other churches to have an anniversary service.

Friday is our last appointment for the baby before we go back to the States for 3 months.  We're excited to see Charlie again!

Our support is doing well.  We received monthly support from a couple new churches that we weren't expecting, but didn't receive from a few regular churches that we were expecting.  God's always faithful though to give us what we need plus some extra.  We're honored to be His messengers to Mexico and can't wait to continue what He has planned for us when we get back in May!  We plan on leaving on February 25th and returning back home to Mexico maybe as soon as Easter, but possibly as late as mid-May.  It depends on the rest of our support.

Two more weeks here in Mexico to lay the ground-work for organizing the church when we get back!  We're thankful for this grand opportunity and expect great works of God here where He put us!

VICTORY in Jesus!

We had a great day yesterday!  The spirit was great, the service went great, God spoke to hearts, and the attendance was back up to normal!

It was difficult to keep doing the same thing that we had been doing, in the midst of the wolf attacks and massive drop in attendance.  We stuck to it, though, and doubled our efforts.  God punished the wolf and he's doing right now.  The other she-wolf still has yet to get right or come back, but we won't grow weary in well doing knowing by faith AND experience that we WILL reap.

God's always good and we're so thankful.  The people are getting really excited about the "Dia de Vaquero" and we're busy getting the plans together.

The family is doing well.  We can't complain!  We're looking forward to having some family come in from out of town to stay with us for a little while.  They heard about God doing something in our family and want to come find out what we have going on!  We look forward to prayerfully winning them to Christ.  If they do get saved, we are praying they'll move into town and get involved in what God's doing here in our family and community.

Word gets around about us pretty fast, somehow.  People have been telling me that they've recently heard that in our church we only preach The Bible, and it doesn't matter if it's "duro" (difficult, hard, and in this case offensive).  Our people enjoy handing out tracts and talking to people about what's going on, and inviting people to church.  Some come, some go, and some stay.  It's God that is doing the work but it's exciting to see the people of the church performing their responsibility to go, plant, water, and reap.

As a result, people have been referring us to people that need help, like a family where the husband beats his wife, is drunk, and doesn't let her go out of the house.  I've visited 2x since Saturday, and both times a scared family member came to the door (2 different, 1 lady and 1 teen-girl) and very timidly told me they weren't allowed to talk to me, let alone come to church.  Another family the man is a drug-addict and only works to buy drugs and liquor.  His wife and baby boy have absolutely nothing, and she is terribly confused between being catholic, mormon, jFw, 7thDA, and a practicing witch.  She's came to church 2X, but not since last June.  Also a result of the people doing such a great job with evangelizing the community, they are bringing friends, neighbors and family to church.  Some are even bring family that live 45 minutes away from our church!

We're so proud to be here as God's messengers to Arteaga.  The field truly is white and the fruit is definitely ripe for the picking.

Claiming Victory

We had a great service last Wednesday and Sunday, albeit the attendance was still down.  We kept soul-winning, visiting, and praying and even though we missed several families, God gave us peace and still worked in the hearts of those that did come.

Last night God brought more than usual, 30 folks.  That was our average before the gossip and backbiting and wolf attacks, so it was encouraging to see The Lord still at work.  We had one new family to come last night as well.  The service went great.

I did something unusual, though after I dismissed the kids to their class and right before the preaching.  I took four chairs and put them beside the pulpit, and told the people the chairs were for 2 couples that had received Christ but no longer want to come to church.  I told the church that it was our responsibility to pray for them, and that I was going to leave the chairs there until those two families came back.

Well, a church member called one of the families and told them they were not right for not coming to church anymore, and that they weren't going to grow and God wouldn't work in their hearts while being outside His will.  Afterwards, that church member called us to joyfully tell us that the family admitted they were wrong and would be back on Sunday!

God's GOOD!!

I've cancelled our trip to Washington state in honor of our support being so close.  We're going to trust God to give us the rest of what we need by the end of Spring.

Erika, Ashley, and Charlie are doing well.  My new Grampa continues to grow.  It's so special to hear him praying and singing hymns during his devotions.  He's a completely new man and I'm so proud he's staying with us for a little while.  He helps me with all of the maintenance and work on the property, and enables me to spend more time studying and praying.

I thank God for my family.

Manning the Trenches

It's been a week of super hard work.  After such a victorious Sunday on January 2nd, and a pretty good service on Wednesday the 5th, the devil really hit us hard.  As I've always feared in starting the church here in Arteaga, we had a few wolves come to the church and began attacking the new sheep.  It started right after Christmas, and came to a head right after the service on January 2nd.

Two wolves--one man and one woman of different families began criticizing me, the church, and other attendees.  They began by saying horrible things about others, not just me, but to other people in the church.  Since everyone is either newly born again or not at all, it really did damage.  We've lost 3 complete families as a result of it.  However, the two wolves were members of 2 of the families, and I had to publicly ran the wolf-man out after he publicly began hurting others.  The wolf-woman voluntarily took her family out after spewing negative rhetoric to the baby sheep.

I was discouraged to be honest on Sunday morning.  The wolves didn't come, but they had hurt others already, and the word had gotten around that there was problems (already!) in the church.  So, our attendance went down from our average of 40 on Sunday morning to 20.  I wept before the people before the service starting, calling for a season of prayer at the altar before we could start the service.  We prayed God would keep His church in Arteaga pure, and protected from the wolves.  We had a great service afterwards and God spoke to hearts.  I was still so discouraged, but did my best to be joyful in front of the people and encourage them to press on.

Monday morning during my devotions I wept again, talking to The Lord about why I was so discouraged.  As I prayed, however, I realized that God gave me exactly what I had been asking for before Sunday, and then again at church that day.  I had been praying the entire week before that God would keep the wolves away and protect His sheep, and that He did.  So, after spending time with The Lord and pouring my heart out to Him, I realized He had done exactly what I had been asking for and that I should be happy as I trust Him.

Now, we're in the process of bringing the wounded sheep back and reconciling them.  It's hard for me to admit that even that we're such a young church we have had such a nasty problem, but hopefully as I humble myself to the people and apologize to them for not keeping the wolves away soon enough, they will grow in the faith and remain in church.

We've also had a member of our family in the hospital for two weeks, and we've been taking turns visiting, staying, and taking care of him.  He has one kidney, which is a transplant, and the other was removed a long time ago.  The remaining kidney (the transplant) has quit working and he needs yet another.  The problem is that here in Mexico, that means no hope for you.  They will normally just let you die because there aren't enough resources to go around for everyone.  For example, they've already removed both of his kidneys and given him one new one--to them he's not worth the time, money, and attention.  He needs to be on 24 hour dialysis for the rest of his life, but they won't do the surgery to put the "stuff" in place.  They've promised for 2 weeks to "do it tomorrow" but still haven't.  After they do that, they'll keep him for a couple days and then send him home to be on dialysis at home.

So, for our family and extended family, it's been difficult.  We've seen 6 people in our immediate family here in Mexico get saved recently, and they can't understand why this, why now.

Trials are one of our proofs of being christians, and chastisement as well.  I've learned through the trial in the church and family that I need to be at the throne of God 3X as much as I had been, and in the Bible 2X as much as I had been.  I want God to use us for His honor and glory, and be a good leader/under shepherd.

On a victorious note, my brother in law Rogelio (who got saved last February) is still making great strides and changes in his life.  He's reading his Bible each day, preparing questions, taking notes, and praying (with a prayer list) each day.  He makes me so proud.  His family is following his example and allowing The Lord to change them, too (especially his wife in her submission to him).

Tonight will be interesting, in seeing who comes and who doesn't.  Sunday will be the "proof" of the final results of the wolves--we're praying that no matter what we'll give God the glory.

Making Blood Brothers

We had wonderful services yesterday.  I was still feeling lousy, but really burdened to pray for the salvation of the lost that would come to the morning service.  So, I spent about 30 minutes that I normally spend making the final touches on the auditorium in prayer instead.

God answered the prayer!  The service went great, and during the invitation 3 people came forward to be saved.  Two of them had consistently told me they were already Christians, but I knew they weren't because they never had any type of real salvation testimony.  The third was a wicked man, a very drunk old man that I have come close to physically beating on 2 occasions (he was drunk and wanted to beat his wife for no reason and I stopped him).  He finally came to church and was gloriously saved!  There was also a great time of testifying and rejoicing with some others in the church that had already been saved.  I rejoice knowing that even though I have nothing to do with these people other than Jesus Christ, we are all covered and washed in His pure blood, making us blood brothers!

Sunday night we finally got a family to let us have a Bible study in their house.  We didn't really tell them, though.  We just showed up and they invited us to eat, and then I got out the Bible.  We studied together with much rejoicing, crying, and conviction until 11:30.  We hope to continue in this manner as long as we can.

Last Saturday was a great day too.  It was New Years Day, but I called for volunteers to come work.  We had a great group of 5 men and 5 ladies that came and worked all day, and we nearly finished all of the work that needed to be done.  Today, Monday, the 5 men came back to finish up but after working 6 long hours outside, we still weren't able to get everything finished.  Such is the work here--it never ends and if it does, something will tear up and there's a completely new task to be done.

The final count isn't in yet because I haven't had time to do the math, but it appears our monthly support may be as high as 80%!  I still feel we need to raise our goal, though, especially after this last round of disasters to the property.  We need to be able to take care of all of those emergency expenses without going broke (like we did this month).  The church is already paying it's own bills, but still not in a place to be able to pay for "big" things that it needs, like a completely new roof and roof seal.  All in good time--we are averaging 40 on Sunday and 30 on Wednesday, but for the people to be able to take on tasks like the roof (about $5000) would take about 200 people tithing and giving offerings for about a year.  So, yeah--we may need to raise our goal.

Bro. Rogelio, who got saved last February, is making great steps of faith and allowing The Lord to work in his life.  I'm very proud of him and his family--I am sure he's going to be our first pastor.  He's also facing a great deal of opposition from his super catholic family.  They have what is called a "Niño Dios" (Child God) which is supposed to be Jesus.  They put him in a manger but then they cook and do things for him, worship and pray to him, and it's all abominable blasphemy.  Well, Rogelio's family did the celebration and Rogelio didn't go, for the first time.  That night, somehow the idol fell and broke his head off, and the entire family blames Rogelio because he didn't come to worship it and give it gifts.  When he laughed at them (as I did when I heard the story) they nearly kicked him out of the family forever.  They said "So now you're acting like a Christian," and he responded "I AM a Christian."  He makes me so proud!

So we're keepin' on keepin' on.  Pray for us, for laborers and for God to keep the wolves away.  They always prey on baby sheep and I had to run one off yesterday in the midst of the victory.  Pray for the people to keep on going in their Christian walk.

I will post our latest prayer letter when I have the time.  Thanks for your time!

God's great!