Goldfuss update (February 5)

Dear Praying Friends,

We have received extremely high winds and rain this past week. That is absolutely abnormal for this time of year. We are without electricity and telephone/internet and aren't sure when it will be back up. I came down around the church today to connect to see if we had any new messages. If you need to contact us, please write an email and we'll respond as soon as we can--as soon as our phone service is resotred--and that could possibly be a long time. We can get by a good bit with the generator, but that does not help the telephone situation.

Thank you for your prayers for us and the church here. There are several problems that people are communicating about and trying to get taken care of. Please pray that we would all confront and respond in humility and love.

Thanks for praying,

Mike for all the Goldfii

Goldfuss update (January 24)

Dear Praying Friends, 

People we have been trying to reach for awhile now:

1. Thank you for praying for Citlali and Lorena. They have both accepted study Bibles and devotional books gratefully. Please pray that they would both desire to have a Bible study and time with Faith. Both of their lives are very hectic and unstable.
2. Eric and Delilah are still coming faithfully to church, but have not been able to come for a study on marriage yet. Continue to pray for the Lord to work in their hearts.
3. Victor has been coming faithfully and seeking to learn. What a blessing. He is studying his Bible on his own and showing some good signs of life.

Growth Among our church people:

1. It is such a blessing to see men who are seeking to follow the Lord. Nico has been going out on Saturdays on his own to different parks in Mexico City. He has been doing an evangelistic questionnaire for people and giving out tracts and speaking to people about their need of the gospel. He has also been inviting different families to his house on Sundays and seeking to encourage and exhort them. It is neat to see people seeking to show hospitality to others.
2. Memo has been seeking to witness faithfully to several of his co-workers. We were able to have dinner with their family today and were able to talk about a few issues that they were wondering about in the church. Memo could be a major leader in the church. We have been trying to persuade him to try to preach on some Wednesday nights. Please bathe him in prayer. His wife Karina is already getting excited about VBS and has volunteered to participate in a major part. (We have not even brought this up to the church yet!)
3. We had a nice visit yesterday, complete with wonderful food brought by our visitors, the Olivares family. They brought chicken, pork and beef and grilled tacos out in the front yard. They are really growing by inviting friends and relatives and striving to please the Lord in what they do.

Recent Newcomers:

1. Bettie and her son Gabriel--came today. Bettie has come about three times throughout the last three years and today was the first day her son came with her.
2. And we will end this week with a real encouragement. Tania showed up to church last week. She has been praying for a good church to attend as she recently left a cult. Through some people in Monterrey who know the Zartmans, she made it to our church and the first people she met were the Olivares--who also previously had been in the same sect. She is very confused about a lot of things but has enjoyed preaching from God's Word the last two weeks. Please pray for the Lord to really show her His truth. She plans to bring her parents next week.

Thank you so much for your support and prayers!

Mike, Faith, Mikey, Cristi, Carissa, Matthew, Cherith, and Caralyn

P.S. Pray for Ruth and Marcos. Ruth broke her foot and it is difficult for her to take care of their two little ones.

Goldfuss update (January 4)

Dear praying friends,

The Lord is working in Eric and Dalilah's hearts. They came to church yesterday and agreed to come tonight to talk with us again. Please pray for salvation in both of them. It was an incredible surprise and blessing to see Dalilah's sister, Aurora, in attendance yesterday. We got to talk with her first about a year ago and we saw her again on Christmas Eve. She has two daughters who also attended with her--Samantha and Andrea. Please pray that they will return and also that God will open their hearts as He opened Lydia's heart in Acts 17.

Victor, who we mentioned last week, came on Wednesday night to our testimony and special hymn night. He was eager to give a testimony. The Lord is obviously working in his heart and life. Please pray as we seek to follow up with Victor as well.

Please pray for the Frutos family that has been struggling with a time of marital infidelity in the family. They were absent today. Also absent for the second straight week was the Lopez family. Please pray for the power of the gospel to work mightily in both of these families.

School has started back up again today. Our distinguished staff of Peniel Christian Academy, Jon, Andrea, Reme and Faith are all upping their load this semester in helping teach. We do ask that you would continue to pray for the Lord to provide another school teacher for this semester if He so wills it. Our distinguished staff is also very thankful for another teacher this semester--Mikey will be proctoring Matthew in 1st grade Science. We are very thankful for the great start that Bekah helped us achieve during our first semester, and we will miss her a lot.

Some have asked about the resolution of the money problem that we had with our offering situation. No one has come forward to confess that, so please keep praying to that end so that there may be restoration.

Thank you for all of your prayers.

In Christ,

Mike for all the Goldfii

Goldfuss update (December 29)

Dear Praying Friends,

Thank you for praying. As with all of your holidays, there has been much to do here and many opportunities. Of these we will give you three main requests:

1. Citlali is a friend that Faith has known for 4 years. In September, without any warning, her husband just left her. This has been extremely difficult for Citlali. We have been praying for her. Two weeks ago, she finally opened up to Faith about her situation. Through it all, she surprisingly and gladly received a study Bible from Faith as a Christmas gift. Please pray for more open doors and for comfort for her two young girls who are very sad and bitter.
2. The Lord has brought a good number of visitors along with Lourdes' family. One such visitor is Lourdes' nephew, Victor, from Spain, who is visiting Mexico and staying with his relatives while he attempts to get a job here. He is a 22 year old man who has been extremely apathetic to the things of the Lord. The last three weeks he has been coming to church, asking questions, attending Jon and Andrea's Bible study at the Olivares home, and doing his Sunday School lesson. It is obvious that the Lord is doing a work in Victor. Pray that the Holy Spirit would bring that work to bear the fruit of a truly converted man.
3. Eric is Morgan's younger brother. His family has been faithful for the past 8 years, although Eric hasn't attended church during the past 3 years. Eric, and his live in girlfriend, Delilah, have been attending church for about a month now. Eric appears to want to please the Lord with his life. Delilah has said before that she would never attend church. The fact that she is coming even though she is receiving ridicule from her parents is only the Lord moving in her heart. Pray for the many issues there and for great wisdom from the Lord in dealing with them.

On a more humorous note, while Bekah was still here, Mike ran down the stairs amidst wild screams in the kitchen. Several of the girls said that they had seen about a 2 foot rat walking outside our kitchen window on the ledge. While Cristi, Carissa, and Bekah were quite frantic, Cherith sat at the island calmly chomping on a peanut butter sandwich--very relaxed. Faith asked Cheri if she had seen the rat and she quietly responded, "Yes, Mommy, he had a pink nose." Perplexed about the pink nose, we decided to try to wait and see it again. It turns out that our "rat" was an opossum. He now no longer exists as daddy took care of him.

We will be starting school, second semester, next week again. We still haven't found a school teacher to help for second semester. If you know anyone who would love to serve (or maybe not even love to do it, but could), :-), we'd love to hear from them.

Adventures surround us and opportunities abound. Please pray that we will use every opportunity for the Lord's glory.

In Christ,
Mike, Faith, Mikey, Cristiana, Carissa, Matthew, Cherith, and Caralyn Goldfuss

Goldfuss update (December 8)

Dear Praying Friends,

Our first semester is winding down in school. Bekah has to leave on Dec. 19 and that will be the end of our first semester. We praise the Lord for her willingness to be here this semester, for her good spirit, and her patience with everyone. She has been a great blessing, and we have seen good progress with Cristi. Please EARNESTLY pray with us for someone to be able to come during the second semester in January to help with the homeschooling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also please continue to keep the Frutos family in your prayers. Marital unfaithfulness has created many problems in their family at the moment. They have been to church for three weeks in a row and even brought a visitor this week. Pray for the visitor, Sra. Adriana, whose husband left her that she would return.

This Friday evening, we are having a number of unsaved contacts over to make Christmas cookies. Pray for more opportunities to proclaim Christ to them.

Saturday there is a Christmas ladies' meeting. Pray for our ladies to become more like Christ in their marriages and homes.

We would also ask you to continue to pray with us for the Lord to work in the person who took the money from the offering--not so much for the money, but for that person's own spiritual good.

We thank you for your prayers,

In Christ,
Mike for all the Goldfii