On Monday, January 22, the January-May trimester began at the Mexican Lutheran Seminary in Torreon. The seminary currently has an enrollment of five students. Two missionaries teach the seminary classes.

In Mexico, there are five pastors working right now. As the seminary students finish their studies and graduate, this number will increase. As time goes by, God continues to bless the congregations and mission settings in Mexico with more called workers.

Recently, Missionary Hartman visited the congregation in Mexico City. He walked through the church doors for the Sunday worship service. What he saw made him stop dead in his tracks. His mouth dropped open as he shook hands with Javier Pina.You may be wondering, who’s Javier? And why was Missionary Hartman so surprised to see him? You see, Javier had been confirmed in Mexico City in late 1999. At the time, English classes were being held as an outreach tool in Mexico City. Javier was the first English student to be confirmed. However, after he was confirmed, he disappeared. Vanished. The missionaries looked for him, but it was no use. Javier was gone.

Now, seven years later, Javier came back to church! As he explained to Missionary Hartman, he had moved to Canada for a job right after he was confirmed. He lived in Canada until the fall of 2006. Then, a few months ago he moved back to Mexico City. He has been regularly attending church for the last two months. He is eager to hear God’s Word.

After so many years, Missionary Hartman thought he would not see Javier again. But God touched Javier’s heart in 1999, and brought him back to Mexico City this year. While we may not always see the results of our preaching, God does. He reaches others with his Word and blesses our evangelism efforts. His Word does not return empty.

Mission work has begun in Pachuca!! The mission “Cordero de Dios” (Lamb of God) opened its doors this week. This mission is located just blocks away from the main square in town.

Next week English classes will start at the mission. Two WELS Kingdom Worker volunteers will teach the classes. This will be part of the outreach efforts. Pastor Cajas, a Mexican pastor, will move to Pachuca soon to oversee the work. Over the next months, Bible classes and worship services will begin.

Pachuca is home to about 200,000 people. It is located an hour outside of Mexico City. Mexicans often refer to it as the “beautiful breezy” city. It is set at almost 7,500 feet above sea level and is surrounded by mountains.

Keep the Lamb of God mission in your prayers. May God bless the work there and give the mission a prosperous year!

Sunday, January 7, 2007, was a very exciting day for the congregation “Santa Cruz” (Holy Cross) in Monterrey. After having a vacancy for almost five months, the congregation welcomed in a new pastor.

Pastor Sanabria was installed and warmly received by all. The women of the congregation served a meal after the service. Many introductions, smiles, and warm welcomes could be seen and heard throughout the church. What a blessing for the congregation to have a fulltime pastor again!

In the PHOTO from left to right are: Steven, Prince, Brian, Jerry, Ruby, Hannah, Penny, Kevin, Leslie

2006 went out in a blurrrr of activity for us here in Taiwan. Happy New Year to you knowing that with the Lord as our guide all things will work together for our good and for his glory. December was filled with opportunities to share the ‘reason for the season: Jesus the Savior!’ Our EFL outreach classes to 125 people continued weekly and we give praise and thanks to God that he lead 4 of our ‘area community center’ students to begin attending classes on Friday morning at the Church. For a ‘local’ to make the move to attend any activity inside a Christian church is no small matter. Kristin and Christa have worked hard building relationships with these community center students and it has paid off! Please pray for these new students as well as for the old ones.

A Childrens’ Christmas activity was held on Dec 17 and enjoyed by all who attended. We had the chance to share Jesus and his love with all who came. The following week all the EFL classes were held in the Stellick Home where we had our annual Christmas Party with our EFL friends. Christmas is such an easy time of the year to share our faith as Christians and we made use of every opportunity. On SundayDec 24 we had our Christamas Outreach service with over 130 people in attendance. Amy Yuan, one of our oldest EFL students, was baptized during the Christmas Eve service. She had invited her mother, her husband and her two sisters to come and witness her baptism as she desired to ‘confess her faith before others’. Her two sisters are Christians but her husband and mother are not ……yet!!!

Following Christmas Kevin and Hannah took Grandma and Grandpa to Hong Kong and Shanghai China for an outing. The photo links for the ‘Shanghai Outing’ will be below or look in the photo albums on the main blog page. Hannah is working on the travel diary and we’ll add it to the blog soon!!

After returning from Shanghai January 1, 2007 it was time for a belated birthday party for Hannah with the whole Taiwan family! Happy Birthday Hannah!! 15 already!

On January 5 we had the adult baptism of Prince Shr. Prince first came to classes at the community center, then also joined church classes, was invited and came to church activities and has not missed a worship service in 6 months time. Praise God for leading Prince in this way and ask for God’s continual guidance in Prince’s life.

That same evening Taichung had its first class of Youth Confirmands. 6 teens have studied with me Luther’s Catechism and the chief teachings of the Bible. We began classes a year ago and completed them the week before Christmas 2006. During the year, each student on 2 different occasions was assigned a portion of one of the parts of the catechism: for example this time around Hannah had the 3rd Article of the Apostle’s Creed. They wrote essays explaining the teaching and its blessings and importance for us as believers. On Jan 5 during worship, the 6 confirmands took turns sharing their essays and then were confirmed and joined us for the Lord’s Supper. As it turned out, Jan 5 also happens to be the day when Hannah was baptized 15 years ago … that will make it easy for her to remember. That same evening, Leslie was recieved as a communicant member having completed Membership classes with me during November and December. She is on the far right in the photo.

Wow!! What a blurr of amazing spiritual blessings were showered upon us during that time period. Praise God from whom all blessings flow! Praise Him, all creatures here below; Praise him above, you heavenly host: Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost! Amen