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.