College student small group multiplication

This is a special month for the college student small group. We will multiply this small group this month and we will now have two small groups lead by young college students.

One of the small groups will meet near the Tec and the other one will continue meeting in Sergio's house. This is the result of a full year of work and of course God's grace. Now each of the small groups will have about 10 members. We pray that many more leaders and small groups would emerge from these two small groups.

We also pray for the lives and character of these new leaders who will have a great challenge and responsibility before them.

Edgar and Jenny get baptized

Our church's youngest couple, Edgar and Jenny, got baptized a few weeks ago in a small ceremony that made us all feel very happy and encouraged by the lives and decisions of this family. In this picture, they are together with their beautiful daughther Sofia.

Jenny's family who lives in Saltillo (important industrial city 1 hour away from Monterrey) came to the ceremony and it was a great time to share with them as well. Congratulations on this important decision and we pray God would use you guys to reach many other couples like you.

Some picture from the retreat

The leadership team praying for the event

Nelson and Lucy

The band, as usual, doing a great job

Andrea bungee-jumping

Ricardo's birthday

Adrian was the host

We had a great time of worship

Jorge and Andrea announced their engagement

Some of the members of the band

Rock with me!

A great time at our retreat!

Dear friends, we had a great time at the retreat at Cola de Caballo. It was our very first one at the church and as you may remember it was originally meant to be held in May but due to the flu that spread at that time we had to postpone for September.

GCLA director, Nelson Guerra, came to Monterrey with his wife Lucy to share with all of us some very inspiring messages. By God's grace, more than 150 people showed up at the conference. Beside enjoying amazing 'spiritual dishes', everybody was able to enjoy great times of fellowship, sports, friendship and love. "It was my first retreat ever and I really enjoyed it" says one the people who attended to whom we spoke.

Upcoming events

We are thrilled with what's coming up in the next weeks and months in our church. We are praying about all these events and we want to invite you to do the same.

• "Andrew" Project
  

Just like Andrew in the New Testament introduced Peter to Jesus we want to follow his example and bring so many people to Christ. We want to help them get closer to God and experience a life with a purpose. During the month of September, actually for three weeks, we will have a Series called 'Promises'. Inspired in all the wonderful and comforting promises the Bible has for us, we hope we can invite dozens of people. But not only that, we will work towards adding them to one of our small groups. So please, keep this project in your prayers. (We thank Cedar Creek Church for their artistic assessment in this campaign)

• Our annual conference: Jesus Christ

Back in April, just one week from the start of our conference, Mexico entered one of this year's saddest episodes: the swine flu. It forced us to call off the conference and reschedule it for September. So now, we are eager to finally have it but as usual, the enemy of God will try to interfere with His plans. This is also an important thing for which to pray. The good news is that now more people will be able to come to the conference, more people want to be baptized and we are confident the Lord will speak to our hearts and bring new challenges as well.

• End of the year wrap-up

We pray we can finish this year with more than 225 people. We're almost there and these events united with the small group's hard work and of course the Lord's grace could exceed all expectations. Our 2 services are packed and once again the 'what-to-do with meeting place' question arises. Please pray that our faith would remain in the Lord and that we would trust Him in finding a better place to meet.

Let each member become a minister

A vital part of our church strategy has been making a disciple out of every non-believer. This is actually our vision. Recently, God has been teaching us that, as part of the discipleship process, we need to focus on letting each member become a minister. But... how do we do that? Simply by engaging in serving opportunities.

Hence, we strive to create new ministries that go with our vision and, even simpler, to get everyone serving and contributing with their talents, skills and spiritual gifts to the growth of the church. This is why we've campaigned in our small groups and church services. We want everyone to try different ministries and serve God where their contribution is maximized.

Ministries such as kids, greeting, the band, service production, coffee break, web design, sports and others have offered opportunities for us to serve others.

Membership gathering

In the past month of August, our church held its 1st membership service. This meeting was intended to gather of all of the new members that have been added to the church. We are very glad to say that God has brought nearly 75 people to our church whom we can consider members.

Typically, the profile for being a member is being saved, having been baptized, attending and getting involved with a small group or ministry at church. To some degree, we can consider these people as little soldiers that will be willing to go to the front line when needed.

Irma, Imelda and Karla

Not only has God given us this blessing but 80% of this group is formed by Mexicans. So we are happy to see that the Lord is building his Church in Monterrey.

Fernando, Carlos and Sergio