Wow! I cannot believe we have been here in Mexico over 15 years! When we first arrived, it was only my wife, and our three-month old baby, Japheth. Now, we are nine in our family (including my wife and I), and our church in doing amazing! Ministries are growing, souls are being saved, and families are being restored and — even formed. By that, I mean, that I am having part in marrying five different couples in 5 consecutive months! — what a privilege! God is sooo good!
I would like to start saying thank you to all of you that have supported our ministry since the beginning. Many churches have kept holding the ropes while we reach Mexico for Christ — and for that we are very thankful! Thank you for your prayers and continual financial support.
Our Fifteenth Church Anniversary
On July 7th, 8th and 9th, we celebrated our Family Conference. We invited Pastor Stew Schepers, from the Dominican Republic, to come and preach in our church. God used him in a very special way, and he and his wife Donna, were a big blessing to our church. Our theme was “A house worthy for the Lord” from Mathew 10:13. On Sunday, we celebrated our churches’ fifteenth anniversary. We had an amazing day, with visitors, baptisms, decisions, and of course ‘carne asada’ for a special meal!
Youth Camp
Normally, we organize our youth camp here in Puebla. Many churches from around the area come and are part of our camp. But this year, I was invited to preach at the META camp in Morelia, Michoacan, where Bro. Jim Gardner is the camp director. It is my personal opinion that there is no better organizer for a youth camp than Bro. Gardner. We took thirteen young people from our church and we had a blast! From the preachings and teachings, to the games and meals, and the ‘fogata’ time on the last night, God really blessed, and many of our young people made decisions. There were a total of 200 young people at camp, and I was honored to be a small part in their spiritual lives. I praise the Lord for that opportunity.
Vacation Bible Schools
This year, we invited evangelist David Cruz to help organize and preach during our vacation Bible schools. He brought a team of young people with him, and did an amazing job! I recommend this young man if any church would like to have an evangelist preaching or to hold revival meetings. We held meetings at seven different locations with a total of over 1,000 people from all ages, and they all heard the Gospel and many, many got saved! At the end we had 56 people getting baptized. On Sunday, we brought close to 50 of them to church. Our people did and incredible job organizing the VBSs and volunteering for teaching and helping in their respective areas.
Helping Ivan
One lady in our church works as a teacher not far from our church. Few weeks ago she asked me if I could help counsel the dad of one of her high school students. His name is Ivan. He met me at the church, and with a broken heart told me that his wife was leaving him. Apparently, she found someone in social media and now his home was being destroyed by all of this. I was able to lead him to the cross, and Ivan graciously asked Jesus to save him. Please pray for Ivan Sandoval and his marriage. He wants to do right. They have two young boys. Many homes here in Mexico are struggling with not only the husbands leaving theirs wives, but now, the wives leaving their husbands.
Our Van
Right now I am writing this lines from McAllen, TX. One of the reasons for the trip is so that we can nationalize our fifteen passenger van. This last Monday I took our van to the offices where they do all of the paper work on the American side, and I am supposed to pick it up on Thursday on the other side, in Mexico — with all of the paper work done. Pray so that we don’t have any problems legalizing the van and taking it to Puebla. Buying a van in Mexico is very expensive, and what we have done in the past with this van is driving to the border every six months and getting a permit so that we can have the van ‘legally’ in Mexico for exactly six months. When the vehicle is ten years old, the Mexican government allows for those cars to be imported legally into Mexico at a high price — we had to pay $2,000 dollars for the importation of the van!
–Some pictures of our baptisms below:
Thank you again for all of your prayers and support!
In Christ,
Arturo Munoz and Family
Aug 2017 Munoz Family — PDF format.