February Ministry Update

Dear praying friends,

Since the last time we communicated with you in early December, many things have happened that we need to catch you up on. We had a wonderful Christmas season as most of Susan’s family was able to visit us here. Since Susan’s parents were able to fly up from Chile to spend several weeks here, Karen (Susan’s sister) and Andrew were able to come as well as David (her brother) and Kristin. As usual, we enjoyed playing all kinds of brass arrangements and singing in groups.

One thing that made David and Kristin’s visit extra special was that it also functioned as a sort of survey trip. When Tom and Kim Chapman arrived three years ago, they were planning to be here for only one year. After that year they were going to return to raise support (their salary had been paid by our home church, Tri-City Baptist Church). Various ministry needs resulted in Tom and Kim staying here for three years. Next year, they will finally be traveling in the United States to raise support. That meant that we needed someone to take their place. David and Kristin offered to come take their place next year. While we will miss Tom and Kim, we are thankful and excited to have David and Kristin here to take their place. Please pray for David and Kristin as they are seeking to raise some short-term support to help with their expenses while they are here. Also pray for Tom and Kim as they seek to raise support next year. As you know, the economic situation in the United States does not make this a prime time to raise support, but we trust that our Lord truly owns the cattle on a thousand hills.

At the mission in Santa Mónica we had another exciting development during December. We have been asking you to pray for a property for the mission. The owner of the house we have been meeting in approached Pastor Montes and asked if we would be interested in paying him the amount of money he had put into the house and taking over the payments. The church was able to purchase the house and now we are making the payments on the house. Our plans are to remodel the current property and make it a small auditorium. If we could then rent the house next door to the mission, we would use that for children’s classes. Eventually we would like to purchase that house to join the two properties.Pray that the Lord will provide for each phase (payments, remodeling, rent and future purchase). Just as He has already answered prayers, we are confident that He will continue to do so.

We are having a good semester at the university. Virtually all of our students returned after Christmas break, which is a blessing in the midst of these difficult economic times. Last week we had our spiritual emphasis week with the theme ‘Walking with God’. We were thankful to see the Lord stirring the hearts of the students and calling them to a deeper and fuller walk with God. As we look to the future, Ü please pray for our annual Harvest Rally, which will be held on Saturday, March 6th. Please pray for the weather, the promotion and most of all the preaching of God’s Word.

Please pray that the Lord will allow us to raise a bit more support during our update trip this summer. We are currently at 80% of our targeted support level. As we did our annual review of our finances (thanks to the IRS), we had opportunity to thank our Lord for His faithful provision for us and for the faithful supporters that He has given us. Our personal and church support was very consistent. We are grateful for your faithfulness.

May the Lord continue to richly bless you.

The Bixbys

November Update

This is an email update I sent out that I forgot to post on the blog. Here it is, just in case anyone wants to read it. :-)

Dear ministry partners,

Thank you for your prayers on our behalf. We are extremely thankful for them, especially at crucial times in our ministry. I would like to share a few things with you that require your prayers at this point in time.

1) The H1N1 influenza continues to be a major development in Mexico. We are thankful that our student body has not been greatly affected by this virus. Although we had one town student infected with the H1N1, he has been recovering nicely. We are grateful that he did not spread the virus to anyone else. Although the evidence seems to suggest that it isn’t much more contagious or dangerous than the regular flu, an almost irrational panic still grips many parts of Mexico. The Education and Health Departments are openly suggesting that classes could be cancelled again (as they were last April) beginning as early as November 15th. Losing a month of classes would be very detrimental to the university ministry. This cancellation would be a significant academic and financial problem. Please pray with us that classes will not be canceled.

2) This summer we are hoping to visit several new churches in an attempt to raise more support. I have been reminded again of how difficult it is to schedule services in new churches. My heart goes out to those who are just starting the deputation trail. Since we try to be away from Mexico only in the summers, our options for scheduling new churches are quite limited. Please pray that we will be able to schedule some into our very limited summer calendar and that the Lord would lead us to churches that would be able and willing to support our family.

3) Next week we will be hosting a group of two pastors and one businessman that are coming to get to know UCLA’s ministry here. Please pray that this will be a profitable time for them and for us.

4) In December (10th-12th) we will be hosting a mini Harvest Rally in Santa Mónica, the neighborhood in which we are involved in planting a church. Please pray for the preparations for that evangelistic event. One significant issue at that time of year is the weather. Although this is Mexico, the weather can still be quite cold and rainy in December. Pray that the weather will be nice and that many people will hear and believe the Gospel. We are also continuing to seek out a new location to meet. We have been surprised at how expensive property can be in that area of town. We have been reminded of our absolute dependence on our great God in this matter.

In addition to these prayer requests, we are thankful for the way the Lord has allowed our translation ministry to develop. Through some unusual situations, we are now in the midst of translating the Kids4Truth materials into Spanish. Elisabet continues to work on several other materials, including the ProTeens materials (Milk, Meat, Bread, Fish).

Our family continues to busily serve, grow and play. The last few weeks the children have been a bit sick due to the seasonal colds and such. Thankfully, the H1N1 hasn’t appeared in our household! This Christmas we are looking forward to having some of Susan’s family members, including her parents that will be arriving from Chile.

Thank you for your prayers on our behalf. We are continually more aware of our need of your prayers and our dependence on God.

Lord bless,
The Bixby Family

December Update

December 3, 2009

Dear Ministry Partners,

Thank you so much for your prayers on our behalf. The Lord has made me more aware of our need of your prayers. We are grateful for those of you who take us before the Lord on a regular basis.

In regards to our ministry here in Monterrey, we are finishing up another semester, one that has absolutely flown by. We are thankful for the unusual ways we have seen the Lord work in the students’ lives. As you may remember, Susan is teaching a Bible class for the young women. She has been using the book Disciplines of a Godly Woman. At the same time, I have been teaching a class for the men, using Disciplines of a Godly Man. The Lord has truly used these classes in the hearts and lives of the men and women. Many of them have evidenced surprising and dramatic change. I have thought often of Ephesians 3:20-21. In the context of spiritual growth, Paul writes, “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.” God has truly given exceeding and abundant spiritual growth, beyond what we had thought possible in the lives of some of our students. For this we are grateful.

We have also been thankful for renewed contact with some of our theology graduates. Jonathan Latham, a co-laborer, was invited to preach at a missions conference in Ciudad Sahagún, Hidalgo. The church is a re-start pastored by a university graduate, Joselino Hernández. They had invited a missionary, Ignacio Salazar, to come to the missions conference in order to take him on for support. Ignacio, also a university graduate, is planting several churches in small mountain towns in the state of Oaxaca. In spite of ministering in the midst of unreached people groups in Mexico, the Lord has been blessing Ignacio’s ministry greatly. Ignacio is sent out by another church in the capital city of Oaxaca which is pastored by Emanuel Sidronio, also a university graduate. We were thrilled to see how the Lord brought that together. A university graduate who is a church planting missionary being sent out by a church pastored by a university graduate and supported by another university graduate who is involved in a church re-start. Truly God is using the university to plant local churches all over Mexico.

But God is not using university graduates only in Mexico. Our church here in Monterrey, Genezareth Baptist Church, recently held a missions conference. At the missions conference, the key note speaker was Krim Lahsinat, who holds an associate’s degree from the university. He is a missionary in French Guyana. Also at the conference was Enrique Rodriguez (a church planting missionary in the state of Guerrero) and Jesús Alanis, a missionary to Ecuador. Please pray for Jesús and Edith. Originally Jesús and Edith were planning to leave for Ecuador at the beginning of November. Edith is pregnant and having significant difficulties with her pregnancy. These difficulties made them have to postpone their departure date until after the baby is born. This is Edith’s second pregnancy, and her first pregnancy was very difficult as well. Please pray for them during this time.

This weekend we had planned on holding a mini-Rally in the neighborhood where we are involved in church planting (Santa Mónica). However, the weather has turned quite nasty. With temperatures dropping to freezing and with the possibility of snow in the forecast (and we live in MEXICO!), we knew that it was wise to postpone the Rally until a later date. While we were disappointed, we also believe this will allow us to do a better job with follow-up. With Christmas vacation around the corner, we would not have been able to follow-up with new converts as well as we would have liked. Please pray that we will have wisdom in selecting a new date.

For those of you who still receive a printed version of this letter, we will be discontinuing the ‘snail mail’ side of our ministry updates. Please send me an email (mbixby@tcmissions.org) so that we can continue to send you our prayer requests and praises.

As we approach the Christmas season, we are grateful for Christ’s birth, which is such Good News that we must ‘tell it on the mountain’, in the cities, in the pueblos, to every tongue, tribe kindred, and nation. Thank you for allowing us to have a part in spreading the Gospel message in Monterrey, in Mexico, in Latin America and around the world.

Serving the King of glory,

The Bixby Family

Who is He in yonder stall
At Whose feet the shepherds fall?
Who is He in deep distress,
Fasting in the wilderness?

’Tis the Lord! O wondrous story!
’Tis the Lord! the King of glory!
At His feet we humbly fall,
Crown Him! crown Him, Lord of all!

Students who help at our mission

Children's class at the mission

September/October Prayer Letter

Dear partners in the Lords work,

The Lord has greatly blessed us in the past few months as we have finished up one school year and headed into another one. The end of the past school year was quite eventful due to the onset of the H1N1 virus. Classes were cancelled for several weeks, resulting in a cancellation of our annual pastors conference. The H1N1 virus proved to not be as dangerous as initially feared, and we have returned to normal activity. Because of an unusual calendar that the Mexican Department of Education has imposed on universities here in Mexico, we ended up having several different graduations. Between preparatory and university we had 31 graduates. Here are the church music and pastoral theology graduates.

(For more photos of the different graduations, please click here and here.) We are thankful for the way the Lord has allowed us to be a part in shaping a new generation of servant leaders.

This summer was much busier than we had anticipated. With university classes not ending until the end of July (once again, due to the Department of Education), we continued with a busy schedule even during the summer months. In addition to the usual activities, we had several mission teams that we hosted. The Bob Jones Mexican Mission Team was here for about a week. We also hosted a small group of people from Inter-City Baptist Church. As usual, we greatly enjoyed our time with that group. During the month of August, I was scheduled to be at two conferences. Although one of them was cancelled, the other one was a great blessing. I taught three 2 hour sessions to the Sunday School teachers of Iglesia Bautista Emanuel in Poza Rica, Veracruz, where Ivan Garca, a university graduate, is the assistant pastor.

University classes started up again the first full week of September.Because of the worldwide financial crisis, we were unsure how our enrollment would do this year. As students began to arrive we were grateful to see that we had one of our largest enrollments ever.

Please pray that the Lord will help the students as they grow in their walk with God and develop their gifts. One of the new aspects of the university ministry this year has to do with a translation ministry.Spanish-speaking churches have a great need of quality, doctrinal, God-centered material. We hope to help provide some of those materials through a translation ministry. One of our university graduates, Elisabet Piqueras, is working on translating good materials into Spanish.

Her first translation project is the Milk, Meat, Fish, and Bread books published by Positive Action for Christ. This material, geared for young people, perfectly complements the universitys focus on young people. Although the university will pay most of her salary, we need to raise another $1500 to pay the rest of her salary for the year.

If you would be interested in helping with this project, please contact me at mbixby@tcmissions.org.

After discussing our church planting ministry at Santa Mnica with Pastor Julio Montes, we are ready to pursue the next step in that ministry. Please pray as we aggressively seek to find a new location that will be large enough to hold Sunday services. Please pray that the Lord will provide the funds and lead us to the exact location.

(Pictured here is our current location.)

After a year of homeschooling, our children are attending the church school. They are greatly enjoying the renewed contact with many of their friends from when they were in the school two years ago. Please continue to pray for Aaron, Ana and David as we seek to teach them to love God above all things. Family life is always busy, and this semester will be extra-busy. This semester the Lord has allowed Susan to teach a Bible class to the young ladies at the university, as well as leading a Bible study for some of the church ladies on Wednesday mornings. Please pray for her as she takes on these additional avenues of ministry.

Next summer we will be visiting several of our supporting churches.

We also are seeking to visit a few new churches as we need to raise more financial support. Between a 10% inflation rate and a growing family, the support we had raised eight years ago is no longer sufficient. Please pray with us in that regard.

For His Names Sake,

The Bixbys

Pictures from Tampico Conference

You can view pictures of our Tampico pastors conference at our co-workers blog: http://thegibsonsatucla.blogspot.com.

October Prayer Letter

October, 2008

Dear Friend and Supporters,

I have been recently reading in 1 Peter about the wonderful privileges that we have received in Christ. Because of the blessings of Christ, we can rejoice no matter what our circumstances are. As we reflect on God’s gracious mercy towards us, we can’t help but be filled with joy and gratitude.

I know that it has been several months since we have communicated with you. As you know, we traveled in the United States this summer. We were able to visit 10 supporting churches and 3 new churches. Please pray that the Lord will allow some of those churches to take us on for monthly support. The Lord has also provided for us financially in at least two ways. The first is that one of our supporting churches has increased our monthly support by $50. Another way the Lord has provided is by a momentary bump in the strength of the dollar. After having lost steam steadily for the last 4 or 5 years (though only to the tune of 15%--not like the 40% it has lost against the Euro), the dollar recently spiked back up about 10%. We are grateful for that. For us personally it would be wonderful if it stayed up or even went up a little bit higher. Through all of this, we are grateful that the Lord has promised to abundantly provide for our needs. He has done this and will continue to show himself faithfully generous towards us.

The school year began a bit later this year than is normal because of some changes the Education Department instituted. We got into full swing on September 8^th. We are grateful for the new students the Lord has brought this year. Although enrollment was down a little bit this year, we are thankful for the strong group of men the Lord brought to us, and for a small increase in enrollment in the theology program. Pray that we will be instruments in the Redeemer’s hands in the lives of these students.

Last week the Lord allowed us to travel to Tampico (a city on the Gulf of Mexico) to be part of a pastor’s intensive course (a three day modular class for pastors). We were excited about the attendance of 35 pastors and church leaders. This is the third pastor’s intensive course we have held and it was the best attendance. The pastors were very excited to receive the additional instruction they crave. Many pastors expressed their appreciation for the biblical focus and depth of teaching.

Pray for our mission church in Santa Monica. We are still asking the Lord to provide a location for Sunday services. We are excited about a few new things we are wanting to implement this year. Pray for the discipleship of the believers, particularly Gabriel. The Lord has been doing some wonderful things in him and his family. Pray that the renewed hunger for the things of God can be nurtured and developed further.

Our children continue to grow. Aaron and Ana are doing school work with Kim Chapman (our sister-in-law). They are enjoying that greatly. While we were in Tampico, Ana had a little accident while we were playing soccer one afternoon. She tripped and went head first into a column, resulting in a trip to the emergency room to stitch up her forehead. Pray that the wound will heal cleanly, leaving as little scar as possible. We are thankful for the birthdays our children have in the fall. David turned two on September 20^th, and Ana will turn 5 on October 28^th.

Thank you for your prayers and support. We need them as we serve God here in Monterrey.

Engaged in His service,

The Bixby Family

The Lord our Shield

Psalm 115:11 Ye that fear the LORD, trust in the LORD: he is their help and their shield.

As most people who follow the news are probably aware of, Mexico is suffering a wave of drug related violence that has resulted in the death of thousands of people. You can Google “Mexico drug deaths” and catch up on the latest news. As the Mexican army has been cracking down on the drug cartels, the violence has increased dramatically. Police, rival drug gangs and soldiers are all fair targets. During this phase, the drug cartels have diversified their tactics. Recently the Mexican nave seized a submarine loaded with cocaine (click here fore the full story). Another tactic they have begun using is kidnapping. Thousands of kidnappings have taken place. Many of them are high profile (like the coach of one of the professional soccer teams). Most of the murders and kidnappings only affect people that are either in the drug world, fighting the drug world or are extremely rich. That means that until now, we have not felt in sort of danger or threat. However, the result of the inability of the police to do anything about the high profile kidnappings has resulted in a wave of small-time kidnappings all around Mexico.

This has become a matter of concern for us here in Monterrey. Just a few weeks ago, the cousin of one of our staff members was kidnapped. After beating him and using the contacts in his cell phone, they kidnapped about 5 more of his family members and co-workers. Several days later they were released after their families and businesses had paid a significant ransom. During the time there were there, several police men came by to talk to the kidnappers to make sure everything was ok.

Just a few days ago, one of our graduates and staff members was driving a van he wanted to sell. A man approached him and asked if he could test drive it. The man drove the van to a shop, supposedly to have a friend look at it. When they arrived at the shop, two men came out with guns and knives. After tying up and beating him and the teenager that was with him (the son of another staff member), they forced him to write a check. They went to the bank and cleared out his checking account. For about three hours they held them, attempting to get more money out of them. Finally convinced that they didn’t have any more money, they released them, taking a new laptop that Luis had recently bought. Thankfully and surprisingly, they didn’t steal the van as well.

These “express kidnappings” do present a real threat to the average person here in Monterrey at this time. Since most people will not report these kinds of incidents to the police (because they fear revenge and because the police may be involved), the likelihood of these men getting caught is almost non-existent. My current opinion is that they are still not brave enough to kidnap Americans. It is too high profile. They are primarily interested in quick, low-risk kidnappings. However, this could change. Please pray for safety (for us and the believers) here in Monterrey and in other areas of Mexico.

The following is quoted from an article on BBC’s website:

“Whereas the 2,000 or so drug-related murders this year do not generally raise much concern among the public, kidnappings do. And not just high-profile ones either. Many people here can relate their own experiences of something that has been called "express" kidnappings. These are the opportunistic random abductions from the street, where people are driven or frogmarched to cash machines and forced to empty their accounts.”

Even in these situations, we see the Lord’s protection. He is our shield. He is still in control. The Lord demonstrated that in several ways during the van incident I related earlier. Apart from a few bruises, they were not seriously harmed. The van was not stolen. The kidnappers heard the Gospel clearly presented on several occasions during the three hours. Another exciting thing is to see how the teen has responded to this situation. The Lord seems to really be using it in his life.

Ultimately we know that our fate is not in the hands of violent criminals or drug lords. We are shielded by the Lord.

Psalm 33:20 Our soul waiteth for the LORD: he is our help and our shield.

Psalm 5:12 For thou, LORD, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield.