Dear Praying Friends,
Quite a week. :-)
Mikey and I ended up leaving on Tuesday morning at 4:30 AM for Texas. We arrived at Jack and Mollie Lee's house in McAllen, Texas 12 hours and 15 minutes later after 717 miles.
Wednesday morning was taken up with trying to get different things taken care of: insurance, driver's license, mail, etc. Then Mikey and I went to Wal-Mart from about 2:00 PM until 6:30 PM, went to supper for an hour and went back until 11:00 PM. WOW. Mikey said, "Man, I sure wish Mom was here to do this. That would be much better." :-) We tried to get the whole grocery list for Faith for the whole year. As an example, a can of Cream of Chicken or Mushroom soup here in Mexico costs about $1.50 USD. We found the same soups for 50 cents a piece at Wal-Mart, so we bought about 40 of each, as well as many other things that we either can't get or are much more expensive to buy here. It was a long, long day at Wal-Mart.
That night Mikey began to feel pretty bad with a headache and sore throat. On Thursday, we unloaded the whole van, cleaned it all out, packed everything back in, and we finally finished after 5:00 PM. Jack and Mollie took us to eat and then we left at 6:00 PM. We got across the border and then the checkpoint that's 15 miles into Mexico with green lights. A red light means you might have to unload your whole vehicle for them to inspect your cargo. We made it to the Zartmans in Monterrey, Mexico by 9:30 PM. Mikey was unable to speak and his throat was terrible. I was able to buy him an antibiotic and after 12 hours of sleep, he was doing better. We had a nice visit with the Zartmans and had to leave on Friday morning at 11:15 AM. We are not able to drive in Mexico City on Fridays from 5:30 AM until 10:00 PM due to pollution, so we didn't want to arrive at Mexico City before 10 PM on Friday night. We made it all the way from Zartmans to the toll booth at the outskirts of Mexico City by 9:40 PM and crossed into the city at 10:02. The traffic was still unbelievable at that hour and we made it home at 11:25.
Saturday was spent studying to get ready for Sunday. Faith had a ladies' meeting and she said that the ladies participated wonderfully and it is very obvious that the Lord is working and teaching them many things.
Saturday night I had a discouraging moment. I went to our little local store for some bread and when I walked in I saw a man from our church behind the counter. It was very obvious that he had been drinking. He didn't notice me at first but when I said hello to him, he was extremely shocked to see me, said something in very slurred speech to his father, and then disappeared into the back room. I went to his house Sunday morning with a cup of black coffee, hoping to encourage him with his need to be in church anyway and to try to sober him up. His son said that he wasn't there so I walked to the store again to find him. His parents said that they hadn't seen him since Saturday night. I am not sure, but believe that the son lied to me and that his dad was still there at home so I went right into their house (don't try this at home), walked upstairs, and knocked on his bedroom door. His son opened again and I said, "Please give this coffee to your father." He took the coffee, said, "Ok," and then shut the door again. So then I just had to leave.
There was only one family absent from church Sunday (our neighbor man's family) along with the two older ladies, Sras. Gloria and Maria who are fighting some sickness. After church, Teresa asked if she could talk to me about some serious family situations. When we left, Faith and I were the only ones left with Cherith and Caralyn. We had been invited over to Alejandro and Guilles' for dinner. We had to park a little ways away and walk due to a street market. We found Alejandro waiting for us in the street and he said we were going to his son Memo's house. He horded us into a little walkway and when I opened the door, I was greeted with a huge shout of "SURPRISE." The whole church had gotten together with Faith while Mikey and I were gone last week and organized a surprise 40th birthday party. They were absolutely thrilled because that is the first time in 12 years here that they have been able to really surprise me. I have always picked up on different things they've tried in the past. Yesterday, Sunday, I had no idea that the surprise was coming. They all enjoyed that very much. I enjoyed it too.
Thank you for praying for Faith last week as she held down the fort at home with the rest of the kids. Praise the Lord that right now everybody is doing fairly well. She had to deal with one lady who refused to talk to another lady last week. Praise the Lord that Faith was able to use the Bible and the other lady is biblically working through the situation now. Pray that the Lord will give her victory.
Thank you so much for your faithful prayers and support.
In Christ,
Mike for all the Goldfi
PS--I was just able to talk to the man from church. He feels the weight of his sin before the Lord, has asked the Lord and his family to forgive him and is planning on talking to his parents who own the store since he has really been trying to witness to them. He is feeling greatly that he has betrayed his Saviour which is a good thing. Please pray for him to get back up and continue walking and for our Saviour to continue to uphold him day by day and keep him from sin. He recognizes his weakness and his great need of walking with Christ day by day. Oh that we all would feel our weaknesses in the flesh in the same way and strive to maintain that constant communion with Christ. Thank you for praying.
Monday, November 19
Sunday, November 11
Goldfuss update (November 12)
Dear Praying Friends,
I don't have time to say a lot because tomorrow morning (Monday) Mikey and I are leaving to go to Texas for three days for paperwork, a new driver's license and other things. Please pray for our safety.
We had another tremendous mens' meeting yesterday. We were 9 men and there was great participation.
Please pray for Humberto. Erasmo has had a good friendship with him and last week informed us that he didn't appreciate in our men's meeting that we were warning against those who preach false doctrine. So, our men's group prayed for him yesterday. His wife Orthencia came today, but Humberto didn't.
Sylvia has been through another roller coaster week. They were going to enroll her son Roberto again in the drug rehab on Friday but she wasn't in church today so we don't know how that went.
Our two older ladies, Maria and her daughter Gloria were not there today due to health problems. Pray for them.
The great news is that the men have a plan to pursue a piece of property near the church and build a building on that property to rent. I'm not really for it, but that doesn't matter. This is their church and I'm asking them all to pray and you all to pray that the Lord's will be done in this situation.
Martha, the nurse, was able to be at both services today for the first time. We had her up for dinner after church with her 13 year old daughter Frida. Martha's husband is living at home with them, committing adultery, not providing any money for the family, and taking Martha's money to spend on the other woman. It is a heart wrenching situation, but this whole issue has brought her to Christ. Pray for wisdom for us and her in dealing with this terrible situation.
You wouldn't believe our Saturday night--All night long!! Caralyn is teething, Cherith had a fever, Matthew threw up, Mikey's stomach hurt, and Cristiana woke up at 3:30 AM with hives. It must be some type of allergic reaction to a tetanus vaccination. By morning, she was covered. We finally got ahold of the doctor tonight and he prescribed some medicine after we gave her benadryl today. Please pray that the kids will be over these bugs soon if the Lord will allow that. Pray for the hives to go away. Pray for Faith as she deals with all this and probably more this week with Mikey and I gone.
Thank you for your prayers,
In Christ,
Mike for all the Goldfi
I don't have time to say a lot because tomorrow morning (Monday) Mikey and I are leaving to go to Texas for three days for paperwork, a new driver's license and other things. Please pray for our safety.
We had another tremendous mens' meeting yesterday. We were 9 men and there was great participation.
Please pray for Humberto. Erasmo has had a good friendship with him and last week informed us that he didn't appreciate in our men's meeting that we were warning against those who preach false doctrine. So, our men's group prayed for him yesterday. His wife Orthencia came today, but Humberto didn't.
Sylvia has been through another roller coaster week. They were going to enroll her son Roberto again in the drug rehab on Friday but she wasn't in church today so we don't know how that went.
Our two older ladies, Maria and her daughter Gloria were not there today due to health problems. Pray for them.
The great news is that the men have a plan to pursue a piece of property near the church and build a building on that property to rent. I'm not really for it, but that doesn't matter. This is their church and I'm asking them all to pray and you all to pray that the Lord's will be done in this situation.
Martha, the nurse, was able to be at both services today for the first time. We had her up for dinner after church with her 13 year old daughter Frida. Martha's husband is living at home with them, committing adultery, not providing any money for the family, and taking Martha's money to spend on the other woman. It is a heart wrenching situation, but this whole issue has brought her to Christ. Pray for wisdom for us and her in dealing with this terrible situation.
You wouldn't believe our Saturday night--All night long!! Caralyn is teething, Cherith had a fever, Matthew threw up, Mikey's stomach hurt, and Cristiana woke up at 3:30 AM with hives. It must be some type of allergic reaction to a tetanus vaccination. By morning, she was covered. We finally got ahold of the doctor tonight and he prescribed some medicine after we gave her benadryl today. Please pray that the kids will be over these bugs soon if the Lord will allow that. Pray for the hives to go away. Pray for Faith as she deals with all this and probably more this week with Mikey and I gone.
Thank you for your prayers,
In Christ,
Mike for all the Goldfi
Monday, November 5
Goldfuss update (November 5)
Dear Praying Friends,
We praise the Lord for a good week and for the things that He continually teaches us, both from His Word and in the daily experiences that the Lord permits in our lives, both good and bad.
Marta (the nurse who has come with Sylvia several times) was back again today and brought her two children. She said that she is planning and can't wait to come to both services next week--she had to leave again after SS.
Sylvia has struggled through two excruciating weeks with her drug addict son in the house. Please pray that the Lord would remove her son Beto from their home so that she may be able to get the rest that she needs--physically, emotionally and spiritually. Please also continue to pray for his salvation. Please pray for her continued faithfulness in spite of other troubles also.
Saturday's men's meeting was again tremendous. We had 12 again, which is only missing one other man who could possibly attend. Francisco came last time but did not this time. Marcos missed the first time but came this time. With 22-24 different requirements of elders/pastors/bishops in 1 Timothy and Titus, I divided them giving each man two different ones to study for the past week and to explain them to the whole group. We had an excellent discussion, they gave some excellent feedback of things that they had seen in previous churches and it was very very profitable. Our next meeting was supposed to be sometime in December but one man can't make it so we needed to reschedule it. They all decided unanimously that they wanted to do it again this coming Saturday. So, we are doing it again this Saturday.
Many of you know that we have prayed for years for some men who will be faithful. A number of these men who have been attending are unconverted, but several of them have truly been born again and their participation and enthusiasm has been a real joy and encouragement. In this society where Maria is "king" or "queen" however you will, women take the leadership in their homes constantly and the men let them. These studies have been liberating for these men in a sense and they really are seeing the need for the men to be leaders in their church at least--hopefully, Lord willing, they will do it in their homes as well.
Our service attendance was a little bit down today but there was an excellent spirit. We finished Hebrews 3 in SS remembering that we disobey God's Word through a lack of faith in what God has told us. Again we had excellent participation. Our worship service was very worshipful today and we had our fifth message on the family, focusing again on the duties of husbands to love their wives. Our Savior chose us when we were ugly and vile in our sins and had nothing beautiful about us. Then He set us apart, and his bride, the church, doesn't get older and "ugly" with age, but is being cleansed and made more and more beautiful--she'll be without spots or wrinkles or any such thing. Why? So that He can present her unto Himself as a glorious church. Most of the time the father of the bride presents her to the groom. Jesus Himself is the one who presents His bride to Himself. Anyway, before I preach at you, it was a blessing to me and hopefully a blessing to the people.
There have been some serious financial difficulties for families in the church lately. Pray that the Lord would supply the needs of each who is being faithful to Him.
We had to have our piano insides taken all out and totally redone after the piano had been sitting for three years while we were trying to build our house. The man who is doing the job came for about four weeks straight doing different things on the piano. He hasn't been here for the last three weeks though and we need to be able to use our piano. Pray for him to come quickly to finish the job.
Please continue to pray for good health for the family. The dry season has begun and the pollution causes us many problems.
Thank you for your prayers and support,
In Christ,
Mike for the Goldfi
We praise the Lord for a good week and for the things that He continually teaches us, both from His Word and in the daily experiences that the Lord permits in our lives, both good and bad.
Marta (the nurse who has come with Sylvia several times) was back again today and brought her two children. She said that she is planning and can't wait to come to both services next week--she had to leave again after SS.
Sylvia has struggled through two excruciating weeks with her drug addict son in the house. Please pray that the Lord would remove her son Beto from their home so that she may be able to get the rest that she needs--physically, emotionally and spiritually. Please also continue to pray for his salvation. Please pray for her continued faithfulness in spite of other troubles also.
Saturday's men's meeting was again tremendous. We had 12 again, which is only missing one other man who could possibly attend. Francisco came last time but did not this time. Marcos missed the first time but came this time. With 22-24 different requirements of elders/pastors/bishops in 1 Timothy and Titus, I divided them giving each man two different ones to study for the past week and to explain them to the whole group. We had an excellent discussion, they gave some excellent feedback of things that they had seen in previous churches and it was very very profitable. Our next meeting was supposed to be sometime in December but one man can't make it so we needed to reschedule it. They all decided unanimously that they wanted to do it again this coming Saturday. So, we are doing it again this Saturday.
Many of you know that we have prayed for years for some men who will be faithful. A number of these men who have been attending are unconverted, but several of them have truly been born again and their participation and enthusiasm has been a real joy and encouragement. In this society where Maria is "king" or "queen" however you will, women take the leadership in their homes constantly and the men let them. These studies have been liberating for these men in a sense and they really are seeing the need for the men to be leaders in their church at least--hopefully, Lord willing, they will do it in their homes as well.
Our service attendance was a little bit down today but there was an excellent spirit. We finished Hebrews 3 in SS remembering that we disobey God's Word through a lack of faith in what God has told us. Again we had excellent participation. Our worship service was very worshipful today and we had our fifth message on the family, focusing again on the duties of husbands to love their wives. Our Savior chose us when we were ugly and vile in our sins and had nothing beautiful about us. Then He set us apart, and his bride, the church, doesn't get older and "ugly" with age, but is being cleansed and made more and more beautiful--she'll be without spots or wrinkles or any such thing. Why? So that He can present her unto Himself as a glorious church. Most of the time the father of the bride presents her to the groom. Jesus Himself is the one who presents His bride to Himself. Anyway, before I preach at you, it was a blessing to me and hopefully a blessing to the people.
There have been some serious financial difficulties for families in the church lately. Pray that the Lord would supply the needs of each who is being faithful to Him.
We had to have our piano insides taken all out and totally redone after the piano had been sitting for three years while we were trying to build our house. The man who is doing the job came for about four weeks straight doing different things on the piano. He hasn't been here for the last three weeks though and we need to be able to use our piano. Pray for him to come quickly to finish the job.
Please continue to pray for good health for the family. The dry season has begun and the pollution causes us many problems.
Thank you for your prayers and support,
In Christ,
Mike for the Goldfi
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