Hello Valued Prayer Partners!!
I received an email the other day asking about one of the previous prayer requests I had sent out and it dawned on me that I hadn't sent out a praise report lately! I'm going to give you an update on how things have gone this summer and also a small taste of what we think God might be leading us to be a part of in the future...
UPDATES
- Church Plant
We had a very good evangelism training week in August with the Penners down training 2 churches in evangelism. It was a good time and many people were blessed to receive the training. We followed it up with an open air evangelism meeting where we saw 6 people come to Christ. The church has been started and is going along week by week. Please pray for these new believers and the Abellino and Mirellya in their first pastorate.
- Mirellyas Health
Mirellya was able to have her gall bladder taken out the week after the tent meetings. They sent her home the same evening still woozy from the anaesthetic! She has been progressing well and their work health insurance was able to pay for the surgery, praise God. Her husband was scheduled to be laid off in the beginning of August, but God has provided him with work week by week in the same company!
- Provision for Abelino and Mirellya
We had asked for pray for their provision, and God has answered! Abelino has been kept on at his work on a week by week basis and is still there now, 6 weeks after he was supposed to lose his job! Not only that but God has provided about $180/ month for them to assist him in working in ministry part time. We are hoping to have enough ($400/ month) to allow him to serve his people and neighborhood full time in the near future! Praise God for His provision!
- Spanish Classes
We had Spanish classes for a good part of this summer with Joseph fruin and myself being the teachers. It went well and we've noticed a huge amount of improvement in every ones Spanish skills (even mine!) as a result of this extended time of study. The kids and Shar understand alot more and are much more confident to speak in Spanish now which helps them continue to grow!!
- Comedor Ministry
God provided enough for Dolores to continue to provide the kids in her neighbourhood with decent food 3 days a week for another year!! However, about a week ago their 25 year old panel van finally gave up the fight and died. It had been a blessing for them to have, but an expensive one in that the gasoline costs to run it were unsustainable. A few days after, as we were trying to figure out how we could get them a car, I received an email asking if they had received enough funding to continue. When I explained the vehicle issue, our friend offered to help buy another car! We are waiting for the money to be processed and sent to us and hope to have them a decent, reliable, rugged, affordable to run vehicle soon! Praise God!
- Pastors and Leaders Training
The training is finally underway and is growing rapidly. At this point in time we have 3 classes in Eastern Tijuana with a total of 72 students; 1 class in Mexicali with 7 students and 1 class about to start in La Mision (45km south of Rosarito) with 21 students for a total of about 100 students in 5 classes!! Not all are pastors, many are sunday school teachers, worship leaders, youth sponsors, deacons and elders of the churches. Several are young people who are interested in being missionaries or pastors in the future. I have another group interested in taking the training in Maneadero about 100km south of Rosarito. The potential teacher has been trained and is going to spend a couple months in one of the classes to get a feel for how to present the material. He says there could be as many as 50 interested students down there!
God seems to be growing this aspect of the ministry exponentially and we are glad to be along for the ride, following Him and joining Him in His desire to raise up Godly leaders in Mexico!
Some thoughts have come to me lately and it seems God may be moving the ministry in a further direction in the coming years. The issue I am seeing is that there are many churches here in the Northern Baja area, although quite a few are struggling and can use some assistance. The question I have is: what do we do with these students who will be graduating the classes in the upcoming years? We could have as many as 150 trained leaders--- and if even only 10% of them offer themselves up to be pastors/ missionaries/ church planters-- that is 15 people who will be willing to go, but few means to go anywhere.
Most of the churches we serve are amongst the poorest of the poor in our area and can not afford to pay their pastor, never mind send missionaries out. So what inevitably ends up happening is that the leaders go and plant another church down the road from the sending church. What that has caused is countless little struggling churches in an area that hardly needs any more!
In contrast, we keep hearing of areas in Mexico's south where there are no churches, missionaries or Christians at all! I have heard that one state alone has 1000 villages, towns and cities with no evangelical churches nor witnesses! The need in Mexico is still great, but the harvesters are all living in one small area hugging the US border- because that is where the work was.
I believe God is asking us to partner with local churches here to help finance the sending of missionaries to Mexico's unreached spiritual frontier. We certainly don't intend on anyone getting rich in this ministry, but would like to provide these folks with the freedom to do the ministry, that they will be doing anyway, in an area of great spiritual need where there are often no jobs, or the pay is so poor a person must work 12+ hours a day to feed their family. The average income a person would need to get by in most of those areas is about $500/ month. We would hope to be able to provide at least a portion of that to give the missionaries freedom to do the work that they will be doing anyway (because the called serve, regardless of compensation--we see that daily down here!!) only do it in an area of great need.
We'd appreciate you praying about this. I am still in the process of working out details of the proposal to give to the YUGO International Boards. I'd appreciate prayer for that as well, that God would give us vision and clarity of thought as I present what I believe God is leading us to do here.
Final thoughts,
I'd also appreciate prayer as we are contemplating taking a trip to the southern Baja Peninsula in November. One of my students at the Calvary Chapel Bible College in Ensenada is from there and we are going to scout out the potential for ministry there. I have heard that there are only a few churches there, but am more interested in seeing if God is opening a door of opportunity there to train pastors and leaders in the southern peninsula. It is a 22 hour drive over harsh, mountainous, hot, desert terrain. Please pray for safety, for the vehicle to work well and for God's favour as we meet with pastors and leaders to explore the possibility of equipping saints in the southern Baja.
Thanks again for all your prayers and sacrificial giving! There is a saying here when we give to people-- "May God return the blessing back to you multiplied!"
Partnering with you in this service to Christ and the Mexican Church,
Mike, Shar, Elijah, Caleb and Jacob McDonald
Romans 15:20
It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation.
