Guadalajara Church Celebrates 22nd Anniversary Service

Posted on April 18, 2012 by mcamissions

The Guadalajara Church of Christ recently celebrated its 22nd anniversary with a powerful worship service, some special guests and the appointment of an evangelist and a women’s ministry leader.

Guadalajara is a city of over 4 million people, situated northwest of Mexico City. It is the capital of the state of Jalisco, the birthplace of Mariachi, and the home of the popular soccer team “Chivas.” The church there was planted in 1990 by a mission team from the Mexico City Church of Christ.

Sunday Worship Time

The anniversary celebration began on Friday and Saturday March 23-24 with classes on spiritual transformation, marriage and parenting. Roberto Carrillo and his wife Michelle and their son Andrew, from the San Diego Church of Christ, taught the parenting class on Saturday.

The Sunday service began with a great time of worship. The Lord’s Supper was led by Luis and Sylvia Mendez, also from the San Diego Church. Salvador Añorve, who with his wife Ana lead the Puebla Church, was in charge of the weekly financial offering.

Luis Mendez (center) making presentation to the Botellos (left), with Robert and Michele Carrillo (right)

In a very special moment for the church here, the Carrillos and the Mendez’ appointed Francisco Botello as an Evangelist, and his wife Angelica as a Women’s Ministry Leader. Francisco and Angelica were converted and trained here in Guadalajara in the 1990′s. In 2001 they led a mission team to plant the church in Leon (Guanajuato, Mexico.) They returned to Guadalajara and have been leading the church here for the past three years. The Guadalajara Church has also sent mission teams to the cities of Tepic (2002) and Zacatecas (2007.)

Salvador Añorve (center) leads prayer for the Botellos

 

As service closes, the congregation gets ready to enjoy a great time of fellowship

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We rejoice with our brothers and sisters in Guadalajara, and we join them in prayers for the evangelization of western Mexico…

J. De Anda

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Students in Action in Central America

Posted on March 24, 2012 by mcamissions

In previous posts, we have shared about the Mexico City mission team’s decision to focus on campus ministry back in 1987.  This week we have some great news from the campus ministries in Central America. Here is a message from Marcelo Carcamo, from the church in San Salvador.

 

Marcelo Carcamo leads a group Bible study at the University of El Salvador

Accion Estudiantil (“Student Action”) was born from the dream of having a unity-building tool for the campus ministries in Central America. We need each other. We have asked all the campus ministries in Central America to take the name “Student Action” in order to forge a common identity. One single Facebook page will connect us all through posts and videos. Thus far the churches in San Salvador, Managua, Tegucigalpa, Xela and San Pedro Sula have joined this effort.

From February 22-29, we organized our first student exchange activity. Four members of Managua’s Student Action group travelled to San Salvador and spent a week here. They were hosted by local members of the church. Here are some of the activities we had:

Poster for the Student Camp: Molded In His Image

– Ministry-training sessions

– Three Bible Talks at the National University (UES)

– Twenty five average visitors per Bible Talk

– Ten new individual Bible studies were started

– Great fellowship-building activities

Marcelo Carcamo (San Salvador)

We are inspired by the great news, and we hope to hear many great stories from this revival in campus ministry!

J De Anda

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Tegucigalpa (Honduras) Church is Twelve Years Old!

Posted on March 8, 2012 by mcamissions

The church in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, recently celebrated their 12th Anniversary. Here are some photos from the special Sunday service, held on March 4.

 

 

 JDA

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HOPE worldwide Community Service Brigades: Summer 2012

Posted on March 2, 2012 by mcamissions

HOPE worldwide is inviting volunteers to participate in several community service brigades this summer in Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Participants will spend a few days performing community service, mostly health-related, in the destination country and in partnership with local church members. On the final day of the tour, participants worship with the local congregation and typically organize a health fair for the church members. For more information and application forms please go to the HOPE worldwide website.

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Holding On To Faith And A Good Conscience

Posted on February 28, 2012 by mcamissions

For the past few years I’ve been on a journey through the book of Job, helped by an amazing book “The Gospel According to Job” by Mike Mason (Crossway Books, Wheaton, IL) This week I was meditating on Job 27:6 “My conscience will not reproach me as long as I live.” (NIV) In his book, Mason points out how difficult it is for a Christian to “feel” a clean conscience. We are highly sensitive to our sinful condition, and we continually struggle with this heightened sense about our moral and spiritual shortcomings. Many times we try to “make up the difference” by praying more or going to more church functions or just doing more of the spiritual things, only to fall short time and time again. In that context, Job’s declaration comes across as arrogant and self-righteous.

However, we can look at a passage like Hebrews 10:19-22 (NIV) ”Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus…let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience…” The conscience of a Christian is not clean due to the person’s virtue, but rather as a result of faith in the cleansing power of Jesus’ blood. According to Mason, “A clean conscience is not one that is without guilt, but one that is without blame. In an honest and healthy conscience there is always a sense of guilt, but blame is continually being washed away by the blood of Christ.”

Mason also presents an interesting analogy: the conscience is like a window of the soul. It allows you to see your heart the way God sees it. It allows you to see God the way He wants you to see Him. Like any other window, the conscience can get dirty. To try and clean up our conscience through human effort is like trying to wipe clean a window using a dirty rag! Only the blood of Christ can really keep that window of conscience clean, so that we can really see.

“Fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience” (1 Timothy 1:18-19, NIV.)

J De Anda

 

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