Goldfuss update (June 8)

Dear Praying Friends,

1. The Wedding. Sarai and Humberto were married on Saturday. Thank you for your prayers. It was a very difficult week or two leading up to the wedding, but that was probably because we had some OUTSTANDING opportunities to give the gospel during the reception. Please pray for Isaac and Sylvia--not married and living together, a doctor and his wife, Liliana Olivares' 2 cousins, Bety and Yolanda, and Hilario and Sandra. It was an exhausting day but very very profitable. Praise the Lord that Yolanda came to church yesterday. She had said that she was not interested at all in a Christian church, but she wanted to see a wedding. After the wedding, she came to our services yesterday and said she really enjoyed being there. Please pray for the Lord to save each one of these people. (We are including some pictures from the wedding Saturday that Lourdes from our church took. The family one has a not so nice-looking green tarp over us all.)
2. This Saturday at 2 pm we are planning two teacher training sessions for our SS teachers and the young people who help them. It is also open for anyone else who would like to teach in the future. Faith and the girls are doing a sit-down lunch for all of them--about 25 people total are expected.
3. A week from this evening, the BJU Spanish team will be arriving. We have a lot to do to get ready for that this week.
4. Pray for one of the kids who is still finishing up school. Please pray for endurance to finish.
5. Andrea delivered Timothy Wesley Crocker a week ago this past Friday. Things were a bit hectic, and he came 3 weeks early, but praise the Lord that they are both doing well and back here in the cabin again.
6. As many of you might remember, we had an extended period of time in this past year where men were not showing any patience or love toward others. There is a new man who has been coming recently, Luis, who comes from a cult named "The Perfects." We have a few other people who have been attending for a few years who have come out of that group--they have joined us, "The Unperfects." :-) Anyway, in our SS class right now we are going through sanctification and the flesh. Morgan asked a question yesterday that he would not have asked if Luis had been there. The questions, answers and comments back and forth throughout the class were a tremendous blessing as no one was prideful or overbearing in their answers. It underscored God's grace to us in these last few months in seeing how He has brought some of the men along tremendously in their love, charity and humility in their answers to and treatment of others. To give you just an idea of the kind of discussion we had yesterday, Galatians 5:24 states: "And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." If Luis had been there, he would definitely have taken that verse to say that if someone is in Christ, they then don't sin because the passions and desires have been crucified. So we tried to honestly search out the verse and it's meaning and understand it in relation to other verses that talk about the fight in the believer. Liliana Olivares had a great statement yesterday. It even rhymes in English--"So before I was saved, sin was my delight; Now it's my fight." Praise the Lord for His work in teaching us through difficult times. Praise the Lord for the patience he is teaching each one of us with others, when He is and has been so patient with us.

We thank you for your prayers,
In Christ,
Mike for all the Goldfii

Goldfuss update (May 24)

Dear Praying Prayer Partners,

The last couple months have been filled with challenges. It has been extremely busy and we aren't sure sometimes if we've been meeting ourselves coming or going.

Helping other churches
A church about an hour away has asked for help and advice because their pastor resigned. Then the pastor returned to his position, so we are praying for them and the Lord's direction. Morgan has been helping once a month in preaching for another church where the missionary is on furlough. Jon filled in for him one Sunday. That Sunday between Jon and I, we preached in 4 different places in the city. We really felt like our heads were spinning that day, but we were thankful to be busy serving the Lord in many places throughout the city.

We had a wonderful Resurrection Sunday as the Lord brought about 60 people for our sunrise service in the living room and 81 for the regular worship service in the garage. The early service was followed by a full breakfast and the regular service was followed by a full taco lunch. We had about 15 visitors that day and were missing about 15 regular people. It was a happy and blessed day. (We've enclosed some pictures.)

Growth

1. We've seen much growth in Victor. He has come from Spain to live with his aunt and uncle here in Mexico City, and has asked great questions, helped with answers to different questions in SS, has agreed to prepare a message to preach on a Wednesday, and attends Jon and Andrea's Bible study on Sunday nights at the Olivares home. The Bible study has been a great learning and growing experience for all who attend there as Jon has been preaching through Bible Doctrines.
2. Martha has returned for about 4 of the last 6 weeks after not having attended for several months. She has been bringing two friends--Esther and Miguel, whom she has known for years at a Neurotics Anonymous group. She has only been able to attend for our SS class as she is a nurse who has to work in the afternoons, but we are grateful that the Lord has brought her back again. Please pray for her continued health problems with extremely low blood platelets.
3. Luis--used to attend the Olivares church (actually, instead of "church" we should say "cult"), where they taught all types of false doctrine, including perfectionism. In fact, their group was called "The Perfects." He recently met up with Gabriel Olivares from our church and has been attending pretty faithfully for the last month and a half. Many of you remember that we had some problems for several months between several of the men and their unwillingness to love and be patient with others in the church. Luis is another opportunity for them to show patience and love toward someone who has been woefully taught in the past and comes with much baggage. Please pray that the Lord will give us all patience and love toward men like him, as we remember how much patience and love the Lord has showed to us.
4. 5 different ladies (Liliana, Vanessa, Reme, Sarai and Ruth) take turns teaching the children's classes. We have 10 young people who take turns assisting the main teachers. Lourdes is going to be added to the teaching schedule soon, so that is another blessing. Faith and Andrea are preparing the 0-3 year olds so that they will be able to be in the older children's classes and be a blessing, not a distraction.

Struggles

There is a family in the church who apparently has been loaning money to other people in the church with interest. They have denied that over and over, by saying that some other "ladies" that they know loan the money and they are just the go betweens. It has caused some serious problems that have been a tremendous drag on the church. It has been difficult to get to the bottom of the situation because of so many lies. Please pray that the Lord will give wisdom, repentance to this family and restoration. If not, pray that the discipline necessary will cause us all in the church to fear and understand how the Lord views and treats sin.

Nico missed four straight Sundays due to some conflicts with different people in the church. He returned with his family yesterday. Please pray that the Lord will help him to resolve these conflicts and to keep his eyes fixed on Christ. He struggles greatly as Liliana and his three children are all unbelievers.

Upcoming Events

1. Humberto and Sarai will be getting married on June 5. There will be many unsaved people present. There has been some friction between the two families over different issues for the wedding. Please pray that they will all show the love of Christ to each other and that the wedding will truly glorify our Savior, reflect His love for His church, and the church's submission to the Savior.
2. BJU mission team June 14-21.
3. June 12??--Teacher's Training Session
4. VBS--August 2-5.

We praise the Lord for Jon, Andrea and Paul Crocker being with us this year. They have been a great help and encouragement in the ministry. And we praise the Lord for the Labelles: Victor, Shelley, and their four children (Rachel, Victor, Michael and Sarah) who have also been a great encouragement and help in the ministry. Victor is here on a work assignment with Chase bank and we are hoping that they get extended an extra year if the Lord wills. Victor is the one who will be leading the teacher's training session.

School is ending this week. We praise the Lord that with the help of the Crockers (and Bekah Buccio during first semester)--that Cristi has been able to get totally caught up--completing two years of math and science this year. She will be completing elementary school on time and beginning junior high in the fall. The only thing that she will be behind in then is the spelling, which we will try to deal with this summer with the dyslexia therapist. We are also praying for endurance in reading. She can read 5 or 6 pages beautifully, but easily gets tired after that. Pray that the Lord will supply a teacher for the fall in His perfect will or at least a teacher for second semester as this need is urgent.

Urgent Prayer Request
Andrea Crocker woke up Saturday at 6 AM with severe pain in her lower abdomen. Around 9:30 or so, Faith had dentist appointments with all the kids so we decided to drop Faith and the kids off and Mike would take Jon and Andrea to their hospital about an hour away. About 15 minutes down the mountain, however, the pain was so intense that we decided to go to a closer hospital. After being examined, the doctors aren't sure what's causing all the pain--she's not in labor, no contractions. The doctors have done ultra sounds and X-rays, but still aren't sure as to the cause. Please pray that they will find the cause and be able to alleviate the pain. Right now they are just trying to alleviate the pain, but don't know what's causing it. They have had several ideas that it could be a kidney stone, but haven't found anything to prove that on the tests. The baby is still about a month away from the due date. Please pray for the Lord's perfect will. (A side note--Their insurance ends today and they need to renew, so pray that there will not be any problems with that with Andrea being admitted to the hospital on Saturday.) (Update to the update--Jon just called. The doctor says that they can come home and that he will just give her something for the pain. It could be that a ligament has just been very stretched. Andrea said that the pain has been worse than being in labor. So I am going to get them now.)

We appreciate greatly your prayers. We need them constantly. We will try to get back to writing more frequently.

In Christ

Mike for all the Goldfii

Goldfuss update (April 1)

Just a quick note to let you all that we made it through the border crossing without any incidents yesterday and made it to the Zartmans in about 2 1/2 hours. Stayed overnight and left this morning and made it back home here about 6:30 this evening.

Thank you so much for your prayers.

In Christ,

Mike for all the Goldfii

Goldfuss update (March 30)

Dear Praying Friends,

We had a wonderful time this past week in Houston with Faith's mom and dad. The church apartment where we stayed was just perfect for our whole family. The weather was beautiful and it was wonderful to just spend time with family with no other responsibilities.

We have heard good reports about little Cristofer from last week. When we wrote last week, he was down to the use of about 1/2 of one lung. He has a staph infection, but praise the Lord he is now improving and doing much better. Pray for his Dad and Mom, Miguel and Alondra, that the Lord would use this in their lives to draw them to Himself.

We drove down here to McAllen, Texas today from Houston. We have heard that there was a big drug lord shootout in Reynosa today for several hours and the army closed off all roads in and out for several hours. Reynosa is where we have to cross over tomorrow to head to Monterrey where we are planning on staying with the Zartmans overnight and then on Thursday plan on driving the rest of the way to Mexico City. We do appreciate your prayers for the Lord's will and our safety.

Sunday we are planning our third Resurrection sunrise service followed by breakfast and then our regular service followed by lunch--at our home for the whole day. We are looking forward to this wonderful highlight to our year.

Thank you for your prayers,

In Christ,

Mike for all the goldfii

Goldfuss update (March 22)

Hello All,

Thank you to some of you who knew to pray for our trip from Mexico City to the border. We are travelling to Houston today (Monday) to meet with Faith's parents as they have not seen the children in three years. So this should be a wonderful time with Grandma and Grandpa.

There have been drug wars around the border, especially between Monterrey and Reynosa, the last 2 1/2 hour leg of our trips to the border. Last week there was a two hour shoot-out between the army and drug lords. The drug people have taken over in this area and have been stopping cars to take whatever they want. (This we found out after making the trip). We did drive by the shoot-out place, and the Lord kept us safe the entire trip.

We stayed with the Zartman's for Saturday night and Sunday service, and then made it safely to our friends Jack and Mollie at the border in McAllen. It was a sweet time with both and we are so thankful for their hospitality.

Even though we are looking forward to a wonderful time with grandparents, our hearts are in pain. When we were at the Zartman's, Jon Crocker called to say that Miguel and Alondra's little boy Cristopher is in very serious condition. They went to the socialized medicine and the doctors said that little Cristopher was fine. He was not getting better however, and now now he has a collapsed lung and the other is working at 50% capacity. All of this due to pneumonia. The doctors give him little hope for survival. We beg you to pray for this young couple. We have three little ones in our nursery that were all born within 2 weeks of each other: Alejandra, our baby Caralyn, and little Cristopher will all be turning 3 in the next 2 weeks. Our hearts are heavy that we cannot be with them at this time. For many of you that might remember, Alondra was one of the twins that our church people were able to help for about 3 years. Now both twins are married. Miguel and Alondra have desired to move closer to the church as they come a couple of times every 3 months or so because they live 2 hours away. Please pray for the Lord's perfect working in their lives ---however hard that might be---even though our hearts cry out for the Lord to completely heal little Cristopher. We must remember that our ways are not HIS ways and we must submit to his loving divine will as He knows how this perfect picture is being painted.

The men are leading in our absence. Morgan is preaching and Jon is teaching Sunday school. Both Marcos and Memo will be leading the services. Praise the Lord all of the men are working together and two are reaching out to have newer less established people into their homes for the purpose of discipleship and encouragement in the Lord. Only the Lord can take the fighting that happened for several months and make us all better for it. He is a marvelous Lord. Please again remember little Cristopher. We love you and thank you so much for upholding our people and ourselves in your prayers.

In Christ,

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

PS--We received word this evening that little Cristofer has become more stable. Please continue to pray.