Dear Praying Friends,
Sorry for no update last week. On Monday, I was doing some extra repairs on the house.
I appreciate so much the married ladies in our church whose husbands are unsaved. The trials and difficulties that they face on a constant and daily basis and the faith that they have in our Lord Jesus Christ is truly humbling to us and a testimony to God's daily grace in their lives. Two of those ladies are having some health problems at the moment. Teresa has been bedridden for the last week with serious back pain. She has one or two herniated discs that are also causing her sciatic nerve pain. Please pray for the doctors to be able to help her and for the Lord to give her relief from the pain also. Guille has been having some serious headaches again. I was able to visit both of them last week and the difference that Christ has made in their lives and the growth that they both are showing is a challenge to our own lives.
Memo (Guille's oldest son) has also been showing some tremendous growth in leading his wife Karina and three children, David, Adriel and new baby Alejandra. Yesterday they were asked to go somewhere else by a cousin and missed our services. Please pray that the Lord will continue to guard and strengthen them in His Word and way and that he will accept loving admonition as I talk with him.
Jose and America were able to come for dinner yesterday with their 6 year old son Jose Ruben. This is the couple that was married about 5 months ago and the Lord has also greatly changed both of them. When we first had them up at the beginning of this year, our time talking was spent mostly about both of them and salvation. Yesterday the conversation really was spiritual and they were asking questions about rearing their son Biblically. Jose is applying for a different job that would be a major upgrade economically for his family. Pray for the Lord's will to be done and for consistent application of Biblical discipline.
Nico and Lilliana also came over last week for dinner. It is very evident that Lilliana is not saved. She was miserable when she talked with us---and stated honestly that she does not want to come back to church and doesn't even know if she believes that there is a God. She has had some physical trials as well lately and on Monday we were able to help her get to a doctor as they have had no money for that. That effected her tremendously. She was happily in church on Sunday. At least now she was better able to concentrate on the message. There are still real problems in their home AND jelousy with Nico's first wife (who lives next door). Reina (Nico's first wife) and their daughter Laura came this week so that Faith could give Laura three antibiotic injections. We were able to visit with them. Please pray for more opportunities with them, for their salvation and for Lilliana to be saved.
Sarai, now 19, came to our church 10 years ago with her family (Juana and Fidel.) Nicolas' son Humberto, 22, has been attending for about 3 years now. Both of these young people show definite fruit of being regenerated and both want to please the Lord. There is definitely a romantic interest on both parts. They are both seeking the Lord's will and are trying to be God honoring in everything that they do. This last week, they came to me asking if they could see each other as boyfriend and girlfriend (that's a first). I gave them counsel from God's Word---and found out that Sarai had not asked her father's permission. I guess she thought that I would do instead of her father as he is very hot tempered. Humberto, on the other hand, was more than willing to go to Fidel---which is wonderful to see how above board he wants to be. Well, last week, Sarai talked with her father. She was amazed at his cool response. In other times he would have thrown the TV remote at her and she was fully expecting that. He knows God's Word and gave her almost the same counsel that I had given. Fidel seems to be changing slowly. Please pray that the Lord will save him and bring him back to church. He has not be attending anywhere.
In two weeks, the children will be doing a small Christmas story play. They are working hard in SS and getting ready. Pray that the Lord would use His Word in their hearts and in those who watch their play.
There is one family in the church that seems to constantly be offended with others in the church over little issues that should never even be a problem. Please pray for us as we seek to deal with them and help them to deal with problems in a godly way.
Many of our families have financial problems due to incurring debts that they shouldn't have. This has been a great strain on many. Please pray for the Lord to provide for each need, for the people to be wise in what they purchase and for contentment in all things---and for them to accept loving admonition regarding these issues. They are sometimes so strapped that they do not have money for food or medicine. This effects others as we try to help---but then we all need wisdom in deciding when and where to help.
We have had very good responses to the family series. We have had 8 messages so far and have a good ways to go still. We have a small voice recorder that we use that plugs right into the USB port on the computer. After taping the messages, I put them on the computer and then burn them on CD's. I made 10 CD's of the message last week and they were all gone yesterday before church even started. Some people take them for themselves and others take them for family members and friends. Pray that the Word of the Lord would have free course and and the Holy Spirit would apply it, even long after it has been preached.
This past Wednesday we had 6 visitors at our prayer meeting. Morgan preached and did his best job yet. He would like to be more involved in the church and we would also like that too, but he also has some debts that need to be taken care of before he can do more. Pray for the Lord to give him the strength to work in his taxi and get those debts removed. He is making good progress. (And Faith will be thrilled when and if he can take over more of her organizing responsibilities as homeschooling is more than a full time job.) Cristi is making excellent progress in reading and spelling, but needs more attention than an average child.
As of right now, our family is enjoying a good measure of health. Praise the Lord for that as the pollution has been extremely "thick" with another day of thermal inversion. Probably in the States this would be a great emergency, but it is par for the course here. Sometimes we even don surgical masks when going further down into the city.
(This would have gotten to you last night, but the electricity went out (also par for the course many times) and we had to wait til this morning.)
Thank you for praying,
In Christ,
Mike for all the Goldfi
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