Dear Pastors, Friends and Family,

August 1, 2023 (Jun. – Jul. ‘23)

Greetings in Jesus’ Name from Mexico City!  We made a quick trip to the border in June for Bibles, tracts, etc. and all went well.  About the same time and in the same area we travel, a missionary friend of ours had a close call.  He was intentionally bumped by another car.  When he stopped, they tried to either carjack or kidnap his family.  He sped away and they tried to run them off the road, but fortunately he was able to get away and evade them.  When we got to Mexico, we enjoyed being back out with the church ministering in the open-air markets and knocking doors.  Mary was witnessing to two young ladies named Mariel and Mariana, both having forms of the name Mary.  As I heard Mary start to share the gospel, I knew it might be a while, so I started tracting doors, cars, and people in the immediate area keeping an eye on Mary for safety reasons.  As I finished and came back, all three “Marys” – my wife, Mariel & Mariana all had big smiles on their faces because these two young ladies both received Christ as their Savior.  They then introduced us to some friends passing by, and we got to witness to their friends and give them gospel tracts.

Since our last prayer letter, apart from seeing people saved, we have had many baptized, discipled, received Bibles, start attending our church, and we had a wedding.  We usually have first-time visitors at almost every service.  I have had a few people come to church recently who received tracts, though we didn’t witness to them the moment.  They read the tracts, got saved on their own, and later visited our church, bringing the tracts with them.  We are glad for those who come to church, hear the gospel and get saved, but as Christians we must all always take the gospel out, to the people.  Summer is here now and it is hot but soon Fall will be here, yet Hell never cools and it is forever.  We have witnessed recently in several very dangerous areas with much cartel influence where people worship Santa Muerte.  It has been a blessing though to see people saved in these areas, some with tears, often saying “thanks” afterword, shaking my hand or hugging Mary.

Our volcano, Popocatepetl, remains extremely active, continuing to spew ash all over the city and surrounding states in Mexico.  The volcanic ash is causing some to go blind.  I actually got an eye infection this week that spread to my sinuses. Mary also got an infection and we both went to the doctor for treatment last week. The main airport has continued to have to close temporarily, as well as another international airport in the area.  It did give us the opportunity, however, to witness to one of our Jewish doctors there, sharing some from the Old Testament.  With all the news about Popocatepetl, scientists have found a new volcano forming about 20 miles south of us.  There are actually over 300 volcanos, most of them small, in the area of Mexico City and it’s surrounding area.  There are at least 48 active volcanoes in Mexico, and over 2,000 volcanos in the country of Mexico, most of them being smaller.

We want to share that our 7th grandchild, Charles Zion Jay Wallace was born on the 4th of July to our son, Joseph & daughter-in-law Joanna.  I would ask you to continue to pray for our son, Stephen, and his choking & breathing problem.  He was going to visit us about a week ago to visit our gastroenterologist surgeon since he doesn’t have insurance there, and the medical costs are very cheap here.  But Stephen nearly broke his foot at work and has serious problems to his tendons & ligaments, so please pray for that, too.  Once he is better he plans to visit here for a few days for his other problem.  Please also pray for Mary as she had just recovered from her bad stomach problems from July, when she got sick again from a separate episode of stomach problems from poor sanitation causing a bad infection from parasites.  Please keep praying for us to find a building in our new area to start a new church.  Our Bible Institute is going well and we just had a young man in our church, David, surrender to full-time ministry.

We appreciate you all very much & are grateful for you.  We pray for you all, too.

Bro. Mike Wallace & Family