Missions trip with home church to Pachuca, Mexico

Teaching English classes in the Good Shepherd Bible Church

Learning how to lay concrete brick

Making progress!!

Enjoying pastes together...a "hot pocket" type thing that's unique to the Pachuca area

The team from Pleasant View Bible Church

Hanging out with Obed....one of our summer missionaries
who now helps to train other youth!

Some of the training team along with summer missionaries

One of the small groups....preparing their Bible lessons
prior to getting "sent out" to teach clubs

I (Bob) recently had the opportunity to travel down to Mexico to accompany a work team from my home church in Warsaw, Indiana (Pleasant View Bible Church). Always a joy and privilege for me to get back to Mexico to see what God continues to do there. The pictures above give a general feel for what we did during our time down there.

We traveled to Pachuca, Mexico (about 1 1/2 hrs. NE of Mexico City) to help the Good Shepherd Bible Church where we served as a family for almost 10 years. Land was purchased a LONG time ago (almost 10 years ago!) to build a church but lack of permits kept the project on-hold. Recently permits were finally granted so a part of our work was to help build a perimeter wall around the property. We got the majority of the work done....and learned how to lay concrete brick at the same time! Very hard work but seeing the progress was very rewarding. We also held English classes in the church for 3 nights....with great attendance every night. Fifteen students expressed an interest in evangelistic Bible studies (in English) in the future! Pray that many will come to Christ as a result!

Toward the end of the trip I traveled to the camp near Queretaro (where we lived for several years) to observe how the training was going for the summer missionaries. We're thrilled that this ministry continues in our absence. The training team (about 10 people) were doing a superb job teaching the youth how to teach kids' clubs.....now these youth are all throughout Mexico teaching evangelistic clubs! Appreciate your prayers for them as they travel and share the Good News with kids!

God recently gave me the opportunity to travel to the countries of El Salvador and Honduras. During the first part of the trip, I attended the FAM missions mobilization meetings in San Salvador to hear exciting reports of what God has been doing in raising up Latins to be sent out around the world. God continues to raise up missionaries from the "Global South" to serve in areas where oftentimes "gringos" are not well-received.

The Sunday following the meetings we were sent out to visit churches in various parts of the capital city (San Salvador). I had the privilege of leading in communion (1st picture above) in one of the "Iglesias Centroamericanas" located there in the capital. What a joy to worship and enjoy fellowship with this group of believers! The welcome was warm...and of course the temperature was a bit warm too!

Then....on that same day I traveled to Tegucigalpa, Honduras (2nd picture above) to share about a ministry that we helped to start in Mexico called the "Summer Missionary Program". The hope is to initiate such a ministry for the national church in Honduras. I shared the opportunity with several church leaders...and the desire to start such a ministry there was evident. Pray that God will give wisdom to know when and where to begin such training in January 2013.

The bottom picture illustrates the new "face" of missions. Business as Mission (BAM) is growing in many parts of the world including Honduras. Above are some sheep being breeded to help to fund both national pastors and missionaries on a seminary campus in Siguatepeque. Pray that God would multiply their efforts and that their initiatives (raising sheep being just one of several initiatives) would yield much fruit for the kingdom! Thanks for praying!

Recruiting Latin missionaries at the Rio Grande Bible Institute!

What a privilege to be invited to attend the missions conference at the Rio Grande Bible Institute in Edinburg, Texas. I was able to see first-hand how God is raising up Latins (some refer to this as the "Global South"....which also includes missionaries being raised up from Africa and Asia) to be "sent out"to the various parts of the world. Some estimates say that there are over 10,000 Latin missionaries serving world-wide...in over 20 countries. During my time at RGBI, I met many who were interested in either returning to their countries of origin to serve the Lord AND those who wanted to serve in places like Spain, Hispanic parts of the US, Uruguay and Argentina. Please pray as I follow up on the 10+ interested folks with whom I had contact.

One of those intersted was Marco Chavez whom I met during our ministry in Mexico. He expressed his interest in serving the Lord in church planting as well as children and youth work. Marco participated in our Summer Missionary Program in Mexico for several years along with his sister. Now he's preparing for ministry at RGBI and desires to follow God's leading wherever that might be. Please pray for Marco as he pursues God's will for His life. I'll be working with him on some possible ministry options for this upcoming summer.