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