Merry Christmas Eve to all of our praying friends,
Thank you so much for praying for our family.
We have been very blessed to have a very good measure of health it seems like for at least the last month and a half. The pollution has been very bad but our health has been very good. Thank you for praying.
On Friday the Christmas and New Years vacations began here and traffic is NOTICEABLY less and it's actually not too bad getting around in the city. We wish it were always like this but alas, it is not. (If it were like this all the time, Mexico City wouldn't be the largest city in the world and there would not be as many souls to reach. So we are thankful for all of the opportunities around us.) We will still enjoy the next week and a half as much as possible. :-)
Faith was able to get one more week of homeschooling in last week. She is happy for a break. If anybody out there would love the chance to serve the Lord in Mexico helping with teaching piano in the church, homeschooling with us, helping with people in the church, etc., please feel free to contact us. That would lighten Faith's load considerably and be very helpful. A young man would actually be the best as he could travel by himself and help families in the church, but we would be pleased with whoever the Lord calls to help us.
We have a dating couple in our church that has never seen what a Christian dating couple should be like. Last week we needed to encourage and exhort them about some things that we had noticed and they both responded in an excellent Christian manner. What a blessing.
In downtown Mexico City in the big Zocalo plaza, the government has set up the "world's largest ice skating rink." It will hold 1200 people at a time. The children were really asking about having a day out so we decided to drive to a metro station (about 1 hour from us) and then take the subway to downtown. 5 other young people (most of them in their 20's) also went with us and so each person was able to hang onto one of the kids and that made things much easier. We arrived at 12:30 PM, and stood in line to get our free tickets for 1 hour. Our hour to skate was at 4 PM. So, we went and had lunch at a Burger King, (standing in line there for almost an hour too :-), and got back to stand in another line about 200 yards long for the skating rink. It was the most organized thing we have ever seen here in Mexico City in our 12 years here. It was really neat. Probably 2/3 of the 1200 people in our group had never skated before in their lives, even on roller skates, and so there was a solid line around the outside of the rink of people who were just trying to get around one time. It was a lot of fun and our kids and the church young people really enjoyed it. Every time we go downtown, we always try to take a lot of tracts with us. We were all able to give out about 300 or so on Monday during our day. We made it home at 8 that night, all exhausted but having had a very nice day together.
For a number of months we have heard about the "Museum of Torture and the Inquisition" here in Mexico City. We were finally able to locate it and Saturday 8 of us young people in the young people's group (Mike writing here :-) made another trip by van to the subway for another trip downtown. We were able to give out about 500 tracts on Saturday. The museum was not exactly "enjoyable" but it was very informative and very sobering to see how many of our Christian forefathers were tortured and persecuted for their faith.
Yesterday was a very different Lord's day for us. We didn't start our services yesterday until 5 PM. We began with all the children of the church doing a Christmas play of the birth of our Lord. It was great for our little group. Then we had a regular service and we examined the great interruption in the night by the angels to the shepherds. We had a communion service and then in a circle all around the church we lit candles and sang Silent Night. To finish everything off, we all enjoyed 120 tamales. :-) Yummy. We ended after 9:30 pm.
We desperately need your prayers right now for Martha, the lady who made a profession of faith with Ruben several months ago and has been very faithful in our services. She has been in the hospital since Friday night with a problem with blood platelets and hemorrhaging. Right now it appears to even be a life-threatening problem. Please pray for her as it's Christmas Eve, she is very discouraged, her children are not allowed in to see her, and her husband has been out getting drunk. I was able to pray with her over the phone---and will try to see if they will let me see her tomorrow.
In Mexico, the big Christmas happening is on Christmas Eve when most families get together and have "supper" at 12 midnight. We are going to be going to Guille and Alejandro's for supper tonight but are planning on eating around 10. Faith is making the Turkey and they are doing the rest, which normally is a whole lot more.
So, we want to wish all of you a very Christ-centered Christmas and a very happy time with your friends and families.
We would appreciate your prayers as we prepare for a mission team from Trinity Bible Church in Greenville SC that is coming this coming Friday for a week. We are looking forward to their visit and pray that we will be a blessing to them and that they will be the same to our church family here.
Well, we are back from our "Mexican Christmas". We did eat at 12 midnight after all. LATE!! We were able to see Guille's sister Maricella and her husband Manuel. They had been faithful for a good while about three years ago. Please pray for them. We were also able to see Eric and his new wife Delilah. Eric attended for 4 years with his family. All of these people need to be saved. It was a nice time with Guille and Alejandro's family---Our kids were able to enjoy 4 pinatas!!
Well, it is very very late---or early----and the kids will be up soon for the "American Christmas."
Thank you for your prayers,
In Christ,
Mike for all the Goldfi
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