Dear Praying Friends,
We had an interesting week that was anything but normal. Several things have happened this week that have made living here very difficult. We definitely appreciate your prayers.
On Tuesday night, we received a call from a Mexican friend with whom we attended BJU. He is a fine Christian man serving here in Mexico. He said that he was coming the next day on a bus and asked if we could pick him—but he first mentioned at the airport??? Then he mentioned at the bus station. In the next 10 minutes, it was very hard to understand him and there were not many things in the conversation that made sense. He said that we were to pick him up the next day at 10 AM and he would be staying with us for 15 days. I told Morgan that so much didn't make sense in what he was saying that to me he sounded drunk or on drugs. This was extremely hard to believe as this man has served the Lord faithfully here in Mexico for many years. I said, "Morgan, do not go and pick him up. Something isn't right."
The next day, the man called at 11:30 AM saying he had just gotten there. OK, so I was wrong. I told him to get a taxi to a place about ½ hour from our house and that Morgan would pick him up there. About 45 minutes later, he called again saying that the police had stopped the taxi that he was in and found the gun that he was bringing. WHAT!!!???????? "Why on earth are you bringing a gun?" His reply—"It's the one I'm bringing you." Oh Great. It is a felony offense to have a gun in Mexico. So, now the guy is being hauled off to jail and wants me to help get him out. It was a very worrisome situation. He teaches in a Bible School, has a wife and three children, and is coming to Mexico City for 15 days, with a gun, to do what??????????
Fortunately, Tuesday night after our first conversation by phone, I wrote an email to my friend stating that he we had received a call from him, it was hard to understand, but that he wanted Morgan to pick him up in the bus station the next morning at 10. If that was correct, he was to confirm by responding to the email. We prayed for this man on Wednesday night as a church and Morgan and I were going to go search in the different municipalities the next day to look for him. When we returned from prayer meeting, we had an email from my friend that said, "Mike, I haven't communicated with you for quite a while. It must have been a misunderstanding." Wow!!!!!!!!!!!! What a relief!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The whole situation has been a bit unnerving though. It appears that the guy, whoever he was, was trying to extort money from us and how he found out our names is not clear. We ask that you continually pray for the Lord's safety for our family and other workers here in Mexico. We DON'T watch the news—if we did, we would never set foot out of our house. :-) The church family is in fear for us, but we are going about our normal duties telling them that we will be careful, but we need to live our lives. We cannot allow fear to curb the work here. The blessing is that our friend is still faithfully serving the Lord and that was the part of the situation that was the most disturbing about the whole situation.
2. Please pray for Erasmo who had his gall stones removed this week. He is home now but in a lot of pain. Juan Jesus had his hip replacement two weeks ago and is also home now and in much pain. Pray that the Lord would use these two physical trials to draw these two men—to Himself or closer to Himself. We know that Juan Jesus is definitely not saved.
3. We had a good men's meeting on Friday night with very good discussion about elders. Pray that the Lord will raise up men here, men who love each other, are unified in the Spirit and in doctrine, and men who will be able to faithfully lead the Lord's flock. We have another meeting this Saturday morning.
4. We started a series yesterday on the Gospel and our Evangelism. Please pray that we will be an evangelistic church that knows the gospel and is so consumed with our God and His glory that we can't keep it in to ourselves. Psalm 96:3—"Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples." We want to be a mission church that is missions minded.
5. Faith gives some different people English lessons when the girls go for their PE classes in Gymnastics. A lady doctor, Josephina, who studies with Faith invited us to her birthday dinner party on Saturday. It was a first class event and we had the opportunity to meet her brother in law. Josephina's sister died several years ago of cancer and Mike had a really good opportunity during the dinner to speak with Gualberto about Christ. He has had some other experiences in the past with others who call themselves Christians but have no saving knowledge of Christ. Please pray that Saturday's conversation with Gualberto will plant the seed, that it will be watered and that God will graciously save him.
6. Marta was there yesterday after missing the last two weeks. Please continue to hold her up before the Lord. She seems so distraught with her family situation where her husband won't help with anything and uses the little bit of money that she earns for whatever he wants—even though he works too. The burden almost seems too great for her shoulders at times, but she seemed to be very encouraged in Christ from Heb. 9 in SS yesterday. Please pray that the Lord would bring some type of resolution to her difficulties in His perfect way.
Our electricity went out last night at 6 PM and as of this moment, 10 AM, it has not come back on. So I need to save this and close it down so that I can send it as soon as the electricity comes back. The problem is that we cannot pump water from the cistern to our tanks on the roof without electricity. School is also hectic without being able to do the children's DVD classes. We have just heard that a main transformer has blown. Pray for wisdom as we are considering getting a generator and want to only do this if it is a true necessity. The electricity does go out frequently, but it is USUALLY restored quickly.
Thank you so much for your prayers.
In Christ,
Mike for all the Goldfii
Monday, September 8
Monday, September 1
Goldfuss update (September 1)
Dear Praying Friends,
Thank you for your prayers in the past week.
We had an excellent first week of school. Melissa Pate arrived on Friday and that will help Faith out even tremendously. Faith has spent so much time getting things organized. She is such a great blessing to our family and our church. I don't know what we would do without her. Melissa has also been an encouragment already. We took her and our two birthday girls (Carissa, 9 on Saturday and Cherith 4 today) down to the horses on Saturday. I'm enclosing a few pix of the birthday girls, one of Caralyn on the roll cart in the kitchen, the kids in their school uniforms and the Mexican Fife and Drum Corp. :-)
Tomorrow Erasmo has his gall bladder surgery. Please pray for their family. Matilde continues with a severe kidney infection and mentioned yesterday that her aunt has terminal cancer. Please pray for the Lord's grace in this family's life.
Saturday night/Sunday morning at 4:00 AM Faith said that someone was knocking on the door. I, of course said, "There is no one at the door." She got up to investigate and it was Miguel, Nico's son from next door who had been knocking for a half hour. Nico was terribly ill and was wondering if we had any more of the shots that we had to give the team when they were here. We had one for the infection and so Faith and I went next door to administer it. We were extremely surprised to see him at 10:30 AM with his family ready to head down the mountain to church with us. He ended up having to leave after SS to return home but praise the Lord that he wanted to be there. Please pray for him to recover quickly.
Jose and America's new little baby has a pretty bad infection also and America and the baby were not there yesterday. Please continue to pray for them to grow.
We had a very good time in Hebrews 9 in SS yesterday and followed that up with the preciousness of Christ from 1 Peter 2:1-8 which we followed up with the Lord's Supper. Several commented that it was a real blessing.
This coming Friday night we have another men's study in our book about Biblical Elders. Please pray for that.
Please pray for us to be shining lights in this dark city and that we would show forth the praises of Him who hath called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Thank you for your prayers,
In Christ,
Mike for all the Goldfii
Thank you for your prayers in the past week.
We had an excellent first week of school. Melissa Pate arrived on Friday and that will help Faith out even tremendously. Faith has spent so much time getting things organized. She is such a great blessing to our family and our church. I don't know what we would do without her. Melissa has also been an encouragment already. We took her and our two birthday girls (Carissa, 9 on Saturday and Cherith 4 today) down to the horses on Saturday. I'm enclosing a few pix of the birthday girls, one of Caralyn on the roll cart in the kitchen, the kids in their school uniforms and the Mexican Fife and Drum Corp. :-)
Tomorrow Erasmo has his gall bladder surgery. Please pray for their family. Matilde continues with a severe kidney infection and mentioned yesterday that her aunt has terminal cancer. Please pray for the Lord's grace in this family's life.
Saturday night/Sunday morning at 4:00 AM Faith said that someone was knocking on the door. I, of course said, "There is no one at the door." She got up to investigate and it was Miguel, Nico's son from next door who had been knocking for a half hour. Nico was terribly ill and was wondering if we had any more of the shots that we had to give the team when they were here. We had one for the infection and so Faith and I went next door to administer it. We were extremely surprised to see him at 10:30 AM with his family ready to head down the mountain to church with us. He ended up having to leave after SS to return home but praise the Lord that he wanted to be there. Please pray for him to recover quickly.
Jose and America's new little baby has a pretty bad infection also and America and the baby were not there yesterday. Please continue to pray for them to grow.
We had a very good time in Hebrews 9 in SS yesterday and followed that up with the preciousness of Christ from 1 Peter 2:1-8 which we followed up with the Lord's Supper. Several commented that it was a real blessing.
This coming Friday night we have another men's study in our book about Biblical Elders. Please pray for that.
Please pray for us to be shining lights in this dark city and that we would show forth the praises of Him who hath called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Thank you for your prayers,
In Christ,
Mike for all the Goldfii
Sunday, August 24
Goldfuss update (August 24)
Dear Praying Friends,
Thank you for your prayers for a busy week.
This week promises to get busier. Home school starts bright and early tomorrow morning. The task seems overwhelming at this point (this year we will have five taking classes), so please pray for Faith and the kids for patience, strength and lots of work to get accomplished. We praise the Lord that on Friday Melissa Pate is coming to help with the home schooling. That will be a tremendous blessing.
Our men's meeting went very well on Friday night. We had 10 men present here at our home and had a good time continuing our study on elders. Please continue to pray for the Lord to raise up men who will be faithful shepherd elders here in Mexico City.
On Saturday we had another creek walk with the young people. We had several more attend this month than last month and the new ones really enjoyed the cold water. There was one place where it's very slippery and you have to cross the creek there. The only place where the footing is not slick is right in the center of the rushing water. I planted myself there and helped each young person across one by one. They would put their feet against mine and get across. All was going well until one girl tried it by herself about 6 more feet upstream, fell and knocked the next guy who was about three feet away into me which in turn knocked me into about a 4 foot deep pool of FREEZING COLD WATER. Needless to say, it takes your breath away. The human bowling was successful as I was the only "pin" to get knocked into the gutter. :-) Our Bible study was on Daniel and his three Hebrew friends who were taken to a foreign country and remained faithful to their God when apparently all the other Hebrew captives capitulated to the pagan influences. Pray for the Lord to raise up faithful young people amidst the pagan influences of Mexico City also.
Today we finished Hebrews 8 in SS and also finished our 3rd and final study on Biblical modesty. There were some good comments and one young lady even asked Faith to help her after the service as she didn't even know that there was such a thing as immodesty. Praise the Lord for tender hearts and for a desire to please and glorify Him in order that the Word of God be not blasphemed.
Last week we asked you to pray for Marcos and Ruth as they had moved quite a ways away to be with her parents. Last Sunday they were not in attendance but that day they had a problem with Ruth's parents interfering with their discipline of their daughter Jimena. Ruth's father denounced them to some government officials on Monday. Marcos called on Monday night and asked if they might be able to move up to our cabin for a time. So, at 10 PM on Tuesday night, Gabriel (who owns a pick-up) and myself went with with several of Marcos' brothers to load up their stuff and bring it up to our cabin. We got them all moved in and into bed by 3 AM. So, Marcos and Ruth are attending much more faithfully then they were. :-) Thank you for praying. Pray for them as Ruth is 7 months pregnant now. They will have to change Jimena's school along with a few other changes, but praise the Lord they are closer and can attend all the services again. (As long as they are in the cabin, they have to. :-)
Matilde was not in the services today as she is again having kidney problems. She has suffered several severe kidney infections this year. Please pray if it would please the Lord that He would remove this thorn in her flesh and if not, that His grace would be evident in her life. Her husband Erasmo is to have his gall stone operation next Tuesday so please keep this family in your prayers.
We asked you to pray last week for Miguel, Nico and Liliana's son who left home--he's all of 12 years old. He returned again this past Friday. He is very very hard to the things of the Lord. Please pray for the Lord to arrest him and save him by His grace.
We covet your prayers,
In Christ,
Mike for all the Goldfii
Thank you for your prayers for a busy week.
This week promises to get busier. Home school starts bright and early tomorrow morning. The task seems overwhelming at this point (this year we will have five taking classes), so please pray for Faith and the kids for patience, strength and lots of work to get accomplished. We praise the Lord that on Friday Melissa Pate is coming to help with the home schooling. That will be a tremendous blessing.
Our men's meeting went very well on Friday night. We had 10 men present here at our home and had a good time continuing our study on elders. Please continue to pray for the Lord to raise up men who will be faithful shepherd elders here in Mexico City.
On Saturday we had another creek walk with the young people. We had several more attend this month than last month and the new ones really enjoyed the cold water. There was one place where it's very slippery and you have to cross the creek there. The only place where the footing is not slick is right in the center of the rushing water. I planted myself there and helped each young person across one by one. They would put their feet against mine and get across. All was going well until one girl tried it by herself about 6 more feet upstream, fell and knocked the next guy who was about three feet away into me which in turn knocked me into about a 4 foot deep pool of FREEZING COLD WATER. Needless to say, it takes your breath away. The human bowling was successful as I was the only "pin" to get knocked into the gutter. :-) Our Bible study was on Daniel and his three Hebrew friends who were taken to a foreign country and remained faithful to their God when apparently all the other Hebrew captives capitulated to the pagan influences. Pray for the Lord to raise up faithful young people amidst the pagan influences of Mexico City also.
Today we finished Hebrews 8 in SS and also finished our 3rd and final study on Biblical modesty. There were some good comments and one young lady even asked Faith to help her after the service as she didn't even know that there was such a thing as immodesty. Praise the Lord for tender hearts and for a desire to please and glorify Him in order that the Word of God be not blasphemed.
Last week we asked you to pray for Marcos and Ruth as they had moved quite a ways away to be with her parents. Last Sunday they were not in attendance but that day they had a problem with Ruth's parents interfering with their discipline of their daughter Jimena. Ruth's father denounced them to some government officials on Monday. Marcos called on Monday night and asked if they might be able to move up to our cabin for a time. So, at 10 PM on Tuesday night, Gabriel (who owns a pick-up) and myself went with with several of Marcos' brothers to load up their stuff and bring it up to our cabin. We got them all moved in and into bed by 3 AM. So, Marcos and Ruth are attending much more faithfully then they were. :-) Thank you for praying. Pray for them as Ruth is 7 months pregnant now. They will have to change Jimena's school along with a few other changes, but praise the Lord they are closer and can attend all the services again. (As long as they are in the cabin, they have to. :-)
Matilde was not in the services today as she is again having kidney problems. She has suffered several severe kidney infections this year. Please pray if it would please the Lord that He would remove this thorn in her flesh and if not, that His grace would be evident in her life. Her husband Erasmo is to have his gall stone operation next Tuesday so please keep this family in your prayers.
We asked you to pray last week for Miguel, Nico and Liliana's son who left home--he's all of 12 years old. He returned again this past Friday. He is very very hard to the things of the Lord. Please pray for the Lord to arrest him and save him by His grace.
We covet your prayers,
In Christ,
Mike for all the Goldfii
Monday, August 18
Goldfuss update (August 18)
Dear Praying Friends,
Thank you for your continued prayers.
PRAISES
In Christ,
Mike for all the Goldfii
Thank you for your continued prayers.
PRAISES
- Some of our more mature women are beginning to lead our ladies' Bible Study each month. Currently they are going through the The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace. Teresa did a very good job on Saturday. Juana will be leading the next chapter next month.
- The men have decided that they would like to meet twice a month for our studies about elders so this Friday night we will be meeting up here at our cabin at 7 PM.
- Some of the children who are between 10-13 would like to help serve more in the children's SS class. They want to begin preparing the craft for the SS lessons each week. They will be Sunday school assistants and rotate. Praise the Lord for that desire to serve.
- Fernando, who has come on and off for many years, was in attendance the last two weeks. He very much needs to be converted, but it was good to see him back again.
- This Saturday we will be having another creek walk with the young people. It has been raining a whole lot lately so there should be plenty of COLD COLD water to walk in. :-) There are some monstrous trees along the side of the creek and we used that last month as an object lesson for Psalm 1 (He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water.) Pray for the Lord's working in our Bible Study time Saturday.
- Jesus and Analilia haven't been to church since our VBS ended over 3 weeks ago. He was supposed to go into the hospital again this past Friday for his hip replacement. We haven't heard if he was able to make it in yet. He mentioned to me about a week ago that they weren't able to attend church right now because he has to use Sundays to sell his dental hygiene products. His recovery for the hip replacement will be long and he is trying to financially prepare for that by working on the Lord's Day. Please pray for them to be saved. They have heard the gospel for a number of months now and sometimes we wonder if they are to the point of definitively rejecting it. Please pray for the Lord to have mercy on them, and pray for our church people to minister to them in their time of need.
- Erasmo and Matilde. For years Erasmo and his brother have been at great odds over different personal family issues. Last week, the brother hired two men to kidnap Erasmo's oldest daughter Abigail who is 17. They had her from about 9AM til 7PM. Praise the Lord that He kept her safe. Pray for the issues to be resolved in the family and for the Lord to use this to bring Abby and others in that family to salvation.
- Erasmo was also taken to the hospital on Saturday night with severe stomach pain. He has gall stones and has been scheduled for surgery on Sept. 2.
- Two young couples--Marcos and Ruth and Uriel and Mildred--now live over an hour away from church (both with unsaved in-laws) and this is affecting their attendance. They have either been late or have not come these last few weeks. Pray for the Lord to work in their hearts.
- Nico and Liliana--last week their 12 year old son left home and went to live with his grandmother. His story to her was that "his parents make him read the Bible." The truth is he doesn't want to obey and doesn't want God in his life at all. Please pray for Nico and Liliana for wisdom and for Miguel to be broken about his sin and to submit to Christ.
- Some of our people have had different issues with modesty. Therefore we have been learning why it should be practiced (Because it's important to God and for His glory, because it affects our brothers in Christ and because it affects our presentation of the gospel.) We are having a three part series on modesty in our Sunday services. Most people have received it very well, but please pray for others to accept God's teaching on the subject and to submit to Christ in this area. We are not just stating do's and don'ts, but trying to demonstrate that this is a heart issue. Am I going to serve the Lord and others (by being modest and not wanting them to stumble) or myself (by wearing what I want to bring attention to myself)?
In Christ,
Mike for all the Goldfii
Tuesday, August 5
Goldfuss update (August 6)
Dear Praying Friends,
Greetings from cool (and sometimes cold) and rainy Mexico City. I'm sure most of you, when you think of Mexico, think of hot, sunny and dry. Standing in our driveway in front of our house, we are at 9,958 feet above sea level (we know because someone with a GPS system came a little while ago and told us what our elevation was). We are in our rainy season right now and there are many days when the sun doesn't come out at all or only for a very short time. We had a tremendous rain storm last night and probably had over three inches of rain in about an hour. Today we've probably had over an inch.
Pray that the Lord would pour us out showers of blessing also spiritually.
A blessing on Sunday was that Mauricio, his wife Susana, and their two children attended our services. They attended when the BJ Spanish team was here and she has come several Wednesday nights with the children. They really enjoyed the services and are part of the family of 20 possible attendees. :-) Praise the Lord for them.
A huge blessing when we showed up for our services on Sunday morning was to see Marcos and Elsa with their little baby, and Miguel and Alondra with their little Christofer. You may remember that we have prayed for years for these twin sisters. For a time they lived with us, then with Juana and then with Teresa. We occasionally see Miguel and Alondra but haven't seen Elsa for more than a year. Please continue to pray that the Lord would bring these two girls to Himself and the two young men with whom they live.
Morgan has been preaching on Wed. nights and is currently preaching on the 10 Commandments. The last several weeks have been extremely encouraging as we see him get the people's attention and proclaim God's Word Continue to pray for his development in this area.
Our men's meeting this past Saturday was our worst attended yet, but Humberto, Erasmo, Memo and Mikey all had some good discussion to add to our study on elders in the church. Please continue to pray that the Lord will raise up men to lead and oversee the church here.
Sra. Gloria and her mother Maria made it for SS this past Lord's Day. They had to leave for church though because Sra. Gloria feels dizzy from her diabetes and high blood pressure. Sylvia was not able to come due to more upheaval in her family. Please pray that the Lord would allow her to be a testimony to her family and at the same time not be so burdened down with all of their baggage. Teresa, Sylvia's sister, was able to make it Sunday, which recently, is a huge blessing anytime her husband will allow her to come.
Continue to pray for Jose and America. Her stitches opened up from her C-section on Saturday so they were not able to make it Sunday. Pray for quick healing in the Lord's will.
Faith is trying to get ready for another year of homeschooling which is coming up all too quickly. We are thankful that we will have a young lady, Melissa Pate, down to help Faith with that monumental task this fall. Please keep that undertaking in your prayers.
Thank you so much for praying for us,
In Christ,
Mike for all the Goldfii
Greetings from cool (and sometimes cold) and rainy Mexico City. I'm sure most of you, when you think of Mexico, think of hot, sunny and dry. Standing in our driveway in front of our house, we are at 9,958 feet above sea level (we know because someone with a GPS system came a little while ago and told us what our elevation was). We are in our rainy season right now and there are many days when the sun doesn't come out at all or only for a very short time. We had a tremendous rain storm last night and probably had over three inches of rain in about an hour. Today we've probably had over an inch.
Pray that the Lord would pour us out showers of blessing also spiritually.
A blessing on Sunday was that Mauricio, his wife Susana, and their two children attended our services. They attended when the BJ Spanish team was here and she has come several Wednesday nights with the children. They really enjoyed the services and are part of the family of 20 possible attendees. :-) Praise the Lord for them.
A huge blessing when we showed up for our services on Sunday morning was to see Marcos and Elsa with their little baby, and Miguel and Alondra with their little Christofer. You may remember that we have prayed for years for these twin sisters. For a time they lived with us, then with Juana and then with Teresa. We occasionally see Miguel and Alondra but haven't seen Elsa for more than a year. Please continue to pray that the Lord would bring these two girls to Himself and the two young men with whom they live.
Morgan has been preaching on Wed. nights and is currently preaching on the 10 Commandments. The last several weeks have been extremely encouraging as we see him get the people's attention and proclaim God's Word Continue to pray for his development in this area.
Our men's meeting this past Saturday was our worst attended yet, but Humberto, Erasmo, Memo and Mikey all had some good discussion to add to our study on elders in the church. Please continue to pray that the Lord will raise up men to lead and oversee the church here.
Sra. Gloria and her mother Maria made it for SS this past Lord's Day. They had to leave for church though because Sra. Gloria feels dizzy from her diabetes and high blood pressure. Sylvia was not able to come due to more upheaval in her family. Please pray that the Lord would allow her to be a testimony to her family and at the same time not be so burdened down with all of their baggage. Teresa, Sylvia's sister, was able to make it Sunday, which recently, is a huge blessing anytime her husband will allow her to come.
Continue to pray for Jose and America. Her stitches opened up from her C-section on Saturday so they were not able to make it Sunday. Pray for quick healing in the Lord's will.
Faith is trying to get ready for another year of homeschooling which is coming up all too quickly. We are thankful that we will have a young lady, Melissa Pate, down to help Faith with that monumental task this fall. Please keep that undertaking in your prayers.
Thank you so much for praying for us,
In Christ,
Mike for all the Goldfii
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