Greetings Brothers and Sisters. What a joy it is to be able to greet you all again, we wish you a beautiful Christmas and New Year. We apologize for not be able to send out our newsletters, but over these past months of life’s events have taken place. In June we hosted a conference here in Muskogee for pastors and leaders which took a lot of planning and coordinating while at the same time we were remodeling our garage into a mother-in-law suite preparing for the arrival of Randy’s mom who is now living with us. My son was married in July in California and our entire family flew out there to join in the celebration. Our home in Mexico was flooded and has needed extensive maintenance and repairs which has required much of my personal time and supervision. I can gladly say that it is finally completed, but it took many grueling hours of hard work! The devastating earthquakes have affected so many lives who lost everything they owned, and also hundreds of families who lost loved ones. so the nation has been faced with many challenges while trying to pick up the pieces. I have spent many hours praying and counseling for those needs.
I have also been traveling and ministering in the states of Guanajuato, Jalisco, Morelia, Hidalgo, Tabasco, Campeche, Queretaro and in Mexico City. Hearts have been set free, redeemed, healed and filled with hope at women’s retreats, marriage seminars, youth meetings, discipleship training and general meetings in the different congregations.
Several times I was blessed to work with the Gypsy churches in Mexico City and I just love these people! God is doing revolutionary things among them. I don’t know how much any of you know about their culture, but they don’t allow their women to study, they are married at 13-14 with the belief that their only call in life is to be a mother and a wife. But working alongside Pastor David, leader of the Mexico City churches and his wife Elizabeth, they believe in change, and we are now disciplined their women to help them discover their true identity in Christ!
The Gypsy children have never studied beyond about the fourth grade, and they recently opened up the first Gypsy school maybe anywhere! God is doing such marvelous things breaking the molds that have tried to define them for generations and He has been revealing to them all that he has promised them as His own!
At a woman’s retreat in Morelia God moved in such powerful ways in these woman through forgiveness. Holy Spirit had a plan that surprised every one of us. One by one the women came forward and shared their stories and every single one of them had been holding unforgiveness, some for 40 years or more. One precious woman was screaming and rolling on the floor as she was set totally free. Her whole life was changed and her countenance was transformed and now reflects joy and not sorrow and pain!
We are so blessed when God shows us the fruit of our labor. I love this testimony about a precious pastor and his wife from Huichapan, Hidalgo, that had been going through some very difficult times unbeknownst to me. We were on our way to Sunday morning service to a small city about 45 minutes from where I was staying. I had prepared a message but as we were driving Holy Spirit put it on my heart to change it. He gave me a message of hope. Well right from the beginning when God’s Word began to flow, both the pastor and his wife just began weeping. They continued the entire time I was sharing and every once in a while I would just walk over and lay my hand on their hearts. At the end, Holy Spirit ministered to them and they just collapsed to the floor sobbing.
Later in the evening service at their central church, the glory of God filled the house and I never even preached one Word. Again Holy Spirit was working deep in their hearts and souls. After service, we went to a local taco place and when I looked over at Pastor Roberto’s face was shining with God’s glory and the smile on his face was priceless. He leaned over to me and in a hushed voice said, “This is just between you and me, but my wife and I were just about to throw in the towel, but this morning God healed our hearts and we are standing and ready to move forward!” God’s faithfulness is endless! Thank you, Jesus!
I have endless stories like this of lives being transformed by God’s love and grace. These are simple people with such a hunger and thirst to know Him more. They don’t have a lot in life, and in their situations, many can’t do anything to change it, but they have faith and a faith that moves mountains! What an honor to be used to help these precious brothers and sisters to understand Father’s heart by showing them how much He truly loves them.
The Gypsy children have never studied beyond about the fourth grade, and they recently opened up the first Gypsy school maybe anywhere! God is doing such marvelous things breaking the molds that have tried to define them for generations and He has been revealing to them all that he has promised them as His own!
