Happy New Year 2012

Happy New Year from San Pedro!

We thank God for his provision and blessings in 2011 in so many areas:

• the new church structure is 80% completed
• over 60 baptisms
• several national and international short terms missions trips involving our youth group
• growth in our two sister churches in Torreon
• 50 people helped through our rehab centers
• a partnership with a group called Project AK-47, dedicated to rescuing children caught in the grip of drug cartels
• continued success in the El Calor soccer ministry

A nearly full church at this year's Christmas posada.

We look forward to the coming year with the new challenges and goals that God will put before us. Thank you for your prayers and support and for being a great part of the work which God is doing here in Mexico.

Soccer Practice

 Today the team trained here in San Pedro in preparation for their final game of the year this Saturday. Marcela often prepares a snack for the players when they train here and here are some pictures from this afternoon

Intersquad training.

Enjoying some corn on the cob!

Some of the boys living with Stephen and Marcela, along with Elisa and Timothy.

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Special 2-Day Crusade

Yesterday and today a special crusade sponsored by Templo Cristiano Libertad was held in downtown San Pedro. A minister named Luis Alegria came from Brazil to share his testimony and speak about the dangers of drug and alcohol use. As a young man, Brother Alegria was involved in drug trafficking and other activities but God delivered him and now he travels around Latin America sharing his story and God's redemption. Here are some pictures of the event.

El Calor Soccer

The new soccer season for 3rd Division Professional Soccer started the weekend of October 1. El Calor's record after 4 weeks is 3 wins, 1 tie, and 0 losses. Our goal record is 10 goals for, and 1 against, and today we had our best victory so far, 5-0 over a team from Chihuahua. Currently the team is number one in its group. Next week the team will be playing in Ciudad Juarez and we ask for your prayers as they travel and play.


This is our new home shirt this season.                   Here's a closeup of the redesigned logo

September 16 Celebration

In Mexico, Independence Day is celebrated on Sept. 16. This year we held a special event/fundraiser for Templo Cristiano Libertad. We formed groups within the congregation and each group was responsible for a booth with an activity or food for sale. Everyone dressed up in traditional Mexican clothing and participated in the evening, which went for almost 4 hours. There were prizes for the best costume, best booth, best activity, etc. We were able to raise a good amount of money to go towards construction expenses as well as reach out to the neighbourhood.

Note: We still don't have electricity in the church so most of the pictures are a bit dark.

 We had a time of worship before the fellowship.

 One of the food booths.

 A games booth.

 Another games booth.

 The drinks booth (lime water, horchata (rice and cinnamon) water, and jamaica (hibiscus) water).

 Thirsty party-goers!

 Another food booth, selling enchiladas and chilaquiles (fried corn tortillas with salsa and cheese).

 More food!

 Basketball contest.

 Selling tamales.

The drinks booth again, which won the prize for best booth as well as most money earned.

Update #6 on Stephen

Stephen was able to leave the hospital yesterday and is now recuperating at home. He is still tired and has some pain, but he is getting better day by day. Thank you for your prayers and please keep praying for a smooth recovery.

Update #5 on Stephen

I'm just back from the hospital and Stephen is doing well. He was up and walking today so he's tired, but the doctor is happy with his progress so far and everything is working as it should. He still isn't eating, just on IV fluids, but hopefully he will be able to progress to some "real food" in the next couple of days. As always, I will continue to post updates about his progress and keep you informed. Thank you for your ongoing prayers!

Update #4 on Stephen

Stephen came out of surgery last night about 10pm local time. The doctors were able to patch the perforated area of the intestine and deal with the blockage. He was in some pain overnight but is conscious and able to talk for short periods of time. He is still in need of rest and quiet, but the doctor is hopeful that he will not need further surgery. Thanks for your comments and prayers and as before, please keep praying for his full recovery. Also be in prayer for the various ministries and projects taking place in San Pedro and for the people who will be taking over while Stephen is recuperating.

Update #3 on Stephen

Stephen will be going in for surgery this afternoon because it seems that he has an intestinal blockage in addition to a perforation. The doctor said that the perforation isn't large, but that it need to be fixed to keep toxic material from leaking into the rest of his body. Please keep praying for him, that the surgery will be successful and that there will be no further complications. Thanks for your comments here on the blog and for your prayers so far.

Update #2 on Stephen

This afternoon I went to see Stephen in the hospital. He is resting a lot and still has quite a bit of pain and swelling after his operation. The doctor came in to see him around 6:30pm and after checking the dressings, found some signs that Stephen might have a perforated intestine or colon. There is a strong likelihood that they will have to operate again, but for tonight they are keeping a close eye on the situation and will see what develops in the next few hours. Please keep praying for Stephen because it will be a long road back to health, and he is definitely not out of the woods yet. Pray specifically:

-for peace for Stephen and his family
-that the doctors will be able to discover if there is a perforation and that they will be able to close it
-that the remaining infection will be cleared up completely

I will continue to post news as it becomes available.

Update on Stephen

Stephen came out of surgery successfully last evening but is still in the hospital and will likely be there for the next couple of days. His doctor wants to make sure the infection has been taken care of and that Stephen gets some much-needed rest while his body recuperates. Thanks to those of you who left comments on the blog and thanks for your continuing prayers.

Prayer Request

Please be in prayer for Stephen and his family. Yesterday he was taken ill with a stomach infection and was hospitalized, and is still there. Please pray for his healing and for peace for his family.

Update: Doctors have done a series of tests and it turns out that it´s appendicitis. Stephen will be going into surgery in about half an hour. I just talked to him and he says he is in a lot of pain, but he´s confident that the surgery will go well. 

Update: It's 9pm here and Stephen is out of surgery. His appendix had ruptured some days ago and there was a lot of infection in the site. The doctors were able to clean everything out and remove what was left of the appendix. He will be on antibiotics for a while and is supposed to rest for several days. Thanks for your prayers so far and please keep praying for Stephen's complete recovery.

Testimonies

Here is a testimony written by Marcela for this week's blog:

For the last several years, God has been enlarging the ministry here in San Pedro by giving us different ways to reach people for his kingdom. We starting receiving young people who are in need of help in many areas. Most of these young people come from very poor families – some of them don’t even have families – and the worst thing is that they have never heard of the love of God. Most of them are from different states of Mexico.

The material needs of these boys are so great that when they come here, most of them just come with 2 changes of clothes, a pair of sandals and no money at all.

At first this was really a challenge for us because once they come here, we have to provide everything for them – school, clothing, shoes, food etc. God has always being so faithful to us that now we don’t even question when a new child arrives because we know that we will see the glory of God in every need.

When they come here, we start to tell them about the love of God, and we let them know how important they are for God. Some of them do not know that they have a great value just for being a creation of God.

We have seen in a satisfactory way when the time for them to leave comes, they just don’t want to go. But then again we feel so proud to see that even being away they keep serving God and sharing the love of Jesus with their relatives.

Here is a little story of one of them.

CESAR FROM THE STATE OF JALISCO.

Cesar came to live here for one year. When he arrived, the first thing he did was hang the image of the virgin of Guadalupe on the edge of his bed. When we saw that, we just let him be. We were waiting to act in the right moment in God’s timing.

We met together every day to eat, and also we had special meetings for Bible teaching. Little by little, we started to teach them about the truth of the Bible in every aspect. They asked questions and were so surprised when they realized they were not living in the truth of the word of God.

Cesar started reading the Bible, and getting to know more and more, and he would come to ask questions and so on. Soon after he knew more about the Bible and had been attending the church for a while, he decided to give his life to Jesus and to be baptized. Soon after that, he would come almost every day asking us if he could borrow the phone, and he literally spent hours on the phone sharing with his family the good news of the love of Jesus. He now is back in his house and he calls us every week. He found a church to attend and now he is going to this church and he has been counseling his family and now, they are going to church with him. We regularly hold cell groups in our house for the ones living here with us and also for the ones that were living with us but they are online. They know the cell group timing and get online and someone here is narrating every detail that is going on in the cell group and they are able to be with us, even though they are far away. Praise God for the “Online cell groups”.

Well, this is just a little something of the wonderful things that God has being doing here in the San Pedro ministry.

We really appreciate your prayers and financial support so God’s ministry can keep going.

Thank you from our hearts: Stephen and Marcela Tolman.

Saturday Sale

This past Saturday we held another fundraising sale at the church. This week we made mole (mol-ay), a brown sauce made of anything and everything, including: chocolate, bananas, tomatoes, onion, jalapeño peppers, garlic, corn masa (all this in addition to the sauce base). Maybe it sounds strange, but it's delicious! It is served with chicken, rice and spaghetti.

The mole being made and boiled.

 The pots and pots of chicken, rice and spaghetti, made by the women of the church.

Filling the trays.

The final product! We sold 96 plates in total.

Soccer Tryouts

This weekend we are holding soccer tryouts for the new El Calor season. On Friday and Saturday over 800 players came to try out and today we have 50 out of town players staying with us. Hopefully later this afternoon I will get some pictures to post, but for now please be in prayer for the players, coaches, and everyone involved in this ministry.

Saturday Sale

Every other Saturday we make and sell food to help with the church construction costs. This week we made and sold 125 plates of chiles rellenos (stuffed peppers) with rice, beans and salad.

Filling the plates...we filled these tables 3 times with plates!

The finished plates, waiting to be picked up.

The finished product!

Construction Pictures

As promised, here are the latest church construction pictures.

 

 Above is the last little section of missing roof.

 Here you can see the scaffolding where the brick is being built up to meet the roof. 

Here, you can see where the walls have been built up almost to the roof. The middle support columns need to be poured so that the last few rows of brick can be placed. Then the windows can be put in.

Baptisms and General Update

To start, thanks to those of you who commented on the youth camp photos. I'm glad you liked them!

Last Sunday we had 3 baptisms after the evening service. We have to use an inflatable pool as we haven't yet built a permanent baptistry. I do have pictures BUT the camera cable has gone AWOL...I will post them as soon as I can.

The church construction continues with some more wall building. The roof is a great blessing as the sun is pretty strong, even at 10am. 3 weeks ago we received 50 more chairs, and they are filled up!

El Calor had a surprising early exit from the playoffs (1st and 2nd rounds) and it was a huge disappointment. However, the ministry continues and we are in preseason training. Throughout the month tryouts are being held all over the country, and in June those chosen in the sessions will come here for the final selection process. Please be in prayer for our coaching staff, the returning players, and the new players who will come and be ministered to.

Youth Camp 2011 - Day 2 and 3

The morning obstacle course....

Team challenge: run across a wet, soapy tarp and score a goal...

Then, run across the tarp, pick up a toy (without stopping!) and drop it in the basket...without falling!!

 

 

Crafts - making papier mache masks.....

Morning devotional session...