Confronting Our Benighted Population: Part One

Each year during the last days of September and the first days of October our town of Magdalena celebrates "Father Kino Days" in honor of the founding father of Magdalena de Kino - a Jesuit priest named Francisco Kino. He was entombed here in Magdalena and is now exhumed with a shrine built over his bones. A replica of him lies in an annex off of the Catholic auditorium where visitors gather to pray their vain repetitious prayers, pay their alms and then attempt to lift this idol to see if their prayers have been heard and their sin account is now light.This Jesuit priest traveled this whole northern Sonora and southern Arizona area on horseback and foot in his day and is now a "saint" for Catholics of our area. Adoration of him is very deeply a part of Hispanic and native Indian culture. Somewhere along the line a pilgrimage began for devout Catholics who now follow his path from Nogales, Arizona to Magdalena on foot. Our town doubles in population for the week and all of downtown is shut down to vehicle traffic.We had long heard about the fame of these "Kino Days" but this was our first year to experience it. The advice from most is to avoid it at all cost as there are more murders during this one week downtown than for the rest of the year in the whole city. Still it does present an opportune time to hand out gospel literature and so we made our way into town during the early afternoon when it was daylight and still quite early to avoid the many who would be drunk and drugged. We were able to pass out a lot of gospel tracts and witness to quite a few. All of the activities take place on or in the immediate area of the main Catholic "church" downtown and are promoted by it. In turn a portion of all proceeds must be given to the "church".We do ask that you remember us in prayer. We do take precautions but we do not hide. We believe that the true gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is the answer to all of man's needs.

Camping for the week on the sidewalk

Camping for the week in the river valley

Camping on the grass for a week

Confronting Our Benighted Population: Part Two

Drinking is ok if your cans form a cross!

Gambling to celebrate your faith?

Confronting Our Benighted Population: Part Three

Sowing the precious seed of the Gospel of Christ.

One man shows interest in the Gospel

Contemplating Our Blitzing Plan:

A group from our church will be with us from November 2 - 9. We are really looking forward to having them with us. Pastor Ismael Zamarron and some of his folks will also be coming up from Navajoa to help as well as Pastor John Perez and a group of his Bible School students from Hermosillo. We are looking forward to a great week of soul winning together.
When we began the Mohave Baptist Church there in Bullhead City, Arizona this type of evangelistic meetings proved to be foundational in getting a start. We are praying that this week of soul winning will see many souls saved and give us several believers with which to continue with. We will appreciate your prayers for us during this week.
There is always room for a few more and if you would like to make a trip on down our way just give us a shout so that we can get you here and be prepared for you when you come.

Continuing Our Building Preparations:

We have been continuing our building renovations and now have the outside completely painted. We are still lacking our church name, times of services and contact information on the outside but hopefully that will follow soon.
In November we will have the help of a group from our church to paint on the inside. Currently the building is basically completely open on the inside but in due time we hope to be able to put up some walls to divide off a dedicated sanctuary, several class rooms and a fellowship area. That will all have to come in due time.
As you can see from the pictures the family has again played a big roll in the ministry. Thank God for a family that serves Him together.

Painting has begun

Anna is involved
Ezra is involved

Waiting on Dad to finish up.

Dad finishing up

Just in time, then came the rain

Concluding Our Brief Participation

For the months of August and September we helped fill in for an elderly missionary here in our state of Sonora, Mexico. He had needed to take a short furlough by request of several of his supporting churches and had asked us to fill in for him in his absence. It was a blessing for us to have the participation of established believer's to help us hone our Spanish and use Biblical terms that are not normally used from day to day.
While we took care of his works we had a special day for a baby dedication which must always include a special meal.
The missionary is now back and has thanked us for our help to him. He has also relayed several good comments that were passed along by the people of those works including several on the good example grasped from Ezra, Abigail and Anna

Good Food and Good Fellowship

Brother Rafael, Sister Carina and Isaac