Just talkin' to myself

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.

from Psalm 42:5 & 11 & 43:5

Progress

One of the peculiarities of churches in Mexico is that they tend to be attended very largely by women. It is very common to have many women and very few men in a church. This is largely due to the Mexican culture that views religion as being for women. The concept of "machismo" is very prominent here. According to Wikipedia, "Machismo is a prominently exhibited or excessive masculinity. As an attitude, machismo ranges from a personal sense of virility to a more extreme male chauvinism. In many cultures, machismo is acceptable and even expected." Because of "machismo" among men here in Mexico, going to church is simply not viewed as being "manly." Many men are simply embarrassed to be seen entering a church.

Things are no different in our church. Most of our regular attenders are women whose husbands are not believers. So a constant prayer request is for the salvation of the husbands of the ladies who attend our church.

Well, by God's grace we've begun to see a little progress in a couple of men the last couple of weeks.

Up until a few months ago, Orlando, the husband of Norma, one of our regular attenders, was very closed to the gospel. He would become very angry with Norma if she ever mentioned God or if she invited him to church. He would not even allow someone from the church to visit Norma when he was at home. A few months ago, I went to visit Norma and found only Orlando at home. I introduced myself and we struck up a very cordial conversation. Since then I have been able to visit with him on numerous occasions. The last couple of months Norma has said that Orlando has been much less belligerent and more open to spiritual things. This morning in church Norma shared that lately Orland has been reading the Bible on his own and asking a lot of questions. Praise the Lord! God has clearly been working in his heart lately.

Another example of God's grace at work is Ray (pronounced "Rye"), the husband of Susy, one of our members. Ray has never been interested in attending church or in spiritual things. But the last few months I've been able to develop a friendship with Ray and he's been very open. Well, today Ray showed up at church, much to Susy's (and our) surprise.

We're not sure what God has been doing "behind the scenes" in the lives of these two men, but it is clear that he's been working. Please pray for Orlando and Ray.

On a different note, Rosy, one of our most faithful members has been going through a very difficult time of trial the last few weeks. Please pray for strength and patience for her and please pray for wisdom for us in helping her.

God's gracious (miracle) provision

This last month we were given a very practical reminder and illustration of the truth of Paul's words in Philippians 4:19: 

But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

About a month ago our mechanic told us that it was time to sell our old van.  We've owned the van for a number of years and for the last three years have been using it to go out to our mission several times each week.  Because of the severe conditions of the roads going to the mission, the poor thing has taken quite a beating.  The last couple of years a number of problems have surfaced.  We've been very thankful to have it, though, because we haven't had to take our good van out to the mission.  Well, our mechanic told us that it would be best to get rid of it because a number of serious mechanical problems.  

So we immediately began looking for a replacement vehicle.  Specifically, we looked for something stronger and more rugged than a minivan that could handle the roads at our mission.  Because we need something fairly roomy that can haul a lot of people, we thought that a Suburban would be ideal for our specific needs.

For about a week I searched the internet for Suburbans and other SUV-type vehicles.  We weren't quite sure what we were going to do, though, because we didn't really have the money to get another vehicle.  And that's where God "stepped in." 

A few days after our mechanic gave us his recommendation to sell the van, while we were still searching the internet for a vehicle, we received a phone call from my parents in Texas.  They told us that a Christian friend of theirs had decided to donate his Suburban to a pastor in Mexico and that he wanted to know if we'd be interested in it!  No kidding!  God is good!  Here's a photo of our new vehicle:

So this evening after Church we will be driving up to Texas and tomorrow (Monday) morning I will be flying up to Little Rock, AR where I will pick up the Suburban that the Lord has provided for us.  Again, God is good.  He provided us with the exact vehicle that we were looking for, free of charge!  

"Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!"

Robbery

Last Sunday night our church was robbed.  The thieves entered through a very small window that once housed a small air conditioner.  Thankfully, nothing of great value was stolen.  We lost a Igloo cooler, a weed eater, a coffee pot, some tools (shovels, etc.), and some paint.  Thankfully they couldn't get into our auditorium where we have a keyboard and ceiling fans.  

Robbery has been somewhat of an epidemic in our church's neighborhood lately.  Most of the houses on our block have been robbed the last couple of weeks.  The perpetrators are becoming very bold and are breaking into houses during broad daylight.  

Thursday evening during our mid-week church service some young men were stealing building supplies from the house next to our church and were carrying the stolen goods over our church building (that's right--over the roof of our church while we were in it) to another house down the block!  We didn't know about it until after the service.

The thieves are mostly drug addicts who live in the neighborhood.  They steal to buy drugs.  People in the neighborhood are afraid of them so most robberies go unreported.  The amazing thing is that after robbing a house, the thieves go down the street selling the stolen goods to other people on the same block.  

Thankfully, a lady who lives behind our church saw who broke into our building last Sunday and gave us the names of the theives.  So this week I went to the police headquarters to report the robbery (and the names of the suspects).  Who knows if anything will be done?

Besides the robberies, violence has also increased in the neighborhood.  A number of people we know of have been assaulted lately, and it's becoming increasing dangerous to be out on the streets after dark.  Local gangs frequently stop cars and city busses demanding money.  

THE BOTTOM LINE: This neighborhood needs the gospel!  Please pray for us.

Population of Spanish-speaking world

My colleague, Russell Raymer, passed some interesting statistics along to me the other day.  I've always known that Mexico is the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world, but I never realized exactly how big it is in comparison to other Spanish-speaking countries.  Check out these numbers:

Country Population

1. Mexico 107,029,000

2. Columbia 45,600,000

3. Spain 43,064,000

4. Unided States 40,000,000

5. Argentina 38, 747,000

6. Peru 27,968,000

7. Venezuela 26,749,000

8. Chile 16,295,000

9. Ecuador 13,228,000

10. Guatemala 12,599,000

11. Cuba 11,269,000

12. Bolivia 9,182,000

13. Dominican Republic 8,895,000

14. Honduras 7,205,000

15. El Salvador 6,881,000

16. Paraguay 6,158,000

17. Nicaragua 5,487,000

18. Costa Rica 4,401,000

19. Puerto Rico 3,955,000

20. Uruguay 3,463,000

21. Panama 3,232,000

22. Philippines 3,180,000

23. France 2,000,000

24. Equatorial Guinea 447,000

25. Canada 245,000

26. Belize 206,409

27. Andorra 69,150

28. Western Sahara 37,132

29. Morocco 20,000

Observations:

1. It is often commented that Mexico has too many missionaries.  But given the fact that Mexico has almost as many Spanish-speaking people as Chile (#8) through Morocco (#29) on the list (22 countries), maybe there aren't too many missionaries here.  This is especially true given the fact that there are still many parts of this massive country that are still unreached.
2. The U.S. is now the 4th largest Spanish-speaking country of the world!!!!!  Very soon it will pass Spain and Colombia.  
3. If our city, Monterrey, were a country of its own, it would be the 17th largest Spanish-speaking country in the world.
   
4. If Mexico City were a country of its own (some say is), it would be the 7th largest Spanish-speaking country in the world.

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."