A Loss for the Weekend
"as a thief in the night"

This past Thursday night we experienced our first episode of robbery here in Mexico. I woke up Friday morning to discover that our locked gate (still locked) was open and Ezra's four wheeler was nowhere to be found. We called the police and filed all the forms at the three separate offices downtown. We are told that they caught the thief that morning and had the four wheeler in possession but due the processing of all of it we did not get the four wheeler back till today (Monday). Thankfully without any extreme harm.The reason I bring this incident up is to help you remember to pray not only for me and Peggy but for our children. Dad and Mom may be following the call of God on their lives but the children also end up living in foreign lands and live just as disoriented if not more. Thankfully, Ezra was looking at it and talking to me from the perspective about how God has His hand in all of this for good and who might just be saved through it all!

A Location for the Work

I have spoken with the owner of the bodega (warehouse) in the picture and as of Wednesday we will have this unit rented for use as the start of the work here in Magdalena. This unit is an open warehouse with a built in one bedroom efficiency apartment and separate men and women's bathrooms. It will take a lot of cleaning and then a lot of work to make it serviceable but I believe that it will make for a nice location. It has no parking of its own but has street parking and no other businesses close by for parking competition. We are excited with the prospects of having a building and with the possibility of getting information, tracts and the gospel out with our name and location.

Thank you for praying for us - all of us.

Our Address

We may be contacted on the field by mail: P.O. Box 6116, Nogales, Arizona 85628 by calling a U.S. Vonage phone: (513) 456-5007

May 2009

May 2009
Dear Friends of Prayer,
Promises – Promises:
One of the ways that we have endeavored to make contacts with the people of our city is to invite people to come to the house for a meal. Now first off I want to publicly thank my wife for being so willing to go to such lengths so many times and for being such a great cook. What has surprised us is how many promises have been broken – and it was for a free meal! We have been stood up by both our neighbors as well as others less known. We have invited poor as well as rich, from simple daily contacts to more well known such as our landlord and have still eaten alone. I even double checked with one family a half-hour before they were suppose to come with an confirmation of their intent and still they did not show. Wow!
We have experienced the same broken promises for church attendance. Call it culture, call it lies, call it a misunderstanding, call it whatever, the result is the same – no one is there. I expected the empty promises for coming to our services but I must admit I am surprised by the lack of honesty for a free meal and from such an encompassing group. But then if everyone was what they should be in life we would not need to be here would we?
Prospects – Plans:
We still do not have a dedicated location to start services. Currently we are meeting in our house. As I look at how God intervened to give us this rental house I know that we have yet to see God's hand for a specific meeting place but that we will. Our plan is to simply follow God's leading and His timing for His will in a meeting location as well. I do believe that a dedicated location would be a great benefit but only in God's will.
Prayer – Performance:
So ultimately this is the plan – you pray for us and we will work for you here in Mexico for the glory of the Lord. I believe that God's Word is Powerful (Hebrews 4:12) and that God's Work is Providential (Ephesians 3:20). God has given us His promise of blessing, thank you for participating and being such a blessing – we will continue to plant.
For the salvation of souls,


The Harris Family

Company

This past week it was our pleasure to have Imelda Zamarron stay with us. Imelda is the youngest daughter of Pastor Ismael Zamarron in Navojoa, Sonora, Mexico. Imelda had originally purposed to come work with us but was offered the opportunity to work in the ministry there in Navojoa (Iglesia Bautista Providencia). She took her vacation week to come be with us. She is hoping to come back for the summer to work with us.

Magdalena

Magdalena lies in a valley. The area economy is supported by two major factories and several mines.
Magdalena is known as the most Catholic of Sonoran towns and was founded by a Jesuit priest in 1688, Francisco de Kino. Consequently the town is steeped in the idolatry that Catholicism promotes. In the heart of town is our town square built around the Catholic church. The bones of Kino are unearthed and enshrined on one side and on the other side in the Catholic church is an open room with a full-sized idol of Kino laying at rest. The people enter and begin to kiss this idol beginning with his feet and work their way to his head. Once at the head they attempt to life him. If they are able they are taught that their sins are light - if they cannot they must do more penance as their sins are still heavy.
From a Biblical perspective I understand that this is spiritual bondage. Now let me state the obvious: spiritual bondage cannot be of God because God makes free! I have only lived here a few months and I have seen the cable connected beneath this idol. Why the cable and who controls it?
The answer to this blinding bondage is to put the Truth into the hands of the people of Magdalena.

Magdalene-Continued

Map

As requested here is a map of our location. We are in Magdelena De Kino, Sonora Mexico. Click here for the-------> MAP