April update

I hope this finds you well. This past weekend was really exciting and a lot of fun. We had our annual all church retreat when all of the house churches spend the weekend together. The theme for the weekend was the Sermon on the Mount and we had five teaching times. The weekend was almost all Mexican led except the AIMers taught five kids’ classes while the adult classes were going on and Chadd preached on Sunday. Gerardo taught on the beatitudes and being salt and light and focused on our identity as Christians. Martín taught on Jesus being the fulfillment of the law and spoke about how what is seen physically isn’t as important as how the heart is. José Luis taught on pleasing God in secret, and Arturo taught on where our treasure is. Each time we met we spent quite a bit of time in group discussions and they seemed very healthy and beneficial. Chadd preached on Sunday and pulled it all together and focused on wise and foolish builders and the storm that is coming. I liked how he emphasized that the storm is coming for everyone, but those who built on the rock handle the storm better.


On Saturdays we have been meeting with the teens in the church. I have been very impressed with them. During the week they have been memorizing the Sermon on the Mount and the majority of them have all of chapter 5 memorized. It was really cool at the retreat because they quoted large sections from the Sermon on the Mount to introduce the text for each session. It was really powerful to see our young people quoting scripture. Another thing that really excited me was that we had over 20 teens at the retreat. They also did a skit that Nancy helped them prepare. It was really cute and focused on everybody thinking someone else was going to do all the necessary tasks so no one ended up doing anything.

We also had good hang out times and each night people would sit around the campfire and sing and share until two or three in the morning.

A family that Toni and I have been getting to know came with us. They are a family of 6 and soon to be seven. During one of our sessions Jesús asked for permission to speak. He began to say that as he has been in his search for God’s people that God’s word has shown him that he will recognize them by their fruit. He began to get chocked up and express how he has seen with his own eyes God’s people. It’s amazing how God works. I comment one of our ex-AIMers, Aaron McCall, for being salt and light. Aaron when he was an AIMer got a job at a car wash to work on his Spanish and meet new people. Jesús was his boss and that is how we originally came in contact with him and his family.

Overall I think the weekend was a success. We spent some really good time together, had some excellent teaching, the food was great and I feel like God was glorified. We had right at seventy people participate in the retreat.

I think for me the most exciting thing is to see our Mexican brothers and sisters take the lead.



Please keep Jesús and his family in your prayers. They seem to be truth seekers. Zach was studying with a guy named Johnny and his family and Johnny passed away this past week. Please keep this family in your prayers. Zach is continuing to meet with this family and God is using him in great ways. Arturo gave out his first two loans in the new microfinance business. I think really great things are to come from this ministry. The diabetic association is putting on a camp for teens this weekend and several from the church are helping out. It seems like there are quite a few among us who are very close to being baptized keep them in your prayers (Laura, Celina, Ismael, Fito, Mario, Diego, and Melanie). I’m not sure about Jesús and his family, but I get the feeling that things could move quickly with them but we don’t want to pressure them. Also, keep our one-year move to the States in your prayers. We are two months away from this transition and it is starting to feel stressful. We do look forward to being closer to you in the coming year. Once again, we are so grateful for our partnership with you through your prayers and support.

God bless,

The Burns family