Blessings to you in the name of our Lord, Jesus, the Messiah. I'd say blessings from the sweltering heat of Texas, but we're in the sweltering heat of Kansas right now.

- IN THIS ISSUE -

• Trip to Veracruz

• New Books

• Summer Plans

• Fall Plans

• Vehicle Blessings

• New Staff Members

- TRIP TO VERACRUZ  -

As you probably already know, we had a big conference scheduled in Coaltzacoalcos, Veracruz, Mexico. As of my last writing there were 600 pastors and leaders scheduled to attend. Unfortunately, like many other events in Mexico, some pastors started speaking against it and that turned some people away. However, we still ended up with a good group of over 300 pastors and leaders attending the conference.

We did this conference in conjunction with a Mexican pastor that we work with a lot, and his associate. Between the three couples, we preached about 56 messages in 8 days. That's a lot of ministering. The people there were much hungrier for the Word of God and received wonderfully. It's a whole different environment than ministering along the border.

The pastor who asked us to come do the conference was the pastor of the oldest and largest Presbyterian church in town. He has a real vision for his city and the other churches. Please pray for God to continue working through and for him. His name is Fernando Paredes. God is bringing revival to this city through this man.

The last day of the conference, there was a spontanious time of pastors taking the microphone and asking forgiveness from other pastors, either as a group, or individual pastors. That really broke things open and God started moving.

The real fruit of this conference was seen in a prayer gathering they had in the city. The pastor we went with shared the vision of the prayer movement we're working on in Reynosa with pastor Fernando. He had a meeting on the second day of the conference to share that vision with the pastors of the city. About 20 pastors came and spent 4 hours arguing about petty details of organizing the event. At the end of the conference, there was another meeting, and 60 pastors came. Instead of arguing, their attitude was "what can we do to help?"

On the night of the prayer event, 200 pastors came (out of 220 in the city) and over 2,000 church members. Even though it rained, and they were outside in the plaza, everyone stayed for the whole event, from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. Praise the Lord!

Once again, there was a spontaneous time of asking forgiveness one from another, including pastors who had caused church splits asking for forgiveness. There was a true humility and brokenness of heart that allowed the Holy Spirit to touch lives.

Before the prayer gathering, there were three different pastors groups in that city. During the prayer time, the leadership of these three groups got together and said, "How can we pray for unity in the Body of Christ, and yet have three groups?" They combined the three seperate gropus into one that night. I'd call that quick answer to prayer.

On the last Sunday we were there, after the conference was officially over, we ministered in 5 different churches, Rich in 3 and Deborah in 2. Even though these were Presbyterian churches, which are used to 30 minute messages, we preached 45 minutes. When we finished, they said, "Is that all, can't you continue?" Those are hungry hearts.

I (Rich) also had an opportunity to minister to the worship team at the main Presbyterian church. This church is in the process of moving from singing hymns to singing praise and worship choruses. I was given 30 minutes to share with them about the heart of a worshipper. When I finally finished, after two hours, they went to the pastor and asked forgiveness for their attitude. Instead of just being musicians, they've become worshippers.

- NEW BOOKS -

We just finished writing out 30th and 31st books. These came as somewhat of a surprise to us, as we hadn't planned on them. However, God started giving us the ideas, and we just wrote them down. The books are called "202 Ways to Bless Your Wife" and "202 Maneras Para Bendicir a Tu Esposa" (the same thing in Spanish). We pray and expect that this will be a real blessing to many couples.

Basically, the idea of the book came from the lack of understanding of romance in most marriages. In a Bible school class I was teaching on marriage, the pastor who runs the school said, "In 37 years of ministry, this brother is the first person I've met who is truly romantic." That statement showed us the depth of the problem, and the need to help couples overcome the problem.

These books are available from us through the mail for $5.00 each.

- SUMMER PLANS -

As I mentined in the beginning of the letter, we're not in Texas, or Mexico right now, we're in Kansas. We're taking a couple of months this summer to travel around and minister in some of the churches we know. With all the work in Mexico, it's been a little hard to keep in contact with people. So, we're hoping to renew some relationships during these two months.

- FALL PLANS -

We expect to be back in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas by the end of September, and work in Mexico through the winter. This fall and winter we are planning on doing more traveling farther into Mexico to minister. Amongst other things, the church where we had that big conference is expecting us to come back and do another one this fall.

We also have another pastor who's already planned a tour for us; ministering in 40 churches in 40 days in the states of Veracruz and Chiapas. We'll probably have to break that one up a bit.

- VEHICLE BLESSINGS-

For about 7 months, we had the use of a van that was loaned to us by a Mexican woman evangelist. We recently had to return that to her, with much thanks for all the use. This might have left us with the need of using the motorhome for all our transportation needs, but God came through for us.

One of the missionary base camps there in the valley had a small car that they gave us for almost nothing. That at least provided us with wheels, even though it really wasn't big enough for all our needs. Then, the church that has been talking about buying us a van called and asked us to go look at one they found. It's a 15 passenger 1 ton Dodge van. So, when we go back in the fall, we'll have the car for running errands, and the van for traveling into Mexico.

We've also replaced our little homemade cargo trailer. We found a boat trailer we were able to buy for $50.00, and using it as a base, we built a 6 by 12 foot cargo trailer. Although it's homemade, several people have told us it doesn't look like it is. We have built in shelves for storing our book boxes, and special storage for other things we need to carry with us. We've even put a small work bench in it for making books and doing repairs.

We're still believing God for a replacement for out motorhome. I don't know exactly where it is, but I am sure He has something for us. Please pray with us for that.

- NEW STAFF MEMBERS -

Our time has been getting busier and busier with all that the Lord has had us doing. This has caused some problems with being able to get everything done. I was talking to the Lord about this one day, saying that we needed a secretary for the ministry. So, He gave us one.

For the last month, Jenni, our daughter has been working part time in the ministry. She is helping me keep up with the computer work, make books, copy tapes, ship orders, and other "administrative tasks." This is freeing me up to work on other things.

Meanwhile, Josh, our son is working with me on some other projects, such as the new trailer we built. I'm also training him how to do web site design so that he can take care of the web site for us.

Please pray for Jenni and Josh as they help us in the ministry. We feel that this is a great opportunity to teach them, and is God's provision for the needs of the ministry He has given us to do.

Be abundantly blessed in the Lord in all that you say and do. We covet your prayers.

In Him,

Rich & Deborah Murphy