At the beginning of April, we celebrated our second anniversary since the formation of the assembly here in Xalapa. We had an enjoyable occasion with brethren John Nesbitt and Melvin Mendez helping out with the day of meetings. The following day we continued with a series of Gospel meetings which lasted six weeks.
We thank God for a good number of unsaved that attended throughout the series, with some showing interest by their attendance and attentiveness. Although we didn't hear of any professing faith in Christ, we rejoice to have known the Lord's help and blessing each night. New contacts are now attending the weekly meetings in the hall. We look heavenward to hear news of their salvation.
The weekly open-air preaching has given great encouragement. A few new faces are attending with consistency as a direct result of hearing us preach the Gospel in the city's central park. Its location is a short 15mins walk from our home, and approx. 20mins walk from the Gospel Hall. We do encounter a little opposition from quite a variety of sources, both religious and irreligious.
Recently we've had a few challenging encounters with so-called "Christian leaders". I thought one, in particular, was going to resort to violence after I told him that we preached within the Bible and called such divine inspiration, whereas anything that was outside of the Bible was called human tradition. To save a lot of heartache and the ruffling of many feathers with the numerous religious sects and cults that populate the city and contaminate its citizens, when they desire to teach us their damning doctrines we simply ask them one question; for you people, who is the Lord Jesus Christ? After hearing their cage rattling response we politely conclude that the Christ of the Bible is very different, therefore it's no profit to continue trying to build together when we most definitely have two different foundations.
We visited the coastal city of Tuxpan the second visit in a month. We had a Gospel meeting on the Saturday night and another the following Lord's Day morning. A good number attended the meetings, with an extra hour needed after the second Gospel meeting, as we were bombarded with many profitable questions about the message preached and the sound doctrine we practice. On the return journey, we stopped at a town called Gutierrez Zamora. We were encouraged with the conversations had with the locals as we distributed tracts and preached in the town's central park. This town of 14,000 is located an hour's drive outside of Tuxpan where a daughter of a believer in the assembly here lives.
Summer 2017 Written by Timothy & Jenna Stevenson - Mexico mrtimothy333@gmail.com