We have been in Mexico for almost two weeks and are excited about what
God is doing in our church and for our church. For the last month, the
church has been having great attendances averaging over 80 with one
Sunday of 92 attending a few weeks ago. Our meeting place for adults is
full every Sunday and they have had services where adults have had to
sit outside the door for lack of room. Of the 20 men who usually
attend, 12 are consistently faithful to Sunday morning services; but I
am especially encouraged with seven men who are there for every
service, men's Saturday night prayer meeting, and soulwinning. They
average around 30 years old and all but one, a military officer, is
married.

We have good women as well. Particularly, Rosario has been a blessing
serving as the secretary in our absence. Antonieta, a lawyer in our
church saved out of Mormonism, had a visit from her former leaders and
effectively showed them what the Bible says about their teaching. Her
daughter, about 20 years old, made a decision last anniversary Sunday
in November to accept Christ. She had made a "decision" a couple of
times before, but this time she has shown fruit having left the Mormon
church to attend faithfully ours and, when I announced upcoming
baptisms, she asked if she could be baptized.

In fact, we have several people lined up to be baptized including
Gabriela; the daughter of Gabriel, a soldier who came back to God a
couple of years ago: Victor and Marsela, an accountant and his wife who
was saved in the last year; and Brenda, a wife of another soldier.
Speaking of baptisms, we are grateful that, next month, I will be able
to bring a fiberglass baptistery with water heater from our home
church. We are also grateful that on our way down to Mexico we received
an e-mail from a Christian real estate agent from Century 21 that the
owners of a building we have been looking at purchasing for the last
two years are willing to rent to it with an option to buy. That would
get us in the building and the deposit and rent for at least a year
will go towards the price of the building.

We have been saving up for a down payment and have raised at least
15,000 dollars, but it is only a third of what we would need for a down
payment. In one year we could have well over 10 percent of the price
paid for. I thank God that our people in our absence have continued to raise
money for the building. I spoke to church in November encouraging to
raise a special Christmas offering of 1,200 dollars wondering if they
could meet that challenge in our absence. They raised in December over
1,600 dollars! I believe God is blessing their faithfulness and
generosity and will do a lot more in the future.

Remember that I wrote about our desire to print 120,000 New Testaments
with a full color cover and insert that invites them to our church as
well as a gospel message and and discipleship lessons in them.
We want to, in one year, saturate our delegation of 500,000 inhabitants in Mexico
City. We plan to have 17 couples of two get New Testaments in every
home of 5 neighborhoods in one year. We want every home receive the
Word of God in all 85 neighborhoods of our delegation.

To that end, Baptist printing ministries throughout America are
cooperating and coordinating; but, of course, there will be need for
funds to accomplish it. I thank God that, while attending church in
Texas, the pastor announced a prayer meeting before the Sunday evening
service. At petition time, I mentioned our project. How exciting it was
when the pastor announced in the service that they would give us the
first $500 for the project. Please pray that God continues to touch
hearts of churches to help with this project.

Before I heard about the offer from the owners of the building, I wrote
in our prayer letter that next year we would need a building to hold
all the visitors that will inevitably come through our efforts. We have
lately had services with people sitting outside our meeting place with
no room to get in. Please pray that we can get into this new building
soon. It has never been used, has two nicely furnished bathrooms, and a
4,800 sq.ft open space with lights, paneled ceiling, and tile floor. It
has parking for 9 cars in front and parking next door that we can use
on Sundays -- almost unheard of in the city. It is along a
well-transited avenue with dozens of vehicles of public transportation
passing it every minute. The avenue is in back of a Walmart that is
along the main highway that goes through Mexico City all the way up to
the States.

Please pray for the salvation of two people we are concerned about here
in Mexico and the opportunity to witness to them. Jerzy is our Polish
neighbor who lives in front of us. A World War II veteran, former
prisoner of war, and personal acquaintance of the deceased Pope John
Paul II; Jerzy is a very devout Catholic and is dying of lung cancer
with just months to live. His wife said that it would be alright for me
to visit him. Another man is Meyer, the son of a Jewish woman one of
our members works for. He inherited the textile factory from his
recently deceased father, but has seen the business go sour. His wife
has divorced him; he is deeply in debt and suicidal. Gaspar witnessed
to him about the Messiah that came to shed His blood to do what animals
could never do -- take away his sin. Meyer said he was open to having
me talk to him. Please pray for that visit.

Lots of good news. Sorry for a message so long, but there is so many
great things going on. Please pray that God does a great work in the
future.