About once a year, Tony Gomez meets personally with the board of the Spanish American Mission. This is usually in conjunction with a two-week, three-Sunday October speaking and deputation tour in Michigan wherein he gets re-acquainted with supporting churches. So it was on Sunday night October 23rd when, after preaching in two services across the state and enjoying two meals served at those churches, a tired Tony, Beatriz, son Sammy and youngest daughter Eunice, pretty at 23, met with the board. We’ll let readers of this newsletter “listen” in on what Tony had to say....

Conversation with Tony...The concrete block walls of the Ministry Center have been completed by the Mexicans. Twelve feet high, these block walls will form the lower portion of the sheet steel walls of the sanctuary, that in total will be 30 feet high. The purpose of the January building trip will be to erect these steel walls and thus completely enclose the building.

Money to complete the project will have to be wired to the bank in Torreon in increments. The Mexican banks will not accept U.S. currency, and it would not be safe or prudent to try to carry a large amount of cash across the border anyway.

There was a recent shooting around the Gomez church and the bad guys left their guns in a church van, knowing that the police would not look there. The church people knew not to touch the guns. The bad guys came back for the guns, and did no harm to the church or to the church people. Some of these events are getting far too close for comfort.

For some time we have been trying to furnish a vehicle for Benjamin (pronounced Ben ha’ meen) Aredondo, who has a little church in the mountains south of Acapulco. He has the needed money in hand and is searching for a vehicle. (Mexican pastors do not want 2-door and 4-door sedans. They need vehicles that can haul people, like vans, Suburbans and pickups….vehicles that somehow are able to haul 15, 18 or 20 people.). Benjamin is also very appreciative of the medical help the Mission recently provided, enabling reconstruction of his hand, crushed in a construction accident.

The school for the developmentally disabled has more students, and the government is taking it more seriously, little by little helping the students more with money and groceries, e.g., the parents receive a government card good for food and medical assistance. The school administrator is trying to channel government money to those who need help. The next need is to get help for the teachers, dedicated to what they are doing but poorly paid.

Tony mentioned “Chuie”, a 28-year-old student of the school who was caught in a cross-fire and shot three times. (Caught in the middle and being mentally handicapped, his only impulse was to run, causing both sides in the conflict to shoot at him.) Unbelievably, he went 24 hours without medical attention, and walked two miles with a .45 cal. bullet hole completely through his chest and back.

Neighbors and onlookers keep a hands-off attitude toward shooting victims of the cartel, for fear they will somehow be linked with the victim. Tony mentioned taking Chuie into the hospital and seeing people literally scatter, wanting absolutely no association with the victim seeking treatment. On the other hand, this provides an open door into many homes as they see Christ helping people in need.

Despite being in a bad neighborhood, they are seeing growth in the Gomez Palacio church. The neighbors don’t want the church to move. (The new Ministry Center is as much as four miles south of the present church building.) Moving is necessary, however, as the Gomez Palacio church has outgrown its facility.

Men who participated in the enlargement of the Gomez Palacio church (in 1998) may remember a neighbor boy who would come around the project picking up wooden blocks and scraps to take home for firewood. Now grown and a hit man for the drug cartel, he recently visited Tony in his office and thanked him “for treating me nice when I was a kid.”

When asked if he has heard any more from the cartel leader who had professed faith in Christ, along with several members of his family, Tony said, “no.” This is understandable.

Regarding the Bible Institute, Tony is grateful to Dick Greenman for his part in starting it. Tony had been praying for 15 participants and got 60 (40 men and 20 women). Thirty come to class in a 15- passenger van. These people are doing everything they can to learn. Tony has high praise for Exiquio Valenzuela, who has been with the Gomez church for 20 years and whom Tony has picked as his successor. Tony says, “The work needs him”. He works at the church almost full time, preaching when Tony is gone, and is involved in the children’s work. The church gives him something towards his support.

Tony is deeply troubled right now about a “Gomez” (no relation) version of the Bible, poorly translated from the English by a man not fully knowledgeable of Spanish, who picked and chose verses to suit him. Because this so-called Bible follows the King James, it tends to be attractive to Mexican Christians who prefer the King James version. This appears to be an effort to profit by capitalizing on the ignorance of good lay people.

At this time in October, the Torreon area of Mexico has had virtually no rain for 13 months. This has delayed somewhat the construction of two church buildings made of adobe blocks, such as at Perevantes. Nevertheless, Tony says “the guys are making good progress.”

Leonardo Avila Garcia, Tony’s brother by adoption (crippled by polio, Tony’s father found him living under a bridge as a little boy), is now 59 and is not well. He has pastored the church in Nazareno for many years. Leonardo fell a while ago but insists that he does not want a wheelchair. Their twin girls are now 15.

Tony and Beatriz now have 10 grandchildren; Tibis has three, Mamay has three, and the twins, Pauline and Lydia, have two each……six boys and four girls all told.

Tired as they were, Tony resisted offers of overnight accommodation, and at 10 PM on a rainy night, the four of them left for Chicago, intending to drive straight through to Texas and ultimately to Torreon, which Tony hoped to reach on Tuesday. His heart is in the ministry that God called his father to back in 1949.

January 2012 building project…… Plans are going forward for inserting a select group of skilled men into the Torreon area of Mexico in early January to erect the steel purloins and sheeting that will complete the Ministry Center sanctuary. (If any of you are interested in being involved, you are invited to contact president Doug Bytwerk at 616-402-2973.) Readers may remember that this structure, started in 2008, is planned to seat approximately 600 worshipers. It will have provision for balcony expansion that would, in the future, approximately double the seating capacity. We praise the Lord that, through His gracious provision, the funds have come in that will enable completion of the structure.

We earnestly covet your prayers, thanking the Lord for supplying the needed finances, for safety of the men working under dangerous conditions, and that the work can be completed in the limited time available.