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.
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