What a great night worshiping the Lord in the village of Santa Cruz in the mountains. Several people gave their hearts to Jesus, some were healed and everyone was blessed by a Thursday night service under the stars. It was more like a revival than a regular service. A four piece band brought their converted horse trailer full of equipment from a neighboring village. Their bass player was a young lady – unusual in Mexico.

Our friend Juan from Galeana also joined the band. He switched between the accordion and acoustic guitar. He also has a habit of pausing between songs to quote a Bible verse. He has memorized many (some of you may recall we recently wrote about his amazing testimony).

Tonyia, Stephen and Martin were part of the Galeana group. Pastor Reynaldo and several members of his church from Galeana rode along too. Juan and Sandra hauled a bunch of folks in their 1993 Ford F-150. They were much later arriving than we expected. As he was driving it seems the ball joint  failed on the control arm that allows him to steer. It took him some time to fix it. He used some bailing wire to hold the control arm in place. We heard later they had no problem with it when they were driving back at midnight.

Santa Cruz is just six miles northeast but it took us 35 minutes to get there due to challenging roads. Ramiro, a

powerful local evangelist, delivered a strong sermon. The band had set up huge speakers and played and sang hymns for over an hour before the sermon. The sounds of God’s word and His people praising Him echoed through the canyon – everyone in the village heard it.

During prayer time a number of people came forward to commit their lives to Christ. One young woman who was pregnant was one of the people coming to Jesus for the first time. Plus, she asked for healing for her unborn child. She had been told by doctors that the umbilical cord was around the baby’s neck. As the preacher and several others prayed for her she said there was a tremendous amount of movement in her stomach. She believes the baby is now safe. Brother Ramiro has a strong gift of healing. Several others reported having their conditions improved.

Tonyia, Stephen and Martin along with three others left about 9:30 PM. We were worn out. The next day we heard the band and people continued to praise the Lord well into the night. All for the glory of God!

It was a wonderful day serving the Lord in remote San Jose Del Rio! We had a great worship service, fed about 40 people, gave away ten Bibles and handed out over fifteen pair of reading glasses.

The True Path Ministry team followed up on going with Juan, his wife Sandra and daughter Patricia today (Saturday June 4) as we discussed at our Wednesday night dinner. But the number of those joining us on this adventure grew. Twenty one people traveled with us on the hour long trip south of Galeana to San Jose Del Rio. It is a remote village on a dirt road in a canyon by a creek, deep in the Sierra Madre mountains.

We took our Ford Edge with six people and Juan took his 90 something Ford truck with the remaining 15. Yes, that’s right there were 15 people in his truck including Pastor Reynoldo and family (you may recall we posted a story about him recently),  Yessi and her two small children, plus several members of the Getsemani church in Galeana. It was truly an adventure in serving the Lord.

San Jose Del Rio has a great little church building, however their pastor recently died. We Galeana folks facilitated the Worship service. Juan played the guitar, Pastor Reynoldo’s wife, Lourdes kept the service on track, Tonyia signed, I told how we came to be in Mexico, Martin preached and  Pastor Reynoldo closed with a powerful prayer. The alter filled with people seeking special prayer.

After the service we fed everyone sandwiches made on the tailgate of Juan’s truck. We handed out four big print and six regular print Bibles. Plus, we had also brought a bunch of reading glasses from the Dollar Store in the USA. They were very popular – several of the local folks smiled broadly when they realized how much better they could see their Bibles.

As we were finishing the rain started. We rearranged who was to ride where so that the small children could be out of the rain. Martin and I joined Pastor Reynaldo and six of the older kids in the back of the pickup for a wet ride back to Galeana. But we poked fun at each other, sang hymns and turned what could have been a difficult ride into a fun adventure. The Lord had blessed us so that the rain did not dampen our Spirits.

All in the name of Jesus for the glory of God.