February 4th, 2016, marked the beginning of the second three-day Mexico Family Conference, and to summarize, the outcome was truly more than we deserved and hoped for. Hearing about God’s love, favor, and grace from the lives and testimonies of Jamie Lash, Chris Hogan, Ken Phariss, as well as our keynote speakers, Carlos and Irene Hernandez, was a delight to all! Throughout the thirteen different sessions, God spoke to many hearts on what it really means to draw near to Him. Families and individuals were greatly blessed by the Lord as they were encouraged and confronted by the Holy Spirit to passionately follow after God without the burden of sin.
The attendees were challenged to live in the freedom that comes by leaving their fears, assumptions, and their wrong presuppositions of God behind and walking in the assurance of a loving Heavenly Father who has already won the battle. It was a beautiful testimony to see many committing to pursue Christ in such freedom and love––and not in a fearful love, but the kind of love that gives us an assurance that by doing so we are imitating the sacrifice that Jesus gave by dying on the cross. I believe it was said correctly that there “were many divine appointments,” as many shared that even though they struggled to make it to the conference, God made a way and exceeded their expectations.
Without a doubt, one of the main answers to prayer and a highlight of the conference was to see for the very first time in the history of the IBLP Mexico ministry, an all-Mexican CI team––both the leadership and the assistants. It was exciting to see the team gather together in the Training Center three days before the conference to set aside time to seek after God in prayer. In the days leading up to the conference, they also received training, worked on the preparation of their lessons, songs, Scripture memorization and crafts for the conference. God blessed their efforts each day leading up to the CI presentation to the parents on the last day. And after the presentation, the parents and guardians of the children and orphans praised God, clapped their hands, and gave the team a standing ovation! We are aware that it was God’s grace upon each of the volunteers that made such an eternal impact on the children. The hard work of the CI team members was rewarded by the joyful tears of gratefulness on the faces of the parents. The parents were thrilled to see that God had spoken to their children as deeply as He had spoken to them!
During the conference, no one could dispute that God honored His Word and gave a wonderful conference, filled with rich fellowship for those that attended. Most of the attendees were people near the Guadalajara area, but there were families that traveled from all over Mexico, and even a few from the surrounding Latin American countries. There was a constant request for more materials to be available in Spanish, and we feel that God will have us continue both the translation of materials and organization of the conferences in other parts of Mexico.
Please pray with us that God will give clear direction and the proper resources to fulfill the needs in these areas to carry on this beautiful ministry in Mexico and the rest of Latin America!