Hands to the Work – Ron Winter

Dear Friends in Christ, 
           Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace… Hebrews 4:16
Camargo: The Iglesia Bíblica Bautista has been so blessed through all of the quarantines and everything associated with this past year. Some in our church got sick, but all have recuperated with few residual problems. Here in Camargo we are not officially under any lockdowns right now! Praise the Lord we continually have visitors!
   We weren’t allowed any door to door evangelism, but just got back to it, with 15-20 of our folks coming out to knock doors. I got to witness to a lady with 3 small kids, in a huge house in an affluent neighborhood, who seemed very concerned for her soul. She assured me she would read the John and Romans book. I’m praying for another opportunity to speak to her and for her salvation!
   We had our first ever Men’s Meeting, with 16 men from here and ten from other towns.  I was able preach to these heads of households, with every man at the altar at the invitation!
   For Father’s Day I preached from 2 Thessalonians 3:6-11; of the need to teach and practice diligence for the next generation to observe, in light of the Lord’s soon return!
New Ministry: The Lord has been working me into a new ministry: “Manos a la Obra”, “Hands to the Work”.  I import church furniture etc., and help and encourage churches and pastors in Mexico. Pray for the Lord’s direction and provision in this new ministry!
   In May I went up to Texas, Missouri and Oklahoma to bring down an antique pump organ, some chairs, etc. for churches and a children’s home and Bible institute!
Next Pastor: It’s good for me to leave once in a while, so my assistant Jorge, and his wife Michel, learn how to lead the church, if he would be the next pastor. It also helps the church to grasp the idea that I’m not always going to be here!    
   Please pray for the Mexican pastor, the church and myself to know the Lord’s direction and timing to turn the church over!  My plan is to continue in this new ministry. .
Jovanni: I’ve been asking you to pray for a 15 year old boy from here whom they now say has a mix between Aplastic Anemia and Leukemia. He is receiving treatment in San José CA, because he was born in the U.S.  He just received a bone-marrow transplant from an older brother, so has a long, hard road ahead! Pray that through this, he and all of his family would be saved, as there’s not much fruit even from those who claim to be saved.
Praise: Church members are well; Good Mother’s day, Men’s meeting & Father’s day; Able to knock doors; Safety in travels; Visitors to services
Prayer: Souls to be saved and baptized; Lady with 3 kids to be saved; Next pastor; God’s will for my life; Jovanni’s healing / family’s salvation
In His Service,
Bro. Ron Winter
Camargo, Chihuahua, Mexico

Dear Friends in Christ,
…Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. Isaiah 6:8

Iglesia Biblica Bautista: On Easter Sunday, we had a good attendance, and 5 adults followed the Lord in believer’s baptism! We are seeing people saved now and then, though many are less receptive, especially with the quarantines, masks and all!
Our attendances were coming back up, then this week everything was shut down again!
Our Bible Clubs had gotten back up to as many as 87, now 57-60 with the shut-down. Some people are afraid, so wouldn’t let their kids come. And as with any ministry, many come a few times, but don’t continue, but at least they’ve heard the gospel!
We just got he 2 vans imported, that the Bible Baptist Church in Carthage MO donated some time ago, but importation policies changed, so we hadn’t been able to import them.
With the help of 3 U.S. churches, we were able to import them! We gave one van to the church in Anáuhuac, and the other we kept. We still have a problem, with 80 kids coming now in two vans, and still a lot of kids that would come if we had a way to bring them in.

Mission Conference: We had to postpone our Mission Conference until April. Our guest preacher was Mexican missionary, Isaac Luna. He, his wife and 5 daughters are preparing with language and culture studies, to go to South Sudan, Africa! He was such a blessing, and really challenged us, mainly with some basic missionary and mission’s logic and Bible directives! We had good attendances, and our Faith Promise Commitment increased enough to be able to take on at least one more missionary, if the church follows through!
Bro. Luna is on a survey trip to South Sudan through May. They will probably be working with one of 7 unreached people groups. That region is part of the 10/40 Window, where approximately 5.16 billion people live in 8,947 distinct people groups! Approximately 61% of them live in unreached people groups, that is to say they are the least evangelized.
There are no biblical missionaries, nor any part of the Bible in their language!!

Jovanni: Fifteen year old Jovanni from our church here, has aplastic anemia. They were able to get him up to a children’s hospital in San José, CA, where his dad and two brothers live. We are praying one of his brothers will be a suitable match for a bone-marrow transplant, and that the U.S. will give his mom a humanitarian visa so she can be with him!

E mails: Both of my email accounts were hacked at least twice since December. So if you sent me something, but I haven’t responded, please send it to me again, because I probably didn’t get it! I do my best to answer all correspondence that comes in!

Family: My son Josh and his wife Kristin just gave me another grand girl! That’s 14 now!
I am so blessed that God didn’t leave me here alone! Hopefully I can meet her soon!

Praise: Good Bible clubs; Vans imported and full; Great mission conference; Grandbaby

Prayer: Souls saved and baptized; Bro. Luna, survey trip; Jovanny and his mom

In His service,
Bro. Ron Winter

Dear Friends in Christ,
 
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.                   1 Corinthians 15:58
 
Iglesia Bíblica Bautista, Camargo:  We are still trying to encourage our people to get back in, and trying to reach new people as well!  We continue visiting, but it seems people are more reluctant than ever to allow us to talk them, with the quarantine, masks, etc.
    We had a couple’s banquet and invited two other churches, for a total of 16 couples.  Our teens served, and it was a good time to celebrate God’s plan of marriage!
    Saturday Bible Clubs still haven’t recovered, but we’re back up to 55 kids.  Thank you to the churches that sent prizes, school supplies, personal hygiene items, etc.  They are a huge blessing!  We are visiting and promoting for the kids clubs.  Hopefully we’ll have a good base to build on for VBS in August!  We pray many of these kids and their families will be saved!
    Our Missions Conference had to be reschedule from January to April.  We are praying for a good response, as our Faith Promise is barely fulfilling our present missionary commitments!
    The first of January I brought a load of tables and chairs etc.  A week later three teen boys and I went to San Luis Potosí, 14 hours away, to help a missionary our church supports, put a roof on their church building.  We made some visits and I preached on Sunday.  A couple of families that I met the last time I was there, committed to getting back in, and faithful!
    A day after getting home from S.L.P., I flew to Lancaster, California to attend the funeral of Marty Collins.  It was a blessing to see how the Hispanic church loved her and Bro. Jerry!
    Three churches helped get ready, import, license, etc., 2 church vans a church in MO had donated!  One is for our church, and the other for the church in Anáhuac!  What a blessing!
 
New Ministry:  The Lord has given me another ministry of helping Mexican churches get chairs, church pews, tables, doors, windows, pianos, etc.  American churches donate, or we purchase good used equipment and supplies.  I pick them up and bring them to Mexico.
          If you know of others in the U.S. who have similar ministries, I’d like to know of them!           Eduardo pastors the Precious Seed Baptist Church in Anáhuac, Chihuahua that we started almost 23 years ago.  He overhauls and tunes pianos, and wants to help churches get a piano.  I bring them down, he reconditions them, and I can take them to churches.
          I need to pick up some pews in Colorado for a church in Chihuahua City, but I don’t have a full load yet!  If you know of things churches might need, please e mail me.
There’s always a need for chairs, pews and tables, etc.!  Older washing machines, working or not, are also in demand.  We need a double industrial kitchen sink and stainless steel tables.
 
Jovanni:  One of our teens, 15 Year old Jovanni is still fighting for his life.  He has Aplastic Anemia, so his bone marrow doesn’t produce new blood cells.  He depends on blood and platelet transfusions, and praise the Lord, several people have donated!  They think his marrow is responding to the medicines he is receiving.  Please pray for him and his mom!
 
Praise: Couple’s banquet; Kid’s clubs and regular attendances recouping; Provision for vans
 
Prayer: Souls saved & baptized; Missions conference in April, Faith Promise commitments; New helps ministry, supplies; Jovanni’s health
 
In His Service,
Bro. Ron Winter
Camargo, Chihuahua

Dear Friends in Christ,  
 
I trust all of you had a blessed Christmas and that we will have a prosperous New Year, with our churches more dedicated to preaching the gospel to this lost and dying world, as we see that day approaching!  Thank you for the special Christmas gifts, and for all the faithful support and prayers as we work here in Mexico!
 
In the fear of the LORD is strong confidence: and his children shall have a place of refuge.                                                                    Proverbs 14:26
 
Iglesia Bíblica Bautista, Camargo:  Praise the Lord for His continued faithfulness to me, and that most of my supporters have been able to continue faithful!  The church here, with some difficulty, continued supporting our missionaries as well!
    We had good seventh anniversary services!  Bro. David Lydick preached and challenged our people to stay by the stuff and not waver in our resolve!  The day our conference began, they heightened the Covid restrictions!  So not allowed to meet together, we had to publish it on Facebook, which is not nearly as good!
Bro Lydck was sure disappointed not seeing our church as he did last year!!
With the quarantines and restrictions again since the end of October, only a few people have been able to come to the services.  We are just now allowed to meet, with all of the “safety guidelines.  There’s a lot of apathy, as only about a third of our folks coming to the main service on Sunday, but we are praying and visiting!
    We had to cancel our Christmas program, and Watch-night service, but did have a special Christmas celebration with the kid’s club, with 70 in attendance!
 
Sick Teen:  Please pray for 15 year old Jovanni, whose body isn’t making blood cells!  Pray the treatments will be effective, and that the Lord would lift him up, according to His will!  Also pray for his mom that she can hold up, as her husband is in the U.S. and her other 2 sons that came down to help her, will soon have to go back home to the U.S!  She will be alone, at the hospital in Chihuahua, more than 2 hours from here!  Because he was born in the U. S. he is a U.S. citizen, so the socialized health-care system here won’t pay for any of his treatments.  They have to pay all the expenses for private treatment, which is much better, but expensive.   In hospitals here the family has to take care of all the patient’s personal needs, and locate, buy and provide specialized medicines!
Jovanni played guitar in the services and was very active with the teens! 
 
Building:  Our building remodeling is going well, removing walls to make bigger classrooms for the kid’s clubs, and making offices and a bigger kitchen.  We feed the kids that come to the Bible clubs, because many come without breakfast.  They are very appreciative, and I believe listen better when they aren’t hungry!
 
Praise: Faithfulness of my supporters; Able to support our missionaries; Kid’s clubs doing well
Prayer: Souls to be saved and baptized; Churches to congregate again as they should; Jovanni healing; Building remodeling; Mexican Pastor for the Iglesia Bíblica Bautista
 
In His Service,
Bro. Ron Winter
Camargo, Chihuahua, Mexico

Dear Friends in Christ,

Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Luke 18:16

Iglesia Bíblica Bautista, Camargo: In my last letter I wrote that my assistant Jorge, his wife Michel and I, took teens to camp in the mountains. While at camp, Michel learned of the death of her brother, in the state of Sinaloa. Since they were already a third of the way there, they went on over the mountains and got to the funeral just in time! (Since they don’t embalm the body it’s normally buried within 24 hours of death!) So we piled everybody else into the van and I brought them home. Less than three weeks later we had our Vacation Bible School, but I had told Bro Jorge and Michel to take a couple of weeks with their families, so they only had one week to prepare for the VBS. But with the help of the Lord, several ladies and many of the teens, they made the necessary preparations! Because of COVID, we planned for a maximum of 60, about half of what we had last year! The first day we had 122, and 125 on the last day, I believe because people are tired of the quarantine! With no age limits, we had over 50 teenagers in attendance every day, and most of them made a profession of faith, and several of the 8 to 12 year olds did as well! Praise the Lord!
Ever since the VBS, we have been promoting, visiting and running multiple routes. Last Saturday we had a record attendance of 79 at the weekly Bible Club, Several younger teens are coming to the youth meetings and from 30-60 coming to the church services! Amen!
Of course these kids aren’t like our church kids, they are wild and unruly, so we’ve had to change some policies and practices! But it has been a blessing and a challenge to minister to these kids, and hopefully reach some of their family members!

I have a request: If any of you would want to help us by sending small, like happy-meal toys, etc., as well as candy, pencils, crayons, school supplies, etc. it would be a huge blessing! Most of these kids come from broken homes, and all that comes with that! We may be too late for Christmas, but whenever we could get some things would be GREAT! If you can help, please e mail me at [email protected] for a mailing address in Texas. Our state of Chihuahua still has a mask mandate, with a limit of 50% attendance. For testimony’s sake, we tried to comply with the ordinance. The first couple days of VBS we were all wearing masks, but only about half of the kids even had a mask, so came on any way! In our regular services as well, we suggested everyone at least come into the building and leave with a mask, but very few have complied! But the Lord has protected us, and no one has gotten sick! So we encourage all who can, to come out to the services! Most people have come back to services since this all started, though some are still not as faithful! We’ve been having some visitors as well, and continue publishing the services on Facebook.
We had a “Noche Mexicana” to celebrate Mexico’s independence the 16 of September, with over 90 in attendance! It was a great time of preaching and fellowship, with several
visitors!

Building: We continue with our building remodeling. The auditorium should be pretty much finished by our church anniversary, the last week-end of October! There is still a lot to do, but we are getting some things finished up, which helps our morale as well!

Praise: Safety in our travels; Great VBS, kids saved and coming to services: No one sick

Prayer: People to be saved; A right balance of ministries in the church; Kids saved and families reached; Attendances to stabilize; Our special services for our 7th anniversary

Thank you for your prayers and faithful support,
Ron Winter
Camargo, Chihuahua, Chihuahua