CENTRO de la COMMUNIDAD - CHURCH MEXICO

Over the past half year much progress has been made in providing shelter for this church/community center for the most impoverished district within San Luis, Mexico (the Reforma district).  A community images follow:

Last year a new restroom and shower building was constructed for the community to use.

Up until recently, the church has been meeting under a tarp

Thanks to volunteers from Colorado, church attenders, and others within this community they have a "mostly" enclosed building to meet, celebrate with the community, and hold worship services in. Please keep this ministry in prayer as they seek to finish the Community Center building, and also to someday build the training and discipleship center also to be located on this small parcel. Praise God for what He has done, and is doing within the Reforma District through His children at the Church of San Luis, part of the Church Mexico church planting initiative.

Check out the recently held church & community celebration photos below:

TANZANIAN UPDATES

MTO WA MBO - Thanks to Dale Slusser from the Helps headquarters back in Asheville, NC the Mto Wa Mbo church drawings are complete. Pastor Robert Mailya was very grateful to Helps for providing these drawings. He will let me know when funds are available to begin building, and I may be asked to return to help.

existing church building to be added to

church choir greeting us after singing praises together

VILLAGE OF LIVING HOPE (VLH)- SHINYANGA, - Thanks to Bruce Watson from the Helps headquarters we were able to complete schematic drawings for nearly all of the buildings that Mike and Claire Fedele envision for the VLH project to help orphans, particularly those with albinism in this region of Tanzania where they are so brutally treated. Two significant events have put this project on a temporary hold: 1) The 9 acres they had a purchase agreement for fell through, so they are seeking a new piece of land closer to town; this will change the master plan that we had developed, but should have little impact on the variety of buildings they seek to be housed in this Village; 2) Claire Grubbs, founder of VLH, is now Claire Fedele! She and Mike married in May, and have only recently returned to Shinyanga to resume their ministry activity there. Please keep this newlywed couple and their amazing ministry in prayer, as well as the search for the best land for the VLH to be located.

the newlyweds

the children

Cornelio & Cailene Vargas

Let's Build a School

Back in 2009 Cornelio and Cailene Vargas started the Selah School of Language & Arts in Costa Rica. Their mission is to leave a legacy of hope, promote education and encourage a personal relationship with Jesus. Besides teaching English to a growing number of students in the rural Costa Rican region where Cornelio was raised; Cailene leads a small group study with young women; and Cornelio teaches English at a nearby university one night a week.  They are very active in their church, and the community. 





Last year Cornelio and Cailene had their first child, a son named Mekahi. A couple months ago Cailene's mom, Bonnie Rogers (a former elementary school teacher) moved to Costa Rica to help with Selah, particularly with the younger students. Following is a recent blog about the their ministry that you might find interesting:

Cailene's girls group has been meeting for about a year. They are eager to talk about the things in their life that matter and to have others they can trust to ask some of the hard questions they are dealing  with. Costa Rica tends to be male dominate and many women do not have a voice or feel they can do anything but stay at home and take care of the family. Few women pursue and education beyond high school.  In the girls group they were saying how unfair things are at their houses. From two different homes two of girls have to get up at 6:00am on Saturday to help their mom with chores while their brothers can sleep until noon.  Cailene said they need to respect their  moms but find a time when they are not rushed, when  they can talk alone and express how they don't mind  helping and it is part of being a family but that the unfairness of brothers not helping at all is hard for them.

This time of being a teen and needing a voice and learning how to approach things and how to keep peace is very important. Both moms received the words and each one is trying to come to a happy balance. The girls said they have lots they want to talk about and said they would take turns helping lead the group. So next week starts the rotation of leadership. Cailene will be the lead and they will co lead the group and discussions. The trust level is high and the subjects are relevant to where they are and how they can deal with school and family life.

In Costa Rica they do not have writing classes so the kids hold their pencils in many unusual ways. here is a picture of how one person was holding his pencil. Bonnie is showing him how to hold h is pencil correctly. To not make them feel bad they call this the English pencil  grip and in this class try to hold the pencil like this.

Ed is an architect from the United States who came down to help us with permit process get soil samples, and meet with the Costa Rican architect. We are reviewing building        plans and deciding where the best location for septic system will be. 

We met with the contractor and his son to review school drawings and set up a building plan. 

We are looking forward to keeping you updated with what we are doing in Costa Rica.

Aletheia Ministry Update

As the drive to reach out to the lost souls with the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ continues, we first of all give thanks to our God Almighty, who has enabled us to do the work of an evangelist, in keeping with the great commission. These a just but a summary of what God enabled us to do in the month of February:

EVANGELISM IN THE HOSPITALS

Two of the main hospitals in our capital city of Freetown, called Murray town health center and Connaught Government hospitals, are the two hospitals we have been going to, on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays to preach the good news of our Savior Jesus Christ during this month. We went to each ward, to each patient in every bed, giving them the opportunity to believe in Christ as their Savior. After preaching the gospel to them we provided counseling and pray for them as well. Within this month alone we reached 204 patients with the gospel, of which 40% were muslims. 90% of those we reached believed in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.

EVANGELISM IN THE PUBLIC TRANSPORTS (BUSES).

Evangelism in our public buses is done on Wednesdays, from 7:00am to 1:00pm.

Despite some challenges, we are always determined not to be deterred by them. Based on the capacity of the buses we were able to reach 280 people, again of which 55% of them were muslims. This is to our advantage, as a large percentage of our population is muslim. Some of the muslims who believed in Christ Jesus have told us that even though they have believed in Christ as Savior, they will still maintain their Islamic religion. It is obvious that some of them are afraid for their lives, because of the persecution they will face from their family members and community. Please join us in praying for them.

As we continue to explore more avenues to reach the unreached with the gospel of our Lord, we have started embarking on preaching the gospel with mega-phones from specific “mountaintops” in one of our suburbs with about 1,500 people. We did this four times in this month, from 5:00am to 6:00am each time. This has also created positive impacts in the lives of those who listen to us. We know this because we give out our phone number for those who would like to talk to us some more. Some people have been calling us, encouraging us to continue. We can do this because it is the same time that the muslims do their morning cry, with their very loud speakers calling their fellow muslims to prayer. We tolerate them with that, and they therefore have no choice but to tolerate us as well.

We earnestly covet your prayers:

1.      For the chaplaincy training that will take place from March 7^th to 11^th, 2016. I will be teaching them on the Spiritual Life from 8:00am till 4:00pm each day. We are expecting about 200 chaplains from the army, police force etc.

2.      For those who have expressed faith in Christ for salvation during our outreach programs, that they will see the need to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ Jesus, and therefore see the need to not forsake the assembly of the body of Christ for the study of God’s word.

3.      For Grace Center Bible Church (the congregation that is committed to our trust), that we will continue to develop the tenacity to study God’s word diligently.

4.      For God’s financial provision for our church building project.

5.      Also join us in thanksgiving to our God Almighty, as the government authorities have finally issued us the building permit to start the church building project.

6.      For God to provide us with our office rent ($5,000 US) for 2016.

7.      For the health of my family, for the balance funds for our daughter Simone’s college in Ghana, and for funds for another vehicle, which we need urgently.

 We will continue to keep you in our prayers, as we do not cease to give thanks to God for you. Thanks for joining us in this mission field through your prayers and financial support. I want you to also know that through your support, a good number of kids have been helped with their education in my country. I will write some more on that later. Thanks for being our backbone in this work of the ministry in this mission field of Africa. Our God Almighty will not forget your labor of love. Greetings to you from my family and ministry team as well. I will write again soon.

For Him Alone and to His Glory,

Michael Turay

Communidad De Centro update

Following is an update note from Bill Ingram, from the mission team that recently helped in construction of a new community center and church building that we were able to help design three years ago, It is exciting to see the construction underway. Praise our awesome Lord! See previous posts for more information about the Church of San Luis, about the Church Mexico Ministry, and about the David Power family.

"Thought for today. Yes, I have been inconsistent with publishing my TFT's since January 22. Let me explain. Since the 22nd, I have traveled almost 4000 miles, been in a different country (Mexico) and crossed several time zones (I traveled to Atlanta GA, for a NAMB Trustee meeting.) When that happens, I don't have time to write and I am usually to tired, if I had time. If you didn't know, I went with a team of 10 people, from 4 different churches to build a church in San Luis, Sonora Mexico. 

In the first picture below, this what we started with, when we arrived on Sunday, January 24th. As you can see, just the concrete slab and piles of lumber. The Pastor of the Church in Mexico, David Power, (family pictured below)
also got many of his church members to help out. The church has been meeting in this location for 3 years, without a facility. My best guess, they have 50-60 in attendance and an effective ministry for reaching the lost of San Luis. I have many stories to tell about my time, in the Mexico dessert. For know, the last picture below, is the crew ( Randy Trahan and Henry Rodriguez, from MABC) and what was accomplished before we had to leave.

In the Bible, Paul gives us some encouragement for our faith. Look for ways to show his love today.
Have a good day.

“So now, little children, remain in Him, so that when He appears we may have boldness and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you know this as well: Everyone who does what is right has been born of Him.”
1 John 2:28-29 HCSB"

Aletheia Ministry and Grace Center Bible Church

reviewing drawings with contractor, Sahr Allieu

a lot of rock that needed moving

Construction is just getting underway for the new church and discipleship training center for Aletheia Ministry and Grace Center Bible Church. Years ago, a former Youth for Christ missionary, Michael Turay, started a new ministry called Aletheia (absolute truth), with a focus on teaching scriptures accurately, and reaching out to many within his city and country (Freetown, and Sierra Leone) with the simple and truthful gospel of Christ.  In their early days, he and his young protoge' Howard identified the Regent District of Freetown as an area with very few churches. After going door to door and sharing the gospel, they started Grace Center Bible Church within this region. The Aletheia team still proclaims the gospel invarious parts of town (hospitals, buses, street corner, and home Bible studies) while Grace Center provides a church for Christians in the Regent district to learn and grow in God's Word.  After years of renting the Regent community center for church, and renting a local catholic training center for discipleship training of pastors from various Sierra Leone towns and villages; they have started building their own facility on a very challenging, rocky, hard to access hillside property.

moving heavy rocks and boulders

My middle son, Josiah, a new friend and recent architect grad, Matthew Moeckel, and I joined with the Aletheia team and Grace Center Church members to help prepare the land for construction of the first floor of this three story building. After a week of hard work, the land is ready for foundation work. The contractor and I had very productive meetings going over the drawings to assure that this fairly complicated building is started on a good footing (figuratively and literally). Please keep this ministry and church in your prayers; they proclaim a truthful gospel message in a land with a heavy Muslim population, and heretical Christian teaching.

the young helped with the smaller rocks

FYI, Aletheia was recently engaged by the government of Sierra Leone to teach the Christian military chaplains; the first time they have ever engaged a local pastor and team.

the work crew

Trip to Freetown via London & Paris

Plane reservations for myself and my middle son, Josiah, to Freetown Sierra Leone by the client's desired date of December 1st ended up taking my son and I through London and Paris with long layovers at each.  We had sometime to do mini-tours of each town. In London, we were joined by a Brazilian gal named Anna, who was taking English classes from Josiah last year, but is in London studying for a masters in architecture this year. The three of us had a very nice later afternoon and early evening.

The next day we had a similar layover in Paris, but no Brazilian English student during this visit.  As in London, Josiah and I made the most of our long layover and were able to see some of the major attractions.

We met Matthew Moeckel at the Paris airport on the morning of our departure for Freetown. Matthew is a recent architecture graduate, who joined us on this trip to see what architectural missionary work might look like. 

The thing that struck me, as we drove into downtown Freetown the day after our arrival, was the contrast between a typical street in central London, central Paris, and central Freetown.  The pictures below speak for themselves.