Our Gospel Action Team in Mexico!!

Two Weeks in Mexico!

Back in Mexico!

After the Lord placed this land in our heart and expanded our love for the Mexican people, we received His provision and power to carry out a work here. Two weeks have passed since our recent arrival on the 1st of October and we've been visiting homes and ministering in churches. On several occasions we've seen the glory of God healing the sick and breaking chains in the lives of many people. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit has allowed us to reach the heart with the gospel of Jesus Christ and already several people have given their lives to Christ. One of the things that have brought much encouragement and joy has been the fact that many people from the past mission are already part of different congregations through the city according to where they live. These new Christians are meeting regularly and are grateful together with their new pastors (most of whom we had never met before now) are grateful for the work of the gospel in their midst.

The Lord has opened more doors than during our previous mission here. We already have a complete itinerary for the remainder of our visit until we leave on the 1st of December in 6 weeks. This itinerary consists of:

*Preaching and evangelistic campaign in Dependencia; half an hour away from Tuxtla Gutierrez where we are based.

*Various Preaching and evangelistic campaigns with churches including Prince of Peace and Tabernacle of Faith here in Tuxtla.

*Preaching and evangelistic campaign in San Cristobal (45 mins by car)

*Preaching and evangelistic campaign in Huixtla (three hours by car)

In addition to revisiting some of the places we reached out to during our last mission here to Mexico, the Lord has also opened a new door to us in San Cristobal. This place was already in our hearts because there are several traditional Catholic strongholds there and in it's mountainous outskirts that we feel passionate about winning for Christ. In San Cristobal and its surrounds there is still much persecution against evangelical christians. However, we know that the Grace of God is sufficient and that the time has come for the captives to be set free! We bring the gospel that comes in demonstration of the Spirit and of power (1 Corinthians 2:4 NKJV). This has shown to be the only way to win these people for Christ. These people have been led to the greatest darkness by the traditionalism and idolatry of the Catholic doctrine held in these parts.

Together with the ministry of God's word that we carry out in this land, God has spoken to us about demonstrating the word in action with practical love. In this area we have several projects in motion.

*Food and medicines for indigenous people in the mountainous areas near to Tuxtla as well as San Cristobal, where we want to plant christian churches.

*An orphanage for abandoned and orphaned children.

*A place to counsel people with God's spirit and word.

This month we will be joined by several brothers from Denmark and England who're going to help us out in the work that God has entrusted to us. Please pray for them. Please also continue to pray for us and from here we also invite you to give generously so that the work of God continues moving forward at this rapid pace. May God bless you abundantly! Amen.

Mission Mexico 2010! (Exciting News)

One of the things we clearly heard from the Lord about our brief three month trip to Mexico is that we would be spying out the land, much as Caleb and Joshua and their team did millennia ago (Deuteronomy 1:19-23). Just as for them, we had a choice about how to look at the land. We could 'be real,' focus on the difficulties (too many to list) and become disheartened; or we could look with the eyes of faith and see what God could do with us and through us in that beautiful land hungry for the Kingdom of Heaven. We chose the latter.

During our visit we experienced great favour and learnt how to steward that favour by using it only for what God intended and by working diligently for His purposes in all things. We believe that this mission was imperative for laying the foundation for our second mission, which will differ in several ways. During our second mission we feel the Lord is sending us to "take the land". Sam and I felt the Lord was going to open many doors for us, even doors we hadn't knocked on. The fame of all the miracles and salvations that were being done in Jesus name through us extended over all the city. As an evidence of this, I have been asked to present our 2010 vision for the city, before an association of 100 churches. The meeting will take place at the beginning of January 2010. If they decide to go ahead this will imply the following:

- We will be coordinating one team per church. In other words, there will be up to 100 teams.

- We will be running weekly workshops to equip the teams with the tools and expertise to reach out effectively.

- There will be a great framework and huge net to collaborate for doing monthly campaigns reaching out to thousands in stadiums, auditoriums, parks and squares.

The team that we led on our recent mission, as a model of equipping and evangelism for the future, saw between 50-100 coming to Christ every week. We evangelised every two weeks as we spent the weeks in between evangelism weeks consolidating the faith of the brand new believers saved the week before, pursuing quality alongside quantity - we want to see fruit that remains. With those very "realistic" figures, a team, well trained, per church could easily lead between 1000 and 2000 people to the Lord in 10 months. Now, multiply that by 100. Can we reach out to 100,000 in 10 months in the city of Tuxtla? The answer is: Yes we can!!

"Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain" Psalm 127:1

Without God's help, nothing will prosper. This is why Sam and I ask you to join us in prayer for the following:

- Wisdom and favour to document and present the vision for 2010 before the association of pastors.

- As we are in the process of setting up a trust fund for Gospel Action, that God will enable whatever is necessary for it take place.

- As the "worker deserves his wages." (1 Timothy 5:18) and knowing that "the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel", that God may release a constant flow of finances to be able to afford flight tickets and wages.

We hope you have enjoyed our adventures in the Gospel and we look forward to seeing you back in the UK or other parts of the world soon so that we can rejoice with you!

All our love and blessings!

Mario and Sam

Fruit that remains (Raised to life and a new hope!)

Guess what everyone?! God is faithful...AND His mercies endure forever!

Across the homes we've visited here in Tuxtla, we've seen over one hundred miracles done in Jesus' name. Perhaps the most striking example is Carmen's (read our 22 June 2009 entry). When we first saw her, she was more dead than alive. I have seen people die in front of me several times. I know by now when a person is almost ready for the last breath and Carmen was in that category. Today 5 weeks have passed since Carmen got prayed for at her house in Tuxtla. Her recovery is now almost complete - indeed, at the last report we heard she'd taken two of her daughters on holiday! As a consequence of God's healing power, 15 people from Carmen's home came to Christ. For the last few weeks a team has been going to that home to help consolidate their faith. The doors in that house are always open and gradually the people in it are being added to the church.

Like in Carmen's case, we have seen that the gospel of Christ, accompanied by signs and wonders through God's hand, have enabled us to get to people's hearts wining their lives for Jesus!

After two months of mission starting at the end of May and concluding around the 15th of July, we've seen 200 lives coming to Christ through house visits evangelism. Most of them are being followed up weekly. Some of them have already incorporated to church life, coming on Sundays and meeting in the week. We clearly heard from the Lord (for this season) that He was interested in us taking care of a few and consolidating their faith than going for the big numbers. Ideally, and I believe that's where we are heading, we will one day go for both quality and quantity. In this two months of mission we faced simple difficulties such the heat, mosquitos, parasites, salmonella, flu and even typhoid. However, nothing could offset the reality of seeing a real God manifesting without allegory but tangibly in our midst.

As well as supporting the local church in Mexico in the area of evangelism (in my case) and worship (in Sam's case), we also ran several workshops those two months. As we understand, an evangelist is no evangelist unless she prepares "God's people for works of service" (Ephesians 4:12). Our style of evangelism is very simple and can be summed up as: Compassion-Testimony-Gospel-Power. This is not so much a method as an initial approach. Both during and after ministry, the Holy Spirit is our helper. We preach the good news, pray for the sick, and hey! He does the rest!

Sustainable evangelism teams are now set up in Tuxtla and Huixtla, equipped to lead people to the Lord in the street and their own homes, as well as to revisit and affirm the faith of the new believers. Teams of worshippers have been raised up in three churches to move and dance before the Lord during worship services and with one another. We've fostered unity between these teams and even led a team on mission to Huixtla (a four hour drive south) where we also ministered together in dance.

A new life and a new vision!

We want to tell you briefly about what God's been up to in one of the houses this week. On Saturday we revisited an elderly lady we visited the week before. The first time we saw Carmen, she was drifting in and out of consciousness at the point of death. Her family by her bedside, awaiting her final breath at any moment. She had been confused and incoherent in recent days and suffering from intense pain. Her intestines were riddled with cancer, she hadn't lived a normal life for some time and was unable to perform normal physical functions like feeding herself or using the bathroom. Mario prayed for her in the name of Jesus, she opened her eyes and smiled. The pain began to leave and she and eight of family members put their faith in Jesus Christ. This week, Carmen was a new woman. Frail but improving, she's smiling, walking and talking. We shared stories of the goodness of God, and Carmen told us all about how wonderful Jesus was to her. Two more family members were present, and accepted Jesus into their hearts that day, we went on our way rejoicing! We're delighted to see such a transformation in an entire family and pleased to report that a dear friend will be visiting weekly to encourage them in their faith and see them grow in the Lord.

In addition to all this, our dreams are becoming reality. So far we've been seeing between 50 and 100 people come to Christ each week. With a vision to see the local church grow in attendance by a factor of ten, a local pastor who leads an association of 100 churches in the city has contacted us to arrange for outreach teams to be set up in each of the churches, so that this vision has just grown 100-fold overnight. Who says we can't take Tuxtla for Jesus in just one year?! Isn't God good!? Isaiah 40 tells us that “those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

Freedom to Dance!

This week I'm going to take a bit of time to update you on what I've been up to in the dance ministry so far.

For many years I've had a burden to dance and move before God in prayer, intercession, prophesy, praise and worship. Thanks to God I was living in Brighton during many of these years, where an international ministry known as 'Movement in Worship' is based. Movement in Worship consists of a team of worshippers who move and dance before God in anointing, freedom, maturity and power. This team travels internationally to events to aid in worshipping God, prayer, prophesy, and equipping others to do the same. Dance and movement before God often has a powerful effect in setting people free and receiving from God in ways they hadn't been able to do before. Being a part of this team over the past few years has afforded me the glorious opportunity to practice and grow in a gift that has brought tremendous blessing and freedom to my life and the lives of many of those I've had the pleasure of sharing it with. Dance and movement brings me into new realms of expression and communication with my Daddy God that I'd not experienced before, and just being able to be with God in this way is often overwhelming to me.

During our time in Mexico I've been running movement in worship classes for children and adults across three different areas of the city in four weekly workshops. I was initially helped by Mario, who's also skilled in movement in the presence of God, so I'd have help with demonstrations and translation. Fortunately my Spanish is now good enough for me to run classes alone and my descriptions and demos sufficient for everyone to get the gist of what I'm trying to explain! It's necessary for me to teach without Mario as he's preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ in as many houses as possible each day.

In our classes we've covered various areas including 'worship and why,' 'how God made us to move individually,' 'moving as a group,' 'prayer and intercession,' 'prophesy,' 'self-image,' 'the biblical significance of movement and colours,' 'moving with props, e.g. banners and staffs,' and 'moving to scripture.' There are still a number of areas to cover in the remaining weeks.

Many people wanted to 'copy' a style or 'learn steps.' However, I desired to bring a freshness and spontaneity to dance and movement that involved a focus on being sensitive to the Holy Spirit so that new interpretative and worshipful dance would be embraced. For this reason I've had to avoid lengthy demonstrations and continually reiterate that God has made each of us to move in beautiful and unique ways, and we need to each find the style that God has individually planned for us.

During our sessions, particularly the session on prayer and intercession, we saw a lot of liberation and old paradigms broken. There are various things that I mean by this. For example, many people received answers to prayers that they had been praying for a long time. Others were set free from addictions, shame, fear of man, fear of intimacy, religiosity, and other problems. Others were healed of emotional pain and broken dreams. All received a deeper level of intimacy with one another and the Lord Jesus Christ. Each were also therefore equipped to continue to reach this level in future both alone or with others.

I've also had the privilege of dancing in various worship services across the city during my time here, and have witnessed a greater freedom in worship as a result. I've heard a number of prophesies that the Lord has given to people during a dance, and people have also been set free and healed of various things, including marital problems while watching this movement in worship. I'm pleased to say Mario continues to dance with me on Sundays, along with dear friends from the workshops who are sensitive to the Holy Spirit and move with a heart of worship. Together with the team we've already ministered some specific dances in our congregation, and this weekend we'll be ministering at a three day outreach in Wisla, some six hours away. I expect our update next week will be all about the miraculous things God does on this outreach!!

Lady has just received Christ and tells of her experience!

On Wednesday 17 June we saw how in a house visit 5 people came to Christ on Wednesday 17 June and also the Holy Spirit came upon the place. You can watch the person describing what's happened. The language she speaks is Spanish, but she is speaking of the "presence of God" and how her mama is on the floor under the anointing of the Holy Spirit! I love it! Thank you Jesus!!