Summer 2007

We’ve had Jordan & Jessica from Wilsonville, Oregon with us the last couple weeks. They are part of approximately 30 university- aged interns that are in different parts of Mexico through CAM’s internship program. Many have been teaching English to help us and other missionaries to gain contacts. Jordan and Jessica helped us finish the school year at Benito Juarez Elementary School. Tomorrow, we will hand out flyers to the 700 students at the school for a 5 Day Kids Club July 16-20. We will hold the club in a local park.

This coming Thursday we are consolidating some English classes into one. All of the 17 students (12-60 years old) will converge in our neighbor’s home (if they all show up) from 7-8 pm and then followed by a bible study from 8-9 pm. Most of the students are not believers. Pray for their salvation. Denise, Alicia and Joshua will help me teach the 17 students since I cannot do it by myself. The goal is to see this group form a new church and we might have to help some of them get connected into a church near their home which is not close to our house.

July 29 is our kick off Sunday for the new church in Lomas. In total we have 38 people that will begin. All of them are studying the bible except one family. They are all new believers except the lead family, the Morales. Pray for Juvenal who is the Pastor. His son, Diego, my son Josh and another young man, Luis Ramirez will lead the worship. Juvenal, Diego and Luis will do most of the teaching. My job will be to help prepare them. Yes, I will probably do some teaching, but my it will be minimal so that these men can be seen as the leaders. There are 5 other men who will be discipled over the next year.

Neighboorhood Event

Right now we are in the middle of our first neighborhood event in Lomas de Cuautitlan. The attendence has been 40-50 kids a day. Here are some pictures…

Church Plant in Bosques Del Lago

Currently, we have 20 unbelieving couple friends that we minister to on and off through a once per month Marrieds Group. The weekend of April 20-22 we are organizing a marriage retreat for these couples. The retreat is at a Hotel 2 hours from our home and each couple pays their own way. Our goal is to see 6 unbelieving couples attend plus 2 Christian couples.

1) Pray that the couples will commit to come.
2) Pray that bible studies will come out of the retreat.
3) Pray for a church plant to result from our efforts.

Youth Ministry

Hombres Fieles (Faithful Men) is: Ministerio Cristiano Acelerado…Accererated Christian Ministry. Youth under 25 yrs old make up over 50% of the population (that means at least 13.5 million youth in Mexico City!), therefore we minister to these youth currently through conferences aimed at helping kids worship the Lord, bring them to make a greater commitment to God and finally to make decisions to serve God in practical ways in their churches, in their schools and in their neighborhoods. The conferences consist of 3-4 good Christian bands and motivational speakers. There is always good food and lots of fun!!! The conferences are aimed at all denominations plus we had youth ministry who brought several street kids to hear and be with us!!! Pray for a fall conference that we are organizing where we can motivate over 1000 youth to serve Jesus Christ! In the photo below, you see Paul & Brandon from Hill Country Bible Church Southwest who came, who played, who ministered, who preached and who challenged the Youth of Mexico City. Way to go dudes!!!

Church Plant in Lomas De Cuautitlan

…a large neighborhood area consisting of approximately 80,000 homes. The goal is to establish a church in the area through the evangelism process of teaching English, doing community development projects and home bible studies.Current Project Activity:
1. A CAM intern, Deborah Mangum is teaching English to 5th and 6th graders at a local elementary school. The plan for these students and others will be to begin a Kid’s Club at a local park and invite them to participate.
2. The Community Development Project we are doing consists of the English teaching as well as the construction and installation of a Computer classroom in the elementary school. Please PRAY for the electric company to put in a transformer for the school since the electrical voltage entering the school is not regulated.
3. THE MAJOR KICKOFF FOR THE CHURCH PLANT will be Holy Week 2007, we plan to begin a Kid’s Club that will continue weekly to be used to reach out to kids and their families.
4. We have 1 bible study with 2 couples who have been consistent in studying plus a floating population of 2-4 women who have not been consistent.

Pray for the following:
1. These involved in the Cell Group: Guillermo & Connie. Guillermo just lost his job last week. The other couple is Hector & Tere. The others who are inconsistent are Gabriel, Gabriela, Inez, Hidalia and Evelia.
2. The Kid’s Club Ministry Team that is forming: Diego Morales, Luis Ramirez, The Williams Family, Guillermo & Cony, Hector & Tere, Omar & Rosalba’s family who are new believers.

Virtual Training Center

Another part of Hombres Fieles is the concept of the VTC is to provide online live audio and file sharing so multiple sites in Mexico City receive training through the internet.Why this method? Mexico City has approximately 27 million people, therefore the time and distances are challenges to give training to the number of people necessary. Since Mexico City has broadband accessibility throughout the city, we can bridge the gap of time and distance quite easily.

What are the challenges?
1. To promote this type of training amongst the churches.
2. To finish the initial courses.
3. To recruit the teachers for each course.
4. To setup of geographical sites where the most people can take advantage of the training if they do not have broadband access.
5. To provide whatever technological resources for each site as necessary.

Is this different from online education?
1. Yes, this is live audio interaction between teacher to student and student to student.

HOW CAN YOU PARTICIPATE?
1. If you have expertise in the use of the technology as a presenter in your company then any presenter tips would be very helpful to us.
2. Financial Contributions toward the purchase of 2 video projectors, 1 laptop of the latest technology and configurations, plus the special speaker phones for each site.
3. You can make contributions to CAM International, 8625 La Prada Drive, Dallas, Texas, 75228. Make sure you include a note saying the funds are earmarked for Craig & Denise Williams.