His Harvest in Mexico Newsletter – Summer 2005

Summer time. Easy, breezy, idyllic days spent sipping lemonade in a hammock. Not in Mexico. In the summer we receive our youth groups to do evangelistic outreach through drama, song, dance, puppets and testimonies. We had lots of help this year from David Kilkenny and Pat Mandeville, both from LaPorte, Indiana. Pat got a behind-the-scenes look at the mission field. The month she spent with us was really a God-appointed time since I (Terri) had a hole in my foot and was not able to do very much. Pat stepped right in, met the challenge with a great attitude, and things all flowed smoothly. This summer we received our first guest on June 1 and our last guest departed August 8.

This year we received three groups: Grace Chapel from Jacksonville, Florida and two from Greensboro, N.C. – Clifton Road Baptist and our home church, Living Way Christian Fellowship. All the groups worked really hard during the day doing construction and presenting the Gospel in the evenings.

In Campo Grande, Clifton Road Baptist Church did an outreach that included clowns, gift bags for the children and teens, and personal toiletry kits for the adults. Youth pastor, Josh Parrish, preached a resounding Gospel message. The group also painted the church we are building there. At times it seemed there was more paint on the teenagers than the building, but in the end it all looked beautiful and brought us one step closer to completing the church.

The Grace Chapel, Florida group had a tough assignment – smooth and tile the floor and paint a large 12 x 70 dormitory room as well as clean out the storage building so we could access the platform for the upcoming Annual Convention. We took them to the mountains to a small village, Xocotla. When they arrived there were 1000 people waiting to praise the Lord and hear the Gospel. It was literally standing room only with people hanging in the windows and three deep outside the windows. A young man, Thomas Karst, preached a very simple Gospel message along with his personal testimony. That night 150 young men and women gave their lives to Christ! But that’s not the end of the story. We met a couple from that village in Sumidero at the end of August. They told us that all the young people in that village are giving their lives to Jesus!

Our home church, Living Way, entered Mexico with a great challenge before them – the airline lost all their luggage! We scrambled around for coats, sleeping pads, toiletries and towels and their luggage finally arrived Sunday afternoon ~ you’ve never seen such happy campers! They began to complete the tile work where the Florida group stopped and finished all but eight feet. Their dramas, mimes, and puppet skits reflected the Gospel message in the pueblos of Moyoapan and Zapoypan. They also blessed the congregations with gift bags for children and teenagers as well as toiletries for the adult women.

After Living Way left, we met Pat’s husband Jim at the airport and they spent another week with us. They treated us to three glorious relaxing days at the beach in Veracruz which was incredibly fun! We all got a little sunburned riding a double-decker bus tour of the city, had some wonderful meals, and drank lots of coffee. God is good!