NWSLETTER JANUARY - MARCH

DEAR FRIENDS

We are delighted to share with you yet another newsletter from the mission in San Pedro, Coahuila, Mexico. Greetings to all of you who have been part of our Ministry and those who keep us in prayer.

This newsletter brings some of the activities and projects that have been significantly life changing experiences and growth promoting for the people we work with. The Church has grown tremendously. Your generous contribution has made it possible to reach new communities and expand our projects. Enjoy reading the good news of the people in our missions.

SAVED BY SOCCER

The soccer ministry is opened again, and just last week we had three more teenagers get baptized. Soccer has been a tool that not only reaches kids and youth but also their parents. We are training boys and girls from ages 5 to 17.

The U-13 and U-15 categories are travelling to Mazatlan to play against the teams there. Forsome kids  it will be their first time seeing the ocean so it will be a wonderful experience.

¨Saved by Soccer¨ Ministry

CAROLINA CHURCH

The Church in Carolina one of the villages in the outside of San Pedro is growing. With over 20 kids assisting and 15 Grown-ups. The Church building is not completely done yet, but meanwhile services are being held in the house of one of the Sunday school teacher´s.

PRAYER AT HOSPITALS

We have just now re-started in Mid-February the weekly program of going to the hospitals, praying for the people inside the hospitals, the families of the sick in the waiting rooms, and taking hot burritos for the ones in waiting rooms. Because of Covid, we weren´t allowed to even be close to the hospital by the hospital security, so the program was closed since March last year. We are happy to say we have now been at it again for 4 weeks.          

REHAB CENTER

 We have two new boys in the Rehab Center of 12 and 13 years of age. The number of kids and teenager having addiction problems is growing but our team in Torreon is equipping them for life after their annexation time.

 

EXTENSIVE LEADERSHIP TRAINNING

This past month we have started in Saltillo, discipling and mentoring Pastors and church leaders from city and rural churches equipping them to be faithful to God´s word and the Gospel in their ministry to others.

CR PROGRAM- CELEBRATE RECOVERY

Celebrate Recovery is a Christ-centered, 12 step recovery program for anyone struggling with hurt, pain or addiction of any kind. The program has had 4 generations of graduates, being the last one on February, with 22 graduates of the program, now starting with our fifth one in the factory and the sixth one at church.

Baptisms

We have had 43 children, youth and adults baptized. This last Sunday A man who 25 years ago came to us with drug addiction problems and who got baptized in our church 24 years ago, brought his daughter to be baptized. It is amazing to see how God works generationally and the impact God has in people´s lives when the seed is planted.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

•         For safety as we work a lot in unsecure areas
•         Protection from the cartels in the rehab ministry
•         Funding to be able to send missionaries
•     The finances to restart the Bible School

When times Change, we adapt.

When times Change, we adapt. This past year was an opportunity for us to see God work in so many people. Government´s restrictions seemed like a threat to everything we do here, but we found new ways to continue spreading the Gospel and sharing God´s love to people. We began having 17 home groups a week , weekly leadership classes (in Monclova, San Pedro, Torreon and soon to be started in Saltillo), and visiting all church members and new home groups members in their houses.

The Churches have grown tremendously. We can see it even more now that our services are open for people with social distancing. The church in San Pedro at 30% capacity holds 244 people, for which we now have to do two services to get everyone in. We have seen the number of home groups grow and the Church grown tremendously during the pandemic. People who we never considered to become church leaders are now leaders in our Church. Jose and Maria Arroyo are a married couple who came to Christ two years ago, having marital problems, addiction to drugs and alcohol, and battled with depression. They are now part of our leadership team and a living testimony that God restores broken lives and gives them a purpose. Please continue to pray for the ministry and for our leaders in the different churches, because we don´t do this alone, and our team is a blessing to us.

Thank you all for your prayers and support. May God bless you all.

Newsletter November 2020

 

Dear friends,

We are delighted to share with you yet another newsletter from our mission in San Pedro, Coahuila, Mexico. Greetings to all of you who have been part of our Ministry and keep us in prayer.

This newsletter brings some of the activities and projects that have been significantly life changing experiences and growth promoting for the people we work with. Over 300 people have been baptized, between San Pedro church and the other sister churches between the months of April through November.

This year our soccer outreach project has been affected greatly by the pandemic. The government closed all schools and group activities for several months, so even our street outreach teams were affected by this. The soccer schools are now re- opened and have been running again since august in the cities of San Pedro (Coahuila), Torreon (Coahuila), Monclova (Coahuila), Nazas (Durango), and in Tegucigalpa in Honduras.  Many Children and youth (boys and girls)  from ages 6 to 19 are being reached through soccer, fighting issues like depression, anxiety, violence, drug addiction, joining cartel gangs, amongst others.

The rehab center has also grown and this year we had a pregnant young girl come to us for help with her drug addiction. She is not only wining the battle against her addiction, but she has also accepted Christ as her Lord and Saviour and just had her baby.  We have two separate houses for men and women, with 32 women and 50 men and still growing.

Because of the tremendous growth of the work, we have had to travel more between the different churches in the different towns, to provide oversight, counseling, training, and spiritual direction for the Pastors and leaders of our sister churches and the churches we oversight. These two months we have been constantly visiting the Pastors and churches in different towns, teaching, counseling, expanding vision and spiritual ministry. We are currently training over 70 leaders.

 This pandemic has brought anxiety, depression, grief and many mental health challenges over many ministers, leaders and pastors, so we have been also doing a lot of pastoral care.

Because of the pandemic the churches were closed by the government, but since December 2019 we prayed and prepared for this moment and came up with alternatives to continue working and sharing the gospel. One of these alternatives were home groups, which even with the re-oppening of churches we decided to continue because of the succes we have had. We have 17 home groups a week, with 5 to 10 people per group. It has been incredible to see how many new people are coming to church through home groups, and that God helped us prepare for this moment and what seemed like a challenge only gave us new ways to reach people and continue working.

In September 34 men and women graduated from the ¨Celebrating recovery¨ program given in the factories in San Pedro. This month we have around 30 people attending this course. And 50 to 60 people attending the 6:30 morning devotional from Monday to Friday. We are also taking food and groceries every week to 32 families who have been struggling economically. Because of the pandemic, many bussines closed, and many lost their jobs. This has given us the opportunity to pray for them and share with these families.

Our Church in the village of Carolina has also grown; we have around 15 adults and 37 children. It actually brings me back to when Marcela and I first came to San Pedro and started going door by door inviting people to Church, we had only two adults and many, many children. But those Children then became our worship team and Sunday school teachers.We want to thank you for having us in your prayers and for contributing to the Work our whole team does Here and Mexico. May God bless you and guide you always.

NEWS LETTER 2019

DEAR FRIENDS                                         

We are delighted to share with you yet another newsletter from our mission in San Pedro, Coahuila, Mexico. Greetings to all of you who have been part of our Ministry and those who read this newsletter and keep us in prayer.

This newsletter brings some of the activities and projects that have been significantly life changing experiences and growth promoting for the people we work with. Over 200 people have been baptized, between San Pedro church and the other sister churches in 2019.Your generous contribution has made it possible to reach new communities and expand our projects. Enjoy reading the good news of the people in our missions. This has been a very fruitful year, full of work, new opportunities, and blessings.

DAD peacefully entered his eternal rest with Jesus Christ on Monday, September 16, 2019, at his home in Tepic, Nayarit, Mexico. David was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on Canada Day (Canada´s Independance Day) and past from this life on Mexico´s Independance Day. Dad lived almost half his life (43 years) in Mexico plus 8 more in South Africa. He was the founder of this ministry, a well know Bible teacher and missionary. We want to thank each of you whom over the years supported him and believed in his calling to teach. Seedtime and Harvest Ministries continues its outreach to Mexico and through Mexican missionaries, other countries of the world.

SAVED BY SOCCER

This year our soccer outreach project has grown greatly. The soccer schools are now opened in the cities of San Pedro (Coahuila), Torreón (Coahuila), Monclova (Coahuila), Nazas (Durango), and in Tegucigalpa in Honduras. Many Children and youth (boys and girls)  from ages 6 to 19 are being reached through soccer, fighting issues like depression, anxiety, violence, drug addiction, joining cartel gangs, amongst others.Our goal is to take this program to other Pastors and missionaries around the world as an evangelism tool. We are praying about expanding in Africa, and have a trip planned there in 2020.

STREET OUTREACH MINISTRY

This year out youth have been taking a special program for children and adults, performing skits, songs, and sharing their testimonies in the villages around our municipality. One of the fruits from this is the opening of a new church building in the village of ¨Carolina¨, which makes this the first Christian church ever in Carolina. Services are now being held once a week.

Stephen and Marcela Tolman

YOU CAN MAKE THE DIFFERENCE!

 With your support we can give the opportunity to this young boys not only to play soccer but also the opportunity to know Jesus! #trainingchanpionsforlife #Honduras 🇭🇳

We have some children who needs some   soccer cleats in order to keep trainning Luis  (on the right) is one of them and you can sponsor him. Please keep praying for us!

Summer 2019

Greetings in Jesus´ Name

            

Birth is always exciting. This year has been a year of births in many ways. First of all our first grandchild was born to our daughter Elisa and her husband Paco. On April 2, 2019 Elizabeth Jane Valdivia was born in here in San Pedro. She is a true miracle. After being told by several doctors that they could not have children, God decided to have the final word!  

            The church in San Pedro has grown by almost 50% since the end of 2018. We have baptisms almost weekly and are seeing a great harvest of new converts coming in as a result of the work being down in the small groups and the daily devotionals. These new spiritual babies are being discipled and trained in the Word of God and are now also winning more souls.

The church in Monclova is has grown by more than 400 people since last fall and almost all of the growth has been new converts. We have been working closely with the leadership so that the harvest is not only maintained, but also keeps on growing. The pastors, Gerardo and Emilu Uribe are such tremendous leaders and have a strong soul winning ministry there. Even though there has been strong spiritual attack on the church, it keeps and growing on a weekly basis

The church in Nazas, Durango is still quite new and in a lawless area. The last service I ministered at had over 60 new converts in attendance.   Two other works have been started in neighbouring towns in the past few months. The pastors, Samy and Paloma Castor welcomed their 3 child into their family last month with the birth of Maximo Castor

            We are thankful for your prayers and financial support which makes all of this possible. Please follow us on Facebook for weekly updates at Seedtime and Harvest San Pedro Mexico.

Blessings

Stephen Tolman

The two week Easter vacation here in Mexico is now over. We had our youth camp during this time with 64 youth registered. It was a week of  blessing for them filled with fellowship, interactive games, competitions, devotionals and intense services. On the last night of the camp, 10 were baptized and have already entered our new converts class. Here following I will share some pictures with you.
Blessings
Stephen Tolman

Newsletter

Update 2017

   How time flies by! The first two months of 2017 have already come and gone. We have been blessed to see growth in all areas and are excited with what God is doing. Two weeks ago Stephen went to visit our sister church in the city of Monclova to give a two day conference on the flow of the the Holy Spirit. We were expecting an maximun of 80 people to attend but over 350 people arrived on the first day. The presence of God wea very strong and when the time came to end the session, the people asked for more teaching and stayed another two hours withour anybody leaving. The next and final day of the conference more than 500 people were in attendance with standing room only.
   Here in San Pedro we have been praying on how to best keep on ministering to people in need of drug and alcohol rehab. Several years ago, during the cartel violence, the state government ordered closed all 24 hr rehab centers. The two centers we worked in were also closed. Last week we started here in the local church a new group on an outpatient bases using Celebrating Recovery. The response was great and soon we will have tow grooups going in our city.
   Thank you for your continued prayer and support for the work here in Mexico. May God richly bless you.

The Most Important Meal of the Day

Hi everyone! Those of you who have been following the blog since it started may remember the breakfast ministry that we were involved in for many years in Torreon. Every Friday we would go to the food bank and bring back and prepare food for anywhere between 80-120 breakfasts. We took them to the poorest part of Torreon, Cartolandia (Cardboard Land) and would have a short service before handing out the packages. We had to stop for some time because of dangerous and violent conditions throughout the region, but we have started the ministry back up again, this time working with a church group in Torreon. Here are some pictures from a couple of weeks ago, as well as a video we made to briefly highlight this important work!

Baptisms

The last couple of weeks have been filled with baptisms here in San Pedro, with 7 people deciding to take the plunge...here are pictures from the latest baptism, of a young man named Marco, which took place yesterday after the morning service.

Praying for Marco

Our assistant pastor, Jacob, and youth pastor Paco

Baptized!

Flooding

         Throughout the months of July and August, we have had an unusual amount of rain, which is good, but it means that the dams that control the Río Nazas were in danger of overflowing. This happens every few years, and so the dams were opened and the water began to make its way from Durango to Coahuila. Since the original riverbed has been built on and isn't available to receive the water, it has to be diverted. This causes a lot of problems for the small villages and towns that find themselves in the way of the oncoming water which, even though it's coming from several hundred kilometers away, arrives strongly and rises quickly. Since last last week the towns around San Pedro have been working constantly to dig out new riverbeds, fill sandbags and build barriers in order to keep the water away from homes and other buildings. On Sunday we cut short the morning church service in order to go and take food to the workers, who had been working through the night. We ended up staying for almost 6 hours, distributing food and helping fill and place sandbags along the riverbanks. Smaller groups from TCL went back on Monday and Tuesday to do more of the same. The amount of water being released has been reduced, so the immediate danger is lessened, but we are still on alert. Here are some pictures from Sunday.

Arriving at one of several work sites.

The river arriving on the other side of the barrier.

We distributed food and water to workers who had been there all night.

Filling sandbags.

The river crossing under the highway that goes to Saltillo.

Water coming from the other side of the barrier to the highway.

The river on the other side of the highway.

Taking a break after running out of bags to fill...

The river running quickly along the highway.

Red Cross workers from San Pedro helping with the work.