January Ministry Update

Dear Friends,                                                              31/1/2010
Hello from Mexico! It’s nice to finally be able to write you from the mission field to which the Lord has directed us. We absolutely love it down here! In this letter, we’d like to “introduce” you all to some of the people we have gotten to know around here as well as some of the opportunities we’ve had to minister.

Phil, Marianne, Matt, and Monette Chain – These are the missionaries who have been here for years running Mexico Missions, Inc. They have been a huge help to us in getting us settled, showing us around town, teaching us Spanish words we’ll need to use, and telling us the way things work around here. Phil was a youth pastor in Oklahoma years ago at Dennis Jernigan’s church before the Lord led him to the mission field. Marianne is one of the nicest ladies you could know. She is crucial in helping us find needs that we can meet for people. Matt and Monette are pretty much our best friends, even though we’ve only been with them a short while during their moves between Oklahoma and Mexico.

Ricardo and Devora – These are the people we are the most involved with. Ricardo is an amazing cook! They live here at the mission and are in charge of the building as well as the village feeding programs. Like Marianne, Devora is always looking for needs that we can help people meet. Ricardo grew up in a gang with a history of violence, but you would never know it to meet him today, as he is one of the kindest, hard-working, faithful men around. Devora is very out-going and high-spirited. She keeps things entertaining around here.

Martin and Minerva – Martin is the pastor of “Jesus Loves You Baptist Church”, where we have really been able to get involved with the people and their ministry. Martin went to seminary in Mexico City before coming out here to pastor the church. I believe he was also the church’s founding pastor. He has such a fun personality and is also a top scorer on our church soccer team.

Jorge and Selene – Jorge is the music leader at the church and also heads up some of the youth activities. Along with leading music, he is a passionate speaker for proclaiming the gospel. He has a great sense of humor and is always trying to trip us up with Spanish tongue-twisters and jokes. He’s also the goalkeeper on our soccer team. His wife Selene teaches English and sometimes helps us with our Spanish.

Venancio and Raquel – Venancio is crazy! That’s the only way to put it – He’s crazy for the Lord. Venancio is the Minister of Evangelism here at Mexico Missions. He lives to tell people about Jesus. The statement was made to me: “Unless you are able to shake Billy Graham’s hand, I don’t think you will ever shake the hand of anyone who has won more people to the Lord than Venancio.” For you people at Cornerstone, Venancio reminds us both of a Mexican Don Rice – that will give you a good idea of what he’s like! Venancio used to be a part of the Assembly of God, but was kicked out because he wanted to start churches from people’s homes, rather than putting up a building and then trying to bring people in. He told me, “Now I just preach to prepare people to meet Jesus, not to enter a denomination.” For example, we have been working with him on Isla Mujeres, where he has been trying to start a church in a tiny village on the south of the island. He has led one family to the Lord there and we now meet at their house on Tuesdays. There is another family nearby who is Catholic, and since they wouldn’t leave their house to come to the Bible study, we had the Bible study at their house! Venancio will do anything to tell people about Jesus.

Gabriel and Marta – Gabriel is a doctor who attends the church. His wife Marta teaches the women’s Bible study when we go into the villages. She also is a very passionate teacher and very clearly communicates the message of the gospel each time she speaks. Abby has really enjoyed spending some time with her and learning from her in the Bible studies.

Jose Luis and Hilda – These two are a very fun couple. They both speak a good bit of English, so Abby’s really been helped by spending time with them. It’s funny to be listening to someone and trying to understand their Spanish, when they suddenly say something in English! It really catches you by surprise!

We’ve been here for a little more than 3 weeks now and we feel right at home. The people here have welcomed us warmly and we love being involved in the ministry here with them. Here are a few highlights of the ministry opportunities we’ve had thus far.

• Isla Mujeres

I already told you a bit about this opportunity. It’s been neat to see how a new church is planted. It started before we got here with witnessing until at least one person, or couple, or in this case family accepted Christ. Now we are in the process of discipleship with them. Venancio explained on the first night we were there the importance of discipleship and following after Jesus with all of our hearts. We have a very basic Bible study book that we’re now going through with those people and trying to invite others in as well, so they can hear about Jesus, too.

• Victoria

Victoria is a small village about 100 km west of town. We go there every Saturday to do a feeding program for the village, as well as another small village nearby. We drive to the villages and pick up all the kids and adults we can pack into a van and suburban (about 50 typically) and bring them to a thatch-roofed building where we sing choruses, preach the gospel, and then split up into separate age groups. We always ask the people who came if they have a Bible and if they don’t, we will bring them one the next week. The men do a Bible study led by one of the church members. The ladies are taught the basic principles of salvation by Marta. Jorge teaches some of the teenage guys to play the guitar using praise choruses. Susi teaches the older children about the Bible, starting in Genesis 1 with creation. And a couple other ladies teach the little kids about Jesus being born in Bethlehem. While we are in classes, Ricardo and Devora and Abby make lunch for everyone, and then we eat and take them home. On some Saturdays we will have bags of clothes or shoes to give away, a doctor to come give free checkups, a hairstylist to give free haircuts, and of course we play a game of soccer with the kids on the basketball court.

• Film Evangelism

This is Venancio’s specialty! He knows hundreds of pastors with new church plants in the Yucatán peninsula. So we get with a church – any church – and schedule a night that we will meet in their village and show a gospel film with Venancio preaching afterwards. It’s a bit irritating sometimes because he will turn up the speakers absolutely as loud as they will go, but it’s only because he wants everyone that possibly can to hear it. Pray that people will continue to be reached and will respond to the call of God to salvation.

• Iglesia Bautista Cristo Te Ama

I could put several more areas of ministry, but they would all be summed up by this church. The ministry at Victoria, in fact, is led by the people at Jesus Loves You. We have been asked to be involved in the music ministry at church as well as possibly doing some kind of teaching for the 10-14 year-olds. They have also asked if we could teach English classes so that they could bring in people from the surrounding areas and have the chance to witness to them as they study English. We have both been invited to men’s and women’s Bible study, Friday night prayer meetings, and soon we’ll be having special meetings with a group of Americans coming in February. The church is also involved with the Cancun Bible Institute and I’m hoping to be able to attend some of their classes coming up soon. As we have been observing, studying, and visiting different churches in the area, we have found that there is a lot of confusion here – doctrinal confusion. We have found Catholics, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Mormons, along with all the different denominations that disagree about what day to have church, how and whom to baptize, who Jesus really is, speaking in tongues, healing, visions, and prophecy. In this way, Cancun is not much different from the United States. But while we are working with many different churches of different denominations, we are committed to the truth of the Word of God. The people in this area are very confused. And thus, we want to plug into a church where the Word is being preached. We want to minister with people who only teach and believe what the Bible says. We want to work with people who are committed to the Scriptures. And Iglesia Bautista Cristo Te Ama has been a breath of fresh air for us. These people know the Bible, they teach it, and they live it. They are the ones reaching out in ministry to Victoria every Saturday. They visit homes every week and then give a type of “roll call” of the families they went to visit to see if they came to church. Typically, more than half of the families visited come to the church that week. Every Thursday night, they get together at the church and go visit people who are sick and can’t make it out of the house to come to church. Monday nights the men meet for Bible study and they stay around for hours fellowshipping and playing volleyball or soccer. On Sundays people will stay around after church and then eventually just start cooking food for everyone there. The women meet for Bible study on Wednesday nights. Some Friday nights, we have a prayer meeting from 8 PM – 12 PM. This church reminds me of the first-century church in Acts, when it says, “And they continued daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house… and daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.”

I have now heard ten different people from Cristo Te Ama, men and women, preach or teach a lesson. Every single one that I have heard has been completely accurate to the text of Scripture, passionate to communicate the message to the people they were teaching, and correctly applying the truths of the Bible to our lives. Pastor Martin is doing things right. He has been here working at this church with these people for 9 years, I believe. So while the process of discipleship, and passing on truth to people who will be able to teach others also, is no short task, they have got it right. These are the people we want to learn from. We are getting involved with this church because they are the only people we have found in this area who are rock-solid in their doctrine and practice. We thank the Lord for leading us to Cristo Te Ama and hope we can help and encourage them as much as they are us.

We’d also like to thank all of you at Cornerstone and Millbrook for your sacrificial giving to the Lord so that we can be here. Through you the Lord has provided for all of our physical needs down here. We’ll be sure to keep you updated on our needs and prayer requests so you can be involved in a very close way with us. Our prayer requests right now involve just getting settled down here. With the many ministry opportunities, we need wisdom in knowing which we can be involved in and which we should not be, so that we don’t overcrowd our schedule. We could also use prayer just for our bodies adjusting to life here. We’ve had a few sick days and upset stomachs from the food here and the weather adjustments. All in all though, we’re taken care of. We’re enjoying ourselves and just love being here!

God bless you all and please let us hear from you as well. If you have any prayer requests, we’d be happy to pray for them for you or if there is anything we can do for you, please let us know. As you probably know, you can keep up with us on our blog (http://stclairsinmissions.blogspot.com) and through Facebook. We love you all and will be praying for you!

In His Service,

Jonathan & Abby St.Clair

Discipleship Begins

What a neat time of ministry we had with Venancio today! We drove to Puerto Juarez and took the ferry to Isla Mujeres. The island, which is about 9 kilometers off the coast, is 7 kilometers long and only 600 meters wide. But it also houses 17,500 people, of which maybe 1,000 claim to be Christians. We met up with a brother there who drives a taxi and he took us to a small village called La Guadalupana. As he dropped us off, he promised to return later and charged us no fare saying "This is God's Taxi. He pays all of my bills."

Venancio knew about 3 different families in the village, two of which were believers and one Catholic. It was too cold for us to show the Jesus film outside, so we invited several different families to a Bible study at one of the believers' homes. We visited the Catholic family for a good while, talking. Outside of this home was a miniature chapel - I suppose you would call it - made of concrete. Inside it were colored, blinking lights and beautiful decorations. It housed a statue of the Virgin Mary. The "chapel" was made of concrete, while the house comprised wood and corrugated metal. The "chapel" had fancy decorations and electricity, while the inside of the house was left in the dark. We couldn't even see the people we were talking to until one of the daughters finally brought in an old, battery-powered lantern.

Though I'm still trying to get my Spanish back in practice, I was able to catch most of the conversation and was a bit surprised, yet very encouraged, by what I heard. While Venancio was inviting them to Bible study he said, "I know 2009 was a bad year for us all, but we are expecting a better year in 2010." And the man of the house spoke up, I think arguing. "No, this year is not going to be better. All of humanity is dying. It is colder here than it has ever been. There are storms and natural disasters more than there have ever been. We are in a financial crisis. We are in a health crisis. We are in a violence crisis." It seemed to me like the perspective of a pessimistic old villager who is fed up with the world. I was waiting for Venancio to respond when the man continued. "And where is the church? What are they doing to help? Why do we have so many children starving in Africa and India, people dying in Iraq and Afghanistan, why don't they help them?" All of this is coming from a man who obviously is a devout Catholic, ensuring that the statue of Mary has a better lodging than his own family. "What is wrong with the Pope? He is supposed to be the representation of Christ on this earth, but he does not follow the steps of Jesus. He just sits there with his big, tall crown on, made of pure gold, while the poor people of the world starve. Jesus went to the poor. He helped them, talked to them, healed them, ate with them. If he is supposed to be the representation of Jesus, he is not doing his job!" So I finally spoke up. "But that's not his job. That's our job. That is our responsibility as Christians. Jesus said that we are supposed to be the light to the world. And that's why we're here today."

Please pray for this family. As I talked to Venancio later, he was as encouraged as I was. He said, "You see??? God is working in him, in his mind! He is preparing his heart." The family didn't come to Bible study, but pray that as we continue to work there, we will show them the true representation of Christ on this earth.

So we began the Bible study - the first one in this village. Along with Venancio, Abby, and me, we had four people - a lady, her 16/17 year-old daughter, her 11/12 year-old son, and the man whose house we were in. By the end of the service, three more people had joined us. We sang a few Spanish choruses (all back to back in the same key - mas o menos) and I played along on someone's old, out-of-tune guitar. Then we shared praises and things we were thankful for during this past year. After prayer, Venancio preached on Luke 13:6-9 and the parable of the fig tree. He did such a great job of explaining how we are called as Christians to bear fruit. He explained how Christ intercedes on our behalf to the Father, always wanting to give us one more chance, another opportunity. He explained how a life not spiritually cared for will not spiritually bear fruit. And from there he shared his goal for this Bible study to begin the process of discipleship. We handed out some very basic Bible study materials that we will be going through each week and assigned everyone the first chapter to read before our meeting next Tuesday or Thursday. Venancio explained the Great Commission to "make disciples" of all people and that today is the day that discipleship begins.

It was such a neat opportunity to be here at the very beginning of the growth process for these very new Christians and the start of the church body on Isla Mujeres.

A Culture of Confusion

Two days is certainly not enough time to fully understand the culture of a city, so I will say that everything I write here is merely my initial perception of this region of Mexico. It seems that we are living now in a culture of confusion - religious confusion.

The city of Cancun itself is a mix of rich and poor, American and Mexican, healthy and hungry, tourist and native. It is a melting pot of people and cultures. In that way it is similar to many cities in the U.S. - New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Detroit. But that same trend seems to be present in their religion. We are living and working with a non-denominational mission run by Baptist missionaries. Down our street to the east is a Presbyterian church. Across the street is a small Christian bookstore. Down our street to the west is a Baptist church. Across the street from there is a Pentecostal church. Beside the Baptist church is an Adventist church. And behind it is a large Catholic church. In town yesterday, we walked near another Catholic church and I went in. They were holding a service for the baptism of a young lady - maybe 16 or 17 - who had apparently converted to Catholicism. Catholicism here is so ingrained in this culture that many people here think to be Mexican is to be Catholic. Some Mexicans who have never set foot in a church will tell us that they are Christians. As I was standing outside the church, a woman approached me claiming to be a Jehovah's Witness and asking if I was as well. Thus, my initial perception of this area of Mexico is a culture of religious confusion.

However, there is at least one light shining brightly in this city (on our street, in fact!). Iglesia Bautista Cristo Te Ama, or Jesus Loves You Baptist Church, both knows and is preaching clearly the Word of God. This morning we visited this church of about 150 people with Ricardo and Devora, a dear couple that we are living and working with here. Pastor Martin Lemos was not afraid to speak out against the doctrinal errors being taught in the church right behind us! The message was a continuation of a series on salvation and focused today on Ephesians 2:8-10, how we are saved by faith alone and not by works of our own righteousness. The passage was preached along with James chapter 2 to show that while faith alone saves, good works prove the existence and validity of that faith. Examples were shown in Hebrews 11 of the great men and women of the faith whose good works accompanied their faith and proved it to be real. At the end of the sermon, Pastor Martin didn't simply close the service; he made the application very clear: "If you are one of those who say that you believe in Jesus, but you still go on living the same way you were before, your faith is dead. To believe in Jesus is not enough, for even the demons believe and tremble - James 2:19. Unless the faith you claim has changed the way you live, your faith is dead." I was so encouraged to hear a brother speaking the truth to his people - faithfully preaching the Word.

Other parts of the service included sharing prayer requests and praise reports, announcements, welcoming visitors (including us), singing hymns and choruses (led by the youth group), meeting and greeting the people, Bible reading and prayer. We will be back there for the evening service in about 4 hours and we're looking forward to getting to know these dear brothers and sisters better.

So as we minister, please pray that we will be able to keep doctrinal clarity in our preaching and be able to "speak the truth in love" to this very confused people.

How Do We Discern God's Plans for Our Life? - PRAYER REQUEST

I've heard the phrase "a world of possibilities" before. And I know no other phrase that describes the mission field more accurately. Abby and I will soon be facing the toughest decision we have had to make thus far in our marriage: Where does God want us to serve Him full-time? Quite literally, there is "a world of possibilities."

What has God shown us up to this point?
1. He has called us to serve Him for the rest of our lives on the mission field.
2. He has directed us to Mexico for a year of on-field missions training.
3. He has burdened us to reach the unreached people of the world.

My mind if often overwhelmed by the possibilities of where we could serve; the harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few...........

• In a highly evangelized country like Mexico, there remain people groups who have never heard of Jesus Christ and some who do not even have a Bible in their native language.
• The religion of Islam is now the fastest growing religion in the world. On the surface, Islam often teaches principles strikingly similar to Christianity, declaring itself a religion of peace (while truly bringing peace to no one), and therefore deceiving many into thinking that Muslims and Christians serve the same God, only by different names.
• China, while being under the oppression of Communist leaders and closed to the gospel, now boasts not only the world's largest population, but is very near to surpassing the United States as the world's #1 sending country for evangelical missionaries.
• Europe continues on as one of the world's most cold and spiritually dead regions of the world, where missionaries may well spend years of faithful service before seeing a single soul won for Christ.
• The continent of Africa is rocked by the effects of AIDS, while sex-trafficking continues to increase, the number of orphans multiplies exponentially, and people starve or die of malnutrition every day.
• The Middle East is a boiling kettle of anger, hatred, and religious fanaticism ready to erupt at any moment into the devastation of its own people and the people of Israel.

Yet in the midst of these chaotic, last days of our earth, there remains great hope........

• The Wycliffe Bible Translators are on pace to have the Bible translated into every known world language by the year 2025, a mere 15 years away.
• God's sovereign election of Muslims to salvation is coming to pass by the millions. Old men are dreaming dreams and young men are seeing visions of Jesus Christ, just as the Bible prophesied would happen in "the last days".
• The underground of church of China is growing in spite of persecution with an estimated 10,000 people per day turning to Jesus.
• Institutions like Moffat Bible College in Kijabe, Kenya are training national pastors from all over Africa to take the gospel back to their different tribes who have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ.
• Gospel for Asia is sending out tens of thousands of native missionaries to go into those parts of the 10/40 window which have never been reached with the message of salvation in Jesus Christ.
• Operation Mobilization is pushing forward with the Near East Initiative to reach out to Muslims and share with them the true Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
• The Joshua Fund is raising money to provide finances, Bible, material resources, bomb shelters, tons of food, hospitals, medical personnel, gospel materials in Arabic and in Hebrew, in an effort to bless God's chosen people of Israel and protect them in the coming wars with neighboring countries.

So the question, then, to a young missionary couple is: Where does God want us to serve?

If this were a secular business and a mere career choice, the answer could be more simply found. We go where we could be the most comfortable. Or we go where we would most like to live. Maybe we go where we can have the greatest adventure. Or we may go where we would feel the most safe. But in this calling - this spiritual warfare - the choice is not our to make. Our commanding Officer will tell us where to go.

So what must we do to discern God's direction for our life? How does He guide us into His will?

1. We must stay in close fellowship with God in order to clearly hear His voice.
2. We must keep our eyes open to the opportunities the Lord brings across our path.
3. We must listen to the counsel of those godly counselors God has placed in our life.
4. We must follow each step that God shows us - walk through every door God opens.

Please pray for us. This is a decision that could easily be made by our emotions. This is a decision that could easily be affected by our fears. This is a decision that could determine the course of our lives. And this is a decision that could change the world!

Please pray for us!

"Find out where God is working and go and join Him there." - Henry Blackaby

Commissioning Service

For anyone who wasn't able to attend, we had a wonderful commissioning service yesterday morning at Cornerstone. Pastor Steve preached a message from I Samuel 17 challenging Abby and me as we head towards the mission field early in 2010. The five main points of the sermon were represented by the five stones David took into battle against Goliath:

- Stone #1: Divine Purpose (I Sam.17:46) - "...that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel,"
- Stone #2: Divine Presence (I Sam.17:47) - "...For the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hand."
- Stone #3: Divine Position (I Sam.17:45) - "...I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts..."
- Stone #4: Divine Power (I Sam.17:37a) - "...The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear..."
- Stone #5: Divine Promise (I Sam.17:37b) - "...he will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine."

A few notable quotations from the sermon:

"A fanatic is one who won't change his mind and won't change the subject."

"The true test of your character is what it takes to stop you."

"If it were easy, everyone would be doing it. So stand anyway." - John R. Rice

"You must go through the lion and the bear to get to the giant."

At the end of the service, we gathered together with the church leadership, the mission committee, and the rest of the church body to pray. We closed the service by singing together, "Stand Up, Stand Up For Jesus". It was a very challenging, yet encouraging way to leave our home church for the work God is calling us into.

Thank you, Pastor Steve, for your impact on our lives!

Travel Plans

Here's a quick update for anyone who needs to know our travel plans for this next month. Abby and I are in Branson, Missouri right now and have been visiting my grandparents here for the past few days. In the morning, we drive back to Morton to speak at the adult Christmas Party at Cornerstone. Sunday morning will be our commissioning service and our last Sunday at Cornerstone for the next year or so. We will then be driving on Friday the 11th to Michigan to spend time with our family there and I will be preaching at Sumnerville Bible Baptist Church on Sunday the 13th. Then just before Christmas, we will drive down to South Carolina to be with the rest of our family and visit our other supporting church, Millbrook Baptist. Then we will be flying out of Atlanta and into Mexico on January 8th.

For all of you at Cornerstone, it has been an honor and a true joy to minister with you for the past 4 1/2 years. We can't wait to get back from Mexico and share with you how the Lord has been working. We hope to see many of you this next week before we leave. To everyone at Millbrook, we are looking forward to being back with you all for about 2 weeks before we leave and would also like to catch up with many of you while we are there. God bless you all and thank you for your many prayers and investment in us.

Oh, and one more thing. Some dear people in our church have been making up some prayer cards for us to give to our supporters. We will be getting those to you very shortly with information on how to stay in touch with us and how to pray specifically for us. We love you all!

- Jonathan & Abby

Watching God Provide

It's a fine line to walk. You want to step out on faith and watch God provide for you in ways you can't even imagine now. But you also want to be a responsible husband and wait for the Lord to provide now, proving that it is His time for you to go. I've been walking this tightrope for several months now.

Abby and I have done about everything we believe we can to wait on, pray for, and pursue the finances to get us to Mexico. We've been sitting at 45% of our full-time budget for almost a year now. So in an effort to adjust our plans and be active in trying to get to the mission field, we sat down and recalculated a smaller budget that we could be able to live on during our first year of missions training in Mexico. We called up our financial planner and missions committee chairman to get together and get their advice on our new budget. Can we go? Can we go?

I so appreciate the counsel of those two men. They strike that balance well; they walk the tightrope. We have faith that God will provide. But we also want to be wise and wait for the Lord to provide. The conclusion of our meeting - we will wait to leave until the Lord provides another $700 per month. We felt that was the right balance. It was being a good steward of our finances and also going out on faith.

I began to prepare myself for the next step. We wait. We keep praying. Maybe we could call up some people who could help. Maybe the Lord knows we're not ready to go yet. Whatever that step is, we'll do it. But as always, God showed up.

"God is never in a hurry, but He's always on time." - Unknown

Within hours of the meeting, we began hearing from people who had committed to support us, but weren't sure how much yet. One family, two families, three, people from Millbrook, people from Cornerstone - by the end of the day another $425 per month had come in. The next day another $150; as of today we are $45 away from that $700 extra per month, with one family who has committed to give the rest of whatever we lack. Bottom line, we have watched, God has provided!

Now I can only imagine what He'll do once we get to Mexico. Thank you to everyone who supports us. You are a blessing - probably more than you know.