Blessings to you in the name of our Lord; the one and only King of All Kings, Jesus.

- IN THIS ISSUE -

• Prayer Movement

• Radio

• Big Marriage Conference

• Ministering to Pastors

• God's Scheduling

• Kid's Teeth

- PRAYER MOVEMENT -

Some good things have been happening with the prayer movement in Reynosa. It still hasn't gotten where I believe the Lord wants it, but we are seeing some progress.

In January, we held the meeting in the plaza, it was well attended, but due to rain, not as well attended as we wanted. However, the new presidente municipal (mayor) of the city was supportive of us. He's a believer, and wants us praying for the city.

We've started monthly prayer meetings for pastors. We tried this last year, and it became an organizational meeting more than prayer. This time, we hope to keep the focus more on prayer. The big difference this time is that the pastors are saying "we need to pray" instead of just me saying it.

The pastors have also decided we need more promotion of the events, and the movement in general. They've taken it upon themselves to:

• Start advertising in the Newspaper, encouraging people to pray.

• Start a weekly radio program, praying for the city.

• Taking a packet of information to every pastor in the city, encouraging them to pray.

Please pray that these efforts bring forth more people who will join us in praying for the city of Reynosa.

- RADIO PROGRAM -

We have just had the opportunity to expand our radio program "Shalom Israel" into another radio station. We now broadcast from both Roma, Texas and Reynosa, Mexico.

In addition to this, we have added a short program after the regular program in Reynosa. Our main program is 25 minutes long, but we had to buy a 30 minute time slot. So, we're using the other five minutes for a short program on intercessory prayer, to go along with the Despierta Reynosa prayer movement.

- BIG MARRIAGE CONFERENCE -

In February, we held our biggest marriage conference ever, with 72 couples in attendance. This was put on by one of the biggest churches in Reynosa, Centro Vida. Of all the conferences we've done, we felt that they people received in this one better than in any of the others.

Not only did the people receive, but they also bought over $600.00 worth of marriage books and tapes from us. Since we sell those things in Mexico for about 2/3 of what we do in teh U.S., that's a lot of books!

- MINISTERING TO PASTORS -

Our Spanish version of the "Pastor's Letter" which we write every month to minister to the Hispanic pastors here on both sides of the border is being very effective. Now, when we go to the pastor's meetings, they look forward to getting our latest teaching. We've had several very good comments from the pastors, thanking us for providing these teachings. As of right now, we're passing out 120 of these every month, and looking for places to expand that.

Not only are the pastors receiving from the letter, some have shared them with their congregations, or asked us to come minister to their congregations. So, the letter is both ministering, and opening doors for more ministry.

One of the ways we're expanding that area of ministry is by sending packets of teachings to other parts of Mexico. This Saturday, a pastor we know here in Reynosa is leaving for two weeks in Veracruz and Chiapas. he'll be ministering in ten large churches in those two states. We've given him 10 packets, each containing 12 different teachings, a book, and a cassette tape, so that he can share these with the pastors he's going to see.

Another pastor just came back from the same area, having passed out teachings to several pastors he knows as well.

Speaking of ministering to pastors, we just received an invitation to hold a week-long intensive training school for a group of 200 pastors from several denominations (Prespryterian, Methodist, Pentecostal, and Baptist) in Veracruz. These pastors are hungry for the move of the Holy Spirit in their city, and are asking us to teach them how to move into God's presence. Wow!

- GOD'S SCHEDULING -

The teaching we had prepared for teh pastors in March was about the Jewish Passover and how our Communion celebration comes from it. However, we didn't know what God was planning on doing.

At the first of the three Pastor's Aliancas we attend, the secretary came up to me and said "The guest speaker hasn't come, can you share something Jewish with us today?" I was already ready to share on the Passover, and did so. I never saw Hispanic pastors taking notes so fast.

Exactly one week later, we were at another Pastor's Alianca. The president of this alianca came up to me before the meeting started, and asked exactly the same thing. How's that? God obviously wanted those pastors to hear that message.

- KID'S TEETH -

Jenni is looking different these days, with a rather silver glint to her mouth. She's had her braces on for over a month right now, and still doesn't really like them. One side effect is that she's losing weight. We hadn't planned on buying her a new wardrobe as part of her braces, but if she doesn't start eating more, we might have to. She says it's all because of the braces.

Josh just got approved from teh insurance for his braces, so he'll be getting them next month. The Orthodontist's office told him, "Eat all the sticky, gooey, crunchy stuff you want right now, because next month you can't." We got a good laugh out of that.

Debbie's been having a little tooth problem as well. It turns out that she needs two crowns and root canals. One of the couples in the church where we did the big marriage conference has a very nice dental clinic, and they're doing the work. That's a blessing because finding a dentist in Mexico is easy. But, finding one you can have confidence in is hard. By the time all is said and done, it will cost us about 1/4 of what it would in the U.S.

I think that's it for now, so I'll quit here. Please continue to pray that God uses us, and opens doors for us to minister.

Many blessings to you all,

Rev. Rich & Deborah Murphy