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Renewed Fire to Preach
It has been a difficult time here in Lubbock, Texas as we trust our
sponsoring congregation (the Sunset church of Christ) that taking
some time off from the mission field would be a good decision and
our family would benefit from it tremendously. As we are now ap-
proaching the final stage of our sabbatical and we are clearing see-
ing the fruit of taking this time off because we as a family are feel-
ing encouraged, loved, and excited to dive back into the greatest
work in the world. My wife and I truly believe we will be better mis-
sionaries from this day on as we have been able to reflect and
learn from our mistakes and build on the things we were good at
while working in Cuernavaca, Mexico. While we were on the field
we felt lots of pressure to work hard for our supporters and take advantage of every opportunity God
placed before us. It is really difficult to evaluate yourself and see how tired
you are while working because things are happening so fast but after being
outside the work we can appreciate and realize the value of resting. We
have had to constantly reevaluate the family and the desire to be missionar-
ies and return to Mexico. We are without a doubt that we want to return and
help the Kingdom of God advance in Mexico, We are convicted Mexico is in
desperate need of the gospel. The fire Is burning just as much as it did
when we left to Mexico, maybe even more. We praise God for those who
support us and want the gospel of Jesus Christ preached to the lost people
of this world, God is good!
March / April 2015
Recardo and Monica Reyes 2406 96th ST. Lubbock, Texas 79423 Vonage # 806-577-4922
Sponsoring Congregation: Sunset church of Christ 3723 34th Street Lubbock, TX. 70410
The Reyes Family
Palmeres, Costa Rica One of the families we studied with at the Sun-
set International Bible Institute (The Melendez
Family) invited my wife and I to come and do a
evangelistic campaign in Palmeres, Costa Rica
where they have been working for the last five
years planting a new congregation. We called
the campaign rompiendo cadenas (breaking
chains). The campaign was focused on inviting
the community to hear about how a person can
be freed from the slavery of drugs, alcohol, vio-
lence, crime, and any other addiction. The mis-
sionary Luis Melendez had informed me that
drug and alcohol use is on a rapid rise in Costa
Rica and they even have members who are
suffering from loved ones that are now addict-
ed to drugs or alcohol. We first passed out fli-
ers, talked to people in the streets, and then I
preached three nights on how we can be free
from the slavery of any addiction through Je-
sus Christ. I also shared about my past life as I
am a recovered drug addict and alcoholic of
now 11 years, I also shared some practical
things a person must do to break the chains of
addiction. Luis, Mayra, Ashley, and Daniel are
a wonderful family who are working diligently
for the Lord in Costa Rica. What a wonderful
blessing it was to see the fruit of this families’
labor for the Lord. Let’s win souls for Jesus!
The Melendez Family
Bible Class
Church Leaders
Preaching during Campaign
Preaching during Campaign
Teaching Others to Teach Others God had blessed our family so much during our time
of working in Cuernavaca, Mexico. One of the ways
He blessed us was by providing us with lots of Bible
Studies with lost people. Through my time in Cuerna-
vaca I developed my own method of teaching some-
one the gospel. I recently had a couple from Sunset
(Ray and Brenda Hall) ask me if I had interest in
helping others learn how to teach their friends the
gospel? There is only one thing that is as exciting as
teaching some one how to be saved, and that is training people how to teach the gospel to others.
We are currently meeting twice a week as we go through each verse and talk about how to present
these verses to a lost person. This type of study really encourages and energizes me as I see peo-
ple become more confident and have a desire to share what they are learning with lost people.
Encouraging Visits On our way to Costa Rica we had to stop
in Mexico City which gave us a wonderful
opportunity to see some of our brothers
in Christ. Two families my wife and I in-
vested ourselves into learned we would
be in Mexico City on our way to Costa
Rica and came to see us. We were only
able to spend a few hours together but it
was such a blessing. We invested our-
selves in many families during our time in
Mexico but through these two families we
feel we were able to bless two congregations. Both Mario Salgado and Julio Hernandez are leaders
of the Lord’s church in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Julio and his wife Yesenia serve at the Rio de Vida con-
gregation where our family did our one-year internship and Mario and Adriana serves at La Fuente
where we worked for three years helping to establish the congregation. After not being in Mexico
and seeing our brethren it really reminded me of what Paul said to his brothers in Philippians 4:1
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand
firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends! Before I went to the mission field this verse did not have
the same meaning that it does now. As we were able to sit with our brethren and eat tacos and talk,
it was one of the biggest joys a missionary could have. Our family in Christ who we love, serve,
spent time with, and even cried and suffer with are some of the biggest blessing a Christian could
ever have!
Strengthening the Church in D.C.
My wife and I were presented with an amazing
opportuning in April and the Lord blessed us tre-
mendously. A Spanish congregation that meets
in the building of one of our supporting congre-
gations (Falls Church, Virginia) invited us to
come and do a marriage seminar and then
speak at a gathering of all the Spanish speaking
congregations in the Washington D.C. area.
What a blessing it was! The numbers grew eve-
ry night. My wife also taught a class to the
Spanish speaking women about the inner beau-
ty of a Christian wife. It was a blessing to once
again work with my wife who is my mission part-
ner. She always does a good job working and
mentoring other women. All the brothers both
English and Spanish speaking received us and
loved us as we served the Spanish speaking
congregations for a week long campaign. We
had no idea that there was such a huge Spanish
speaking community as we met people from El
Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Ecuador, and
Mexico. I even met a man at a taco restaurant
who was from Cuernavaca, Mexico. My wife
and I have been working on materials to teach
and preach in Mexico to help encourage and
strengthen existing works, we want to be a king-
dom resource not only to the congregation we
are working with but all those around us. My
wife and I really enjoy working with Spanish
speaking people, both lost and saved!
Me with church leaders Me with church leaders
Lunch with Jackie
Marriage Conference Congregational Gathering
Preaching at Conference Mission Deacon
Jose and us Ignacio and I My wife with her Ladies’ class
Loving God’s Children I have been so proud of my family as they have loved
and cared for many children while we are here on our
sabbatical. God has sent many families into our lives,
in my previous newsletter I spoke of how these won-
derful children come from hurting families, many of
these children do not have fathers in their lives at all.
Our goal has been to provide a love and be light in
their lives. Some of the children have gotten used to
us praying before we eat, or one young girl asked her
mom to pray for her when she was sick. I have re-
cently been impacted by a few of these children as
they have at times started
calling me “dad!” Of
course this had given me
a mixed feeling as one lit-
tle boy said this in front of
his mother. It does make me feel
good that we have put a good ex-
ample and have treated these kids
as if they were our own. But at the
same time it hurts because the
reason they have said this is because they don’t have a father in their lives.
Our hearts were recently broken as one of the little boys name Kardaye sud-
denly moved away, but that is the price we pay for loving others, love is a
powerful thing! In Mexico we learned if you love people’s children you can win
people’s hearts and they will be more open to hear what you have to tell them
about Jesus. We as Christian parents need to see the value of being involved
with our children and we as a church need to make it our mission to love the
lost and live differently so others can see there is something better for them,
that better thing is Jesus Christ and His church!
Cor. 13:13 So now faith, hope, and love
abide, these three; but the greatest of these
is love.
Kardaye and Zadin
Baby Erika
Serenity, Erika, and
Damian
Luis & Dominique Luis and our daughter Dominique are coming up on
one year of working with the Crosbyton church of
Christ. They have been mainly working with the
Spanish congregation but are also involved with the
English congregation as well. They have started a
Monday night bible study and have about 10-14
people attend, they have a fellowship meal first and
then a bible study, and afterwards they open it up for
questions of any kind. Luis and Dominique went to
L.T.C. (leadership training for Christ) to help with the
youth group; they did a puppet show, art, and bible
bowl. They have a new goal to try
and organize a youth event eve-
ry 3 months. Luis and Dominique
also spend a lot of time with
three children (Jazmin, Mia, and
J.J.) who have almost no paren-
tal guidance in their lives
Jasenia College is a struggle, let me just tell you that, but af-
ter endless nights of studying and tears my first year
of college is over. Oklahoma Christian has opened
my eyes and filled my life with blessings. Moving
away from home was probably the most exciting yet
scariest thing in the world but thankfully God blessed
me with a group of friends that made it a little easier.
My whole life I have been fascinated in the medical
field so lord willingly, by 2016 I will be accepted into pre-
nursing school. OC not only let’s me do what I love the
most by helping kids but they also let me travel the
world while doing it. I am excited to see what God has in
store for me in the next three years. By Jasenia Ryes
OC is Home.
Small Group
Bible Class
Puppet Show
L.T.C. Group
Deasha First of all I wanted to thank you for supporting my family and I, we would not be
able to accomplish the things we have without y’all. I am most thankful that y’all
have continued to support us even though we have taken a little break from the
mission field. The family has been really able to refocus, get some counsel,
learn new things, and light that fire that made us want to do mission work in the
first place. I personally have been able to work on a lot of things I was struggling
with. I am able to work on myself, spend more time with my family and start
working at a preschool. Kids are something that I love to be
around and work with. I can’t wait to go back to the mission
field and teach little children about Jesus like I was before. It
has been an eye opening last couple months, and I can say
we as a family haven’t been more ready to go back to Mexi-
co than we are now. God has blessed us with people that
love us and even though I may not know you, I want to say I
appreciate everything you do, if it’s supporting us financially or something as sim-
ple as praying for our family, Thank you so much. A little prayer can do big things.
- Love ya’ll and God bless.
Deasha
Serenity Being here in Lubbcok, TX has been
a hard thing for me. Having to leave
my home (Cuernavaca, Mexico), and
my friends, and even my best friend
Yeal. But it has been good for my
family to have a rest. I think we are
ready and excited to return to Mexico
when it is time.
-Love
Serenity
Desire for A.I.M. Last summer a young man named Isaac Yeal Hernandez started to ex-
press an interest in the A.I.M. (Adventures in Missions) program after a
team from the Let’s Start Talking program came to Cuernavaca to teach
English. The team consisted of almost all teenagers who were seniors in
high school. Isaac had been involved in a few campaigns with the A.I.M.
program when they came to Cuernavaca in the past. He and his family
have been leaders for several years in the Rio de Vida congregation that
was planted by Doug and Sandy Holcomb. Isaac has been involved in
the youth group, leadership, in the teaching and preaching in the congre-
gation where his family attends for sometime so hearing him say he has
a desire to go to the A.I.M. program is re-
ally exciting. He has already completed
his A.I.M. application and is seeking sup-
port, I know he has already found some
support but is still in need of the amount
he needs to go to the program. Please
keep him in your prayers. Our goal in
Mexico was to train people so they would
take God’s mission to be there own...
Rio de Vida Iglesia de Cristo
The Hernandez Family
Yeal preaching his first sermon
Love for Our Supporters We praise God that our supporters have cared for the emotional well
being of our family and have allowed sometime to rest, renew, and re-
tool. Now that those have been successful-
ly completed we have moved on to our
planning to return to doing mission work in
Mexico. Unfortunately this process has tak-
en longer then expected but we know God
is helping us put things in order and we are
very excited as we are seeing everything
come together. Again we could not be
preaching God’s word to the lost people of
this world with people praying and supporting us. The brotherhood is a
beautiful and powerful thing, God is good, let’s win souls for Jesus!
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