Wednesday, July 27, 2005
[3:30 PM]
Weekly Update
Psalm 143:10 Teach me to do thy will; for Thou art my God: Thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.
Good Morning Everybody,
Thank you for all of your prayers for the trip to the border and back. It was not uneventful. We took off at 2:00 a.m., and made it to the border with no problems until we got on the bridge. The alternator decided to stop working for a little bit. So we watched apprehensively as the battery indicator kept getting lower and lower. We did get across the bridge and made it to Wal-mart where we met up with everybody. We took our two visitors back and picked up another family to bring down. When it was time to leave, the truck started with no problem and the alternator started working again.
We were planning on leaving the Suburban at the border, and ride back into Mexico in the Brumett's (the visiting family) van. However, after two attempts to get all the paperwork done, and five hours of going back and forth across the border a few times, we couldn't get permission for their vehicle to enter Mexico. So we went back, swapped their van for the Suburban, and started our return trip home at about 7:00 p.m. We arrived safely at about 3:00 in the morning, tired, but none-the-worse for wear.
This Thursday, we will be taking our church kids and some of the adults to Fresnillo for a one day VBS. They are all very excited. Please pray that God will use this time to touch their hearts.
Last night we went to Zacatecas and we ran into a family from Jerez, well they are originally from Jerez but now live in California. They are here visiting. We gave them a tract and invited them to church. He kept saying, over and over, "Thank you for coming to my people and telling them the truth and how to live." That was really encouraging to us.
Please pray for us this weekend. We have a couple of issues in the church that really need to be addressed and God has really put it heavy on my heart that it's time to do it now. Please pray that God will start working in these people's hearts now, and pray for wisdom for us as we deal with this.
The Benedicts
Co-Laborers in Christ,
Mexico Division
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Wednesday, July 20, 2005
[12:35 PM]
Weekly Update
Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
Greetings Everyone,
We had a very busy week last week. Monday and Thursday we were in Fresnillo helping out with VBS at Pastor Pepe's. We left the van with them to use for the week and they put it to work. Thursday, their last day, they had 170 kids in their church and over 90 kids at one of their missions, the other mission had an attendance of 70. Having their VBS the week after the medical missions group went through, was obviously God's divine plan. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, we were working in a small rancho about another hour past Fresnillo with Pastor Miguel and Brother Gabriel. We praise the Lord for the decisions that were made in all locations last week.
Sunday we had a special guest speaker at church. Brother Goyo (Spanish for Greg) and Brother Juan and their wives, from Pastor Pepe's church, came and did the services. Brother Goyo is Pepe's father. He preached to the adults and Juan's wife, Josefina, taught the children. They came to help because we thought Marta (Jose's wife) was going to have to have surgery on a very large tumor. But, the Lord also took care of this need by shrinking the tumor tremendously, literally in a matter of days. Praise the Lord for the faithful efforts of His servants here in Mexico and for His faithfulness towards them.
Tonight we will be heading back to Fresnillo to do some canvassing and then have an open air service culminating with the movie "No Greater Love". It's a story about a man who was an alcoholic and a murderer, responsible for the death of his child, who then gets saved and becomes one of Mexico's first Christian martyrs. Please pray for good weather, and that God would prepare the hearts of those who will be in attendance.
We had a big blessing yesterday. God's timing is just so incredible. We had ordered tracts from Fellowship Tract League back in March. They were supposed to be mailed to us here in Mexico, but they never showed up. We had ordered them while we were in the states and, after we ordered them, we were given a few thousand tracts that someone else had gotten for us and last trip in June we picked up a few thousand more. Last weekend, we were down to maybe 100 or so left and we weren't sure exactly what we should be doing about it. At this point, we got a slip of paper in the mail telling us that we had a package to pick up. You can see where this is going, can't you? Sure enough the box of 5,000 tracts that we had ordered back in March, and they had shipped, according to the date on the packing slip, March 17, had arrived. Because of the other tracts that we had picked up, we didn't need them until this week. God was good enough to "store them" with the Mexican Postal Service until exactly when we needed them. Isn't God awesome?
Monday we'll be heading for the border to drop off two of our summer guests and to meet with another family that's coming to spend the week. Please pray for traveling safety for all concerned.
Thank you to everybody who prays for this ministry. We're just seed-sowers down here, same as you folks in the states. God is the only one that can make that seed grow, and then we get the pleasure of seeing some of the harvest. The seeds that you sow here in Mexico, whether it's through giving financially, finding tracts, putting together scripture, praying, gathering special needs items, whatever your part is, rest assured that there is already a harvest and I'm sure there is much more to come. Thank you.
The Benedicts
Co-Laborers in Christ,
Mexico Division
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Monday, July 11, 2005
[10:06 AM]
Weekly Update
III John 1:2 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.
Hello Everyone,
I apologize for not sending out an update last week, but we were going non-stop from sun-up to sun-down most of the week. Tuesday, we had the medical clinic in our church here in Jerez and it went very well. Wednesday and Thursday, we went with the medical group to Fresnillo where we had clinics also. God truly blessed. The Gospel was shared with many people and we saw many miracles. One miracle that really stands out was when God used the optometrist, Dr. Silkey, to give sight to a blind woman through new glasses. To see her reaction from going from about three inches of vision to being able to see across the room was really cool. We saw a drug addict give his life to Christ. In fact, we saw quite a few decisions made. A special thanks to our new friends from North Carolina, and to Dr. Good and Dr. Silkey from Oklahoma, for caring enough about our people to come and serve them.
The ripple effects from a group of God's people coming to do God's work go out long after they leave. We had four new people in church this weekend as a result of the medical mission and two of them got saved. Please pray that God will guide us in our follow up with the people who came to the clinic.
More wonderful news that would have gone out last week had we gotten our update out; Alicia, an 11-year-old girl, asked Jesus into her heart last Sunday at church. We praise the Lord for Alicia as she has been attending church for a while now. God is good!
Please pray hard for us this week. We'll be working with Pastor Miguel in a rancho about an hour past Fresnillo, putting on a Vacation Bible School. We're very excited about this opportunity. Also please remember to pray for Pastor Pepe and his church, as they are also doing a VBS this week.
The Benedicts
Co-Laborers in Christ,
Mexico Division
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