The Smith Connection

We praise God for our church Chirstmas program held yesterday evening. It was evident that God was at work in people's hearts. Even with the equivelant of the Super Bowl in Mexican soccer happening at exactly the same time, we had a full crowd of around 130-140 people! Praise God!

CLICK BELOW TO READ MORE ABOUT THE EVENING

The children participated in the program with a verse and a song, and the youth, along with help from some other church people did an excellent job with a Christmas play called "When Christ Enters into a house". The play showed Joseph and Mary going to a house of the wealthy, a house of the busy, a house of the poor, a house of fear, and finally, a house of welcome. In this combination of Biblical times, Joseph and Mary, with modern times, the houses, the message was clear - too many times we have many excuses not to invite Christ to come in to our lives.

After the play we gave an evangelistic message to which at least three people responded to with faith in Christ, and many more responded to with a desire to renew their relationship with Christ and open their hearts to Him in a greater way. "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me." Rev. 3:20 We pray that the Lord would seal these decisions in each heart, and that the new year would be different in the lives of many. The program ended with a PowerPoint of pictures of church activities throughout this year. We then enjoyed a delicious supper of pasta, apple salad, and leg of pork stuffed with ham, bacon, almonds, prunes, peaches, apricots, and other fruits, and done in a chile sauce. Excellent! We ended the evening with the traditional breaking of pinatas.

We praise God for a good response, and for the involvement of many of the church people throughout the evening. Thanks for your prayers for the evening! Please continue to pray for our follow-up efforts in the new year. We are looking forward to a good break now as we spend time with family here in Mexico over the next two weeks.

Posted by Bryan at 09:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

CLICK BELOW FOR SOME RECENT PRAYER ITEMS

"Return home and tell how much God has done for you." So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him." Luke 8:39 (NIV)

It is our joy to share with you all that the Lord has done for us. We wish you and yours a happy holiday season, and thank you for your prayers for us:

WE PRAISE GOD FOR:
- a good CAM Mexico field conference. We enjoyed helping to coordinate the plans for this annual conference, and we enjoyed the spiritual refreshment and fellowship that we received, and we praise God for the strength He gave us to accomplish all that we had to do.
- our parenting class. There has been much interest on the part of the parents of younger children to be involved in this class that teaches the Biblical principles for parenting. The discussion and fellowship has been a blessing, and much is being learned.
- family visits over the holidays. We plan to spend Christmas with Bryan's parents in their home in Texcoco, Mexico, along with Bryan's brother, Brenton, and his family who are flying down. Lori's parents plan to come up to Mexico from Guatemala to bring in the New Year with us. We look forward to good and refreshing times together.

PLEASE PRAY FOR:
- our home assignment transition - the church here and a couple or individual to help in the ministry, the move from our home here in Mexico, a home for us in PA for our time there (August 2006-June 2007), the plans being made for our time in the US, the transition for our family, and our preparation to share all that God has done and is doing here in Mexico.
- the continued involvement of the believers here in the ministry. That there would be good growth and steps of maturity.
- our evangelistic Christmas program and dinner on December 18. Pray that God would prepare the hearts of those who will be in attendance to receive God's Word and trust in Christ as their Savior.

Please visit our website for some recent pictures: http://smithconnection.com

Praising God for all that HE has done,
Bryan, Lori, Kendra, Tara, & Benjamin

Posted by Bryan at 05:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The kids by the Christmas tree

CLICK BELOW FOR FOR SOME RECENT PICTURES

*Click on the thumbnails for a larger image

FAMILY

Strike one!

Strike two!

Strike three!

Finally got it!

Kendra and Ben decorating the tree

Thanksgiving dinner at our CAM Mexico Conference

The kids helped Grandma and Grandpa Smith in the Christmas program at the conference

MINISTRY

Making the annual prayer calendars for our conference

Our annual CAM Mexico conference Nov. 22-25, which we helped plan this year

Lori planned the craft for the ladies at our annual Bajio churches leader's meeting and lunch

Our annual Bajio churches leader's meeting on Dec. 3

Our Biblical parenting class which has been meeting every two weeks on Sundays after church

Some of the youth making the props for our Chirstmas play

Some of the kids helped out with the props too

Part of the finished props for our Christmas play. All worked hard!

Posted by Bryan at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)