June-August 2008

IXTLAN MISSION UPDATE
JUNE-AUGUST 2008

• School: We weren’t able to get the school incorporated in time for the 2008-09 school year. We are working on the incorporation process and hope to start next fall. In the meantime, Regg Beer (Milford, IN) and Ruth will be teaching English classes for children, teens, and adults starting in September. They will be using this as an outreach to the community and a medium for introducing the gospel to their students.
• VBS: In July we held our annual Vacation Bible School for children and teens. We were able to use the new school and were thankful for more space (you wouldn’t believe how many little kids can get crammed into a teensy Sunday School classroom in the church, and how hot it gets in there!). I was humbled and grateful for the servant attitudes of all the teachers and helpers, and their joyful flexibility as they taught and shared the message of Christ. It was a team effort, made possible by the presence and grace of God. My best memory of the week was doing a skit on the last day of the blind man in John 9. Rudy made a great blind beggar (he even dressed the part), Grant Herrmann was a gentle Jesus (complete with real mud), and I played the part of a self-righteous Pharisee (that hits too close to home). Another highlight of the week was teaching the youths some of our favorite hymns, accompanied by Grant on the guitar and Elsa on the keyboard. They sang their hearts out! Special thanks also to those in the U.S. who put together and sent prizes for attendance and memory verses.
• New family outreach—Camucuato: A family from the nearby town of Camucuato has been coming to church for quite some time. Marshall and Jan have been going to their home on Friday nights for Bible studies. The parents seem very interested in the Word and the children are enthusiastic about coming to church. It’s been discouraging for them, though, as they’ve invited family and friends to come to the Bible studies but few have come. Not many people are willing to face the rejection and insults that come when a person truly identifies himself with Christ and separates from the Catholic Church. But this family has been willing.
• New children’s outreach: Some Ixtlan sisters started an outreach to children from a poor neighborhood. They organize them in playing soccer, basketball, or other games on Tuesday evenings. They are a rough group of children and hungry for love. It’s exciting to see this ministry spring up from our local sisters—this wasn’t a missionary’s idea. That’s what we want eventually for the church—that the local believers would catch the vision and be filled with a passion for hallowing God’s name and spreading the gospel through their own ministries!
• Barra Vieja: A group of sisters from Ixtlan went to Barra Vieja to do VBS. They came back very encouraged by the interest the children have in the Word of God, as well as the simplicity and generosity of the believers’ lives there. But their hearts were torn as they left, knowing there wasn’t anyone to stay and teach the children, or anyone permanent to disciple the adult believers. One of the adult converts said, “You sent teachers for the children. When are you going to send a teacher for us?” We still don’t have anyone there for long-term ministry. We’ve just been doing patchwork, sending different couples every month when we can. Please join us, and the believers in Barra Vieja, in praying the Lord of the harvest to send them long-term laborers to disciple and evangelize. Cirilo, the man dying of cancer, continues to have a great deal of pain, but shows a better understanding of the gospel. We are hopeful God is converting him.