The Smith Connection

Emilio and Christy Contreras, who were just married about a year ago, were recently commisioned from the New Life Bible Church in Queretaro to help in the ministry of the New Birth Bible Church. We praise the Lord for this GREAT answer to prayer. We are excited to work along side this fine couple when we return to Mexico!

*Click below to read more details

What a thrill and blessing it is for us to have Emilio and Christy join our efforts at the New Birth Bible Church. Christy was a former CAM-Mexico missionary and before that a fellow MK (Missionary Kid) from Mexico. Lori especially has enjoyed getting to know her and has done some scrapbooking with her. Bryan first met Emilio through a leadership training program that Bryan helped to teach. Emilio was a dedicated student with a great heart for the Lord. We praise the Lord for this couple's love for God and passion for ministry. We are sure they are being a HUGE encouragement to the believers of the New Birth Bible Church at this time. We look forward to getting back and working with them!

Here is an excerpt from a recent e-mail from Emilio & Christy:

EXCITING STEPS - God has been doing so much in our lives including leading us to pray about the possibility to serve the Lord in a different Bible church. We prayed for almost a year about this possibility and now we have exciting news to tell you!! This Sunday April 1st was our first day at our new church, New Birth Bible Church where we will be helping to start a youth group, serving with worship and Emilio with preaching. We met with the leaders of our church and they fully supported our decision to go serve at New Birth Bible Church including their decision to send us as missionaries from New Life Bible Church to New Birth Bible Church. New Birth Bible Church is a small church of about 50-70 believers that attend each week. They have no existing youth group and so many other needs including worship, sermons, and childrens ministries. They currently rent a little building every Sunday to meet and are looking for land and raising money so they can build a church. After praying God placed on our hearts to serve the Lord at New Birth Bible Church. When the leaders of this church heard that we had a desire to serve there, they became so excited and said they had been praying for a couple to come serve there and that we were an answer to prayer! How EXCITING to be in God´s perfect will!!! We are excited about going to New Birth Bible Church because we feel that God can use us for His honor and glory in His plan for this church and their youth. We also feel this is a step toward our desire to serve the Lord in full-time ministry.

PRAYER

Please pray for us as we start this new ministry at New Birth Bible Church, for wisdom in decisions about the youth.
Pray that we would be seeking the Lord and obeying His word day to day.
Would you be willing to pray if God would call you to support any of the following ministry projects financially with a one time gift or each month.
1. Creating the ¨Kit of Life¨
2. Spreading the gospel in the newspaper.
3. Supporting our ministry at New Birth Bible Church. We are not currently with a mission organization but are being sent by Vida Nueva Bible Church.

You can reach Emilio and Christy at this address: emiliochristy4ever@yahoo.com.mx

PRAISE God with us for this answer to our prayers!

Posted by Bryan at 05:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Use the link below for some April prayer items. Thanks for taking us before God's throne!

Here are a few items to keep in prayer for us. As always, visit our website to view some new photos: http://www.smithconnection.com/2007/03/photos_april_2007.html

--> This month please begin to pray for the conclusion of our home assignment and for our transition back to Mexico. Our departure date of July 2 is quickly approaching! There are many requests related to the transition including the following:
- finishing our time here well - more visits to churches, classes at Lancaster Bible College, ministry commitments in our home church,
and raising the remainder of our support (We praise the Lord that we only need around $75 per month now!)
- saying goodbye to many friends and family and packing and sorting things in the next few months
- our travels by land back to Mexico, including the border crossing
- a house with all the necessary characteristics for us to rent when we arrive in Queretaro
- a good transition back into the New Birth Bible Church and other ministries in Mexico

--> Please continue to pray for the Vargas family whom we mentioned in our update last month. (They lost their Mexican store and restaurant in a fire) We had an opportunity to visit with them recently, and are developing a relationship with them. Please pray for their salvation.

--> Please continue to pray for the New Birth Bible Church in Mexico during our absence. We just learned that some friends and co-laborers of ours, Emilio & Christy, have been commissioned from another Bible church in Queretaro to help with the youth ministry at the New Birth Bible Church. We praise the Lord for His answer to our prayers for someone to help out in this area! Read more here: http://www.smithconnection.com/2007/04/answer_to_prayer_1.html

Thank you for taking us before God's throne! It is so good to know that we can "draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

Stay tuned for more ways that God shows us His mercy and grace!
Bryan, Lori, Kendra, Tara, & Ben

Bryan & Lori Smith
2062 Bossler Rd.
Elizabethtown, PA 17022
(717) 361-8804
bsmith@cam-mexico.org
http://smithconnection.com

Mission:
CAM International
8525 La Prada Dr.
Dallas, TX 75228
(214) 327-8206
info@caminternational.org
http://caminternational.org

Posted by Bryan at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Kendra & Tara all ready for school! It was Dr. Seuss dress-up day, and the girls went as Daisy-Head Mayzie.

*Use the link below to view more family and ministry pictures
*Click on the thumbnails for a larger version of the image

FAMILY

On March 3 the Aungsts, owners of the farm where we live, had an auction to sell their farm equipment. They now rent the farm out to our nieghbors, the Millers.

On March 3 Kendra, Tara, & Ben spent the afternoon and night with the Fernalds. The kids have a blast together!

Tara turned 6 on March 7

Kendra in her music class at school. She is enjoying second grade at Bainbridge Elementry School!

Tara invited a friend from school, Alyssa, to celebrate her birthday with her at Chuck E Cheese's on March 8

Bryan and Ben have enjoyed helping with the farm chores occasionally

We visited a local chicken and hog farm. There were about 27,000 chicks in this one barn! They are raised to provide chicken for New York City.

We got our snow on holidays this year - a pretty big one fell on February 14, and the last and biggest one on March 17. The kids made snow angels, but the snow wasn't a good packing snow. This little snowman was all they managed to make a few days later.

One Sunday afternoon Lori looked out the window and saw some heifers eating the shurbs in front of our house. One was even on our front porch! Bryan helped get them back to where they were supposed to be. Its all part of living on a farm!

The kids love helping us with Emma, who we babysit four days a week. We have also enjoyed some fellowship with Emma's grandparents, the Musser family. Here we are at their house for a meal and fellowship. We all enjoyed some ping pong and air hockey!

On March 24 Ben turned four years old. We celebrated his birthday as a family, and took the kids bowling for the first time!

MINISTRY

Meal and fellowship with Shirley McBride and her grandaughter, McKenzie

Teaching 5th and 6th grade Sunday School at our home church, Calvary Bible Church

We had the privilege of being involved in our missions conference at Calvary Bible Church March 23-25. Ron Blue, former president of our mission CAM International, was the keynote speaker. We enjoyed a Russian meal and a good presentation from Russian Missions to conclude the conference.

Bryan has been taking some graduate classes at Lancaster Bible College over the last three months. One class is finished, two are about finished, and he will be taking at least one more.

Posted by Bryan at 06:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)