We do not have enough time to continually update this site right now. But to read our most recent updates from the mission field, please visit out InJESUS message archive by clicking here.
God bless you and thank you for your understanding.
In Christ -Josef
We are heading out in the next couple days for…
A MISSIONARY JOURNEY
We are planning on taking a 6-month missionary journey into southern Mexico, namely, into the states of Guerrero and/or Oaxaca, or wherever else the Lord leads. During this time, we will be involved in reaching various towns and villages for Christ through the means of implementing a heavy evangelistic schedule and strategy that will present the true Gospel in an effective way to those we come into contact with. We will be involved with the evangelization of various cities and towns, relying on the power of the Holy Ghost to make our witness effective. Initially, we are traveling to a town outside of a city called Ciudad Altamirano. It is located at about the point of the arrow below on this map:
This will be our initial destination. We are not sure at this time whether we will set up base at this point and proceed with our outreaches from there, or whether we will leave this point altogether and go “mobile team style”. Either way, we will be involved in itinerant village evangelism, reaching out to the surrounding towns and villages with the Gospel of Christ.
The areas where we will be working generally consist of a major city center that is surrounded by many isolated towns and villages in the outskirts. These city centers aren’t your typical cities, they’re more like a tiny city in the US, and you could think of the towns and villages sort of like little isolated ‘neighborhoods’ surrounding the urban center as far as an hour’s drive away (or sometimes more) into the desert or mountains. Most of these towns and villages where we are going to are largely untouched with a true witness of the Gospel. We will be doing the bulk of our work in these little towns and villages; we will also be preaching in the city centers as the opportunity presents itself.
In these areas, Catholicism reigns supreme as religious king over the majority, and it is often mixed with the practice of magic arts, witchcraft and voodoo. Spiritually, many of these regions are extremely dark and in desperate need of hope, deliverance, and the power of the Gospel. While many of these people have heard the name of Jesus (usually as presented in the form of “another gospel” –Gal. 1:6-9), they have no idea who He really is and what He really came to do. Even in spite of this, most of the people aren’t practicing Catholics and are very loosely religious. This creates the perfect spiritual void which makes these areas ideal for sowing the Gospel seed.
THE STRATEGY
The goal is to effectively evangelize every town and village we set our focus on. We plan on using various strategies to accomplish this goal. Some of these may or will include:
- Intercessory and warfare prayer for each particular village.
- Relational Evangelism.
- Door to door Evangelism.
- Power Encounter Evangelism (such as praying for the sick & driving out demons).
- Open Air Preaching and Marketplace Preaching.
- Tract, Gospel of John booklets, and Bible Distribution.
- Holding Bible Studies on basic Christian Truths for Seekers and Believers.
- Jesus Film Ministry and Meetings.
THE JESUS FILM TO REACH OUT
We are very excited about implementing a new ministry tool, that is, showing the JESUS Film to these lost villages. The Lord has graciously and miraculously supplied everything we need to show this Film in various villages. We have been able to obtain a movie projector, a portable generator, sound equipment, a 5x8 foot makeshift screen, some chairs, and more to show this film, and all of this for around $1000. The Lord has provided every step of the way.
This will enable us to show the Spanish version of the JESUS Film in these villages, even in extremely remote places that have no available electricity for us to plug into. The JESUS Film is an old evangelistic movie about the life of Jesus that is based on the Gospel of Luke. Just imagine a condensed movie depiction of Luke’s Gospel. That’s what we’ll be showing on a big screen in these villages. Here’s us standing by the screen:
We will be setting up the whole thing, and even have chairs for the people to sit in as they watch. This is a proven method of gathering people together, especially in the type of areas where we plan on going. It is ideal for drawing people out of their houses and assembling them together to hear about the Lord Jesus. Pioneer missionaries have used this type of Film ministry for years to evangelize and plant churches in un-reached regions. -
A typical day using this Film will include... first of all choosing a village to target. Then we will pray and intercede for the people in it. Then we will go around, door to door, and through the streets, making an announcement that we will be showing a movie about Jesus on a large outdoor screen as soon as the sun sets, inviting people to come and watch. Then, just before dark, we will begin setting up the equipment. The people will gather and take their seats. We will show the Film, praying and interceding as they watch. Then as soon as the Film is over, we will turn on our bright outdoors lights, stand up at the front, and PREACH Christ and Him crucified, expounding on the exceeding sinfulness of sin and explaining the meaning of the Cross. We will preach the Gospel and call for repentance from sin and faith in the Savior. We will be calling out the sick and demonized and praying for their healing and deliverance, trusting God to confirm His Word openly. And we will be calling for immediate and definite, utter personal commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, calling for people to repent and be baptized and to receive the Holy Spirit. We will also be seeking to set up further Bible studies and personal instruction times for those are have made a commitment to Christ and for those who want to know more.
- And so, as we have gathered many people from a particular village, preached the Gospel to them, and set up a Bible study for those who want to learn more, we will move on to the next village to do it all over again, returning to previous villages from time to time to teach in the meetings that were established and to follow up on those who are seeking salvation thru Christ.
- (Also as a side note: we will NOT be using the “sinner’s prayer” to lead people into making a confession of faith. We will be following the Apostle’s pattern of calling for repentance and faith, for baptism, and for receiving the Holy Spirit. We will take every caution necessary to follow the Biblical pattern and to prevent giving people a false assurance of salvation. We will, as always, be preaching a radical salvation and emphasizing the necessity of the new birth and surrender to the Lordship of Christ)
- THE BIBLES ARE ON THEIR WAY
Special thanks to all who donated for Bibles! We currently have over 240 Spanish Bibles (whole Bibles that have both Old and New Testaments). Here is a picture of us with the Bibles:
In addition to the 240+ Bibles, we have about 600-700 Gospels of John and 6,300 Gospel tracts. And all of these we are going to be able to give away for free to the people we will be ministering to! Praise God! We were able to ship the Bibles to our destination a few days ago and they should be there when we arrive. -
PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR SAFE ARRIVAL
We are set to leave in just two days, on Monday, August 18. It will be at least a three day drive from where we are to our destination. Dear saints, please keep us in prayer during this time. We have to pass over the border into Mexico and through many periodic military checkpoints as we drive through. In addition to the dangers of being stopped and/or exploited by these, there are dangers of thieves, false police, true police that are corrupt, and many other things. We need the Lord to give us a safe trip down there and to give us favor with the authorities so we can get through. This is so important. Please pray that we would make it!!!
- MAY THE LORD BE GLORIFIED
We are truly looking forward to this mission and desperately hoping the Lord will bless it and move in power among the lost as we preach the Gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation to those who believe. We are hoping to see the Lord reach many with an effective Gospel witness and to do a mighty work in peoples’ lives. We are praying that the Lord would glorify His great name among the nation of Mexico and gather His elect together that they may obtain salvation which is found only in the Lord Jesus Christ. To His name be all the glory, honor and praise forever. We will still be sending out newsletters while on this journey and checking our emails at least every couple weeks or once a month, so be on the lookout for periodic updates from us. We will also try to keep the site updated as well: www.puregospeltruth.com
MAY THE LAMB THAT WAS SLAIN RECEIVE THE REWARD OF HIS SUFFERING!!!
In Christ –Josef & Lina Urban
JUNE 11, 2008
(There are no pictures in this post...to see the pictures, click here to go to our photo album)
We have recently returned from our 3-week journey to southern Mexico and had a successful mission to the glory of God. We met with both hardships, with persecution, and with blessings and movings of the Spirit. Here is an outline of our trip:
We flew out from the Tijuana airport to Acapulco and abode overnight at a relative’s house. From there, we took a 7-hour bus ride and arrived in a small city called Altamirano and from there, stayed in a small town about 30 minutes away (driving time), where Lina has a lot of family. This small town is in the middle of a desert and is largely unreached with the Gospel, and the main city is surrounded by many other such towns in all directions.
The area where this town is located doesn’t see hardly any American visitors (I would actually get many hard stares for being a gringo). There is almost NO gospel witness. It’s sad though as there are Catholics everywhere. And there are a couple of big, brand new Jehovah Witness churches in that area. The mormons are there too. Yet, the true Church of Jesus Christ has not penetrated the enemy’s ranks in that place! It’s full of dead religion but totally void of a true witness of the power of God! Of all the people we talked to, none of them owned a real Bible. The ones that owned a Bible only had a copy of the Jehovah Witnesses Bible since they have been all through there preaching their doctrines of demons. It is a dark area, full of drug smugglers and high-ranking mafia. The town is a drug town; most of the houses are extremely poor and dilapidated yet out front, you will see a brand new $50,000 car (which a regular working Mexican could never afford). It hasn’t been sufficiently evangelized and despite what your missions prayer maps might say, it’s largely unreached. When asked what religion we were, we always say, “Christians”, that is, followers of Christ. People would say, “Christians? There’s none of those in this area.” It is a great desire of mine to go back and to labor and pray that the Lord would be pleased to establish a strong Gospel witness in this region. We will see if the Lord permits. Here are some pictures:
It was amazing because usually, family is the last people to want to hear you preach to them. Yet, the first night we were there, when we were about to go for a walk through the town and prospectively find someone to share the Gospel with, some of Lina’s family members that were with us said, “Why don’t you preach to us?” So we said, “Sure!” and proceeded to preach the whole Gospel to them. We actually have a large pictorial flip chart that goes through vivid biblical illustrations, starting with Adam and Eve and ending at the Great White Throne Judgment and the Lake of Fire, so we started at the beginning and preached through all of the pictures to them. It went really well.
We were also able to preach to some others in this village and had a couple of truly divine appointments. The scripture never ceases to amaze me: “A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps” (Pro 16:9). One day after prayer, as we went door to door to preach, we were walking through the village and the first house we went up to invited us in and allowed us to sit down and preach the whole Gospel to them for a couple hours. They were a very poor husband and wife couple and have a couple children. He used to smuggle drugs to the US but has now left that. As we began to talk with them, I started by asking him about what he thinks is going to happen to him when he dies (I usually never ask this at the first). And he was immediately shocked at the question, because he related to us that many times he wakes up in the middle of the night, worried about what’s going to happen when he dies. He gets so scared sometimes, that, being unable to see to read for himself, he will have his wife read the Bible to him at these times. Yet, he understood nothing of it. So we proceeded to preach through the Scriptures on the nature of sin, it’s penalty, the justice of God and the wrath of God, and then upon the mercy and love of God and the grace of Jesus Christ. The man and his wife appeared to be very much convicted. They used to be Catholics, then switched to Jehovah Witness, then switched again to hyper-charismatic Pentecostals (who in this village sound more like a cult than anything), and now had given up and settled for nothing. All they had was a JW’s Bible (which is changed), so we were able to give them a real New Testament. We were able to preach to them clearly on the way of salvation and how to be saved, and we were able to pray with them too. Please continue to keep them in prayer.
The Lord also opened the doors for us to preach to another family in this village. The man in this family is an educated, respectable, “moral” man and a hard working mechanic who thought that all religion is good since it leads to better morals, and that he himself would enter Heaven based upon the supposition that he is a good person who deserves it. In talking with him, I opened up the Law of God and he was immediately convinced as a liar. I opened the Bible to Revelation 21:8 (all liars have their part in the lake of fire) and had him read it, and when he did, his countenance suddenly sunk and it hit him like a ton of bricks. Then I turned it to John 3:36, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him”. When he read that, knowing that he doesn’t believe in Jesus as we already discussed what that means, his eyes began to water as the Holy Ghost convinced him of his sinful state before God. I immediately started expounding on the Cross, and before I could scarcely begin, he interrupted desperately, “What do I have to do to be saved?!!” So we told him how to be saved. He turned to his wife and anxiously said, “Let’s go for it honey!” Then his mind started to race forward as he began to count the cost. He started asking questions like, “Does this mean I won’t be able to own a nice car?”, “does this mean I won’t be able to save a lot of money up?”, “Does this mean that I have to be a preacher like you?”, etc. He began to say, “This means I am going to be mocked and laughed at by the town”, “This means that when that happens, I won’t be able to defend myself”, etc. etc. It was amazing to see how the Spirit of God was revealing to him exactly what it means to follow Christ and exactly what he would have to endure for the Cross’ sake. We were able to plead with him and exhort them much and to give them a nice hardcover full Bible. Hopefully they have laid down their rebellion against God and repented. Please keep them in prayer –the man’s name is Sergio.
We also desired to preach in the open market in the main city in this place, but for some reason, it wasn’t as populated when we went as people were telling us it was, and there wasn’t enough people to preach to without having some kind of amplification to make our voices heard, so we didn’t preach. Here’s a picture of the market:
From there, we were off to Oaxaca to meet up with David Sitton (www.toeverytribe.com) and his team. We had to take a 5-hour bus ride to Mexico City, and from there, transfer to another bus which then took us on another 6-7 hour trip to another city, and from there, take a shuttle for another couple of hours which then caused us to arrive in our city of destination in Oaxaca. As we stayed there, David and his team ended up breaking down on the ride down and had a lot of problems making it. So we ended up waiting for 4 days for them to arrive. But it was all good and in the divine providence of God!
During our wait in this little city, we decided to do some preaching. The first night we were there, as we were in the city square, I noticed a large Catholic Church down the street. I said, “let’s walk over there and check it out”. As we walked up, some men came out and lit off a bunch of fireworks. Then they were followed by a procession of a large group of people marching out. As they marched, they were chanting “Hail Mary’s” and carrying idols and relics.
My heart was grieved and I prayed for them. We proceeded to walk back to our hotel which is many blocks away across the city. As we walked down our street, we stopped, and before long and to our complete surprise, the people began to march right down our street. I told Lina, “You should stand up and read some scripture to them”, so as they went by, she read the 2nd Commandment from Exodus 20 that reads: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God…” She expounded slightly upon it. Then they kept walking.
The next night, an older man came up to us and asked, “Are you the ones who read the Bible to us last night?” We affirmed. Then he turned beat red, furious, and full of hatred, and began to curse and threaten us. He told Lina that he would take her Bible and destroy it while poking her with his finger and pushing her. He said things such as “Who do you think you are to quote the Bible and try to change the traditions that our ancestors have held for hundreds of years!” There was a murderous Catholic demon which had a strong influence in that place. A day or two later, as we were walking down the street, we ran into that man with a group of his friends standing along the road. He pointed to us, “That’s the gringo and the girl!” A woman yelled, “We should stone them!!!” And the crowd cheered her on. Praise God! Hallelujah!!! I’ve never actually been threatened to be stoned for Jesus’ sake, but it was a tremendous blessing and caused me to rejoice in heart! We have been praying for that man ever since, that God would forgive him for he knows not what he is doing, and even that God would convert him and make him the Saul of Tarsus turned Paul of the town.
During our layover in this city, by the sovereignty of God we were able to meet a husband and wife couple who runs a little restaurant. This is a nice, sit-down restaurant and all the food is a whopping $3 a plate (!). After seeing the Bible in my hand and finding out we were Christians, the man sat down with us at our table and began to talk with us and listen to us present the Gospel and expound on what it means to be born again. He never heard about being born again and didn’t know what it meant. He also thought one could only pray in a church, so he was blown away to discover that one can pray anywhere, especially the words of Jesus where He talks about entering your room and praying in secret. We talked with him about true repentance, about confessing his sins and putting his faith and trust in Jesus alone to save him. Later, when we came back, we found him preaching to a couple men in his restaurant, and telling them they need to be born again, and to go get alone with God and confess their sins! –It is always a great sign to see somebody evangelizing. We were encouraged to find out that after talking with us, he himself went into his room and shut the door, knelt down before God, and confessed his sins asking Jesus to save him. He has been waking up at 4 o’clock every morning and reading his Bible too. And this couple has opened their house to us, offering us a place to stay whenever we visit this city. We were also able to pray for his kidneys, as he has had tumors or growths on them that are potentially cancerous, so we laid hands on him and cursed those tumors in the name of Jesus. We pray he was healed but were not able to visit him again since then to verify anything.
By the mercy of God, we were also able to preach in the big open square in the dead center of the city where a lot of people gather. We were able to preach a great open air message to a crowd of about 30+ people. Seeing they are all Catholic, I decided to preach from the Lord’s Prayer, since all Catholics knew it, and to expound on it verse by verse, using it as a springboard to preach against idolatry as is in Catholicism, to preach the hallowedness and holiness of God, the Kingdom of God and what it means to enter that Kingdom and abide therein, against hypocrisy, the will of God for sinners to repent and for people to live in obedience to His commands, the provision and love of God in caring for men, the basis of the forgiveness of sin in the Cross and Gospel of Christ, and the glory of God. The people were very attentive and after much exhortation, we were able to pass out a couple Gospels of John to them.
Eventually, brother David and the team ended up showing up before we were martyred for the testimony of Jesus. We then headed out from this city to the town of unreached Indians that we were going to preach to. We had to drive along some extremely thin and dangerous mountain roads to reach this remote village and after about 4 hours of driving through these mountains, we arrived. Here’s some pictures of the village:
David and the team set up a medical and dental clinic in this village as the way to get in (you can’t just go in saying you’re a Christian missionary who desires to convert people or you will get kicked out and possibly be in serious physical danger). So the clinics were the inroads he used. This was a village of Mixtec Indians who just a hundred years ago were still performing human sacrifices to their pagan gods. Their main religion is Animism (the belief that spirits control everything, possess inanimate objects, and must be constantly appeased) mixed with Catholicism, therefore they live in perpetual fear. Some of them seem to be more modernized now though too.
Many were very fearful of us as well. They are not an open, friendly people like many Mexicans are. And to top it all off, the vast majority of them don’t speak any Spanish. They still speak their native Mixteco language (which sounds very Asian). During our stay, we camped out in tents and they ran the dental and medical clinics to provide services for all the people who came up. It was hard to communicate as most of the time we didn’t have a translator.
However, there were maybe about ten people that came up who did speak Spanish. So it was our goal to preach as much as we could to those who could understand us. We were also able to pray for some of the sick and ask God to heal them. One man who spoke Spanish came up and we were able to sit down with him and talk. We explained to him the fact of sin and how God views it, and its penalty, and then I asked him, “Do you know what Jesus did for you on the Cross?” He looked puzzled, and said, “no”. Then I said, “Do you even know who Jesus Christ is?” and to that he replied, “I think I’ve heard of Him before”. –What! My heart was overwhelmed within me as the reality hit me that these people have never heard who Jesus is. We proceeded to share the Gospel with him as simply and clearly as we could. We told him about how Jesus would heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead and cast out demons, and he was amazed. Right away, he pointed to the Bible in Lina’s hands, and said, “Do you have another one of those books?” (he didn’t know to call it a Bible), so we gave him one. We told him what to do to be saved. We were able to pray with him and commend him to the grace of God, and have been praying for him since. May God give the increase!
There was also another man from this village who spoke Spanish who we were able to preach to and have a tremendous time with. He had no idea what “sin” was, or what “judgment day” was. We explained it to him, and his jaw literally dropped open, and then he immediately asked if we have another book (Bible)! We told him about the Lord Jesus and how to be saved through faith in His name. He appeared to have a very sincere hunger to know the things of God and to read his new Bible, please pray for Him that God would reach down and convert his soul.
There were others we were able to speak with as well. It was such an unspeakable blessing to be able to share the Gospel and the beauties of the precious Cross to people who have never ever heard, or even had a chance to hear, such things. To tell someone about Jesus who doesn’t even know who Jesus is or what He did. It was such a blessed experience; it was truly amazing; words cannot describe how much it blessed my soul. The village has now requested that we would send in an English teacher to teach the townspeople English, which is a total breakthrough and a mighty opportunity for a Gospel worker to go in, live among them, and be a witness in this village while teaching English using the Bible as the text book. Please pray that God would send worthy laborers into this unreached harvest field. If you are interested in giving your life for the next few years+ to forsake all the comforts of your materialistic culture, moving in to a group of unreached people in a remote region, taking up their culture, learning their language (which is only spoken, there is no written language here), teaching English, praying for a move of God, and ultimately, planting churches in this region, please contact me if you feel God is calling you.
It was also a great blessing to be able to meet David and some of the other brethren who came with him, and I believe it was a very fruitful time to fellowship and admonish and encourage and be admonished and encouraged. David is planning on hosting a missions conference, Lord willing, this October in Brownsville, TX. The name of the conference is, “A Purpose Driven Death” and the subject is how God uses missionary hardship and martyrdom to pioneer the Gospel into hard and unreached regions. If you may want to attend or want information about it, email me.
We are now back in Tijuana and are selling the little amount of possessions we have left in our house. After that, we plan on sojourning in the US for a month or two, and during this time, acquiring some much needed ministry equipment which will enable us to preach to many more people, and also during this time making all the preparations necessary for our next journey deep into southern Mexico (which would be a much longer journey this time, at least a number of months duration) if the Lord permits. Please keep my wife and I in your prayers as the Lord leads. And pray for mercy for the nation of America as I believe great catastrophe is just right around the corner in terms of war and financial hardship.
I want to extend a special word of appreciation to our friends and supporters who have been faithfully praying for us and supporting us financially in order that we can continue to do what we’re doing in like manner, and we pray that God will bless you and increase the fruits of your righteousness in return. We trust our labor in the Lord is not in vain.
May Christ be glorified! May the Lamb who was slain receive the reward of His suffering!
In Christ – Josef Urban
www.puregospeltruth.com
MAY 2008 UPDATE
We’re off to the unreached tribes!!! (see point 3 below)
We have in this issue:
1. Quick Update
2. Sad News yet Good News
3. An Exciting Annoucement
I. QUICK UPDATE
We have been laboring in this slum village in Tijuana for quite some time now. You may remember the heroin addict I mentioned in the last update, who, after being prayed for, immediately was taken over by sleep after being unable to sleep for 2 weeks. Now he is still clean, is doing extremely well, is working, and truly shows a genuine hunger to know Jesus, and is seeking God. He is showing fruit as well, and turning away from lifelong sins. He has also become a mini-evangelist, sort of like the woman at the well, as he goes around and sends people to us so we can preach to them every time we show up! We truly praise God for calling people to Himself. It looks like tomorrow night will be our last time preaching at this particular drug rehab center. After that, we are moving on (more below).
Also, a few weeks ago we decided to walk through this village to preach door to door. The first house we went up to, the family invited us in, and we were able to preach the Gospel to them. A family of 13 stays in this little house. Particularly affected by the proclamation of the Gospel was a son of the family named Carlos, who is 18 years old. They are all recently moved to this area from the state of Chiapas (lower Mexico). We have been to their house a few times to follow up and to teach them about Jesus.
II. SAD NEWS YET GOOD NEWS
Well, next I will share some very sad news for us. Brother Sean and his family won’t be working with us in Mexico any more. This is the sad part. But the good part is that the reason he won’t be working with us, is because he is moving to a country in Asia to preach the Gospel! Sean has always had a burden for the Muslim people, and the Lord showed me a while ago that he would soon be released to fulfill his calling. Sean knew this too, and after much prayer and confirmation, he will shortly be moving there to reach Muslims for Jesus! He left Mexico earlier today after we prayed together one last time, and said farewell, and bid each other Godspeed on our missions. Though it is sad and hard to see an awesome brother and truly priceless co-laborer in the Lord depart, it is a joy knowing that God’s will is done and that it is ultimately better for the sake of the Gospel. He was a great brother to work with, and fellowship with, and I know one day I will see him again, most likely in the Kingdom of God. Until then, may Christ be glorified in our lives and if need be, if the privilege would come and He grant us the grace, in our deaths for His sake! You can always visit Sean’s site at www.preachingjesuschrist.com (p.s. you should sign up for his newsletter so you can get updates from where he’s going!)
III. THE EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT
We (Lina and I) have been praying about where the Lord wants us to go next, as we have felt strongly that we are being released from this area. When we moved here, it was always in my heart not to stay in this particular area, but to move through Mexico preaching the Gospel. Shortly after we arrived, a local brother in the Lord confirmed this by sharing a dream he had with me, even though we never mentioned these things to him. He said in the dream, that I was wearing a big Mexican hat, and that I had a Mexican pouch on my side filled with seed, and that I was traveling throughout Mexico and scattering the seed all over. I knew exactly what this meant and it was a confirmation of what the Lord already showed me. In obedience to this call, we are taking a trip down into the heart of southern Mexico to “spy out the land” and to preach the Gospel as we go.
The Apostle Paul said to the Church at Rome: “Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man's foundation: But as it is written, To whom he was not spoken of, they shall see: and they that have not heard shall understand” (Rom. 15:20-21). Along these lines, it has also been by heart to preach Christ to those who have never heard the Gospel. Glory be to God, it looks like this is being fulfilled, Lord willing.
We are leaving this Sunday, on May 18th, and Lord willing, should be returning to Tijuana on June 9th.
We are going to a few places on this trip. First of all, we will be arriving in Acapulco on Sunday. We plan on traveling through the state of Guerrero wherever the Lord leads for the first week+ we are there, trusting Him to open up doors to preach His word as we go. There are many indigenous people in this state, and many poor, simple folk who need to hear about Jesus. Please pray for us to have grace and favor as we go and for doors to be opened to preach the Gospel, and for the Spirit of God to anoint us mightily for His name’s sake and that through us and through the preaching of the Word, He would effectually call out His elect unto eternal salvation.
Then, from May 27th thru June 6th, we will be meeting up with David Sitton and his team (www.toeverytribe.com) in the state of Oaxaca, and from there moving in to the mountainous region on the west side where there are unreached tribes that have never heard the Gospel. The place where we are going is about a 7 to 8 hour trip from the nearest town into a very remote region. We will be staying in tents during the time we are there. We will be engaging the Cuicoyan tribe of the Mixtec Indians. If my information is right, there are over 5,000 people in this tribe, and as far as anyone knows, only one professing Christian. They are heavily involved in witchcraft and idolatry and some are known to get potentially violent when their ancient traditions (such as idolatry) are opposed. Many of them speak an ancient language and don’t know Spanish, but enough know Spanish that we can preach to them and hopefully find a translator. Many of them are heavily demonized, and the people are plagued with incurable diseases, cancers, and maladies with no medical care (a perfect opportunity for the healing delivering power of Jesus!). At least this is what I’ve heard about them. Pray for us as we go, please!
We have already purchased our plane tickets and are taking this trip by faith. We are traveling by bus, shuttle, and taxi once we arrive, going only with backpacks on our backs containing clothes, Bibles, and Gospel booklets for the trip, and our tents and sleeping bags.
Saints, we are asking for your prayers for us during this time. This is most important.
Please also pray that the Lord would give us favor to sell enough of the possessions we have by Saturday to get the needed funds for this trip.
Also, if you feel led to donate to us to help us fund this trip, we welcome it. But, the only way we will get it on time is if you send it by Saturday via paypal or by wireless transfer. We are trusting in the Lord to meet our needs so please don’t feel obligated to give –only if the Lord leads you to.
Grace and peace be to the saints of God in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
MAY THE LAMB WHO WAS SLAIN RECEIVE THE REWARD OF HIS SUFFERING!!!
In Christ – Josef & Lina Urban
www.puregospeltruth.com
Grace and peace in God our Savior and Jesus Christ the Lord.
Update on the rehab center (see last update). We went back to this place Sunday to continue to preach to and to pray for the men who were desperate and/or responsive to some degree to the preaching of God’s Word. Many of them weren’t there, or weren’t available. But, bless the Lord, we were able to speak and pray with four of these precious souls.
Let me say that this place is much different than America. In the US, it seems like almost everybody ‘knows’ the Gospel (or thinks they do), and most are extremely self-righteous, rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing. But here, these men are broken, beaten down, depressed, and without hope. They don’t know or understand the Gospel. They have never said a ‘little prayer’ and ‘asked Jesus into their hearts’. Many have never even heard that terminology. But the funny thing is, that many of them have been baptized and to some degree trust in baptism to save them.
Actually, they don’t know how to be saved. They are stuck in a works-based mentality. When we sit down with them to talk, the first thing I do is ask them questions and find what their understanding of the Gospel and salvation is. And without fail, they all seem to forget the Cross, forget about Jesus, and faith in Christ. I ask them how to be saved. They say, ‘By repenting of all sin and living righteously’. This may sound good, but in their minds, they think they have to exercise their own willpower to stop sinning, and once they are completely free from sin, start reading the Bible and going to church, and that means they are saved. So we preach and stress constantly the importance of receiving grace and of faith in Christ, of justification by faith alone and the true meaning of the Cross.
Some have so many strongholds in their minds that we have to take a considerable amount of time just tearing them down and preaching the truth to provide a solid foundation upon which their faith can stand. Sometimes it feels like we’re trying to explain to a blind man what the color red looks like. When there is no foundation laid, it takes time to instruct perishing souls in the ways of truth and lay a solid foundation. But like I said, it is much different from America here, and praise God for putting us across the path of people who are lost and know it, for Christ came to seek and save the lost, not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance!
At first we sat down with three men who wanted to talk to us. We shared the Gospel with them, explaining in more detail exactly who Jesus is and what He did. These three were desperate. One was a crystal meth addict, the other two heroin addicts (these are both the worst possible drugs to be addicted to). After laboring in the Word and attempting to get them to see the Gospel, and boost their faith, we moved on into prayer. The crystal meth addict wasn’t ready to serve the Lord; he said he doesn’t want to play games with God and receive anything from prayer if he’s not ready to serve him yet. So we exhorted him to continue to seek the Lord, and to read the Gospel of John, and he left. So we prayed with other two men, both of which are heroin addicts.
Both of these men were doing terrible. They have been off heroin for a number of days. Going through heavy withdrawals. Covered in sweat. Unable to sleep or eat for days. In utter torment. It’s so sad. But after talking with them, both of them prayed to the Lord to confess their sins and ask for forgiveness, and asked Jesus to save them (and we didn’t lead them in a prayer and give them words, they did it themselves).
So then we prayed for them. The first man we prayed for had at least a hundred tract marks on his arms (wounds from the heroin needle). As we prayed for him, a mighty cold chill came upon his whole body and he was freezing cold (demonic manifestation). As we continued to pray, it left. Then he felt a strong burning sensation in his stomach. We continued to pray, and that too, left. Then he felt better. We asked him if he still felt withdrawals, and he said no, that they went away. Then immediately he began to get extremely sleepy. He was about to fall asleep on the spot. This is a good sign, because he had not slept in days, and the torment was preventing him from sleeping. But now, he couldn’t stay awake! Praise God! So we sent him up to room and told him to rest and gave him an assignment to read the Gospel of John. He needs a lot more work, that hopefully his heart will be right in the sight of God and the Lord will perform that work in him.
The second guy thought he had been a Christian for 5 years in the past, but backslid. After talking with him for a while, he came to the realization that he was never born again. He simply stopped using drugs, stopped cussing, and started going to church, and thought that constituted being a Christian. He knew a lot of scripture too. But the Lord was able to use us to show him the ways of truth, and teach him what true conversion is. We were able to pray with him too, but the withdrawals didn’t leave him when we prayed. So we gave him much instruction and commended him to God. The good thing is that he was much encouraged and renewed in hope, and claims to have repented and says he will serve the Lord now.
After they left, we called in a third guy (we have our own little ‘office’ at this place, which consists of plywood on all four sides, a plywood ceiling, a dirt floor, and a few benches). He wanted to talk with us and for us pray with him. He was an alcoholic and pill popper. We were able to share much with him. He had no understanding of the Gospel, and was baptized both in the Mormon church and in the Apostolic church (The Apostolics here are highly legalist, they deny the Trinity, and say you must be baptized in the name of “Jesus only” and speak in tongues to be saved). We were able to reason with him of sin, and righteousness, and judgment to come, and of the Cross and Gospel of Christ, and preach the way of salvation by grace through faith. He was much affected, and with much exhortation we told him to seek the Lord until He is found, until he knows the Lord saved him, and how to do it. We prayed for him as well.
After we talked and prayed with all four of these men, 7 hours had passed by and the day was expired. Planting and watering the precious Gospel seed takes time. Please pray dear saints that our labor be not in vain, that God would give these seeds the increase and grow them to fruition!
I was highly discouraged by one man we have been instructing and praying for. After much work, and him getting delivered from many demons, he seems to be going like a dog back to his vomit. He hasn’t even read his Bible or prayed in the last week. When we talked with him briefly just before we left, the demons were jolting his body now and he couldn’t stop twitching and having serious spasms and doesn’t like to be around us. He won’t reach out and seek after God. Just a vessel of wrath fit for destruction? I pray not! Please pray for him!
Please, keep all these men in prayer! May they be washed in the blood of Jesus Christ and made clean by faith in His name.
In Christ – Josef
www.puregospeltruth.com
*If the Lord lays it on your heart to donate to this ministry to help us reach the lost, you can donate online or through the mail. Just go to our website and click on the “donate” page to help.
APRIL 2008 UPDATE
Grace and peace,
There’s power in the pure, sinless, holy, victorious BLOOD of Jesus Christ!
We’ve been preaching in the drug rehab center since our last update. Praise God, truly, we’ve been seeing some genuine fruit brought for to His glory. Just wanted to share, real quick, an update from this place, that those of you who are praying for us can lift these things up before the Throne of Grace on our behalf.
MIRACULOUS DELIVERENCE
There is a man named Francisco in this place. He got in about a month ago. Came in as a meth addict (for those who are not familiar with what this is, imagine pure cocaine times five in terms of addictive properties). He was in bad condition. We asked him, “What do you plan on doing when you get out of here”. And he said, “To be honest, I just want to go back and do drugs again”. That’s all he would ever say, even to the directors. I told him that Jesus could set him free, and he began to listen to us. As he sat down in a Bible study with us, he had all these questions. Questions like, “Why are all the thoughts of my heart only evil continually”, etc. And of course we would show him these things in Scripture, and explain to him his depraved heart and need for the new birth through faith in Christ. Finally, he agreed to let us pray for him. I explained to him the reality of the spiritual, of Satan, of demonic bondage, and how Christ defeated those demons, and he agreed to let us pray. As we did, and rebuked those demons, they began to manifest and come out, one after another. The whole process continued for probably about an hour or more.
Before we started, he was a skeptic, and seriously doubted if what we said was true about Christianity. However, when we finished, he was convinced, because he himself understood that demon spirits were reacting in him and coming out by the power of the name of Jesus. When we were done, his countenance was radically changed, and lit up, with a ray of hope in his eyes now. When we came back a few days later, the director, not knowing anything about the fact that Jesus wonderfully delivered this man from demon spirits (all he knew was that we were talking to him), came up to us as soon as we arrived. And he said, “There’s a huge change in Francisco! He would never show any ambition to change, but now he wants to change. All he would say before is, ‘I want to go back to do drugs’. But now he shows hope and desire to change. He would never even want to sit in on a meeting, but has requested to be let off kitchen duties tonight in order to hear you preach”. Praise the Lord!
So we were able to talk with Francisco after the meeting, and asked him, “how have you been, in terms of struggling with the temptation to go back to meth?” And his face lit up! And amazed, he said, “I haven’t even thought about it until you just mentioned it!” You see, it went from something driving and tormenting him continually, and being his only thought and plague all day and all night continually, to not thinking about it once for three days straight! Jesus is still in the business of setting the captives FREE!!! He now shows much hope, much hunger for the Word of God, and much desire to keep seeking God and see his life transformed. Please keep him in prayer, that a genuine miracle of regeneration be wrought out within his heart by the Holy Ghost. He is already a totally different person, but pray that the Lord would have His perfect work and save him to the uttermost.
A CONVERSION
There is another man that the Lord has been working on. When we first started preaching, the Lord just opened his heart to receive the Gospel. Acts 16:14 talks about how the Lord opened Lydia’s heart to receive the Gospel, and that seems to be exactly what has happened here. He has rejected God his whole life. Never read the Bible, nor did he want to. He had a sister who is a Christian, and preached to him a lot, but wanted nothing to do with it. But somehow, he ended up in this rehab center, and says that when we preached the Gospel, the Lord birthed it into his heart to receive the Word and be baptized. Then all of a sudden he found himself hungering after God for the first time in life. He was the first one to ask us of his own accord, “What do I have to do to be baptized”. We spent about 4 or more hours with him earlier on Sunday going through the Scriptures, finding out where he’s at, and it’s amazing. He has been in his free time recalling every single sin he’s ever committed that he can remember, and renouncing them one by one, and asking for forgiveness. We talked about the nature of true repentance, of faith toward God, of baptism, of what it means to follow Christ, and live a life of carrying the Cross, and more, and he seems to be as sincere and ready as anyone can get and by all evidence, appears to have a genuine work of grace within his heart. And he’s hungrier to know the Bible than almost every Christian I know. So Lord willing, we will be moving forward to baptize him in the next week as the first baptized convert in Mexico through this work to the glory of God. Pray that God’s work will advance unhindered!
A DRAWING OF THE SPIRIT
The director guy, Marco, who I mentioned last update as being heavily convicted, is still in a drawing process it seems. The Lord is definitely working on his heart, and he’s changing, but hasn’t come to the place of absolute surrender to the will of God for his life and baptism into Christ. He loves to hear us teach God’s word, is hungry to learn more, is eager to read his new Bible that we were able to give him. He also seems to be growing in the knowledge of God, even if slowly. The problem is that he is always incredibly busy, taken up with the cares of this place. He’s such a precious, caring soul. When we left recently, we were surprised to come outside and find that while we were in, he decided to wash Sean’s car. Please pray that the Lord will continue to work on Him and give him time to study his Bible and truly both find God, and be found by Him.
As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. (John 10:15-16).
In Christ – Josef
www.puregospeltruth.com
Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ the risen Son of God. Grace and peace to the saints in His name.
March 16, 2008
PLANTING, WATERING, AND HOPING
We’ve been laboring for a month now in the slum village and are continuing to instruct and teach the souls to whom God first sent us. Namely, Lucy our friend, her family, and her friends and a few others in the vicinity. Though we have seen no harvest as of yet, we have been doing lots of sowing and watering and trusting in God to give the increase. Though I was getting somewhat discouraged because we have had no definite, radical conversions take place among them, the Lord gave me hope by quickening this Scripture to my remembrance:
Mar 4:26-29 - And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; (27). And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. (28). For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. (29). But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.
We have sown, and are watering and watering, and rising up time and again to check the seed that has been planted, and it appears to be slowly growing. There is more understanding coming to their minds, and more fruit showing in their lives. They even sat down amongst themselves this last week and had a Bible study group by themselves, and have been slowly molding their lives to the message of Christ. However, the new birth needs to take place, and they need to renounce a life of sin and be baptized in the name of Jesus and cut off the world once for all. This is what we’re hoping for, yet at the same time, being extra careful not to pluck unripe fruit and force a false conversion. They know the cost of following Him, and need to be ready to forsake all to follow Him alone or else their spiritual tower will only get half built and fail (see Luke 14).
CHLIDREN’S MINISTRY
We have also been feeding the children hot meals and teaching them lessons from God’s Word, being attentive to present the Gospel to them in doing so, in a clear and simple way they can understand. And some of them are, praise God! We have a large full color picture chart that goes from Adam and Eve all the way to the Great Throne Judgment and Hell, and this has had a good effect on the kids. –Especially seeing them come to a realization of Judgment Day and of the wrath of God, what fear they get, that all adults should have who haven’t fled to Christ for refuge! We also have a large dry-erase board where we have drawn pictures and write scriptures to teach with. We have moved our feeding program from twice per week to once per week now, so as to free our time to do other things and preach more. And we teach the children when we gather to feed them in the name of Jesus. The good thing is that we hand many of them Gospels of John and tell them to take them home to their parents, and their parents are hearing about Jesus through it as well.
MARKETPLACE PREACHING
Sean, along with Lina and I, have also open air preached in another local market. It’s just a big street market with stands on both sides. While one of us would preach, the other would stand on the side with Gospels of John, and every now and then people would come up and ask for the booklet in our hands and we’d give it to them. While crowds don’t stop and gather to hear us, there are definitely a few attentive ears and hungry hearts that stop to hear the Word. We plan on continuing to go back to the markets more often, Lord willing.
OPEN DOORS TO PREACH TO RECOVERING ADDICTS
I was reflecting on our work the other day, and what we’ve been doing and preaching and the progress we’ve made thus far. My heart and burden and utmost desire is that the lost would hear about my precious Savior, especially those who need the Gospel the most. And God sent me here. I began to pray, and as I did, the Lord quickened the knowledge of this Scripture to my remembrance:
Col 4:3 - Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds.
And with that, I began to pray that God would open a door of utterance to us, open more doors to preach the Gospel through and more opportunities, to present the message of Christ to the lost. The very next day a friend of ours in the slum village stumbled into a man on the streets that ran a local drug rehabilitation center. It is also in the slum village. She told him about us, and he was thrilled to hear that we would be willing to go in and preach to his men. We met him, and he offered us an opportunity to preach to his men.
This place houses about 40 men. We went on Wednesday evening, and preached the blessed Word of God. I preached about how their main problem is not drugs or addictions, but SIN, and how drug addiction and bondage is simply a manifestation of sin, and preached Christ and Him crucified, and His resurrection and power to deliver and set free from sin and bondage. I preached on simply the depravity of man, the issue of sin, eternal judgment, Christ, the virgin birth, His sinless life, vicarious death, liberating resurrection, ascension and sending of the Holy Ghost, with a call to repentance and faith in Him as Lord of all, and the new birth, as if they never heard the Gospel before. And, the fact is, some of them never have. They’ve never heard the Gospel clearly, they’ve never read the Bible. After about two hours of preaching, a number of the men came forward, saying they wanted to renounce their sin, give up their own lives, and believe in Jesus and serve Him. After praying with them and pointing out a few key scriptures, we sent them back exhorting them to seek God, confessing their sins, calling on the name of the Lord, until they are ASSURED that He has forgiven them, telling them that once they’re born again, they’ll know it, and God will grant them a new heart and peace in the Holy Ghost, and warned them against the wiles of the Devil to pull them away from God.
The good part is that the director of this rehab center, who originally invited us and calls most of the shots, is one of those men that came forward with tears of contrition. He also humbled himself by publicly coming forward at the invitation and is hungry to know more about God. And he has given us a weekly spot to preach every Wednesday at this drug rehab to all the men, and if we want (which we definitely will), to visit individual men and lead corporate Bible studies every Sunday. So glory be to God! A measly little feeble prayer for open doors to preach the Gospel lead to a mighty privilege to honor God by sharing His love and seeing men changed by His power! HALLELUJAH!!! WHAT A MIGHTY AWESOME SOVEREIGN GOD WE SERVE!!!
Please pray for these men. The director’s name is Marco. Pray that God would save him to the uttermost! We are hoping for a baptism soon.
THE OPPORTUNITY WE HAVE IN THIS VILLAGE
The slum village we are working in with the children, the Bible studies, and the rehabilitating men, are all in a section of Tijuana. There is a tremendous opportunity in this part of the far outskirts of the city. Most of the people are not from this area –they are from DEEP in Mexico. They are from Chiapas, and Oaxaca, and other states. Many of them have come from places where there is little to absolutely NO Christian influence. There are literally THOUSANDS of “squatters” who come up to this city from deep in Mexico looking for a better life, but failing to find it, end up “squatting” in the slums by propping up a house. One of the particular colonies we are preaching in is only about 13 years old, which means all the people have moved there in the last 13 years, most of which are from deep down in Mexico. So by preaching in this village, we are preaching throughout Mexico as a whole by reaching people from all parts. We are constantly running into people who have never heard the Gospel. I know this is hard to imagine for Americans, but it’s true. People who may have heard the name of Jesus, usually by the Catholic Church, but don’t know what He came to do and how it applies to their lives and have never heard the most basic truths of the Gospel presented.
A MEETING PLACE
We are currently praying about obtaining a place to hold meetings in, so we can bring in the surrounding community to sit down and hear about Jesus, and be taught the Word of God. If we actually had a facility or storefront or building, we could point everybody we share the Gospel with on the streets to a definite place at a definite time where they can go to hear more or receive counsel and help. It would also give us a place to bring in converts and instruct them in the things of God and teach systematically through the Bible. Please pray that God would provide for us an adequate place to hold meetings.
IN CONCLUSION
There is much more I could say, but let me summarize by asking all our friends and supporters to pray for us! May Jesus Christ the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world be exalted far above ALL. May He receive the reward of His suffering!
To every compromising Christian, let me remind you that Christ indeed is coming back soon, very soon, and He would rather you be hot or cold, but the lukewarm He will vomit out of His mouth, and those He finds flirting with the world, playing the harlot by cheating on God with the things of this world, and living a life of sinful pleasure, He will most assuredly not claim as His own. Now is the time to repent from all compromised living, and examine your heart, and deeply renounce every tie of sin and every lukewarm tendency, while the Spirit of God will empower you to obey God and live a life acceptable in His sight and cleanse you afresh by the washing of the water of the Word and His presence. There is truly victory in JESUS!!! Hope for the discouraged, strength for the weak, joy for the sorrowful, freedom for the captives, and glorious resurrection power for the bound! Oh, Jesus will never disappointment the truly desperate of heart! Thrust yourself upon Him wholly, fully, completely, entirely, and forsake all to follow Him, and serve God to glorify Him and fulfill the purpose He has for your life! And remember, most of the things on TV are wicked abominations to God. Turn off that idol, and pick up the Bible!
And to the true saints of Jesus Christ, grace and peace! What hope we have in Christ our Lord! He who came to save sinners will one day soon redeem us fully by quickening our corruptible mortal bodies to be made like unto His glorious body! “Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children: And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savor” (Eph. 5:1-2 ). Stand fast, with the victory of faith, and keep your guard against the wiles of the Devil! Hold your hope firm, as an anchor of the soul, grounded in the finished work of Christ’s Cross, holding it firm unto the very end! He who overcomes, He who holds fast the Word of life and perseveres unto the end indeed shall be given the crown of life and receive authority over nations! The King comes! Quickly…
In Christ – Josef Urban
www.puregospeltruth.com
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