Many Blessings to All Our Friends and Prayer Partners -

How quick time flies when the Lord is keeping you busy. It seems like only last week that I wrote you, but it's been almost two months now. God is continually doing great things and adding to the ministry.

We've had some real struggles this year, but also some real triumphs. I only bring the struggles up so that I can share a testimony with you. At the beginning of the year, the Lord showed us some new areas of ministry that He was leading us into. Of course, like many things in the ministry, these new areas will cost money.

As soon as we started praying for the provision in these new areas, we started receiving attacks in our finances. The attack actually got to the point where everything we had scheduled in the month of May was cancelled. Obviously, with these problems we were a little concerned about our finances.

Finally, I woke up and spent some time fasting. With that, I was able to totally give our finances over to the Lord once again. Immediately, the finances started coming in.

Many times, the reason we don't receive an answer from the Lord is because we are the ones in the way of the answer. In this case, I certainly was. God couldn't do anything because I had my hand on it. But, once I got my hand off it, He was free to do what needed to be done. Praise the Lord!

-- IN THIS ISSUE --

• New Church

• Short-term Missions Group

• New Book

• Prayer Movement

• Ministry to Pastors

• Menopause Conferences

-- NEW CHURCH --

We've just recently received another church under our covering. Pastors Phil & Connie Wright, in Hubbard, Texas came to us and asked us to take them under our covering. They have had a number of problems with their church, and are looking for help in the ministry.

Please remember to pray for Phil & Connie whenever you pray for us. They especially need peace, comfort, and encouragement from the Lord.

-- SHORT-TERM MISSIONS GROUP --

In June, we had our first ever short-term missions group come to visit. The Millers, along with some friends came from Missouri to work with us in Mexico. Although we hadn't planned on this, and didn't have much time to plan their visit, everything went incredibly well, and several hundred children were ministered to.

The Miller's team came with clowns and puppets, always popular items to the children of any country. They did an evangelistic program for children, but many adults watched as well. They also brought food, personal care items and other gifts to pass out to the churches in Reynosa.

Probably the greatest blessing, from my point of view was the training class they gave at one church. Two days before they called us, one of the pastors we know in Reynosa asked us for help in training his Sunday School teachers. Most Mexican churches basically ignore their children, and don't have the materials, or the training to effectively minister to them.

When the Millers called, the first thing I though of was this church. Even through they weren't planning on doing training classes, they called upon their experience and put something together. The class was a great success.

Since then, I've had five other pastors ask me about similar classes. I guess when the Millers come back, they'll be very busy.

-- NEW BOOK --

We've just finished another new book, entitled, "Wisdom for Christian Leaders." This is a compilation of some of the studies that I've been writing for the Mexican pastors every month. It deals with a number of issues that directly affect the pastors and leaders of the church.

We hope to have this book out in Spanish as well within the next month or so. Right now, we're in the process of proof-reading the Spanish text, which takes longer than it does in English. Fortunately, we have many bilingual friends that are helping us.

Although all of the teachings in this book are available in our web site, we believe that many people who don't regularly have access to the internet will be blessed through the printed version of these teachings.

-- PRAYER MOVEMENT --

The Despierta Reynosa prayer movement will be having its next combined intercessory prayer movement for the city this coming Monday, the 28th. We are continuing to pray and expect for growth in this area.

One of the pastors who started with us in this work has recently decided to start having monthly prayer meetings, for four consecutive nights, in his part of the city. We've been trying to motivate these pastors to have monthly meetings, and this looks like the first one who will be stepping out in this. Praise the Lord!

I just talked to a brother from Cualtzacualcus, Veracruz. He said that the prayer movement there is continuing to grow. We were overjoyed to hear that, even though we aren't able to be there for the prayer gatherings.

Please pray as we continue the work of starting the prayer movement in McAllen, Texas. There have been several minor snags, which seem to make starting this a slow work. We will be victorious, but I want it to be soon!

-- MINISTRY TO PASTORS --

Our monthly study that we write to pastors is continuing to be a blessing. Every month, pastors come to us, telling us how much it is ministering to them personally, and to their congregations. This month, the president of one of the pastors groups publicly asked the pastors to give an offering to help with the costs of this work.

We're also ministering to more and more pastors publicly. This month (July), Rich has been asked to preach to four different pastors groups. The pastors are starting to look at us as a resource to help them and their churches with their problems. That's been one of our goals all along.

-- MENOPAUSE CONFERNECES --

Deborah gave two menopause conferences in Reynosa during June. These were very well received by the women, with over 200 coming to the second one. Fifty of those women were unbelievers, who made a confession of faith after the conference. Praise the Lord!

This is an area that has grown our of our marriage ministry. Deborah has studied this extensively in the last year, and hopes to soon have a book out called, "Menopause Without Tears." This will be the first book of any kind about menopause in Spanish.

I need to wrap this up now. Be blessed in all that you say and do. Keep serving God, and please keep us in your prayers.

IN HIM,

Rich & Deborah Murphy