Dear Pastors, Friends and Family,

February 1, 2023 (Dec. ‘22. – Jan. ‘23)

Greetings in Jesus’ Name from Mexico City! We hope you all had a Merry Christmas, and we trust this year is off to a good start for you all. We sure appreciate your prayers, support and encouragement. We are grateful for the extra love offerings and help sent during this time. We made a short trip to the border for Mary’s jury duty summons in December. While there we saw our doctors, picked up Bibles, tracts, clothing, etc. Mary made the trip well even though she was in the hospital for about a week, just a couple of weeks before with gastrointestinal problems from bacteria and parasites, which resulted in the need for a couple outpatient surgical procedures. Even as I write this a couple of months later, after four separate rounds of varying medicine regimes, she is still having some problems. But since then, just last month, I too found myself infected from bacteria and parasites. Apart from our vitamins & herbs, exercising, taking anti-parasite medicines, being careful, etc., sometimes due to poor sanitation, sickness just cannot be avoided.

In our last prayer letter, I told how a young man in our church, José, was kidnapped but fortunately escaped. One of the new families in the church, Ana & Ivan came to church in December and got saved. Sadly, a few days later, their son, Christopher, disappeared but was found safe a week later. This is a very common problem here. A man named Julio came to church, heard the gospel, and was born again. The interesting thing is when I asked how he heard about our church, he said Mary gave him a gospel tract and invited him to church three years ago. Praise the Lord, he finally came and was saved. The Lord gives us opportunities with the Jews, too. Mary was asked recently by a Jewish lady about her music which are songs Mary writes about the Lord. Mary was able to share with her about Jesus the Messiah and the lady said she wants to hear more. I passed out lots of tracts in the Jewish area for Hanukkah. We do not like parasites & bacteria problems, nor do we like respiratory problems from the bad pollution, but we had to see our Jewish doctors a few times recently because of this. Dealing with the Jewish regarding salvation is a much slower process, but we trust the Lord will continue to open doors for us and open their eyes to the gospel. 17-year-old Diego was the first convert this year after hearing me preach the gospel at church. Afterwards I gave him a Bible and Diego started tearing up. Then Diego shared his story with me how he lives in an abusive home, but this started working in his heart last year to seek truth. He found a Bible and began to read it last month. But when Diego’s dad found him reading the Bible, he took the Bible from him, tore it in pieces, then burned it in front of Diego. He asked me to pray for him as he would have to hide from his dad as he continues to read the Bible. We had a big gospel community outreach last month and had more than 200 present with many trusting Christ as Savior. We were able to give a backpack with gifts to the visiting younger folks and a care package of food basics to visiting adults. I witnessed to Luis in January and after sharing the gospel with him, he said, “Can a person who has murdered someone really be forgiven and saved?” To which, of course I said, “Yes.” Luis said, “I am guilty of that,” then bowed his head and prayed, asking the Lord to forgive & save him. The local drug & alcohol rehab center opened last month after closing for two weeks during the holidays to remodel. They re-opened with all new men. After hearing the gospel, many of them responded by faith in Christ, calling on Him to save them. While out in another mountain town 2 weeks ago, Mary witnessed to a man reading to him aloud the plan of salvation from the back our church flyer. Another young man, Emmanuel, stood close by and already received our flyer and tract, following the written plan of salvation as Mary read it aloud to the other man. Then, I approached Emmanuel and said, “What do you think about what you just heard & read?” He said, “I need to get saved.” So, I witnessed to him just a bit more to be sure, and yes, he was ready. Emmanuel bowed his head, praying and asking Jesus to save him.

Our Bible Institute ended its Fall semester in December and restarted the Spring semester last month. We have one family that I believe the Lord is calling into missions, and a few young men God has called to preach. The local volcano remains very active, and we had a recent 6.0 earthquake, but don’t let that scare you from coming to visit. Now is the time to make plans if you want to visit this year. Just let me know. Thanks. We are …. “…your servants for Jesus’ sake.” 2 Corinthians 4:5

Bro. Mike Wallace & Family