Prayer Request...

Please pray for my neighbors. Sunday morning at about 3:30 am, I heard in my sleep what I thought was people partying in my street. I couldn’t figure out what exactly it was till I was able to really wake up. I heard my next door neighbor and her little girl screaming. I heard the little girl say, “Let her go!!!”, then I heard the woman say some things, and it immediately stopped. I started to burn within me to go talk to them. I decided to pray and wait for another day, I wrote down scriptures for them and went back to bed. So today, I prayed in the morning for them and went about my business. Strangly I decided to go to my front door and open it and look outside, I never do that! And I say my two neighbors walking home. I knew it was the Lord that led me to see them, so I could talk to both of them. I started shaking, of course started thinking of so many excuses why I shouldn’t go now. But praise the Lord for giving me strength! I got my notes with the scriptures and my bible and went. I knocked and they answered, I told them I needed to talk to both of them, they let me in. And I told them, “I am here because you have a problem and that problem is sin”, they were utterly shocked. I started to preach the Gospel to them, the man seemed very receptive and humble confessing his faults. The lady had no expression on her face, I don’t know if she was angry or in shock. I then told them about what I heard that night and how the worst part is not that I heard but that God saw and heard and how he is not pleased with them living a life like that, and read them the specific scriptures that talk about violence and the works of the flesh. I then got to exalt Christ and tell them about the victory that He has purchased. And that if they repent and believe they can have a new life in Christ, walking in the Spirit and not in the flesh, and proceeded to read to them the works of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, temperancance etc. I gave them instructions on how to seek the Lord and find pardon for their sins. Please join me in prayer for their salvation and for their daughters to be saved and grow up in a Godly home. The lady asked for forgiveness at the end, telling me she was so embarrased that I heard what happened that night, and the man ended up confessing his battles to me and how he wants to change. I offered them a home bible study with Josef and I, they said they would let me know. Blessings to you all



In Christ,
Lina Urban
www.missionary2mexico.blogspot.com

2 YEARS IN MEXICO

On October 26, it was two years since we moved to Mexico. How time flies! I still remember the day we crossed the border into Tijuana, Mexico. We had one contact, a pastor of a tiny church that we knew. As we came into Mexico it was getting dark, and we had no idea where to stay or what to do. We stopped at a pay-phone and called this friend of ours, and he answered! Within 10 minutes, he met us at the gas station and escorted us to his house, providing us with a room and hospitality until we could find another place. It was 5 days later, on Oct. 31st, that I preached my first sermon in Mexico in the church that this man was overseeing. And within the next few days, I had preached in a couple of other churches as well, seeing the hand of the Lord at work.

But despite being in my element of preaching, I had suddenly found myself in a whole new world, completely different from anything I had known. All my words had to be translated as Lina faithfully acted as my mouthpiece to the people. I could no longer communicate as freely as I’d like. The food was strange and different from my typical Ohio-style dinners of country-fried steak, corn on the cob and mashed potatoes! And tortillas with every single meal? –How strange, I thought! Corn tortillas, flour tortillas, even red chipotle tortillas and green jalapeno tortillas! And, when we get tired of tortillas, they can even fry it and then call it a “tostada”! I stood out like a sore thumb, and heard my fair share of words like “gringo”. The social customs were different, and everybody had to be shown extra warmness and greeted when I walked into a room (in Mexico, it can be a big offense if you don’t greet everyone in the room personally, even if there’s 10 or 15 people!). The language was so difficult for this high-school dropout that failed Spanish class in high school that I had quickly despaired and stopped trying to learn it, relying on my wife always to translate and focusing my time on other things.

And there was my biggest mistake. Now we had preached all over, yet it was always through the translation process, and largely still is. For over a year, I had not committed to language study, nor tried to absorb what I heard others speak. And so in the language process, I have lost over a year. I didn’t start really studying Spanish until January of this year, 2009. So, as I could be semi-fluent by now if I had studied the entire time, I am still very limited in my communication abilities and have to devote myself for hours every day to study it. Language is such a huge barrier and it’s difficult to break through it. So this is my greatest regret thus far, and I’m laboring to conquer it, growing slowly but surely.

Now you have to consider that I never attended a mission school to learn about how to be a missionary, nor did I ever study missiology or missionary methods for embracing another culture and reaching the people on their level. My whole theology of missions was to GO and PREACH, have Lina translate, and trust the Holy Spirit to back it up with power and give the increase to our labors. And the Lord has certainly used this! But there’s still that barrier until I’m able to speak fluently with the people and I am seriously laboring to break through.

But on a more positive note, as I look back on these last 2 years, it has been an amazing adventure. I have stories to tell that would fill a volume of books. And I could testify all day and all night to the Lord’s faithfulness to us since being in Mexico. We have been able to preach the Gospel to a countless number of people in this country. The Lord has opened doors, closed doors, guided us and even miraculously provided for us. We did not raise a support base before coming to Mexico as almost all missionaries do prior to leaving their home country, we just went and the Lord provided. It’s amazing. We have lacked nothing we need for 2 years and all this apart from popular missionary fundraising methods. Many times we don’t know where support is going to come from, but it comes by the hand of God’s faithful provision every time, and it’s always just enough for what we need to do!

I think of our journey thus far: the bustling city of Tijuana, and ministering in a slum village to poor families and children and drug addicts. I remember preaching in a drug rehabilitation center every week ministering to some of the most burnt-out drug addicts I’ve ever seen in my life (and I say this as one that spend a couple years in Detroit among the homeless ministering to them!). I remember feeding and giving Bible studies to poor children that though they lived with their parents, they were at the same time abandoned by their parents. I remember traveling to Oaxaca, and preaching in the market of a city there, and then traveling to a group of un-reached people that speak their own dialect and being able to share the Gospel with several there who spoke Spanish. I remember the small towns of Guerrero, the cowboys, the guns shots piercing the silent countryside every night interspersed every now and then with the sound of the “hee-haw” of a burro, the goats and chickens and herds of cows marching right down the street in front of our house. I remember preaching in the churches there, and visiting people in their houses to share the Good News with them, dealing with mosquitoes by the thousands and insects that I never knew existed in addition to combating frequent illness. I remember showing the Jesus Film to our village where nearly the whole village showed up to watch it and heard us preach the Gospel afterwards. And now I think of our time in Guadalajara, this huge city, ministering in the city, open air preaching, and ministering to the church, teaching and endeavoring to see the Body of Christ brought to maturity and fullness in Christ. This is God’s work, and it’s a wonderful privilege to be allowed to have a small part of it. I’m not worthy to be an ambassador of Christ, but even so, I thank God for the precious blood!

As I’ve been thinking and seeking the Lord, I believe He has not only been refining and purging me, but also giving me more vision for Mexico. This includes too much to share right now, but one thing we want to do is find a solid Christian orphanage in need that we would be able to help and to generate some support for. There are tons of abandoned children in Mexico and ministry to them is a great need and one that the Lord is behind. I hope to search around in the near future in the attempt to locate and identify such an orphanage somewhere around here. Please pray that the Lord would lead us to the perfect place.

CURRENT WORK

We are still holding our youth/singles meetings every week at the church here. I have started a series of preaching expositionally through the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5, 6, 7). It has been a great blessing to minister to these young people and to study this discourse of our Lord in depth as I prepare to preach it. After a month of preaching on it, we are still not even half way through the Beatitudes. The Lord’s hand has been in it. We are praying that the Lord will open doors for us to build more relationships with young people in Guadalajara and enable us to preach the Gospel to them. We are also preaching and teaching in the Evangelism class every weekend.

We are also still evangelizing in the city. A man I talked about several months ago that was diverted from suicide through our preaching and is now seeking the Lord instead of killing himself is still coming around. We sit down with him on the side and give him personal Bible studies when he comes. We have had many great conversations with people about the Gospel and have been able to preach to many.

I have been devoting much time lately to studying Spanish. I had hoped to be fully conversational and able to preach by myself by 2010, but it doesn’t look like I will quite meet my goal. While I can conversate with people, it’s still on a basic level, and not where it needs to be to minister effectively, to understand everything and to be understood in everything.

There is so much more I could share but I don’t want to give personal information about people and situations we find ourselves in.

DANGERS OF DENGUE

There is a plague of dengue fever going around right now in Guadalajara. I marvel that the news has not been covering it and warning about it like it did the “swine flu”, but then again I know who the news is run by. We know a number of people in our personal acquaintances who have contracted the virus. For those of you who don’t know what Dengue is, it is a very serious virus that is contracted through mosquito bites. There are currently two different strands: one is the regular one and the other causes hemorrhages. The regular kind puts you into a bed for 8 days of torment with a high fever and has killed young children and the elderly. The other kind is even worse and is very life-threatening, causing not only a fever for so long but it severely reduces your white-cell blood count and causes blood hemorrhages. And it’s only just a single tiny little mosquito that causes such devastation. One little bite could kill within 10 days. But the bad thing is, the more people who get it the more it spreads, because when a mosquito bites someone infected with it, then that mosquito becomes contaminated and spreads it to others. And there is no medicine, antibiotic or remedy for it. There are several in our church alone who have caught the virus lately. Please pray that this thing stops, and that we wouldn’t catch it! We do not fear, knowing that all is in the Lord’s hands, but it is wise to pray.

The Danger of Santa Claus by John MacArthur

What a false, fake substitute the world puts forth at this time [Christmas 1990] for that true message. Do you remember these words?

"You better watch out. You better not cry. You better not pout. I'm telling you why; Santa Claus is coming to town. He's making a list and he's checking it twice; gonna find out whose naughty and nice. Santa Claus is coming to town. He sees you when you're sleeping; he knows when you're awake. He knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sakes. You better watch out. You better not cry. You better not pout. I'm telling you why; Santa Claus is coming to town."

Now does that threaten you? That is a very threatening poem. That is intended to scare children. Now listen, if you look at the letters of Santa, you will see that Satan is hidden in Santa. When we teach a child to sing this song, we are teaching him a false theology. We are teaching him a false set of doctrine. Let me see if I can explain it to you.

First, that song teaches that Santa is a transcendent being. He lives on a higher plane. He lives on another level. He transcends time and space. He has powers equal to whom? God! Not only that, he knows everything. He's omniscient. "He knows when you're sleeping. He knows when you're awake. He knows when you're naughty. He knows when you're nice." He knows everything.

Not only that, he's everywhere. "He sees you when you're sleeping." He's not only omniscient, he's omnipresent. And he is watching to see whether you have been good or bad. And not only that, but he bestows favors. Now on what basis does Santa give his favors? What must I do to receive good things from this transcendent being, called Santa. Well it is very simple, I have to be what? Good. I can "earn" Santa's favor. If I am good, Santa will give me gifts. After all, he's making a list and he is checking it twice to make sure that we've been either naughty of nice. And on the basis on how we've been, he'll deal with us.

And if I'm not nice and good, I won't get any gifts. So I better be good for goodness sake, not to mention for my own sake or anybody else's sake. But do you want to know something about Santa? He may be transcendent, and he may be omniscient, and he may be omnipotent, and he may be omnipresent. He may be dispensing all of the good things, but you know what? You can't trust him. You can't trust him. You say, "What do you mean by that?"

It says, "He's checking to see if you are naughty or nice." And you better be good for goodness sake, because if you aren't good, you won't what? You won't get anything. You want to know something? That's not true. Plenty of times I haven't been good and I get something anyway. Every year I get something. And you want to know the truth of it? There are a lot of naughty people that get a lot and there are a lot of nice people that don't get anything.

Do you know what about Santa Claus? You can't trust him. He doesn't even stay true to his own word. He's blustering around and warning everybody to mind your manners and be good all the time; be nice and not naughty and good and not bad. And then you know what? When Christmas comes he caves in, and even when we have been naughty he gives us all that stuff. And sometimes he overlooks people that are nice. He really can't be trusted. His threats are meaningless and so are his promises. But that's good because it takes the sting out of him. And there is another good thing about Santa; you only have to worry about him once a year. He only shows up once and you know when it is; it's always on Dec 25th, so you can get your act together just a few days before. You say, "Well where is he the rest of the time?" Oh, he's in the North Pole. Could that be heaven in Satan's little scheme? "What's he doing?" Oh, he has all these elfs around him. "What are they doing?" Whatever he tells them.

Mostly, meaningless things like make toys. He is sort of inane isn't he? He threatens but never fulfills his threats. He promises but doesn't always fulfill his promises.

Is it any wonder that if I believe all that as a child, when I come to be an adult, I might have a hard time believing in a Transcendent God who does know everything, who is everywhere, who does have all power, who does keep his promises and his threats, and who does not save me and give me good gifts on the basis of my works but on the basis of His grace. If Santa has been my understanding of God, then I am in trouble. That's why I say, hidden in the letters of Santa is Satan.

I am glad for a God who is absolutely dependable. I can trust His promises. I can trust His threats. He is everywhere at all times and He doesn't just show up once a year. He is here all of the time. And He gives His great gift, not on the basis of our works but on the basis of His grace through faith.

"Humility Indeed" by Jason Bellard

It's been a long time since I posted. I just found this song and it really blessed me. At the same time news hit that Michael Jackson had died. Then I recieved a email from Andrew Strom, called "How Fleeting Life Is", you can do a search online if you want to read it. All this made me think of my past life, and it made me praise God for His saving grace in my life. Below is a letter I wrote to Andrew, and will post so you know what I'm talking about:

Hi Andrew! Thanks again for another great article! Thought provoking, I loved this:

"For what is your life?" asks the apostle James. "It is a vapor that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away."

"Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher of Ecclesiastes, "All is vanity... All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again."

If it is one thing we can learn from the life and death of every 'icon' on this planet, it is that we all must live with eternity in view, not the fleeting charade of this present world. As Leonard Ravenhill so eloquently asked, "Are the things you're living for worth Christ dying for?"

It just made me think back of my old life in Christ, and how great and merciful the Lord has been upon me. Many people don't know this, but my whole life was built around wanting to be famous. Started young, going to some of the best acting schools and modeling schools. When I became an adult I studied some more and moved to Hollywood to pursue fame. In a short time, I got a lot of work in movies, music videos, and commercials. Right before I got converted I got a nation wide Mc Donald's commercial that got me into SAG. I was getting offers from top notch agents after that, it seemed like I was almost there. When suddenly I got converted!!! The Lord made it very clear to me, I couldn't keep living that life of vanity. Hours of my day being spent on going in for fittings and make up and hair, and then on the shoot, I would sometimes spend 14 hrs a day shooting, for a 2 minute scene! I just wanted to be alone with God and read His word. I remember calling my agent and telling her that I was leaving Hollywood. She was utterly shocked, realizing that I was finally achieving my life dream and just throwing it away. She told me if I ever wanted to come back she would be there. But the Lord clearly forbid me to go back. I thank God for being with me and taking away all those desires of fame and riches and replacing them with a love for him and contentment. Crazy to think I left that life of glam and now living as a poor missionary in Mexico!!! Bless His name!

"Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." (Mat 16:24).

"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." (1Jo 2:15-17).

In Christ,
Lina Urban
www.puregospeltruth.com

I hope this testimony will drive you to continue to follow Christ, no matter what the cost. He is worthy, worthy above all! We Christians will have many earthly losses, but they don't compare to our heavenly gains!
"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Mat.8:36

Hola Guadalajara!

Well we are now in the city of Guadalajara in the state of Jalisco, in Mexico. It’s a huge city! I was not liking the idea of moving to a big city, I got used to living in a small village, and was getting used to the way of life there, and enjoying the people there. But to my amazement I have grown to really like the Big City, though big it doesn’t feel like other big cities in the world, I though it would be much like London or Rome, but it is not. People are not as in a hury and are very friendly, kinda like a small village. We drove about 11 hours to get here. It was a beautiful drive. We stayed in a hotel the first night and the second day we found a place to live. We were originally going to stay in a much nicer apartment for the same price we are paying now, and we would live alone. Unlike here, having to share a big building with over 25 people, sharing bathrooms and kitchen. The apartment seemed perfect for us, but I had no peace about it. As we were walking to get money to pay the owner I decided to ask a stranger walking down the street if he knew of a place to rent. He told us he is the owner of a hostel nearby and had available rooms. It was a divine meeting, God’s sovereignty all over it! We went and I had total peace about it in the spiritual, in the physical it’s not the nicest place around town or in the best area. But had peace about it. Josef and I don’t care about luxuries, we care about being in the perfect will of God. We decided to stay here in the hostel instead. In the physical I will spare you my stories, it is not good! But what a blessing it has been to be here.

Since being here the Lord has opened many doors to preach his Gospel in this place. A plus about living here is that there is a beautiful roof where we can hold meetings every Sunday. We have had a few people show up already. The second day being here this girl and her boyfriend moved in, many of you know the story. Her name is Carolina, and she’s 5 months pregnant. I preached to her right away, but to no avail. Josef and I were starting to think her boyfriend beats her, and I talked to her about it and she told me he does. I was encouraging her to leave him and that we would do what we could to help her. It was hard for her to leave because he was supporting her. She said she really wanted to leave him, but she didn’t. So one night to make the story short, a woke up to her cries, her boyfriend was beating her really bad! He almost killed her, Josef intervened and God spared her. She later told me that he beat her so bad she passed out, and when Josef intervened he was slamming her into the wall as she was passed out. But thanks to the Lord, she was able to get strengthand seperate from him. She is doing well now, she lives next door to me. We spend time together. She desperatly needed shoes, and I took her to buy some, she was really happy. She has a job now, and is able to support herself. She told me last night she’s gonna try to ask for the time off on Sundays so she can come to our studies. She seems to be ok, her face is still a little blue, but she will get better, Lord willing. Prior to this she hadn’t gone to the doctore to get a check up on the baby, she went recently and discovered she is having a healthy little girl. A little too healthy, the baby seems over weight and the doctor put her on a diet. She hasnt’ come to repentance and faith in the Lord, please keep her in your prayers. I will try to attach a picture here for you to see her. She’s wearing her new shoes in it and a new dress, she also didn’t have clothes that fit her.

We had no idea that were we live is the homosexual district. They are all over the place. It has been a blessing to be able to minister to them also. It is tough being a Mexican homosexual, tougher that in the states. They are not shown love by people out of their community. But God has given us a great love for them. We have had some great witnesses with some of them, a lot of them live in our building. One of which is from a Christian home. One day I was in my room and had a burden to pray, I fell in my knees in trevail praying for someone, but I didn’t know who. Later I went to the kitchen and this guy runs in and tells me of this dream he just had. I beleive it was the Lord trying to show him, his life and where it was taking him. I was able to relate the dream to the word of God, and Josef came down and we both started to preach to him. He’s a lost sheep, he knows the true way but has decided to stiffen his neck and follow the pleasures of this world. Right before this day, I had seen him in the kitchen it was the first time I had met him, and he openly told me he just found out he had Herpes. Please pray for his salvation. That day when Josef and I talked to him, he seemed to get really convicted and immediatly ran away from us, literally ran!

Since there are so many people here, Josef and I decided to take advantage of this great opportunity and open air preach at a local town square. We went for it one day. We set up this painting thing on a tripod, wrote a scripture on it, and preached with our mic. It went great! We had a huge crowd, the Lord really anointed the preaching of His word and confirmed it to the hearts of men. We had a crowd for 2 hours! Some people stayed the whole 2 hours, and even stayed another 45 min extra for prayer and council. I met this man there name Jose Antonio, he had so many questions!!! He was seeking truth, he had gone to every religion and cult you could think of here trying to find truth. And he told me that for the first time what we preached seemed to be true. Praise the Lord! Jesus is the Truth! Ends up this guy even went to Catholic Seminary and never has found peace with God. He has come to our house twice already, and he told us last week that something happened to him while we were preaching he believes he got saved, and was born again. He said he’s not the same anymore, and doesn’t take pleasure in the things he once did. Please keep him in your prayers that this seed be firmly planted on good ground!

We tried to go and preach last week, but they immediatly shut us down. Saying we needed a permit. By the grace of God we were able to get a permit to preach in a city square every Friday and Saturday from 5 to 9pm, for a month. Then we can reapply for a permit.

Yesterday, I had a little itch to look around for an apartment to rent, to get an idea what the prices are around here, we are considering moving, not sure yet. I took Josef lunch at school(he’s enrolled in a school to teach him spanish), as I was walking back home I saw a place for rent. I knocked and to my surprise, it was this man, that dresses like a woman and prostitues himself, he’s a homosexual. I had seen him before and didn’t remember that that was his house! I just happened to be wearing a long skirt. He immediatly after opening the door asked me what religion I was from, I told him I am a Christian. He told me to come in, he showed me the room, it was really bad and really expensive, him and I decided it wasn’t the place for my husband and I. He asked me if I could please stay with him a while, he wanted to talk to me. I told him sure, I was exited hoping it would be a great opportunity to preach the Gospel. He sat me in a room and told me he had a lot of questions, and told me he would be right back. So he left and came back with a huge stack of bibles. All kinds of different bibles from different cults and religions. He told me he’s seeking truth and is confused. I was there for almost 2 hours answering his questions. And the end of our conversation he opened up to me and told me he’s a prostitute and has aids and a few other sicknesses. My heard broke for him. I was able to minister to him more and told him I would be back. He told me to come and he would put me first even before his clients. It was a great blessing, please pray for him, he told me his name is Lupe.

Please also pray for one of my neighbors from Canada. She doesn’t like Christians, but has a liking for me and Josef she has even fed us a few times. She had a misconception that most Christians are realy mean and judgemental. But she has seen it is not so with real Christians. We had a huge debate one night, it went really well, we became even better friends after it. She brought out her Chinesse Phylosophy book, and insisted I needed to be open minded and not so close minded and she started to read it to me. The Lord gave me much to share with her about His holy word, and how it contradicted mostly everything she believed. It got her thinking after I would quote scriptures. She is a heavy drinker, and needs to be set free by the power of Christ, and brough into a new life. Her name is Tracy, I love her very much, she is very dear to my heart. We also have a new neighbor who came to our bible study this week, he is Japanese but from America, raised as a buddhist but is very opened to the Gospel. Josef was able to have a really good talk with him at our study. He is really nice and very opened. A friend of ours went to the US this weekend and brought him the book “The Case for Christ”. We gave it to Eric and he is really exited to read it.

There is so much more I want to write about, but I also don’t want to make this too long for you. Thank you all for your prayers and support!

In Christ,
Lina Urban www.puregospeltruth.com