October 09 Pastor's conference

As I sit here early this morning, reflecting on the past few days and the pastor's conference in Mexico, I am very grateful for all that God has done in and through my life. To think that all this began as such a small seed back in 1985 as I obeyed God's call on my life and moved to southern Mexico and began planting churches among the indigenous tribes. Later in 1988, we would move to Coatzacoalcos (a city of close to one million people) and plant a church that would reach and change an entire city. I was blessed to have a "true friend" (Nathan Martin) with me every step of the way partnering and assisting me in this vision from God. Last week, Nathan and I went back to Coatzacoalcos to teach the second conference this year specifically geared towards pastors and leaders using John Maxwell's MLM material. I am grateful to Equip for the partnership we have, as well as Life Church West Monroe and Christian Challenge Intl. We had over 400 pastors and leaders and over 60 churches represented in this conference. Here is a photo album from the conference last week (click here to go to the album).

There are a few special photos in the album that I would like to mention. There is the list of some 60 plus churches on the registration table. Nathan and I were so shocked and humbled to find out that many of these churches came out of or were inspired by our church (Agua Viva) and many of them had been in our church even back when Nathan and I were there. There is a picture of our local coordinator (Mario Tagle) standing with a precious lady who had just buried her husband (a pastor) on Friday and was at the conference on Saturday. There is a picture of me standing with a young couple (Pastor Guillermo), who both received the Lord as children back in 1985 in one of our churches and now they are senior pastors of that church. There is the picture of Pastor Mario standing with a couple who had received death threats last week and whose uncle (also a pastor) was kidnapped and is being held for ransom. Please pray for Manuel and Susana as they walk through this difficult time.
I could stop and talk about every picture because every picture tells a story, but this blog post would be entirely too long then. So let me finish by saying that this morning I find myself giving thanks for God allowing me to make a difference in an entire city and region, for such a true friend and co-laborer in the Gospel (Nathan Martin), and for the thrill of seeing a vision continue to unfold some 24 years later. God is good!