Dear Friends & Prayer Partners,

Blessings to you in the name of the Lord.

Well, 2004 is her and it's started off with a bang for us here on the Texas/Mexico border. God is moving all the time, and it seems like it's all we can do to keep up with what He's doing.

-- IN THIS ISSUE --

• Testimony

• Ministry Headquarters

• Prayer Movement

• Conferences

• New City

-- TESTIMONY --

Just last Sunday night we were ministering in a small church in Reynosa, Mexico. The pastor wasn't there, but his wife, and the assistant pastor were both there. At the end of the message, we didn't feel any direction to pray for anyone, or give any prophetic words. This is very unusual for us. However, when the assistant pastor took the mike, he started exhorting the people to come up and let us pray for them. They came and we did.

While I (Rich) was praying for people, the pastor's wife, who is a medical doctor, tapped Deborah on the shoulder and said to her, "She just died," while pointing to the woman who had been in the seat next to Deborah, and was now sliding to the floor. There was no pulse, heartbeat, or respiration. The woman had lost color in her face, her eyes had rolled back, had lost bladder control and her cheeks were cold. She was quite obviously dead.

Deborah hollered for me to come NOW, and we started praying for the lady. Most of the church was in shock, not knowing what to do. A few were crying out to God, "She died, she died" (I think God knew that without their help). Two older ladies joined us in rebuking the death and calling this woman back to life.

It is impossible to keep track of time in a situation like that, but it was a few minutes later that the woman started breathing again. After a few more minutes, her eyes started moving. A little bit more, and she started moving her arms. Finally, she started talking.

I don't know how long all that took, but it was at least 15 minutes, and could have been as long as 45 minutes before she was sitting up again. She asked to be taken to her kids, and they loaded her into a car to take her home. Praise the Lord that He is still powerful!

-- MINISTRY HEADQUARTERS --

We have been believing the Lord for a while to get a home we could use as a ministry headquarters. This week makes 7 years of living in the motorhome; much more time than we ever expected.

The Holy Spirit impressed upon us to put feet to our faith, and start looking for a house. We started by looking at mobile homes, double wide mobile homes, and land to park them on. Land here is pretty expensive, considering this isn't a large metropolitan area. A typical ½ acre lot is going for $13,000.00 and we really wanted an acre.

In the process of looking for possible foreclosed property, Deborah found a house in Alamo (the next town over from where we've been living). This house was foreclosed on by the bank two years ago, and they haven't been able to sell it. So, they've been gradually dropping the price, to the point where they are now asking only $25,000.00; about the value of the land.

The house started life as a two bedroom mobile home quite a few years ago. It has been added onto to the point where it is three times the original size. The whole thing has brick walls around it, so you can't even tell there's a mobile home there. It would give us enough room for the family, the ministry headquarters, and for the people who come visit us. There's a workshop out back that's larger than our current motorhome.

There are a few problems with the house however. The reason that the bank hasn't been able to sell it is that there are some serious cracks in the foundation. But, the house was built 21 years ago, and the foundation won't be settling any more. This, and the other various problems, are all repairable. It would take time, sweat, and money, but this could be a great ministry headquarters for us, at a very reasonable price.

Please pray for God's provision in this. We cannot take out a loan to buy the house, so God must provide enough for us to buy it outright. That's really not all that much money, and our God is more than able.

-- PRAYER MOVEMENT --

The prayer movement is gaining ground. The original group in Reynosa, Mexico has upped the schedule to twice a month (something we've been lobbying for ever since the beginning). There's also another group started. This group consists just of pastors and intercessors. They're on the south side of the city, and have decided to meet there for convenience. This new group is meeting monthly for prayer, and has specifically asked us to be the spiritual covering for them.

In addition to this, there's an increase of momentum on the U.S. side of the border. Several pastors have asked us to come and show the Transformations video in their churches, so that their people could become involved in prayer.

Recently, we showed the video to another pastor's group in Harlingen, Texas, about 25 miles from where we live. Rich is on the board of directors in this group, and they are interested in starting prayer in their area.

-- CONFERENCES --

We've been doing quite a few marriage conferences lately, with two other big ones scheduled for this month. The city of Rio Bravo has really opened up to us, especially in this area. It's almost as if they'd been waiting for us to come and minister to them.

-- NEW CITY --

God has recently opened the door to us to start ministering in a new city in the area, Valle Hermoso, Mexico. This city is a little farther into Mexico, although it is still considered part of the border area. We went there recently for a pastor's meeting and they were very quick to welcome us.

We will be ministering in one of the churches in Valle Hermoso this weekend. This will probably open the door for more churches there.

But, the great thing about this is that this gives us another group of pastors that we can minister to. Rich is now in eight different pastors and ministers groups. He is on the board of three of these. Because of this, we are passing out our studies to more and more pastors all the time, and ministering to more of their needs.

Recently, in a conversation with the heads of one of the Reynosa pastor's groups, the president of that group asked me why I don't use the title "apostle" on my business cards, and in my ministry. I responded by saying that there is a lot of misunderstanding of what an apostle is, and I don't want to cause any confusion. Titles aren't important, living for the Lord, and doing His work is.

The interesting things is that this man recognized me as an apostle without me ever having ever said anything to him about it. The Word of God tells us, "your gift will make a way for you." It isn't necessary to brag about who you are, just about who your God is. Let Him do the rest.

Blessings,

Rev. Rich Murphy