Conferencia Espiritu Santo!

 

Conference!

 

I love conferences.... Really I do. I love feeling a powerful move of God, seeing so many people draw close to God together, and I love seeing people filled with the Holy Ghost!

(It's just the socializing part that's not my favorite.... Give me a nice little corner in a room full of people and I'm happier than a ...a really happy thing.... LOL) :)
 

Okay now, I'm not sure if conference is the right word to use for this get-together....

Well, Merriam-Webster just cleared that up for me! According to her, a conference is:

"1 a: a meeting of two or more persons for discussing matters of common concern".

So we'll call this event a "conference"-- It's actually very fitting. There were definitely more than two people, and we were discussing matters of common concern!! And what was our common concern?
The Holy Ghost!

That was the "theme" of this conference. Receiving the Holy Ghost!

 

 

This time our conference was just a "Mexican" thing. :) No visitors from the states.

Almost all of the churches in our fellowship here were able to make it! And, all of the preaching was done by some of our national pastors. Every message was powerful and anointed. It was such a blessing to us and our people. For days afterwards they were still talking about how wonderful it was!

 

 

Abner preached the first message of the conference. He did an amazing job. Unfortunately, we have no picture since Beth and I were leading music that night, and on the platform the whole service.

This right is actually the only picture I have of him!

 

 

Now, these pictures are a bit mixed up--

Blogger is being a real pain for me these days....

Ni modo! Here they are:

 

Pastor praying with Paco

 

 

 

Bro. Alfredo Perez, missionary to San Juan del Rio, preached the next day in the morning service.

He has an awesome testimony.

 

My little Judah praying in the altar, seeking the Holy Ghost!

 

After the morning service we served lunch to everyone.

 

The kid's table....

Emanuel, Abby, Choyo, and some silly kid on the end there :))

 

Bro. David Garcia

 

Judah worshiping during song service.

 

It made me so happy to see him next to me praying, singing along, and worshiping!

I pray that he keeps the same attitude as he grows up!

 

In the evening service, Hno. Irving Garcia from Chalco preached.

 

This is Marisol praying with a teenage girl from Cuautla.

God filled her with the Holy Ghost for the first time in this conference!

  

 

Celia Perez and I. She's a sweetheart :)

 

 

 This lady also received the Holy Ghost in the conference!!

I watched her walk to the altar and just seconds after starting to pray, she began talking in tongues!

 

Obed praying for his little cousin, Jabes.

 

 

Sis. Elvira led the service the next morning.

 

She had some of our women come up to give their testimony and tell everyone about when they got the Holy Ghost. Marisol here was one of them.

Fani also gave her testimony.

 

Elder Wakefield preached that morning.

 

Some of the men praying for Bro. Gelacio.

 

Ino and Bethany praying with Fabian

 

Clara, the lady in the pink sweater, got the Holy Ghost a few weeks before this meeting.

She's from Elder Wakefield's church.

 

After the morning service, lunch was served again-- But this time the south side church prepared it.

Mole Poblano... Yum.

 

Bro. Dad preached the night service, the last one of the conference.

Everyone was exhausted by the time my dad got up to preach. We had been going 90 miles an hour for three days, worshiping, dancing, amen-ing, clapping, and praying....  Sis. Marisol later told me, "My flesh was so tired on the last night, but my spirit was so awake and excited to hear the Word!!"

 

 

But even though we were exhausted, God was not!

 Dad preached an anointed message, and when it came time for altar call, the people forgot their exhaustion. They came once again to pray and seek God as if they had not already spent two days doing the same!

 

This was Conchi's first time to really, really pray and seek God.

She could hardly stop!

 

Another young lady from Cuautla got the Holy Ghost!

 

After the last service, altar call ended, and we took communion.

It was such a wonderful, moving time, remembering how Jesus died for us on the cross, so that our sins could be washed away.

 

Bethany and Eliana after service. 

 

Judah and his second mommy :))

 

 

The conference was a wonderful, refreshing time spent in God's presence.

I'm so thankful to God for those that were filled with the Holy Ghost!

 

 

*Nicole*

Bibleing: Building a School—One Chapter at a Time!

Many of you know our brother Austin. That creative, outspoken, lovable 10 year old who won your heart the first time you met him. (Or something memorable like that— Maybe he tried to sell you the free pamphlets at a conference, or convinced you that his dad was in jail…)

You may even know of the many medical challenges he has faced in his young life. One of these challenges is hydrocephalus and living with a shunt.

But knowing how incredibly perceptive and creative Austin is, you perhaps would never imagine that Austin struggles to read, and is dyslexic. But Austin is learning to read. –In his own words “by bounds and leaps!”.

This year Austin wants to read the New Testament all the way through. He is reading 1 chapter a day, 5 days a week. That’s 260 chapters in 260 days.

But wait-- there's more!

As you all might already know, we are working out of our church sanctuary.

We need to build a classroom for our grade school. We are combining Austin’s goal of reading the New Testament and our immense need of a new classroom into one big goal!

Lunchtime!

We, Nicole and Bethany, being the teachers in this school, can vouch for this need! Please help us build some permanent space!

Bethany teaching

Will you sponsor Austin to read the New Testament and help our children have a dedicated classroom?

Okay! Now—

If you pledge .50 per chapter, for 260 chapters that would equal $130 in a year.

$1 per chapter = $260/year, $2 per chapter = $520/year, etc. 
Any amount that you decide to donate helps! There is no amount too small or too large!

Our goal is to start building right away, and to have the project finished within a 6 month period, so those of you who could donate the yearly amount in one payment would be a major blessing! 
But for those who need to may split up the payment of your pledge however is most convenient for you. 

The Paypal button on the right is the easiest way to get involved and help this ministry here in Puebla. But, if you prefer to write a check, you may send it to the address below. Make your check out to ARM Ministries Inc.

ARM Ministries Inc.
c/o The Sanctuary

P.O. Box 1039
Gridley, CA 95948

Each week we will post a picture and audio of Austin reading the Bible.
(Sometimes in different places in Puebla, or wherever in the world.)

--Let’s call it Bible-ing! You’ve heard of planking, tebowing, coning, owling--what could be more honorable than “Bibleing”!
Reading God’s Word!

 

 

Here is what we want from you! Take pictures of you, your kids, or others reading the Bible and send them to us to be posted on the blog. Or for Sunday School teachers, take a picture of your class reading the Bible! 

How creative can you be? 

To share your Bibleing pictures with us, you can upload them using the widget on the right that is labeled "Bibleing Around the World", or you can email us your pictures at victabpuebla@gmail.com.

 Go Bibleing with Austin!

This is Austin's first bibleing picture! He wanted this first picture to be taken on the roof, right where the new classroom will be built.

If you have any questions or great ideas to help this project, leave a comment on here, or email us at victabpuebla@gmail.com .

And last but not least, here is Austin's very first recording! 

Every week we will be sending out Austin's latest Bibleing picture, updates, and a link to his recording of the week. If you would like to receive these email updates, submit your email address in the widget to the right.

We'd also like to send out a huge thank you to the few of you who have already decided to sponsor Austin in this challenge! 

May God bless you all!

-The Wakefield Family

 

If you would like to learn more about our school, and see how everything works, the links below will take you to past posts about our school!

First Day of School! Our Dreams Coming True...

New Chairs!

Week #2 of Centro Educativo La Victoria.

School Store!

New Year's Celebration

There is something beautiful about a firecracker. It gives me a thrill deep down in my soul, just to think about them. On New Years, we all went over to the grandparents to celebrate. Between the 4 families gathered, we had a truckload of fireworks. It was awesome!!!! 

Here is my bunch of 'em...The black ones are called "Sonrisa del Diablo"--Devil's Smile. These are incredibly loud. The next ones down, the white ones, are called Canyones. These are flat out BOMBS! When they explode you feel the impact of the explosion, it could almost knock you over.

The colorful triangles are just loud firecrackers. Loud, but not too bad.

Just looking at these make me happy.

Nicole is a dangerous one to be lighting fireworks. It is hilarious because she panics and throws it as fast as she can, aiming for nothing imparticular. I almost lost my forehead once.

Sonrisa del Diablo! 

This one and the Canyones would make the car's alarms go off when they exploded..haha!

 A cloud of smoke in the street from a firecracker

Making an even bigger explosion!

Me and Abner

Tio Mario, Dad, Grampa

Happy New Year!!

Praying the new year in

On our way home, we saw this horse and buggy going thru a busy intersection. And if that was not enough, they were pulling a little girl on a bicycle!

 

~Bethany~

Anger Management on Christmas Morning

And here we are with the continuation of our Christmas holiday... Christmas Eve we got home very late. (Or early) Something like 2 am. We were all exhausted and ready for a goooood night's sleep.

Did we get one?

Well.

No. Not really. Bethany and Austin were the only 2 that had a good night's sleep.

Those of us lucky ones that sleep near the front of the house did not sleep at all. I will just admit that I woke up very, very angry. I honestly can say that I have never in my life felt such animosity towards the world on that Christmas morning. Something about atleast one huge bomb going off atleast every 5 minutes really makes a person grumpy. And around 7 am, when I finally could no longer handle he explosions, I dragged myseld out of bed. I even got myself to thinking that maybe, just maybe I had had a bad dream about being in the middle of a war zone. That it was just my imagination that I woke up almost every hour to the sound and shaking of explosions.

 

Until I looked out the front window.

 

We happen to have some very lovely neighbors that don't really care for us, or the church.

Trash on a street in Mexico... Big deal. Mexico always has trash, right?

But no. Not on our street. Our street is usually fairly clean.

This is the left overs of an all-night party of throwing bombs on the gringos church/house.

All the little paper? Its all from exploded fireworks, firecrackers, mini bombs...

 

"Hey-- Even better! Let's throw the fireworks inside the gated in patio!!"

....

Now, when firework-bombs are thrown into the gated-in area of the downstairs area, it has this really cool effect of practically lifting the house off of the ground and making everyone in it feel like its WWIII. With everything being made with cement, the sound of an explosion is not absorbed, but amplified. Like times 10. And the house literally shakes.

Circled in yellow is the house of the partiers. They set off fireworks, throwing them in front of and inside our house until 8 am.

(Notice the lack of trash in front of their house. Jerks.)

By the way, in case anyone is wondering, we aren't just guessing that it was these people. Bro. Dad couldn't sleep, and checked out his window various times and saw them partying, drinking, dancing, and throwing fireworks at us.

Man, I get mad all over again just thinking about this!!

I think that's enough of the annoying part of the morning.

 

On with Christmas morning! :)

I'm sure you all will agree, Christmas is way funner if there's a kid in the house.

Austin totally made it more enjoyable.

This Christmas made me realize how old I'm getting!! I remember when I was younger that Christmas morning was so exciting, and I couldn't wait to open presents!

This year I just wanted to sleep in.

:)))

 

Sometimes you're just not quite sure if you bought the right thing...

 

Until you see the expression on the person's face. Hahaha.



 

 Austin was the only human that morning that was willing to have his picture taken...

The rest of us are just too vain I guess. Hahaha.

 

Later on in the afternoon we went over to the grandparent's to eat and have fun all over again.

But this time with more people!

 

Grampa and I

I love my grampa so much!

 

Wow, look at this. For once, we got a picture of people eating! :))

 

The two cuties I sat across from- Eliana and Cheyenne.

 

Austin playing his new game and Beth trying to get a "snugz". :))

 

More presents were opened...

This look on Elder Wakefield's face is a mix of joy and frustration.

One of his favorite things... Almond Roca. Mmmm....

Hey it's not our fault he decided to start dieting right at Christmas time! Nobody told us a thing! :))  

 Our beautiful Gramma...

And then lo and behold, Elder Wakefield decided to give away one of our family heirlooms. :O

LOL. I was a bit torn about this...

Ever since I was 5, I've seen this painting hanging in my grandparents houses, and I never realized how attached I was to it! ....Until my grampa gave it away. Hahahaa. I know, I know, its just a thing.

But! I already thought of a solution: When I'm married and have my own house, I'm buying this painting from the couple that got this...

So sue me-- I'm a sentimental materialist... Shame on me. :))

 

Then, what did we do to finish off the celebration?

More fireworks of course!

 

So as you all can see, Christmas in Mexico is just like Christmas in the states! We eat lots of food, spend time with family and friends, open presents... Everything is the same, minus the explosives! :))

 

And that's it for today!

 

Hey, I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but Bethany has totally deserted the bloggosphere!! Ya'll need to tell her to get on here and do some posting... Otherwise I'm gonna have to change blog name to "Nicole in Mexico". Hahahaa. ;P

 

 

*Nicole*