Contact Us:

November 2, 2007

· 636-642-4121
(Vonage, No International Fees)

· 011-52-871-720-8481
(Mexico Home Phone)

· Apartado #219
Col: Torreón Jardín
Torreón, Coahuila
C.P. 27200  Mexico

Jack.thomas@macregion.org

Dear Friends and Prayer Partners,

 

We will always remember the year 2007 as our year without communication.  It seems that we have faced every challenge imaginable that could interrupt our ability to communicate.  We have literally lived on the road this year; working in many areas without internet, cell phone and sometimes regular phone service.  In addition to being transient most of the year, our home was struck by lightening; on three occasions the transformer in front of our house blew up (birds are such pesky creatures) and of course the time it took to replace damaged equipment after these things occurred always seemed unending.  Our main computer had to be replaced, and most recently, the hard drive in our new computer crashed, taking with it ALL of our email information, and as MANY of you have pointed out; our phone service from the USA quit functioning.  We always wondered how missionaries survived before modern “instant technology”, but God showed us a different side to this.  Without communication we were left with one thing; uninterrupted work and the ability to focus solely on the task at hand.  Yes, we are glad to be on line and communicating again, but God accomplished so much while we were silent.  Hmmm, “Be still and know that I am God.”…

 

If you are one of the many who have emailed, called or sent smoke signals trying to reach us please accept our apology.  If we did not respond to your email it was not received; so please, let us hear from you again.

 

What’s been happening?

We will be sending a recap of our year, but we would like to share with you now one of the ways that we are seeing God work.  For quite some time we have felt a huge burden for the men in our area of ministry.  In this culture there are countless churches without men to be leaders and at times reaching men seems impossible.  A few months ago we were moved to begin praying very specific and focused prayers for these men; asking God to reveal men to us with hearts that are seeking.  We began asking each of our volunteer groups to pray with us about this, before coming to Mexico and as they are prayer walking; the Mexican Baptist Churches have joined us in this prayer and God is answering!  We have been overwhelmed by the number of men who have accepted Christ as their Savior or stepped forward to study the Bible and those who are being discipled!  God is truly giving us the desire of our hearts!!!

 

Yesterday we completed two weeks at home; this is the longest period of time that we have been home since December of 2006.  It has been a wonderful time of reconnecting with our life and friends here in Torreón.

 

What’s coming up?

· 11/06 – 11/20: Tuesday we will begin traveling toward Tijuana, Baja California to meet a team from Lexington, Kentucky. This is about a two and a half day trip in each direction.  The actual project will take place 11/10 – 11/17.  We will prayer walk and distribute the Gospel in an area where there are approximately 36,000 homes – more than 100,000 people - with no evangelical church presence.  Our goal will be to visit 5,000 of these homes during the week.  Please pray for the people living in Colonia Santa Fe.  This area is divided into numerous gated communities and we are asking you to pray specifically for the gates of these areas to be open.  Please ask God to throw the gates open wide so that we can reach the homes.  Pray for pastor Walter Marquez and Iglesia Bautista Jesucristo Vive (Jesus Lives).  This is the church we will be working with during the week and they have assumed all responsibility for follow up of the project.  Pray with us on Thursday evening 11/17; we have activities scheduled for those living in the community to help kick off the project follow up.  The evening will end with the Gospel being presented through a movie.

11/25 – 11/29: Operation GO annual meeting in Guadalajara, Mexico.  Pray that this will be a fruitful time of learning for all involved.

 

Prayer Requests:

Colonia Santa Fe in Tijuana; Iglesia Bautista Jesucristo Vive; safe travel for US volunteers and our family