January-February 2021 Newsletter

    Fighting Fear

Fear of fear or of any other phobia is called Phobophobia. As born again believers was are taught to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and never let fear bind us nor control us. This is the message that the Lord has given us for the churches here in Mexico. We are living a reality of a new menace over all of mankind but we have to understand that this is prophecy being fulfilled and God continues to be in control. These last months, since our last newsletter, we have pushed the church body to shake off all fear and to trust in God.

The end of November we joined together with 10 other churches in the city of Tepic and held a marriage seminar. Because of the restrictions we have on large gatherings we had to limit the activity to only 60 couples and we were able to fill up every chair and bless the people that attended. With all the restrictions this last year and the small living space that many families have, many couples gave experienced a strain in their marriage relationship. This was the second inter-church activity we have done since Easter week, the first being a women’s conference that was held the beginning of November.

December was a time of “posadas” (Christmas parties) which is a Mexican tradition. For a short time restriction were forgotten as we celebrated the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. As is happening in all the world, here in Mexico “Happy Holidays” wants to replace the celebration of the Nativity of Jesús. Here in the church we struggle to keep “Navidad” (the Spanish word for Christmas) before the church body as we join together to celebrate, not another holiday, but the revelation of God the Father coming in flesh through his son Jesus. 

Also at this time we here able to bless 200 children with Christmas boxes that we received from the Samaritan’s Purse Association. This year they changed their policy of how we should distribute the gifts. Other years we would distribute the gift boxes to the children of the churches. This year we were told that the gifts had to be given to children that had never received one before in their life. This was a challenge as we had to reach out and evangelize. In the “posada” of the Ahualamo church we had over 80 children attend the celebration of which 40 had never been in a church service before. They received the gifts.

We are now paying for our December parties, not only the church but all the State. This January 15th we went into lockdown once again as the number of COVID-19 cases incremented 5 times in the first two weeks of January. We are back to a maximum of 30 people in any gathering and at 8 pm everything has to close. The church continues as we adapt to the new security measures as we meet with the pastors to see how we can we can reach out to the lost. We are having multiple services in small groups. Some of our service times have had to change to be able to end before 8 pm but we don’t just continue having church. We want a church that is vibrant, victorious and growing. Thank you, each of you, who have partnered with us in finance and prayers to make this happen. We bless you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Philip, Lucy, & Vanessa Tolman