Training the Next Generation

We are blessed to have a young couple in our work who are serious about the things of the Lord.  Martin and Imelda are involved in several aspects of the ministry and are also our youth leaders.  We have a special youth activity every month which Martin and Imelda take full responsibility for.  These pictures are from the "Foot Long Hot Dog Night".  All of our teenage young folks come out and Martin has been able to get a few unchurched young men to come as well.  I am so thankful that God has raised up this help in the work of the ministry here.  What a blessing to be able to confidently "commit to faithful men

 Martin Teaching

 Youth Listening

 What's App.?

  Enjoying a Foot Long Hot Dog!

Game Time

The Mafia Has Moved: Next Door

As the first two pictures of this update show we have had an abandoned unfinished house behind us every since we have lived here.  Between us and the house is the wall that is our bedroom wall.  A block wall with no insulation.  About a month ago work began on the house and they have basically finished the house.  Last night (Saturday) we found out who are new neighbors are.  No, I did not actually meet them but their M.O. (their mode of operation) stated loud and clearly to the neighborhood who they are.  The local Mafia. 

 

At nine o'clock at night the extremely loud music began with the speakers pointed less than ten feet from what is our bedroom wall.  The extreme "music" lasted till seven this morning and finally all went quiet.  When I looked over the wall this morning only the remnants of their bonfire and the yard littered with their beer cans and trash was all that remained.  This is their way of challenging anyone in the neighborhood to their authority.  Of course no police dared show up and the only thing for the neighborhood to do is stay enclosed inside.  How this affects where we currently rent only the Lord knows - He has everything in control.

 

On a much better note, we have had a tremendous day today despite the lack of sleep.  Both our morning and evening services have gone very well.  Our people continue to grow and arrive each service with a true spiritual hunger.  We have had a man wasted by drugs attending for over a month and it is obvious that God is working in His life.  Pray with us for his salvation.

 

At the end of our morning service this morning a man I know drove by selling pizza's so we bought three and invited everyone to stay for an impromptu pizza party.  Everyone enjoyed the opportunity to stay and fellowship as well as the pizza.  Tonight after service the man mentioned above asked, "Pastor can you invite me to come to your house after church to eat?"  I kindly accepted his offer but instead took him out to a local taco stand and then he went next door to buy himself ice cream for dessert and I paid.

 

Keep us in your prayers!

Over the back wall

 Our bedroom wall between us

 A Growing Stack of Literature 

  Pizza Party!

Trying to Beat the Desert Heat

When we first began our Mexico ministry some eleven years ago I purchased a 1991 Bluebird School Bus to convert as a motorhome for the ministry.  We made use of that Bus/RV conversion personally for several years and put about 25,000 miles on it.  When we left Navojoa we left it with our friend Pastor Ismael for use as their home.  Pastor Ismael and his wife have enjoyed the use of it for the last six years but the necessary vehicle permission was expiring which required that we remove it from Mexico.  Knowing that my body no longer does well with high hear we decided that a trip to Navojoa would be better sooner than latter.  Since Pastor Ismael was up for our Valentine's Banquet we took the opportunity to take him home and prepare the bus/RV for it's trip out. 

It had set for the past two years without being started and one of their dogs had wrecked havoc on some wiring.  It took me a couple of days and a lot of prayer to locate the wiring issue but in the end the motor fired and we returned to Magdalena without a problem.  Once here in town I did a few other repairs and we then drove it on out to Arizona.  Thankfully God sent us a buyer that very week and the bus/RV has moved on to it's next owner.  As always it was hard for me to say goodbye but a decent selling price, an enthusiastic owner and a dose of reality made it all easier.  Who knows we may see it on the road.

Below are some update pictures of your ministry with us here in Magdalena.  The first is of our normal visitation group taken the Saturday before our trip to Navojoa.  On the following Monday we loaded the Toyota with about 9,000 Gospel of John/Romans (photo 2) and headed out.  Standing in front of our church are Pastor Ismael and Lourdes along with their daughter Imelda and son-in-law Martin (photo 3).  In Hermosillo we stopped for lunch at a taco stand (photo 4).  The last picture is of the bus/RV at one of our member's homes where we were enjoying a fish fry.

Sweetheart Banquet

On Valentine's Day we were able to treat our couples to a sweetheart banquet.  We invited our missionary, Alfredo Ortiz, to come up with his wife and family to be with us for that Sunday as well as to teach two sessions for our sweetheart banquet.  Brother Ortiz did a wonderful job with both sessions of the banquet as well as with both services on Sunday.

 

I had also invited Pastor Ismael Zamarron and his wife Lourdes to be with us just to share the experience with us.  I know that they love to visit Magdalena and I also know that they do not normally have the finances to get away.  Our people always enjoy their visits and they are always a blessing to us.

 

We were missing three couples of our own at the banquet but those who did make their plan to be present were greatly rewarded for their efforts.  Peggy had planned several activities and games that were a delight to the couples.  They were also able to experience and enjoy Peggy's "Green Chili Pie".  Next year we will plan to do the same with twice as many couples!

Sweetheart Banquet 2015

 Pastor & Sister Zamarron

 Mario & Marisol

  Brother & Sister Ortiz

 Martin & Imelda

  Jesus & Fransica

  Brother Ortiz teaching

 Dessert!

 Spooning for Hearts

 Not All That Easy!

A VISIT TO OHIO

God gave us the opportunity to visit Ohio for the Christmas and New Year season.  It was an opportunity to catch up with our family, our church family and some friends.  It was also an opportunity to recall what we miss by not living in Ohio as we had some snow and some below zero temperatures.  Actually temperatures above twenty seem to be decent but those minus degrees are biting for us desert dwellers.

 

It was great to be able to be with all of our children and their respective families.  We now have two grand children with another expected to arrive any day.  We enjoyed being able to also see both Peggy's parents and my parents as well as parts of both in-law groups.  For this trip our focus was to stay at our home church so that both those of our church who know us well and those who hardly know us at all would see us around.  Pastor Burke allowed me to jump in and take part in each service which was a tremendous blessing to me.

 

We were able to report to three supporting churches on our trip.  On our way back to Ohio we detoured to see my sister and her family on a Saturday and were blessed to be back with Bible Baptist Temple in St. Joseph, Mo.  While staying with my folks we were also able to be with Mt. Vernon Baptist Temple and then on our way home we stopped on Wednesday evening to meet the folks of Lower Hickory Grove Baptist Church who had taken us on for support although they had never met us.  We returned spiritually refreshed and mentally recharged although physically tired.

 

It was such a blessing to be able to visit in Ohio and to now be back serving God in our place here in Magdalena.

My Parents & Older Brother

 Almost All Grown Up!

 The Frosty Mountains

 When in Ohio,

 Chop Wood.

Thanksgiving Times Two

We were doubly blessed in being able to celebrating Thanksgiving twice.

 

Our first Thanksgiving celebration was on Thanksgiving Day and we celebrated with some good friends in the Tucson area.  God has blessed us with a young family that have purposely sought to be our friends and go out of their way to be a blessing to us.  Although their family of eight fill their thirteen hundred square foot house they put themselves out to take us in.  This thanksgiving they invited us along to their family's thanksgiving meal.  We met up with the in-laws and out-laws, several neighbors, another missionary family and several friends and enjoyed the day together.  No one went hungry and everyone left with platters of extra food.  Thank you to the whole extended Kibbey family for including us.  We are thankful.

 

Our second Thanksgiving celebration was last night after our evening service.  Our people ask each year if we will celebrate Thanksgiving with them.  Of course Thanksgiving is not a Mexican observance but every Christian ought to be thankful.  Peggy prepares a full American Thanksgiving meal and then our people add to it as they see fit.  Peggy's turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing etc. all came out suburb!  God blessed with both first time visitors and return visitors and faithfulness on the part of our people.  Everyone ate as much as they desired and then everyone also took a platter home.  We were thankful to come home with all our dishes empty.  We are thankful.

Let There Be Light

As those of you who follow our lives here in Mexico are aware off, we have been without electric power in the building we rent for the church since June 21st.  The whole story goes back to when I first rented the building.  When the electric company turned on our power they refused to change out the meter that was all ready previously used for our building.  With the first three bills (billed bi-monthly here) I went to the electric company and double checked with them that nothing was amiss in that I believed that our cost was way below what it should be as electric service is much more expensive here than in the U.S.

Anyway I was assured that nothing was out of order and they refused to send anyone out to check the meter.  Jump ahead five years to this summer, June 21st.  The electric company which is a part of the federal government sent out a group from out of town to check every meter in town and found that ours had been manipulated.  I protested, showed them documentation of our honesty but my pleas fell on unreasonable men's ear and they cut our service.  I was also accused of manipulating the meter which is a federal crime punishable with prison time. 

As it turns out (after five months) they are neither interested in the truth nor putting anyone in prison but there is this pesky matter of money.  At first they demanded that I pay Mx. $54,000 pesos which I refused to entertain both on principle and ability.  Ultimately the "fine" was reduced to Mx. $24,000 and I have no recourse.  Pay the "fine" or do without electricity. 

I have depended on the owner of our building throughout this process both because he is well respected and understands the system.  He has told me all along that I will eventually have to pay their "fine" regardless.  The day I paid a deposit on the fine he co-signed for me and then told me a few stories of his own.  It seems that the same electric company told him that he would need to have an independent transformer for his shop about ten years ago and that it would cost Mx. $60,000  He paid the cost and has never seen the transformer.  When he asked about the transformer they told him that it was no longer needed and when he asked about the money he was informed that there was no refunds.  He also relayed a story of being stopped coming back from Nogales with his truck full of merchandise for his store.  The officer asked him for his papers so he handed him his custom's receipts for the goods.  Finding them all in order the officer said, "No, the other papers."  He handed him the truck papers.  Finding them all in order the officer said, "No, the other papers."  The man pulled out his driver's license and his personal papers.  Those were also in order and the officer said, "No, the other papers."  By this time he realized what the officer meant and pulled out his wallet and Mx. $200 to which the officer responded that those were the proper papers and he was on his way.

Throughout this whole ordeal we have prayed that God would be glorified knowing that vengeance belongeth to Him.  It has not worked out as we would have hoped and do not understand it all but we are glad to have electric power for the work again and our freedom to continue to preach at liberty. 

May I emphasize the importance of praying for your missionaries.  Such problems are discouraging and physical draining for not only the missionary but for his family as well. 

Our new Mx. $24,000 meter

New Outreach Avenue

English Classes