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Nathanael Goes To Camp.

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Each year, Word of Life Mexico has a camp for kids and youth. This year, they’re at it again – except that they went virtual!

Resistance 2020 - Word of Life Camp theme

So Nathanael is enjoying his first week “at camp” this week – in his room. 🙂 There are a lot of the typical camp things – cabin groups and teams and leaders and activities and teaching and all that.

And parents that miss their kids (pretty pathetic, huh? He’s just up there in his room, but I feel like we’ve hardly seen him. Just think how much we miss Hannah in Canada!!!).

Basically there are morning and evening sessions or whatever you call them. Today there are special workshops that you can choose, so it looks like he’ll be busier today than most days.

And knowing Word of Life, there will be a lot of serious Bible teaching and challenges to make your life count! Which is something we all need to be reminded of, right?

We’ve had quite a few from our church attend camp this year and past years, so we’re thankful for so many who are using their talents to serve the Lord.

If you want to pray for the camp, it goes through Friday. You can pray for the usual stuff – new relationships, clarity of Bible teaching, fun times, and so on – but also for the tech. I know that the camp has had mixed success with all the technology, and so many people who have varying degrees of internet access.

Hannah Heads to Camp

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Today Hannah will be heading to camp, along with 8 other youth from our church. They’re going to the Word of Life camp which is north of Mexico City in the state of Querétaro.

She’ll be gone for a week, so I’m sure she would appreciate your prayers (and her parents would too!). 🙂

Do pray that this will be a good time of growth for all the youth who attend. Jim and Rod will be driving them all up with their luggage, a few hours there and a few hours back.

Palabra de Vida Campamento 2017
Promo poster for the camp – “A New Start”. Don’t worry, those prices are in pesos. For this week, just over CA$90 per person.

The Next Step: Meet Cheila Fernandes

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By now hopefully you’ve read our recent update Church Planting: The Next Step. Now we’re sharing the testimonies of the interns that will be serving with us over the next few months. So far we’ve heard from Rebecca and Matheus. Today, we’ll meet Cheila Fernandes:

CheilaHello my name is Cheila, I’m 25 and I’m from Portugal. I was born in a Christian environment but in a dysfunctional family, my mother was a single mom with five kids.

I always saw my mother like the person who disciplines their kids but not the person that I should respect because she didn’t give me a father, so I started to live a life without rules. Once, I felt that life wasn’t for me so I started to think about suicide. At that point one of my uncles shared with gospel with me, and that day I decided to recognize Jesus as my Saviour, and to let him be the father I needed!

My life didn’t change a lot, in school was really hard to keep the testimony of Christ but thank God one day in 2008, I went to a Word of Life Summer Camp and there after hearing so many things about God’s plans to his sons I decided to consecrate my life to the service of God! God started to work in my whole family, and now all of us are serving Him. On that day I knew that God was calling me to serve him.

Cheila at a Children's Day
Cheila at the Children’s Day event in Ixtapaluca (April)
For the next 6 years I was working and praying to go to Word of Life Bible Institute in Argentina. God changed my plans a bit however, and sent me to Mexico in 2014. For two years I was involved in an evangelistic ministry called “Impact Zone“. We preached the gospel in various states of Mexico by music, theater, participation in schools and helping local churches also.

Now I’m in my 3rd year of studies, and God was constantly showing me the need to make disciples. So I started to pray that God would use me in a ministry that would be a challenge to me. This ministry of church planting is a challenge to my life as a servant of Christ. I just want to practice 2 Tim. 2:2-5. I know that God’s church is something important to him and I know that he’s calling me to be part of it-serving now from this year to forever! Acts 20:24

If you want to help Cheila and the rest of our team, you can give directly to our community centre. Just go here to give in US$, or here to give in CA$. Be sure to specify Project #063576.

The Next Step: Meet Matheus Da Silva

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After our recent update – Church Planting: The Next Step (make sure you read that) we’ve been posting the testimonies of the interns that we’ll be working with. Last week Rebecca shared her testimony. Today, we’ll get to know Matheus Da Silva:

MatheusMy name is Matheus Da Silva. I’m a 21 year old Portuguese-brazilian, Bible institute student in Mexico who was saved at the age of 5 in a Sunday school lesson where I learned that I was a sinner and that I deserved hell. A missionary told me that Jesus had died for me so that I could get access to God’s forgiveness and it was then when I made a decision to trust Jesus as the way to a better and eternal life.

I grew up in a christian home but it was only till I was 13 years old that I realized that I could be useful to the church and I started serving in with the children’s ministry, youth group, teaching and worship (In Portugal).

My life wasn’t perfect (it’s not perfect by now by the way!) and I came to the conclusion that my worldly ambitions weren’t God’s will for me and I was diverging from it. My goal is to live a life of peace with God and as long as I fulfill His will for me, I’ll be glad!

Matheus at the kids' club
Matheus with the kids in Las Palmas
That’s why I’m studying in Word of Life Mexico and wiling to do ministry in the church planting area. God has moved lots strings for me to be able to meet the Fry family and the work of the Lord that they are involved with in Ixtapaluca, and he has put in my heart the strong desire to help them out as I can knowing that it doesn’t depend on me or another person to do it but knowing that I’m just a tool only useful if God’s is the one using me (Isaiah 10:15)!

If you want to help Matheus and the rest of our team, you can give directly to our community centre. Just go here to give in US$, or here to give in CA$. Be sure to specify Project #063576.

The Next Step: Meet Rebecca Contreras

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If you missed the last post – Church Planting: The Next Step – you’ll want to check that out.

I’d like to take a few posts to introduce you to the interns from Word of Life Mexico that we’ll be working with. Rod asked if they would share their testimonies, so today I’ll let Rebecca share hers:

Rebecca ContrerasHello!! My name is Rebecca Contreras; I was born in Mexico City in a Christian home, so I grew up surrounded by an atmosphere of church, but never was confronted by the Gospel. I remember attending Sunday Class; I memorized bible verses but only to stand out.

As the time went by, I made wrong decisions, which pushed me away more and more from God. The consequences of my actions began.

On January 14th 2008, I was going back home after having a discussion with my father when I realized I had never had a personal encounter with Christ. That day I realized that if I died I would go to hell, I remembered many things that I learned when I was a kid. I received Christ as my personal Saviour, asking forgiveness for my sins and understanding that He was the only one who could change my eternal destiny and also my earthly life.

After that day I began to experience many changes in my life. God helped me change my relationship with my parents and my sisters, removing the pain and bitterness that my sins had left.

Later I met the Ministry of Word of Life Mexico by missionaries who went to the church where I am a member. They invited me to a summer camp and in the same year (2008). I dedicated my life to the Lord without imagining what He would do with me.

I decided to stay and study in the Bible Institute. In May, 2010, I began to take steps of faith and decided to accept the challenge of missionary work. It wasn’t simple at first, but over time I have seen God’s faithfulness in my life. I wasted too much time without knowing Christ so now that I know Him and serve Him I don’t want to miss a minute more. God has given me the opportunity to serve in the ministry of Word of Life.

Rebecca at a kids' club
Rebecca at last week’s kids’ club
The desire to serve in church planting ministry comes from the conviction that God’s purpose for the Christian is through the local church. We have the responsibility to preach the gospel but also we have the responsibility of making disciples. Sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ is a challenge and a longing in my life, but seeing people grow and be discipled in the context of the local church is my passion. Today for me is a great privilege to learn methods and get to know people who have developed this ministry. In the future, if God so desires, what I’ve learned can be reproduced with other groups of believers, in places currently unreached with the gospel.

I am sure that God is and will continue to work in my life, both to transform me into the image of our Lord Jesus Christ and to continue to serve Him and reach more people in Mexico.

Rebecca Contreras
Passionate service, Hebrews 12:28

Would you like to help Rebecca and us in this adventure? You can give directly to our community centre – go here to give in US$, or here to give in CA$. Be sure to specify Project #063576.

“Good” and “Sovereign” – (a report on the weekend)

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Tug-o'-Tube!Isn’t it funny how, when things go the way we like, God is “good”. When things go the way we don’t like, God is “sovereign” (and sometimes “still good”).

Well, God was definitely both good and sovereign this past weekend!

As you may recall, we had a team here from Palabra de Vida (Word of Life), which has a Bible institute north of Mexico City. The team was mostly Mexican, but several other countries were represented as well.

First, the team got whittled down due to sickness – the original fifteen became nine.

The next complication was that the team could not legally drive on the day they were supposed to leave (due to the laws in Mexico City to fight pollution). So special arrangements had to be made.

The team did several excellent evangelistic presentations in Santa Barbara and Jesús María. They also shared at both churches, teaching Sunday school and leading worship.

But what about Las Palmas? Well, the event was cancelled, because – well, we had “this permit” and “that permit” but we’re also supposed to have “this other permit”.

Never mind that we’ve done many events there in the past, and have never needed “this other permit”.

A sheep, and a bookSo, we packed up and shared the Gospel in another community instead!

I’m not quite over that disappointment yet, however I am overjoyed that so many people did hear the Gospel.

On Monday the team shared with 1500 kids at a junior high in Las Palmas. As you might remember, they had to do it all in small groups, because the students aren’t allowed to meet outside right now, because the pollution level is too high!

But still, they had a good impact on the school.

Isn’t it a great temptation to look back, and say “if only…” or “we should have…” — ? And yet God’s goodness and sovereignty are not different, they’re the same. I was reminded of this recently by the song “God Moves in a Mysterious Way”. Check it out — And a recent rendition here:
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