Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Ministry Updates - April 2007

*The crews @ Global Grounds Café*

Five more weeks before I leave Qro. So far, four weeks have past since I´ve been here. The past 4 weeks that I´ve been here, I spent most of the time getting used to the life here in Mexico, trying to get to know people in and outside church, helping around the house, helping out in the cafe, and learning the language.

Having been here for 4 weeks make me realise the importance of doing a long-term mission work. I think coming as a short-termer, my roles are mostly as a learner and observer. It´s quite hard to build on ministry and relationships when I´m only going to be here for 2.5 months. Relationships and ministries take time. Knowing these facts, I think I have to adjust my expectations accordingly.

The things that I´d love to do for the rest of my time here are as follows:

1. Supporting the long-term ministries and workers here.
In the next couple of weeks, Jessica, one of the long-termer, will have a surgery while the other long-termers, Justin and Llluvia, will go back to US for a couple of weeks in May. During their absence, I´m sure they could use a bit of my help at Global.

The English classes at Global have attracted quite a few non-Christians, thus it provides a tremendeous opportunity to share the gospel. One of the student in Jessica´s class, Pati, is a non Christian, who came to join the English class @ Global. Jessica invited her to come to a women´s event at church and she came! After the event, she said to Jessica that the talk touched her heart so much that it felt like it was spoken especially for her. Because of the Uni holidays, etc., I haven´t got much chance to be involved in the English classes, but I´m quite grateful to be able to observe how the English classes are really helpful in building relationships with the non-Christians and in sharing the gospel to them on a personal level.


2. Meet up and encourage the girls from church that I met through Bible Study and Youth Group.

I think it´s really hard to be a Christians here in Queretaro. Evangelical Christians are minorities here. The girls in the youth group don´t usually have any other Christian friends at school. Some of them are really struggling to live their lives God´s way while everyone around them don´t. And most of them are struggling to share the gospel to their friends because they don´t have enough support and encouragement to do it.

In the church where I serve, Iglesia Horizonte, there´s also lack of female youth group leader. Imagine 1 staff worker following-up all the girls plus following-up the non-Christians. It´s just impossible! So while I´m here, I really hope to encourage the girls and the leader as much as I can by meeting up with them to pray and read the Bible. (Even finding time to meet up with the High Schoolers here could be hard, especially when they don´t have that much resources to travel on their own)

3. Get involved in the Student Ministry with Compa (IFES in Mexico)
Because of the Easter holiday for the Uni students, I could only arrange the time with the Compa leader this week. Hopefully, I´ll have a chance to get more involve in the Student Ministry at the Uni that is situated opposite the café.
Prayer Points:
* Please thank God for the non-Christian contacts that the staff here are able to make. Please pray that through this relationship, the non-Christians could get to know Christ and come into relationship with Him.

* Please pray that I may make use of every opportunity I have while in the remaining 5 weeks I´m here to minister to the people God has placed around me.
* Another prayer point is for my uncle in Indo. Please thank God for the second surgery on his brain on Saturday that went well. Please pray for his recovery and most importantly, please pray that he may use the opportunity God is giving to come to repentance.

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