October's Newsletter

Dear Friends.

The time now 21:20 Central Standard Time (CST/GMT-6) October 31st 2008. A year ago, this is the same exact time a flight from London Gatwick airport landed in Torreon City North-central Mexico with a 23 year old guy, who believed God was calling him to serve in Mexico as a missionary, even though he had never been there. Time moving on as it does, I still have memories of that flight; flushing back I just remember embarking on it without any idea what I was to expect, but just trying to figure out what the unknown was holding!

It has been an awesome year, I couldn't have had it any better, its been truly a journey of faith, at the same time having the time of my life ever. I remember right after arriving here spending the first few days just getting to know people, and before even a week had past, invited on a mission trip in the desert to this place called Delicias (which sounded like Delicious to mehahaha), but getting there wondering what could be Delicious about this small brown village not having anything special than a few donkeys making noise, and brown dust everywhere. Even though at that moment I could hardly comprehend what kind of impact and influence this trip was later to have on my life, we went on camping in the place for 3 days, and spending another 3 preaching and performing dramas in a near by town called Monclova. At the end of the trip in less than 2 weeks of being here seeing 3 ladies coming to Christ was awesome, and just thinking what kind of impact I would have in a year.

Its so amazing what God has done in the past year of my life;

-seeing over 90 soul's coming to Christ,

-About 60 of them being baptized with a total dedication to follow God

-Being able to speak Spanish to the level of preaching and enlarging my capacity to reach more people for Christ

-And a total dedication and dependency on God for everything.

Ministry News

In my first few ministry newsletters since the beginning of this year I have been talking about Delicias, If you have just started receiving my newsletters you would like to know this. For a brief history, I take care of a small congregation of about 8 people and a door to door ministry about 1hour and 30 minutes drive in the mountains of northern Mexico from San Pedro where he lives. I started going there in January of 2008. Delicias is a small village with a population of about 270 people, it has no public transport, so the nearest public bus stop is 8kms away, which means its necessary for me to walk or at times ride my bike to the place, with my guitar and a back pack.

Since January I have gone back at least twice each month, a part from the recent 10 weeks I spent traveling the the United States. The first time I went back after coming back form the US I was so full of joy, to find all the 8 people who come to the cell/church regularly that they had continued in the word of faith, and having invited another lady who had recently given her life to Christ, so going back this coming week I will be honored to give her her first bible to start her journey of life. I mentioned about the 24/3 prayer weekend that God was inspiring me with, during my visit in Delicias I was able to spot a good site where to erect the tent, I took some pictures, and I will be uploading these to my blog at www.loveissign.blogspot.com.

The Missions school is going really very well with Paul doing really a great Job,, we have made a number of changes for this semester, including the decision that I won't be teaching any regular class as I was doing during the last academic year until next year in February. One of the reasons is that I am planing to spend 6 weeks in England including the entire month of January, and another one is that even though my verbal Spanish production is on a good level to deal with anything I need to, Marcela advised me to take some Classes to help me brush up my non-verbal such as reading and written Spanish for the students to be able to benefit the most from my classes next year. I have already started taking my classes, and just starting off reading the bible chapter by chapter in Spanish.

Future Plans

I am planing a 6 week trip to England, I will be heading off on the 22nd of December, and coming back on the 9th of February next year. The trip come along as I had a return flight that was supposedly to be expiring in January. And so Originally I had planed to visit England during this time, but a few days ago to find out that the airline mis-informed me to state that the ticket could be extended until January, yet it was running out on the 6th of October. Letter when I called and handed in a complaint as its a mistake they had made, I was granted a grace period of 6 days where by I would have had to fly out by the 31st of October, I declined it as I had not made any plans at all, and so later on I had to purchase another air ticket. The main reason why its necessary for me to go to England at this time, its that I need to raise support for me to continue to do what I am doing here.

We are also planing a trip for the mission School, this will be running from December 13th to the 21st , we will be visiting Tepic and Guadarajar Southern Mexico, sharing and performing dramas. The youth Pastor has asked me to put together and teach a hip hop dance routine, which we will be performing with the youth.

Thank you very much for all of your support and prayers, for most of you whom I have had the pleasure of being able to communicate with this month, just to say that your emails have been of a very good encouragement to me, and I am looking forward to keep hearing from you in the future. I still have a quest calling for prayer, if you would like to pray for me this coming month, just drop me an email, and I will let you know which day is most suitable.

May God bless you richly,

Love and peace

Donald