September Prayer letter

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.

Launching a new Church Plant!

This next week is going to be an exciting one for us!

We are assiting Abellino and Mirellya in launching their new church plant!

Abellino was a student of mine these last 3 years and graduated as the "Standout Student" and so gave the message at our graduation last May. He will be planting a church in his neighbourhood starting next week and we have an Evangelistic Campaign planned out to help him in his launch.

A friend of our from Swan River Manitoba, Irv Penner, and his family (wife Mari and kids Leah (14) and Jaxson (1) ) are coming down to give some evangelism training to the church that is sending out Abellino and then conduct a "tent meeting" to share Jesus with the neighbourhood. We will also be having a local Christian rap artist to attract youth as well.

A few prayer requests during this time:

Safety
As in alot of the areas that we work, this is a concern for us. There are gangs working in the area and we're hoping to reach some of them for Christ, but please pray that the Spirit of God would place his very Hand around us to protect us as He speaks to the hearts of the gangsters who live each day knowing that it could be there last.

Power
Please Pray that the Holy Spirit will speak to Hearts and that people will be drawn to the Saviour and away from a life of hopelessness and dead religion. Pray that He would fill our speakers, translators and those who will be inviting people to attend. Pray that we will be willing to listen to His voice and follow Him where He leads us!

Health
Mirellya, Abellino's wife is in her mid 30's and has a pacemaker and other significant health problems. She is currently waiting for a hospital bed to have her gallbladder out, but please pray that her recent change in diet will alleviate the pain in the meantime. Please also pray for the health of those who are serving this week.

Provision
Abellino is one of many Tiajuenses who has lost a job recently due to the economic downturn. God has been gracious to Him and given him 2 extra weeks of work, but he faces a layoff every week. Please pray for provision for the church people, their new pastor and the neighbourhood they live in. I recently found out that the averae income in many of these families is about $200/ month or less, with many having no steady income at all. Abellino and Mirellya ( who are quite poor themselves) have been feeding kids int he neighbourhood with donated food from our YUGO missionary Cindy Pesina and when they do not have that, they sacrifice their own needs to feed others. Please pray for God to provide what the people need.

















The current church building-- it is in front of their house and is about 200 Sq feet or so















The empty plot of land across from their house/ church where we will have the tent meetings.

Nice Blog update from a friend...

Here is a link from the blog of our friend and pastor here in Rosarito- Mike Vincent. The Intern program he's describing is an incredible bit of ministry and I have the privilege of serving these guys and others by teaching at the Bible School and Men's School of Ministry at the church occasionally.

It is a privilege to work together with Mike and Sarah Vincent-- check their blog out HERE

July Update

McDonald's in Mexico
July update and prayer letter
July 2010

In June this year we graduated our first generation of Graduates from the Pastors and Leaders Training! We had a great celebration at Rancho las Palomas in Tecate (East of Tijuana-) at a beautiful location! Praise God for all the graduates and their friends and family who came out to support them. In Typical Mexican fashion, our 90 minute celebration lasted for 3 hours! The students had a lot to say!!

2 weeks after that I trained almost all of these students pictured on the left along with another pastor from Mexicali ( a city 3 hours east of here in the desert) and a couple more from La Mission (town about 1 hour south of here) in how to be teachers so that they can take this training to pastors and leaders that they know. This summer I've been helping them with the paperwork necessary to enroll students for the fall. We have about 70 applicants as of today and I'm hoping to hear from some more-- we are probably looking at 80-100 students in total taking this training next year!! Praise God the the growth he is bringing and for the interest in the part of the potential students.

The main reason this is so popular is its affordability. I just receives some scholarship applications the other day and am continually amazed at how great the financial needs are in the area we work. Most of the people declare their income to be about $150 -$300/ month- which for an average family of 5 is $1-$2/ day / person. What they lack in finances, they make up for in zeal and desire to serve our Lord! There is a movement about that has people excited to go south and plant churches in areas where their currently are no or very few churches or Christians!

The cost to attend is US$150/ person over the course of 2 years-- but for many people struggling to feed their children on such little income-- this is 2 weeks or 1 months pay and is really undoable- even over the long term.

Praise God that this Spring we received donations to cover half the costs! Please pray for the remaining $6000 to be raised over the course of the 2 year program!

I'm looking forward to seeing How God multiplies the ministry in the coming years and sends workers to the unreached parts of Mexico and across the World!


SPANISH CLASS

This summer has been busy with Spanish class for Shar and the boys. I am teaching Sharlene and Elijah and they are having oodles of fun learning how to conjugate irregular Spanish verbs! A local MK, Joseph Fruin is teaching Caleb and Jacob, but they are not having nearly as much fun as their teacher teaches them spanish by making them play games and build puzzles and do stories. :)

We're hoping that this concentrated time in Spanish class will help them to become more confident in their language abilities and enable them to interact more in the community!

COMEDOR/ FEEDING KITCHEN MINISTRIES
This Spring Andrew Fruin- our local handyman/construction guy was very helpful in helping to finish off the feeding kitchen that a group of Canadians had come down to build this winter. With the extra money they had raised he was able to put in tile flooring, counters and shelves, build benches, buy tables and set them up with indoor plumbing (for a sink, anyway). He has been a great help and this ministry is now flourishing.

Dolores feeds about 50 kids a day/ 3 days a week in one of the poorest areas in Tijuana and she does it on $200/ month. That works out to be about 30 cents/ meal. But God has blessed her efforts and multiplies them as well and she is able to feed these poor children well for that little amount!

Please pray for the feeding kitchen, her 1 year of funding runs out in September and she needs that $200/ month to continue this ministry and would like to feed these kids 5 days/a week if the Lord provides.

CHILD TAX CREDIT

Thank you so much for praying! God has worked out our Child tax credit fiasco and we have been justly reinstated until June 2011!!

FURLOUGH

We will be taking a 6 month furlough from June 2011 until January 2012. We will use this time to reconnect with you folks, our supporters, and hope to spread the word of what we are doing with others as well.

We have been excited to see all that God has been doing through our ministry- yours and ours- together here in Mexico:
10 Grads from the pastors and Leaders Training.
70+ new students set to start in September.
10 grads from the Calvary Chapel Bible Institute where I teach.
1 church planted- and another one to be started this fall.
2 Feeding kitchens feeding 85+ needy kids a day.

Thank you for your faithfulness in praying and giving toward this ministry. I am certain you are storing up treasures for yourselves in Heaven that will never rust or rot away!

God bless you all!,


The McDonald Family

MT 6:19-20
¹⁹"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

For Caleb's birthday ( July 14th) his bestest buddy in the whole world, Matthew Sauers, came to visit us from Mossbank, SK Canada. It was a complete surprise-- as you will see on this video

Comedor ministry

One of the ministries we have the pleasure of serving are the comedors in Eastern Tijuana. In these neighbourhoods poverty is rampant and because of unemployment, abandonment and addictions, many kids are lacking good nutritious meals.

Some of our local churches we work with have been working at feeding kids in these neighbourhoods. People from Alberta and Ontario have come alongside them and funded these worthy ministries.

Here are some pictures from Dolores' Feeding program in East Tijuana...















This is a typical house in the neighbourhood of squatter homes. Folks live in these dirt floor homes built from scrapwood along the railway tracks in East Tijuana.

















This is the Kitchen part of the dining room--

















Some of the 40+ kids who come for lunch 3 days a week. We are hoping to raise enough finances to offer food five days a week...
















Dolores' Daughter making empanadas. Empanadas are like perogies made from Maseca (the flour you make corn tortillas from) and filled with meat and or cheese and deep fried. They put lettuce, sour cream and dry cheese on them. Today they ate these with macaroni and cheese and jamaica juice (juice made from Hibiscus flowers...)

If you are at all interested in helping out by partnering with these ministries please contact us!!

child tax benefit 4.0

Hello!

We received an update (kind of) on our tax situation...

We only found out that I need to personally take up the case with Canada Revenue Agency Monday and negotiate another year in Mexico with them. It is possible, and probably likely that we will get it.

If so, the plan will be to stay around in Tijuana until spring 2011 and then take a 6 month furlough back to Canada. We will need to set up residence somewhere, reestablish healthcare and drivers licenses, register our kids with a homeschool group in Canada and establish other ties with Canada to enable us to be re-posted for an additional 4-5 years in Mexico.

We'd appreciate your prayers that we would find favour with the people we talk to in government and that we could get this extension. When my new teachers heard we may be going back, the one who I thought would be best prepared to give the classes with minimal help was very concerned that he would have no one to help him. I'm concerned that if we go back to Canada this year that the pastoral and leaders training will not continue on and that the momentum we've achieved will stall.

Thank you so much for praying! There are a lot of other people and situations we covet your prayers about for the people we work with- I'll get those to you separately soon!

God bless!!

Mike