Goldfuss update (July 2)

Praying Friends,

Since Bethany was here last week with the team, we thought we'd let her give you her point of view of the past week and then I'll add a few more things at the end.

Hello!
This past week, we knew that many of you were praying for us. Thank you!
About 11:00 last Sunday night we were waiting at the house for the BJU missions team to arrive. It was raining and it had been a few hours since we had heard from them. As we were talking and waiting the power went out! It had been a long day and we had gotten back late. We couldn't help but laugh. The power going out seemed to add the final touch! We got the homemade, chocolate ice cream out of the freezer and ate it by candlelight. (I put nuts on mine.) We finally decided at about 15 minutes to 1:00 to see if we could get some sleep before they showed up. I took my candle up to my room and had just blown it out when they arrived about 1:20. That was the beginning of the week. :)
We had special evangelistic services Wednesday-Friday and Dr. Saldivar preached an excellent series of messages on Jonah while the college students went with the children for their own service. Each evening everyone stayed after the services for a meal provided by one of the church families. I enjoyed being able to spend time talking with the families in the church while we ate. It was a great way to get to know them better.
On Saturday there was an open invitation for the church (and anyone else) to come to the Goldfuss home for lunch, games, music and a devotional. Because of that on Friday we all worked hard around the house getting everything ready. On Saturday morning, two of the girls on the missions team had food poisoning of some sort--and we still aren't sure from what. We couldn't pin it down on one thing--someone in the church said that it could have been from the pollution. After that nothing really went the way it was planned. :) Those of us who were feeling well. . . and the numbers were dropping pretty quickly. . . set up for the giant lunch.
In the end about 10 of us had to stay home from church on Sunday for one reason or another (double ear infection, upper respiratory infection, food poisoning. (I was part of the latter group.) Thankfully Mrs. Goldfuss was here to nurse us all back to health! She had to give a number of shots. . . I had two. It wasn't much fun for anyone, but she did a great job! It was better to get the shots than to be miserably sick for days!
Please be in prayer for the Goldfuss family as a few seem to have cold like symptoms.
Becoming His Mirror,
Bethany Winchester for all the Goldfi

Thanks Bethany,

We really had a good week of meetings. We had three new families attend. Rogelio (two nights) and his wife Irene (one night) attend another church but said that they really enjoyed it. Mauricio (2 nights) and his wife (one night) Susana also said that they really enjoyed the preaching, but they also attend another evangelical church in our area. Rene and his wife Elvira attended all three nights, came to the church fellowship on Saturday and also came to the services on Sunday. He told us that they are Roman Catholic but don't feel comfortable in their church at all. It was really neat how a good number of people went out of their way to make them feel welcome and they didn't understand that at all. I mentioned to them that we aren't perfect in our church, but we are a group of people who have been wonderfully forgiven by God because of the Lord Jesus Christ. Please pray for them to return this week, for the Lord to open their eyes to the truth and to draw them to Himself in salvation. We also were privileged to have Cristi and Carissa's friends Cherrie and Atanea. I believe this was the third time they have been able to come to church with us. The big blessing about that was that the two girls' oldest sisters (Brooke and Sharon) also came after making friends with several of the BJ girls at the Saturday get together. Pray for the salvation of all four of these girls.

Our three nights of meetings started at 7 and usually ended about 9, after which we had a church supper each night. We arrived home each night around 11 PM or later. It was a very good time but very exhausting too. The weekend was pretty difficult with all the sickness. Pray for lasting fruit from the past week.

Cherith has gotten sick today with the vomiting and diarrhea that plagued so many. Please pray that she will be able to get over it and that no one else in the family will come down with it if the Lord so wills.

Mikey, Cristiana and Carissa are planning on leaving on Friday for Ohio for two weeks of camp. Please pray that they will be healthy and have safety in their travels. Pray that they will be a blessing and reflect our great Savior wherever they go.

Thank you for your prayers, we needed and continue to need them constantly,
In Christ,
Mike for all the Goldfii

Goldfuss update (June 24)

Dear praying prayer partners,

Thank you for praying for us.

1. We spent much of last week getting ready for the BJU Spanish Mission team. This was difficult as we were running around all week trying to help Juana and Reme's family. Reme also helps us here with teaching Spanish to the children and with the home--so things were much more complicated trying to get everything done. But the Lord already had planned to send us Mr.Frank Davis (who was a former teacher of ours)---He helped Mikey in Math and helped in numerous ways preparing for the team. Bethany our summer intern also was an incredible help.
   
   The team spent all Saturday and Sunday driving from Northwest Mexico to Mexico City. They arrived on Sunday night/Monday morning at 1:15 AM. The team consists of 23 adults, college age young people and two tiny children of the team leaders. Today they gave out over 2000 tracts and invitations to our 3 special services that we are going to be having Wed-Friday nights at 7 o'clock each night. Please pray for visitors and for the gospel to go forth clearly and for the Lord to continue to call out His people in Mexico City.
   
   As a further request, yesterday Memo and Karina's three children came down with chicken pox. They are extremely disappointed about not being able to attend the meetings. Please pray that the Lord will keep others from this if it's His will. Our three oldest are going to be flying home on July 4 to attend the first two weeks of camp at Peniel Bible Camp. Since we've already bought their tickets, we desire them to be well to go, but we do only want God's perfect will.
   
   
2. Thank you so much for praying for Fidel, Juana, Abram and their family. On Friday they were able to post bail for all three of them, (About $1,500 US Dollars) and Juana was back home at 7 PM. Fidel and Abram arrived at 4 in the morning. They are now free from the charges ???? and are in need of finding a new place to live. It appears that they will be able to rent a house near where we live up on the mountain. It needs some work before they can move in, but the Lord is working things out for them. Please continue to pray for the unsaved family members there to be saved. Thank you so much to many of you who have written and said that you are praying for their family. Please continue to pray for both Fidel and Abram to be saved.
   
   
3. We had our third message in a series on anger on Sunday. There have been many encouraging comments about how the Lord is helping people to understand the differences between sinful and biblical anger.
   
   
4. Please pray as Faith just had three wonderful opportunities with people that she has been trying to witness to at the childrens' sports activities. Lupita is going to come to Saturday's church get together with the team, Graciela who is suffering from multiple sclerosis is open to the Gospel and wants to meet with Mike, and Veronica and her family may also come to Saturday's church get together!
   

To review this week's activities for prayer:

• Wednesday 7PM - special meetings
• Thursday 7PM - special meetings
• Friday 7PM - special meetings
• Saturday 12PM - horseback riding with teens and team members
• Saturday 2PM - church-wide get together with a devotional
• Sunday GRAND FINALE - with preaching, and special music.
  

Please pray for God to change hearts.

In Christ,
Mike and Faith

Goldfuss update (June 16)

Dear Praying Friends,

Church went well yesterday even though we were missing about 14 regular folks.

Five praises:

1. Manuel got a terrific job where he is a security guard. He works 24 hours and then is off 24 hours. He is allowed to sleep in the night. He mentioned to us yesterday that he has been able to use some of his work time to read some Christian biographies from our book table at church. He was sharing some blessings he received from reading George Mueller.
2. The church landlord asked us last week about renting the other side of the downstairs area where we are renting. It has previously been occupied by some carpenters who recently moved out.
3. We have a young lady, Bethany Winchester, who is coming to help today for the next six weeks. She will be helping in home school and in piano teaching and encouragement of our church people.
4. A great friend from our home church, Frank Davis, is present with us this week helping us out. He is a great encouragement.
5. We had a ladies' meeting on Saturday and had six ladies present. We saw the truth that we many times want our trials to be over and God is using that trial many times to perfect us. Juana and Reme said that it was especially a blessing to them. Which leads us into our urgent prayer request:
   

REQUEST:

• This morning we received a phone call that Juana's husband, Fidel, and son, Abram, were accosted in the street (again illegally) and accused of murder. (That's obviously never happened.) They were beaten up and thrown in unmarked cars and from initial reports we have received they have been taken directly to prison. We don't know what is going on at the present time. Mike has been down with the family and has prayed with them and helped some of them get to some different places for legal defense. Please pray for this family.
• We are getting ready this week for the BJU Spanish mission team next week. (There will be 23 of them in addition to our eight plus Bethany.) We will need much prayer, patience and time this week for preparations.
  

Thank you for praying,
In Christ,
Mike for all the Goldfii

Goldfuss update (June 10)

Dear Praying Friends,

The situation with Juana and Reme's property is so complicated that I'm lost when they tell me about it, so it would be impossible for me to try to explain it to you. As of right now, they are still in their property with no definitive end one way or another. Please pray for the Lord's continued grace in their lives and for this situation to come to a definitive end--either staying or going.

Rut's mom (unsaved) had been dizzy and after going to the doctor's and getting some tests, they have found a golf ball sized benign brain tumor. She is going to have to have surgery in about two weeks. Please pray that she will come to trust in Christ as her only sufficient high-priest who alone can give her access to our Heavenly Father.

Nico and Liliana are doing better this week. They both have taken what we were able to talk about last week and sought to put it into practice. Praise the Lord for that answer to prayer.

Marta's mom is doing better--very weak, but home now. It was a real blessing to have Marta in both of our services yesterday and she really enjoyed being there.

Of our recent visitors (Laura, Gabriella and Soila,) none of them were present yesterday. Please pray that the Lord would make them a faithful part of our church.

Our whole church family was extremely happy to see Sra. Gloria and Sra. Maria in the services yesterday. That was the first time in over 3 months because of Sra. Gloria's shingles and diabetes. Please continue to pray for the Lord's grace in both of their lives.

Our men's meeting this past Saturday was very good. There were some good questions asked and discussed about maintaining sound doctrine, governing our families well, and being a testimony before those that we work with. Praise the Lord for good participation and please continue to pray for the Lord to raise up faithful men.

We appreciate your prayers for our family.

In Christ,
Mike for all the Goldfii

Goldfuss update (June 3)

Dear Praying friends,

Our church family is going through some very difficult trials right now. Please pray for the Lord to work in a mighty way and to have us make God look big and to think correctly about Him in spite of the trials.

• Juana and Reme and their family. You know of their ongoing legal struggles with their property. On Friday they told us that a paper had gone through giving them some sort of reprieve. On Saturday they called to tell us that they had a court meeting for today, Tuesday, and that they were going to be evicted and have their stuff moved out to the street again. Yesterday, they advised us that that has been delayed again. This has gone on now for over 4 1/2 years and they are desiring the Lord's will to be done either way, but they would just like the ordeal to end--either that the Lord would let them know that they have definitely won or lost their case. It has been very difficult for them to live with different accounts from different lawyers and people in the government. Please pray for continued grace for them and for their testimony.
• Marcos and Rut--Marcos is Juana's oldest son and they have been living with Juana for the past 2 months. On Sunday it became obvious that he is pretty angry with God about the whole situation. Please pray that he will not be angry with God but recognize that there is human responsibility in a lot of this too. We believe that he has guarded a lot of bitterness in his heart throughout the years toward some different people. Please pray for us to have wisdom in dealing with him too.
• Nico and Liliana--were not in church this past Sunday. They have had some serious communication problems in their family. We are working on that with them. In talking with them yesterday and today, they have been improving. Before knowing about God's Word, people are clueless about what they are supposed to do in a marriage and it takes a lot of time to go over and over different things. Please pray that they would both look to Christ and obey Him.
• Marta--We missed Marta this past Sunday and that was very surprising as she has been looking forward to June because her off days at the hospital are Sundays this month. I called her this morning and she said that her mother had a heart attack on Friday and so she was very occupied with that. Marta's dad just died about 2 months ago. With all of the family problems with her husband, with her health problems and now with her mom, Marta has really been tried. She said she is really looking forward to coming this Sunday so please pray that the Lord will allow that. Most Sundays she is only able to come to SS and has to leave for the hospital before our worship service, so ask the Lord to allow her to attend this whole month for each of our services.

Praise the Lord that of our three visitors who came three weeks ago, each has indicated a desire to come back. Laura came two straight Sundays and we had a very good talk last week. She says that she sees the extremism and sensationalism of the charismatic movement but is very confused saying she has gone to the other extreme with us. :-) Gabriella has come all three Sundays and that is a great blessing. Her friend Soila only came the first Sunday but told Gabriella that she wants to come back but her husband has kept her going other places on Sundays. Pray for these three ladies.

Our 2 older ladies, Gloria and her mom Maria have not been able to attend our services for more than 3 months now due to Gloria's shingles. Visiting with them last week, they were looking forward to being there Sunday but were not in attendance. Please pray for the Lord's healing of Gloria so that they will be able to be back to worship with the Lord's people again. They are greatly missed.

This coming Saturday we have another men's meeting where we will be continuing our study on Biblical Eldership. Please pray for God to continue to work in men and to raise them up to be leaders for His glory in His timing. We praise the Lord that we finally do have men and entire families coming. This is totally a result of your prayers. There was a time, even just several years ago, where we didn't have any men attending faithfully. Please pray for Morgan, Humberto, Nicolas, Jose, Marcos, Erasmo, Uriel, Memo and Gabriel.

We appreciate your prayers for our family. We have had a few that have been sick and feeling under the weather for the past week.

Thank you so much for your prayers for us,
In Christ,
Mike for all the Goldfii