We have had a lot of new things going on in the ministry in the last couple of months. Some of which are already happening, and some of which we're still preparing to start. I won't share all of these in this letter, just those which we're already working on.

-- IN THIS ISSUE --

• Prayer Movement

• Ministry to Hispanic Pastors

• Life-Line for Pastors

• Web Site

• Bible School

• Christian Newspaper

• Pastors' Wives Group

-- PRAYER MOVEMENT --

The prayer movement in Reynosa is gradually picking up momentum. More and more pastors are becoming involved in it, and bringing their churches to the prayer events. There are also more churches that have started having weekly prayer meetings with their congregations.

We were unable to be a part of the last two nights of prayer last year, because we were out of town, but that apparently didn't even slow them down. On January 20th, we had our first major prayer meeting of this year. Because of the weather, we held it in a large meeting hall, instead of the plaza. This seemed to help, as the people didn't get cold and leave during the prayer time.

We also tried something different this time. Halfway through the prayer meeting, we showed stopped praying and showed the first part of the Transformations video, from the Sentinel group, which we have been using to explain the vision and motivate the people to pray. You could feel the difference in the people when we started praying again!

-- MINISTRY TO HISPANIC PASTORS --

We are continuing to see great results in ministering to the Hispanic pastors. More and more of them are looking to us as a resource for their personal spiritual life, and asking us for advice, prayer, and teaching. It has taken three years to get to this point, but we finally feel like we are starting to accomplish what we came here for.

Recently, two different pastors came to us and asked to come under our covering; one on the American side of the border, and one on the Mexican side. We have worked a lot with both of these pastors, and developed good relationships with them. This move, on their part, is a formalizing of our relationship to be one in where they are looking at us to pastor them personally; teaching, counseling, and mentoring them in their ministry and walk with the Lord.

This is something we've known would be part of our ministry eventually, but didn't know when God would bring it about. We're excited about this new development.

This doesn't mean that we are creating an organization, because that doesn't follow the Biblical example. What we are doing is to create relationships with pastors who we can help. Too many people are creating organizations instead of relationships. Unfortunately, these organizations don't minister to the pastor. Instead, what usually happens is that the pastor is afraid to tell his "apostle/mentor/covering" about his problems and needs because he doesn't want to look bad before in his eyes. Once again, this isn't Biblical.

Our studies that we're preparing for the Hispanic pastors are ministering to them greatly. Every month, we receive more and more testimonies from the pastors about how this is helping them. Although this started out as a small thing, it has become one of the most effective things we are doing.

Please pray that the Lord open more avenues in which we can spread these studies we are preparing.

-- LIFE-LINE FOR PASTORS --

At long last, the first issue of Life-Line for pastors is at the printer (about two months late). We believe that this will be a tremendous blessing for the pastors that we know. If you know a pastor who is not on our mailing list (or, are unsure if they are), and should receive it, please let us know either by e-mail, or snail mail. We prefer to send it to the church address instead of a home address.

We have recently seen some startling statistics on the number of pastors battling depression, and leaving the ministry. If you would like to see these statistics, go to our web site, and look for the "Life-Line for Pastors" button. The link for these statistics is at the bottom of this page.

Our hope is that this new publication will help pastors overcome the problems of the ministry and continue working and ministering for the Lord. Please pray that the pastors accept and read this publication, and that it ministers to them.

-- WEB SITE --

Once again, we've run into problems with our web site. If you have tried to get on in the last few weeks, you probably couldn't. Please forgive us for this, but we had problems with our server. We should be back up on a new server any day now.

We also took the time to update and expand the web site. As of right now, we have 327 pages on the Web site, 62 of which are in Spanish! This actually makes us one of the biggest Spanish Christian web sites online.

Please stop by to check out the web site, and see the new teachings we have available online.

-- BIBLE SCHOOL --

We just finished teaching another course at the Bible School in Harlingen. This one was on the prophets. Somehow, I've become the Old Testament expert at that Bible Institute (this may have something to do with being Jewish).

This made the Christmas season very busy for us, as we had to spend at least 30 hours per week preparing for the class. However, it went well, and the students received a lot from the class. It is amazing how much most believers miss from the Word of God because they don't take the time to study the Old Testament.

There are several other Bible Schools in the area that have expressed interest in having us give classes. Nothing is definite on any of these yet, so we're just waiting to see what the Lord will do. Please pray that He open the doors He wants open, and closes the doors He wants closed.

-- CHRISTIAN NEWSPAPER --

There has been a Christian Newspaper in Reynosa, Mexico for the last four years. This was financed by the unbelieving brother of the man who started and ran it. Although the man who started it was running it as a ministry, his brother was only looking it as a business. Unfortunately, since it didn't make a profit, the unsaved brother didn't want to continue.

So, the Christian Newspaper has now been replaced by two new publications. (Is this getting confusing enough yet?) Both of these have asked us to write articles for them, and one of them has asked me to be on the advisory board.

This will give us another forum in which to teach. One of the newspapers will be distributed only within the churches and Christian bookstores. The other one will be distributed in convenience stores and supermarkets, reaching a basically non-believing audience.

Please pray with us that both of these publications do well, and minister to the people of Reynosa and the surrounding communities.

-- PASTORS' WIVES GROUP --

Another new work we are involved in is a support group for Pastors' wives. Two pastors' wives (one of who is a missionary as well) received the vision to start this work. Since the one who is a missionary had spoken with Deborah about this idea previously, she asked if Deborah would become part of the organizational committee for this new area of ministry.

Women in general in Mexico don't have many interests, or hobbies. However, this is even worse for the pastors' wives we've seen. Most of the pastors' wives in Mexico are stuck at home while their husbands are out ministering. Very few of them are involved in the ministry with their husbands, and some aren't even saved.

Our hope with this group is to encourage the women to take an active part in ministering one to another. There have been two breakfast meetings so far, and it appears to be a great success. We had about twice as many women at the second one as the first, and it almost didn't end. The women were so busy praying for each other, that they went way beyond the scheduled closing time.

One of the things the speaker told the women was that they needed to find another woman who they could confide in. Immediately, one of the ladies grabbed Deborah's hand. That was great, as her husband is one of the pastors that Rich talks to regularly.

Please pray that more women become involved in this group, and that they truly start ministering to each other.

Well, as I said, there's a lot of new things going on here. More than anything, we covet your prayers, as nothing can be accomplished in the ministry without prayer support.

God bless,

Rich & Deborah Murphy