Dear Pastors, Churches and Friends,

February 1, 2018 (Dec. ’17 – Jan. ’18)

I trust you all had a Merry Christmas and that your new year is off to a good start. Mary and I celebrated our 29th Wedding Anniversary in December. Our son, Joseph, shared good news with us on Christmas day that his wife/our daughter-in-law, Joanna, is expecting and due in August. This will be our second grandchild. We had several churches, families, and individuals donate clothes and send it to the border for us to give to the poor here. We made two trips to the border in December to pick up clothing and still have to make one more trip this Spring for the last batch. Our church people were so glad to get some nice things. We also used some of it for a big outreach last month on Día de Reyes/King’s Day in recognition of when the wise men brought gifts to Jesus. This is the day that many, who can, exchange gifts. We had several saved at church during this outreach. We received new puppets that we used for the first time on this day. We plan to use the last batch of clothes to help an orphanage here. Some of our goals for this year, apart from the orphanage ministry, are: officially re-start our Jewish outreach ministry as a church; open a book store in the church (as good material is hard for the average person to acquire); start a church orchestra; start a Wednesday night “King’s Kids” program; begin supporting missionaries; start a gospel literature distribution center for central Mexico; begin canvasing a new area late this year in preparation for our next church plant; etc. Of course our main emphasis apart from church-planting is evangelism, and we were glad many were saved and baptized last year. Our church is growing so that sometimes we have to run four van routes to bring people to church.

Thanks not just your financial support, but also for praying for us. Due to the pollution, unsanitary conditions, etc., our health is always a prayer request. Safety is, too. Many of you are aware that the U.S. Government recently increased the travel advisory level for citizens considering going to Mexico. This will make it difficult to keep getting Bibles & tracts from Texas. I reported recently about Alejandro, a man in our church, who went missing after going to help his father-in-law, Heriberto (also of our church), when a murder at his work occurred. Thanks to your prayers a month later Alejandro re-appeared. He was kidnapped, knocked out, taken to the other side of the city and locked in a small room for 4 weeks but eventually escaped. A father of a man in our church was killed recently very close to our apartment. A couple men in our church were robbed with weapons separately in public transportation close by last month, but sadly this is a regular problem for our people.

We are now meeting in a new and more permanent location as a church. We found a large house very close to us that had been abandoned for many years. The owner moved away to another state in Mexico, but is a friend of one of our church members. The owner did not want to sell the home, at least for now, but agreed to rent it to us. We have made many repairs and improvements with much more to come, but it has worked well for us. We are excited to have two separate missions trips planned already for this year from a couple of our supporting churches. Let us know if you would like to visit too.

Just a reminder that we send this printable prayer letter out via email every other month. We also have a short weekly update that we email as well. If you know of anyone who would be interested in receiving either (or both), just let us know. We are privileged and glad to be “…your servants for Jesus’ sake” (2 Cor. 4:5) here in the mega-metropolis of Mexico City, Mexico.

Bro. Mike Wallace & Family