Dear Friends & Prayer Partners;

You ever hear the one where the doctor told the patient that he had good news and bad news. Well, last month we sent you the good news about our ministry headquarters. Unfortunately, everything we told you fell through. Or, at least didn't come through as we thought. That's the bad news. But now, we got even better news to report about the ministry headquarters!

It is always exciting to see how God can turn a situation around, and make something even better than we expected out of the things that happen in our lives.

-- IN THIS ISSUE --

• MINISTRY HEADQUARTERS

• WEB SITE

• DOLLAR CAMPAIGN

• PRAYER MOVEMENT

• NEW BOOK

• MAFIA GUNMAN SAVED!

• FAMILY NEWS

-- MINISTRY HEADQUARTERS --

Okay, let's start out with the good news, bad news routine. We told you about the ministry that was going to loan us the land for our ministry headquarters. We also asked you to pray that the board from that other ministry respond favorably. Well, they responded, and they probably thought they were responding favorably, but it wasn't favorable from our point of view.

While they did offer us the land, it wasn't free, it was for $500.00 per month. Not only that, but it wasn't for long term, it was for only five years, with a possible five year renewal. Well, we'd be crazy to build on land that was ours for only five years. So, we turned their offer down.

Since that deal wasn't going to work out, we started looking for land again. Not far from the retreat center where we thought we would be building the ministry headquarters, we found an area that had been broken up into 2 to 5 acre lots.

Some semi-retired missionary friends came to visit, and went to see the property with us. They were excited about the idea of us being able to get out of the motorhome and build our ministry headquarters, and thought that this was God's will for us. Not only that, but after praying about it, they came back to us the next day with a proposal to buy the land.

The three acre lot we had been looking at costs $31,000.00. However, for only $5,000.00 more, we could buy a five acre lot, almost twice the space. They proposed buying the lot, and sub-dividing, selling us two and a half acres for half the price. Not only that, but since they had the cash in the bank to buy, instead of having to finance it through the developer, we would receive a ten percent discount on the purchase price. That brings our half of the land down to $16,200.00. Our monthly payments will be less than we are paying for where we are now.

We're still working out the details of this arrangement, but last Friday we put a deposit on the land. We also have an option to buy out their share of the land in the future.

All we need now is to prepare to start building. We'll have to run power and water about 800 feet to the spot where we are going to build, and add another septic tank, since we are sub-dividing the land. Once that is done, we can start to build.

We need people who are willing to partner with us on this project, and church groups that would be willing to come help us build. Please pray with us for God to move upon people's hearts to partner with this work, and to help build this ministry center. If God should move upon your heart to partner with us, we would greatly appreciate it. As you have seen from our previous newsletters, this ministry is good soil, and you WILL reap a harvest.

-- WEB SITE --

Our web site, which has been online has been growing and growing. We are now at a total of 451 pages! If someone was to print all of the teachings on our web site, in both English and Spanish, it would amount to over 1,700 printed pages!

Not only is it growing in size, but in impact as well. We had been running an average of 14,000 visits per month (that's not "hits," or pages, that's number of people who visit). But, in March, we jumped up to 22,244 visits! That was quite a jump! These people are coming from all over the world to receive of the teachings we have online.

We've been working hard to improve our web site. Just recently we've changed the backgrounds to make it more readable, redone the directory pages to make them easier to navigate, and redone the site map. We are currently working on updating the technology we are using to reduce download times.

-- DOLLAR CAMPAIGN --

When we found our that our web site had over 22,000 visitors in March, a missionary friend said, "Just think what you could do if you had one dollar for each of those people."

God grabbed hold of that line and got me thinking about it. There are a number of things we do in the ministry, specifically on the missions field, that cost one dollar. Following the leading of the Holy Spirit, I wrote something entitled "What can $1 do?" and have put it on the web, with connections from lots of our pages online. Take a moment to look at it, you can find it at:
   http://www.MaranathaLife.com/dollar.htm

Let me say that it has always been a principle of this ministry that we do not beg for money. However, I believe that the Lord led me to write this. We have been working here in Mexico for over five years, living on what we receive from the few supporters we have, and the $20.00 to $40.00 offerings we receive for preaching in Mexico. If this ministry is going to grow to the point that the Lord wants it to, it's time for our support base to increase.

What about you? Can you commit to support us for $1.00 a month? It's not much, but it does make a difference in what we're doing here in Mexico.

-- PRAYER MOVEMENT --

There are two great pieces of news for the prayer movement:

First of all, we're having our second citywide prayer rally in the baseball park in Reynosa, Mexico. Last year we were part of the organizational committee, but not one of the prime organizers. However, this year, we have become one of the prime organizers of this event. Please pray for God's grace, wisdom, and help as we try and bring this together.

The second thing is that the prayer movement has moved to another city. We have just started holding monthly citywide prayer meetings in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico (about 150 miles from here). I had talked to the pastors about this, and they've really grasped hold of the vision to see their city transformed through prayer.

-- NEW BOOK --

We've just published our 40th book, entitled "Comó Está Tu Capacidad Para Recibir?" (What's Your Capacity to Receive?). This small book deals with the subjects of faith and obedience, and how the two go hand in hand to give us the ability to receive from God.

Although this book isn't printed in English, the entire contents are available online at: http//www.MaranathaLife.com/teaching/receive.htm

-- MAFIA GUNMAN SAVED! --

There's been a lot in the news here lately about the gunmen that the mafia and drug traffickers have sent to the border towns to declare war on the police. Many people are afraid to go into Mexico at night, and there have been quite a number of killings.

When people ask me if I'm afraid, I tell them "no." First of all, if I can't trust God to protect me, what in the world am I doing serving him. Secondly, I'm not done doing all that God has told me to do, so my time isn't up yet. Thirdly, I have to die sometime. If I'm going to die eventually, I want it to be serving God, not hiding in fear.

On Sunday, May 8th, we were ministering in the church "Pilar de Esperanza" (Pillar of Hope) in Reynosa, Mexico. This is one of the churches under our covering, with pastors Geralso and Sara Cortez. Because the church has outgrown the building, they are meeting outdoors, under a palapa (a traditional palm leaf roof).

While I was preaching, a half-drunk man came up behind me. I thought he was just looking for a handout, so tried to ignore him, and go on. The pastor, who had previously been the pastor in the jail, and was accustomed to working with criminals, took him aside, and along with a couple of other men from the church, started to talk to him. They managed to get him to stay until the end of the service.

When I did the altar call, one of the men asked this man if he would like to come forward, and he did. He asked for help to get rid of the drinking problem he had. I bound the spirit of alcoholism, and prayed for him to be delivered. Then I explained salvation to him, and led him to receive Jesus.

It wasn't until after he received the Lord, and I hugged him that I realized he had a pistol concealed under his shirt. He told me that he had been a mafia gunman, and was drinking to forget the things he had done.

Praise the Lord that this man is a new creation in Christ, and doesn't need to worry about the past any more!

-- FAMILY NOTES --

Of course, everyone here is excited about the land and that we are finally going to be able to get out of the motorhome and into a house. After eight and a half years, we're all tired of the cramped space and the lack of privacy.

Jenni just finished her first year of college. She's glad to have the summer months to breathe a bit, although she says it feels a little bit strange to not have to be running all the time. She has now completed one and a half years of college, even though she's only attended for one year. That's because of the 12 credit hours she had before she started.

We've decided to graduate Josh from high school a year early. He's already completed everything that he needs, and is working on college calculus and physics. So, he'll be able to start college this fall. He's looking forward to it, especially the music classes.

Both Josh and Rebekah will be helping short-term missions groups this summer as interpreters. They did their first group over spring break, and really enjoyed it. there are three different missions organizations that are talking to them about interpreting, so it looks like they'll have a very busy summer.

Praise the Lord for everything He is doing. Please keep praying for us, and please pass the word on to others about all that God is doing here on the Texas/Mexico border. More than anything, we covet your prayers.

Blessings in Jesus,

Rev. Rich Murphy