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Hello Friends!
We are home safe and sound from
Monterrey, Mexico!
We truly appreciate all of your prayers for us.
Our 10-day trip south of the border was
wonderful. We
were part of a team of five.
To get there, we took a bus from Dallas
(traveling overnight for a total of about 12 hours).
Monterrey is about 3 hours south of
Laredo which is on the Texas border.
The desert climate and mountains are beautiful
there. We
worked with a Pastor named Juan Carlos in a Christian
Missionary Alliance church called Alpha and Omega.
We stayed at the church and ministered at the
services.
On Saturday, the day we arrived, we
were able to share with the youth group about hearing
God’s voice and obeying in faith.
Several of us shared testimonies, and Jason led a
worship song.
During the week, Jason preached
about the priceless value of God, our value as we are
made in His image, and how this obligates us to live
accordingly. Carl
spoke on the character of God and seeking Him in the
midst of life's pressures.
Glenie shared about the roles of a husband and
wife in marriage as compared to Christ and the church,
and Elaine taught on forgiveness as God is walking her
through this in her own life.
The last Sunday we were there, we
felt that God wanted us to “tag-team” teach a
message. It
was fun to teach together as a married couple.
Jason taught the first half on living within
God’s created design and why God hates sin – how it
destroys our relationships with Him, each other, and how
it grieves His heart.
Since Beth shared on repentance and surrendering
our lives completely to the Lordship of Christ earlier
in the week, that Sunday she wanted to encourage the
people that they could walk in victory over sin through
the Holy Spirit. She
spoke about taking thoughts captive to Jesus and turning
our gaze to Him when we are being tempted.
When we see His face and begin worshipping in His
presence, the temptation fades away.
The more we spend time with God, we will be
transformed from glory to glory into His image.
It’s also good to know that temptation itself
is not sin. (Even Jesus was tempted!)
We just need to know what to do when we are faced
with it.
The people of the church were so
receptive and hungry for Truth!
It was great :)
Throughout the week, different
members of the church invited us over to their homes for
delicious meals. We
truly felt the love of Christ through these people!
Their hospitality and generosity are second to
none. One
family surprised us with a cake to celebrate our eighth
“month-iversary” :)
Dora (above) liked
to cook her beans the old fashioned way!
This is their
tradition with celebrations! very fun :)
We also ministered at a nursing
home and a public hospital with people from the church.
At the hospital, about 12 people prayed to give
their lives to Christ; and we were able to encourage
many more with prayer and coffee :)
It was also a privilege to go to
the homes of several of the church members to pray for
them. God
was so faithful to provide translators every step of the
way (including Jason during meal times :)
Beth’s high school Spanish miraculously
returned for short conversations with people.
Also, the entire time we were there, none of us
got sick (we actually gained weight!) and our travels
went smoothly.
We returned to Tyler on March 13th
and headed to San Marcos the next day for our spring
break. It
was great to spend time with our family and friends (not
to mention much relaxation!)
We headed to Houston and visited with two other
wonderful friends before heading back to Tyler.
Now, we are back and studying the
atonement. Wow,
what an awesome display of God’s love and wisdom!
It’s been fun to hear about everyone’s
outreaches and vacations. Translating Greek was
admittedly a little hard to get back into, but we are
doing well :)
If anyone is interested in visiting
Tyler, the azaleas, dogwoods, and redbuds are blooming
beautifully right now!
They have a whole section of town called the
Azalea Trail where you can walk around classy older
homes and enjoy the flowers.
We love you so much!
Beth and Jason
PS ~ We wanted to share with
you all that we've been able to pay for a lot of our
tuition as well as pay for our outreach costs because of
generous supporters! THANK YOU!!!!
www.sotbtyler.com
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