Today we were privileged to baptize one of our recent converts. She is a lady who was saved in March. She came to our church after seeing me put an invitation flyer in a neighbor’s gate. She is wheelchair bound because of polio, but sent a friend across the street to grab the flyer and find out what the American in the neighborhood was promoting. The first Sunday she was with us was a special day we had in February. You can read more about Magi’s salvation in an earlier post.

Recently Bill (the other missionary we work with) has been teaching on baptism. Magi told us in church last Sunday that she wanted to be baptized before we left for the US. She stated that since she got on the path to coming to church and ultimately finding the Lord because of that one flyer I placed in a gate, she wanted me to be part of her baptism.

Today we were able to go to another church with a baptistery and baptize Magi. Since she is in a wheelchair, we put her in a plastic chair in the water and tipped her backwards. I have not been part of too many baptisms, but I can assure you this one will not be soon forgotten. It was an honor to be a part and that she felt so strongly in honoring us in this way.

In the video, Bill is the one who actually performs the baptism and he asks me to pray at the end. Of course this is all done in Spanish and in Mexican Sign Language.

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Today we drove home from the Deaf camp in Yucatan. We were there from Tuesday to Friday of this week. There were 22 participants in the camp, which is about what we expected. We did not have any salvations during the week, but we were privileged to spend individual time with the Deaf and their hearing family members which we normally do not get to do in our normal ministry.

This week of camp marks the final stage of our ministry in Merida. We have finished four years here and are excited about leaving the ministry in the hands of another family. The next 10 days will be spent packing and tying up loose ends.

We will also have one final event at the church which will be a going away party for us. We have worked to invite the many Deaf that we have met through our four years of ministry here. Of course it will be an exciting and emotional time for all of us, but I am thrilled about having one more opportunity to present the Gospel to those who have not made a decision for Christ. That special day will be August 24. We would really appreciate your prayers that God will lead the people to the service and that they will be willing to hear the Gospel one last time from us.

Categories: Ministry Update, Personal
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Dear Friends,
We have seen several visitors in church over the last couple of months. Many of them have come as a result of a tract distribution program we are doing. It is exciting to see people in church because someone randomly handed them a tract. Of course we know nothing is random when God is guiding our steps.

We are right between our two weeks of camp for the summer. The first week was held July 21 to 25 near Saltillo, Mexico. The village we were in was at 7,000 feet elevation which meant that it was very cool all week. A pleasant respite from the heat we experience in Yucatan.

There were 109 campers for the week. This is the largest group we have had in the last several years. It is exciting to see the camp growing through word of mouth in the churches. We do no advertising except trying to get the churches that currently attend to spread the word.

One lady was saved on Tuesday at camp. It was exciting to see her beaming all week with a clear understanding of salvation. Wednesday night I was privileged to lead 2 ladies to the Lord in my class. I taught a class which contained people who did not know sign language well either because of lack of education or intelligence. There were seven in the class. That same night there were 2 who accepted the Lord in the main service. On Thursday there were again two others who accepted the Lord. In all we saw 7 people saved at camp.

Our next week of camp will be here in Yucatan, August 12 to 15. This will be our first overnight camp here in Yucatan. Last year we did a day camp which went very well. We are expecting around 20 people for that camp. Pray with us that God will give wisdom in preparing for and running the camp.

It is hard to believe that we will be returning for furlough in less than one month. We have booked several meetings with supporting churches to report on the work that God has allowed us to do. If your church has not contacted me about a specific date that you would like to have us, there is still time. I have started calling churches in groups based on location. If I have not called your church yet, I will be calling soon. We are very excited about seeing the many friends we made when visiting your church the first time.

We do need to raise new support while we are back in the US. If you or your church receives our prayer letter but do not currently support us, we would be honored to be part of your team.

Our scheduled return will be sometime the last week of August with meetings starting the middle of September. Please pray with us as we will be looking to replace our vehicle (which has 285,000 miles on it) as soon as we can. If you are aware of a good travel vehicle which gets pretty good gas mileage and is for sale for a very reasonable price, please let us know.

See the previous post about camp for a picture of the seven who were saved.

Categories: Prayer Letter
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This year Campamento Henson was held in San Antonio de las Alazanas, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. We had 109 people attend camp this summer. This is the largest number of campers we have had since our family has been attending. It is exciting to see the group grow year after year.

The camp we used this year is at an elevation of 7000 feet. It was great to know that we were in the middle of summer and still had to wear a light jacket most of the week.

On Tuesday the pastor from Ciudad Juárez, Roberto Palma, was able to lead one lady to the Lord. She came from Mexico City. Wednesday night we had 5 others who accepted the Lord as their Savior! Then Thursday night another lady came forward in the invitation to accept the Lord. It was a wonderful week.

Two of the ladies who were saved on Wednesday night were in the class that I was teaching. I taught a class of “low verbal” Deaf. These are Deaf who don’t know sign language very well and have trouble either communicating or understanding in the regular service. We had 7 in the class and these were the only 2 who we did not know whether they were saved or not. They both came with the group from Guanajuato. It was a blessing to be able to lead them to the Lord.

The week ended this morning with each of the groups traveling back home. We had people from Guanajuato, Monterrey, Mexico City, Guadalajara, Tampico, Ciudad Juárez, Colima, Veracuz and our family from Mérida.

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Camp will be starting Monday afternoon July 21. We are very excited about being able to share the Gospel with new campers as well as encourage the people within the churches to continue to grow in their walk with the Lord.

Of course the Devil is already working, but we are still seeing the victory. Throughout the last 2 weeks we have had different speakers/teachers who have had to inform me that they could not come for one reason or another. We have also struggled with money and workers for food preparation.

Because of the great number of godly Christian leaders in the churches that will attend, I am able to fill the empty teaching slots with well qualified teachers. The only disadvantage is that they do not have the time to prepare as well as they would like coming into the week. One of our speakers did not think he would be able to attend because of lack of money to pay for the bus trip over. A missionary family that is on furlough is attending camp and has agreed to drive a few hours out of their way to give the speaker a ride to camp. God will have the victory.

We had anticipated a church to help us with the finances for the food this summer. The campers pay enough to cover the camp fee, but we have relied on offerings from national and US churches in the past to pay for food. Though it looks like we won’t have enough to cover the food bill out of the offerings, we know that somehow God will provide. Pray for the week as we also are in need of some direction in the kitchen. We have a cooking crew, but the person who was going to lead the team had a family emergency which will keep her from being able to attend.

Pray this week as we preach and teach God’s Word to many Deaf. We are anticipating between 70 and 90 campers this year.

I look forward to giving you a full report at the end of the week.

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We have two different camps coming up over the next few weeks for the Deaf here in Mexico. July 21 through 25 is our camp in the northern part of the country. The camp in Yucatan will be August 12 to 15.

Last Saturday we had an activity at our church to prepare for the camp in August. The ladies got together at the church and did some sewing. They were putting together skirts and culottes for camp. This is a time we try to help teach distinction and modesty in dress since they are not learning that otherwise.

The boys went out to the campground and did some general cleanup. The camp we are using this year is a very nice facility, but they have been doing some recent construction and needed the work space tidied up a bit. I had the hard job of burning the hot dogs to feed the guys.

Our family leaves on Friday the 18th to fly to the northern camp. With the camp being in a different location, it would be an extra 8 hours added to the 24 hour drive we normally have for camp. And, praise the Lord, there is a new airline that is having a great sale on tickets. We can fly the whole family for about the same price as driving.

We expect between 70 and 90 people at that camp near Monterrey. The Yucatan camp should have between 20 and 30. This is just our second year for the camp here in the south.

Thank you for your prayers during the two weeks of camp: July 21-25 and August 12-15.

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I have been working on getting this website set up for easier updating and to make it easier for you to follow future updates.

If you have not previously done so, you can sign up to receive our prayer letter via email by placing your information in the box in the right side bar. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed which will give you updates in your feed reader each time the site is updated. The old RSS feed address no longer works.

One of the other advantages to the new site is that you will be able to leave comments and ask questions with each update. As always, you can also email me directly.

Look for more regular updates to the site along with pictures of different activities that we have at the church.

Categories: Personal
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Last Friday I was engaged in an activity that really is just a fun pursuit for me. Can you believe that sometimes missionaries play? Maybe not all of us do, but I do. While I was playing I started thinking that maybe my 3 hours a week was a waste of time. I really started to dwell on it and prayed that God would give me some clear direction.

After I was done that day, a young lady approached me. She is a friend of my coach who had told her I was a Pastor of a deaf church. She started telling me a story of a 14 year old deaf girl. This is not someone she personally knows, but she has contact with a friend of the deaf girl. This 14 year old girl has been struggling with some serious issues and is reaching out for help, but no one around her can communicate with her. I gave this lady all of our contact information and will try to get with this young girl as soon as possible.

What will come of this? I don’t know, but God used this incident to confirm to me that in whatever activity I am engaged in there are opportunities to touch others for Christ.

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Dear Friends,
In February we had a special day at church with 36 in attendance. This was our largest group for a Sunday service. One of the hearing ladies who visited that day has continued to be with us faithfully. She attended for five weeks when she finally understood her need for a Savior. She accepted the Lord on a Wednesday night! The next Sunday she came to church excited to tell us that her mother and husband “wanted to know.” Bill and I went to their house Easter Sunday night. While explaining the Gospel, the mother sat on the edge of her chair eager to hear what we taught. She and the husband accepted the Lord without any questions or doubts! As we sat talking with them we realized that the lady who had been attending with us went home after each service and taught them everything she learned. They had already heard the Gospel presented many times through this precious lady.

This last Sunday we had a Deaf man and his hearing daughter accept the Lord. They have been coming to church with us for about three months. He does not know sign language but seems to be following along in the services. He reads well, when he has glasses. We have been providing him Gospel tracts magnified on the copy machine. The church bought a giant print Bible for him last week. He brought glasses with him to church for the first time this Sunday and was excited to read along in the Bible during the preaching. He went to Bill after the morning service and Bill lead him to the Lord. Jennifer took the daughter and explained the Gospel clearly to her one more time. The daughter also accepted the Lord.

Last week I traveled to Valladolid, Mexico to help with a medical team. For me it was like taking a short term mission trip. It was a lot of work as I interpreted between the doctors and patients, but it was rewarding to know that because I was doing my part, someone else presented the Gospel to each one of the patients that came seeking medical help. We saw more than 300 saved during the week!

Bill and Jennifer will travel back to the US for a needed surgery for six weeks. As soon as they get back we will work towards camp in the northern part of the country as well as camp here. We are blessed to have the camp expenses covered this year for camp in the north, but if you would like to donate towards our extensive traveling to the different camps and the expenses of our camp in the south, we would really appreciate that. Estimated cost is $1500. After camp we will pack up to return to the US for our one year furlough. We have already scheduled a few meetings while we are home. Pray for our safety traveling and that we will raise the extra support that we need for our next term.

When we return to Mexico after our furlough we will relocate to start another ministry. Pray with us that God will give us specific direction as to where to go. We would like to report soon on our next place of ministry. Pray with us that God will clearly show us where to go. We will take a survey trip in the next few weeks to seek the Lord’s direction.

Have you listened to my podcast where I interview missionaries? www.missionarytalks.com

Categories: Prayer Letter
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• Trip to the US for meetings and some vacation time
• More news from our February 10th special day at church
• National Pastors and Missionaries came to visit us
• An exciting salvation testimony

We took a trip to the US for a couple of meetings and were able to take a short vacation spending time with David’s parents. We got to see quite a few friends in our short visit as well as enjoyed shopping opportunities that only the US can provide.

Just before we left on this trip we had the special Sunday that I mentioned in my last update (February 10). From that Sunday we have had some visitors who were with us continue to attend the services.

As soon as we returned home from our trip, we prepared the house to receive a group of national pastors and missionaries who work with the Deaf here in Mexico. This was our annual camp planning meeting and we were able to accomplish what we needed to in the week. We also enjoyed showing the group around the area and introducing them to our church since none of them had previously been here.

On Wednesday night (last week) one of the national pastors preached our service. After the service he sat down with a hearing lady who had been visiting our church since the special Sunday I mentioned before. He was able to clearly explain the Gospel in a way that Magi could understand and she accepted the Lord as her Savior! She was beaming with excitement when she left that night.

Magi came to church on Sunday morning and mentioned to me that her husband and mother wanted to learn about the Lord too. We set up a time to go and visit the family that evening. The husband is confined to a bed and the mother stays with him so that Magi can attend the services with us.

When Bill and I arrived at the house Magi told us that the mother, Doris, and husband, Miguel, were waiting for us in a back room. Magi could not be with us at the moment as she was tending to the store that they run out of the front room of the house. We walked back and started talking to the husband, but Doris was not yet there. When she did finally come in, we had already explained some of the Gospel to Miguel. Doris sat down and had a big grin on her face and was fidgety listening to us share the Gospel. At first Bill and I thought that maybe she was not all together sane and so we were very careful to explain the Gospel clearly. Towards the end though, we finally realized why Doris was so excited. Magi had already been telling Doris and Miguel everything she had learned at church. Doris was just so excited to finally get to hear for herself how that she too could have her sins forgiven and know that she had a home in heaven waiting for her.

Both Miguel and Doris accepted the Lord Sunday night!

It was truly a highlight time for us in the ministry here. This whole family is hearing and only live one block from the church. Since Miguel needs constant attention, Magi and Doris are planning to alternate coming to church so that they can go home and teach the others what they are learning.

Categories: Ministry Update
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