God answers prayer! More prayer needed.

Before going on vacation we asked for prayer for Julián, a man that Lupe wanted to have a Bible study with. The great news: Lupe and Leticia had the privilege of leading Julián to faith in Jesus a week ago! The not so good news: Julián was arrested on Sunday on a parole violation stemming from a crime he committed about 13 years ago.

I visited Julián in jail before he was sent to another county. He says he was unaware that he had any further obligations to the court. From a human perspective it seems sad that just when Julián is coming to faith and in an encouraging environment he would be snatched away and sent to another, less encouraging environment. But God is on the throne and he is not limited in the way he can work in the lives of Julián and others that are affected by his arrest.

Julian will probably be deported. If he is he will go to Tijuana and work in a restaurant operated by his niece. We have contact information for him there and we can follow up when he eventually arrives.

Please pray:
For Julián’s faith to grow.
For me to have wisdom in knowing how to encourage him.
For Lupe and Leticia to continue to shine Jesus to Julián’s friends.
For God to use this situation for his glory and the spread of the Gospel.

- Jon

Follow Us On Vacation

We are going to ride our tandem bicycle from Eugene, OR to Eureka, CA from August 11 to August 23. You can come along by reading our journal on line it is at http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/eu2eu

We will be updating the journal whenever we have access to a computer and the internet.

Prayer Request - Lebanon

Members of our church have been visiting families in Lebanon since May, 2007. The primary purpose of the visit is to develope a good relationship with the people in the community by asking people if we can pray for them in our church prayer meeting. We revisit each family every month or so to see how they are doing and to ask if they have any new prayer requests. Some people we visit have become interested in spiritual things and have been asking questions.

This prayer requests comes from Lupe and Leticia Alvarez. Leticia wants prayer for a woman named Angélica who has an interest in spiritual things. Leticia asked her if she would like to read the Bible with her on a regular basis. Angélica is interested but hesitant because she is alreading reading the Bible with two JWs who come to her house every week. Pray that Leticia would be filled with wisdom and that Angelica would want to read the Bible with her.

A similar prayer request comes from Leticia's husband Lupe. He just asked a man named Julián if he would like to study the Bible together with him and Julián said, "yes, but...." Pray that Lupe and Julián will find a time they can get together on a weekly basis. Pray for wisdom for Lupe as he tries to lead Julián towards Jesus.

Family Camp

This weekend we will be having our second annual church Family Camp. One of the goals in having family camp is to teach our people how to have a vacation and how to spend time just relaxing with their family. Last year was the first time camping for almost everyone in our church. We camped at Beverly Beach State Park and had a great time. This year we are going to camp on the Umpqua River close to Elkton, Oregon. Pray that everything will go well, that God would keep us safe, and that people would be more drawn to Him.

Next week we will publish some pictures!

Reaching Back Home to Mexico

One of the exciting things happening this year is that some of the Hispanics that we work with in Oregon are planning to return to Mexico to share Jesus with their family and friends in and around the small town of Negritas, Guanajuato. We are having a monthly Bible study/prayer meeting/strategy session for those interested in seeing the people of this town come to Christ. This story is the main feature of our upcoming newsletter due out on August 9th. We don't want to totally tell the story until after our newsletter is in the hands of our readers. Sooooo, we hate to do this but... if you want to get the whole story and get it sooner, you can sign up to receive our newsletter by Emailing us at sousaj@bauercom.net.