As I write this letter, I rejoice for the wonderful things God had done in this His harvest. It is He who deserves the honor and glory. We count it an honor and a privilege to serve Him with you as our partners, preaching the Gospel to every creature, beginning here in Mexico and reaching out to the uttermost.
My wife and I recently were recalling memories of the ministry and the people we have been able to minister to— personal soul-winning testimonies, marriages we have helped to salvage, and just helping people get closer to God. It has been four years of laboring here in Mexico, and with the counsel of our pastor and our mission-board pastor, we have decided to take our first furlough from the mission field. We will be in the United States to report to some supporting churches and also try to raise support that we lost for different reasons. While we are on furlough, we want to work and focus on our main ministry, our marriage, for if our marriage is not strong, then we cannot be used effectively in the churches we have started.
In our first four-year term serving here in Mexico, we have helped to start 2 churches, and we also started a Young Married Couples’ Ministry in the church in Celaya. The couples’ class grew from 8 to 110, and we saw God’s hand in this ministry. The second church we started will be left under the leadership of my father and my younger brother, who have helped me faithfully for the last two years. This ministry is also flourishing and is in the phase where the people will have to give sacrificially to build their own building. Thank God that we have the land, but we need to start building a church so that we can stop renting property. This second church we started supports 5 missionaries, 1 in Mexico and 4 overseas.
One of the greatest blessings recently in our ministry was that the first preacher boy I won to the Lord and trained three years ago preached for the first time in the second church we started. Eduardo, also known as Lalo, was a young man lost and on his way to Hell. He was lost in drugs and gangs, but Jesus found him. After he got saved, I took him soul winning with me. Weeks later I paid his way to Youth Camp, and God got a hold of his heart. He surrendered his life, and I also helped him to enroll in the Bible institute where I personally taught Bible classes. He is in his second year, and he is a different person, a new creature. And just like me, God is still working on him. He is now a soul winner, a preacher, and, most importantly, a child of God. He preached for the first time in the church that we started three years ago. Please continue to pray for him; I believe God is going to use him greatly.
Another great testimony was a couple my wife and I visited about a year ago. A young mother of two kids begged us to pray for and talk to her husband. Visiting with my wife, we spoke with this man, who at first refused to talk to us. I insisted to this young mother that we should pray for her husband and not get discouraged. Nothing is impossible with God. After praying for him and persisting in visiting him, he finally came to our couples’ class and to the church in Apaseo el Grande. It is a great joy to see them sitting together as I teach and preach God’s Word to them.
We realize it is God Who has done great things among us, and we also realize that it is because of your prayers and support that we are allowed to see these miracles happen. Our words are not sufficient enough to express our gratitude to God and to you. Thank you very much for your prayers and support. May God continue using us and blessing us as we continue to labor in this His harvest.
For the kingdom of God,
Sergio Robles
