Wednesday, November 15, 2006

•   Hi. It’s nice to hear from you. It’s wonderful to hear how the Lord is blessing the church, and us individually through the church.

  
  I’ve been doing well, though for the last few days have been pretty well down with a bad cold. The fever’s down, but I’m still coughing up these ugly yellow globs, and feel a nap coming on every few hours.

  
  We had a good Bible study last night in San Felipe, the new area we’re trying to start a work. Actually, it is in the colonia San Jose lo Alto, which is one of about 25 colonias in that area. It’s hard to describe the way this city is expanding; it’s virtually exploding up the sides of the surrounding mountains, and overflowing into valleys between. A few years ago, in order to say that the city had a million inhabitants, one had to qualify it by saying that included surrounding communities. Now people say it has two million without blinking. There’s a wide field open to bring the gospel

  
  A few weeks ago I was at the house of some friends, the Guzmán’s, and they were telling me about how hard La Cañada and Hércules were against the gospel, and how a guy had been stoned and later deported for preaching there about 40 years ago. A couple weeks later, Any Guzmán told me that she’d run into that man in a park downtown. Last Wednesday I met him. He’s an American missionary who sort of pioneered efforts here in Querétaro. He did get deported, and served in missions for many years in Venezuela, but he returned here about seven years ago. (The deportation came after a picture of him smashing an idol of Mary ran in newspapers all over the country. He told me that it was another guy who got stoned.) I spent an afternoon with him in a village, doing some calling, and it was an interesting time.

  
  I’m on tap to preach next Sunday in Spanish, at a little congregation that does not yet have a building, meeting under a roof right on the edge of town, next to the roaming cactus. So you might pray for me, that God’s word would be accurately taught.

  
  As far as spiritual nourishment, it’s not like home, but I’ve had some wonderful times in the word, and before leaving had formed a habit of listening to internet sermons, so it’s far from starvation. One thing that especially helps me dig in is the prospect of teaching or preaching, and those times when I can do so in Spanish seem particularly joyous; almost seems like it’s just what the Lord had in mind. What a privilege to share His word.

  
  Please bring me, and especially the preaching, up for prayer tonight. I keep thinking I need to update that Xanga site, and one impediment is, that all the things I’m doing seem so normal and natural that there’s nothing special to post. On the other hand, maybe I’ll just post this reply.

  
  God bless you, and keep up those prayers.

  
  Jim

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