Marriage Retreat & More!

Hola from Mexico! 

Blessed be the name of the Lord Jesus Christ!  His mercy and faithfulness endure forever!

We have much to share from the last few weeks.  God has been at work showing Himself in many ways.  Saturday, Feb. 13, Shelli led her team of volunteers in the first information and therapy session in a nice facility that the government is letting us use for the therapies that will be going on Satudays.  It was a great time with 6 families (we are expecting around 20 families to be involved as the therapy develops) that are going through the recovery of their kids affected by the day care fire.  Thank you for your continued prayer and support for this exciting ministry!

What God is doing spilled over from the SMILe project into our first ever marriage retreat that was this last weekend as 2 of the couples that are in the SMILe ministry participated in the retreat along with 6 couples from Arbol de Vida!  I have wanted to write about one of the moments since it happened last Saturday.  Shelli and I were sitting visiting with one of the couples with a burnt child and all of the sudden I had an overwhelming feeling as I realized that a little over 8 months ago in the same room (in the retreat centre “House of Hope”) in the first session of our youth retreat we learned of the then 26 dead children (49 kids died in total) killed in the day care fire in Hermosillo. In that retreat last June, our hearts were broken and we cried out to God for comfort for our mourning city and for a way to share His hope and love with the devastated families.  Here we were, last Saturday, sitting in that same room where we first heard of the tragedy, counselling a couple that we didn’t even know a month ago but for whom we have been praying for for months!!!  We shared in their tears through the marriage retreat and saw God touch their hearts.  Writing it out here just doesn’t do this amazing miracle justice.

Our speakers (pastors from Mexico City and good friends) Antonio and Becky Muñoz were lead by the Lord to do an amazing ministry with the couples from our church and the others that participated.  We expect to see much fruit from the work that God did in the hearts of all who attended.  We had a young couple from San Carlos (the coastal town where we hosted the retreat) that the local church sent to us.  He had just come to Christ a couple days before the retreat and she gave her life to Christ during the retreat as they dealt with some deep pain and an unbelievable past that they’ll need God’s help to get through as they start out in their young marriage.  God has been faithful and merciful and we just are overwhelmed by His perfect plan that ended surpassing our wildest expectations.

There is much on the go right now in life and minstry here.  We are sad to see Jack and Lucy Vogt head home to the Yukon tomorrow after serving our local church and us since November.  Our EFCCM Area director, Steve Neufeld, is here right now with the Hermosillo Ministry Team and the local church as we look to God for direction for future ministry.  We are getting ready for some exciting ministry with a ministry team from Langley, B.C. coming next week.  Shelli is training the volunteers for the SMILe project and working with Cynthia Romo to get Safari Biblico moving ahead. 

I need to sign off here.  We appreciate so much your prayer during these exciting times!  There is so much need and so many opportunities to bring the Kingdom of God to this broken world.  Thank you!

Joyfully serving Christ in Mexico,

Greg Neufeld