In November,
I faced one of the most challenging ministry opportunities I’ve had to date--a
week in Mexico City serving with the Iglesia Bautista de la Capital! Mexico
City is an incredible place, it vies with Tokyo as the largest city in the
world. Officially the population is
20,000,000—that’s right, 20 million!
However, the actual count is more like 30 million. It teems with people and traffic day and
night—most with a deep need for an encounter with the Savior.
It was an enormous privilege to be
invited to teach Kitchen Table Counseling as a class for the Bible institute of
the Capital Baptist Church. We had three
hour classes Monday-Thursday evening with an exam and follow-up counseling Friday
night. Twenty of the attendees were
students and daily others joined to audit.
By Thursday night there were over 30 in the class. The group consisted of men and women from 19
years old to 70 something. Several of
the men were already serving as pastors and there was a wonderful group of
young guys preparing for full-time ministry.
To be ready to teach three-hour
interactive sessions nightly (in Spanish!) kept me studying most of my waking
hours! (Usually 4-6 hours is all I get
to share Kitchen Table Counseling material, so 12 hours to present it was a luxury
and challenge!) Besides daily teaching, 12 people asked for private counseling,
so I was busy!
The theme
for the Saturday retreat was “Elegida y Muy Amada”--Chosen and Dearly
Loved. Ten minutes into the first
message, nearly all 130 women began to weep and many of them cried all day
long! Their hearts were profoundly
touched by a fresh awareness of being loved by our precious King of Kings and Lord of Lords!! I spoke four times and then answered,
sometimes heartbreaking, questions for an hour.
What joy to sit with an open Bible and share what God says about hurts
and challenges!! At the end, I was deeply moved as they stood and told how God
had used their year-long study of our book Holy Habits to
transform their lives. When they asked
if they could pray for ME, I was so overcome that I fell to my knees.
It was one
of the most physically and mentally demanding ministry opportunities I’ve ever
had. How humbling and exhilarating to have
God show up and pour Himself out through me to touch those precious people!
Your prayers
and financial support made it possible to impact the lives of brothers and
sisters in Mexico City!
Thank you
from the bottom of my heart!
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