Dear Friends,

 As we mentioned earlier, last weekend we had the opportunity as a family to join the students from Universidad de las Américas Puebla (UDLAP) on a retreat.  It was an amazing time where we shared the gospel along with others topics to help them grow in their relationship with Christ.  One girl named Paola shared that she accepted Christ during the retreat.

  

In this time we had awesome conversations with some of the students, as we listened to their stories and encouraged them to know God more.

The place where we stayed was beautiful and we really enjoyed the weekend with the students.

  

We are very grateful for your prayers for the retreat, thanks to God and your prayers it was a success!

Here are some pictures from the retreat.

 

Prayer request:

 -  That God continues to use us in the lives of the college students in Puebla.

-   That Paola, and any other student that may have received Christ, would join a small group to help them grow in their relationship with Christ.

-   That we would continue to see lives transformed by Christ in the college campuses in México.

Dear friends, I just got back from Mexico City where I participated in a conference with students who learned how to start movements on their campuses. Even though we were just a few participants it was a great time of learning how to help students to start a movement, and in that way expose more students to the gospel by students who are committed to God in reaching their campus.

Also 3 weeks ago we hosted a girl’s basketball team to play in a tournament with three other universities in Puebla, similar to what we did it with the soccer teams a month ago. God continues to open doors for us with the private universities where we are working to see a movement of Christ-followers. God used the girls a lot during these 2 weeks. Some of the girls from other teams asked how the AIA team can “play for God”, and what was their motivation for playing basketball? These questions led to very good conversations as well as opportunities to share the gospel with the girls from others teams. This tournament has given us momentum with the administration at UDLAP where we had the tournament. By the end of the tournament they were grateful that the AIA team came and were able help the teams assess areas that they can work on. Many were surprised that the AIA team, who had only played together for one week, won every game. Approximately a month ago, we had the opportunity to go to Cecy’s weeding, a friend that I met almost 8 years ago in collage. I witnessed how she came to faith in her first year in collage and now she is serving with a ministry in Mexico City that works with women, mostly victims of human trafficking. It was a joy for us to see her growth from knowing Christ in collage to now serving and starting a family with Edmund, her husband; a family that loves God and will be an impact and testimony to our society. For these kinds of things we are grateful to continue serving God in the universities of Mexico. Leah is 7 months already, and a few weeks ago she had chicken pox. Thankfully it was very mild case, praise God! The most difficult part of the sickness was keeping her home as she is a happy baby with a lot of energy. We love her precious smile, and seeing her grow and learn new things every day. Prayer request: That we can help the students continue to reach their friends and their campus for Christ. Now the students are on summer vacation, that they would continue to walk with God even more deeply. And that God would continue to introduce us to more students than are interested in knowing more about Him. Thanks so much for partnering with us to see lives transformed for Christ in Puebla, Mexico and the world!

May 2012

Dear Friends,

Thank you very much for your prayers for the national student conference.  As a result I am now giving a course called, Bursting Your Bubble, to the students from Puebla that participated in the conference.  This course is for helping students to share their faith with their friends in a natural and more effective way.

Jessica, an environmental engineering student, has been taking steps of faith.  She got involved with the ministry about 8 months ago.  Since then she started meeting for follow-up Bible studies with Liz.  She decided to get involved at the church we go to, and this past Sunday she decided she wanted to be baptized as a public statement of her faith in Christ!  We are very happy to see how Jessica is growing deeper in her relationship with God.

Also 3 weeks ago I had the opportunity to go to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for training to missionaries of the campus ministry in Latin America.  This was the 3rd of 4 modules in leadership that we are taking. It was an amazing time of learning and development, as well as a time to share our experiences in the mission field with others missionaries in the continent.  It was encouraging to visit this beautiful country and see how God is blessing immensely the campus ministry there.

 Leah is growing so fast.  She will be 5 months in about a week and already weighs a little over 14 pounds. She loves play with her feet and enjoys when we take her to play on swings that are close to our house.

Prayer request:

# That Jessica continues to grow in her relationship with Christ, and the desire that she has for sharing her faith would grow even more.

# That the students than are taking the Bursting Your Bubble course will apply what they are learning.

#Please pray for us that God would provide a car for us that we could move around the city easily.

Thank you for being part of a team with us to help fulfill the great commission in Puebla, Mexico and the world!

 Luis, Elizabeth and Leah Pomares

Vida Estudiantil National Conference 2012

Dear Friends,

Last week we had our National Student Conference.  Thank you very much for your prayers for this time.   It was incredible!  We had various activities including: preaching, worship, workshops, evangelism in the city, morning prayer, baptisms, fellowship and games. But the best part was what God did in the lives of the students at the conference. Here are a few testimonies:

Alfonso from Puebla was baptized at the conference and this is what he shared:
"I want to be baptized for all that Christ has done for me, because it is a commandment, and I want follow him."

This year 7 students were baptized!

 Pamela from Puebla said:
"During the conference I realized I was not giving God the place that He deserves in my life. During the conference I was very encouraged to see other students desiring to know and please God, and that is what I want to do."

Armando from Puebla after the evening of evangelism shared:
"At first I was afraid to share my faith, but in the end it was a great joy to do it and remember that people need to hear the gospel."

Jessica from Puebla said:
"Personally I can tell you that this conference has shaped my life and without doubt my relationship with God."

 The oficial Picture!

 Students sharing their faith!

Thank you very much for your prayers and support; you are an important part in all this to happen.

Prayer requests:
That the students would apply what they learned during the conference.

That God would use the students to impact others at their universities.

That we as staff would continue to help students to grow in their relationship with God and empower them to share their faith with others.

This picture was taken at our       church in Puebla when we dedicated Leah before God and the church making a commitment to educate her according to what God teaches us in His word.

10 years in Christ!

10 year anniversary

I still remember the 2^nd time I went to a Campus Crusade for Christ meeting in Xalapa. It was the 1 ^st Wednesday of May 2002. I was intrigued by the students that I had previously met the week before when I attended for the first time.

At this time in my life, I felt like I didn’t have a purpose in life and I was tired of doing the same things over and over again for several months. I was in an emotional and spiritual decline, even though I pretended that everything was fine. Deep inside, I felt alone and without a purpose.

This day, at my 2nd CCC meeting, after the opening ice breaker, they asked “Who is here for the 2 ^nd or 3^rd time and has not gone to the little school  yet?” I didn’t know what they meant, but it was my 2 ^nd time attending a meeting. I raised my hand along with approximately 6 to 8 other students. They took us to a meeting that was separate from the weekly meeting, where the rest of the students stayed.

During the “Little School” time, they shared with us why CCC existed and told us they wanted to share something else with us. They put on a video of a student that was searching for answers to questions dealing with God and I identified with some of them. At the end of the video, they shared with us the famous 4 Spiritual Laws. At the end, they asked us if we wanted to receive Christ as our Lord and Savior. For me, at this time, I said “God you know how I feel and I truly desire for my life to have a purpose. This is what I want to have.  Forgive my sins, enter my life and make me the type of person you want me to be.”

That’s how I started my adventure of getting to know God in a personal way. Since that day, the emptiness that I felt in my life is no longer there. Blas Pascal said that, “In every human heart, there exists an empty hole that only has the shape of God. This void cannot be filled with any other created thing. It can only be filled by God, as a fact only through Jesus Christ. “

10 years have gone by since I made the most important decision in my life, which was to give my life to Christ. It has been an adventure filled with joy, challenges, sadness, victories, failures and blessings. Without a shadow of a doubt, I am very thankful that my eternal destination will be with God. One day I will meet him face to face.

Now in the year 2012, I thank God for having a wife that loves me for who I am and that loves to serve with me to fulfill the Great Commission in Mexico.  I give thanks to God for having a beautiful daughter that each day surprises us with the things that she does and is learning. I give thanks to God for serving in a ministry that desires for more people can know and experience the great love of God for their lives. It is a privilege to serve alongside the other CCC staff in Mexico and the world.

Also a special thanks to all the people that one way or another were part of my spiritual growth over all these years.

Without a shadow of a doubt, I am so thankful for these 10 years and the ones to come. Please take a moment to pray for me. Pray that God will continue to work in my life so that I can serve him more effectively. Pray also that each of the following years will be even better. Pray that each year I can be more Christ-like and not stay the same.

⁶ being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. - Philippians 1:6

 

Dear Friends,

This past February 22 the ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ celebrated 50 years in Mexico!

In Mexico the ministry started at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), university where I served for almost 4 years and where God did incredible things. We are very grateful to God that Liz and I met the Lord through this ministry during our time in college.  It was also the place where we met and now have the privilege to serve God full-time together impacting the lives of students with the gospel now in the city of Puebla.

In January I had the opportunity to participate in a training conference with other missionaries in Mexico, where we remembered the value of inviting others to invest in what we do.  We thank you that you are one of those people who invest in our life and ministry.

At the university where we work the students have had the opportunity to take ownership of the ministry in the weeks that Liz and I were unable to be on campus because of the training and a short trip we took to Mexico City to visit some people and invite them to consider investing in the ministry. We were delighted upon our return to campus to see the students very excited by the new people that are coming to the group this semester. Please help us in praying for more students to know and grow in their relationships with God more.

Two other missionaries and I are in charge of planning our national conference for Vida Estudiantil which takes place in about 5 weeks.  We have been working for months and would like to ask you to help us pray for the following: that students who attend may have a personal encounter with God, that the theme, The Kingdom of God , would encourage them to share their faith more with others, and that money would not be an obstacle for them to attend.  The conference will be in Mexico City and we are very excited about the things God will do.

 

Leah has grown so much since the last pictures we sent to you.  She is 2 1/2 months already and it has been incredible to see how within days she does something new. Something that we really like is that she started to smile.  When we she is happy we can see her beautiful smile when we speak to her or when we do gestures.

Thank you very much for your prayers and financial support.

Luis, Elizabeth and Leah Pomares