Spoudason

February Ministry Update

2010-02-22T17:19:00.002-06:00

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

2009-12-08T11:35:00.000-06:00

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

2009-12-04T10:02:00.005-06:00

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

2009-10-05T12:01:00.005-05:00

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 h ere 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

2008-10-07T13:05:00.002-05:00

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

October Prayer Letter

2008-10-07T13:02:00.000-05:00

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

2008-08-15T10:25:00.002-05:00

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.

Home at last

2008-08-15T10:20:00.000-05:00

We have been home now for about two weeks. We are grateful for the protection the Lord gave us during our time away. We traveled about 9,037 miles during our time away. Our van did wonderfully, and, as we explained before, the Lord provided in a marvelous way for our financial needs. Thank you for praying for us.

We are busily preparing for the next school year. Because of government regulations (changes they have made in our calendar year), we are starting our school year in three different waves this year. The first wave (a small group) begins classes on August 18^th (these are the students that are still in the semester program). The next wave comes in on August 25^th. Those would be the Pastoral Theology and Church Music students. Finally, the largest group of students will arrive on September 8^th (the trimester students). We will be having in-service the week before that. We also will be having some strategic planning meetings with our key personnel on August 28-29. Pray for our students and staff this year. Many of our students and staff will be having year-around school. This is because of what the government has done. Pray that we will have wisdom and strength to last!

Yesterday we started a three-day VBS at our mission. We had a good turnout (approximately 60 kids). We were really excited about how the Lord controlled the weather for us. Without explaining all the meteorological conditions of Monterrey, let’s just say that it should have been raining where we were. But the Lord held it off until right at the end (and even then it didn’t rain hard). At one point, it was raining on the front of the property (where we have a tin roof) where one class was going on, but was not raining on the other side of the house (where there is no roof). This lasted for about 15 minutes or so. Right when the teacher finished the lesson it finally started raining in the back! Only the Lord could do that. He manifests His greatness in so many ways

My friend, Matthew Hoskinson

2008-07-13T21:54:00.002-05:00

As some of you know, Matthew Hoskinson (a dear friend from college days) was recently diagnosed with cancer. It has been a blessing to read about how the Lord has been blessing, teaching and enabling him during this difficult time of his life. You can read about it to at his blog: http://debtortograce.blogspot.com.

I am sure that he would appreciate your prayers during this time.

Home Stretch

2008-07-13T21:44:00.002-05:00

The last few weeks have been full of joy, spending time with family (yes, they are the same!) and seeing friends. We have had the opportunity to spend time with Susan's family. One of the fun things we got to do was go to the lake and spend time on jet skis, tubes and boats. The kids absolutely love that. We also spent some time with my family, ending our time together by visiting my grandma in Virginia. We praise the Lord for the family we have .

On our travels we have been to Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, and now we are in Michigan. We have been spending a few days at Inter-City Baptist Church. They are one of the most active supporting churches a missionary could have. Every year since we have been in Monterrey, we have had a team from Inter-City visit us. This has allowed us to develop a special relationship with many people here. Our kids have been looking forward to seeing many of the friends (of course, they're all adults!) they have at Inter-City. We have been having some fun times!

On Wednesday, we will travel to South Bend, Indiana to be at Community Baptist. From there we will got to spend about a week with Mandy and Brent Olson, our Harvest Rally friends. The kids are looking forward to doing all kinds of fun things on the farm. From there we should be heading home (something else we are looking forward to as well).

A few pictures

2008-06-17T09:18:00.006-05:00

We are in Greenville right now, in between two weddings. On Saturday, David Chapman, Susan's younger brother got married. If you want to see what David really looks like, click here!)He married Kristin Alexander, a missionary kid from Brazil. Today, Karen Chapman, Susan's younger sister, is getting married. She is marrying Andrey Krape. David and Kristin will remain in Greenville as David will start grad school at BJ. Andrew and Karen are returning to PA, where Andrew is from. Please pray for them as they begin their journey together.

I am also attaching a few pictures from our travels. It has been fun to visit friends and family. First I will attach a few pictures from graduation.In this picture are Daniel and Angelo Salvatierra. Daniel graduated last year and is preaching in my father-in-law's absence at their church in Chile. Angelo graduated this May and will be returning to Chile in a few months.
Natán Abellán is from the church I grew up in Spain. He graduated this year and will be getting married in August. From there he will be headed up to Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary to pursue and advanced degree.
This picture is from Aaron's birthday celebration in Mexico with his classmates. It's hard to believe that we have a son that is six years old!
Chris and Amanda George are good friends from college. We got to see them in Jefferson City, MO., where they live. Fun times!

This is David, enjoying an ice cream cone in McDonald's!

In this picture is one of our good friends Lisa Flower. Lisa is an MK from Spain that I grew up with. When she came to Bob Jones, Susan and Lisa became best of friends. We hadn't seen Lisa something like 10 years. Lisa has been serving the Lord at a Christian school in Guam for 11 years. We had a great time with her on Sunday night.

On the Road Still

2008-06-07T09:59:00.003-05:00

Today we are in Chicago, IL., visiting some of our friends, Will and Rachel Pareja. Will and Rachel were with us for several years in Monterrey, where Will was the men's dormitory supervisor. We are enjoying being with them.

Since leaving Monterrey, we have been in Kansas City (at our home church), Jefferson City (where we caught up with our friends from college, Chris and Amanda George), Rockford, IL (at supporting church Morning Star Baptist where my cousin Bob pastors), Northland Baptist Bible College (where I took a class on Apologetics) and now to Chicago. We are grateful that we don't live in Chicago. Yesterday we got stuck for 2 hours on I-94. Our Garmin (my new toy :-) ) said that we should arrive about 4:06 (when we were 17 miles out). It took us over 2 hours to traverse the 17 miles and arrive at Will and Rachel's house! I believe we arrived at about 6:10. (I don't ever want to live in a big city... oh...wait...I live in a city of four million....never mind!)

Later today we will head to Pekin, IL, to visit our supporting church Faith Baptist. Then we will head to Greenville for family weddings. My brother-in-law (David Chapman) and sister-in-law (Karen Chapman) are getting married (no, not to each other) on the 14th and 17th of June. We will be in Greenville during that time where we will be at several supporting churches.

Please continue to pray for us as we travel. I would also like to thank the Lord for His wonderful provision for our gas expenses. As you all know well, the gas prices are hitting our wallets more than other years. While I can't share all the details, I am thankful for the Lord has provided in an unusual way to cover our gas expenses for the summer. Truly, our Lord is great and good.

While we have been on the road, Aaron turned six years old. I am grateful and thankful for the wonderful children that God has given us.

On the Road Again

2008-05-28T10:15:00.002-05:00

Well, we had graduation on Wednesday, May 21st. We graduated 21 young people this year, bringing the total number of graduates to almost 120 graduates. We are thrilled to see the growth the Lord has given many of them during their time at UCLA.

On Friday after graduation, we hit the road to travel to Kansas City, the first leg of our 9,000 mile long trip (maybe more). Today we will be presenting an update at Tri-City Baptist Church, our home church. We are thankful for their ministry to us for the past 8 years now (when we first came on staff at Tri-City).

On Friday we will go to Jefferson City to visit some college friends (Chris and Amanda George) and then up to Rockford, where we will be updating Morning Star Baptist (pastored by my cousin Bob). Then up to Northland for a class. From there we will make our way to Greenville (eventually) for some family weddings, back up to Michigan (with several stops in between) and Indiana and finally back home at the end of July.

Please pray for our travels and for our van.

Alumni Reunion

2008-04-18T09:39:00.004-05:00

One of the most exciting things about the Anniversary Conference that we had at UCLA last week happened on Wednesday night after the last service. 38 of the almost 100 graduates of the university went to Los Generales (a restaurant) to have a wonderful time of testimony and fellowship. It was wonderful to see the way that the Lord has continued to work in and through the lives of our graduates. We were able to see many fine Christian couples that had met and married as a result of UCLA. We were thrilled to hear from many in full-time Christian service.

We were also encouraged to see how the Lord was using some of those graduates that we might not have expected to go on serving the Lord. Each year as you look at the graduates walking across the stage, you wonder which ones of them will go on to serve the Lord and which ones will fall away. Sometimes there are certain graduates that you are almost certain will not last in the ways of the Lord. Yet at the reunion we were able to hear the testimony of several of those that we did not expect to make it. Now one of them is in charge of a mission church. Another one, who was the first student to ever be expelled from UCLA and later came back to finish, is now teaching the pre-school Sunday School class at his church. Simply amazing! God is a great God! He does his work in the hearts of men.

In this picture you can see the couples made of UCLA graduates.

This is a picture of most of the graduates who attended.

Conference Pictures

2008-04-14T10:02:00.006-05:00

Here is what the stage looked like. In the first picture, Jesús Alanís, one of our graduates who is on his way to Ecuador as a missionary, is giving a testimony.

Here are pictures of some of the pastors that attended the conference. The second picture gives a view of the outside of the location where we had the conference.

These are the four staff members that have been with the university since inception. We praise the Lord for a decade of faithful service!

The choir and orchestra performed an adapted version of Dr. Gustafson's "Our Lord Emmanuel." Tom Chapman, my brother-in-law, directed it and did a wonderful job.

This is a group picture of the choir and orchestra members.

I just loved the picture, so I had to post it. You can see Jonathan Latham, our new co-worker, playing his French horn.

Anniversary Conference

2008-04-14T09:55:00.000-05:00

We are praising the Lord for the wonderful few days we had last week as we celebrated the 10 years the Lord has given the University. The conference speakers were Dr. Horn, David Cortés, Noé Mendoza, Pastor Herbster, Pastor Montes (all board members) and Flay Allen and Dr. Garlock. The Lord allowed us to hear wonderful preaching and teaching from these men. Here are some of the highlights of the conference.

*One afternoon, we had some of the people that had been involved in the University when it started gather in a conference room and reminisce about some of the wonderful things the Lord had done as the concept of the university here in Monterrey was conceived and birthed. Reminiscing about the wonderful things God has done give great confidence for the future. This session was recorded on video, and we hope to have it available for people to watch in the (near?) future.
*The university choir and orchestra performed a slightly modified rendition of Dr. Gustafson's "Our Lord Emmanuel" on Tuesday night.
*Tuesday night, Dr. Herbster gave special pins to all the board members and faculty/staff that were in attendance. Dr. Herbster received a special platter thanking him for his 10 years of leadership.
* On Wednesday night the staff members that were had been with the university since it started were honored with special plaques and gifts. We also gave special gifts to Dr. Horn, Dr. Garlock and Flay Allen in appreciation for their involvement in the university when things were just getting started.

Thank you for praying for us during these busy, busy days. We saw the rich blessing of God poured out on our lives during this time.

Back at Home in Monterrey

2008-03-27T09:34:00.002-06:00

After traveling approximately 3,500 miles, we have arrived back in Monterrey. We thank the Lord that the trip went well and the van held up. We are grateful that we could see family and friends, as well as being at a missions conference and Bible Conference. It was fun being at my 10 year class reunion at Bob Jones. Thank you for your prayers as we traveled.

We are busily preparing for our conference that will be celebrated April 7-9. Having been gone for several weeks, there is much to do in the next few days. We appreciate your prayers for that conference.

Why do we sin?

2008-03-19T12:01:00.002-06:00

A few days ago I saw an article on the internet published by Newsweek. The title of the article was "His Cheating Brain: Why do powerful men risk everything for sex?"

Without wasting time and bytes on Spitzer, as a Bible-believer I was saddened by the answers that the article provided. "It has to do with brain chemistry, evolution and, yes, testosterone." Sadly, those are the only answers that a godless society can provide. Those are the answers of a society built upon an evolutionary psychology that treats men as animals essentially, responding to uncontrollable primitive urges. If we accept the answers of psychology, we have no hope. I mean, come on, what's a guy doing to do? He has millions of years of evolutionary development urging him to spread his genes around. He's helpless.

Thankfully, we have a better answer. The answer to the question "Why do powerful men risk everything for sex?" is simple: man is a depraved moral agent that loves sin and sometimes pursues it no matter what the potential consequences may be. If we accept the biblical answer, we have hope. Our hope centers upon the transforming work of regeneration that the Spirit brings about in the hearts of men and women that put their faith in Christ and His cross work.

O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Rom. 7:24-25a) Christ delivers us from the body of death (our enslavement to sin).

Family Picture

2008-03-13T19:33:00.003-06:00

We just had a family picture taken here in Greenville. As usual, that was a lot of fun! :-) But thankfully we got a pretty good picture. We plan to use it for new prayer cards this summer.

We are enjoying our time here with the grandparents. We are also looking forward to Bible Conference and my class reunion next week at Bob Jones.

Missions Conference

2008-03-06T15:49:00.003-06:00

Last night was the closing service for the missions conference at Oakwood Baptist Church. We had a wonderful time with the church people and staff as well as with the other missionaries. The Lord stirred our hearts for ministry and missions as we were there. The people at the church were wonderful and extremely service oriented. I don't know how many people came up to me to ask if we needed anything. One practice that they had at the missions conference which was wonderful was the "host family" idea. This host family helped us by meeting us before each service, taking our children to the nursery, picking them up after the services, watching them while we were talking to other people, etc. Sometimes it is very difficult to talk to other people while you have to watch your kids run around the church lobby! We absolutely loved that program and our host family, Chris and Lisa Traynor. We also enjoyed spending time with my sister and brother-in-law, Hannah and Vic Irving. Vic is the youth pastor, and everybody seemed to love Pastor Vic and Miss Hannah. We were certainly blessed by our time at Oakwood.

One of the missionaries that was at Oakwood was Tom Kweder, representing ROGMA International. ROGMA is a free correspondence course ministry that has materials in many different languages. The materials seem to be top-notch quality. They were mostly written by fundamentalist pastor, Dr. William Piper (father of John Piper). Brother Kweder told me that they have 100,000 people at any time enrolled in the program. Each course has a lesson that is mailed to a grader who either passes or fails the student. Once the student has passed the course, they can go on to the next course. There are three different levels with 12 courses in each level. I am excited about getting more familiar with these resources and using them in Mexico.

We arrived at my parents house this afternoon. We are looking forward to a few days of a little bit more rest!

Thank you for your prayers during the travels. Everything went well (except for the three hour delay on the Texas-Louisiana border caused by an overturned tractor-trailer).

February Prayer Letter

2008-02-25T12:57:00.001-06:00

Dear Praying Friends,

Psalm 145:9-10 says: The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works. All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee. Truly we are needy of the mercies of our Lord! We are thankful for the way that the Lord has blessed us with His mercies. This year the university here will be celebrating it's 10th anniversary. During that time we have seen the Lord's tender mercies over and over again. As a family, we will be completing our sixth year here in Monterrey, and we also have many reasons to bless the Lord.

We also continue to need the Lord's blessing and mercy in facing several difficult circumstances related to the government. The first situation regards a new tax approved by the Mexican congress that will tax all private educational institutions at 17.5%. Apparently, many "non-profit" education institutions are only non-profit in name, resulting in serious financial gain for the owners. As is true of all governments, the Mexican government wants to get their taxes out of these schools. The law that they passed, however, seems to make no difference between schools that are truly non-profit and those that are non-profit only in name. Obviously we would find it very difficult to continue functioning if we lost that large a percentage of our revenue. Increasing tuition is not an option for two reasons: 1) the law specifically forbids schools from passing this tax to the consumer by raising tuition, and 2) our students couldn't pay that much more tuition than they are already paying. We are working with legal experts on this subject to find a way around this. Although we are fairly optimistic, there is also the possibility of having to take legal action along with other non-profit schools (since this law is clearly unconstitutional). Pray that it will not come to this, and that a solution can be found quickly.

At the same time, the education department of our state is requiring all universities to follow the same calendar year. And the calendar year they are requiring for schools that use the system we use would result in having to have classes all year (with only four weeks of vacation--two at Christmas and two at Easter). This presents serious problems for our ministry. 1) We want our students to be free during the summer to work at their churches, camps, etc., 2) our operational costs would increase by about 10%, and 3) There could be significant burnout amount students and staff. After addressing this issue with the education department, humanly speaking there is little that we can do. They have been very firm on this requirement. Please pray that the Lord will change the hearts of the education department or that we will find ways that we can properly address the situation. We know that our Lord's mercies extend even to the actions of secular governments, and we are confident that His will is certain to be carried out.
We also request your prayers for a trip we will be embarking upon this week. On Thursday (February 28th) we will be leaving Monterrey and driving to Anderson, S.C., to participate in a missions conference at Oakwood Baptist Church. With inflation in Mexico, two additional family members since we arrived in Mexico, and a few other situations, we are needing to raise a bit more support. Taking advantage of our Easter break in Mexico, we will be staying in the Greenville area through Bible Conference at Bob Jones, where I will be able to attend my 10 year class reunion (hard to believe!). We are looking forward to that. Please pray that the Lord's mercies will be upon us as we travel.

Our children are doing well. David continues to grow and is quickly beginning to talk. We (and only we) can distinguish quite a few words in his abundant jabbering! Aaron and Ana are also doing well. We are still considering schooling options for our children for next year, and we ask for your prayers in that regard.
Thank you for your prayers and support. May you continue to enjoy the tender mercies of our Lord.

The Bixby Family

Latest Accomplishments

2008-02-13T14:25:00.003-06:00

As you know, young children are constantly acquiring new skills and achieving new heights in their development. Aaron had a milestone this week as he lost his first tooth! He was very excited, and even more so when he was rewarded the next morning with money under his pillow (which he very skeptically allowed us to put there the night before). He has grown several inches, it seems, in the past few months, and is also doing very well in K5 learning to read.

Ana has also grown like a weed and is sort of learning to read--it just depends on her mood each day! She continues to use David as her number one subject in her "queendom." He's not very obedient, of course, but that doesn't seem to deter her at all.

David amazes us every day with the new words and sometimes even sentences that he tries to say. He "prays" for meals, asks for certain toys, books, and videos by name, and tells us he wants his diaper changed. But singing is an all-time favorite for sure. A friend recently sent the book "Old McDonald Has a Farm" and he has fallen in love with it and the song. Here is a sample for you to see. Enjoy!

Recent message from the American Consulate

2008-01-25T17:15:00.000-06:00

Recent increases in violent crime rates in Mexican regions sharing a border with the United States serve as a reminder that everyone should take an active role in their own personal security. U.S. citizens residing and traveling in Mexico should exercise caution when in unfamiliar areas and be aware of their surroundings at all times.

Violence by criminal elements affects many parts of the country, urban and rural. Visitors to the U.S. – Mexico border region, including cities such as Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, Nuevo Laredo, Nogales, Reynosa, Matamoros, and Monterrey, should remain alert and be aware of their surroundings at all times. Crime in Mexico continues at high levels, and it is often violent, especially in Mexico City, Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, Nuevo Laredo, Monterrey, Acapulco, and the state of Sinaloa. Other metropolitan areas have lower, but still serious, levels of crime. In its efforts to combat violence, the Government of Mexico has deployed military troops in various parts of the country. Military checkpoints increased in border areas in early 2008. U.S. citizens are advised to cooperate with official checkpoints when traveling on Mexican highways.

There is no evidence that U.S. citizens are specifically targeted because of their citizenship. However, American bystanders have been injured or killed in violent attacks, demonstrating the heightened risk in public places. The United States Government does not have any information about specific threats to American Citizens but would like to share a self-assessment questionnaire used by government employees to help you increase your own personal security.

Talking to a 14-month old

2007-12-12T10:30:00.000-06:00

A few days ago, David (our 14-month old) walked in to the kitchen and said, "Mama? Mama?"
Susan replied, "Yes, honey?"
David said, "Dada? Dada?"
Susan: "He's upstairs, honey."
David: "U'tairs."

David then proceeded to turn around and go up the stairs to find me.

As he walked away, Susan thought, "I just had a conversation with my 14-month old!"

Earthquake in Chile

2007-11-14T16:52:00.000-06:00

Many of you have probably heard about the 7.7 earthquake that rocked northern Chile earlier today. Some of you have asked about how my in-laws are doing. While the epicenter was only about 105 miles north of the city where my in-laws live (Antofagasta), there was very little damage in the city and to the homes of the people in the church. Although we have not been able to get through to them, my brother-in-law, Tim Chapman, who is a missionary in Peru, said that my in-laws are doing fine (as well as everyone in the church). We praise the Lord for his protection.

You can read up on the earthquake on CNN (where several of the first pictures of the earthquake are from Antofagasta), MSNBC, FOXNEWS, etc.

Times like these remind us of the story of the two men who built houses, one on the sand and the other on the rock. The ground on which Antofagasta is built is very stony. Several major earthquakes have struck the region (including an 8.0 in 1995) and brought about relatively little damage. In contrast, the 6.9 earthquake that hit San Francisco caused much destruction and many deaths. Remember that an 8.0 earthquake is many times stronger than a 6.9 earthquake. (While 7.0 earthquake has the same energy that an explosion involving 32 million tons of TNT, an 8.0 earthquake is the equivalent of 1 billion tons 0f TNT.) In spite of being hit by a much larger earthquake, the city on the rock stood firm.

Thank you for your prayers and concern.

Student Global Impact

2007-11-13T12:55:00.000-06:00

A few years ago, the Lord allowed me to be part of Student Global Impact, a missions conference for college age young people. The teaching, both practical and philosophical, was designed to help motivate and prepare a new army of missionaries for God's service. At the conference, the excitement and energy of the young people stirred my heart. Many young people are spiritually encouraged as the interact with other missions-minded young people from all over the US.

Years ago, student missionary groups were one of the engines that drove the missions movement in the US. Student Global Impact has the potential to be such an engine. I hope that many of you would consider attending or encouraging young people to attend SGI.

This year's conference will be held January2-4, 2008. You can get more information by going to the SGI website or by watching the following video.

Curso Intensivo

2007-11-06T12:04:00.000-06:00

The mini-module that we did in Saltillo went very very well. We were hoping for about 20 pastors. The first day we had about 15 pastors. The second and third day the number rose to about 22-23 men. We were excited not only about the attendance but at the wonderful spirit that was felt during those few days. We had a wonderful time interacting with godly men who manifested a tremendous thirst for sound teaching. Several times we had men comment on how they had never heard this kind of teaching. They mentioned that they were used to going to conferences but this was a different depth of teaching. We praise the Lord for the opportunity to make an impact on about 20 pastors who will in turn make a difference in the lives of hundreds of God's people throughout Saltillo and northern Mexico.

During the course we announced the creation of the Instituto de Ministerio Cristiano (the Institute of Christian Ministry). The Institute will have several different facets. The first one is a correspondence facet that will allow pastors who cannot attend the university to continue their preparation. University classes will be videotaped and sent to pastors. They will have quizzes and tests on the materials read and presented on video. Men signing up for this program will also have to physically attend at least one of the mini-courses. This will also allow some of the credits to be transferred in to the university, should they choose to attend the university.

Another facet will be similar to a three-year associates degree for men that do not have the academic background or the resources (time or money) to study the full college program. We have seen many pastors that were academically unable to attend (because they lack high school degrees) or handle the full load of classes (many pastor and work full-time jobs as well!). This program will be a little bit lighter but will allow them to work towards a degree.

The third facet will involve training lay people for ministry in local church ministry. We have a burden to provide training for our own students and other church members who want more instruction. Pray for wisdom and growth in this new ministry.

Cursos Intensivos (Intensive mini-courses)

2007-10-03T09:00:00.000-05:00

Thursday through Saturday, Dr. AJ Gibson, Russell Raymer and I will be in Saltillo, Coahuila, for an intensive mini-course specifically for pastors. Please pray that we will be a blessing as we minister to these men. I am still battling some kind of cough or sinus infection. Please pray that I will have the necessary energy to teach and preach for 3-4 hours each day. You can see the web-page that has been created for these courses by clicking here.

On Saturday afternoon, a group of young people from UCLA will come to Saltillo to carry out a youth rally. Pray that it will be a refreshing time and an opportunity for young people to hear the Gospel.

Pray for our families, as they will be staying behind. Debbie and Carena Raymer will be in Monterrey with Susan and the children. Ruth Gibson is in McAllen with AJ's parents.

Bravo David!

2007-09-26T21:02:00.000-05:00

David's latest accomplishment has been learning to clap, which he does anytime someone says, "Bravo!" (or "pat-a-cake") Check him out on this video clip taken today (9-26).

Birthday

2007-09-26T14:31:00.000-05:00

Although it seems hard to believe. David turned 1 last Thursday (Sept. 20th). We had a small party at our house with some university students and family and friends. We thank God for the wonderful children he has given us. The last one is very cute (much like his two older siblings). Here are several pictures.

Bugs, Viruses and the Flu

2007-09-15T14:02:00.000-05:00

That could pretty much sum up the past month in Monterrey. It seems like an unending procession of bugs, viruses and different strains of the flu keep going round and round. Sometimes it hits you like a cold, other times like the flu, then there is the vomiting and diarrhea version, and the sinus infection also makes its appearance. Tom and Kim Chapman (my brother-in-law) and their kids have had quite the go of it. At least one and usually more like 3 of them have been down with something or other for the last month. Some of them are on their second or third round.

In our family, Susan seems like the only that has escaped so far (though she has had some physical "ailments" of her own--more on that later!). David has had a cold for about a month. We finally took him to the doctor last week, but he couldn't see his eardrums. So we finally just started him on an anti-biotic today. While Aaron hasn't had his cold for as long, his drainage has turned quite dark, so he also is starting on an anti-biotic today as well. I have had headaches and congestion as well. So we decided to make it a threesome on the anti-biotic front. Ana has had a little cold but doesn't seem to be nearly as bad. She had the throw-up version of it a few days ago. She threw up twice on Monday night. We kept her home from school on Tuesday, but she seemed to be perfectly fine. It's possible that it wasn't really a bug, and that something didn't settle well.

As far as Susan, well...the church fellowship here in Monterrey started up a women's soccer league. The dormitory girls decided they wanted to have a team. Their first two games were lost by a combined score of 30-0, so they were needing some help. Since Susan played goalie in college, they asked her to help out. She played with them last Sunday night. They did quite well. They only lost 6-1. They finally scored their first goal and only allowed six, so they were really encouraged. Unfortunately, Susan had one big toe kicked and the nail came off. The other big toe also had some problems. Apparently her nails were too long and when she kicked a ball, it jammed her nail back into her toe. After several painful days she went to the foot doctor (I keep wanting to call him a pediatrician, but that's not quite right...) and had one toenail partially removed and the other one had to be drained. She had to go back today for a follow-up visit. (She's there right now.)

Anyway, that's been the story for the last several weeks. Hopefully everyone can get over these bugs, viruses and flu. :-)

Drug Wars

2007-08-27T21:36:00.000-05:00

I have blogged several times (here, here, and here) about the vicious drug war going on between various drug gangs and also with the military and police. Often times they are one and the same. Anyway, Time Magazine recently published an article entitled "The War Next Door," that focused on Monterrey. You may find it interesting. Click here to read the article. I described the murder of Marcelo Garza (which TIME's mentions) here. You can also see a picture gallery by clicking here. Here is one of the pictures.

In all fairness, it's not quite as bad as the article makes it sound (at least in our section of town, which is too poor to be home turf for rich gang members or corrupt police!).

Guess who's walking!

2007-08-25T09:30:00.001-05:00

In honor of the new feature that blogspot has available, I thought I'd try to post the first video clip.

15 minutes of rain

2007-08-24T15:51:00.000-05:00

After all that, 15 minutes of rain is all that mighty Hurrican Dean dumped on our part of Monterrey. On Tuesday night it rained about 10 minutes (very hard), and on Wednesday afternoon it rained about 5 minutes (not very hard). While some other areas of Monterrey got a bit more rain, it was nothing like what we were expecting. We are grateful for the Lord's protection. Please pray for other areas of Mexico that were hit quite hard.

Hurricane Dean

2007-08-21T11:01:00.000-05:00

Hurricane Dean is headed this way. Thankfully it seems to have taken a more southernly route than originally predicted, so it should miss us. For a full picture update on Dean and where we are, please check out the our co-worker's, AJ Gibson's, blog.

2007-08-14T15:40:00.000-05:00

Beginning of School Year and "Stuff"

We are already into our second week of school. We had a good spiritual emphasis week. With a strong emphasis on our service to God, we see our students ready and willing to be involved in God's work. So far we have been pleased with our enrollment. With 23 in Preparatoria and 28 in the University, we have reached our goal of 50 new students. We will also be seeing a few more students arrive in the next several days. While we would like all of our students to arrive on time, things don't always work that way!

About our "stuff," a few days ago, someone came into our front driveway area and stole our childrens' bikes. Ana and Aaron were quite devastated. They couldn't understand why it had happened. This incident served as a wonderful opportunity to help our children understand that "it's just stuff." We can still be happy and thankful even though we don't have our bikes.

I guess the Lord wanted to make sure that we were practicing what we preach because yesterday I came out of the University, got in the van, only to discover that someone had stolen our cd player out of the van. What was really amazing was that it was on the street right next to the University, between 8am and 1pm, where University students and teachers walk all the time! This is at least the fourth car that has been broken into in the last several months. Someone, apparently pretty well known in our environment, seems to be picking on church people. They also took the gate opener, which means they can open the front gate of our house. We hope to be able to re-program the opener shortly.

We are grateful for all the "stuff" that God has blessed us with. And while we are disappointed when people take it, "it's just stuff," and we have many larger blessings that we are thankful for.

2007-08-03T12:30:00.000-05:00

In-service and new school year

Since Wednesday, we have had Dr. Nick Uwarow here carrying out in-service with our faculty. Dr. Uwarow, who grew up in Venezuela, now teaches at BJU. We have been instructed and challenged by his wisdom and experience. One of the things that we have all noticed is his love for the Lord and for ministry. Not only does he teach at a Christian University, but he reaches out beyond his "official" ministry. He takes mission teams to Ukraine. He travels to schools to advise and teach. He ministers in the Spanish ministry at Hampton Park. He reaches out to students, who know that he cares for them and go to him for counseling. Not only does he know what he is talking about educationally, but he is a wonderful model for our faculty here at UCLA.

Classes begin for us on Monday. We are all busily scurrying around trying to get ready for the new school year. We have been very encouraged with the pre-enrollment this year. Many students do not pre-enroll, but this year we have seen more students pre-enroll than any year until now. We pray that it indicates a strong enrollment. We will find out in the next few days!

Thank you for your prayers. Please continue to pray that we will have a good enrollment, in quantity and quality. Also pray for our first week of class, which is our spiritual emphasis week. Our emphasis throughout the year will be on service. After focusing on God's character and work (last semester's emphasis), we should be motivated to serve Him in every area of our lives.

2007-07-23T11:52:00.000-05:00

Mission Teams

That is the item that has taken up most of our time the past few weeks. Three weeks ago, a group of young people arrived from Faith Baptist Church in Davison, MI. OREMUNDO Ministries was facilitating the trip (something we always enjoy, since they prepare the food and handle many of the logistics). We were particularly looking forward to this group since the youth pastor at Faith is Edd Bowen, a friend of ours from colleged. Unfortunately, Edd was not able to make the trip because his father had a massive heart attack Sunday morning as they were crossing into Mexico. Thankfully, Edd was able to return home right away to be with his father. Our prayer are with the Bowen family. We have not heard an update from them.

During the time the group was here they were able to work on several important projects. One group re-painted the university guest house in preparation for the arrival of Tom and Kim Chapman, Susan's brother and family, who will be assisting in the music department this year. Another group helped prepare the rebar for pooring the roof of the new kindergarten building. A special blessing was the third project that was done. We had a leak in the dorm that had messed up the tile on the second floor of the men's dormitory. We had fixed the leak but did not have the funds to fix the tile that had cracked quite badly. The group from Faith brought some extra money that, along with their hard work, was enough to fix the floor and replace the tile.

After a few days in McAllen, we then met another mission team at OREMUNDO in McAllen. This one came from our home church, Tri-City Baptist, in Independence, MO. Although we met at the OREMUNDO facilities, Tri-City did not come with OREMUNDO, so that implied a lot of extra work, especially for Susan, as she had to schedule and prepare the meals for the 34 people that came from Tri-City plus around 10-15 more people that were around. We greatly enjoyed the time of fellowship with friends we have known for years. We also got to know many people we didn't know at all. We enjoyed the time with them.

Arriving at the same time as Tri-City were Tom and Kim and their five children. I don't know how they did it, but they loaded all seven people and everything for the year in a mini-van! We are grateful to have them here. Our children have already greatly enjoyed having their cousins around. We aren't used to getting to see family on an ongoing basis. Pray that Tom and Kim will enjoy their year here. The plan is for them to return to BJU next year, where Tom will pursue a Masters degree. Upon finishing that, they will be going on deputation to return to Mexico to work in the music program here. Pray that the Lord will work out all the details and provide the finances that they need for this to come about as quickly as possible.

2007-06-12T10:39:00.000-05:00

Back Again

We are all back in Monterrey again after a week of traveling. I greatly enjoyed the class at NBBC. I think it was the best class I have taken in the DSM program so far. The topic was preaching from the Old Testament. The teachers were Drs. Sam Horn and Mark Minnick. Their experience, knowledge and Word-focus was a great challenge to me. Their example certainly inspired me to continue striving to be the best man and the best preacher I can be.

Please continue to pray for Mrs. Horn. As you most of you know, she is in the middle of a life-and-death struggle with cancer. Although things seem to be better than the doctors expected, she is still facing a long and difficult battle against cancer. It was great to see their attitude in the face of such an incredible trial.

Today we are going to look at a large piece of property that is for sale in the Monterrey metro area. Continue to pray for the University's future. There are many exciting things in progress: the search for property (and funds!), a possible masters in education, etc. We are in the midst of planning these things and other projects for the next school year. Pray that we will do our part, and we trust that God will bring the right number and quality of students for our next school year.

BTW, we got our visas finally. Susan was planning on going up to McAllen, Texas, on Wednesday. That way she could see some friends, do a little shopping, and pick me up on Friday. We really needed our paperwork by then so that we could register our van again. On Monday, when she called, they told her the weren't ready. So I suggested that she go down there and very nicely tell them that she wasn't going to leave until she had the papers (after all, it had been more than three months for a process that should only take 30 days!). When she got there, they told her that they still weren't ready. Susan asked them to go check on them. Apparently they were ready and were just sitting on somebody's desk. There is no telling how long they were ready! Praise the Lord that we were able to get them by the time we really, really needed them. God is good.

2007-05-31T17:22:00.000-05:00

Pastors Conference, Graduation, Evangelistic Outreach, Strategic Planning

We praise the Lord for His rich blessings this past week at the pastors' conference. We had approximately 65 pastors and about 15 women attending sessions throughout the week. The emphasis on Christ's Preeminence in ministry challenged all of us to move away from man-centeredness and to be more like Christ in character and ministry. Here you can see a picture of some of the pastors that attended the conference. You can see more pictures by clicking here. You may also listen to the conferences (they are in Spanish) by clicking here or here.

We also celebrated the university graduation on Wednesday. It was a blessing to see 14 preparatoria students and 14 university students graduate. Our prayers are that each one of them will go out and serve the Lord well. Daniel Salvatierra, a young man from my in-law's church in Chile, also graduated (he's the first one in the back row). We are thankful that he will be returning to help in the ministry in Antofagasta, Chile.

We were also grateful for the effective ministry of the BJU Spanish Ministry Team. On Wednesday and Thursday nights, the Gospel was shared with over 100 children and young people as well as numerous parents who came to observe the activities. The Lord graciously provided several people on the team that could use their art major training to give us a more visible presence in the neighborhood. Pray as we seek to follow-up on the people who we made contact with.

On Monday and Tueday, we carried out two exhausting days of strategic planning for the university. It was exciting to consider the possibilities and plans for the future. It was also daunting to remember our own smallness and the magnitude of our task. It is at this time that we remember that our God is greater than any task or enemy. We require His assistance, so please lift up your prayers on our behalf.

Please continue to pray as we have still not received our paper work. They continue to tell us "two more days." So far, it has turned into tw more months! I will be leaving for NBBC on Saturday after a wedding (a current student is marrying a graduate!). Pray for my trip and those who will be staying behind, especially since Susan is probably suffering from a case of strep throat.

2007-05-17T12:55:00.000-05:00

Escalating Violence

Last year I blogged about the increasing drug-related violence in Monterrey (click here and here). The situation continues to spiral out of control. Today, CNN had a story on their website that highlighted the bloodiest battle between police and drug gangs. Although that specific incident happened far from here, we have seen a sudden increase in violence here in Monterrey. While all of last year, approximately 50 people died in this kind of violence, we have already shot past that number this year (no pun intended!). The violence is also spreading geographically in the metropolitan area. While the shootings used to occur almost exclusively in Monterrey proper or San Pedro (the ritzy area of town), that is no longer true. Recently several violent incidents have taken place right near our area. One shootout left two men dead. Mrs. Montes, the pastor's wife, woke up in the middle of the night and heard the shots. Another shootout happened just a few blocks from the university. Apparently, some man had kidnapped the children of drug-related person. He was chased by this man's associates. The chase ended in a shootout right near the university. The kidnapper escaped, only to be found shot to death the next day in another area of town.

While this kind of violence sounds spectacular and certainly is, daily life has not been greatly affected for the majority of people in Monterrey. However, our prayer is that the violence would decrease instead of increase. It would truly take divine intervention for this to happen. Although the new president has taken a harder stance against the drug cartels, they continue to kill with impunity. Several high-ranking police officers in the Monterrey area have been shot and killed. One police chief in a town near Monterrey was decapitated, and his head was left on the steps of the police station. The most discouraging fact is that not one single person has been arrested for these killings. Yet in all this, we remember that our Father is stronger and more powerful than any drug cartel. He controls where their bullets fly.

2007-05-15T15:55:00.000-05:00

Busyness, Busyness

Thank you for your prayers. Here are serveral items to pray for as we head into one of the busiest times of the year. Sunday morning I will be preaching the final message on 1 John. I began the series in February just over two years ago. Since that time I have preached 21 sermons. This will be number 22. I praise the Lord for what I have learned as I have preached. Most of all, I am grateful for the absolute security we can have in Christ as we demonstrate faith, love and obedience.

On Sunday at 7:00 pm, we will be starting the pastors' conference. The theme is The Preeminence of Christ in Ministry: A Christ-centered church. We are hoping to have somewhere betwen 50-100 pastors here for the conference. Please pray that they will be encouraged, inspired, and challenged to have a biblical philosophy of ministry. The conference runs from Sunday through Wednesday noon. On Monday night I will be preaching on the conference theme. The others speakers will be: Pastors David Cortez, Noé Mendoza, Julio Montes and Carl Herbster. Drs. AJ Giboson and Ken Casillas (prof at BJU) will also be speaking. Russell Raymer will be doing two one-hour sessions on church finance in the afternoons. One of the special "attractions" of the conference is the wonderful music (with choir and orchestra). Many Mexican pastors have never heard this kind of music. Pray that the musicians and music will exalt God and focus our attention on His Preeminence. Wednesday at 1:00 we will have the University graduation. Pray for the graduates as they go out to serve the Lord. Pray that the activities will be memorable and a blessing for these graduates. Although our graduating class is a little bit smaller this year than other years, we are grateful for those that have persisted and grown through their time here in Monterrey. On Wednesday and Thursday nights of next week we will also be having an outreach for teenagers out at the mission church in Santa Mónica. We are really not sure how many teens will be there, especially since we have a junior high located straight across from our location. Pray that the games and activities will draw young people so that they will hear a clear Gospel message. We also need the Lord's assistance in the followup. We are praying for the Lord's guidance concerning when and how we should begin Sunday services. Pray that the Lord will continue to provide for the basic material needs involved in starting up regular services (hymn books, keyboard, etc.). From there, I will be attending a class at NBBC from June 4-8. I am excited about the class topic: Preaching from the Old Testament. Since I teach four semesters of preaching, this subject will be a great help to me. Pray that my flights will go well and that my family will be safe during my absence. Pray especially for Susan as she will be alone and now has three active children to take care of.

Another major project that is taking up some of our time is the graduate school we are seeking to open here at UCLA. The first graduate degree we would offer would be in Education. Six of us travelled from Monterrey to Greenville from May 1-4 to visit with various administrative personnel at BJU. The wisdom and experience they shared with us was invaluable. We especially appreciated and enjoyed the amount of time that Dr. Phil Smith dedicated to us. We praise the Lord for their assistance as we seek to open a Spanish-speaking graduates school with a truly Christian philosophy of education.

We would also appreciate your prayers concerning our FM-3 (visas). We are having some difficulty in getting them. Although we fully expect to get them, they have delayed and charged more this year than they ever have. We would really like to have these documents before I leave for my NBBC class on June 3rd. Pray that these papers will come through soon. This has also led us to seriously consider obtaining Mexican citizenship. Since we have Mexican children and have lived in Mexico for several years, we can now apply for this. Each year the FM-3 costs us approximately $500. The one-time cost of applying for Mexican citizenship would be approximately $1000. Pray that the Lord will provide these funds. In so doing, we will save ourselves the annual cost and headaches associated with the FM-3 renewal process.

Thank you for your prayers. We covet them. This semester has been the absolutely busiest semester we have had since being here in Monterrey. We desperately need our Savior's presence, strength and grace to survive.

2007-05-01T20:22:00.000-05:00

I'm baaaack!

After a several month hiatus, I am officially back on the blogosphere. I'm thankful for the encouragement of the ministry team from Inter-City Baptist in Allen Park, MI, (and Bill Golden in particular) to keep this page updated.

Honestly, it's hard to believe that I haven't updated the blog since the New Year. This semester has been busier than normal. Spring is always busy, but this one...wow!

In February we celebrated the 5th annual Harvest Rally. With over 3000 in attendance and somewhere between 150-200 professions of faith, we were excited to see the Lord's blessings. Pray for plans that are being made that will greatly affect the future of the Harvest Rally in Mexico.

About that same time, the Lord graciously opened doors for the rental of a house in Santa Mónica for the mission church. Until now, we have been meeting in the living room of a dear family, but we were very tight for space. This rental, while not solving the space problem totally, certainly alleviates it.

We have also had two ministry teams here. Joel Morales, a graduate of UCLA who is pursuing a masters degree at NBBC, brought a group of 7 Northland students and staff members. They were able to get some work at the house in Santa Mónica. We were able to celebrate our first mid-week Bible study while their group was here.

Last week we had a group from Allen Park, MI. Among several other projects, they were able to put a laminate roof over the front of the property in Santa Mónica that will allow the children to have their classes in the shade. We are always grateful for the blessing that God gives us hosting misnistry teams.

There are several prayer requests in the previous post. Let me add a few here.

1) Starting tomorrow AJ and I will be having a two day retreat with the theology majors. We hope that it will be a time to challenge them in their personal life and walk with God.
2) I will leave the retreat early so that I can join a group of six people going to Bob Jones University. We are exploring the possibility of starting a graduate program in Education. As we visit Bob Jones, we hope to glean some knowledge from the teachers and adminstration there.

Thank you for your prayers.

2007-05-01T20:20:00.001-05:00

Prayer requests:

1) The upcoming pastors' conference (May 20-23).
2) Graduation (May 23rd)
3) The mission church in Santa Mónica. We are praying for guidance as to when to start Sunday services. We also need a few basic necesities before we can start (the main one being chairs). Pray that God will provide.
4) Wisdom in dealing with the increased spiritual awareness that especially Aaron is demonstrating. 5) Florencio's salvation (husband of Rosa, a lady from Santa Mónica who has faithfully attended services)

2007-01-02T10:38:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year!

2007 is officially here. I am personally looking forward to this new year. My prayer is that this year will be a year of greater growth, greater usefullness, and greater fruit for God's glory. I pray that the same will be true for you.

We have enjoyed having my parents here for the past week. They arrived the day after Christmas. You would have thought that Santa Claus had arrived. I really don't know how they fit that many presents in the three suitcases that they brought! The children have greatly enjoyed having the grandparents around. Growing up in Spain, we didn't get to see our grandparents very often. We are thankful that my parents (and my in-laws) have been able to spend more time with our children that I got to spend with my grandparents.

We also recently got a new family picture (as you can see).

May our new year be a year of growth, fruitfulness and God-centeredness.

2006-12-20T09:35:00.000-06:00

December Prayer Letter

(For those of you who have seen the print copy already, there are some updates in bold below.)

Dear Praying Friends,
As we look back at the past year, the Lord’s blessings are so readily apparent. The Lord has blessed us in our family life, in our ministry and in our walk with God. Yet as we look forward at the Christmas season, we realize that the greatest blessing of all came with the incarnation of the Word, who brought salvation and life for mankind. As I have preached through 1 John, the amazing love of our God has become especially real to me. “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God.”

As many of you know, David Benjamin Bixby was born on September 20th. He seems to be growing so quickly. He has become a very smiley little boy. Aaron and Ana continue to love their little brother to death (that would be a quite literal statement sometimes if not for the timely intervention of their mother!). We invite you to visit our blog: www.spoudason.blogspot.com in order to see family pictures and read ongoing family and ministry updates.

Iglesia Bautista Genesaret, the church the University works closely with and which we attend, is celebrating its 30th anniversary this December. In honor of that occasion, the Frank Garlocks, of Majesty Music, and Flay Allens, missionaries to Spain who helped start the University’s music program, have come to celebrate. On December 10th, the church will celebrate its anniversary with different activities, including the Christmas cantata The Greatest Gift with drama, choir and orchestra. We are in the midst of final rehearsals this week. The church is also seeking to raise $100,000 to purchase several lots of land on which to build the new church auditorium. Please pray that the church will reach its goal and that the funds for a new auditorium will also arrive quickly. (Update: the church raised $80,000. With a $35,000 matching gift, the total came to $115,000. Praise the Lord!)

We continue to minister at the mission church in Santa Mónica. We are excited about the increased attendance at the adult Thursday night Bible studies. Our main limitation at this time is space. Please continue to pray that the Lord will provide a meeting place so that we can not only expand our space but expand the number of services. Some of you may have read my blog about Samuel, the teenager who ran away from home and showed up in a city about six hours away. He is back at home but has shown some definite coldness towards the things of God. Pray that the Lord open his eyes to the pleasures of God’s way and the frustrations of life without Christ. Starting in January, we are planning to start six week Bible studies in several homes. These studies are evangelistically oriented. Pray that hearts will be receptive and lives will be permanently transformed for His glory. (Update: we had a special activity with children and parents on Saturday, Dec. 16th. We had over 100 children and about 15-20 parents. Several parents made professions of faith and asked that we continue to visit them! Pray that the discipleship work will go well.)

With the Garlocks and Allens here, the University music program had a concert. We were pleased and excited to see the obvious development in our music program. The Lord has blessed us with great musicians to teach and lead our music program. Christian and Noemí Lindsey are doing a wonderful job. Please pray for them next year as they will be returning to the United States to raise support in order to continue their ministry here at the University. As classes wind down (this semester I have been teaching Christian Growth, Greek Syntax, Homiletics and Christian Family), I praise the Lord for the things I have learned, and for the small part He has allowed us to play in the spiritual and academic preparation of young people who will serve the Lord faithfully.

Thank you for your prayers. Please continue to visit our family blog to stay up-to-date.

The Bixbys

2006-12-07T08:41:00.000-06:00

Busy, Busy, Busy

Iglesia Bautista Genesaret, the church the University works closely with and which we attend, is celebrating its 30th anniversary this December. In honor of that occasion, the Frank Garlocks, of Majesty Music, and Flay Allens, missionaries to Spain who helped start the University’s music program, have come to celebrate. On December 10th, the church will celebrate its anniversary with different activities, including the Christmas cantata The Greatest Gift with drama, choir and orchestra. Every day this week we are having rehearsals.

In the midst of it all, Pastor Herbster arrived to visit and bring several men to see the University. We are praying that the Lord will provide the funds necessary for a new campus.

The church is also seeking to raise $100,000 to purchase several lots of land on which to build the new church auditorium. This money will only purchase the property. Please pray that the church will reach its goal and that the funds for a new auditorium will also come in quickly.

2006-11-20T16:23:00.000-06:00

Cuties

Here are a couple of pictures of the children. The Lord has certainly blessed us with three very beautiful children.

Recently David has started smiling and does a lot of it.

In the other picture, Ana is sitting next to Carena Raymer. Carena's parents are Russell and Debbie Raymer, missionaries with OREMUNDO Ministries. This picture was taken while we were at the OREMUNDO pastors' conference. Ana, Aaron and Carena are very good friends. The dresses were given to us by some good friends in Florida, Mike and Mel Carter. Their daughters had outgrown them, but they were a perfect fit for our daughters.

2006-11-17T15:05:00.000-06:00

47

I recently wrote about the wave of violence that is sweeping Monterrey. (Click here to read my thoughts.) Yesterday, at about 6:00, as we drove back to Monterrey from Reynosa, we passed a huge crowd standing by the road in Cadereyta, a small town on the outskirts of Monterrey. They were all clustered around a group of police cars and ambulances. We at first thought it was an accident, but as we drove by we didn't see any vehicles. Then we noticed that there was an extraordinary police presence and they were carrying automatic weapons and bullet proof vests. We deduced that there must have been another hit.

When we got home, we turned on the television to find out that it WAS in fact another hit. A man recently released from prison was gunned down. A 17-year-old boy that was with him was also seriously injured.

In the two and a half weeks since I wrote, there have been five more hits, raising the total to 47 mob or gang related hits in the Monterrey metro-area this year. Perhaps the most terrible thing is that I have yet to hear about one gunman being arrested and charged. Because of fear for one's life, no one will testify against them, police won't arrest them, lawyers won't prosecute them, and judges won't convict them. In such an environment, it is hard to expect this to end any time soon.

2006-11-17T14:59:00.000-06:00

Good Conference

We are back in Monterrey after the OREMUNDO Conference. Although attendance was a little bit down, we had a wonderful time with the pastors who attended. They seemed to be encouraged and challenged by the time they spent at the conference.

For me it was challenging in several ways. Dr. Dick Mercado, from Arizona, long-time director of MGM, was there. He has been preaching for 61 years. We were thoroughly blessed by his wonderful spirit, the longevity of ministry and gracious bearing. If the Lord will give me a ministry as long and half as fruitful as him, I will be grateful to the Lord for his goodness.

It was also sharpened my ministry focus to interact with the pastors. It helped me gain a fresher and clearer vision for the kind of preparation that we need to give our young men here at the University. It also gave me a greater passion for reaching out and helping these pastors to the best of our ability. They are so hungry and open to the teaching. Please pray for us as we explore new ways to reach out to these men.

2006-11-13T16:02:00.000-06:00

Oops, this was supposed to be posted on Monday.

Oremundo Conference

This week my family and I are in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, to speak at the OREMUNDO pastor's conference. Counting the three times I spoke yesterday at the host church, I will be speaking a total of nine times before the conference ends on Thursday afternoon.

The theme of the conference is Approved Workmen, from 2 Tim. 2:15. I will be speaking on how we can "rightly divide" the Word of Truth. I will be presenting a basic exegetical process that pastors could follow in their sermon preparation. I will also be giving the pastors a list of recommended resources and Spanish Christian publishing houses.

I would appreciate your prayers for me and the sessions I will be doing. Please pray that I can be an encouragement to the pastors and give them something very practical that will aid them as they seek to preach God's Word. Please pray that I will encourage them to make God's Word the central component of their philosophy of ministry. Also please pray for Susan as she will have the challenge of keeping three children happy while away from home. Although child care will be provided during most of the sessions, I am afraid that the stress level will be greater on Susan than on me! I know that I would rather speak 9 times than do what she will have to do!

Thank you for your prayers on our behalf.

The sessions will be available as the week goes along on the internet at the OREMUNDO website. The two Sunday services are already online. Clike here if you are interested.

2006-11-02T21:03:00.000-06:00

42

Early this morning the Monterrey metro area experienced it's 42nd hit of the year. By hit, I mean mob related assasination. "Danny Boy," as he was known, a 38-year-old mob member was gunned down by a group of 8-10 men. They shot into him so many times that his face was totally obliterated and his chest was practically gone. In the ensuing chase, the police engaged in a shootout with the hitmen, apparently killing one of them before they dragged the body into an SUV and got away. Danny Boy had been the target of another attempt in May. This time they got him. These murders are part of the vicious drug gang war that has swept northern Mexico. In some locations, the gangs are so powerful that they control whole towns (elections, police, local government, etc.). The situation has required that the special police forces and army virtually lay siege to several cities.

The most startling hit was when the mob killed Marcelo Garza, the young and respected chief police investigator of organized crime for the state of Nuevo Leon (the state Monterrey is in). He was gunned down in a park with his six-year-old daughter sitting next to him on the park bench. Their audacity at going after Marcelo Garza sent shockwaves through Mexico, as it indicated the boldness and power that these gangs have achieved, being able to assasinate upper-level government members with impunity.

Added to the situation in northern Mexico, there are riots in Oaxaca, in southern Mexico. In May the teachers union organized a strike, asking for increased wages. The governor ordered the police to respond aggressively. In the resulting riots, several protesters were shot and killed by police. That triggered even greater riots that resulted in the police forces being expelled from the town. The protesters siezed control of the capital city, holding it for around six months. With the absence of authority, robbery, killing, rape, violence was the order of the day (including the death of American cameraman, Brad Will). Only this week the Federal police moved in, siezing control of the capital in violent and at times deadly confrontations. There are still ongoing clashes between police and protesters.

In addition to this, the election crisis isn't completely over. After socialist Lopez Obrador lost the election be less than 1%, his party organized massive protests in Mexico City, paralyzing the downtown area for several months. On November 20th, the anniversary of the Mexican Revolotion of 1910, his party plans to name him the "official and legitimate President of Mexico." It will be interesting to see how that whole situation plays out.

All in all, Mexico is a country in turmoil, crippled by corrupt politicians (usually the most corrupt are town and lower level police officials) and drugs wars. Even more significant than the political situation, these situations reveal the desperate need that this country has for the redemptive power of the Gospel to radically transform every layer of society.

2006-10-25T14:34:00.000-05:00

Family Picture

Here is a family picture we took on Sunday. Sunday was the day that we presented David at church. Everybody thought he was the cutest thing! Pastor Herbster was also here for a couple of days several weeks ago. He enjoyed getting to play "papa."

2006-09-29T17:21:00.000-05:00

Samuel

Just a quick update on Samuel. After several days, he showed up at his aunt's house, who lives in Tampico, about six hours away. Apparently he hitch-hiked all the way there. We thank the Lord that Samuel is fine and that we now know where he is. Samuel's mom, Irma, will be going to Tampico to pick him up and bring him back home. Samuel seems to be content to return home.

Throughout this situation, God has revealed some significant needs in the heart of Samuel, who has always been faithful go activities at the mission and at church, but has never shown real spiritual desire or interest. Please pray that we will be able to reach his heart and help him resolve the issues and focus his life on God.

Thank you for your prayers. Please don't stop now.

While you are at it, please pray for Jorge and Gloria, a couple who was saved through the activities a the mission. They have been attending church for several years (on an on-again-off-again basis). They are currently going through some very difficult marital struggles due to their sinful past. Please pray that they will be willing to work through their issues together. Their is a lot of hurt and bitterness. I am thankful that at least they were willing to broach the subject and open their hearts. Pray that I will have the wisdom and grace to help them resolve their issues by refocusing their hearts on God and obeying His Word.

2006-09-27T08:55:00.000-05:00

Samuel

At the mission (church plant) we have been working at, one family in particular has been very faithful over the past several years. The family consists of the Angela (grandmother), Irma (mother), Diana (15 years old), Samuel (14 years old), and Flor (5 years old). On Sunday night, Samuel ran away from home. Apparently he had skipped school for a week (without telling his mother). His mother suspected what he was doing and told him that she was going to go to school the next day to find out. Apparently Samuel decided to run away. Although his note claimed that he was going to Mexico City, he didn't have any money to get himself there. He is most likely around town with a friend. Please pray that 1) Samuel will return quickly, 2) that he won't do anything really stupid while he is away, and 3) that God will use this in his life to get him serious about his personal relationship with God. Although Samuel claims to be saved, he has been very passive about his spiritual life. Thank you for your prayers.

2006-09-21T17:24:00.000-05:00

A few pictures of David Benjamin (and the rest of the family). As you can tell, Ana and Aaron are very, excite.

2006-09-21T10:10:00.000-05:00

David Benjamin Bixby

The Lord has graciously blessed our home with the arrival of our son, David Benjamin Bixby. David was born at 7:59 yesterday morning (Sep. 20th). He weighs 3.580 kilos (which is right around 8 pounds) He was 50 centimeters long (19.5 inches long). He has dark blue eyes and darker hair than his siblings.

Susan woke up at about 2:15 am yesterday morning feeling some pains. After waiting to make sure that they were labor pains, we made it to the hospital about 4:40 am. After an epidural and a couple of hours, David was born. So far he has been a very satisfied and tranquil baby. We hope that continues.

Aaron and Ana came to the hospital yesterday to see their baby brother. They were very very excited about their little brother. Aaron is going to be the helpful, protective older brother. Ana is going to be the bossy, second mother. Sometimes we feel like it will be a miracle of this kid survives!

After having several friends that lost babies during the pregnancy or shortly after the baby was born, we have come to appreciate anew the miracle that a healthy baby and mother really is. God has give us something we most definitely do not deserve. At times we ask why God has allowed us the blessings and given others the heartaches. Although that question has no human answer, we rejoice in the goodness of God. Truly His grace and mercy are beyond description!

PS: I'm having problems posting pictures right now, so I will try again later.

2006-08-05T08:52:00.000-05:00

Busy Weeks

This past week has been a good week. We began the week with two days of strategic planning, directed by Dave McNamara, who is a consultant for the automotive industry in Detroit and abroad. We learned many, many things about planning. We also discovered many areas that we need to improve on. It was exciting to see the consensus that existed among the people on our administrative team. We are very grateful for Dave's contributions to our ministry. Please pray that we will have wisdom and strength as week seek to grow as an organization.

On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, we had inservice with the teachers. We were able to emphasize our philosophy and many of our practices and procedures. It was particularly important to address these things with our new teachers. Classes begin on Monday. Our students are have already begun to arrive. Pray for safety in travel and that we would have a good enrollment: both in quality and quantity. If we hadto choose one, we would ask for a quality enrollment.

Today Susan and I will be driving up to McAllen, TX. We will be picking up Bro. Matt Williams tomorrow and returning to Monterrey. We will then begin our one week mini-conference with him. The themes of biblical servant leadership, being good friends, and using your influene for God are topics that our students will profit greatly from. Pray that God's Spirit will be working, that it won't be just a class.

On Friday, a group of 14 people from Inter-City Baptist will be arriving for a one week mission trip. Please pray that we will be able to minister effectively to these brothers and sisters. Also pray that this trip will be a profitable trip with regards to the work projects. The team will be splitting time between one of the mission churches and the school/church/university facilities.

ONE MORE THING: on Thursday night, while we were out at the mission in Santa Mónica, we saw a building (used to be a booze store) that is for sale. It is located right on the main road directly across from the main neighborhood park. The location is an excellent location. I am trying to contact the owner to see what price they are asking. We would appreciate your prayers in regards to that possibility.

2006-07-26T16:18:00.000-05:00

Home Again

We praise the Lord for the safety He has given us while we are on the road. We have traveled 8,121 miles. If we average that out over the seven weeks we were gone, it goes something like this:

1160 miles/week
165 miles/day

At 60 miles per hour that is something like:

19 hours 20 minutes a week
2 hours 45 minutes a day

And people ask missionaries what they do when they are on furlough!!!!

Please pray for us as we launch back into the school year. We have two days of strategic planning on Monday and Tuesday. In-service is Wednesday-Friday. Then we start the semester on Auguest 7th. Dr. Matt Williams, VP of NBBC, will be with us teaching a class on Servant Leadership four hours a day. We are excited about the spiritual impact that time could have.

2006-07-18T21:17:00.000-05:00

Grattitude for Instruments Given

While we have been traveling, we have seen the Lord provide for needs at the University in special ways. One of the needs we have at the University is for musical instruments for the university orchestra. Many of the students cannot afford to purchase an instrument of their own, especially right at the beginning. The Lord has used unusual ways to provide the University with the instruments it needs .

One of the ways this has happened on this trip is through instrument donation. On our way back, we will be taking with us a small "band." We will take a trumpet, a trombone, a euphonium, a clarinet, a french-horn, and a guitar! Getting into the van tonight in preparation for our trip tomorrow was an interesting challenge, but they all fit!

We are thankful for the generosity of God's people as they have donated these instruments. I can assure you that they will be put to good use at the university. If anyone else has an instrument they would like to donate, please contact us. To those that have donated these and other instruments, thank you!

2006-07-14T10:16:00.000-05:00

This summer has been a busy summer for us. We have been on a seven-week road trip throughout the United States. By the time we arrive back home we will have traveled over 8,000 miles and been from Monterrey to Greenville to Vermont to Tampa and back to Monterrey. The primary purpose of this trip has been to visit supporting churches. We have visited eleven of our nineteen supporting churches. We were also blessed with being in two new churches. With another child on the way, we would like to raise some additional support to offset the costs associated with diapers, formula, etc.! We praise the Lord for the wonderful meetings He has allowed us to have.

The Lord has used the time that we have been on the road to encourage our hearts and renew our vision for the ministry to which God has called us. The Christ-like spirit we have seen in the churches that support us has also encouraged us. God is truly working in different places all over the world, carrying out His purposes and bringing about His glory.

We should be traveling from Florida to Monterrey on July 24 and 25. We thank the Lord for the safety He has granted us this far.

2006-07-01T16:14:00.000-05:00

World Cup

Well, European soccer superiority cannot be disputed. 6 of the 8 final teams were European. Now all four semifinalists are European. Any discussion? Not really.

I am shocked that France knocked out Brazil. I didn't get to watch the game, but from what I heard it was totally deserved. France seemed to outplay Brazil. My cousins are going to be happy.

Now I must pull for Portugal. My dislike of France, Germany and Italy only leaves me one choice. Portugal also has the only remaining Barcelona player left in the World Cup. Who do I really think will win it now? Germany. No doubt.

2006-06-24T21:43:00.000-05:00

More Important Stuff

This is what I am calling for the World Cup. Although I am posting this after the first two games, this is what I had written out before the games. I must admit that the German display of soccer over Sweden (albeit a very slow, lazy, shoot-yourself-in-the-foot Sweden) and the slow, predictable offense of Argentina (until Tevez and Messi play) makes wonder about my call in the Argentina-Germany match.

ROUND OF 16:
Germany over Sweden.
Argentina over Mexico.
Italy over Australia.
Switzerland over Ukraine.
England over Ecuador.
Netherlands over Portugal.
Brazil over Ghana.
Spain over France.

QUARTERFINALS:
Argentina over Germany.
Italy over Switzerland.
Netherlands over England.
Spain over Brazil.

SEMIFINALS:
Argentina over Italy.
Spain over Netherlands.

FINALS:
Argentina over Spain

2006-06-19T20:28:00.000-05:00

Safety and Important Stuff

Since the last time I posted we have travelled over 3,250 miles in our van. We drove from Monterrey to Greenville, SC. After a quick trip to NBBC for a class, we then visited my grandmother in Abingdon, VA, and Susan's grandmother near Nitro, WV. On Wednesday we were at Twin City Bible Church in Nitro. On Sunday we were at Pine Island Bible Church in Warwick, PA. Today we made it up to Burlington, VT, to visit my brother and sister-in-law. We praise God for safety and for good services.

Now on to the "important stuff": the WORLD CUP. Things are going differently for the three teams I am following. The US is suffering and probably not making it out of group stage (something I fully expected). Mexico is doing OK and should make it out of the group stage. They should be playing better. But most importantly, SPAIN is playing well and has moved on to the knock-out stage. I thoroughly enjoyed the first game. In that game everything went perfectly for Spain. However, I think that I enjoyed today's game (a 3-1 win against Tunisia) more than the first game. There are several reasons for this. 1) I watched it with my brother, another avid Spain fan. 2) This was a character win that shows what the team is made of. Spain was losing the game by the 8th minute. In earlier years, they would have lost that game or tied (if they got lucky). They would have quickly fallen into desperation. This time Spain stayed strong (no desperation), and, even though it took them until the 71st minute, they scored, then scored again (five minutes later) to take the lead. Another goal was scored off a penalty kick in the last minute.

I don't know if Spain will win it all, but not only are they playing well, but they seem to be showing much more character this time around. Maybe, just maybe...

2006-05-31T14:56:00.000-05:00

Praise and Prayer Request

We are excited about the beginning of our pastors' conference. This morning we had over 50 pastors in attendance, as well as pastors' wives and other church leaders. You can listen to the sermons here. Of course, they are in Spanish :-). You can also see some photographs as well.

Last night's sevice was a blessing. The choir and orchestra did an amazing job on "The Majesty and Glory of Your Name." We serve a great God.

We would also appreciate your prayers. Graduation activities are Friday night and evening. Early Saturday morning we will begin our trek to Greenville, SC. We hope to arrive in Greenville on Sunday afternoon. From there, I will hop on a plane at 6:00 Monday morning to go to NBBC for a D.Min. class. We would appreciate your prayers for safety and strength.

2006-05-23T11:53:00.000-05:00

The Glory of God: Discovering the Majesty of His Glory

That is the title of the pastors' conference that is right around the corner for us. Next week we are expecting about 80 pastors and church leaders to attend a three day conference that is scheduled to coincide with our university graduation next Friday. We are excited about the opportunity to minister to these pastors. The topics are really stimulating. I get to preach on The Glory of God and Preaching and the Glory of God and the Church. Right now I was preparing the sermon on Preaching. I will be preaching 2 Cor. 3 and 4 and referencing 2 Cor. 10 and 1 Cor. 1 and 2 as well. I am excited about the opportunity to challenge the pastors to let the glory of God shine through their preaching of the New and glorious Covenant of which God has made us able ministers (2 Cor. 3:5). Whew! Glory!

I am also working on a sermon from Ephesians 4:11 and following. Dr. AJ Gibson will be preaching out of Ephesians 1-3 on the Glory of God in Creation, how God's eternal purposes are carried out in redeeming all creation and individuals. I will follow up his sermon by preaching on what a community of redeemed believers (a church) that glorifies God looks like. We are also going to be giving each pastor the short, booklet-form of "Nine Marks of a Healthy Church" by Mark Dever. We are grateful that this booklet is in Spanish (translated by Faro de Gracia).

Please pray that the Lord will truly be glorified through everything that is said and done. Our hope is that each pastor will walk away saying, "Wow, I hadn't quite realized what a great God I serve."

2006-05-11T16:45:00.000-05:00

Forty degree swing

Yesterday was extremely hot: 108. Today it is not: 70. If you do the math, that is a 38 degree swing from one day to the next. I don't know that I have ever experienced that big of a difference between two days. Yesterday day was so hot that the temperature in our room last night, even with air conditioning, never got below 84. Things have started cooling off considerably today. Needless to say, we much prefer today to yesterday.

I would appreciate your prayers regarding a very difficult discipline situation we are working through right now at the university. We have been made aware once again of how Satan seeks to destroy God's children, even here in Mexico. We need God's wisdom to know how to handle it, and we need God's grace so that sin will be defeated and His will done in the lives of the young people involved.

2006-05-04T12:37:00.000-05:00

Adopt-A-Student Program

Finances. It doesn't seem to matter where you are, finances always seem to pose a major obstacle to students attending Christian colleges. Although room, board and tuition is much less expensive in Mexico that it is at a Christian college in the US, school bills are a major source of faith stretching for our students. We are grateful for the way the Lord has been providing for the needs of our students. One of the ways the Lord has chosen to provide is through the UCLA Adopt-A-Student Program (formerly UCLA Education Fund). We have seen literally thousands of dollars every year donated to students by caring and generous believers in the US. If you would like to participate, please email me at mbixby@tcmissions.org, and I will have information sent to you.

One of our finest young ladies is Alma Angélica Contreras. During the Christmas break, two of her cousins were involved in a car accident leaving both of them paralyzed (I blogged about it here). Because of the hospital bills, her family facing some humanly insurmountable financial obstacles. She was recently awarded a significant scholarship. I will post her thank you letter and picture. You may be able to detect some veiled references to what she has gone through in the past semester.

Pastor **,
Through this letter, I would like to thank you greatly for the financial gift I received from you. My name is Alma Angélica Contreras. I am 20 years old. I am from Guadalajara, Jalisco. I am currently in my fourth semester of the music major.

At the University I have learned many great things that I would not have learned anywhere else. Without your financial support, I would not have been able to continue studying. This year in particular I have seen the Lord’s hand of provision.

Thank you, Pastor **, and ** Baptist Church. I know that the Lord will bless you richly for the generous support you have given.

May the Lord bless you,
Alma Angélica Contreras

Please let me know if you or your church would like to help Alma or other students like her.

2006-05-02T15:37:00.001-05:00

Día del Niño

April 30th is the "Día del Niño", or Day of the Child, here in Mexico. On or around that day, schools, parents, government, businesses, etc. throw extravagant parties in honor of children in Mexico. The one constant at every party is...candy. Children are given bags and bags of candy. Last year, the school gave each child a two-liter bottle full of candy. Yes, you read right: the school! Last year Aaron gathered at least four bags of candy from various parties. We were suffering the consequences of his sugar high for months!

On Saturday, April 29th, we had a special activity at the mission for the children. Without doing an extra promotion, we had over 50 children come. They have learned to expect something special that day. We were able to share the Gospel with them (as well as "tostadas" and a big chocolate sucker). On Sunday, April 30th, over 250 children came to church for a special activity that involved skits, songs, games and, of course, candy! While the amount of money spent on candy is a shame, it is a wonderful opportunity to reach out to more children and their families.

Sunday was also a Día del Niño for me and AJ Gibson. Sunday night, Inter-City Baptist in Detroit called to inform us that the church had voted to give the University a substantial gift to purchase theology books for the library. I definitely feel like a child in a candy store as I get to purchase more books for our library! Thank you, Inter-City, for your generosity! I am glad that I get to spend it on something more significant than candy.

2006-04-19T21:40:00.000-05:00

Jewels and Theological Jewels

During the two week Easter break, we were able to visit McAllen, TX., and we spent the week at Russell and Debbie Raymers' house. They are in Hawaii, visiting family. While we were there, we were able to get some pictures. Our children are real jewels.

They also provide us with theological jewels as well. I'll give you two as samples of the kind of thing we hear quite often. Recently we began teaching our children some memory verses. Of course, Ephesians 6:1 has to be the first one: "Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right." We constantly try to remind them that God is the one who said those words. When we obey our parents, we are really obeying God. After reviewing the verses with the children, I asked them, "Who said that?" Ana, with her typical gusto, raised both hands over her head and yelled, "AMELIA BEDELIA!"

Recently we were reading a story of Jonah. I was explaining how Jonah disobeyed God. As a result, God sent a whale to swallow Jonah. While Jonah was in the belly of the whale, he asked God to forgive him. Aaron interrupted me, "He doesn't have hands." I was impressed! Aaron was understanding something about the spiritual, incorporeal nature of God. "Who?" I asked, "God?" "No," replied Aaron, "the whale. He doesn't have hands. He can't give Jonah a hug." You see, when one of the children misbehave or hurts the other, we have them say "I'm sorry. Will you forgive me?" Then they are supposed to hug! In Aaron's mind, that wouldn't work because the whale didn't have hands to hug Jonah. All my hopes about the theological perspicuity of my child came crashing down!

Jewels, indeed!

2006-04-10T14:58:00.000-05:00

Back again

After about a one month hiatus, I am back to updating my blog. I apologize for the time that has passed since the last update. Today we have just started our two-week Easter break. While I don't like the interruption that this break brings to the classroom, we do enjoy getting to spend a little bit more time with the family.

Since my last update, we celebrated our fourth Harvest Rally. Once again we had several thousand people attend the Rally. We were stretched and blessed, and we are already planning new things for next year's Rally.

We are also planning a pastors' conference that will coincide with our graduation. May 30th through June 2nd are the dates for that conference. The conference theme is: The Glory of God: Discovering the Magnificence of His Greatness. This is not a common emphasis here in Mexico. I get to preach twice. My topics are: The glory of God and Preaching and The glory of God and the Church. I am really looking forward to this.

Susan is doing well. Her pregnancy is progressing well. The doctor is pretty certain that we will be having another boy. We are both excited about that. Although she still experiences some sickness and tiredness, Susan is doing much better the last several weeks.

Thank you for your prayers.

2006-02-20T09:28:00.000-06:00

Emotional Sunday

Yesterday morning, we experienced a very emotional service due to a difficult experience a family in the church just went through. A young couple in the church had been expecting their first baby. About two months ago, she began to have some serious difficulties in her pregnancy. Finally the doctors decided that they needed to take the baby even though she was only about 6 months pregnant. When little Rafael was born, he weighed less than a pound. He fit into the palm of your hand. After about four weeks of struggling to live, Rafael passed away on Friday afternoon. Saturday was the burial service. On Sunday morning, much to everyone's surprise, Jaime and Gaby were in the service for the first time in two months, when she had begun having the serious problems. Jaime stood and read a two page, handwritten letter detailing some of the experiences and lessons they had learned. Hearing their words, I could only marvel at the unbelievable testimony to God's grace that we were seeing and hearing. The only way that someone could go through that type of experience and respond with such unshakeable faith is when God's grace has been poured out in their hearts. Wow!

It was hard because I had to preach after them. I must admit that it took me a full minute to overcome my emotions and even be able to speak a word. That young couple had just preached the most eloquent sermon that could ever be preached: one that came not from a study but from the furnace. That kind of sermon can never be matched.

Part of the text I was preaching included 1 John 3:2, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." My study had also led me to Romans 8:23 "And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." On Saturday as I prepared to preach, I groaned in my spirit. Not only was Rafael buried on Saturday, but some very close friends also buried a child they had lost after seven months of pregnancy. My heart cried out for that time when creation would be fully redeemed, when our glorious position as children of God would finally be revealed and every blessing brought to realization.

These difficult situations also made me realize that every "normal" birth is really a miracle. With Susan pregnant again, I must say that I am more nervous about this pregnancy than the other two. A person just assumes that things are going to be fine until seeing situations like these. Please pray for Susan and her pregnancy. She has been sick for about four weeks now. She either feels extremely tired or has morning sickness virtually 24 hours a day. While I try to shoulder some of the load at home, a 2 and a 3-year old don't really understand that "Mommy doesn't feel good."

In spite of all these things we rejoice because we know the wonderful privileges that the love of God has given to us as his children. 1 John 3:1 "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God."

2006-02-16T09:28:00.000-06:00

Visitors

This week we had the blessing of having our pastor, Dr. Carl Herbster, and several other men visit us here in Monterrey. The primary purpose of the trip was to consider options for future development of property both for the church and university. Both ministries are currently in desperate need of more space. The church currently runs around 400 people on Sunday mornings, but the auditorium only seats around 250. The University already is using some of the junior high classrooms for evening classes because we don't have enough space in our own classroom building.

Walking, talking and dreaming with men of faith and vision is always exciting and humbling. Pastor Herbster brought with him a man who is VP of a major deveopment corporation out of Houston, TX. He had many great ideas that we had not thought about. Now we need to sit down, consider our options and pray for the Lord's guidance.

All of the options require special intervention from our Lord. Property prices in Monterrey are very high since it is a major metropolitan area (between 4 and 5 million people) and because it is the most expensive city in Mexico (we can thank NAFTA and the influx of American businesses for that!). Humanly speaking, none of the options are realistic possibilities. However we know that the Lord can provide and can work the impossible. We should know that better than just about anyone. Every day I get up and go to work at a University that was humanly impossible only 13 years ago. Only 13 years ago, the Mexican constitution prohibited religious institutions from participating in education. The Lord's power is so great that He could change 150 years of Mexican legal history in order to allow the beginnings of Christian education in Mexico. If He can do that, providing the minimum of 4 million dollars that is needed to purchase property and develop a campus will not be a problem for Him.

2006-02-08T10:40:00.000-06:00

Prayer Letter: February, 2006

Dear Co-laborers,

These last few months have been months of blessing and encouragement. We have seen the Lord do some exciting things in our own hearts, in our family, and in the ministry here. Truly the Lord is good. Oh that our hearts would long to taste more and more of Him!

During the Christmas season we enjoyed the blessings of the Lord. David and Karen Chapman, Susan’s younger brother and sister, were able to be with us for two weeks. We greatly enjoyed spending time with them. We were also amazed at the generosity displayed by God’s people. Whether shown by financial gifts or by presents mailed to us, we were humbled by the fact that so many people would use their resources to be a blessing to us. Thank you for modeling the giving spirit displayed by our Lord.

One of the most exciting pieces of news it that Susan is expecting our third child. The due date is September 23rd. Right now she is experiencing the joys of the first trimester of pregnancy. Please pray that she will get over the nausea quickly. We are excited about this new development. We also covet your prayers for health and safety for Susan and the baby. Several friends have recently gone through very difficult trials relating to pregnancy which have made us more aware of the kind of strain this puts on a woman’s body and the dangers that are involved.

On the ministry side, there are many new projects. We continue to serve the Lord at the mission church. We have been refocusing some of our efforts to more effectively reach the people in that area. One of our new projects is a weekly Bible study for teenagers that we will begin this Thursday (February 9th). Ivan, one of our theology graduates, will be leading this Bible study. The young people that will be involved are Diana, Samuel (brother and sister) and Isaí. We also hope that Reina will be involved, another young lady we have had contact with. Please pray that we will be effective and Christ-centered in evangelizing and edifying these and other young people.

The University is gearing up for the fourth Harvest Rally on March 4th. There is much work to be done before the Rally: promotion, organization of the more than 300 workers that will be involved, setting up the tent and games. Please pray for the weather. Last year it was sprinkling a little bit. Also please pray for clear, powerful preaching, careful counseling on the day of the Rally, and effective follow-up after the Rally.

Laboring in His vineyard,

The Bixbys

2006-02-06T17:11:00.000-06:00

16 Months Later

A year and four months ago, we were given the keys to our new house. The Lord had graciously provided a loan from family friends in the US, which had allowed us not only to purchase the house but do some significant remodeling. That was in October of last year. We were able to move in by the end of December, and we have been thanking the Lord for this house ever since then.

The interesting thing: as of Tuesday of last week, the house is officially ours. Because the house had a mortgage, we were waiting for the bank to provide us with the letter stating that the lien had been removed (I believe that is the right word in English). We waited for a year and four months before they finally provided us with that letter! Thankfully we are officially the new owners (well, technically Ana is the new owner, being a Mexican citizen) of the house we have remodeled and lived in for the last sixteen months.

2006-01-30T09:50:00.000-06:00

Soccer

Last night we played the final game in our church league. The dorm students have a team in the league which includes 16 teams from different churches in the area. (I play goalie.) We ended up in fourth place, which is a poor showing for us. We have usually ended up in the top three. We graduated a lot of seniors last year and added a lot of freshman. That is usually not a good mix. I did get a nice swollen eye out of yesterday's game. An opponent came in one-on-one. As I went out to meet him, his shot caromed off my face. For about two seconds I spun around in circles trying to locate the goal! Thanfully, they weren't able to score on that play. We lost the consolation match 4-1. All things considered, I believe we did pretty well, especially since we were missing about half of our starters (due to injuries and ministry responsibilities) for the consolation game . The nice thing was that we lost to the team from our own church, Iglesia Bautista Genesaret. So it all stayed in the family.

I have enjoyed playing for several reasons: 1) I enjoy playing; 2) I love the opportunity to mix with the students on an informal basis, but mostly 3) I enjoy watching the students grow and mature in their self-control. Every season, the league organizers compliment the dormitory team for the attitudes displayed. One of the semi-final matches was suspended and one team ejected from the tournament after one of the players assaulted a referee. To be honest, I must admit that some times we all felt like doing it! Like most amateur refereeing, it leaves a lot to be desired! Unfortunately, confrontations (and even an occasional fight between players--though never with the referee) are all too common with some of the teams. (A contributing factor is that many of the players don't attend the churches for whose team they play. I wish they didn't allow that, but it would be hard to control.) I am thankful that our students make a very concious effort to display attitudes that will glorify the Lord, even in the difficult environs of soccer field, with poor reffing, and opponents who do not control their attitudes and actions.

2006-01-23T10:17:00.000-06:00

Prayer

For the past several months, the Lord has been working in my heart about my prayer life. Being frank, I would have to admit that I don’t pray near as much as I should. Perhaps even more disturbing than my little prayer is that I have not even believed in the power of prayer. My failure to pray not just more, but more intensely, stems from a lack of faith in the effectiveness of prayer. As I have thought about this, I also came to realize that my perspective about myself and about God probably has a lot to do with this as well. I must have a very swollen view of my own abilities if I don't feel the need for God’s intervention on my behalf. I must have a pretty small view of the power of God if I don’t request His power and grace on my ministry. I am thankful that the Lord has brought several circumstances into my life that have highlighted my won incapacity to do anything of lasting spiritual impact. Please pray that the Lord will continue to show His grace on my life by highlighting my desperate need of His power.

As you pray for us, here are two things you could pray for.

Jociel (14) and Raúl (15) are cousins of one of our students. On January 2nd, a gas truck rammed the pickup truck they were riding in. Both suffered severe damage to their spine and neck. The doctors offer no hope that Jociel will ever be able to move anything below his neck. Raúl should gain some limited mobility in his hands but will not be able to move his legs. Please pray for these young men, their families, and the significant financial needs that exist in these families.

On Saturday Pastor Julio and I looked at different properties in the Santa Mónica region of the city where we have been ministering. We hope to be able to purchase a piece of property or several houses adjacent to each other (at a cost of $35,000 per house—the dimensions of each lot are tiny: 18 feet by 50 ft.) The property that is in this picture would be ideal for several reasons: it is large (four lots), it is on a corner and spans the whole block, giving access to three streets, and it is right across from the main neighborhood park. We don’t know what the cost would be, but it couldn’t be cheap. These things can seem impossible, but …prayer is powerful.

2006-01-20T11:28:00.000-06:00

The Deliberate Church

Over the Christmas break, I read The Deliberate Church, by Dr. Mark Dever, pastor of Capital Hill Baptist Church in Washington D.C. Having had a little bit of exposure to Dr. Dever through his 9 Marks of a Healthly Church, I was excited about reading this book, and I was not disappointed (in spite of the terrible cover design!). This book is the most practical yet theologically sound book on church administration I have ever seen.

There were several things that stood out to me about the book. 1) The careful thought that Dr. Dever puts into every area of the church ministry. While you may not always agree with his conclusion, you can't doubt that he has thought through things carefully. Just reading his book will challenge any pastor to think through areas of ministry that may not have gotten much thought. 2) His wonderful understanding of the church as a living body, the importance of the function of each member of the body, and powerful impact such a body can have upon the world that surrounds us. 3) His position on music may provides some interesting theological arguments which may be more powerful with some people than the "Language of Music" approach. 4) This book is the most practical book on church leadership that I have ever read. Dr. Dever does not take the time to detial all the theology behind his practices (for that you need to read "The 9 Marks of a Healthy Church), his theology clearly dictactes his practice, which is unfortunately all too rare. 5) Many of the practical suggestions made in the book reminded me of my days as a church intern and as Pastor Herbster's administrative assistant at Tri-City. In some ways they are cut out of the same mold. I believe they could get along (too bad Dr. Dever is a Southern Baptist!).

In conclusion, I highly recommend this book to anybody that is in ministry or ministry training.

2006-01-08T23:10:00.000-06:00

Willing Spirit Weak Flesh

Tomorrow we begin second semester classes. I will be preaching tomorrow in chapel to kick off our Spiritual Emphasis week. I will be preaching on Christ’s experience in the Garden of Gethsemane. Because Christ’s humanity is so apparent in that narrative, we are given a wonderful example of the thoughts and attitudes that we must have if we are going to be like Christ in the midst of our own struggle against our humanity.

One verse has highlighted for me problems with the types of applications that we usually here (and make) during messages at our churches: Mark 14:38 Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak. As we preach, we look out at the congregation and see many people who we know are carnal in their daily lives. As we seek to apply our preaching to their lives, many times we limit ourselves to what are really exhortations. Some examples could be: be holier, be more fervent in your prayer, have more faith, be more disciplined, love God more, hate the world even more, etc. The main problem is that these applications are directed to the "spirit." Most believers that come to church have sincere desires to be more spiritual. In other words, their spirit truly is ready and willing. Other times we direct our application at their behavior, and we exhort them to change their behavior: don’t sin so much, don’t get angry, don’t gossip, don’t be bitter, etc. Again, most of the congregation doesn’t want to get angry, be bitter, etc., but they don’t know how to stop being bitter, getting angry, etc. The problem is that their flesh is weak and carnal. In our preaching we don’t need content and application that primarily targets their desires and motivations (we need that at times as well—but remember that the spirit is willing). Neither do we need content and application which exhorts believers to behave better (although practical application is good and needy—a balance is needed). What we really need is content and application that helps them counteract the weakness of their flesh. They need the power and grace of God to be victorious and to really be holier, more fervent, etc. They need to be made aware of and to avail themselves of the spiritual resources that God has placed at their disposal in order to gain victory over the flesh.

The question that we must ask ourselves is this: what are those biblical resources and means that God has given us to avail ourselves of His grace and power which will in turn result in true holiness? That is a question to which I would love some feedback (click on Comments below this post).

Here are a few ideas: 1) Divine activity: God has acted on our behalf, in order to solve the problems our human nature does not allow us to solve. 2) Truth. God’s character and God’s activity on our behalf is Truth, which is the biblical foundation upon which true spiritual holiness must be built. People must know and meditate upon Truth in order to have any spiritual basis upon which to construct a truly spiritual life. Too many times we attempt to change without knowing and personalizing the biblical truths concerning our struggles. 3) Grace. God’s grace is more than just favor (in the passive sense of "I used to not like you but now I do but I’m not doing anything about it"). It is the active provision of spiritual resources on our behalf. Of course, I must avail myself of those resources through means of spiritual disciplines: Bible study (provides me with Truth), meditation (personalizes and applies the Truth), unselfish and truly spiritual prayer, fasting, etc. While these things do not of themselves give me God’s grace (make me spiritual), they allow me to see God’s greatness and glory (2 Cor. 3:18) which in turn will bring about true spiritual transformation and biblical spirituality. I realize that there is some overlap between these elements.

This is an issue that I long to fully resolve in my own thinking in order to have truly biblical content and valid application in my preaching. Any thoughts? (Sorry about the length of this post.)

2005-12-31T10:08:00.000-06:00

Wisdom Teeth and Big Face

We are enjoying having David and Karen with us. I don't know if David is enjoying it as much as we are. Yesterday he had his two bottom wisdom teeth removed. They were growing in completely horizontally, inside his gums, pushing the rest of his teeth to together. The dentists said that they had never seen anything quite like it. (We've always known David is a special fellow!) The surgery went very well. The doctor said that he was an excellent patient. Of course the surgery really made for some interesting facial variations for David. He has tried to keep the swelling down with ice, but when he got up this morning ... Well, you can see for yourself! Just compare it to some of the other pictures below! Thankfully he hasn't experienced very much pain. This also gives David an excuse not to have to practice trumpet for a whole week!

2005-12-26T11:01:00.000-06:00

Ah! A well-fed post-Merry Christmas to all!

Yesterday was certainly a day of rejoicing in the things and people the Lord has brought into our lives. Yesterday in church the message was on three gifts that God has given us: mercy, grace and justification. These three things are ours because of Christ’s work on our behalf. Although the sermon focused on how the ‘gifts’ we give to Jesus are many times motivated by pride and self-interest, I came away with a greater appreciation for the greatness of “all [the] spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:3) that we have received.

I was also especially thankful for the family God has given me. My wonderful wife and children are also precious to me. Even my wife’s family was part of my special thanksgiving. We are enjoying David and Karen’s visit (my wife’s younger brother and sister). We have had a lot of fun playing Settlers of Catan and Age of Empires. This year Daniel and Angelo Salvatierra, two young men from my father-in-law’s ministry in Chile who are preparing for the ministry here in Monterrey, are staying with us as well. I think they have a new appreciation for Christmas now (at least the food that accompanies this occasion—go, Susan)! They enjoyed opening the presents from their family in Chile that David and Karen were able to bring.

We were also amazed at the generosity of God’s people. Every year we marvel at the material blessings the Lord provides for us through the giving hearts of His people. We made off like bandits. I was telling someone how almost all of the very nice things we have were given to us. We thank all of you for thinking of even the material gifts as well!

I didn’t think that I was going to like having Christmas fall on a Sunday. As you know, many churches cancelled their services yesterday because it was Christmas. I read of one mega-church that stated that they didn’t have services because their services required the work of several hundred volunteers. They didn’t think that it was fair to ask these people to spend that time away from family and friends. Yesterday Susan and I had the opportunity of putting together and organizing a 30 minute program with special music and Scripture reading. It was a delight to be doing it in combination with David and Karen, but it was extra-special to serve the Lord on a Sunday that was also a Christmas Sunday. I know that I sang and played with a greater spiritual focus and enjoyment than usual. Those churches that thought it was too much to ask people to serve only deprived their people of an extra-special blessing.

2005-12-17T19:04:00.000-06:00

Beautiful Day, Wonderful Activity

For those who may check for an update tonight, I am posting an abbreviated update. We had a wonderful day. Thank you for your prayers. The weather was beautiful. They had been calling for cold and rain that was supposed to end during the morning hours, but instead it was bright, sunny and temperatures of around 65. We had 90 children, and, what was even more surprising, we had 18 mothers show up with their children. Several of the mothers made professions of faith. I will try to post pictures later on. Right now, I need to go continue my sermon preparation for tomorrow morning. Unfortunately, this week was not conducive to studying. I am parking my 1 John series for the holidays. I will be preaching on the response of the wise men and Herod to Christ in Matthew 2. Thank you again for your prayers.

2005-12-14T11:30:00.000-06:00

Inspection and Saturday Outreach

Yesterday the University had its third inspection by an official from the Education Department. It was a very detailed inspection (inspecting such details as the number of hours each class was offered, if the teachers signed the attendance book, etc.). In both her report and her comments to the University staff, the official was very complimentary about the level of organization and the atmosphere here at the college. She left with a wonderful impression about what is happening here.

Her main objections centered around the Bible classes and chapels. While she stated that it was not a problem to have those, we should not include them in the official class schedule we present to the Education Department, and we should not even include them on the official attendance sheets. This highlights the fact that there is still significant resistance to mixing Christianity with education in Mexico. Ironically, the Education Department has just launched a "Spiritual Values" program in the public elementary schools. Since we are in the midst of an academic review, we are going to add our Bible classes to the official curriculum under the name "Christian Values." We hope that it will be approved. It could be a ground-breaking, pioneering moment, not just for us, but for other Christian educational institutions in the future.

Changing veins, Saturday we are having a special Christmas activity at the mission. We will have pinatas, chili dogs, Bible stories, etc. We hope to reach many new children and their parents as well. Please pray that the weather will be favorable. If it is cold and rainy, Mexicans will simply not come. They are calling for clouds and about 60, which is fairly cold by Monterrey standards. As long as it doesn't rain, we should be fine. Pray that we will effectively reach new families through this outreach.

2005-12-12T09:27:00.000-06:00

An update for all you poor frozen souls who have been incredibly uncaring about our "cold snap": it has warmed up considerably. Currently it is about 50 and should get up around 70 today. Thankfully it didn't stay cold enough to really get cold inside the houses. Our bedroom was staying around 50, but that isn't too bad, I guess. Another update tomorrow, Lord willing.

2005-12-08T17:54:00.000-06:00

Brrr! It is cold! The temperature dropped from a balmy 80 degrees two days ago to 37 today. (Yesterday it was somewhere in between.) That doesn't give your body time to adjust. It feels like about 20. Without any heating, the cement block houses become like refrigerators. Often it is colder inside than outside! It is supposed to be this way for a while. I am glad that we only have this weather two or three months out of the year. I am a hot weather person!

2005-12-05T15:45:00.000-06:00

This week has been one of those weeks when I hardly had time to think. On Monday I had my very first migraine headache. (not an experience I want to repeat), which naturally set me back for the whole week. In preparation for our end-of-semester module in the theology program (Missionary Jim West is teaching a two week module on Apologetics), we were wrapping up our classes and having final exams. We were also preparing for the end of semester Christmas concert with the University orchestra and choir. I play trumpet, and Susan accompanies the choir on the piano. The additional rehearsals as well as the performance on Saturday added some spice to the week. The concert was at a concert hall downtown. It was a combined effort with the Christian school. Aaron's preschool class (he attends a few days a week while Susan teaches English) dressed up as sheep. They sang Silent Night, Holy Night and Away in a Manger. His teacher is Pastor Julio Montes' daughter, Sari. The other blonde kid is Jonathan Gibson, the eldest son of AJ and Ruth Gibson, our co-workers here in the ministry. Sorry the picture isn't very good.

This week we begin to wrap up some of our non-theology major classes. Finals, grading projects, etc. will take up a considerable amount of time this week.

Please pray for an activity we are planning to have at the mission on Saturday, the 17th. We will have a special activity that is intended to draw new in new children. We expect to more than double our attendance on that day (somewhere around 100 children--maybe more). We are in the midst of the planning phases right now.

I have included a picture we took of Aaron and Ana. They are as cute as ever. They enjoy each other at times (like in this picture) and try to kill each other at other times! Ah, the joys of being siblings!

2005-11-28T19:32:00.000-06:00

Glorying in tribulation
Romans 5:3-5 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
Last night we received one of the great blessings in life. Many of you read and prayed about Pastor Luis Ortegón, the pastor who was not expected to live after the van he was working on collapsed on his face. His recovery has been nothing short of miraculous. While he still has several significant obstacles to overcome, he doing much better. Last night he shared a testimony at church (in the picture--he's wearing sun glasses because bright lights still bother him), detailing some of what the Lord has done since his accident last August 21st . The passage he spoke was Rom. 5:3, " And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also." He said that the most marvelous time of his life has been since his accident. "The most fruitful time in my ministry has been since August 21st," he said. Pastor Ortegón has been pastoring that church for the last 3 and a half years. The response in that community has been extremely slow. Although they have visited every house in that community at least twice, the response had been very cold. After his accident Pastor Ortegón was concerned about how he would be able to effectively ministry. Because he still has much difficulty walking, he is not able to go out visiting. However, the Lord has been doing unusual things. Since that time the community has been coming to him, seeking help. He told of one couple that came to his door at midnight. In their hands they had their divorce papers, which they were going to sign in the morning. At 2:30am they were praying to accept Christ as their Savior and willingly tore up the divorce papers. Since that time they have been faithfully attending the services. Another couple came to his house late one night. The wife told Pastor Ortegón that her husband had bought a gun and was going to kill his family and then commit suicide. He had even set up the family pictures and used them as target practice! The man said that he simply did not want to go on living. After talking for several hours, they went to the house, found the gun, destroyed it, and that couple then accepted Christ. They have also been faithfully attending the services since that time. The Gospel truly is powerful! Pastor Ortegón told of several other similar situations. In each case, the desperately needy people came to him, seeking help. We read about how we can glory in tribulation. We know that God can work all things for His glory and our good; yet we often have a hard time really trusting Him. Last night we were privileged to personally see one of those experiences that seem to happen only in Christian biographies. Truly the Lord’s hand is not shortened nor is His power limited.
Pastor Ortegón said that many people had commented on how much he must have suffered during that time. He said, "Brethren, I have not suffered at all. Do you know why? Because we glory in tribulations."
Wow, truly God is still omnipotent.

2005-11-22T10:26:00.000-06:00

Prayer Letter, November of 2005

Dear Brethren,

“But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works (Psa. 73:28).” The Lord is truly desirable and worthy of our greatest love! The last several weeks have been weeks of growth in our personal walks with God. We have seen ever so clearly the worthiness of our God. As we see that, at times we could grow discouraged by the fact that we are so tempted by other delights and so weak in our love for Him. Yet the understanding that Christ is worthy of our highest pursuits and that He is the one who produces the growth and love is our greatest satisfaction.

The ministry has seen the Lord provide rich blessings as well. On Tuesday night of this week, November 15th, I will have the privilege of preaching at the first ordination of a University graduate. While many graduates are in ministry, they have not yet been ordained. Emanuel Sidronio, who is pastoring a church in his home state Oaxaca, in southern Mexico, will be ordained this week. We are humbled and excited to see the Lord put our graduates on the battlefield. Please pray for Emanuel’s ministry in Oaxaca.

Many of you prayed for Pastor Luis Ortegón, who was injured when a van he was working on collapsed on his face. Since the doctors did not expect him to survive more than a few days, we are rejoicing in the Lord’s mercy not only in preserving his life, but in preventing any significant brain damage. However, he still has significant obstacles to overcome. He is completely deaf in his right ear. His right eye is almost completely paralyzed (though he has no problem seeing, he can’t move his eyeball from side to side), and he has great difficulty talking (he stutters greatly, even though what he says is coherent). Although the doctors are offering a very guarded prognosis about his long-term recovery from these conditions, the Lord has done and can still do miracles for our brother. Please continue to pray for him, his family and his church.

The Lord has also allowed us to continue working at the mission (church planting ministry) in the metro area. In addition to the Saturday morning children’s clubs, we have begun a Bible study on Thursday nights for the adults. It has been extremely refreshing to work with these new believers as they take their first spiritual baby-steps. Please pray that we will have great wisdom in discipling them and in reaching new people with the wonderful message of Christ. Also pray that the Lord will provide a new location to meet. We are meeting in a small home. With 10 to 12 adults in the small living room/kitchen area and 20 children in the patio (or bedroom, with the cold weather approaching—although last night it was 80 degrees in our bedroom at 11:30), we have a pressing need for a more space. I will share some names and stories with you in the next prayer letter.

Our family continues to grow (though not in number—to the dismay of the grandparents). Aaron and Ana continue to show their natural insistence on their own way. We have the wonderful challenge of attempting to show them the perils of walking in their own way and the blessings of walking in God’s way. Please pray that we will model for our children a continual denial of self and a greater love for God.

Compelled by His love,

The Bixbys

2005-11-22T08:24:00.000-06:00

These are the kiddos having some fun!

2005-11-21T18:30:00.000-06:00

This is the Family!

2005-11-21T18:05:00.000-06:00

Coming Soon!