Greetings and blessings in the wonderful name of the Lord!

It's been a different month and a half for us as we've traveled around ministering in Northeast Texas. The first few times I preached again in English, I was having a little trouble. I'd start receiving the message in Spanish and have to translate it to English before I could preach it.

We've actually enjoyed being able to enjoy driving on roads that didn't have holes in them big enough to swallow a Volkswagen, eat food that wasn't covered in chili, and speak to people without wondering if we used the right verb tense.

Now that the summer heat looks like it's breaking, we're on our way back down to continue our work in Mexico.

-- IN THIS ISSUE --

• Mexican Prayer Movement

• Bible Schools & Seminars

• Motorhome Update

• New Book

• Mexico Project List

-- MEXICAN PRAYER MOVEMENT --

We had a bit of a setback in the Mexican prayer movement. To help with receiving permission from the government to use the plazas in the cities, we enlisted the assistance of the pastor who's responsible for selling and scheduling time on one of the radio stations. Unfortunately, although he claimed to be a part of what we were doing, and to have the same vision, he didn't. Instead of desiring to change the city through prayer, he saw it as a means of promoting the radio station.

At our most recent prayer event, this pastor made a bunch of changes to the plan at the last minute, changing the whole makeup of the event into something to promote the radio station, instead of to promote prayer. Although there was in fact prayer, the heart and spirit of what was done was wrong.

In addition to this, one of the pastor's groups in the city has turned against the prayer movement, solely because we wouldn't let their president be the head of this work. They want to be in control of everything that's going on spiritually in the city; not from a viewpoint of accomplishing anything for God, but from the viewpoint of pride and control.

Currently, we're working to bring the prayer movement back to the original vision. We're had to eliminate this pastor as part of our committee, change the name, and do a few other things to separate the prayer movement from the radio station.

Please pray for this work. This is probably the most important thing that God has us doing right now, and the enemy knows it as well. We need prayer for the pastors to get behind the vision and become part of it. We also need prayer for protection of those who are a part of the organizing committee. Finally, we need prayer against the division in the Body of Christ here in Reynosa, Mexico.

-- BIBLE SCHOOLS & SEMINARS --

With fall coming around, we're looking at the new school year; not just for the children, but for the Bible school students as well. Already we've received invitations from a couple of Bible schools to do classes and seminars. As our reputation has been spreading in the area, there's more and more interest in us teaching in the various schools.

This is a great joy to us. Our heart has always been for teaching and ministering to the leaders. That way, the things we minister to them can be multiplied to others.

We expect to not only be teaching in the schools but continuing to hold seminars for pastors and leaders. We've received interest from some of the pastors in neighboring towns, and expect to be scheduling seminars for these groups of pastors as well.

-- MOTORHOME UPDATE --

We have a great praise report on the motorhome. One of the members of one of the churches we ministered at recently is the manager of a place that sells motorhomes and other recreational vehicles. After church Sunday, he asked me to write a list of everything that was wrong with the motorhome and bring the list and the motorhome over to their shop on Monday.

We didn't manage to fix everything that was wrong with the motorhome, but we did take care of a couple of major things. Ever since before we're owned this motorhome, there's been a problem with the wall on the curb side being separated from the floor. I've tried several times to repair it, but never managed to get the wall back into place. So, the Band-Aid repairs that I did do only lasted for a while. That wall is now in the right place, solid and reinforced.

This means that the door, which we had to hold shut with a bungie cord is now working properly as well. In addition, we were able to take care of some leaks, and rebuild the shower stall that was falling apart.

Although this doesn't make the motorhome like new again, it's a whole lot better than it's been for a long time. Praise the Lord!

-- NEW BOOK --

We've just finished another new book, "Sold Out... Or, Selling Short?" This book, which deals with the issue of living a truly committed, sold out life for the Lord, came from a series of messages Rich preached.

The sin of the American church is complacency. We're comfortable, and don't want anyone (including God) to push us into being more committed than we want to be. God expects His people to live a life totally Sold Out to Him. We treat God as a heavenly vending machine, expecting to receive from Him, instead of living a life committed to Him.

This book, which sells for $10.00, will challenge the believer to step out of mediocre Christianity into the realm of God's presence.

-- MEXICO PROJECT LIST --

This list of projects was prepared to share with the pastors of churches that we were ministering in. We've asked them to pray for these projects, and whether God would have their church partner with us in any of these. Please keep this list before the Lord in prayer. These are the things He has us working on, and we need His constant help and provision.

Mexican Prayer Movement - Reynosa

Reynosa is a very hard city spiritually. It is number two in the whole world for child prostitution. In addition, it is a major drug trafficking port to the U.S. and filled with other criminal activities. We are working with the local pastors to bring about changes to this city through intercessory prayer. This is taking the form of both weekly prayer meetings and bi-monthly prayer rallies in the plazas.

     Monthly Expenses (promotion, providing teaching material to the pastors) - $200.00

     Prayer Rally Expenses -  $700.00

Training Conferences for Pastors & Leaders

One of the greatest needs in the Mexican church (and many other third world countries) is for spiritual training of the leadership. They don't have the resources we do in English for their personal study. Much of the bible school training is very basic and traditional. We have been holding full day training conferences on various biblical topics to train and equip the leadership.

       Expense Per Conference - $300.00

Radio Program - Shalom Israel

We are currently broadcasting a radio program, "Shalom Israel," from Roma, Texas, three times a week. It reaches part of the Rio Grande Valley, and into Mexico as far as Monterrey. This is a teaching program, using the Jewish culture as a "hook" to get people to listen. We desire to expand this program to cover the entire Rio Grande Valley, which would also cover more of northern Mexico. To do this, we need to be on two to three other radio stations.

       Cost per Station per Month aprox - $260.00

Video Bible School

For each conference we give, we videotape it for production as part of a video bible school. Currently, we have about 35 hours of videos recorded, awaiting editing. We only need the appropriate computer software and additional hard drive in order to edit these training videos.

     Cost for Computer Editing Equipment & Software aprox - $1000.00

Web Site

We are expanding our web site to be bilingual. There is very little Christian material on the web in Spanish. Currently we have 33 pages (mostly teaching) in Spanish. With this, we receive "hits" from all through Latin America.

     Cost for Web Hosting per Year - $160.00

Literature Projects

Currently, we have five books in Spanish. We are working on writing and translating other materials in Spanish. These books are either given to pastors, or sold at a greatly reduced rate. Our desire is to translate our other ministry books to Spanish, so that we can bless the Mexican pastors with these teachings as well.

     Translating Cost per Book aprox - $800.00

     Printing Costs per Month - $120.00

In some of the churches we've ministered in, people have expressed an interest in coming down to Mexico to visit. If you feel God is leading you in that direction, you are of course welcome. The missionary campground we stay at on the U.S. side of the border has some trailers available for rent at a cost of $10.00 per day. That makes for pretty cheap accommodations. So, come on down and see what God's doing here along the U.S./Mexico border.

Please continue to pray for us, especially for God's continued wisdom, open doors, and His presence. We need Him for all that we do. We also ask for continued prayer for God's provision, especially in the area of vehicles (new motorhome and a car/minivan/suv we can use in Mexico).

Blessings to you in the name of our Lord, Jesus