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