Activities for 2008

There's always a danger of becoming complacent in ministry, of becoming satisfied, but for the wrong things and for the wrong reasons. This past year has been tremendously rewarding in so many ways...we grew a lot as a group, saw people saved every couple weeks, and did new and creative activities to reach our community.

Among these creative ideas: A community trash pick-up campaign (three times last summer), free English classes year-round, with intensive English classes every day when we have visitors from the U.S., free high speed Internet for young people to help with their homework, sports ministry (basketball and soccer) for a week over the summer, evangelistic outreaches that included different elements, such as interpretive dance, a karate exhibition and a kids drama, a children's outreach that included songs with motions/dance and a puppet presentation, serenades for different people's birthdays, etc...etc...

This year we plan to do the community clean-up campaign (complete with shirts that have the church logo on the back and "Do the Same in Your Life" on the front) every two months.

We will be preaching through the book of Genesis from Janaury to the beginning of June, then a focus on end-time events (Daniel and Revelation) starting the end of the year. Martin will be helping preach the book of Genesis, a book that he enjoys.

During this year we again will be hosting many visitors. Brigam, our church mascot, returns January 21 for 10 days. Ty, a student from Praire Bible College in Calgary, arrives this Saturday and will be here for 3 months. The internship program continues to grow, and I'm sure this year we'll have another bumper crop of students, who always bring a whole lot of energy. We also expect a group from our home church, Word of Life Chapel, in August, and potentially a church from Calvary Fellowship Church in Downingtown, PA, this fall.

Mayra is even as I write meeting with Aurora and Blanca, two ladies in the church, to coordinate the women's activities for this year...they will be studying a Beth Moore study in Spanish of course.

I continue to serve on the board of the Puebla Bible Seminary and am part of a committee that is the beginnings of a mission board for Mexicans called FAMEX.

Anyway...we don't want to become complacent, we want to continue to grow as a church and keep reaching the half-million people in this area of the city. That means we'll need to look for a new property/place to meet, because we hardly fit where we currently meet, but I'm sure God can do that, I just have no idea at this point how!