Bob teaches Wesleyan Theology in Monterrey

From Mar. 18th to the 28th we visited four different areas of Mexico, covering about 1600 miles.  In Mexico State we were at an altitude of over 9,000 feet, and it frosted in the morning.  Three days later and 8,000 feet lower in San Luis Potosi State the thermometer showed 40 degrees C, or 104 F.

The trip to Monterrey went extremely well.  Bob taught a weekend intensive course on Wesleyan Theology to more than 20 students and pastors.  On Sunday the area churches came together for the final session of the course, a two-hour seminar on Wesleyan Holiness!

Upon returning home to Puebla, Bob left for a one-week “tour” to three widely spaced areas of Mexico: Tehuacan (Puebla State), Mexico State, and San Luis Potosi.  Guest missionary Perry Hubbard from Panama presented seminars on doing world evangelization from Latin America.  The churches were excited to learn about how they could participate in missions, a new role after decades of being a mission field.  Mexico is more than ready to become a missionary-sending country!

During their travels they also learned of some sobering needs for prayer for Mexico because of the violence related to drug cartels that is now affecting our Wesleyan congregations:

-          In Monterrey a young husband and key church member was abducted on Feb. 3, presumably by a drug cartel, and has not been heard from since.  His wife gave birth to their first child this month.

-          Near Xilitla, San Luis Potosi, the husband of a church member was killed this month during an assassination attempt by a drug cartel on a local judge.

-          The brother of one of our Wesleyan national leaders was threatened and extorted in February by a drug cartel, as he does accounting for a city (name and city withheld).  The threat continues.

-          A pastor’s wife (name and area withheld) asked for prayer for them and for a church family who lost a member to drug violence and is currently being threatened by a drug cartel.  This pastor’s wife was thoroughly terrified for this family and for the church.

Please pray for peace and justice in Mexico, for the cessation of drug-related violence, and for divine protection for our Wesleyan congregations and all God’s people who live and work in these dangerous areas of Mexico.  We also appreciate your prayers for us, though we want you to know that we live in a peaceful area of Mexico and are not threatened by the drug-related violence.

Thank you again for your faithful support!

 Bob, Susie, Elisabeth, Aaron and Sarah Gray

We pray that you and yours are having an especially blessed Christmas season.  We are enjoying Christmas time here in Puebla, Mexico.  The kids are on vacation, no classes at the Bible School, and the cookies are in the oven! 

We miss our families and we miss seeing a white Christmas.  But God is blessing us with good friends, sunny warm weather, and many opportunities to serve and carry the true message of Christmas to Mexico and Latin America.  Susie is directing a children’s Christmas program in our local church this weekend as part of a neighborhood outreach.  And we feel especially blessed to have you on our team with your prayers and financial support.  Thank you!

As we look to a new year we would ask you to keep praying for the work in training pastors and leaders, and for God to call more workers.  On January 14, five students in the Oaxaca extension will graduate!  Also next month Bob will be preparing and teaching a one-week Christian Philosophy course in Puebla starting January 31.

Pray also for peace and safety for Mexico as drug-related violence seems to be getting worse in some areas (not where we live), and we have to be more careful in travelling, especially to new regions.  Bob decided to cancel a recent trip with our national leaders to a new region, just to be on the safe side and because of cartel activity there.   We thank the Lord that our leaders were safe and a new Wesleyan church was received on December 12.

And keep praying for the work that we are now overseeing in El Salvador.  Bob will be travelling there this spring for an administrative visit.  We praise the Lord that they also have a new Bible School extension with 16 students!

For more news and updates go to our website: www.teamwesley.org.  There’s also a new Christmas video slideshow of our family.

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year 2011,

Bob, Susie, Elisabeth, Aaron and Sarah Gray

Global Partners Regional Director

Mexico and El Salvador

graysinmexico@hotmail.com

Pastor Rene Melendez in the downtown Wesleyan Tabernacle

El Salvador is affectionately known as the “Tom Thumb” (or “Pulgarcito”) of Central America.  About the size of Massachusetts, it’s the smallest, most densely populated country in the Americas.  It has a beautiful coastline on the Pacific Ocean and is bounded on the north and east by Guatemala and Honduras.  Nearly half of their population of 6.2 million lives in the capital city of San Salvador. 

But for being a small country, our Wesleyans in El Salvador sure don’t think small!  They have a huge vision for reaching their country for Jesus Christ.  Obviously the capital city is the strategic key to this vision, and our largest Wesleyan church there is located literally in the downtown heart of the city.  Rev. Rene Melendez pastors this growing church of 140, which was started just six years ago.  His vision is to reach the thousands of street and open market vendors that crowd the downtown area.  They have two preaching points that meet weekly, literally in the open markets for all to see and attend.

Another established church, just three years old, is Iglesia Wesleyana Buen Samaritano (Good Samaritan Wesleyan) situated in a residential area of the capital called Ciudad Delgado.  His church reaches out to the poor who live in the margins of the city and society.  His vision is to reach the thousands of youth and young adults who play soccer in the streets because there are no city parks in his community.  They also have outdoor preaching points further out on the edge of the city where people flocking to the city usually land first. 

All of these preaching points will eventually become established churches as we find the resources to rent facilities and pay a part-time pastor.  Pastor Rene just opened this year a new Bible School extension in his church and is currently training 12 future pastors.  They are using our online materials that Bob has been developing, as well as video materials from courses taught here in Mexico.

This past month we went to El Salvador to welcome in another new congregation to the Wesleyan Church in El Salvador.  On June 12 the Shalom Christian Ministry in Paraiso, Chalatenango, near the northern border with Honduras, officially became a Wesleyan church.  Pastor Noe Arabia and his wife Kenny have a vision to reach this smaller community with a church they started two years ago in their living room.  Now they are buying property on a hill that overlooks the main highway to the town.  The church they build there will be a highly visible lighthouse to the whole community and area of Chalatenango.

Even though this country has been repeatedly beaten down by civil war, natural disasters and economic collapse, the people there have found hope in Jesus Christ.  They are wide open to the Gospel and churches are springing up everywhere.  Our Wesleyans there face joblessness, gang violence, and lack of resources for their churches.  Yet they are believing God to be able to buy land and build churches, to multiply pastors and leaders, and to reach their “Tom Thumb” country for Jesus Christ.

Would you be willing to partner with them if God would use you as a channel?  How big is your vision?  Bigger than Tom Thumb?

Dontate to El Salvador National Ministry Shares WM05-0204, Global Partners, PO Box 50434, Indianapolis, IN 46250; or online at www.wesleyan.org/gp.

Matías - Graduated March 26, 2010

In Acts chapter one the eleven disciples decided they needed to select a replacement for Judas in order to keep their number a perfect and prophetic 12.  This was before the Holy Spirit came, so they cast lots Old Testament style to see whom God would select.  The lot fell on Mathias, and he was officially inducted into the 12 apostles hall of fame.  And we never hear from him again. 

I always think of Mathias as the “silent disciple”.  Perhaps Luke was trying to show in the book of Acts that God had really meant to select the Apostle Paul as the 12th man.  Maybe that’s why Mathias never gets any lines nor is ever mentioned again.

My mental image of the disciple Mathias has been greatly reinforced these past few years by one of our students in Puebla, named Matías (Spanish version of Mathias).  When he arrived he was extremely quiet, never saying anything in class and only answering questions as briefly as possible.  It was easy to picture him as the “silent disciple”.  Though terribly shy, he was still friendly and always quick to laugh and smile. 

His verbal assignments for class presentations and sermons were always woefully brief, barely enough to get a passing grade.  I always tried to cut him some slack, probably because I saw a lot of myself in him at that age.   I too was painfully shy and quiet, preferring to be thought a fool than to open my mouth and remove all doubt!  No one would have guessed during my college and seminary years that I would someday do something so bold as to preach and teach in  a second language as a missionary.  Probably most doubted I would ever even make it as a pastor, speaking in public for a living!

But God calls all kinds of people and uses them despite their natural speaking abilities.  Noah was ridiculed when he spoke.  Abraham was a coward and lied to save his skin.  Moses was “slow of speech”, probably even stuttered.  David was the least assuming of his clan, likely a better psalm writer than public speaker.  Isaiah’s sermons went unheeded and Jeremiah was a constant whiner.  Peter had a habit of shooting off his mouth, while James and John were brown-nosers.  Thomas openly doubted.  The Apostle Paul was bold in his letters but admitedly timid in person, probably short, bald and nearsighted.  Jesus, meek and mild, never opened his mouth at the end.

After two years of knowing our student Matías, I finally had a chance to talk with him and get him to open up a little.  He confided that when he first came to the Bible school he could barely speak or understand Spanish.  As is common in the rural areas of Mexico (where most of our churches are!), the first language is usually the “tribal” tongue of your indigenous group.  Matias grew up speaking Nahuatl (or Aztec) and was extremely limited and nervous  in Spanish.  Growing up with this “disability” probably contributed to his natural timidness and lack of self-confidence.  I suspect this is common and is one of the reasons it is hard to recruit pastors and students from our churches in Mexico.

Matías would sit in class and write down every word he didn’t understand, and then look it up later.  Reading and writing assigments were excruciatingly long and difficult for him.  He probably had to work four times as hard as the average Spanish speaking student.

Matías graduated this past month in March, 2010, and  I am extremely proud of him.  I know how hard it is to work in a second language, and I honestly wonder if I would have been willing to do it the way he did.

I also wonder where it is written that a good pastor or spiritual leader has to be a loud, extroverted, self-confident and influential public speaker.  Our Matías will probably never be any of those (although I would humbly admit that I’m a much better preacher/teacher today than anyone probably would have guessed 20 years ago!).

Matías is now a new pastor, filling a pulpit near his home town that had previously gone empty for years.  I have no doubt that his people are thrilled to have a pastor of their own now, and they’ll love him for his sincerity and genuine desire to serve God and them.  He may never be a bold leader or a dynamic speaker, but I’ve always told Matías that if nothing else, his people will never complain about his short sermons!!!!

Last Sunday’s sermon at our church related to our study on Babylon and I thought I’d share some of the tidbits I gleaned.  The message was taken from Jeremiah chapter 29, a letter written by Jeremiah to the exiles in Babylon.  First, Jeremiah tells them, “Settle in.  You’re going to be there for awhile.”  (Other false prophets had been telling them that they would be going home very soon).  Jeremiah says to settle down and get married, build houses, and plant gardens (verse 5-6).  Second, he says to pray for Babylon and seek its peace and prosperity (verse 7).  Third, he promises that he has a plan for their future (verse 11).

 I found these points very applicable to my life (particularly as a missionary).  It seems like we have moved so many times that sometimes I feel like I might as well not bother to fix up my house and plant gardens (or even make friends).   These verses make me realize that settling down and putting down roots is not a bad thing—even spending money on “frivolous” things to make my house more “homey” (I don’t think Bob meant for me to make that application when he was preaching—ha,ha).  Another interesting application is that God didn’t send them to call down fire from heaven and destroy Babylon.  He didn’t tell them to pray for judgement on Babylon or even ask them to walk through the streets preaching.  He told them to settle in and to pray for Babylon’s peace and prosperity.  Hmmm.  Interesting. 

In the third part—verse 11—a famous verse that has given me comfort many times,  God was telling them that he had a plan for their future (but it was a long-term plan).  Many who heard the promise did not live to see its fulfillment.  But their faith and commitment allowed the next generation to see the promise fulfilled.  And, it was the next generation who returned to Jerusalem, rebuilt the temple, and maintained pure the Jewish religion.  Thanks to them the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament were preserved and handed down to us.  Wow! 

God has a plan, but sometimes we don’t see the fruits of our faithfulness because God’s plan is long-term.  As the NIV says, though, he knows “muy bien” the plans he has for us, so even though we don’t understand what he’s doing sometimes, we can trust that he has a plan.  We don’t have to know the plan, we just have to know Him.

Because of the economic conditions in Mexico, and the fact that there is no realistic retirement system, most parents count on their children to get good jobs and support them in their old age.  Rather than contribute to a retirement plan, most parents sacrifice nearly everything they have to make sure their kids at least graduate from "jr. high school" with some kind of trade degree.  This is especially important now that most couples in Mexico are having only two or three children, instead of the 10 or 15 their parents had. If even one child can go on to become a professional, so much the better.

Pedro was especially fortunate that his oldest daughter and middle son had the aptitude and plans to seek professional careers (the youngest daughter was still too young to decide, but also showed promise).  Yet, seven years ago in response to a special call for more Wesleyan pastors during a Mexico church assembly, Pedro and his wife had written down the names of all three of their children and placed them on the altar.  They were declaring their willingness to let their children be called into the ministry (and surely into near poverty like themselves), despite the economic environment where many Christian parents and even pastors actively discouraged their children from considering the ministry.  After all, their well-being in retirement was at stake!  Pedro and his wife decided they wouldn’t push their kids into ministry, but neither would they discourage them.

Two years ago (while we were on Home Ministries and unaware of their situation), Pedro’s son, Asael, became gravely ill.  He was 19 years old at the time, and studying part-time for a professional career.  The local clinic did tests and said it was his gall bladder, and that it would probably burst within two weeks if it wasn’t surgically removed.  Asael could die if that happened.

Pedro didn’t have enough money for the surgery, but they began to pray.  Pedro told his son that he was sorry he couldn’t pay, but that he was sure that God would either make it possible to have the surgery or that God would take care of the situation.  He shared with Asael how he and his mother had placed Asael on the altar seven years ago, and that he was sure God had accepted that offering.  God had special plans for his son, either in the ministry or whatever career Asael chose.  God would make a way.

The two weeks went by, and still there was no money or means of correcting Asael’s illness.  Asael had another attack with severe pains.  Pedro, his family, and the church gathered around him to pray.  Even though Asael felt some better, they took him to the clinic again to see if there was anything that could be done.  The doctor there feared the worst and had Asael rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery, money or no money.  Before going in, the surgeon ordered another round of tests and ultrasounds to see if the gall bladder had ruptured.

All of the tests came back negative!  There was nothing wrong with Asael or his gall bladder!  Asael was released and never had another attack again.

This fall Asael and his older sister, Denise, enrolled in the Puebla Bible School to study for the ministry.  Denise had just passed her exams to become a civil engineer.  Both felt led to leave their ambitions and promising careers to answer God’s call and the need for more pastors in Mexico.

Pedro beamed as he shared this story at the evening rally, and said he couldn’t be prouder to have two of his children in preparation for the ministry.  Like Abraham, he had offered his son (and daughters) on the altar, possibly to the ruin of any hopes for retirement or security.  Yet God had given him back his son, Asael, alive and healthy, and answering God’s call.  This hope was beyond all others for Pedro, and still he believed that God would make a way for whatever future would come.

Dear Lord, we offer our children to You to call and use as You see fit.  And we place on the altar (again) any man-made hopes and dreams for a “comfortable” retirement or financial security.  We trust You to make a way!

Well, actually she is a former prostitute who now attends the Wesleyan Evangelical Tabernacle in downtown San Salvador.  Marvelously saved from her previous lifestyle, she is one of the founding members of the church planted just six years ago.  She greeted me, and everyone, at the door with the warmly traditional Latin American brush-on-the-cheek kiss (which seems pretty Biblical too!).

On Saturday night (Sept 12) I visited this church in El Salvador’s capital city. (El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America, located south of Mexico and Guatemala.) That night I met the church’s leadership team as we shared an evening snack of pupusas (El Salvador’s version of a stuffed tortilla, very tasty!).  I was astounded to see over 40 adults in attendance, out of the 90 who attend on Sundays. 

"These are my students in our leadership school," Pastor Rene proudly informed me.  They are board members, worship leaders, Sunday School teachers, and other church workers (children, youth, women, outreach, etc).  Some of them are even in ministerial preparation in order to plant new churches.  Nearly all of them are new Christians within the last six years (the church started with just six people, the pastor’s family).  And they all come from a rather rough and poor inner-city background: most are the street vendors Rene and Zoily intentionally target.  Pastor Rene also informed me sadly that he recently lost three newly converted young men who were murdered by their former gangs for "desertion".

On Sunday I preached there and also at the even newer Good Samaritan Wesleyan Church in an even poorer neighborhood.  I considered it a great privilege, besides the fact that it was just plain fun to worship with them in their overjoyed, boisterous, loud ("joyful noise") style.  But I felt very humbled too as the pastor proudly told me I was preaching to former prostitutes, exotic dancers, gang members, addicts, and the like.

I was reminded of when Jesus had dinner with Simon the Pharisee (Luke 7:36-50) and was interrupted by a prostitute who kissed and anointed Jesus’ feet.  Simon was scandalized mostly by the fact that Jesus seemed not to be offended, as if he didn’t know what kind of woman this was.  Oh, but Jesus did know.  And he told Simon, through a parable, that she loved God better as a (former) prostitute than Simon did as a Pharisee, because she also knew what kind of woman she was and was humbly asking forgiveness (sobbing and washing Jesus’ feet with her tears).

To myself I was thinking, "Dear Lord, who am I to be preaching to them?  Certainly I  resemble Simon more than the woman at your feet.  Would I be as forgiving as you, Jesus?  Let my heart also be broken by my sins, be they ‘great’ or ‘small’ (all are the same in God’s eyes!).  And let me also rejoice in your great forgiveness.  Teach me to love you as they do."

My consolation was in knowing that at least I was a little like Jesus in one way: I too was kissed by a (former) prostitute!

I got to see that fruit this past week at our Mexico National Assembly, where we ordained four new pastors.  One of those pastors was my very first student, Guillermo Tepal, who graduated from the Bible School in 2004, the year after we first arrived in Mexico.  Guillermo married right out of Bible School and began pastoring that same year, over five years ago.  He has been a successful pastor and they now have two little boys.  Way to go, Guillermo! 

This is the principle of the harvest and of multiplication.  As Guillermo ministers and reaches people for Christ in his church, he who is the fruit of my labor begins bearing even more fruit.  By pouring myself into Guillermo and other students like him, I am reaching untold 1000’s of Mexican people for Christ.  Just one student who becomes a pastor is capable of returning 30, 50 or even 100 fold (see the parable of the sower in Matt. 13:1-23).  What a great investment!

I had so much fun at Assembly, pointing out my former students to our visiting dignitaries.  “That’s Sarai, she’s now pastoring the main church in Ciudad Valles and also sits on the National Board as treasurer.”  “This is Marco, now pastoring and teaching in the extension.”  “Oh, there’s Pablo and Rebecca who pastor three churches between them, and Rebecca’s the assistant director of the Oaxaca extension.”  “And there’s America Gutierrez, pastor and director of the Valles extension.”  And so it went the whole time we were there.  How rewarding it is to see my former students not only pastoring, but training even more pastors!

That’s just a part of the Big Payoff.  Sometimes you get to see some of it here and now.  But the biggest payoff of all awaits all of us in Heaven when we’ll get to see the results spanning generations of every little offering, every sacrifice, every investment of time and energy, every word spoken in love, and every prayer offered in faith.  It’s worth it!