Goldfuss update

Dear Praying Partners,

 

Prayer requests:

1.  Blanca--she is having a terrible time with rheumatic arthritis both in her hand (which she cannot move at all) and her knee.  Pray for the correct medication.

2.  Mario and Noemi-- Last year, when we were not in Mexico, vicious neighbors beat up Noemi and her 11 year old boy to frighten them so that they would leave their little piece of land and home---so that these same neighbors could have the property.  Noemi's arm was broken during the whole ordeal.  Now she asks prayer as these neighbors are suing her saying that she beat up two ladies from their home??????????  She goes before the judge today.

3.  Senora Maria---She is now able to come to church!  The swelling in her legs is getting better.  She asks prayer for her grandson who was beaten up badly one night after going to a nightclub.  Please pray for his salvation and healing.

4.  Nicolas y Lilliana--need prayer for their son Miguel--12 years old.  He is very rebellious and is causing problems at school.  Pray for his salvation as he does not want to have anything to do with the Lord.

5.  Silvia--needs prayer in dealing with her adult son who is on drugs--salvation.

6.  Ruben and Heidi--as they are still in Phoenix, AZ.  Heidi has been diagnosed with altitude sickness.  It appears that they will not be able to come back to Mexico City because of the altitude.  Pray for wisdom, and decisions.  Ruben will be coming back in a few weeks to get their things.  Please pray especially for our church as they love them so much.  This will be very difficult for many. 

 

Praises:

1.  Erasmo--is fine now after falling 3 stories off of his roof while he was trying to fix his roof from leaking.  He landed in an unoccupied property next door on some rocks.  He is very bruised but no bones are broken.  This is the man that recently had several fingers cut off while working.  He still needed one final surgery, but the fall opened up the sutures from the first surgery.  We praise the Lord that he is still with us, but ask prayer for healing.

2.  America and Jose--are planning to get married and he has been in church the last 2 weeks.

3.  Gabriel and Lilliana--The mother of the baby that they are planning to adopt has contacted them again.  Please pray for the Lord's will regarding the adoption.

4.  Itza--Some of you might remember him from over 7 years ago.  He was a very faithful young person who left the things of the Lord when he went to the army.  He is seeking the Lord again and has be attending for three weeks now!  Please pray for a true conversion.

5.  We are having a baptismal service on May 27th with 6 canidates!  Mike went to rent a brand new swimming pool that just opened up very close to the church.  When he met the owner, he recognized him as the husband of a friend of Faith's ---that she met doing the kids sports activities.  The owner is letting the church borrow the pool for free!  Our church people were thrilled with this provision!  

 

Thank you so much for your prayers!

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

Goldfuss update

Dear Praying Friends,

We thank you for your prayers for the ministry and our family here in Mexico in the midst of a difficult week.  The service went well as the people were attentive and the Word went forth much easier than last week.  We attribute this to your prayers.  So thank you so much for praying.  Many attended and we ran out of chairs.

--Sylvia was not in our services today which always concerns us as she faces much difficulty at home.  Pray for Mike as he goes to visit with her tomorrow.  Her sisters have been confusing her as they are not Christians.

--Francisco was not able to accompany his wife and son today as his father (89 years old) is very very ill and he went to be with him.  Pray for him to be able to present the gospel clearly to him.

--Gabriel and Lilliana were very close to adopting a baby girl.  However, it seems that they may have been defrauded into giving money and the mother who was going to deliver the baby soon has disappeared.  We were able to have them come to our home this afternoon for dinner and enjoyed a good time of fellowship and encouragement with them.  Praise the Lord that they realize that they only want His perfect will regarding the baby, but they are hurting.

 

This was a tough week in which we seemed to face many obstacles in moving forward. 

--Faith needed to see the doctor three times this week--1.  Since last Saturday she began to feel badly and so we went to her doctor's on Tuesday evening.  We found out that the doctor had left a large gauze inside after the birth of Caralyn.  (Two weeks.)  2.  She was still feeling bad on Thursday and we had to make a trip to a lab to get her blood pressure taken (90/70) and check her blood for infection.  Praise the Lord there was no infection.  3.  Saturday we found out she had an ear infection.  Pray for the Lord to strengthen her and give her the grace to do all she still needs to do.  She is very weak.

 

Pray for Ruben and Heidi . They went to Arizona for a conference last week and to see if the altitude of Mexico City is what is causing all of Heidi's health problems.  They have decided to try to rent much farther down in the city on a 2 week trial basis to see if that will help Heidi's health problems and to see if that will enable them to stay in Mexico City.  Pray that we will be able to find them something suitable.

 

Last week we had a 6.0 earthquake.  It was pretty strong and somewhat tense for a few moments.  Even though the ground is moveable, our God is not.  He is able to continue building His church.  We thank you for praying for the Lord's church here.  After last week's very disappointing attendance, we had an excellent attendance today and we were absolutely bursting at the seems.  The hot weather arrived this week, so the church was kind of like a rotissierie today for chicken.  The Lord brought all those people today though and we pray that His Word will work in a great way in their hearts. 

 

Please pray for us to be able to finalize a place to have our baptismal service in May.

Please pray that the Lord would provide a permanent place for our church to meet.  We are currently unable to display a sign for our church because of the owner's wishes. 

 

Thank you for your prayers,

in Christ,

Mike Goldfuss 

Goldfuss update

Dear Prayer Partners,

We certainly hope that this letter does not come across like last week's letter.  Many of you received strange headings.  One dear lady told us that her printer printed out 5 pages with one word on each line.  So sorry for the problem.

Last week was such a blessing with Easter.  We sensed a real moving in people's hearts and several shared how God had really dealt with them and taught them much.  This week was not the case.  We could sense an oppressiveness about the service.  Several were not there as they had to work unexpectedly or had other problems.  So we would really like to ask you to pray that the Lord's Word would have free course and that Satan would be bound in each individual's life.   

We also have dealt with hard situations this week.

1.  David and Ester--were a couple that were very faithful for a number of years.  They stopped coming to church after Crystalyn's death.  They tried to call us sometime in January when we were not here.  We finally were able to get their phone number and found out that they are separated.  Please pray that we can again help them in some way.  At one time, David was a main leader in our church.

2.  America and Jose--are a newer couple in the church.  They have a six year old son, but are not married.  She wants to get married, but he does not see the need and wants to remain as they are.   She wants to obey the Lord, but he will not get married, so she has been counselled to leave him.  Pray for them as he got mad and did not attend church with her today.  

3.  Marcos and Ruth are the ones who are getting married in August and they are fighting with his mother, Juana, over invitations.  These are silly small things that are really dumb and hurtful to Juana when she is trying to help make this wedding God honoring.  It shows their immaturity and we need to deal with this.  

 

Happy news is that the two new baby girls were there today for the first time!  Alejandra is Memo and Karina's new baby.  It is still amazing to us how much the Lord has changed Karina.  She was the mother that left the two little boys all alone about a year and a half ago.  She was mean and hateful.  Now for the last year she has been a quiet loving mother and wife.  Also, our baby ---Caralyn made her appearance for the first time at church.  One little girl ,Uzzi, said, "It seems like it is baby day at church because they are everywhere!"  Well, there is going to be another because Gabriel and Lilliana are going to adopt a newborn baby girl in one month.  Please pray that all of the paper work would go through smoothly. 

 

Please pray:

1.  for the upcoming baptismals in May with 6 canidates.

2.  for Silvia's son Luis for healing from an accident

3.  for Erasmo's surgery in June to be moved sooner if it is the Lord's will----(he was the one who had his fingers cut off in an accident at work.)

4.  for extreme wisdom that comes only from the Lord so that we can help each person move forward in their walk with the Lord.

5.  And lastly, and probably the hardest thing about this week:   Ruben and Heidi:  Heidi has several different medical problems some of which have been exacerbated by living here.  However, her digestive problem has gotten alot worse to where she was only able to eat 2 or 3 things.  They were able to leave on Friday to go to a conference in Arizona and she has been doing better there----for which we praise the Lord.  But something here---the altitude or the bacteria--- must be affecting her digestive system.  It may be that they may need to leave Mexico City.  It has been such a blessing to have them here and to have coworkers has been incredible.  Please pray for the Lord's will regarding their lives.

We thank you and we really DEPEND on your prayers.

In Christ, 

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

Goldfuss update (April 9)

Dear Praying friends,

The big news of the past week for our family was that on Monday night, April 2, at 11:43 PM, Caralyn Joy Goldfuss was born. That is the official spelling. But, since "Cara" means "face" in Mexico, she will be known south of the border as "Carolina." One lady in our church called her "Caro" for short— that means "expensive"! I hope this is not the case. Faith and Caralyn came home on Thursday and the first two nights Caralyn slept from 12 to 6 AM. That was a real blessing. Faith is extremely happy as today, April 8, was her original due date. Caralyn came six days before that.

Here are some prayer requests from our church family.

• Erasmo has been told that his hand will not be operated on again until June 5th;
• Matilde, Erasmo's wife, is still recovering from a kidney infection;
• Guille has been quite unwell lately and has now lost her voice;
• Sra. Maria has been told that the only help for her varicose veins is a dangerous surgery;
• Juanita is still struggling with an infection that is rather debilitating.
• While Faith is home from the hospital with Caralyn, she is still having some trouble walking from her sciatic nerve problem and all of the anesthesia. We are reminded that the Lord uses these different trials and difficulties for His glory and our good, even when we may not understand His reasons.

Despite all of these trials to our church people, it was a huge blessing to see today's services extremely well attended. We were packed. All of the adult chairs were filled and many of the children had to get their little chairs out of the SS room to sit in church. The SS hour had some excellent banter back and forth over some different points. We praise the Lord that Sras. Maria and Gloria were able to attend after not coming for over 2 ½ months due to health problems. It was a blessing to all to see them today. We also had four or five first time visitors today and a man showed up as soon as our services ended. Please pray for Alma and Angeles (apparently two single moms), and for Cristobal, who came as soon as we ended. Pray that God would open each one of these peoples' hearts and save them for His glory. Continue to pray for Morgan who is preaching through Hebrews 11 on Wednesday nights. He has done an excellent job. Pray for his own growth and for more folks to come here God's Word preached. Pray for him to keep on persevering in the faith.

Future Plans:

• We are planning a baptismal service in the not to distant future and so far we have 6 people who have inquired about being baptized. Pray for us have wisdom in dealing with each person.
• We are also praying about the Lord's will in looking for another building.
• We have the BJU mission team coming in the last week of June. There are 28 team members so pray for wisdom in planning that. We are going to be planning some evening evangelistic meetings during their week stay here.
• Pray for safety. The children started a small business last week selling fresh squeezed orange juice. With just a sign out front, (because we cannot allow them out by the street alone), they only had one client during the whole week. The second time the children's client came for orange juice, our other neighbor called saying that that man was a known burglar in our neighborhood and that he had spent time in jail for breaking and entering. However, right before our neighbor called us, it seems as Mikey told the "client" that he could come any day except Sunday as we would be gone. He felt so terrible about saying that when he found out that the "client" was a potential robber. :-) Faith had to stay home last Sunday as she wasn't feeling well, but Mikey volunteered to stay with her for safety's sake. With bat by his side, he spent the five hours watching from the windows. Needless to say, this occurrence has put an end to the budding family entrepreneurship.
  

Thank you so much for praying for and supporting our family and the Lord's work through us here in Mexico City.

With love in Christ,

Mike for all the Goldfi

Update on Faith and Caralyn Joy

We had a nice surprise today. The hospital was saying that Faith had to come home today. Faith wasn't in any shape to come home yet today. Because of so much epidural medicine on Monday night, she could hardly move her legs yesterday and she couldn't walk. The hospital package that we had to pay for comes with three days and two nights of hospitalization. They were counting Monday night as a night when Faith got out of recovery at 3:35 AM and was wheeled to her room and finally fell asleep at 6 AM. I told them today that she basically had 1 1/2 days and 1 night after the delivery. They said that there was nothing they could do but a lady said she'd try. She came back about an hour later and said that she was sorry, but not possible.

Faith's doctor was in the room at the moment and said that it would really be helpful for Faith medically to be able to stay one more day and the lady said she'd try again, but wasn't hopeful. (Faith added, "Plus, I've given birth to seven children in this hospital. Doesn't that count for something?) She came back and said that she had good news. They had agreed to start counting the three days and nights with Tuesday night, so they were going to let her stay the extra day.

What a blessing. Thank the Lord for that blessing with us. So, tomorrow, Thursday, Faith and Caralyn are planning on coming home. (Actually, I'm not sure what Caralyn is planning in her little mind for tomorrow, but we are planning on her coming with us.)

With love in Christ,
Mike for all the Goldfi

Carolyn (or Caralyn) Joy Goldfuss

We praise the Lord tonight that our little baby girl made her appearance. She weighed 7.9 pounds and I'm not sure how long she is. Faith says she is very long as she was finally able to breathe again after the delivery.

Mikey and I went out today to call on four different families and when we got home around 6 PM or so, the girls said that they had been trying to call our cell phone for several hours. Unfortunately, where we were calling, there are mountains that don't promote cell phone reception. So, Faith was thinking that her time was near. We got her packed up and in the van, the kids went down the mountain with us and stayed at Reme and Juana's house (they all wanted to go to the hospital,) and I took Faith down the next twenty minutes to the hospital.

We arrived about 7:45 PM. When they checked her, she was only 1 cm dilated. They started an epidural and in about an hour, she was 1 cm more advanced. In another hour she was about 5 cm along. The contractions were extremely hard and painful, even with an epidural. The doctor thought that the spinal catheter had come out because Faith wasn't getting any relief from the pain. He came to give her more medicine and Faith was in excruciating pain. They decided to check her again and, voila, 10 cm. They said she felt so much pain because she went from 3-10 cm extremely quickly.

Anyway, Carolyn Joy (we aren't sure if it will be with an "o" or with an "a" yet) was born at 11:43 PM on April 2, 2007. Praise the Lord that both are doing well. Please keep us in your prayers. I just got home and it's 3 AM and I'm sure the kids will be up early and want to go to the hospital to see their baby sister. Pray that I will be a happy (not too cranky) dad. :-)

Thank you again for your prayers. We continue to need them.

Mike for all the Goldfi

Goldfuss update (April 1)

Dear Praying friends,

We consistently thank you for your consistent prayers because we consistently need them. Thank you.

We have had a rather rough week physically. Faith is in a lot of pain. It hurts to move whether that be to lie down, stand up, walk, go down or up the stairs or anything. She is just hurting period. She is very jealous right now as Karina, Guille and Alejandro's daughter in law delivered her baby girl on Thursday night. Both seem to be doing ok and are home from the hospital. Pray for Memo and Karina to seek to rear this little girl for the Lord's glory.

I (Mike) was laid pretty low on Friday with a seeming case of salmonella. Fortunately we can get antibiotics over the counter here and I was able to get one by Friday evening and it seems to have combated the infection very well. I felt pretty tired today though just in leading our SS —although our SS is about 1 hour and 45 minutes long. :-)

We are trusting the Lord to bring the new baby in His perfect timing, although Faith is hoping for as soon as possible. Her due date is next Sunday, Resurrection Sunday. She does hope it comes before that. We are very thankful for the help that 2 young ladies, Reme and Janet, have been. They are both from our church and it is humbling, challenging and a blessing to see them selflessly help.

Today's attendance was very good, considering that we had our change to daylight savings time last night. We had a couple of people who arrived late (either very late for SS or right on time for church, depending on your viewpoint) but many were there on time. We looked at David's sin in numbering Israel and specifically that of pride. We are all so prone to pride in our lives and we saw many ways that it evidences itself—a job promotion, more money, showing off a new car or house, etc. Even our salvation can be a matter of pride if we look at others who are without Christ as being worse then us. We need to recognize that everything that we have—a job promotion, money, car, home, family, even our salvation, is a gift from God that we do not deserve and so all the glory and praise for everything we have belongs to Him. Ruben preached the worship service today and lead us in the Lord's Supper. That is always a highlight for our church once a month.

Please continue to pray for:

• Erasmo's hand. He had the accident a few months ago and lost several parts of fingers. He is waiting for a follow-up surgery and has been put off a few times. I might have a chance to go help him with some plumbing this week and may have a good opportunity to speak with him about spiritual things.
• The two Sras., Gloria and her mother Maria. They still have not been able to make it to church for about 2 months now due to different health problems.
• Sylvia's son-in-law Luis, fell last year, had some serious brain surgery, and has not responded very well. His health has been pretty delicate this whole year. He is unsaved and this is a great trial for Sylvia.
• Pray for our family and our spiritual growth and state at this time. We have been struggling and we need the Lord's grace and strength day by day and the ability to do what He wants us to do.

We thank you again for your continued prayers and support of the Lord's Work through us here in Mexico City.

With love in Christ,

Mike for all the Goldfusses