Goldfuss update

Dear Prayer Partners,

Thank you so much for praying for us during these past two very busy months. The Lord has enabled us to be with Faith’s parents, send five of our six kids to camp, have a mini family reunion with Mike’s family (Tammy, his sister, was home from South Africa), all while visiting one of our supporting churches every Sunday or Wednesday!  Mikey was also able to counsel at Camp Peniel for three weeks before attending his fourth week as a camper himself. The last two weeks we have been visiting churches mainly in the Columbus area.

We have been really encouraged to see many of you! We are overwhelmed by how much some of you know about our ministry and how you ask about our people that you have been praying for by name. Thank you so much for your faithful prayers!

Church in Mexico:

Since we have been in the States, we have heard that Nico has come back once to church with his family! This has been a huge answer to prayer! Please pray for the Lord to continue to work in that family. We have also been encouraged by reports of the Vacation Bible School that they are doing totally on their own just this week.  There were 71 different children in attendance.  Jon and Andrea Crocker planned to let them do everything as they have worked on their own in the past. We have seen pictures on Facebook, and it is such a joy to see them being faithful and serving with such joy.

New Change:

We were able to present our work to our home church, Bible Community Church, in Mentor, Ohio on July 20^th. During that visit our pastor, Josh Scheiderer, told Mike of his plans to accept another position as an assistant pastor in PA.  We were extremely surprised to hear that news.   

The elders then approached Mike with the request of his helping by being the interim Pastor while they look for a new pastor.  The elders expressed their sadness in asking because they know that our hearts are in Mexico. But they knew what we began to understand—that the church right now needs someone who knows and understands them.  Knowing this, we appreciated so much that they asked us because we are family. These are our people. We both grew up at Bible Community. They are the people that trained us, and we love them very much.

However, there were several things that The Lord had to do in our minds to assure us that this is what he wants us to do. All of this has happened in the last 12 days.

1.     First, Mike shared his complete heart with the elders. They voted, and their vote was unanimous. Together we had decided that the vote had to be unanimous for us to go forward.

2.     Second, our mission board, GFA, had to be completely supportive. Since we have not taken a furlough for eight years, they feel that this is a good idea because it gives us time to take a full year furlough. This will enable us to visit all 28 of our supporting churches instead of visiting only half.

3.     Third, we were and are thinking about the work in Mexico. When we called missionary Jon Crocker, who is covering for us in our absence, he said, “Well, I think this is the perfect time! We are here to cover for the church in Mexico in your absence and the church there needs you—it seems like a no brainer at this time.”  Since they are in the beginning stages of ministry in Mexico City, they are available to help us in this area now, whereas in the future that will not be a possibility.   

4.     Fourth, the Lord’s working in our children’s hearts. Our children are Mexican, but we have one child especially that is 100% Mexican and always is missing home.  Again in our minds, the Lord changing his heart would be a miracle. (He even missed Mexico so much that he wanted to wear his Mexico shirt on July 4^th.)  When we presented to our children how we felt that the Lord may be leading, to our astonishment, Matt was the first to be extremely excited! (He said that he had a great friend that even had moles in the same spots on his arm and back where he had moles???!!!! What?????). Hearing this we realized that the Lord has given him a very good friend here, and the Lord has used this friendship to already change his heart before we had even asked.

The plan right now is:

-We plan to begin helping the people of Bible Community on the evening of August 10^th.

-We are planning on contacting each church that is already scheduled for the rest of August to see how each Pastor would like to reschedule or keep their meeting.  How can we keep our meeting in August? One church has already stated that they would like to have our kids come and present the work—they do know all about it and they know the presentation by heart.  J  We think that would be fun for all. 

-We are still taking Mikey to college at the end of August.  While in Greenville, the whole family will be presenting our furlough report to Trinity Bible Church, and Pastor Scheiderer has already found a special speaker to cover for that date.

- Right now the plan is for us to be here with the church until about February to help them find a new pastor.  At that time we would like to finish visiting our churches and revisit any churches that Mike and I did not get to visit during August (with the children).  Also during this fall and winter, as the Lord allows, we will also report to some other supporting churches.

-We would like to be heading back to Mexico by the end of May.

So in total our furlough should be less than a normal year long furlough.  Since we have not taken a furlough in 8 years, both we and our mission board feel like our help to our home church will in no way impede the work that God has called us to do in Mexico.

Right now our big prayer requests are for:

1.     Housing

2.     Wisdom for each child regarding their education. We will be both homeschooling and using Mentor Christian School based on each of our children’s needs.

3.     Padierna Bible Church in Mexico as they continue to grow and experience blessings and growth pains.  We have to let them know in a letter this weekend of the change in plans for now.

4.     Pastor and Christy Scheiderer have been very kind and helpful.  Please pray for them as they are also making big transitions and especially for their 5 precious children.

If you have any questions, feel free to email us or call the cell phone that we are using right now—570-529-2091. We thank you for your love and concern at this time. We are just so grateful for your faithful prayers and support.

In Christ,

Mike and Faith

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Goldfuss update

Dear Prayer Partners,

We have had the privilege of sharing the ministry that the Lord has
given us with 4 churches so far. We are still waiting on prayer cards,
but will be sending them to all of our supporting churches with a new
up-to-date picture!

We are also trying to help our parents --although I believe that they
are helping us more than we are helping them.

Another prayer request is that my (Faith's) uncle, Nelson Grover, is in
the hospital with a bladder infection as well as weakness and swelling
in his legs. (Uncle Nelson is also GFA missionary Cindi Grover's
grandfather.) Although he is doing better, this has been hard on my
mother as her younger sister, Sarah, is also hospitalized with
congestive heart failure. Their sister Mary Naff, veteran missionary to
Africa, passed away last November.

My mother has been a real testimony to me as my second dad, Bob, has
also experienced a weakened heart. All of these hardships are strong
trials, yet she remains steadfast in her confidence in the Lord for His
perfect timing and His perfect will. She is also back to her normal
self health wise. Today was her 81st birthday and last week she was
mowing an acre of land on a riding mower! After a day of running around
with her, at 7 pm I said, "Mom, I need to sit down!" She is hard to
keep up with!!!!

Please pray that we would be blessings to our churches and to our
families. We have a church picnic this weekend with a Mexico theme here
at Leroy Independent Baptist Church. I will also be speaking to a
ladies group at Bible Community Church next Friday afternoon. We would
appreciate your prayers!

Thank you!
Faith for all of the Goldfusses

prayer update

Dear Prayer Partners,

Thank you for praying us to the States!

We had to do some repairs in Texas that we had just done a week earlier
in Mexico.
When we left St. Louis, the check engine light came on again. It may be
something in the transmission, but it doesn't appear to be serious at
the moment.
It seems to be running well right now, so thank you for your prayers.

Now that we are in PA, our tasks include:
1. Making a prayer card
2. Organizing our presentations
3. Making our display
4. Scheduling churches
5. Eating all the Klondike bars that Grandpa keeps buying us!

Thank you again for praying and for praying for the church in Mexico.

In Christ,
Mike and Faith for all the Goldfii

goldfuss update

If you can't read the pasted text below, you can read the pdf attached.
mike

Thank you so much for praying!!!
1. The graduation went so well. Many unsaved as well as church
people came. The gospel was given by both the graduate and the
principal (Mike). An overwhelming blessing was that all of the
church people brought most of the food for the graduation. They
wanted to do that for Mikey.
2. The baptisms were a huge blessing!
Dinora gave testimony how she was deep into drugs and
alcohol and then tried to kill herself. The Lord did not let
her die. Her cousin Bris invited her to church a year ago, and
she was saved. She asked for continued prayer about her
cigarette addiction. Her sweet testimony left some in tears.
Coni told how she thought that her then boyfriend was
crazy when he told her about the gospel. She was saved at a
Christian retreat several years back, but she did not understand
many things. The Lord brought them to our church about a year
ago also, and she began to understand more. She said that she
had not been taught how to live the Christian life. Please pray
for her continued growth.
Mikey told how he made a profession in first grade, but
now he realizes that it was just mainly because he was afraid of
hell. As he grew he really thought that he was a really good
kid because he knew so much about the Bible. In Junior high The
Lord began showing him how sinful he really was, and he turned
from his sin to the Lord. He has really enjoyed his Bible
reading and study in high school.
The baptisms were such a blessing to all!
Now we have a huge prayer request: The VAN SITUATION.
We have been dealing with this all year. First of all, the
Mexican government wanted anyone who had been here for a long
period of time to become Mexican residents. When all of that
finally came to be (much paperwork), one of the stipulations was
that we needed a Mexican vehicle or to have our old van
nationalized.
Mike began looking into nationalizing our vehicle. He visited
the government places and called on the phone. When he asked
how to process, he always got different answers. (Literally 5
or 6 different answers). Sensing that we might get into trouble
no matter what we did and then have to pay thousands of dollars
to legalize the van, we decided to buy a used Mexican vehicle.
The Lord provided very generous help from one kind family for
our vehicle situation.
We first purchased a new small economical car for when just a couple of
people in the family need to be somewhere to save gas. That small car
has been such a super blessing! No problems whatsoever. Mike can use it
for visiting, and I use it when I only have to take some of the kids
somewhere. It has dropped our gas consumption to where we are paying
less than ½ of the huge cost of before. Such a blessing.
But we do need a van for Sundays, Wednesdays, and furlough. Also, we
need the van whenever we need to take our whole family somewhere.
#1. So Mike purchased a used van that seemed to fit our needs. We took a
mechanic with us who gave his approval. We knew it needed some work but
had enough money to fix it up a little. (Now we say "a little, haha.)
#2. We paid to rebuild the engine and the transmission—it took them 2
months. After a couple weeks, it was not better; so we had to take it
back. The other shop where the head mechanic worked told us that the
mechanic who had "fixed our van" didn't do anything to it but that they
would fix it. They had it for 2 ½ more months—now the engine is good,
but the transmission is still broken and he says he's "done."
#3. So, we have had to send it to a different mechanic for the 3rd time.
He says the transmission is still not the right one for our van. He's
working on it now but saying, "We have to charge you more because blah
blah blah." You can sue someone here, but we've heard it takes sometimes
years. And then there's no guarantee that you'll get your money back.
All of these people were recommended to us by friends.
I forgot to say that we had to pay $500 to get our papers for the car.
You need to go to a man that does this. The man, a friend of a friend,
took the money and never got the papers. (Maybe he used it for something
else, but he did not get the papers.) Now he has paid about $100 back,
but still owes the $400 and will not answer his phone. A second man did
do the papers correctly.
Everyone was recommended by people who were trying to help us, and these
people feel terrible. But this is how it is here. This is also why
people (including us), want to buy cars in the States. But this is what
we needed to be to be able to stay in Mexico.
We are not asking you for more funds, but we REALLY NEED YOUR PRAYERS.
We were hoping to leave for the US today or tomorrow. The van won't be
ready until tomorrow at the earliest and then we'll need a day to get a
few more small things done on it. When the van gets fixed, we will head
up to the States. We won't be able to visit a lot of churches but we do
want to visit some.
Please pray for Jon Crocker and for the men of the church who will be
helping to fill in while we are gone—mainly, Memo, Alberto and Humberto.
We will drop off Mikey for college, Lord-willing, in late August and
then head back down to Mexico. We haven't been able to schedule a lot of
meetings yet because of the uncertainty with the van situation. In other
words, we do not know what we are doing.
However, we are not just twiddling our thumbs waiting. We are finishing
school with the little ones. We are also trying to leave the house ready
for the next school year as we will be 3 weeks behind once we get back
from the States. Mike is also doing more visiting and counseling which
will be surprising to our people because we already said goodbye to
everyone on Sunday---with many hugs and tears shed for Mikey.
Mikey said this morning, "We can't go to church again on Wednesday
because we already said goodbye." It really was difficult.
We are also trying to have godly responses to all of these frauds. The
Lord continues to mold us more into Christ's image and it is painful
many times. May we continue to be submissive to what He has for us.
Thank you so much for your prayers!
Mike and Faith for all the Goldfii

Goldfuss update

Dear Prayer Partners,
Thank you for your continued prayers!
1. Our time last week with Pastor Sipe and Lydia and Jonathan Layton was
a real blessing! Our
kids felt like they had known the Layton kids all their lives, and they
really had fun together.
Lydia and Jonathan helped so much. Pastor Sipe played the piano, fixed
the piano, and
preached. It was such a special treat for our people. We also really
benefitted from his counsel.
2. Two church men visited NICO. Please pray for repentance on his part.
As of right now, he
says he wants nothing more to do with church. Also pray for Lili. It
seems like Nico is not
providing for her and the children.
3. Silvia has brought about 6 people in the last month. Please pray for
Pilar, Vicente, Jose, and
his wife and son. Pray that they will be saved.
4. The Spanish jail ministry via Skype to Missouri has now added another
member. There are
now three in the Bible study. Please pray for this ministry that exists
every Tuesday from 7:30
pm to 9:30 or 10:00pm.
Big Events Coming Up
1. All of the kids' events are coming to an end. I am so thankful to the
Lord that all of their
special events are not at the same time or we would have been in trouble.
Sat. 9:00-- Carissa's semifinal basketball game--they are undefeated.
10:00--Caralyn's once a year gymnastics competition.
3:00-- Mikey's graduation /farewell party.
Please pray for good opportunities at all of these events, especially
for the graduation as Mike
will be speaking and giving the Gospel again to many of Mikey's
basketball friends and their
families.
2. Sunday--Three people have asked to be baptized. We will have the
normal Sunday services,
then go to the gym for the baptisms in the pool and after the service,
we will head back to the
church for a special meal together.
We were going to leave for the States on June 2nd, but our van is still
not ready. Please pray for
the Lord's perfect timing of our leaving. We are hopefully sending it in
to yet another mechanic
tomorrow for the transmission problems.
We hope to see many of you this summer.
In Christ,
Faith for all of the Goldfusses
Thank you again for all of your love and support!

Goldfuss update

Dear prayer Partners,

Thank you for praying!  We truly rely on your prayers.

 

Our main prayer request is that the Lord would work in a main man in the ministry here.  We had to deal with a situation in December and it appeared that he responded biblically.  Time has shown that response to not be lasting.  Please pray for the God of light to bring glory to Himself even in a very dark situation. 

 

Praises:

1.  In the midst of this heartache, school has been going full force.  Jessica, our teacher left on May 6th.  Cristi and Carissa (through the Lord's help) were able to finish over 3 1/2 weeks early!  They have been assisting me every day with the 3 little kids.  We are hoping to finish by the end of May.

 

2.  Two ladies worked out a rather large problem between them.  One asked the other for forgiveness--and the other forgave her.

 

3.  There was a young man, Victor, who was saved about 4 years ago in our church.  We had him with us for less than a year before he had to return to Spain.  He was able to find a small church when he went back to Spain, became faithful, and began serving there.  The pastor in Spain recommended getting further studies in the States.  So Victor went to a Bible college in the US and just graduated!  He is getting married in August, working at the college for one year, and returning to Spain to help (become a pastor??) in the church there.  We are so happy to see what the Lord has done in his life. 

(It is humbling to see how The Lord uses small things.  This all has c ome about because we met a family at the Olympic Village where our kids do sports! Two of the family members became faithful members at our church, and they invited their nephew (Victor) who was spending the year in Mexico!!  Our God is so amazing!!!)

 

4.  For safety during another earthquake.

 

Prayer Requests:

1.  Man’s problem in the church—see above.

2.  Strength as we still have effects from the flu or whatever it was that we had---weakness.

3.  Visitors that have now come faithfully--Vicente, Pillar, Tamara, Maria. 

4.  For growth involving two men that Mike is having a weekly Bible study with via Skype from a jail in Missouri.  The man definitely seems to be genuinely saved and is delving into a theology book.  He is having his sentencing today and will find out how much more time he will have in prison and when he will be deported back to Mexico.  He is originally from Mexico City.

5.  Visitors from the States:  Lydia and Jonathan Layton --May 19-26^th AND pastor Eric Sipe--May 23rd-26th.  Pray that all would have a wonderful time and be blessed and burdened for the lost, and that the Lord would accomplish His purposes through their visits.

6.  Our big, huge, enormous Graduation Party and Goodbye Party for Mikey with the church and all of his friends---May 31st.  We are praying that the Lord would give us wisdom in knowing how to set everything up, and how to run the ceremony and activities.  It may rain and we need to have it outside.  Pray that we would be a good testimony and that the gospel would be given.

7.  Our emotions. We all have such mixed feelings during this very happy time. (#6)

8.  We need to also be packing and getting ready to leave by June 1st to come to the States for a mini-furlough. 

9.  Jon Crocker’s leadership in the church with the other men while we are gone this summer.  Jon will be preaching most of the Sundays but the people will be doing VBS and discipleship and helping preach on Wednesdays.

10.  OUR VAN.  We are supposed to pick it up again today—hopefully with a transmission fixed.  We don’t have much hope that it will be due to everything that has happened to this point.  But we do trust in our sovereign Lord.

 

Thank you for praying!  We are tempted to feel overwhelmed, but we know that He is our Rock.

In Christ,

Faith