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Prayer Letters>
Tools in God's Hands
July 16, 2010
?Tools in God’s Hands - Isaiah 54:16
“...and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work ...”
“Herramientas en las Manos de Dios” was our theme for the 2010 Father’s Day Services and cookout! Pastor Alberto Murrillo from
Guadalajara was the special speaker for the day. The Lord blessed
tremendously with good attendance, first-time and returning visitors, souls saved, and four baptized!
Pastor Murrillo preached fantastic messages on being used by God as a tool for His work. Following the morning services we had a cookout and then later let the dads break a piñata! It was a great time! Two of the four baptized were Bro. Luis and Bro. Alberto. Bro. Raul and Bro. Ramiro were each presented with a leather-bound Bible. Both of these men have proven to be faithful workers in the ministry. Bro. Raul recently celebrated
his 87th birthday! He rarely misses a service and is always offering to do maintenance around the church.
Eleven Years South of the Border!
We arrived in Aguascalientes in July of 1999. God has done some wonderful things in these last eleven years! I praise the Lord for the opportunity to have been used by Him south of the border! Sadly to say, Mexico is not the same Mexico that we came to eleven years ago. Without a doubt, you have either read or heard that Mexico is under siege by the drug cartels. Eleven years ago it was said that Aguascalientes was one of the
safest places to live in the entire country - that can’t be said anymore. Our beautiful state is located in direct center
of the country and has become a battleground for the drug cartels in fighting for territory rights. There are not a
lot of Americans in our state and so therefore the Americans that are here have become targets. We have received threatening phone calls and our house has been watched sometimes all night long. We have had to hire a guard to keep vigil during the night. When the phone calls started, I contacted the U.S. consulate. They advised us to leave the country until things could calm down. We felt, at the time, that it was all random and would “go away”. Last week, our national pastor in La Labor contacted me. He has been threatened by the Zetas who
are working closely with the Catholic priest that is over the small pueblo. This group is aware that I am Pastor
Raul (Pepe) Garcia’s missionary/pastor. The work was turned over to national leadership two-years ago, but they
know Pastor Pepe and I remain in contact and that our churches have fellowship. PLEASE PRAY FOR MEXICO! Please pray for our safety as well as the safety of our people, especially Pastor Garcia & Pastor Ibarra.
During these tough economic times we have lost nearly 20% of our support. Some of our supporting churches have either had to cut our support in half or drop it all together. In August, Pastor Rafael Ibarra will be taking the lead role as pastor in the work in Aguascalientes. We want to start another work on the north
side of Aguascalientes, but we cannot do that at our current support level.
We will be taking a short work furlough this coming August with the intent of coming home to Mexico in January, 2011 and starting a new work. Our calendar is filling up, but if you would like to schedule a meeting with us, please contact us right away.
E-Mail: CopelandMexico@aim.com
Stateside: (501) 940-1430.
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