Baja Christian Ministries Update and Prayer Letter 12/11/09
Saturday, December 12, 2009 at 02:09PM
Dear Prayer Partner,
Our God is amazing! It is such a pleasure to serve with Him and His people in both Word and Deed in the ripe harvest fields of Baja! We have another big weekend of ministry ahead of us as three teams roll in this weekend to build houses and lives for Jesus!
I thank our God for this wonderful rain in Southern California...we need it so badly! What a blessing it is! Meantime, I ask for a special prayer request regarding those three teams that are coming in to build houses and do evangelism and outreach this weekend: These dusty Tijuana villages when it's dry is one thing, but when it pours down rain these roads and surrounding areas turn into slippery mud bogs. Please pray that God opens the way for us to complete our mission this weekend with success, safety, and great blessing. Thank you very much for your prayers of faith !
As to last weekend, the San Diego team led by Doug Ament and Rob Curtis, along with our BCM team, built two nice solid homes for needy families. Also more than 75 people came to the Lord and were given and started on the Bible and Purple Book study course. One house build site was a replacement of a house that was burnt down by fire. BCM's Ramon Chavez received testimonies from these two families that he translated and sent to me. I wanted to share these words of gratitude from them with you:
Miriam Maribel Perez and her children, Enoelia, Neyva, Evelin Karen, and Henry from the community of Altiplano, writes, "With great gratitude I write this letter, thanking the group of brothers for building us a home. The house that we used to have the government tore it down. My daughter was in a coma because of meningitis. Then after we lost our job because the company that we worked for closed down, so we had no money to build a new home and the government forgot about us, so they never helped us. Thank you for considering us, and building us this new home. May God bless you all today, tomorrow, and forever, so that you can keep on blessing other families in need. A thousand thanks."
Raul Rodriguez Santiago, his wife Maria Flor Lopez and their children, Brenda, Amarnay and Keyla, from Maclovio Rojas, write this, "We thank our Lord Jesus Christ for blessing us in such a big way! He blessed us with a beautiful new house! Brothers, I want you all to know how wonderful and great is our God! Our house was one of the ones that burnt down, but God is faithful and keeps His promises that through His Son Jesus we where blessed with a new home.To all the brothers and sisters who helped build this house, may our Lord bless and protect you all. "Blessed Is Our Father Who Is In Heaven".
Tonight, Friday, Dean Monahan, Chris Dollar and their team from San Clemente Prebysterian Church, are rolling in, ready to start one house tomorrow.
Tomorrow, Saturday morning, Daniel Strand and Ernie Maes are bringing a team mostly from LifeSprings Church of Torrance to build a home for a family who lost their home in the fire. Funds for the house were provided by a private donor.
Sunday monring, Taylor Redmond and his team of college students from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, will roll in to build two homes.
These teams will also be engaged in evangelism and outreach along with our BCM evangelism tag team.
Along with a way of victory through the rain please also ask God's mighty blessing and protection upon them and their possessions. Please also pray that God would fill them with the fulness of joy in His Presence, His love that passes knowledge and His peace that passes understanding. Please also pray that many will be saved and that all would be ministered to and encouraged greatly!
In Job 29:16-KJV it states this about Job the man of God, "I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out." NASV states it this way, "I was a father to the needy, And I investigated the case which I did not know". Job was an aggressive searcher of opportunities to serve the poor and the stranger in need.
Well, when Malibu Prebyterian Church was in Baja with us the opposite happened: A grandma in need came to search us out. Some of their leaders went with her and investigated her case and decided to build her the home she desired and badly needed.
Chris and Andrew Laubach and some of the Malibu team are bringing a team from Loyola High School of Augora Hills to build her, her husband, and three nephews a home as a Christmas gift to her in a little more than a week.
The ministry that the groups bring to many people and children is very encouraging and comforting and offers much hope. These children are the next generation of disciples in this precious nation. David Angulo produced a YouTube Video in English and also with Spanish subtitles of some of these precious Baja children synced to Hannah Ford's song, "Cradle Me". I hope you like it! I hope it ministers and encourages you:
Cradle Me in English
Cradle Me Spanish Subtitles:
Joseph was given the name "Barnabas", which means, "Son of Encouragement" (Acts 4:36). Encouragement! What a sweet gift from God given directly and also through His people! Fear and discouragement is a great enemy of our souls! Fear is the fiercest giant in the land we face. But when "Encouragement in the Lord" faces off with fear, the way is made clear. 1Samuel 30:6 states, when King David was greatly distressed, he encouraged himself in the Lord. The Word of God was David's indomitable sword, to take that giant down. Scripture speaks of the importance of encouraging one another: Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, just as in fact you are doing. (1Thes 5:11-NIV) ...let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Heb 10:25-NIV). I happen to believe encouragement is one of the most needed ministries in the church today. Many of you have encouraged the BCM team and me. I want to thank you all for that precious gift that you have blessed us with! I have put some of my thoughts and perspectives about the value of encourgement in a poem I have written. If you haven't read it and would like to you can read it here http://www.bajachristian.org/home/2009/12/10/the-power-of-encouragement.html
Peter Furler, who founded the Christian band, Newsboys, in his parents garage in Australia many years ago, has been a great friend and blessing to us along with the Anthony Walton, Wes Campbell, Steve Campbell, Dave Wagner, Rob Michael, the other Newsboys and many others from their team. After more than twenty years of rigourous touring on the road with the band, Peter, as many of you know, took a well deserved break. Though he isn't touring with Newsboys now, he's still creating works of art both musically and through painting. They're are also some songs he wrote and performed with Newsboys, two of which I hadn't heard before. To catch up with what's happening in Peter's life you can check out his new website and join his mailing list if you like at this link :
The Bible/Purple Book (PB) Discipleship Ministry Update and need: The gospel is spreading rapidly throughout greater Tijuana, Rosarito, Tecate, and throughout the Baja Pennisula. The Spanish Bibles and Purple Books are growing lives in Jesus, cementing relationship with Him, and bearing much fruit. As of today we have 41,812 Bibles and PB's given out and 18,715 who have completed the course. This is really good news! Yet our supplies of Bibles and Books to meet the demand is running very low. 1,000 Bibles left and only 200 Purple Books. Please pray for abundant funds to release greater numbers of Bibles and PB's into the ripe harvest field.
Please also pray that hearts would be touched and that abundant funds would be released to reach our year-end financial giving campaign goals to keep our team strong and well equipped with the provision we need to move into 2010.
Thanks again for encouraging us through your prayers, giving, and hand in hand service on both sides of the border! May God bless you abundantly and refresh you as you have refreshed us and others (Proverbs 11:25)!
Harvesting Baja Together with and through our King,
Bob Sanders
Reader Comments (3)
this weekend: These dusty Tijuana villages when it's dry is one thing, but when it pours down rain these roads and surrounding areas turn into slippery mud bogs. Please pray that God opens the way for us to complete our mission this weekend with success, safety, and great blessing. Thank you very much for your prayers of faith !
As to last weekend, the San Diego team led by Doug Ament and Rob Curtis, along wreplca tag heuer|
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Thank you very much for your prayers of faith !