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!