Reaching Mexico and the Nations for Jesus Fall 2010 Sweet friends and family, Minis ries Greetings from the country of Mexico! A land filled with beautiful people tastes, colors, sounds, unique to this little corner of the world! We just celebrated the bicentennial of Mexico s independence! Pablo & Martha Garcia Serving with LIM at the church La Gran Comisión in Ensenada Mexico Financial Support may be sent to: Pablo & Martha Garcia Link International Ministries PO Box 4092 Orange, CA 92863 Viva Mexico! It is with joy that we write you, sending you an update regarding all that the Lord is and has been doing here in Mexico and in Cuba. We hope that you and your families are all well. May everything good from God our Father be yours! Our prayers for you are always spilling over into thanksgivings. We can't quit thanking God our Father and Jesus our Messiah for you!... Colossians 1:3 Pablo and Martha
Left to right: Frank & Jeannette Meitz, Humberto Molina, Pablo & Martha Garcia, Luis Funes and Adam Barkley A team of seven of us flew to Cuba to conduct a second series of discipleship training for the association Hermanos en Cristo (Brothers in Christ). In 2009 we trained over 100 pastors and leaders from the eastern side of the island. This year the central part of Cuba was represented with over 250 attendees at a Campground outside the city of Cienfuegos. On the Sunday before the conference we worshipped at three different house churches. At each church a different team member preached. The picture below is the first house church that we attended. Humberto shared the message. Pastor Felix and his wife Odalis attended the 2009 conference and then went on to share the discipleship concepts with the church. A woman from the church took on the Discipler ministry and 8 new believers have grown strong and made the decision that Jesus not only be their Savior, but also, the Lord of their life! Throughout the year there has been an explosion of spiritual and numerical growth. At the second house church, Luis preached. The pastor at this house church is Derlys and his wife is Tanya. They met in prison. While he was serving a 10 year sentence for murder, Derlys accepted the Lord and then later led Tanya to Jesus! They pastor a small church that meets in the back of their house in the country. When we drove up to the house it looked like no one was home since there were no cars. However, when we rounded the corner of
his house, there were more than 50 people ready to worship! No one in that church has a car (including Derlys), so everyone either walks, rides a bicycle or motorcycle or takes public transportation. (The next day, Pastor Derlys accompanied us to the conference to receive discipler training.) The third house church is pastored by Juneisy, a young w o m a n w h o s e h u s b a n d d i e d suddenly last year from cancer. Pablo preached at this church and, like Derlys, she and a couple of her leaders accompanied us to Campamento Canaan for the discipleship conference. One very sweet thing about this day on a personal note is that it was Father s Day and also Pablo s birthday. Throughout the day his life was celebrated over and over, at each service, by the wonderful people of Cuba that so love him! That love is mutual and it was one of the most unforgettable birthdays that Pablo has ever had! THE CONFERENCE AT CAMPAMENTO CANAAN We had one-hour worship and teaching times from The Garcia Gazette the main platform in the beautiful tabernacle, followed by five breakouts led by the DTI team members for more than six hours in small groups each day. It was in these breakout sessions where the deeper teaching was conducted, allowing the trainers to get to know the people in their group personally. Pablo led a small group and translated during the main platforms. I translated for our team leader, Frank Meitz, spoke during one main session, and got to make music on my violin with some of the most amazing musicians I have met! There was so much enthusiasm as the pastors learned throughout the week. The great majority of pastors in Cuba are laymen who have not had formal training, but have been called by God to be pastors. They want to serve and to be better prepared for that service. During the conference two pastors from the 2009 conference came and gave testimony. One of them, Pastor Odiel, who had been in Pablo s small group, shared that his church had completely
been revolutionized. His congregation gave themselves the assignment of discipling each other so that the entire congregation was discipled. As a consequence of their growth, they all began reaching out and the church has doubled in size! In addition, 95% are actively doing the work of the church and now only 5% are passive Christians. Pastor Paneque shared that another byproduct of discipling is the growth in numbers of the house churches. This is in contrast to what we had been told had been a typical problem - that people come in through the front door but within weeks go out through the back door. Because the new believers are now being discipled, they are staying and inviting others, causing the church to grow numerically, as well as spiritually. Pastor s wife, Tanya s feet "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" Romans 10:15
Before going to Cuba, Pablo and Jacob had the privilege of preparing the land and foundation for a 10x16 home for a family of 5. Jocelyn, who is a new believer, goes to our church. She recently was released from prison and had nowhere to live. She first asked us if we had a tent that she could borrow to put up on the piece of property that her father had given her. Pablo told Jocelyn to begin to pray that the Lord would supply the need to build her a home. A week later, Agua Viva Ministries called and asked if we could receive a group that wanted to do a project! The Lord had answered our prayers! We prepped the land, laid the A s w e returned home God had some grand a d v e n t u r e s planned! The same day we arrived in Ensenada, Pablo went straight to Colonet to work with a group from Taft Ave. Community Church. They did a beautiful job painting the kitchen and dining areas of Casa de Pan. They also held a children s program which included Bible teaching and loving on those beautiful indigenous children who are in such need of love and nurturing. Following that week, Valley Community Church came and hosted a marriage conference weekend. The program started out on Thursday night with the movie Fireproof. This was followed by two days of conferences with the couples from our church. It was truly an incredible weekend. In addition to the conference, VCC left us with 40 books of a follow-up small group curriculum for married couples. Pablo and I are currently meeting with 5 other couples that are leaders in our church, every Wednesday night, and we are equipping them to each lead a small group. In 4 weeks we will finish this time of equipping and immediately will open 6 small groups for the couples at our church as well as neighbors and friends that we would like to reach out to. We are so excited! Each couple that we are equipping is in a different age group, most with kids at all different stages. One couple has only been married 1 ½ years and has come from a really hard background and they will be able to reach a whole different set of couples in need of mentoring and healing Praise the Lord!
Weekly Constants in our Ministry... I continue to play the violin for Jesus on the worship team through the many changes that we have gone through this year after losing our music minister. Pablo continues to meet with the men weekly in our home. They are now going through the book The Man in the Mirror by Patrick Morley and are being challenged to live as Biblical Christians as opposed to Cultural Christians or Defeated Christians! Pablo leads the Discipler Training Class every Sunday morning for the new believers at our church. We continue to work, both equipping leaders for youth ministry (twice a month activity). And Pablo is leading the youth group on a weekly basis playing with, loving, teaching and praying for them to become young people of conviction in this world lacking of a moral compass. Sunday afternoon s Pablo plays soccer and continues to coach two teams of unruly youth up here in our community. There was a huge brawl in August and Pablo was the person who took people to the hospital and ran interference with the kids involved. They know, after so many years of being a stable person in their lives, who they can turn to And a very fun note...on October 10th, both of his soccer teams will play in the final for 1st and 2nd place!! And then we are going to party!!
The Family Corner: Benjamin is living in San Diego and attending Southwestern Community College. (We miss him so much!) He is working on completing his studies for EMT certification. He and Jeanelle were engaged on July 4 th and barring any changes due to finances or school they will be married on July 2 nd of 2011. Jacob is in 11 th grade wow our baby is so grown up! It is a great year as far as class schedule goes but homework is a heavy load! His passion in life is surfing and he makes a dash for the beach at any chance he can get! He also is taking formal swimming lessons as a part of his PE this year and since he is a self taught swimmer, he is excited to learn the techniques. His teacher is Melissa Stocking, a young woman that works out at Agua Viva and goes to our church. She was on the swim team during high school and college so of course, Jake s goal is to beat her when they race the laps! Pablo is doing great! He is invigorated by the activity and his favorite part of ministry are those one on one moments during the week with either men, youth or soccer players. He works hard at spending sweet time with both Jake and I. Recently, the three of us went to the local museum and saw an early 1970 s Mexican movie (for free!!) called Santo and the Mummies of Guanajuato. (Santo is a wrestler) It was a hoot and a fun way for us to have a cheap date! He is a great husband and dad I am homeschooling Jake again this year and we have a little experience under our belts now so this year is going smoother! I seem to always be juggling something and praying that the balls don t go flying but God is good and He is faithful and we always make it through! My favorite moment during the week is tea with my dear friend Allyson at Starbucks in Ensenada! Woohoo! My mother came through her back surgery very well. She had a great physical therapist and I was privileged to get to go and be her helper for the month of August as she recuperated. We stayed at my sister s home with her family so I was doubly blessed to spend more time with my baby sissy than I have since I moved out at 18! My sister and mom will be flying out on the 3 rd of November to move mom back into her apartment here in Mexico! Double woohoo! Pablo s mom hurt her back mid-september. She was in the hospital for a week and now is at home with an in-home therapist coming to help her. She slipped a disk and it is resting on the sciatic nerve. Please pray for her as she is in so much pain.
Minis ries Financial Support may be sent to: Pablo & Martha Garcia Link International Ministries PO Box 4092 Orange, CA 92863 Phone numbers: 011-52-6461-75-3529 Home 011-521-6461-71-6205 Cell 714-875-8982 Financial Ofc E-Mail address: losgarcia4@gmail.com Personal Correspondence may be sent to: Pablo and Martha Garcia 4492 Camino de la Plaza PMB #503 San Ysidro, CA 92173 Web-site www.linkintl.org We thank you so much for your prayers and for your financial support. Financially things are so difficult all over the world and your faithful monthly giving keeps us afloat. We can t express our thanks enough.