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Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. -Luke 10:2

Dear Brethren in Christ,

We are on a temporary visit to the US right now. There is so much to share and so much to update you on, but I want to announce what appears to be a real answer to prayer for the Lord to send more laborers to help us. Recently, a dear brother in Christ came down to Guadalajara to visit us and spend some time fellowshipping and ministering with us, and it was a blessed time in the Lord. This brother is the one that has translated some of my articles and booklets into Spanish, and in fact, the first time I met him (and the only time prior to this) was when he translated for me as I preached the Gospel at my own wedding. Well, we didn’t know each other very well, and a while back he contacted us saying that he wants to visit with the possibility of the seeing if the Lord was leading him to work with us.

So when he came down to visit, I didn’t know him very well, and didn’t even know his exact theological views on some important issues, or even his convictions on many things. And my prayer has been that if the Lord sends someone, they will be equally yoked and we’d be able to be of one mind, especially since it is my heart to make disciples and raise up a more lasting work in Mexico, starting in Guadalajara where we’re stationed. When working with a team to establish a lasting work (i.e. disciples & not just converts), it’s necessary that the team see eye to eye on doctrine and practical issues so that the work can continue and we can keep our eyes on advancing against the powers of darkness without having to deal with internal struggles. So praise God, we were of one mind and one heart in the Gospel, and it appears that the Lord is now bringing this brother to our city to preach with us.

His name is Aaron Block, and he spent two years as a missionary in Peru. Some of you may have seen him translating for Charles Leiter at a Heartcry Conference. He has some health issues that have caused him a lot of pain, and almost a year ago he went back to the USA where he’s from in order to seek medical treatment. But when he was with us preaching and ministering there was a lot of grace and he was able to minister without being held back, and really got some good preaching in at the center of our Catholic-pagan city. So that gives you some background, and I will let him tell the rest. 
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Here is Aaron’s testimony about being led to work with us:

It's been almost a year since I've been back in the States. My physical health has seen a little improvement, though it still hasn't been possible to get much funds to treat my ailments. I've been making due with what I've had, working some gigs here and there to make money (hasn't been possible to get a full-time job yet due to my condition), and praying and waiting on the Lord. He has had mercy on me, though, and has brought me to a good local church and allowed me to meet many like-minded believers with a passion for evangelism. So ever since last August, much of the free time that I've had has been spent out on the streets handing out tracts, witnessing to people, and open-air preaching with my brethren. Praise the Lord!

Still, however--despite this glimmer of sunlight in the midst of the storm--one night several months ago I found myself on my knees, fighting sadness, confusion, and despair. My heart was in Peru; I missed my country of birth and my dear family in the Lord. I desperately wanted to return. In utter frustration, I cried out to God, asking Him why He hadn't opened the doors for me to go back. I wrestled with God, and finally He gave me the grace to lay on the altar several things in my life I had been holding on to, Lima being one of them. Humbled and broken, I let these things go and sought for His will and not my own. It was immediately afterward that I remembered a missionary couple I knew who lived in Mexico, and the thought entered my mind that I could possibly join them...in Mexico! This was followed by a joy and peace that I had not experienced in a long time, and a couple verses of Scripture that popped into my mind, which exhorted and encouraged me to look to Christ and trust in Him.

I continued to pray about this, and eventually contacted my missionary brethren to let them know, and they prayed about it as well. We trusted that if God was calling me to go He would provide and allow me to visit them to discover if this call to Mexico was really from Him.

And so He did...and about a week ago (end of Jan.) I flew down to Guadalajara to spend six days with them. It was a real blessing to say the least. I followed them around the city as they ministered in the streets, plazas and markets through evangelism, in house Bible studies, and with their local congregation. I had a blessed time of fellowship with them.

Josef and Lina Urban have been in Mexico for more than two years, planting seeds of the Gospel all throughout the country. They have recently moved to this big, bustling city in the state of Jalisco. There the Lord led them to a local church that not too long ago experienced an awakening to the true, biblical Gospel. They're solid in their doctrine, and the pastor and elders are godly men with a desire to radically conform their lives to the Word and be led of the Holy Spirit. It's amazing to see how passionate many of the brethren are for the Lord and for evangelism. God is clearly working in the hearts of this congregation.

If I could sum up my time in Guadalajara in one word, it would be, "unexpected". It turned out to be an unexpected blessing--I honestly didn't expect to have such an enjoyable time with my missionary brethren, to be so like-minded with them in doctrine and vision, to meet so many wonderful brothers and sisters in the Lord, and to see so many doors for evangelism and ministry open up right before my eyes. And even though, prior to my visit, I was still in my heart holding on to my dream of immediately returning to Peru, I have felt an unexpected peace about staying in this city instead, as long as God wants. He's given me a burden for the people there, especially for God's elect. On top of this, I may even be able to receive the necessary treatments for my condition there, as alternative treatments are more numerous and less expensive in Mexico than in the States.

So, God willing, I will be going back real soon, hopefully in a month or so. I'm praying that God would continue to prepare me spiritually and provide the financial means for me to get there. The cost of living is relatively cheap, and I've already looked at a couple possible rooms for me to stay in. I trust that He will make a way for me to live there.

Please pray for me, and for Guadalajara. It's in one of the most Catholic areas in all of Latin America, and there is little to no Gospel witness in this great city; most people have not even heard or understood the Good News of the Savior. The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few! Please pray for laborers, and consider going! And if you can't go, please consider giving. Your generous gifts will help fulfill the Great Commission. The Lord bless you and keep you.


Josef again: 

Well brethren, this appears to be an answer to prayer, and may the Lord use us nobodies to exalt Somebody who offers salvation to everybody. May Christ Jesus be glorified. May the Gospel of the grace of God be preached hard. May the works of the devil be destroyed. May all hear of Him who was broken that we may be healed, who was crushed that we may be made whole, who was slain that we may live, who rose again that we may have new life, and who ascended on high that we may live as pilgrims and strangers on this earth in pursuit of the Heavenly calling. May our eyes be upward, our hearts set to move forward, our hands busy in the Father’s business, and our feet marching forth to carry the Good News of the Gospel of peace. And may God put His words in our mouths that we may utter forth the revelation of His will in the Gospel of His Son among those who haven’t seen or heard.


Lord willing, we will be using any abundances in our support to help support Aaron to live in Guadalajara with us.

PRAY FOR US! PRAY FOR GUADALAJARA! PRAY FOR THE GOSPEL TO GO FORTH IN UNCTION AND HOLY SPIRIT POWER!!!  

MAY THE LAMB WHO WAS SLAIN RECEIVE THE REWARD OF HIS SUFFERING!!! ...IN MEXICO...
 
 
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MISSION TRIP TO GUERRERO

This month, we took a two week trip back to Guerrero, Mexico where we lived for 4 months last year. It was a good time of sowing and watering with the Word of God. The Gospel once again went out to many.

CHILDREN’S BIBLE PROGRAM A SUCCESS

We were able to travel back to the village along with a team, including two sisters who are teachers of young children who came with us for the purpose of leading the Bible program for the kids in the village. They were excellent at working with the children, at keeping their attention, at teaching them the Word of God, and at showing them we care in the name of Jesus. We were able to use the large arena in the center of the town and have a variety of activities for the children: singing Gospel songs, memorizing Scripture, learning Bible stories, and more. They also allowed us to use the school grounds. 
The program went on for 5 days, for 3-4 hours per day. We were originally expecting about 50 children, but on the first day, over 120 showed up, and every day there was over a 100! The sisters did a very good job at improvising and making the materials go a long way and the whole program went very well. 
After the 5 days, we had a final meeting where we invited the parents to come and see their children sing and share what they learned. Unfortunately, however, a man in the village had just died and most of the adults were at the mourning site so didn’t come to see. But we were able to give the most receptive children a nice hard-cover personal size Bible to keep, and gave out about 40 Bibles. This is a good way not just to reach the children, but to plant seeds in their parents too, because the children go home and talk about what they learned.
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Many seeds were planted and watered and if the Lord tarries, these children are the future of the village. We thank God for the grace He has given us with these children.
 
SPREADING THE GOSPEL IN THE VILLAGE

The team was also able to preach to a number of the villagers and share the Gospel clearly. We also had to combat a lot of the lies of the Jehovah-Witnesses, who go into that village every Thursday and poison minds with false doctrines. It’s so sad, but some of the people we had preached to last year have forsaken their Catholic idols after having been awakened through our preaching, only in order to start uniting with the JW’s, looking to hear the Word of God. There is nothing else in the area. No preachers of truth to show them the way. Yet even so, it was a wonderful opportunity to go back and testify to the Gospel of God’s grace once again. We are trusting God to redeem a little flock from that sin-laden, oppressed and wicked village, for the glory of His name.
 
TRANSFORMED LIVES FROM A MEXICAN PRISON

Last year there in Guerrero, we ministered in the prison every week and preached for a couple hours every Sunday. There was a real conviction of the Holy Spirit upon the hearts of some of the men, a real genuine work of the Spirit. But they were resisting, not wanting to repent. Then, in the very last meeting, after I preached for two and half hours, I closed the meeting in prayer, and God came down. Conviction gripped their hearts. Men began crying uncontrollably. They couldn’t remain in their seats. Several hit the floor in agony of heart, crying out to God loudly to forgive them and save them. Tears flowed like rivers, and cries for mercy pierced the ceiling. Demons began to flee and one man was powerfully delivered on the spot as He cried out to God. This was our last meeting a year ago.

I was anxious to see the fruit of this and if these men were following the Lord now. I thank God that it appears that the fruit remains. I was able to enter the prison again and preach in the place of a friend of ours, and was able to talk to one of the men that were in that meeting last year. He’s following the Lord now, reading his Bible every day, and walking in victory over sin, he told me. He even writes down notes and other things the Lord teaches him as he studies the Bible and digs deep into the Word now.

Another man that was in that meeting last year, the one who was especially delivered from demon spirits, was released and was no longer in the prison. This is an amazing testimony but I can’t share all the details here because it would be too long to type. But last year his wife was filing a divorce from him and was not willing to take him back, saying he would never change. However, God changed him. He left the prison and never went back to the drugs and alcohol and filthy lifestyle. He got reconciled with his wife and she received him seeing the transformation. According to the word of him and his wife, he’s a changed man. He even looked totally different and clean and shining with joy. He told me that he is now following the Lord and reading his Bible regularly. Both of them want to sell all their possessions and move to a new city and start all over with a brand new life together.

I always ask people in these situations if they are reading the Bible. Why? Because I have found that both Scripture and experience teaches that when someone is born of God, they hunger for the milk of the Word. They may have other struggles and other things they’re dealing with in their life, but a genuine convert will always love the Word of God and treasure it and (if able to read) spend time in it regularly. I thank God that these men are continuing to read and follow the Word by their own testimony.

There was one other man, a brother in the Lord, that was in that prison through an unfortunate situation but not because of any sin he committed. He is now free, and we visited him and his family in their home and encouraged them in the Lord and were able to teach them a little bit about some important biblical issues. They were very grateful and built up by our visit and the Holy Spirit blessed our time.
 
A FAMILY IS REVIVED TO THE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL

We were very encouraged to visit a family who lives in the nearby city. A year ago, when we were staying in this area, I preached in a number of different churches. They were members of one church that I preached in. This particular church however, was absolutely horrible –prosperity preaching, almost every sermon about tithing, failure to preach foundational Biblical truth, tolerating serious sins in the members, etc. Though this family was really genuine about serving the Lord, they were being influenced by this deception. But it was no doubt the hand of the Lord that led us across their path. Just before we left that region to come to Guadalajara, I saw the urgent need testify against this “gospel” of greed that’s being beamed everywhere in Mexico through the TV networks, so I wrote a booklet and had it printed. We then distributed them to every believer we knew in the area, and gave them to others to take to their pastors. Just before we left, we visited the man of this family and gave him a copy of the book, of course having no idea how it would be received. I also ordered some books by David Wilkerson and had a sister that owns one of the only Christian book stores in the area to start reading and promoting his books. This family received one of those books too, and it started a revolution for Jesus. This was all a year ago.

Now, when we just visited them on this trip, they were overjoyed to see us! They said they had believed the prosperity message before, but now their eyes are opened. The Lord not only showed them the truth about that, but many other things as well, and enabled them to have discernment about the error of the churches there and to understand the truth of the Gospel clearly. They ended up leaving their backslidden church shortly after we left the area last year, but they haven’t left Jesus. The man of the family was full of the Word of God when we met up with them, and full of joy in the Lord. He owns a large clothing store, and now every Sunday, they open up a section of it and have meetings in it to teach the Word of God. God brought a personal revival to that man and his wife. It was beautiful to talk with them and to hear what the Lord has shown them over the past year. I was amazed at the things they were saying, that the Lord has shown them. There is such a freedom in Christ once the yoke of religious bondage is broken and one can truly love Christ in the simplicity of the Gospel without being bogged down by false pastors and religious harlotry.
 
THE STATE OF THE VILLAGE

This village is in a fairly remote region of Mexico and is not likely to see any other Gospel missionaries passing through any time soon. It is far different from anything in the USA. Here’s various pictures taken from around the village. There’s not much of the people or of us preaching in their homes because we don’t want to intrude and make them uncomfortable and skeptical of us.
This village is in desperate need of a church plant. I don’t know what else to say. This is the same village we just visited again and did the children’s program in. If we moved back there, we would need to purchase land, build a house for us, and build a chapel to hold meetings in and start preaching. There is already a group of Christians who would be the core group of the church to begin with. There are many others that are open to hearing the Word of God and are possibly on the verge of conversion, if somebody would move there and live there and keep preaching to them. The harvest is truly great, but the laborers few. What do we do? The problem is that the need is great everywhere, and I only want to go where the Lord sends us. Please pray that the Lord will build His church in that village. There is land for sale right now in a key location to construct a house and a chapel, but we don’t have the means to purchase them now or else we would, and then move there at a later date. We are praying for God’s perfect will to be done. Your prayers are greatly appreciated!

It really seems like the Devil hates us being in that village. There are so many obstacles we’ve faced there. Even just this last time, it seemed like dangers would jump out at us! The last three nights we were there, we ran into three dangerous creatures. The first of those nights, we came back at night into the house where we were staying, and there was a tarantula waiting for us next to our tent! The second night, we came back to the house and in the place of the tarantula, now there was a very large scorpion! I managed to stomp on him and kill him though. “I give you power to trample serpents and scorpions” (Luke 10:19). Then the last night, as we were walking to the house, a large dog was waiting along the road. He came up growling ferociously, and then lunged forward barking and growling at me, apparently intending to bite me. As soon as he did that, I turned to him and said, “Go away in the name of Jesus!” and he backed off. Praise God! You might not think it’s a miracle but when there’s a big ferocious dog ready to tear your leg off and the name of Jesus saves you, you might think differently. This village is not a pleasant place to live, but it is the home of many people who need Jesus.

FINAL REMARKS

- We are working on obtaining our Mexican citizenship, first for Lina, and then for me. If we’re able to secure this, we will have all privileges in Mexico except for voting privileges. Then there will be no need to cross the border every six months and be unnecessarily attached to the US. It would give us dual-citizenship. Praying that if this is the Lord’s will, He will bring it through. 

- A brother is coming to visit us later today (Thursday) from the US and will be staying for a week. We’re praying that our time will be edifying and glorify the Lord and further the Gospel here.

- We will be visiting Texas in February, possibly driving up to Dallas. If anybody is in that area and would like to host us during that time (one to three weeks) please respond and let us know. We’re not picky, can provide our own food, and can even sleep on the floor. We are required to spend at least a couple weeks there it looks like in order to work on citizenship in Mexico.

In Chirst –Josef & Lina Urban

More Pictures below:
1. The two sisters who taught the children on the left. Me and brother Luis on the right. I was feeling extremely ill that day!
2. A mountain range just outside our village.
3. A tarantula that we found in our house.
4. A pastor with his family and some brethren with us in their house after a church meeting.
 
 
Brethren and friends,

Much has been happening here and the Lord is being glorified. 


Here’s some highlights:

- We are still evangelizing in the city every week with our little group. We are planning to begin evangelizing in new areas in the city starting next month. There are many great places to evangelize in this city and there are countless people. We need more laborers!

- I’m still ministering to the youth/singles group in the church. It has been going well. As one brother commented to me recently, it is one thing to be an evangelist and to jump around everywhere preaching to different people but it is entirely another thing to actually get in the church and minister over time to real people and to see all their faults, problems, and struggles. Please pray that the Lord would pour out His Spirit on this group and convert those needing real salvation, revive those who have fallen asleep in the light, and send those into the fields who are called to reach the perishing!

- We are also discipling a couple of new believers every week in their home. This has been going very well and they are showing signs of growth in the Lord. We now have about 4 or 5 months meeting with them. Part of the Great Commission is not just to preach and to make converts, but to make disciples, to teach them the Word of Christ and to obey His commandments. One true disciple that bears lots of fruit for God’s glory is better than a hundred converts that show little fruit.

- A young woman from the city where we evangelize has now been coming to every meeting in the church and is being discipled by the older women. She has shown a great hunger for the Lord and is showing a lot of signs of genuine devotion to Christ. 

- We just finished the evangelism teaching meetings in the church after concluding by teaching for the past month and a half about Roman Catholicism. Most of the people here in the city are Catholics, so we studied their doctrines in comparison with the Word of God in order to know how to best reach them with the truth of the real Gospel of God’s grace. Many were edified and blessed by the teachings, and I believe are gaining confidence in sharing with others.

- I’ve been seeking the Lord for direction about ministry plans for the new year, and it is our desire to continue working in Guadalajara at this time. We have some brethren from the USA coming to visit us early next year, and I still need to work on my Spanish, in addition is our desire to see a more solid work established in this city that will bear lasting fruit. We are making disciples, not just converts. So we need more time here in this city to see a more solid, deep, and thorough work established. I don’t want to move on anywhere else until I see that what we’ve done here will continue to multiply significantly in our absence. I don’t know what the future holds, just trusting the Lord to lead us to do what He wills.

MISSION TRIP TO GUERRERO

The inner regions of the state of Guerrero, Mexico is like a world all of its own. It is about as different from Guadalajara as India is from England. It is rural Mexico where there are still many villages isolated from the Gospel and without any solid Christian witness in their midst. We lived there for 4 months, and now we’re going back for a short visit.

So we’re planning on taking a one-week trip back to the village. We’ll be there from December 26 thru January 3.  It is an 11 hour drive from here into the heart of Mexico through the Sierra mountains. This time, we are bringing a team from our church, a group that consists of a couple professional teachers of young children (who are solid Christians) and a couple of brothers. We are excited to go back for a visit and to see the brethren there we know.

We are taking these teachers to the village to conduct a one-week Bible boot camp for the 50+ children who would come to our meetings when we lived there. We’ll be using the town hall in the center of this small town of 600 persons in order to conduct activities with Bible teaching every day for 5 days straight. We have the whole curriculum planned out with activities, and most of all with teachings from the Bible. We’ll also be bringing gifts for the children as well as free Bibles for them to have. When we were staying in this village, we saw the children as a key to reaching the adults, and sure enough, as we ministered to the children, some of the hearts of their parents would soften to the Gospel and they’d want to hear us preach too. Reaching these children is crucial for the future of the village if the Lord tarries, so this is an important ministry. We must suffer the children to come to Jesus. Please pray for us as we go.

We will also be going around to houses and sharing the Gospel with the villagers when we’re there, especially me and the brothers while the women are ministering to the children. I may also be preaching in some churches when we’re there and visit the men in the prison we used to minister to in the nearby town to check up on them and see where they’re at with the Lord. One of the brothers from the prison has been released and he begged me to visit his home when we go so he can have a feast for us and rejoice in the Lord! He wants to buy and slaughter a goat to eat (a delicacy here in Mexico) and have us preach to him and his family. I’m looking forward to it. This brother was in tears when we left to come to Guadalajara, so it will be great to see him again and exhort him in the Lord.

Since we left this area, a couple of sisters in the Lord have also made an exodus from a horrible church they were a part of. The culprits behind their leaving is the truth of the Gospel and some books of sermons by David Wilkerson that we gave them. Now I don’t go around recommending people to leave their churches, but when the church is dead and the leadership is unconverted and more lies are preached than truth and almost every service is a manipulation tactic on behalf of the leadership to extort money from the people, the Word of God commands us to separate from it. So we hope to visit them and see how they are doing in the Lord.

We are hoping to have a safe and fruitful trip. The area is very dangerous, from scorpions to mafia, so please pray for us all to have a safe and successful mission. The Lord’s will be done.
 
THE NEW YEAR

Another year is coming, and what will it hold? Only the Lord knows. This last year we have seen the Gospel preached to literally thousands of people. Preaching in the city almost every weekend, twice per week, we have seen a lot of people hear the Gospel. Most of them, however, are not from the center of the city but from places farther away, and so it’s hard to keep contact with them. If we had our own meeting place to preach the Word and worship the Lord, I’m am sure we would be able to see more visible fruit from our evangelism. This next year, Lord willing, we may do just that. We had a few steady followers when we did early this last year, and they were very sad to see us stop the meetings in the hotel conference room when we did. So we’re praying about starting a new work, separate from the established church we’re a part of right now. Church planting is a serious calling, and we can’t do it alone. If it’s the Lord will, He will send more laborers to help us.

My Spanish is definitely improving. I’m now at a basic conversational level. I’ve been able to witness and share the Gospel with people all by myself now and understand their conversation. This new year, Lord willing, will see my first sermon preached entirely in Spanish. I’m excited about it. It’s certainly been no easy task thus far. We must press on in the Lord, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith!

In Christ –Josef & Lina Urban
 
 
I would like to share a few testimonies from our inner city evangelism as of late.

DOES JESUS STILL HEAL PEOPLE?
Recently, as I was open air preaching and Lina was translating, we finished by inviting people to come forward to hear more about the Gospel, have their questions answered, receive Gospels of John, or to receive prayer. An old man came forward very slowly, limping and stumbling very slowly, obviously having a great difficulty walking. As he approached, he told us that he had a sciatic nerve problem and that nothing he does can cause the pain to be relieved. No matter which way he stands, or sits, or lays, it hurts just the same, and he could hardly walk. So in faith, the man asked for prayer. We prayed and laid hands on him in the name of Jesus, and the pain ceased. He told us that it felt warm when we were praying, and that it doesn't hurt any more. Then he quickly walked off without limping and without any difficulting walking! Actually, he walked off so fast that we didn't even get a chance to talk to him any more, and barely managed to get a Gospel of John in his hands!

OPEN AIR CAMPAIGNERS
We have also managed to meet another brother that open air preaches in the city. He is with the ministry, "Open Air Campaigners". These guys are known for their sketch board method, where they paint and preach at the same time on the streets. This brother brings a blacklight and florescent paint and as it gets dark in the city squares, the paint glows on the board and it attracts a lot of people. We have been meeting up with him lately to preach. Just this last weekend, they had a whole team come in from Canada and do an evangelistic campaign in the city. It was a great time of witnessing to all the people that gathered, and all of us had some really good conversations with people about their eternity. We have a couple of contacts from this outreach of people requesting that we come to their home to give them personal bible studies.

EX-DRUNKARD STILL CHANGED
Some of you reading this may recall Javier, the man we talked about around 6 months ago. He was a man that lived on the street, homeless, and was one of the worst drunkards we ever saw. He couldn't even eat without washing his food down with strong liquor or else he would get the shakes and vomit. As we would preach in the city, he would frequently stand by weeping and crying out to God for forgiveness. During that time, not only was he homeless, in bondage to alcohol, but he was also violent and suicidal. It was just a matter of time before he died on those hard streets. But one day when we were preaching he finally said he wants to change. So we took him to a Christian rehabilitation center in the city and get this, they rejected him, saying he was too far gone. They told us to bring him back in a few days if we can manage to keep him sober for that long. So having no other choice, we took him into our home.

During that time, he wept constantly. He went through withdrawls, through shakes, through mood swings, etc. But every time he would get bad we would pray for him and he would feel better. Well, after that few days of staying in our house, he was sobered up and feeling better. Now he didn't want to go to that rehab center any more. So we put him on a bus and sent him to his parents' house.

Now his parents had rejected him and kicked him out of their house because of his drinking problem. But now that he was sober, he was going to try to go back. Since then, we hadn't really heard from him.

Last night, we ran into him as he was walking through the city. He actually stopped to hear the brothers with us preaching, and we saw him there. He looked different! No longer dirty, smelling like alcohol. He was clean, nice clothes, and had glasses on his face! He would always tell us that he wanted glasses so he could see but he didn't have any money, and he wanted them so bad that we prayed and asked the Lord to give him glasses. Well, now he had them! He told us that he was now living in his parents house, which means that he's not drinking like he used to. And also, he had found a job at a tire shop and was working. His next step is to learn how to read.

It doesn't appear that he is converted yet, though it is hard to tell seeing that even if he was, he wouldn't be able to read the Bible and so his spiritual growth would be greatly stunted. He has heard the Gospel numerous times and even seen evangelistic films about the life of Jesus, so he does have enough knowledge of the Word to produce saving faith if the Lord grants it. But all this is a tremendous miracle to the glory of God. This man appeared to be past hope, the worst of the worst, the most filthy of all people in bondage to sin, but the Lord has done a work! Christ died to save sinners! He is the Great Physician to those who are sick!

 
 
2 YEARS IN MEXICO

On October 26, it will be 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.


In Christ –Josef Urban
www.puregospeltruth.com
 
 
We are now back in Guadalajara, Mexico after a month-long excursion to Texas, Ohio and Michigan. It was a blessing during our time back to the USA to see some brethren in the Lord and spend some time in fellowship with them. I was also able to visit much of my family and even to testify to some of them about the truth of the Gospel. But even though it was good to visit friends and family, I must be honest, my heart was still here in Guadalajara.  

We have such a precious blessing here. A solid local church to be a part of, a body of believers to fellowship with, Godly men who are elders in the faith to be encouraged by, a harvest field to labor in amongst the lost of this city, an evangelism team to equip and train, individuals to disciple unto fruitfulness, and a youth group to minister to with the hopes of seeing Christ worshiped as King of all, obeyed as Lord of all, and believed as Savior of all. My heart longs to see true conversions take place from amongst the perishing, true discipleship in practice amongst the Lord’s people, and biblical Christianity demonstrated by the church. The task is great, the stakes are high, the opposition is tremendous, yet the recompense is promising and the Lord is worthy of receiving the reward of His suffering. We are called to be aflame for God and shine as lights in this dark world, glorifying His holy name to the uttermost. Can we settle for anything less? Oh, that He would cause His love to burn in our hearts, our eyes to be single on His glory, our minds consumed with His Word, our hands to be strengthened in His work, our ears quickened to His call, our foreheads set like flint against the wicked, our feet swift to run with His Good News, and our voices amplified to cry aloud and spare not, to proclaim the Everlasting Gospel of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ!  

The Lord is doing something in our midst. He is stirring us up to believe for greater things. May it please God to grant that our own eyes see the day when His Spirit once again moves in the midst of His people as in times of old! How I long to see the Apostolic faith proclaimed and lived and demonstrated in power (not the Apostolic faith of the denominational, oneness sort, but that of the Book of Acts sort). We need to beseech the throne of grace with earnest petitions until the Lord looks upon us and rains down righteousness once again like a mighty river. But where, oh where, are the preachers sent of the Holy Ghost who are divinely commissioned to break up the fallow ground and prepare the way (Hos. 10:12)? Raise them up, oh Lord!!! Make your people willing in the day of your power! May the Lord reach down in sovereign grace and raise up laborers for His harvest! May the Spirit of God do a work to convert these heathen who grope about in the darkness of their sin, that the scales of their blinded eyes may fall off that they may too behold the beauty of the Son of God! Dear brethren, pray for God to move in our midst! And pray that God-sent laborers would be raised up to labor in this wicked fallen nation to turn the people from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God!  

We are getting settled right now back into our humble abode in the city and preparing to resume the ministry. Up to this time, we have been buffeted with numerous infirmities and sicknesses akin to the foreign field, mainly with stomach illnesses, and request your prayers for our health that we can labor more effectively in the Lord’s service. Within the next couple of weeks, we are planning on resuming the teaching, preaching and evangelism.  

The youth group meeting has truly been blessed of the Lord thus far. We were able to hold several meetings on a weekly basis prior to our departure to the USA, and outside of these meetings, spend some time with some of the young people. Some good fruit has already come forth from this, and we are praying earnestly that more would come. Some of the parents of these youth have already been testifying to us of positive changes they are seeing in their sons since coming to the meetings. Some of those who always seemed apathetic and indifferent during the other meetings are now appearing to become attentive to the Word with some level of interest. We are looking forward, if the Lord is willing, to minister to these youth much more.   

We also have had a Catholic lady come into the meetings and by her own testimony it appears that she was converted. –I don’t know exactly the means of her conversion, or whether it was the result of these meetings, but I do know that she has expressed an earnest desire to serve the Lord and is very receptive to the Word in the meetings now. She came in one week saying she was a Catholic and then came in the next week testifying of knowing that Jesus saved her and having her eyes opened to Scriptural truth that will get one kicked out of the Catholic church. She originally came because of an invite by someone else in the church, and has since had some kind of conversion experience and her apparent zeal now seems to exceed that of the ‘sister’ that invited her! Isn’t it wonderful how the Lord works?  

Our evangelism training meetings have also seen the hand of God upon them. Generally, I will teach a foundational lesson on the Gospel (how can you evangelize rightly if you don’t even know the real Gospel?), on presenting the Gospel, or on some practical matter of evangelism, and then afterwards we will have a time of corporate prayer before dismissing and meeting the team in the downtown area of the city to put it all into practice on the streets. We have from 20 to 50 people show up at these meetings every week (the numbers have been increasing). As we unite in prayer after the teaching, we pray for ourselves, for the church, and for the outreach. In these prayer meetings we’ve seen the hand of God move unexpectedly, and come down with a peculiarly strong presence of the Holy Spirit. Seemingly out of nowhere, various persons will break out into loud weeping, and confessing their sins with a remarkable degree of desperation asking Christ to pardon them. The Lord seemed to really be searching the hearts of men in these meetings, and exposing secret things, deep heart sins, that no one ever knew about except that person and the Lord, and the person will confess it openly in fervent prayer. The Lord has been in the midst and we worship His holy name.   

Also, there is another apparent conversion that had taken place recently. A woman who grew up in the church and claimed to be a Christian all her life appears to have finally been converted after many years of such religiosity. As we met with her and explained what real repentance, faith, and regeneration are, she realized she was undone and unsaved. She went before the Lord and surrendered herself to him with a sincere heart confessing her sin, and has testified to experiencing peace and joy in the Holy Spirit in knowing her sins were forgiven. This was about two months ago. She has since continued to bring forth fruit, have a hunger for the written Word of God, and experience the Lord working in her life in practical areas of sanctification, thereby giving visible evidence that a real work of grace has indeed taken place. The angels rejoice to see such things. We now meet with her on a weekly basis to teach her and her husband from the Bible.  

There is one more individual that I’d like to share about. This testimony was encouraging to me. Often times, when people see that we preach in the open air and that many people mock and only a few stop to listen, I am asked if any good comes out of it. Many people, even Christians, think that it is almost a waste of time. But we have seen the Lord use such “foolishness” (of preaching) for His own glory! Recently, Lina and another sister that evangelizes with us ran into a man who was in the square to hear us preach. As they engaged in conversation with him they quickly learned that he had testified to being converted. He began to share how. He told them that some time prior, he had listened to us open air preaching in that very square, and after we finished, we invited everyone to come forward to receive a free Gospel of John. So he came forward and took one. He proceeded to read the whole thing. Then, one day shortly after as he was driving in his car, he shared how the Lord just came down and converted him. While he was driving, he felt like a heat come over his whole body, then immediately a deep-hearted conviction for sin and godly sorrow, and repented before the Lord believing in Christ, all right in his car. He shared how he was changed, and immediately after this, someone gave him a Bible. He said that he had been reading it all the time with a hunger to know God’s will, and proceeded to testify to his family what the Lord did in him, trying to preach to them the little he knew from the Bible. He also expressed sadness though in that he didn’t understand why his Catholic family wouldn’t accept his testimony and began to shun him because of it. Lina was able to encourage him in the Lord and to give him some important exhortations and warnings, especially with regards to keeping guard against false churches and false doctrines and the importance of knowing God’s Word and of following the witness of the Holy Spirit within. 

People try to tell me all the time that the grace of God is not sovereign in its operations, that it doesn’t operate solely according to the will of God but is subject also to the will, desire and works of man. Yet not only does the Word of God say otherwise, but testimonies such as these don’t support their ideas either. I see in this testimony a man who was on his way in his blindness and ignorance and all of a sudden God just came down suddenly and converted him. Salvation is by the will of God (Eph. 1:11), the redemption of Christ (Col. 1:14), and the power of the Holy Spirit (Eze. 36:26-27), according to free and sovereign grace shed abundantly upon sinners in mercy resulting in regeneration which produces a changed life to the glory of God alone (Tit. 3:5-6). That’s the Apostle Paul’s testimony on the road to Damascus, that’s my testimony on the road to iniquity, and that appears to be this man’s testimony on the road in his car. By His mercy, I will preach sovereign grace until I die, for that is the essence of the Gospel. I’m not talking about debating Calvinism or Arminianism here (and it’s a shame that we can’t even hardly speak of salvation being of the Lord without people itching to attach to us such labels of men) but I’m talking about the Almighty power of God in conversion that can save any man He pleases. I fully admit that man has his own responsibility, but I also say that although man has full responsibility for his own sin, he has no ability to free himself from that sin in his spiritually dead state apart from divine operations of the Spirit of God in opening blind eyes, unstopping deaf ears, and imparting new life. Man is totally and utterly dependant on the Lord to save him, and thus salvation is of the Lord, and not of the works of man. Thus all men have only to look to Christ, and Christ alone, to be saved. And in order to do so, they must look away from themselves. Thus saving faith in its essence is not a work at all, but is the opposite of a work, it is an act of total surrender and submission to Christ (and, of course, this faith will inevitably result in good works).  

Well, all this had taken place before we left to the USA. I never had a chance to update you all on these things, so have only been able to do so just now. So this gives you an idea of what is going on and what we are coming back to now that we’ve returned.  

My Spanish studies are now resumed as I devote several hours per day to studying the language. It’s harder than you may think! At least for me, that is! My comprehension is improving drastically but my tongue is yet so slow to speak. May the Lord help me!

In Christ –Josef Urban www.puregospeltruth.com
 
 

Dear brethren and friends, 

I have not been able to send out an update or a bible teaching the last month, as we have been too busy in other things. As a young missionary, with still under 2 years on the foreign mission field, I am still learning a lot of things that only time and experience can teach. There are so many things I have learned recently that I can only wish were taught to me before ever departing for the mission field, things that would have saved me time and energy and caused our labors to be a little more fruitful. Yet even so, I am humbled and grateful that the hand of God has been with us all along and led us along in His perfect will as we walk by faith and not by sight, and my wife and I both marvel time and time again when the grace of God shows itself strong in miraculous ways in our midst.

One of the things I’ve been learning lately is how to balance my time appropriately. Now I’m not one to squander away precious time when the Lord commands us to redeem the time, so that’s not what I’m talking about. But what I’m talking about is managing priorities, obligations, personal time, and rest time properly. This can all be an extremely difficult balance to find, especially when there are so many things to do that they can’t all possibly get done. But with all this, it is for this reason that I haven’t written an update lately. I felt there have been more important things to do (including rest once in a while!). So I could certainly use prayers for wisdom and guidance in all these details of life and ministry.

So much has happened the last two months that I can’t even possibly try to outline everything. But let me give you some highlights.

EQUIPPING THE SAINTS

I mentioned in our last update how we had found a solid biblical local church in the city here and have had a great time of fellowship with some brethren. I also mentioned that there were some who were coming out to the streets with us to evangelize (for the first time!) by passing out tracts and sharing the Gospel with people. By the grace of God, this ministry has continued, and more have been coming out with us the last couple of months. We have now had about 15 people from this church come to the city with us to evangelize. There are more brethren getting equipped to do the work of evangelism now, which is very encouraging to us.

DISCIPLESHIP

I have been teaching another young man every week lately, meeting up with him to give him foundations in the faith. He is a new convert and has a lot of struggles of his own (as we all did especially when we were newly converted) and it has been such a privilege and blessing to be able to be there for him at this time. Lina and I are planning on visiting with both him and his wife at their home on a weekly basis now to teach them both the principles of the doctrines of Christ. We had a wonderful time last week as we had dinner with them and answered many of their questions from the Word of God afterwards for several hours, and the Lord is really doing something in both of them. I will purposely spare you the details to protect their privacy. This month, we are planning on teaching them through the book of 1 John verse by verse (overview style with simple exposition) to give them some kind of foundation in basic salvation truths. 1 John is an excellent book to start with in teaching Bible studies, for many reasons. It is addressed to babes in Christ, mature Christians, and fathers in the faith, and has a wide practical application in many ways.

EVANGELISM TRAINING CLASS STARTS

The pastor and elders of the church we’re a part of have now agreed to have us teach a weekly evangelism training class in the meeting house every weekend. This is not something that we went out of our way to try to force our way through this door, but it is something that they have come to agreement on after recognizing the need and seeing the fruit from what we’re already doing (and with the encouragement of another missionary brother, Chris). This is an answer to prayer and we are looking forward to seeing these brethren equipped to effectively share the Gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit. Every Saturday starting tomorrow, Lord willing, we will meet and teach some practical evangelism truths, answer questions, train the brethren, pray for the outreach, and then go together to the downtown region of the city to preach Christ!

I must confess now that I’m praying for an open air preacher. Please join me with your prayers!!! I want a bold open air preacher (at least one) raised up from this group. I want to see someone have his belly filled with the fire of the Holy Spirit and to be burning to preach Christ boldly in the open air. Someone with a real preaching anointing. This is not too much to ask. There are some good prospects already, but a little more maturing, a little more boldness, and more anointing of the Holy Spirit is necessary to see this in them, according the sovereign will and pleasure of our great God.

YOUTH GROUP MINISTRY

I have also been asked to hold meetings for the youth every week in this church. Well, they are “sort of” like youth. Some are 14 and over, and are up to the age of 40. It’s mainly a singles group, but with a lot of youth too. The total number of them is about 40 we’ve been told. This Wednesday, Lord willing, should be our first meeting. I am looking forward to this with great eagerness! Some of these young people are real converts and need someone to really spend time with them and teach them the things of God more profoundly. Others are false converts that have grown up in the church all their lives and have never been born again, being turned off by the hypocrisy around them. I have been asked to pour myself out to them and to preach and hold meetings that will edify the true believers and convict the compromised and religious. We need God to come down and shake the place! Pray for an outpouring of power from on high!

We are not going to have video games, worldly movies, card games, and foolish trinkets of the world in our midst in order to tailor to the carnal lusts of unconverted young rebels. We are going to focus on the glory of God, on glorifying His Son Jesus Christ with our lives, on being sold out for His Kingdom, on reckless abandon to follow Him, on having a heart of passion to obey the Lord Jesus. We will preach the pure Gospel truth to young and old alike and call all men to repentance and faith and to bear fruit meet for repentance and to dedicate themselves as living sacrifices for the Gospel. We will have times of fellowship too, I am sure, and time to get to know more of the young people and build relationships with them and really try to be there for their spiritual needs. Young people don’t need to find their identities and entertainment in the things of this world (especially by bringing the world into the church) but rather they need to see true Christianity lived before their eyes in sincerity and truth.

We have already been spending some time with some of these young adults and fellow brethren and it really seems like the Lord is blessing this a lot. I believe some are truly getting revived and the Lord is really trying to get a hold of them to use them powerfully for His glory.

EVANGELISTIC OUTREACH

The evangelistic outreaches are continuing every weekend as we go to the city center and share the Gospel. Our speakers for open air preaching have been broken down for the past month so we haven’t been able to function like normal lately! But we all have been personally ministering with people one to one and the Lord has blessed it. Our speaker was just repaired so Lord willing, we will now be able to preach abroad again! I have missed doing this the past month!

Many of those who are coming have had great conversations with the lost and there are many testimonies we could share but will spare the time.

A DETERRED SUICIDE SEEKS TO LEARN MORE ABOUT JESUS

A wonderful testimony I would like to share. There was a man who heard Lina and I open air preaching about 6 months ago and was affected by the Word but never repented or obeyed anything. He wrote us an email saying “Dios les bendiga” (God bless you) and that he heard us preaching, but we never heard from him again. Well, recently, about a month ago, as we went to the city to preach, we found that our normal spot was occupied by some large event so we couldn’t preach there. So we went to a different location and preached there instead. During the night, one of the sisters with us began talking to somebody there and shared the Gospel with him. Long story short, he was on the verge of committing suicide, planning to go do so right then, when he was stopped by her. He changed his mind and decided that it wouldn’t be the best thing and that it would be better to seek God instead. That’s a good testimony in itself! But then, later in the week, we received an email from that guy that emailed us 5 months ago, requesting to meet up with us when we’re in the city to have a bible study with him. So as we went to the city, we were waiting for him, and when he showed up, we found that it was the same guy! The same guy we had preached to 5 months ago, the same guy that our sister preached to and snatched from the jaws of death, and now he was here to hear more about how to be converted.

We were able to instruct him more in the things of God, and he has even been coming back so we could teach him. He told us that he’s been praying and crying out to God to save him, confessing his sins, asking the Lord to give him the Holy Spirit. He was discouraged that nothing happened immediately, but as we taught him about the cost of discipleship, true faith, and persevering in prayer, he was encouraged again. We are praying that he gets truly converted.

YOUR PRAYERS ARE COVETED

The last newsletter, I wrote about being discouraged at times from not seeing much fruit in our labors and asked for prayer, I believe. Well, thanks be to God who always causes us to triumph in Christ, it seems like the Lord is answering these prayers and is allowing us to have a little more reward from our labors in seeing lives changed by the testimony and power of the Gospel. Your continued prayers are coveted. It has really seemed like the Lord is leading us to minister more to the brethren than to the lost lately and blessing our efforts in this. I have always had a greater passion for the lost who don’t know Christ than for the brethren who already do, but as the Lord is maturing me and causing me to see things from other perspectives in His Word, I am seeing the great importance of ministering to and equipping the brethren. Conversion is just passing through the door of the Kingdom, but spiritual growth is a lifelong process that consists of the journey from there on out!

There was a missionary brother named Chris Berger that was in Guadalajara for a while but has returned to Texas to prepare for future ministry in Mexico, and he was a great blessing to fellowship with and to help us minister to the brethren (or should I say that we helped him, rather!). There truly is a love amongst the real people of God and a level of fellowship that this world knows nothing about! We miss him and lot (and know that he’s probably reading this!). God bless you brother, may the Lord use you to “make His name famous among the nations”. 

TRIP TO THE USA   

This level of Spanish school for me ends at the end of this month. Then, in the beginning of August we are planning on making a trip to the US (to Ohio and Michigan). We have to leave the country every 6 months to renew our visas and car permit, so we’ll using this time to rest, visit family and brethren, handle some necessary business, and gear up for another round if the Lord wills. We plan on being there for the month of August and returning to Guadalajara by the beginning of September. We may be driving up, or we may be flying. I am not sure yet. But if we’re driving, and you are somewhere on the way and you have a church or fellowship you would like me preach in or share about our work in Mexico, I am open to considering the invitation.

CONCLUSION

Finally, may the God of grace be with all those who call on His name with a pure heart. Brethren, pray for us!

In CHRIST – Josef
www.puregospeltruth.com

 
 

This month has been busy in laboring in the Gospel. Typically, I have been on a schedule of preaching 5 times per week between the outreaches, rehab-center, discipleship, and Sunday meetings. In addition to this, we have been fellowshipping at a local church in Guadalajara here and meeting with the pastor to pray for conversions and revival. I have also re-enrolled in a Spanish language school and am studying for hours every day of the week in and out of school. My Spanish is getting a lot better, and I am able to understand much of what is being spoken, but still find great difficulty in speaking it myself and am unable to communicate appropriately. At the current pace, I hope to be conversational within 4-5 months, Lord willing. 

In Guadalajara, we are attempting to make not just converts, but real disciples of Jesus Christ who love the Lord and truly follow Him. Of course, this takes labor. Lot’s of it. It is utterly impossible apart from the power of God. We are recognizing our great need more and more. We need a Holy Spirit visitation from on high to grip the hearts of sinners and squeeze them into submission to Christ through the grace of the Gospel. No true lasting work can be established here apart from genuine spiritual awakening in the souls of men.

“Missions” in Christianity today tends to be so shallow, so cheap, so systematized, that it’s sick and grieving to God. Some men boast of planting dozens of churches within a few short years, yet never speak of true visitation from God in converting sinners radically, which means that the churches they’ve planted are most likely filled with false converts. I’ve seen some of these churches, where the “converts” that are in them are nothing more than people who have prayed a “sinner’s prayer” and made a “decision for Christ” and have continued in it by being religious and going to a meeting, but lack genuine fruit of Christian love and holiness evidenced in their lives and totally lack any true commitment to Christ. I am completely convinced that planting a church is a laborious process of sowing, planting and watering and working in the Word until the Lord brings the harvest. It can take years to establish a single small Biblical church apart from an extraordinary move of God. Dear fellow brethren, pray for us, pray for the people here, that they would be awakened and converted!

So we are continuing to open air preach in the market squares and to teach through the Bible in a hotel conference room every Sunday. Our attendance is discouraging at times. One week we will have just one person show up, then the next week six people, and then the next week 5, then the next week only two. Now I don’t take pride in numbers, but it’s pretty discouraging when you preach the Gospel to literally hundreds of people, and a couple dozen express their desire to find genuine Christian fellowship and to be taught the Bible, and say they are going to come to the meetings, yet when it comes down to it they never show up and there is very little commitment among those who do. We continue to labor as unto the Lord, and not unto men.

The Lord has ordained our steps and led us to a local church in the city here that preaches a true Gospel and holds to sound doctrine (on majors). The pastor of this fellowship is truly a man of conviction. We’ve had some blessed times of fellowship with him. We’ve also met some brethren who are a part of that fellowship and they’ve even come out on the streets with us to evangelize. Two young ladies from there came out with over a month ago for the first time, and they had never evangelized before. Though they were nervous, the Lord took over and they have been sharing the Gospel boldly on the streets every since, both with us and apart from us. The people around them in the church are telling us now that they’ve been “revived” since coming out with us and have such a passion for the Lord. Glory be to God! There are also some others from there that have come out to preach with us, including one of the elders one day.

We’ve been having some great times of sharing the Gospel with certain people on the streets. People just being affected by the Word, and expressing signs of conviction and desire for repentance.

There was a man who met us on the train the other week. He came up to Lina and I as we were talking in English and said, “Excuse me, but are you guys Christians?” We said, “Yes, why do you ask?” And he replied by saying that he couldn’t understand what we were saying, but he just saw something different about us. He said that he had a recent conversion. We talked with him for a few minutes before we had to exit the train. Well, last weekend he ran into us again, this time as we were preaching in the city. He told us that recently he had a dream, and in the dream we were preaching to people that they need to read the Bible every day. He even described something that I tend to do when I preach that he had seen in his dream, and it was true, even though he had never seen me preach in real life prior to that. So he got convicted because he wasn’t reading his Bible all the time, so when he woke up, he went out and bought a new Bible and has been reading it since. This just shows me the ability and power of God, apart from human means. I commented to Lina that it’s kind of nice preaching to people in their dreams, it didn’t take me any extra work! Glory to God. Truly though, God can use His servants in any way He pleases, and He can also operate outside the natural bounds of how we tend to limit Him, and do as He wills when He wills.

We have also been able to purchase a small printer recently which enables us to print Christian literature in Spanish for a cheaper price than getting them printed elsewhere. So this should be a good means of getting some solid teaching into the brethren here that we fellowship with and run into. We plan on printing out more articles and booklets that I am writing along with certain study guides, Bible reading guides, puritan writings, revival literature, and some solid theological teachings on various subjects as needed. Those who have supported us in prayer and in giving have certainly shared a part in this work that the Lord is doing, and we are so very grateful, and certain souls I am sure will be eternally grateful. I thank God for the love of our brethren back in the US, many of whom are going through tough times themselves, yet show the love of Christ in generosity and support anyways.

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58).

There is so much more I could say, so much more that has been done, so much more to testify to the grace of God, but here I conclude. We need your prayers, that the glory of God can be known to a people who don’.

In Christ –Josef Urban
www.puregospeltruth.com

 
April 2009 04/15/2009
 

We have had a wonderful month to the glory of God. How can I possibly begin to describe the things the Lord has done? My words fail to adequately detail His mercy and grace toward us and toward the people we have been given the privilege to minister to in the name of Jesus.


VISITORS FROM THE USA 


This month, we have had three different brothers from the United States come down and visit us. We have also had a few different brethren who are in Guadalajara meet up with us for fellowship and street ministry. They were all a blessing in helping us and in sharing the Word of God faithfully.

The first team that came down was Warren and Saul from California. Here is a picture:

These brothers were such a blessing to have around. Saul is originally from Guadalajara here, and so we were able to visit some of his family and share the Word of God with them. His Dad has recently become a believer, and we were able to spend a night with him and share some teachings with him from the Bible (the picture above is from his Dad's property). This was Warren's first time being outside the USA, and he was a tremendous encouragement to us to have his fellowship. Both of these brothers joined us in preaching and evangelizing.


The other brother, Judah, arrived the day after they left and stayed for 10 days. Here is a picture of him playing Amazing Grace on his saxaphone on the street:


OPEN AIR PREACHING IN THE PLAZAS


We have had a blessed time open air preaching several days per week in the busy city center. This month we've been able to preach to hundreds of people and proclaim Christ and Him crucified openly as a testimony to His grace. We have seen some good fruit come out of this, and a number of people whose hearts were pricked and came forward asking us for prayer and help.

We currently have a permit to preach over our speakers on Fridays and Saturdays, from 4pm-9pm. We have been encouraged to see people respond to the preaching of the Word with a desire to know more about the ways of Christ.

Brother Saul who was visiting has a great burden for the city of Guadalajara here. As you probably know, Guadalajara is over 90%+ Roman Catholic. Saul grew up in this area as a professing Catholic, and no one had ever shared the Gospel with him. He had no idea what the Gospel was. It wasn't until a brother shared the truth with him later that he ended up believing and being converted. So even though he was fearful of open air preaching (as we all are when just starting!), he stepped out in boldness and PREACHED the GOSPEL in the OPEN AIR for the very FIRST TIME!!! The Lord really blessed him with joy in the Holy Spirit and he had a burning passion to share the Gospel from then on out, both open air and one-to-one. He would also translate for me when I preached since he knows fluent Spanish.

We also had another missionary brother from the US come on the outreach with us, and he also open air preached for the first time, sharing his testimony. 

I remember Warren saying how he would read our updates about people breaking down and weeping under conviction when the Word is preached. He thought, "oh that's great" to himself, yet had never seen that happen in the USA even though he goes out preaching every week. Yet when he was here, the Lord allowed him to see more than one person respond to the Gospel in such a way. So many people in this city have never heard the true Gospel and are hungry for real truth that can deliver them from their bondages, burdens and sins. Their hearts are ripe to receive the truth.

PERSONAL EVANGELISM AND SHARING TRUTH

When the Word of God is being proclaimed abroad in the open air, the Lord always has just a few souls that He's drawing and really working on. Without personal work in dealing with them where they are spiritually, there will be little lasting fruit as a result. We have been so blessed to have brethren come out with us and help us to do the most important part of evangelism -dealing with people as individuals and showing them our care for their souls and love of Christ through personal sharing and relationship building.

In answer to our prayers, the Lord has sent us a brother named Tonyo to do this very thing. Every time we preach, he is busy handing out tracts and ministering to people one-on-one. He invites them to our Bible studies. He takes the heat with the difficult people and hecklers. And the receptive souls he brings to us so we can talk to them. When we first met Tonyo, he had a lot of struggles with much of the Charismatic goofiness going on in so many churches. He had been taken advantage of by false apostles and been manipulated for a long time. We gave him my book on Prosperity Preachers and when he read it, his eyes were opened mightily. We have continued to teach and admonish him, and he has come to have his eyes opened to many things, including the "sinner's prayer" practice in evangelism and the necessity of preaching the whole counsel of God and not just the "bless-me" parts that people like to hear. We have been giving him books and sermons in Spanish from Paul Washer and David Wilkerson and he's devouring them in a hunger for truth and is experiencing a revival in his own walk with the Lord. So this brother is faithful to be there on every outreach we have to help in any way he can, even though he works a full-time job as a garbage man and is extremely busy. May the Lord send more laborers into His harvest!!! Here's a picture of us with Tonyo and another brother, Chris, that came out with us:

We have all had countless discussions with individuals about the state of their souls before God. It was a blessing to have Chris (on the right above) come out with us and share the Gospel with people, especially since Chris is nearly fluent in Spanish. We also had another missionary, Brian, from the same missions ministry as Chris, come out and preach with us.

A HOMELESS MAN GETS OFF THE STREETS  

There was a man in the city of Guadalajara that was in a real bad situation. His name is Javier. He was homeless because he was a chronic alcoholic. He had been drinking wine every day (or almost every day) for the last 20 years. He was in slavery to the bottle. He couldn't even eat solid food without washing it down with wine or liquer or else he would throw in back up. He was filled with hopelessness, depression and despair. He would throw himself in front of cars hoping to get run over. He would get into fights with people on the streets. His parents had kicked him out of their house, telling him not to come back unless he's sober. He was without hope in the world. 

When we were preaching one night, we noticed that this man was standing off to the side with tears streaming down his cheeks. We pleaded with him and prayed with him and he was humbled under the Word. Recently, he ended up running across us again. When we were preaching one night, he came back and wept and wept for a long time as we preached. He came back several times on different nights, and the conviction seemed to grow heavier and heavier upon him. Until one night, as I preached, he dropped his box from which he would sell candy right on the ground, and fell on his face crying out to God to forgive his sin. "My sin is so great!" he would keep saying. He stayed on his face for almost an hour crying. We stopped preaching and prayed with him. He said he wanted to stop drinking and change. So long story short, we ended up taking him into our house. On the way there, he threw his last bottle of wine into the trash, and then stayed with us a few days. He battled with the temptation to drink, but every time he would get really bad we would pray for him and he would feel better. He would sweat and shake and appear to be zoning out, but when we'd pray he would feel peace. We would read the Scriptures to him and showed him a couple of Films about Jesus since he's unable to read. After those days he was here, he ended up wanting to go back to his parent's house, confident now that they would receive him since he was sober. The day he left, he was looking really good. Please keep him in prayer. Here's a few pictures of him:

BIBLE STUDY MEETINGS

We have been teaching Bible studies in a central location in the city where we invite the people we preach to during the week. This gives us a chance to get into the Word with them more in depth and to teach them the commands of Jesus. This is a picture from a few weeks ago when brother Saul shared the Word:

Carolina, the young lady who is pregnant whose boyfriend used to beat her (who has since left) has been coming to our meetings. She is ready to give birth any time now to the baby that was going to initially be aborted. She has been coming under conviction and alarm to see that her soul isn't right with God. Please pray both for her conversion and for the safe delivery of the little girl.

Last Sunday, in addition to myself, Lina, and Judah, we had six other people show up to the meeting. I began a series on the Sermon on the Mount (Mat. 5, 6, 7), teaching verse by verse through this glorious sermon of our Lord. A man in attendance had never heard the Gospel. He was blown away at the things we would say. Literally, his eyes would open wide and his mouth would drop open and he would jump in his seat when he heard certain things, such as that Jesus is the only way to God and that praying to saints is idolatry.

We are praying that the Lord will bring more people to these meetings to hear the commands of Jesus taught straight from the Bible. It's amazing to see how utterly revolutionary the Lord's Word is. May the Lord raise up disciples who love Him and obey His precious commands.


OPEN DOORS IN DRUG REHAB CENTER


The Catholic drug rehabilitation center that I mentioned in the last update has now opened its doors to us to preach for an hour every week. But there's only one exception: we are not allowed to expressly and clearly preach against Catholicism. But they told us that whatever is in the Bible, we can preach. So we have gone in on a weekly basis to share the Word with these men, emphasizing the truths that they'll never hear in the Catholic Church. We preach Christ and Him crucified and His perfect, finished work, and His ability to justify completely and forever all who believe in Him. We explain true repentance and the glorious power of God in the New Birth. I know that as the true Gospel is preached, the strongholds of Satan will be torn down, and those who the Lord is drawing and saving will have their eyes opened to the apostate religion around them as the Holy Spirit gives them new spiritual life and light. 


DISCIPLING A COUPLE OF BELIEVERS

There are a couple of young ladies that came to us, hungry for the Word, requesting discipleship and teaching. They wanted to join a Bible college or institute, but have no money. So we told them that we would be willing to disciple them and give them the same type of teaching you can get in the institutes here (and even better). They were excited at the opportunity and have been coming to our house every week to receive teaching. We generally have a 4-6 hour day each week in which we teach them and show them videos by Paul Washer and others. I gave them a homework assignment to do a book report on a book by a friend of ours, and also to read and write an overview of each chapter of the New Testament every day with key verses written out and questions to discuss. One of these girls is Tonyo's daughter. We are praying that the Lord does a genuine work of grace in their hearts and sets them ablaze to burn with zeal for His glory.

2,000 SALVATION BOOKS PRINTED 

Thanks to the provision of God, we have been able to print 2,000 copies of "The Great Plan of Salvation" with a nice glossy, colorful cover this month. We were able to print them at a local shop for about 50 cents a piece. So we have been giving them out to those who are receptive to the Word, and have even already heard a couple of good testimonies come from reading them. It has been a blessing to give them out for free to all who show eagerness to hear the Gospel. We are so grateful for our brethren in the States who have been so generous in supporting this mission of the Lord's work, and trust that your prayers and generosity will certainly continue to bear fruit.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

Though we originally arrived in Guadalajara with the intentions of just staying a couple of months, the Lord has had plans otherwise. Our hearts have grown to have a burden for this sin-sick city. It sits under such religious bondage and demonic strongholds of all kinds, and yet has so many precious souls who are hurting and in desperate need of the mercies of the Savior. The Lord's hand is in this work every step of the way. We intend to stay longer, as long as the Lord leads, and hope to establish a work and disciple believers who will continue to bear fruit even after we move on.

There is so much more that I could share in this newsletter, so many wonderful things the Lord is doing even in our own lives, but must cut it short. Please pray for us that the Lord will keep us from temptation and sin, that He would give us grace in the Holy Spirit, that He would use us as vessels of honor for His glory, that He would pluck souls from the fire, and that He would continue to edify and strengthen His church here in this final hour, and prepare His Bride to face the great shaking ahead.

 
 

We are now back in Guadalajara, Mexico and are getting situated and praying for more open doors to preach the Gospel. If you are reading this and you pray for us, please pray for this, that God would open more doors for us to preach through and grant that we would be faithful to this stewardship. Paul said (Amplified):

And at the same time pray for us also, that God may open a door to us for the Word (the Gospel), to proclaim the mystery concerning Christ (the Messiah) on account of which I am in prison; That I may proclaim it fully and make it clear [speak boldly and unfold that mystery], as is my duty” (Colossians 4:3-4).

Though I’m not in prison like Paul was, my heart’s desire is the same, for an open door, and for faithfulness to proclaim the Gospel clearly and fully in this place. I know by experience that the Lord always answers this prayer, so please agree with me in prayer for this, that these people might hear to the glory of Christ! May God save His elect and impart faith to His lost sheep through the proclamation of the Word in this final hour!

Our 3-week stay in the US was a refreshing time of fellowship with the brethren there, and we were able to spend some time with Sean and Lisa Scott and some others. Mike Gendron and his wife (from www.pro-gospel.org) were extremely hospitable to us in the name of Christ and allowed us to stay in their guest home and took good care of us, may the Lord reward them abundantly. Mike ministers around the world preaching the Gospel and targets Catholics with the truth of Jesus Christ. You may have seen him preaching in a conference alongside Ray Comfort or John Macarthur. If you have any Catholic friends or relatives that need to hear the Gospel, I would highly recommend the resources his ministry puts out, as he has seen lot of Catholics abandon their apostate religion to embrace the finished work and person of Christ in saving faith.

We are now looking in Guadalajara for various avenues through which to preach and minister and are looking for at least one good drug rehabilitation center to minister in on a regular basis. We are working on getting permission to minister in a state prison about 30 min. from our home. Other possibilities are in consideration and prayer. The booklet on salvation is in the works on getting printed. We still have our meeting place for Bible studies every week, and are eager to see if the Lord will bring more to it as we continue to evangelize. We are trusting that the Lord is going to open the perfect doors and accomplish His perfect will here with us as we reach out. The street ministry will continue as long as the Lord wills, and we’re praying for souls.

In two weeks, we are having a team of a couple brethren come down to visit and to do some ministry here in Mexico. They will be here for 7 days, and then the day after they leave another brother is arriving and will be here for about 10 days. We’re really looking forward to this time of ministry and fellowship and request prayers for these brethren as they make the journey, and that they would be ministered to by the Holy Spirit during their stay. May Christ be glorified in our midst!

A good little testimony: A few days ago as we ventured out to find a drug rehab center to minister in, we ended up finding one that was close to where we are staying. We went in and asked if they would let us in to preach on a weekly basis, only to find out that it is a Catholic institution. The leadership set us aside, and talked about it. Finally, the man came out and told us that we could preach a meeting to the men “right now”. Though I didn’t have any messages prepared, the Scripture does tell us to “be instant in season and out of season”. I took the opportunity and was able to preach to the men for a good hour, sharing first my testimony and then preaching from Romans 5 about the depravity of sinful man and the only remedy God has provided: Christ’s perfect finished work, expounding on the transforming nature of grace to deliver from sin. It was probably the only time many of them have heard the Gospel. To the glory of God, a considerable degree of conviction went forth, and a few evidenced some positive effects of the Word upon their hearts. We found out that the day we preached is the day that the Catholic priest comes in to do Mass, but for some unannounced reason didn’t show up that day, and so at the last minute the leadership of the institution let us preach to fill in the gap! Glory be to God that His true testimony went forth in that dark, false gospel permeated institution!

Brethren, God rewards us when we step out in faith and obey His call to go when He sends us. He’s faithful! Pray for us! We’re grateful for all your support.

In Christ –Josef Urban
www.puregospeltruth.com

 
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