Greetings from Mexico. In August Calvary Rosarito went to four weekend services, and in this update, I want to share with you all of the reasons our church took this new step of faith. From the founding of our church over 23 years ago, I made the commitment to present the message of salvation and give an invitation at the end of every sermon. And I am blessed to tell you that our church has stuck by that commitment.
Although the purpose of the church is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:12), in a healthy church you have new believers being saved just as the early church did. Acts 2:47 tells us, “And the Lord added to the church daily those that were being saved.” And our ministry has seen God be faithful to that promise. One of our greatest callings as believers is to reach the lost, and our church family does an amazing job of bringing their unsaved family, friends, co-workers, and neighbors to the church!
Because so many new people are joining our church, our 700 seat sanctuary has been filling up to overflowing. So three months ago our Pastors made the decision to go to four weekend services. We made that big change in August and now our four services meet on (service #1) Saturday at 6:30pm, (service #2) Sunday at 8:30am, (service #3) Sunday at 10:30am, and (service #4) Sunday at 12:30pm!
After a month of these new service times, something incredible has taken place that to be honest is a big surprise to me. Our one and only Sunday afternoon service (12:30) has been bringing in the most first time visitors and also (and more importantly) is the service where we have had the most professions of faith. We have been averaging 8 first time professions of faith a week in that new fourth and final service alone! Thank you Lord Jesus!
These new people that make first time professions of faith are then encouraged to take our four week new believers class. In this weekly class, they learn six main topics: Salvation, Jesus, the Bible, the Church, spiritual growth, and baptism. We celebrate these friends graduating from their class as they step into the waters of baptism.
The book of Acts is our model and in the book of Acts we see the new believers taking that first step of faith and immediately being baptized. Because of that, for the last 20 years we have had monthly baptisms at each one of our weekend services. Last month (July) we had over 40 (mostly) new believers baptized, many of them at the beach. In August, we also stepped out in faith and started a Wednesday evening baptism service for the very first time.
As I write this update for you on Thursday, I had the privilege and honor of baptizing 13 (again mostly) new believers at our first Wednesday night baptism. This included an 80 year old lady named Betty that proudly told us that she had been a Christian for three weeks.
Even more incredible than that, a lady that I had never seen before told our church she had become a Christian “65 minutes ago” when she arrived at the church as a first time visitor. Evidently, as this guest sat in the patio waiting for the service to begin, one of our prayer counselors began talking with her and led her to faith in Christ. When this visitor heard we were baptizing new believers that night she asked if she could be baptized and we joyously told her “ABSOLUTELY”!
Precious friends and ministry partners, God is truly doing a fresh work of the Holy Spirit here in Mexico. It really doesn’t have much to do with me or even our church, I view it as a precious gift of God’s love and grace. Saying that, it is such a blessing to see the Lord moving on the hearts of His people, and so many new believers being filled with joy and peace as they simply believe.
Finally, I want to thank you once again for your partnership with our family here in the ripe mission fields of Mexico. We see you as equal partners in the work of the ministry here, and we are so thankful for your prayers and financial support. We love you and are praying for you.
Con mucho amor de Mexico, (with much love from Mexico)
Mike, Sarah, Grace, and Daniel
Prayer Requests!
#1- Pray that the owner of our building will accept the offer we made on the church facility.
#2- Pray that God will bless the five missions trips I am taking over the next 2 months to visit our church plants.
Praise Reports!
#1- Praise God for the many new believers in our church that have taken the step to be baptized!
#2- Praise God for a blessed and fruitful church planting conference at the start of August!
For our personal support, checks should be made out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Vincent support” in the memo section. For special projects, checks should also be made out to Saving Grace World Missions or SGWM, with the project name in the comments section. Use the enclosed envelope or mail directly to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873
For your convenience, you may consider giving through electronic funds transfer or direct deposit. Simply click on this link to directly support our family as your missionaries.
Or, you can go to our mission’s website, click on the “become a financial partner” button and fill out the information. Please remember to type in “Vincent” in the “purpose of gift” section.
