Conference in Tampico, Tamaulipas

I just arrived home from our three-day pastor's conference/class in Tampico, Tamaulipas (a costal city about 7 hours from Monterrey). Thanks very much to those of you who prayed for us. Matt Bixby and I each taught 8 hours on the topics of homiletics and pastoral theology, respectively.  About 35 pastors and church leaders attended.   Here are some photos of the conference: 

These conferences are always a great blessing.  Most of these men are very hungry for more theological training and many of them have no formal Bible institute training.   Please pray that our ministry will have a profound and lasting impact on the many ministries and local churhes represented at the conference.

Future conferences

We've now begun planning for the next couple of years of conferences.  Here are some that are being planned:  

• January or February of 2009 in the state of San Luís, about 8 hours south of Monterrey
• August of 2009 in the southern state of Tabasco, about 25 hours south of Monterrey
• January or February of 2010 in Tampico again

New Sanctuary - A Photo Essay

Here are some recent photos of our mission church.  By God's grace, our new sanctary is about 90% finished.

The front of our new auditorium:

Our Sunday A.M. service this last week:

Musicians warming up before church:

A large portion of our regular assembly:

Special music on Sunday morning:

We still have a bit of work to do like laying a tile floor, decorating, and finishing the outside of the auditorium, but we are very excited about this new building that the Lord has provided for us. By way of contrast, here are a couple of photos of what this property looked like a little over a year ago:

New stadium to be built (practically) in our back yard

Last week the city of Monterrey announced the building of a new 55,000 seat soccer stadium to house the Rayados, a professional soccer team here in Monterrey.  This is newsworthy for us because it will be located just one mile from our house!

Time will tell what kind of effect this will have on our community and local economy.  I'm not sure whether to be excited or not because the stadium will undoubtedly cause some logistical problems -- namely traffic.  On the other hand I'm very excited about the possibility of walking to professional soccer games and undoubtedly an occasional U.S. professional football game (NFL) which are occasionally held in Mexico.

Here are some artist renderings of the beautiful new stadium, located at the foot Monterrey's most famous landmark, El Cerro de la Silla (depicted in the first two photos below and at the top of our blog).

Shifting Gears

Moving from the regular school year to the summer represents a huge change of activity for us. During the school year the large majority of my time is spent preparing and teaching classes. Now that the school year is over our life becomes very different! Now most of our time is focused on our mission church. We are currently in a building program at the mission which means daily visits to the construction site and a lot of running around to buy materials, get windows and doors made, and trying to find spare (second-hand) supplies like fans, lights, etc. We're also building benches for our children's classes & clubs. Needless to say, we're feeling a bit out of our league in all of this (church construction coordination and bench-building were not electives offered in my seminary Ph.D. program), but we're having a great time and are finding it all very rewarding! In addition to the construction project, we're enjoying having more time to make pastoral visits and to plan church activities (like a youth outing, a church picnic, etc.) than we usually have.

Advice to Missionary Candidates by Adoniram Judson

Today I ran across this letter by one of my heroes, the great Baptist missionary to Burma, Adoniram Judson, written to the Foreign Missionary Association of the Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution, N. Y. in 1832.

DEAR BRETHREN: Yours of November last, from the pen of your Corresponding Secretary, Mr. William Dean, is before me. It is one of the few letters that I feel called upon to answer, for you ask my advice on several important points. There is, also, in the sentiments you express, something so congenial to my own, that I feel my heart knit to the members of your association, and instead of commonplace reply, am desirous of setting down a few items which may be profitable to you in your future course. Brief items they must be, for want of time forbids my expatiating.

In commencing my remarks, I take you as you are. You are contemplating a missionary life.

First, then, let it be a missionary life; that is, come out for life, and not for a limited term. Do not fancy that you have a true missionary spirit, while you are intending all along to leave the heathen soon after acquiring their language. Leave them! for what? To spend the rest of your days in enjoying the ease and plenty of your native land?

Secondly. In choosing a companion for life, have particular regard to a good constitution, and not wantonly, or without good cause, bring a burden on yourselves and the mission.

Thirdly. Be not ravenous to do good on board ship. Missionaries have frequently done more hurt than good, by injudicious zeal, during their passage out.

Fourthly. Take care that the attention you receive at home, the unfavorable circumstances in which you will be placed on board ship, and the unmissionary examples you may possibly meet with at some missionary stations, do not transform you from living missionaries to mere skeletons before you reach the place of your destination. It may be profitable to bear in mind, that a large proportion of those who come out on a mission to the East die within five years after leaving their native land. Walk softly, therefore; death is narrowly watching your steps.

Fifthly. Beware of the reaction which will take place soon after reaching your field of labor. There you will perhaps find native Christians, of whose merits or demerits you can not judge correctly without some familiar acquaintance with their language. Some appearances will combine to disappoint and disgust you. You will meet with disappointments and discouragements, of which it is impossible to form a correct idea from written accounts, and which will lead you, at first, almost to regret that you have embarked in the cause. You will see men and women whom you have been accustomed to view through a telescope some thousands of miles long. Such an instrument is apt to magnify. Beware, therefore, of the reaction you will experience from a combination of all these causes, lest you become disheartened at commencing your work, or take up a prejudice against some persons and places, which will embitter all your future lives.

Sixthly. Beware of the greater reaction which will take place after you have acquired the language, and become fatigued and worn out with preaching the gospel to a disobedient and gainsaying people. You will sometimes long for a quiet retreat, where you can find a respite from the tug of toiling at native work -- the incessant, intolerable friction of the missionary grindstone. And Satan will sympathize with you in this matter; and he will present some chapel of ease, in which to officiate in your native tongue, some government situation, some professorship or editorship, some literary or scientific pursuit, some supernumerary translation, or, at least, some system of schools; anything, in a word, that will help you, without much surrender of character, to slip out of real missionary work. Such a temptation will form the crisis of your disease. If your spiritual constitution can sustain it, you recover; if not, you die.

Seventhly. Beware of pride; not the pride of proud men, but the pride of humble men -- that secret pride which is apt to grow out of the consciousness that we are esteemed by the great and good. This pride sometimes eats out the vitals of religion before its existence is suspected. In order to check its operations, it may be well to remember how we appear in the sight of God, and how we should appear in the sight of our fellow-men, if all were known. Endeavor to let all be known. Confess your faults freely, and as publicly as circumstances will require or admit. When you have done something of which you are ashamed, and by which, perhaps, some person has been injured (and what man is exempt?), be glad not only to make reparation, but improve the opportunity for subduing your pride.

Eighthly. Never lay up money for yourselves or your families. Trust in God from day to day, and verily you shall be fed.

Ninthly. Beware of that indolence which leads to a neglect of bodily exercise. The poor health and premature death of most Europeans in the East must be eminently ascribed to the most wanton neglect of bodily exercise.

Tenthly. Beware of genteel living. Maintain as little intercourse as possible with fashionable European society. The mode of living adopted by many missionaries in the East is quite inconsistent with that familiar intercourse with the natives which is essential to a missionary.

There are many points of self-denial that I should like to touch upon; but a consciousness of my own deficiency constrains me to be silent. I have also left untouched several topics of vital importance, it having been my aim to select such only as appear to me to have been not much noticed or enforced. I hope you will excuse the monitorial style that I have accidentally adopted. I assure you, I mean no harm.

In regard to your inquiries concerning studies, qualifications, etc., nothing occurs that I think would be particularly useful, except the simple remark, that I fear too much stress begins to be laid on what is termed a thorough classical education.

Praying that you may be guided in all your deliberations, and that I may yet have the pleasure of welcoming some of you to these heathen shores, I remain

Your affectionate brother,
A. JUDSON
Maulmain, June 25, 1832

(Letter copied from here.)

That's good advice for all of us. If you'd like to read more about the amazing life of Adoniram Judson, I highly recommend the biography To the Golden Shore by Courtney Anderson (which, by the way, is my favorite biography ever).

March - May Ministry Update

Here's an update on what we've been up to the last few months.

New Co-workers

On March 8, I went up to Texas to help our friends and new co-workers, Jonathan and Wendy Latham (and their beautiful two-year-old daughter, Gloria) cross the border and come to Monterrey. We are very glad to have the Lathams here now. Jonathan and Wendy's coming to serve at UCLA is a huge answer to prayer. Jonathan began teaching his first class about two weeks after they arrived so we're already reaping the benefits of the Latham's ministry here. And as an added bonus, they're renting just a couple of houses away from ours, so that makes us neighbors. It's exciting to see how the Lord continues to bring more laborers to work in the ministry here.

Graduates' Ordination Service

One highlight of the semester for us was the opportunity that I had to participate in the ordination services of four of our graduates. Two of these men, Alejandro Pelayo and Juan Oscar Mares, serve as pastors of other mission churches near ours. The other two plan to go to South America as missionaries. Chuy Alanis, the former pastor of our mission church, will be going to Ecuador (in 2009, Lord willing) and Krim Lashinat, assistant pastor at the Iglesia Bautista Geneseret, will be moving to French Guiana later this month. It is exciting to see these graduates going out from UCLA to serve the Lord. Please pray for these men and their families.

Pictured (L to R): Chuy Alanís, Juan Oscar Mares, AJ Gibson, Alejandro Pelayo, Krim Lashinat

Tenth Anniversary Conference

The biggest event of our semester was the school's 10th anniversary conference, held at a convention center down-town Monterrey. The conference went very well and was a wonderful celebration of God's grace in the first decade of the university's existence. As we look back on the past, it is abundantly clear that God has done a miracle here. Here are some photos from the conference. The first is a picture of some of the pastors that attended and the second is from one of the preaching sessions. The final picture is of the school's orchestra and choir ministering in the conference.




Mission

Our ministry at the mission this semester has been fruitful. As you may remember, in January Chuy and Edith Alanís left the mission to go on full-time deputation. Since that time we have taken over the leadership responsibilities. God has been good and we've enjoyed serving in this new capacity. We continue to be challenged and stretched. Preaching several times a week on a regular basis has been a new and enjoyable challenge for me. Because we would like to formally organize the mission as a church within the next year, I've been preaching on the church from Ephesians 4. Our goal is to help our people come to a clear understanding of God's plan for the local church and of their responsibilities within the church. Please pray for continued growth and maturity in this little assembly.

In addition to two Sunday services and a mid-week (Thursday) prayer service, our mission also holds a Saturday morning kid's club for kids from the neighborhood. In addition we also hold a club in a neighboring colonia called Monte Cristal. Each Saturday a group of 8-10 students from the university go with us to the mission to help with these two ministries. Two weeks ago we held a special event in the two clubs to celebrate Mexico's Día de los Niños ("Children's Day") and had almost 200 kids between the two groups! One of the byproducts of our kid's club ministry in Monte Cristal is that 2 or 3 parents of children have been coming fairly regularly to our Sunday A.M. service.

Lord willing, beginning this week we will be constructing the walls for our new auditorium at the mission. Last summer a mission team constructed the roof, and so we are excited to finally be finishing up that project.

Pastor's Conference

This last weekend (May 8-10) my colleagues, Matthew Bixby and Russell Raymer, and I were privileged to host a three-day pastor's conference/class here in Monterrey like the one we did in Saltillo, Coahuila last October. Matt Bixby and I each taught for about 8 hours on the topics of homiletics and pastoral theology, respectively. The conference was held in Iglesia Bautista Getsemaní, pastored by one of our students, Abraham Alvarado. As always, it is a great privilege to serve pastors by helping to further equip them for their ministry. As we've mentioned in the past, our plan is to host a number of these conferences each year in different cities around Mexico. Lord willing, we will be doing another one of these in Tampico, Tamaulipas in September.

Modular Class

Our regular school year has now drawn to an end for our theology students. Our students are currently enjoying a two-week modular course on youth and camp ministry taught by missionary Jim Gardner.

Summer

Lord willing, we will be staying here in the Monterrey area this summer. We hope to spend much of our time working in the mission. Besides our work at the mission, we are looking forward to hosting two mission teams from the States, one from BJU and one from Cornerstone Baptist Church in Greenville. Both of these which will be helping us with special teen and children's outreaches in the mission.

Prayer Requests

1. For wisdom and strength as we minister in the mission this summer.
2. For the mission teams that visit us.
3. For our students as they return home to minister in churches, camps, etc. for the summer.
4. For the salvation of our boys, Jonathan and Christian.
5. For the salvation of the husbands of several of the ladies who attend the mission.
6. For the salvation of Julio and Asunción, two men who have attended the mission off and on for several months.
7. For Rosy, a faithful member of our assembly who has been undergoing a time of difficult trial.
8. For Obed, a young believer who has been growing very quickly in Christ.
   

A prayer for God to be our daily, all-satisfying fountain of joy and gladness

"Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
that we may rejoice and be glad all our days."
Psalm 90:14

10th Anniversary Conference

We're gearing up for our 10th anniversary conference here at the university. The conference begins Monday night and runs through Wednesday night. We're looking forward to having a number of people with us who were instrumental in the early stages of UCLA's formation: Flay Allen, Dr. Frank Garlock, Dr. Sam Horn and, of course, Dr. Carl Herbster. Please be in prayer for us the next few days.

Praise and trust are antidotes for fear

When I am afraid,
I put my trust in you.
In God, whose word I praise,
in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.
What can flesh do to me?

Psalm 56:3-4

John Wesley on God

"This all-powerful, all-wise, all-gracious Being, this Governor of all, loves me. This Lover of my soul is always with me, is never absent, no, not for a moment. And I love Him: There is none in heaven but thee, none on earth that I desire beside thee! And he has given me to resemble Himself; he has stamped His image on my heart. And I live unto Him; I do only His will; I glorify him with my body and my spirit. And it will not be long before I shall die unto Him; I shall die into the arms of God. And then farewell sin and pain; then it only remains that I should live with Him for ever."

Weekend Guests

This past weekend we had a great visit from Dr. Gary Reimers and Aaron Collier. Dr. Reimers is the pastor of one of our supporting churches, Cornerstone Baptist Church in Greenville, SC, and Aaron is the youth director. Dr. Reimers was also one of my professors at BJU. The purpose of their visit was to see our ministry first-hand so that CBC will know how to better pray for us. Also, Aaron will be bringing a group of teens from CBC here this summer for a missions trip.

I thought that the idea to visit for a weekend was a great. I know that pastors often struggle to find time to visit the missionaries that their church supports. Those pastors who do visit their missionaries usually visit for several days or a week. But in their 2 1/2 day visit (Friday to Sunday) Dr. Reimers and Aaron were able to get a good experience of our ministry as well as to spend time fellowshipping with us personally. It was a very encouraging and edifying visit. I highly recommend that pastors consider making short weekend visits like this to their missionaries. (Of course, it only works well if the missionary lives close to an international airport, as we do.)

And just so the folks at CBC know that Dr. Reimers' and Aaron's visit was not all business, I'll close with this photo taken by a hidden camera in our house. It seems that Jonathan's and Christian's Nerf dart guns were a big hit with our guests!

Jonathan, Wendy, and Gloria Latham

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, God has answered our prayer for a new professor of Bible and theology here at the Christian University of the Americas. We've had a few prospects, but each of these has been several years from being able to come to Monterrey. Little did we realize that God was working in the lives of Jonathan and Wendy Latham to enable them to come to Monterrey this year! Jonathan and Wendy have been serving as missionaries for several in Equatorial Guinea, Africa with Gospel Fellowship Association. There are several things about the Latham's situation that make their coming to serve with us especially exciting. First, Jonathan and Wendy are both fluent in Spanish. Second, having served as missionaries for the last several years, they already have the support that they need and will not need to do any more deputation. Third, their experience in Africa will make them perfectly suited to teach missions classes here at UCLA. Fourth, Jonathan and Wendy are long-time friends of ours. We all attended BJU and Mt. Calvary Baptist Church in Greenville, SC at the same time. And finally, we are very excited because the Lathams will be coming down here next month. Lord willing, they will be moving the first week of March.

Praise the Lord for his provision! Please pray for the Lathams as they move to Monterrey and make the transition to this new culture and ministry.

Some beautiful photos of Monterrey

Today at Panoramio.com I found some beautiful photos of Monterrey, taken from the top of the "Sierra Madre" mountain which runs along the south side of the city (click on photos to enlarge).

This first photo is an awesome panoramic shot of the entire city, looking toward the north. On the right side in the distance you can see Monterrey's most famous landmark, the "Cerro de la Silla" (saddle back mountain) with its famous saddle-shaped peak. We live just around the other side of that mountain.

In this photo, the "Cerro de la Silla" is now on the left as the photographer points his camera toward the east.

This amazing photo was taken by some adventuresome fellow from the top of the "saddle." We live down there some where.

This sunset photo was taken from the top of "Las Mitras" which is the mountain sticking up out of the city on the left in the first panoramic photo above. In the distance you can see the "Cerro de la Silla" sticking up through the clouds.

Here's another shot of the city, taken from the footpath that leads up to the "Cerro de la Silla." The mountain in the distance is the "Sierra Madre" from where the panoramic photos above were shot.


To help orient you, here's a snapshot of Monterrey, taken from Google Earth.

Legend:
A. The spot from where the two panoramic photos above were taken.
B. The "Cerro de la Silla" (saddle-back mountain).
C. The mountain, "Las Mitras."
D. The general area where we live and where the university is located.
E. The general vicinity of our mission.

Here are some more photos of Monterrey.

How to pray for missionaries, part 2

This afternoon I read the following comments in a fine little book called The Gospel & Personal Evangelism:

One of the most common and dangerous mistakes in evangelism is to misinterpret the results of evangelism—the conversion of unbelievers—for evangelism itself, which is the simple telling of the gospel message…. Evangelism must not be confused with its fruit.

According to the Bible, converting people is not in our power. And evangelism may not be defined in terms of results but only in terms of faithfulness to the message preached. John Stott has said, “To ‘evangelize’ . . . does not mean to win converts . . . but simply to announce the good news, irrespective of the results.”

Paul wrote, “We are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?” (2 Cor. 2:15-16). Note that the same ministry has two different effects. As with the parable of the soils, it’s not that certain evangelistic techniques always lead to conversions. The same seed was planted in various places. The response varied not according to how the seed was planted but according to the nature of the soil [italics added]. (From Mark Dever, The Gospel & Personal Evangelism, 78-79.)

This means that my greatest task as a missionary is to fully understand the gospel and to proclaim it clearly.

So how should you pray for missionaries? Let me suggest the following:

1. Pray that they would clearly see the difference between evangelism and its results. Their job is to proclaim the gospel; God’s job is to convert.
2. Pray that they would be liberated from pressure to succumb to evangelism techniques that emphasize superficial results, thereby undermining the sufficiency and power of the gospel (1 Cor 1:17).
3. Pray that they will learn to rest in the sufficiency and power of the gospel (1 Cor 1:18), thereby being freed from the temptation to trust in their own personal eloquence rather than “Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor 2:1-2)
4. Pray that their own Bible study, sermon preparation and personal experience of the gospel’s power and sufficiency in sanctification would lead them to an increasingly profound understanding of the gospel so that they can effectively proclaim its message.
5. Pray that God would powerfully and sovereignly bless their evangelism (a) by opening a door for their message (Col 4:3), (b) by giving them words to proclaim the gospel clearly and boldly (Eph 6:19), (c) by convicting sinners of their need for the Gospel (Jn 16:8-11), and (d) by opening hearts to respond to the Gospel (Acts 16:14).

How to pray for missionaries

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. (Col 1:9-12, ESV)

For several years Paul’s prayer for the believers at Colossae in Colossians 1:9-12 has challenged my prayer life. Paul is praying for a church that he had not personally founded. In fact, they were Christians that he had not personally met. And yet he expresses a genuine interest in and knowledge of their spiritual progress that indicates that their spiritual well being was an important priority for him.

Those of you who follow and support our ministry are very much like Paul. You’ve taken a personal interest in churches you don’t know and people you haven’t met. Since you’re genuinely interested in our ministry and in the spiritual well-being of those to whom we minister, how can you pray for us? Here are a few “tips” drawn from Paul’s prayer for the Colossians on how to pray for us and especially for those to whom we minister. I use this prayer often as a guide to pray for my family, my students, and the people in our church.

1. Pray that they will be filled with the knowledge of the will of God (1:9).
   
2. Pray that that knowledge will, in turn, enable them to live their life in a manner that pleases God and that is worthy of Him (1:10).
   
3. Pray that their life would be characterized by a continual growth in grace that is characterized by spiritual fruit (1:10).
   
4. Pray that they would continually and increasingly grow in their knowledge of God (1:10).
   
5. Pray that they would experience a divinely given power and strength that will enable them to grow in steadfastness and patience (1:11)
   
6. Pray that their lives would be characterized by a joyful thanksgiving (1:12a) as they continually grow in their comprehension of the magnitude of the gospel and of their salvation in Christ (1:12b-14).