nopala

There was an amazing group of people at the base this past week. Our time with them was precious. We all went to Nopala to see how the church was doing and visit some other churches in the area. There is a lot of religious oppression in this area from the idolatry and Catholicism. The women of the Nopala church held a women’s conference last Saturday. Around 30 women came and about half were unbelievers. Everyone came to Christ. It was a beautiful celebration of women and their love for God. My grandmother crocheted scrunchies that we gave to the women and they loved them. We also brought Spanish Bibles and taught them how to look up verses. It was wonderful. We all spoke a little bit about who we are as women in Christ.



Matt, Tim, Arnulfo, and Rebekah got to attend a church service in Cerro de Aire. They said that the worship was amazing and that it was good to see both young and old whole-heartedly worshiping God. Sunday we went to church in Nopala. It is held at the house where the mission team lives. It’s a small but passionate church. A few of the new believers from the women’s conference came. That night we went to Tiltepec for another church service. The Catholic oppression was very obvious in this church. Many women wore veils, no one smiled, and the worship team looked like zombies. There was no joy in this place. Please pray that the pastor will be strengthened during his training at Roca Blanca to bring a revival of joy to his church.

The kids in this town were adorable! And there were bunches of them everywhere. The whole town is on a 75 degree incline hill and the children run up and down it like it’s nothing. They taught us how to count to three in Chatino and we told them words in English.
While we were there we had an earthquake! I slept right through it but everyone said it was pretty scary.



There are about 30 pastors from local village churches here at the base for the Pastor’s Conference. They have meetings about ways to improve their churches and programs. Did you know that half of the population in Mexico is under the age of 18? Maybe 2 of these 30 churches that were represented had a good solid children’s ministry program. We must reach the children. This is something that is very heavy on our hearts. Please pray for the children’s programs to be strengthened.

Matt and I have been working on a system that will allow us to do most of the work we do here from the States so that when we go back we will still be actively involved with the work of Roca Blanca. Matt has developed a new database of supporters and visitors and it is awesome. It is much more organized and efficient. From the States he will maintain the database and I will correspond with supporters by writing thank you letters, making phone calls, even visiting local churches.

Today a lady named Janelle spoke at the pastor’s meeting. She is Chatino and she speaks Spanish and English. She just got back from a 3-month trip to Tunisia. It is her heart's desire to reach the Muslims with the Gospel. She was raised near the base and she said that the thing that impacted her most was seeing teams come down to the base year after year. Because of this and the influence of Duane and Sue (the founders of the base) she wants to take the Gospel into a new place. She will be returning to Tunisia for a year to study Arabic and French.

The harvest is plenty, but the workers are few. Luke 10:2


Prayers needed:
-pray for the administration of the base to stabilize and strengthen so that Duane and Sue can spend some time in the States raising support
-pray for the new surrounding churches, that they can break free from this religious oppression so that the people can find true Freedom
-pray for our continued good health and safety
-school started on Tuesday. Pray for the students as they prepare to be the future pastors and worship leaders of the indigenous churches in this area
-pray for the churches and their children’s ministries; that leaders from the church would rise up and strengthen the programs to reach the children
-pray for Janelle; that God uses her in mighty ways to reach the Muslims