Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 18:2-3
Dear Friends, family and loved ones,
Dire. If I had only one word to describe the situation of the unreached, this would be the one. The past week I have learned so much more about the tragic situation of the unreached in the world. The mere idea that there are over 3 billion people who have never heard the name of Jesus is shocking, almost half the population of the world (1+ billion of which are in India alone). What is more shocking, is that only 3% of missionaries are going to those unreached places, the rest are going to places already reached with the gospel. Every day 120,000 unreached people die. If you held your finger on your pulse, for every heartbeat you feel, one unreached person has passed into eternity. I could keep going with these statistics, but my hope is not to discourage you, but to stir your heart up for the unreached like mine has been.
This week we went out for two outreaches, both at community parks. The first one was at a town called Homex, half an hour from Rosarito. We had many people come that we invited from the community and did the whole sha-bang; hotdogs, kids games, a Bible teaching, etc. That evening I got the great opportunity to share my testimony with the adults as well.
Wednesday night we visited Calvary Chapel Playas, Tijuana, and I taught the 3-11 year old’s with another student, Samantha. The kids in Mexico are very respectful and kind, so it was one of the easiest and enjoyable classes I ever taught, even though it was through a translator!
On a more spur of the moment, the leadership decided to try a ‘pop-up outreach’, where we went out to the community around Calvary Chapel Ensenada. Although we knew exactly what we would be doing, we did not make a specific schedule, leaving the timing of everything up to the Lord. Without the worry of the next thing on the schedule, we could spend more focus on prayer and sharing with locals, and one young man even gave his life to the Lord! A spin-the-wheel game was setup for the kids. One of the things the kids could ‘win’ was praying with us. I had the most blessed time praying with the kids. Many of them, even 5-year old’s, had specific things they wanted prayer for. One kid, Julian, wanted prayer for property for his family to live on. Another wanted prayer for their alcoholic father. Although many of these kids had tough things happening in their lives, they were so joyful and attentive, which made me want to share more in their child-like faith.
Prayer Requests:
- God’s covering hand over us as we go to a rehab outreach this coming week
- I know I keep adding this each week, but we always need God’s protection against the enemy’s lies and discouragement. Spiritual warfare is always hard-pressed when sharing the truth of God!
- Wisdom for the team in sharing Jesus wherever we go.
Praise Reports:
- Great success of reaching the community in our ‘pop-up outreach’ in Ensenada.
- Making many great connections with the local communities, pastors, and fellow students.
Gospel Partners
All of you are our lifeline to the communities we reach, so I would love to get to know and partner with you more as I learn to be an ambassador of CC North Texas to Mexico!
You can contact me through email, phone or text. There is also a button on the bottom of this letter if you would like to financially be apart of this work in Mexico.
Eirene,
Joshua Vanrenterghem
joshuavan6@gmail.com
971-762-7451
