MEXICO FRUIT = HER NAME IS ROSIE

Thank you for all who prayed for me and our team who went to Tamazunchole, Mexico, in the Huestecha Region, to minister through teaching and preaching at the 4th annual [native] Pastor's Conference there. Our theme for this conference was:

Everything By PRAYER

GOD WAS FAITHFUL!! He did marvelous and miraculous things beyond what we had ever expected. What a privilege it is to be used of Him! He doesn't need 'us' to fulfill His purposes - but He 'allows us' and 'invites us' to participate in the work He is already doing. All I can say right now is WOW - GOD YOU ARE AMAZING!

Crossing the border into Mexico on the 29th of October - after just getting my passport stamped - I waited outside with Dale [a missionary translator on our team]. Dale asked me if I would share "a word of testimony" with two border guards who were standing above him on the ridge. Hesitantly, I walked over and swallowed hard. I had never been 'put on the spot' to just share my testimony with a complete stranger like that. I prayed [quickly] that God would fill my mouth with His words [and not my own]. One of the guards got called away as I walked over. But there stood Rosie. So I shared about what Christ had done in my life. Dale and I talked with her for awhile. She is a single mom with five children who also suffers from diabetes and is losing some of her sight. She also has other physical issues. She does not make enough money to make ends meet and is hoping to move to the USA to get a better job to support her family. She spoke no English at all. She was downcast and discouraged before we began to share with her about Christ's love.

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John 14:6

Jesus said, "I am the Way the Truth and the Life. No man comes to the Father except through Me."

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At the end of our long conversation we asked her if she desired to ask Christ to come into her heart. We explained to her that it was not a matter of "religion" but one of personal "relationship" with a Holy God through Christ's finished work on the cross. WE encouraged her to trust Christ with her life. She said "yes"!!! What a transformation came over her face - none like I had ever seen as she went from despair ... to the JOY of His salvation! We gave her literature and asked if she had a Bible. She said she had a New Testament that someone could read to her so I encouraged her to read the gospel of John - chapter one. We encouraged her to hold on to Jesus for the rest of her life.

This is a song from UNSEARCHABLE [by Gwen Smith] dedicated to Rosie:

Broken Into Beautiful

by Gwen Smith/Sue C. Smith/Chad Cates

[partial words of the song]

She's smiling on the outside,

But she's hurting on the inside;

It's getting harder just living anymore.

And the shadows she has clung to,

Painful things that she has been through,

Have left her feeling worthless, Lord...

But You change worthless into precious,

Guilty to forgiven,

Hungry into satisfied,

Empty into full.

All the lies are shattered,

And we believe we matter,

When you change broken into beautiful.

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Choosing JOY,

Stephanie

[Jesus - the One I Wait For]