Greetings from Mexico. This past weekend we had the biggest weekend of our ministry year. We held our 8th annual church planting conference. Every year, our church prepares to host this international conference, and this year did not disappoint. We hosted over 500 guests who attended from 6 different countries, and a total of 80 different churches were represented.
The focus of this year’s conference was Biblical church planting, and our eight primary teachings focused on church planting lessons from different books of the New Testament. We were blessed to have teachings from Pastors Hugo Limon (Ensenada), Trent Douglass (California), Tony Carranza (Mazatlan), Aaron Smith (Florida), Gregg Seymour (Las Vegas), Pedro Velasquez (Monterrey ), Danny Hodges (Florida), and myself. We also had 24 workshops that covered every aspect that you can think of in regards to church planting.
A blessing of this year’s conference was the many women that were in attendance. As always we had a full slate of women’s workshops available for the ladies to learn about their important part in church planting. My wife Sarah, Debbie Douglass, Brenda Limon, and Angela Carranza all led workshops.
The highlight of this year’s conference was sending out church planters. One of the goals of our church planting movement is teaching and encouraging pastors to send out church planters. In the past conferences we have sent out one church planter together, but at this year’s conference we were able to send out four different church planters.
Our church sent out our 41st church planter at the conference. (More on that later) Pastor Tony Carranza sent out his next church planter Raul to Venezuela South America. Pastor Hugo Limon sent out a new church planter from Ensenada back to Culiacan. And Pastor Trent Douglass got to send his first Mexican national (Marcelo) out to the Middle East to church plant.
All of our attendees were blessed and encouraged as together we learned about church planting. The fellowship was rich and many friendships were formed. One of my favorite parts of this conference is that we get to provide this conference free of charge to all of our guests. A special thank you to our generous church congregation, Pastor Trent, and our sending church Calvary Chapel Saving Grace for funding this year’s conference.
On our church side of things, this past weekend Calvary Rosarito was blessed to send out our 41st church plant (Calvary Del Lago) to Patzcuaro Michoacan. I met my good friend Humberto Ambriz about 5 years ago at one of our church planting conferences. It was Humberto’s dream to raise up a young couple to plant a church in his beloved home state of Michoacan!
Sadly, there weren’t any young couples that were willing to step out in faith and be trained up and church plant. After that disappointment, Humberto heard the call that he was the one God was calling to plant the church! After retiring, Humberto left the American dream and moved to Rosarito to join our staff and take our church planting class. Humberto completed our church planting program with excellence, and our church family was blessed to send him out to do the great work of church planting.
Humberto is 68 years old, yet as he taught on Sunday morning he reminded us that Moses was 80 years old when God called him to go back to Egypt and set his people free. Now Humberto and his beloved wife Miriam take this great leap of faith and they are asking God to do more than they could ever ask or think. Please keep them and their church plant (Calvary Del Lago) in your prayers!
Finally, I want to thank you once again for partnering with us in this great missions work in Mexico and beyond. God has blessed us with much fruit, and we feel honored and blessed that you have chosen to support our family as your missionaries. Thank you again for your love, prayers, and financial support.
Con mucho amor de Mexico, (with much love from Mexico)
Mike, Sarah, Grace, and Daniel
Prayer Requests!
#1- Pray that God will bless our new batch of church planters. We have 40 students enrolled in our two classes this semester, which includes 10 first-year students.
#2- Our college graduate Grace has applied for several jobs recently, please pray that God opens up a door for her in the job that He has chosen.
Praise Reports!
#1- Praise God for our 41st church plant, Calvary Del Lago in Patzcuaro, Michoacan.
#2- Praise God for a fruitful and blessed church planting conference!
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