Dear Praying friends,
Thank you for your continued prayers. We always appreciate them.
Last Saturday was the anniversary celebration at an Alcoholics Anonymous group where they asked me to give a point of view from religion. There were between 60-70 people present. The first few speakers were members of different addiction groups. The emptiness and desperation of all that they have to say, the looking to man's goodness and better side to help himself, and the drawn faces all speak volumes about those who are trying to better themselves by human means and for human reasons instead of by God's only means, Christ, and for His glory. When it was my turn to speak, I took a whole 40 minutes and gave them a Bible message on Bad news/Good news. The bad news is that man's heart is sinful and that man cannot change it himself. Not a pretty picture. The good news is that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for our sins. Many people listened very well, but it was very obvious that when you get to Christ and His work, many people are completely turned off. Faith thought it was interesting that with the other speakers, people were talking and walking around, but when the Word of God was presented---I began by saying, "I could talk and give you my opinion, but that doesn't matter. What I am going to give you today is exactly what God has to say in His Word. It is God's opinion." Then the people sat down and were quiet. Praise the Lord. Even though some scowled, they were listening.
After I preached, a lady psychologist stood up and basically said the absolute opposite of everything that I had said from God's Word. Please pray that the Word of God that was given will take root in hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit and produce salvation and holiness by Christ's power. After all the ceremonies were done, all of our children and and two other people from our church, Teresa and Nico, handed out tracts to everyone--there were over 100 present by that time. Pray for fruit that will remain.
Yesterday we had the privilege of having Jose, America and their son Jose Ruben up for dinner. Please pray for this family. They have definitely grown in the past year in many ways. There are some financial issues, extended family issues, and other general issues that they are trying to deal with right now. Jose came back to our men's meeting this past Saturday for the first time in several months. He himself said that the reasons for him not coming before were just excuses. Pray for him to lead his family in a loving Christ-honoring way and pray for America to submit to him in a Christ-honoring way. Praise the Lord we can see growth in both their marriage and their seven year old son, Jose Ruben. They are expecting another baby in mid-August.
Jesus and Analilia returned to church yesterday after not being there for two weeks. They are struggling financially and with Jesus' poor health. His rescheduled time for his first hip replacement is not until July. Right before we started our service yesterday, Jesus asked me if I had given the announcements yet. I said that we hadn't and he asked if I could announce that his mother had died 20 years earlier. I asked for what reason he would like me to announce that and he said so that we could pray for her. Quickly I was able to give a short explanation of why we don't do that and after our services, I was able to explain in more detail the Biblical reasons for not practicing prayers for the dead. Pray for the Lord to continue to open their hearts and eyes to the truth. They both really seem to desire the Word--and that is a praise. Analilia could hardly talk. It turns out that she had another epileptic attack and severely bit her tongue. Faith is looking for some type of mouth guard that could prevent future injuries. If anyone has any information on anything like this, it would be a great help.
WE HAVE A HUGE WONDERFUL PROBLEM! We really need a larger building for our services. We have paid the rent for all of 2008 already. In a few months, we will have 8 babies one year old or younger. We definitely need a separate nursery. Yesterday, the babies were attacking the children as they were doing their Sunday school projects. Or rather, we had babies grabbing the papers and projects while the children were looking in the other direction. They also thought the small glue bottles were their bottles. It was hard to keep the 4 babies away while the other 12 kids were all crammed in the little room trying to work. Our meeting place at the present has one big room for the adults and main services and one small room for the Nursery and SS for all the children through 12 years of age. (one class.) The men have been talking with Morgan about a class for the 10-15 year olds and we could also divide the 1-10 year olds. Not all of our regular children were present yesterday and they were crammed. When all are there and then visiting children come....well, after yesterday, the idea is just plain scary instead of being a blessing. Please pray for the Lord to make His will clear to us and to open doors as He sees fit. These are good problems to have but make the logistics of our services a bit difficult.
We have been in pretty good health for the past couple of weeks which is a real blessing. Thank you for praying.
Our family would appreciate prayer as we try to rear our children here in Mexico City. Last Saturday Faith was taking Mikey to a basketball game. In public transportation, the trip takes 2 hours because it is not a straight shot. So they decided to make it a "Day With MOM" and they studied and Mikey took two tests during the long journey. On the way back, the man behind them kept trying to talk to Mikey in a very strange way and kept trying to touch his hair. It was obvious that he was a homosexual. Faith was firm, but the whole thing was not pleasant for them. Evil is all around us.
This past Saturday, good friends of our girls had Cristi and Carissa over. Their mother is a teacher and always seemed to be very responsible. So we trusted her. The mother is a good friend of Faith's. We have a family rule that everyone is home by 7pm on Saturdays to prepare our hearts for the Lord's day. The girls went to their friends' aunt's house and the friends' mother promised to have them home by 7pm. They had a wonderful day, but after 7, we kept calling and calling and they were always "on their way"....but they had to go one place and then take cousins home, drop off a cake, etc. We wanted our girls!!!! You are never going to believe this. They made it home by 12:30am!!!!! (after 7 cell phone calls from us.--and being very firm.) Even after we called several times, the mother just wouldn't bring them back. We always try to be home before 10pm because of the dangers of the city----let alone on a Saturday night! Everyone we know is like that also. Anyway, we are very proud of Cristi. She acted like an adult and demanded to be taken home. They wanted them to go out for pizza at 11:00 pm! Cristi said, "I'm not going anywhere but home. I've been asking to go home since 7 because that is what my parents said." They asked her if she wasn't having a good time. "Of course I am, but you promised my parents, so you lied." "I will never be able to come here again." And they won't. We will be present everywhere the children go. This situation is hard because we have been witnessing to both the mother and the two very nice friends. Our girls are very burdened for their salvation. Please pray for wisdom.
Did you hear about our earthquake? Last Sunday afternoon we had a pretty strong 5.8 earthquake that we felt for a good two minutes. Mikey asked, 'What happens if the concrete ceiling falls on us?" Dad said, "Well, then we'll know we should have gotten out of the house." :-) We do praise the Lord for His daily protection in many different circumstances.
As always, we DEPEND on your prayers. Every day brings new challenges and only wisdom from the Lord allows us to make God honoring decisions. We appreciate every one of you.
Love In Christ,
The Goldfusses
