Grays in Mexico
Avenida Mexico-Puebla #104
Cuautlancingo, Puebla 72700
Mexico
ph: 222-285-5505
grays
News & Updates
Current Prayer Requests:
- Pray for the "50/50" vision, that the Lord of the Harvest would send workers to his harvest field in Mexico and El Salvador (50 new pastors and 50 existing pastors to complete their training).
- Pray for the Bible School students finishing the school year. One more class to go in July! All of our 12 students will be involved in ministry in their local churches during the six week summer break, most are pastoring churches.
- Pray for Bob as he travels to Roanoke, VA to visit the Shenandoah District Conference, July 9. Shenandoah is partnering with the work in El Salvador, and Bob will be presenting projects.
- Pray for the Bible School as we make key decisions and prepare for fall semester. The National Board will meet in Puebla on July 24.
- Pray for Susie and the kids as they'll be without Bob in Puebla for a couple weeks while Bob also goes to Michigan to speak in his home church and visit family. Bob will return to Puebla on July 23.
Bob Officiates the Afiliation Ceremony for a New Wesleyan Church in El Salvador.
On June 12 Bob and the whole family were in El Salvador to receive a new Wesleyan church there called, "Shalom Christian Ministry". Their pastor and wife, Noe Arabia and Kenny, were involved in an earlier church plant in El Salvador before they moved to the northern town of Paraiso, Chalatenango. There they started a church in their home that has grown to about 30 in attendance (pretty crowded in their living room!). A little over a year ago they approached our El Salvador leaders and asked about bringing their new church into the Wesleyan denomination in El Salvador. They completed the afiliation process in January and were officially received as a Wesleyan church on June 12, 2010. We welcome "Ministerio Cristiano Shalom" to our world-wide Wesleyan family!
Thanks for Praying!
- Bob finished his teaching year with an excellent course on Paul's Epistles (one of his favorite courses) in June. Still getting grading done for the school year!
- Twelve students are enrolled in the El Salvador Bible School extension and are using materials from the online program and videos from Mexico. In June 10 completed their very first course, Wesleyan History.
- Bob finished writing and editing his text book for Intro to Wesleyan Theology, a new course we will be offering online (see article below). He also finished developing and uploading the lessons to the website. Just a few minor details to go, and it will go live for this fall. This has been a bigger project than we ever dreamed, but well worth the effort.
- Thank you for your continued prayers for Bob's lower back pain. Although it's worse on some days, most of the time he has been getting better and has been able to work. Bob will be visiting an orthopedic surgeon here in Puebla when he gets back from his trip to the U.S. to see if he still recommends surgery, and when it might be done.
IBWWW.ORG Online Bible School Updates.
Great news! The course is done and uploaded to the site!!! This has been over a year-long project that Bob has worked on in his "spare time". This new course in Wesleyan Theological distintives will soon be available online! This is the course Bob has been developing with a complete textbook in Spanish and lessons online.
Bob met with Jim Eckhardt, Jose Quintero and Carlos Jaramillo in Medellin, Colombia this March 22-26, 2010 in order to further upgrade the online school. One of the goals was to set up Bob's final version of his textbook and course in Wesleyan Theology.
Bob has been working on site development and uploading new courses, as well as learning how to use the site as a teacher and as a distance learning option for Mexico. They also uploaded articles to the IBWWW's community web site, where teachers, students, and anyone interested in Theological Education can "meet" together to share resources and discussions about latest developments. (Follow the links from IBWWW.org to the Community site, also available in English.)
Bob continues to work on writing more mini-text books (or manuals) in Spanish for use in the online school and all over Latin America. Next will be a two volumn course in Systematic Theology.
Students from all over Latin America and beyond (the site is bilingual) are able to go online and take courses in ministerial training towards ordination requirements. The format is similar to correspondence, but is much more interactive and rapid.
This new education option will help greatly in our 50/50 vision to raise up 100 newly ordained pastors by the year 2012 in Mexico. The online Bible School will become a "virtual extension" of the Mexico Bible School (and others) to help train pastors and potential students who cannot come and study in our resident campus program.
Using the new online Bible School materials and video materials from Mexico, Pastor Rene Melendez opens a new Bible School Extension in El Salvador. Twelve students are currently enrolled!