Dear Praying Friends,

 

I want to update you on our ministry and our situation in Mexico. So many things have been happening this summer that I am swamped and have more than ever than I want to do, and ought to do. I have to apologize for not writing as much this summer.

 

First of all our work. This summer has been difficult. We had a family in our church leave in August and tried to split the church. Although they talked to about half of our people they did not succeed in getting anybody to go with them. They only thought they had persuaded ones to their side of things. The issue was a little complicated, but basically they were many years with the Navigators group, and this summer I was teaching on false prophets and hit on the discipleship movement. I do not think that I am against all discipleship, because we are having some discipleship classes for new believers (in fact the Perez family was doing that at my request), but my point was that the focus of the NT is that scriptural learning takes place basically in the church, not in home Bible study groups or cells groups, and according to Matthew 23, nobody in the church (including the pastor) has the right to be a dictator over other people's faith. The discipleship movement promotes a control factor over their disciples lives that is antibiblical. The idea of a spiritual slave is just not biblical, no matter how you slice it. We are brethren, some older and wiser, but nobody is father to order unilaterally without question. They didn't like that, and they didn't like my "harping" on ministers have to be examples or they have no ministry. We as a church and we as individual Christians should reject any minister that is not setting a personal example by his own life. The discipleship movement removes the pastoral requirements and example obligation from their leadership, and this opens the door to cultic false prophets to enter.

 

These things caused them such discontent that they picked up and left. I guess I didn't realize how much they were out of sync with us. But after they left, they started another church around the block from us (supposedly) the first Sunday they were out, and in the mean time (5 days after they announced their departure one Sunday night) I visited all of our members in their homes to discuss the matter with them and try to handle damage control. I took the position that our members can do what they feel led of the Lord to do, but this family is starting out on the wrong foot by trying to build a church overnight by stealing our members. We did not discuss these issues with the Perez family because they didn't want to discuss it, and said that they don't want me to visit them or talk to them about it. They just left. It is sad to me. I guess I have invited Roberto out to McDonalds to talk over differences in doctrine and problems I saw in their lives probably 10 times this summer, and each time we talked for about 3-4 hours. I thought we were making headway, but I guess not.

 

All this kind of threw me into a slight depression, because they are arrogant, and I don't see them growing closer to Christ but wandering further away from Christ and the truth. It pains my heart to see people get so wrapped up in error when they were so close to embracing the truth. There is nothing I can do about this now except pray for them which we do.

 

In all, our small church weathered this event rather well. Several marginal families coming only once a month have recommitted to the Lord and to us because of this and they are now coming weekly. Go figure?! So our attendance is more now than before. I am not sure if our people didn't like the Perez family and stayed away because of that or what.

 

We have rented a store front in a basement of a shopping mall on the other side of the same block where we now are. We are painting and patching holes in the walls (it was an unfinished storage area). I hope to move in there by the end of October. We have until December in our present place. This month we baptized another 3 people, and still have about 4 waiting to be baptized (they had work obligations that day).

 

I am really swamped with things. I want to continue writing books and tracts, but it is extremely hard. I am working on about 5 hours of sleep a night these days. I work until midnight or 1AM and get up again around 6-7 AM to hit it again. I am teaching Kelsie and Russ in home school, and continuing with all the chores of the church. Besides that brother Paredes has asked me to teach his church the requirements and functions of a Pastor. He is their pastor now, but is getting up in years, and has prostrate cancer and will be operated on in mid October. He does not think he will make it through this operation. He wants me to help him prepare them for their next pastor. Pray for him. So I have been going over to his church on Sunday afternoons before our own service. This Saturday will be the last meeting with them, and we will have a seminar (probably 6 hours) with questions and answers at the end.

 

In addition, I have been having a Friday night Bible study in the northern part of Mexico City, and that has been difficult even though I am teaching through Isaiah, same as our Sunday School class. As it is, I am preaching or teaching 6-7 times a week. I am also writing books (several are in final stages), and I am reformatting public domain works for working with the free E-Sword program (www.E-Sword.net). As such I am swamped. I have been helping out one of our out-of-work men, Carlos, by paying him to work as my secretary and helping me with various church things, and these files I am putting up on the internet, our sermon Cd ministry, and other things. Pray for Carlos that he will develop into a preacher.

 

Our church continues to grow, and we have about the same number of people (40-60 counting children), but they are becoming more faithful, and more of them are participating in our ministry.

 

Some specific things going on in our people's lives:

 

Joshua and Laura - They are Pentecostal, but I have been talking to them about tongues etc. He is thinking and seeing some points but we haven't got him 100% convinced yet. Joshua was studying to be a priest before accepting the Lord. His brother lives next door and practices Santanería (ghost of death). They regularly find dead animals in animal sacrifices in their driveway from the encantations his brother does against him. His brother wants their dad's house which is where Joshua and family and Joshua's mother lives.

 

Jorge - Jorge and his wife Emma are separated. Some of their children (grown with kids of their own) attend our church. Jorge has a beer franchise and sells beer by the carton for Corona. He supposedly is saved, but it is what he has always done, and won't give it up. The beer company has loaned him $50,000 for a mortgage on his house (so he doesn't have to go to the bank), but part of the agreement is that he has to continue selling beer, and selling it from his house. I think the interest rate is set at the Mexico inflation rate, so he is essentially getting the loan for free. Satan knows how to do this stuff real well, doesn't he. I have counseled him exceptly strongly, and suggested that maybe he should examine himself to see if he is really saved or not. When I talked to him that day, he was so upset tears started flowing down his cheeks. I thought it was the last time I would ever talk to him, and really he had only came to our church 1 time at that point. I talked with him because of Emma, who was coming regular before that. Emma left him over this, and although both still come quite regularly and sometimes speak to each other, but not much. To my surprise, Jorge really liked my frank talk with him, and has started coming every Sunday morning now. Now if he would just cut off the Corona beer people! I told him to sell the house, give it up, abandon it, do anything, just cut off the beer connection, find his wife, and go live somewhere else. He has sentimental feelings for the house because they have had it all their life (etc violins playing you know). He still just will not give up the beer business. Please pray for him. He is a nice guy. I would like to see them resolve their marital life, but it is hanging on his business.

 

Mercedes - Mercedes has a tumor in the middle of her brain between the two lobes. Last year she started coming with us, and has a very nice testimony of accepting the Lord and burning all of her idols in a bonfire. Her husband (still catholic) came in on it and was very upset. The doctors told her last year that the chances of her going into a permanent vegetable comma if they operate was about 80%. She decided to just hang on without the operation until she dies. She has had bad problems this summer, and she went back to the doctor. A new laser treatment has come out and she had that operation in September. They "deform" her skull to open it (using a metal frame and screws) and zap the tumor with a laser. Just opening her skull was so painful that her lungs collapsed and she died. They revived her. The doctor was worried about her blood pressure and forgot to check her breathing even though she complained about it. Afterward he apologized to her, and said that it was medical negligence on his part, and that she could sue him. She told him that she couldn't stand the pain but couldn't express it, then she started thinking about how much worse was the pain Jesus suffered on the cross for her. She witnessed to the doctors and staff in the operating room (they were bandaging her up and taking off the frame), and the doctor kneeled at her bed and started crying at her feet. I am not sure if he accepted the Lord or if he was just moved by her testimony and faith in Christ. She is doing fine, and 5 days later she was sitting up in bed. (She isn't suing him.)

 

Reuben and Juana - This young couple (in their 20s) in our church are having marital problems. Reuben's family found him a job in another city, and he left alone to try and get things started there. They just wanted him to leave Juana. His mother is a spiritist, and reads palms and tarot cards. Juana has found out that Reuben's mother has used witchcraft and cast spells on Juana. Juana is saved, and is praying for her protection from this. I have talked with Reuben about his obligations towards Juana, and he is now living (at least part of the week) with Juana. (They live with Juana's father, Juan Jose, which goes to our church.) Please pray for them as I enter into more family counseling with them.

 

I would like to mention prayer for Mexico. The elections were held July 2, and it was almost a dead even tie. Calderon won by a narrow margin. Manuel Obrador made a strong push emphasizing that his programs were to help the poor. He got a surprising turnout. Unfortunately Obrador is a difficult person. He refused to take the loss, and he is still maneveuring to try to get a public uprising to overthrow the government. I see him squarely in the Castro, Lenin, Mao camp. Unfortunately he is not too bright, so he is going the slow route instead of a quick overturn. This just makes for a long drug out fight. I don't get into politics much, but I would like to let you know what is going on here so you can pray for us.

 

The bottom line is that Mexico has a long term crisis of no jobs, low paying jobs, and undesireable jobs. Very few people are making it quite frankly. Most of our church people are on borderline poverty. We are donating a large percentage of our monthly living allowance (we have no ministry funds, and our support level is at about 60%) to various people in our church to help them through these hard times. We cannot get one out of operations, hospitals, no food, cannot pay rent, etc. til somebody else is in the same fix. Some in our church who do make a little bit of money are also helping some of the others.

 

Obrador was the mayor of Mexico City. To understand this, the USA has about 300 million, Mexico 100 million. Of our 100 million, 40 million live in Mexico City. About half of that 60 million that don't live in Mexico City live in other major cities in Mexico and the other half in the country and make no money and are dirt poor. Obrador and some of his friends have devised a system in the Mexico City area (about 40% of the total population and probably close to 60% of the major businesses) that is a kind of clandestine government. Being the mayor (now his assistant is the mayor), they set up a neighborhood system where street markets and sidewalk selling is popular. Unfortunately, this is illegal, but Obrador has set up a system where each one pays his group (the political party PRD) a weekly fee and they protect them because the city and police are under the mayor. This system generates literally millions and millions of dollars every day but "under the table" or unofficially. They make no accountability to anybody with this money, they deposit nothing in banks but keep it all in cash, and before the federal government or the people of Mexico City, this money does not exist. The taxis, the buses, the markets, and about everything you can think of is somehow hooked into paying these unofficial charges to exist. It is a blend between legitimate fees and bribes. It is not legitimate, but it is the city government doing it. They have their own unofficial government. Mexico City is a federal district, and as such, it also gets a big month budget from the federal government for running the Mexico City government. Without saying more, it is a big mess.

 

Obrador is draining the Mexico City area dry through these unofficial fees and bribes, and the federal government doesn't get any tax money on these things because it is under the table, and they have to pay the city government's supposed operating expenses. Congress votes them a yearly budget. So Obrador has a tremendous inflow of cash, and he is using it to support his own ambitious purposes. He has rejected publicly most of the Mexican institutions (Congress, Supreme Court, Electoral Commission, etc) and has ruined Independence Day and several other things. They blocked downtown Mexico City (the one section where all the rich hotels are) that were the only section of Mexico City that is not held by his party. No matter what you see in the papers, our elections were fair. Obrador announced widespread cheating, but nobody (not even his own poll watchers) registered hardly any objections until it was known that he was not in the lead (4 days after the elections). He has said on TV that all of his poll watchers were paid off and corrupt. Does he not know how to pick poll workers or is he just pouting? Both. Many nations sent observers for the elections, and none complained. The report from all was basically the same, it was the cleanest election they have seen ever in Mexico, or anywhere else for that matter.

 

This situation is extremely dangerous, and as far as we are seeing, Obrador has no restraints on what he will do or push his people to do. He is an extremely dangerous man. He has announced that he is the presidential winner. He had a national conference on Independence day (Sept 16) and they (representatives from each state of Mexico from his party) announced him the winner. He will be installed "unofficially" in November as president while the real president elect will take office December 1st. It is insane. But he is going to be president outside the "White House" and govern Mexico in opposition to Calderon. We would ask your prayers, because Mexico needs a change for the better, not to fall into a dictatorship. We need factories paying good wages. Our people need good paying jobs. They just are not around out there. Please pray for our people. We are trying to build Christian families, but at this point, it is difficult to concentrate on anything when you work a 6 day a week job to produce half what the minimum is you need to just pay the bills.

 

In Christ,

David Cox