Student Fall Retreat                                     2014 Dear friends, Every year, we like to take a weekend in the fall for some intensive training for the students who participate in the campus movement.  We want to encourage them in their walk with Christ and encourage the newer believers to know God more and get involved in the activities of our student movement (discipleship groups, prayer, evangelism, etc.).  This past weekend we had 3 intensive days with around 30 students from the BUAP university.  This retreat was very special for many students since most of them have been involved in the movement for less than a year and they had not had the chance to attend one of our retreats before. Fanny, an information technology student that came to Christ few months ago, was very encouraged by this retreat.  She said, "I am grateful to have found this student group who wants to help me grow in my new relationship with Christ." Personally for me, it was really neat to see how God is raising up a generation of student leaders to reach their university for Christ. Here are some pictures from the retreat.

Prayer requests: That students who participated in the retreat would be able to apply what God taught them during the weekend. That we may be able to continue serving the university students to the best of our ability. That we may witness more students getting to know Jesus as Lord and Savior. Thanks once again for partnering with us to bring the message of the gospel to the universities of Mexico and the world.

Luis, Liz,Leah, & Ian Pomares " The Gospel for every student, A movement for every campus, Leaders for every nation" Make a donation to our ministry: Online: https://give.cru.org/give/View/2805380 Check: Make your check payable to 'Cru' and attach a post-it note with "Luis  & Elizabeth Pomares" account # 2805380, please do not write anything in the for / memo line. The check should be mailed to CRU, PO Box 628222 Orlando, FL 32862-8222. Blog: http://luisandelizabethpomares.blogspot.mx/

The Pomares Family             November  2014 Dear friends, We greet you warmly and hope you are all very well . It is always exciting to hear how God is working in the lives of university students! This time we would like to share with you the story of a student who came to Christ recently. "Hi, my name is Ignacio, and I am a third-year architecture student at BUAP University in Puebla.  I am 22, I like bio-architecture and ecology, and I also like being an entrepreneur.  My friend and I have an advertising business and also sell organic coffee seasonally. Just over a year ago I was in my apartment, sitting ,thinking about my past and my future ,and I thought: Where did my plans go? Depression had filled all the spaces of my mind. Sadness also accompanied me in college, I felt a huge emptiness. I was looking for anything to distract me, hanging out with friends, and basically,  I thought my future was already ruined . One Wednesday I walked into my school and saw an ad posted that said, "Autocad Courses," "Work needed," “Realistic architectural 3D Max photo course," “CRU Puebla English Club." Then I  looked at the sign about the English Club!  I thought of my loneliness and thought it would be a good chance to get away from it for a little while.  I copied the address from Facebook, and when I got to my apartment, I looked up the page . I began to see the comments: “What time do you meet?” asked a guy. “Tuesday and Thursday” was the response.  I thought, “Great,  tomorrow is Thursday!” On Thursday at 12 I came to the group.  2 girls, Pamela and Jessica, welcomed me in a very friendly and very loving way.  It was a fantastic day, I was very happy, and I felt good!  At the end I was invited to come back on Tuesday, and I said, “sure!”  Why stay locked up by myself? I went on Tuesday and when the activities finished I talked to a guy named Othon.  He had experienced something like I had.  He told me about Jesus and he told me his story.  A week later, at my apartment, I invited Christ to come into my life.  I told God that he  was part of my life and that I no longer wanted to live the way I was living. Currently, I am an active member with Cru in Puebla.  I have committed myself to take the gospel to other university students and making disciples. I like talking about Christ everywhere I go, and when someone wants to know Jesus I'm willing to take the time to make known who God is and what He did for us."

Thank you very much for teaming with us to keep seeing stories like Ignacio´s happening in the universities of Mexico. It is a privilege to see lives changed by the gospel. On the family side , our children recently got over a cold and are growing very fast.  Ian is 1 year 3 months now and recently started to walk, now he  walks around the house with no problem.  Leah is still learning a lot.  Lately we are noticing how her vocabulary is more extensive, and she is a very happy girl. Recently Liz and I are making a concentrated effort to invite others to invest in our life and ministry,  so we put some of our activities on hold to focus on this effort.  We still need to raise 500 USD  a month to cover our personal and ministry needs. Please pray with us that we raise this amount soon as we invite others to support us financially.   Prayer requests: For Ignacio to continue growing in his relationship with Christ and his desire to share his faith in college. For our children´s health, that they stay strong and healthy and that Liz and I can continue educating them according to what God teaches us in the Bible. Pray that the students who we work with in Puebla continue to share their faith with courage in their universities.

Luis, Liz,Leah, & Ian Pomares " The Gospel for every student, A movement for every campus, Leaders for every nation" "Soli Deo Gloria" Make a donation to our ministry:   online: https://give.cru.org/give/View/2805380   Check: Make your check payable to 'Cru' and attach a post-it note with "Luis  & Elizabeth Pomares" account # 2805380, please do not write anything in the for / memo line. The check should be mailed to CRU, PO Box 628222 Orlando, FL 32862-8222. Blog http://luisandelizabethpomares.blogspot.mx/

The Pomares Family                    July  2014 Dear Friends, We are finishing up this school year very encouraged for what God has done in the lives of the students.  There is much to celebrate, and other things for which to pray. This time we would like to tell you about the difficulties some of the students experienced during the course of this semester. Yet they are still trusting God to reach their friends for Christ. María Fernanda, is an accounting student who just got involved this year.  Her dad and she were leaving a party where worked taking pictures and videos.  On their way home they were beaten by a group of people who were on drugs.  She was unconscious and taken to a hospital.  After spending a few days there, she is now recovering at home. Saul, an  electrical engineering student, lost his mother two weeks ago due to a stroke. A few students involved in CRU were able to accompany him at the funeral to encouragement to him. Jessica, an  environmental engineering student and one of the leaders of the group at BUAP, had her apartment burglarized a few weeks ago.  Her computer, cell phones, and other valuables that were in the apartment where she lives with his sister were stolen. Josué, a young man who was about to enter college this year, had a relapse with drugs and was about to kill himself.  Thank God he did not and now he is in a Christian rehab center that is helping him a lot. Dalí, a student participating in CRU Monterrey, left home without telling anyone where he went in December.  For a month no one knew anything about him.  In February we knew that he was in Puebla and he had contact with students from CRU.  Here they encouraged him  in his walk with Christ, and last month he  returned to Monterrey with his parents.  He plans to go back to school this coming semester. This year has truly been a year where God has done great things through students in  BUAP.  From January to July students have had spiritual conversations with 293 students, of these 170 students were able to hear the gospel, and 53 students made a decision for Christ. But it has also been a year where the students have experienced more difficulties. However, these difficulties have helped the group of students to see themselves as a family.  We have seen that they take the initiative to help struggling students, to encourage and comfort friends, and help others to meet and love Jesus more. Thanks for partnering with us to reach the next generation of leaders in Mexico and the world with the gospel.

On the family side, the children are growing very fast, Ian turned 1 on July 18, and we are extremely happy to have him as a son.  Leah still learning a lot, she is very intelligent, and even though she  has been a little sick a few days, she is  always in a good mood. From August 29 to September 23  we will be in Wisconsin in the United States to visit family and friends. We haven't been able to visit for a year and a half therefore most people haven't been able to meet Ian yet.  It will be an amazing time, please pray for us that it will be an excellent visit and the kids have a good time. Prayer Request: Please pray for the personal and family circumstances of each of the students that we shared about in the letter. That God continues to encourage the students to follow Christ in their university despite adversity. Please Pray for our finances, we need to raise at least $500 dollars a month to cover our monthly and ministry expenses.

Luis, Liz,Leah, & Ian Pomares " The Gospel for every student, A movement for every campus, Leaders for every nation" "Soli Deo Gloria" Make a donation to our ministry:   online: https://give.cru.org/give/View/2805380   Check: Make your check payable to 'Cru' and attach a post-it note with "Luis  & Elizabeth Pomares" account # 2805380, please do not write anything in the for / memo line. The check should be mailed to CRU, PO Box 628222 Orlando, FL 32862-8222. Blog: http://luisandelizabethpomares.blogspot.com/

The Pomares Family                    June  2014 Dear friends, It´s a pleasure to share with you again what has been happening with us and our ministry in Puebla.This time we want to share a little bit of Jessi´s story, who is a student leader now at  BUAP, she studies environmental engineering and is close to finishing her studies. We met Jessica almost 3 years ago when we were starting the ministry in her university, she had recently received Christ through an aunt in her hometown. She was studying far away though so she had not had the chance to be helped by someone in her walk with Christ. Liz began to meet with her weekly to help her grow in her faith, soon we saw how God was working in her life. Jessica began accompanying us to our local church, and 8 months later she was baptized in our church. Also whenever she had vacation, Jessi traveled to her village where her family lived, which is about 8 hours from Puebla. Each time she could she shared with her ​​mother and siblings what she was learning about Christ. Gradually, her family began accepting Christ. First one of her sisters, then her younger brother, her older sister and more recently, her mother. Over the years we have seen how God has been using Jessi not only to win friends in college to Christ, but also her family. And this last Sunday we had the privilege of watching her two sisters, who now live in Puebla, also got baptized in our church. We noticed the incredible joy in Jessi's face when her sisters were baptized. In the pictures below, the first is a photo of Jessi being baptized two years ago, Leah was only a few months old. The others pictures are from this past sunday of her ​​sister´s baptism.

It´s  a real  privilege to see how God is working in the lives of the students like Jessi, who want  to know and make Christ known to the people around them. It is a joy for us to be used by God to see more and more students from this university committed to Jesus. On the family side, Leah has become much healthier, thanks to God. Leah is learning new words fast and as well as she is learning two languages. It  ​​is fun to listen when she mixes the words or choose the easiest words of the two languages ​​to answer. Ian, on the other hand, has grown as well and weighs 20 pounds now. Recently, he started to crawl and now we have to keep an eye on everything in the house so that Ian does not get hurt or he puts everything he finds in his mouth. ;) Thank you so much for teaming with us to see stories like these. Your prayer and financial support is vital to the task that God has given us. We go together to transform our countries one student at a time. Prayer requests: For Jessi and her family to continue to grow in their walk with Christ. That God allows us to keep seeing more students knowing Christ. That our children are healthy.

Luis, Liz,Leah, e Ian Pomares " The gospel for every student, A movement for every campus, A leader for every nation "   "Soli Deo Gloria" Make a donation to our ministry: online: https://give.cru.org/give/View/2805380 Check: Make your check payable to 'Cru' and attach a post-it note with "Luis  & Elizabeth Pomares" account # 2805380, please do not write anything in the for / memo line. The check should be mailed to CRU, PO Box 628222 Orlando, FL 32862-8222. Blog: http://luisandelizabethpomares.blogspot.com/

The Pomares                    May  2014 Dear friends, It is a pleasure to be able to write about what happened in our National Conference few weeks ago, thank you very much for praying for this time and what God did in our lives and in the students that participated. In total we had 144 people, 110 of them were college students and the rest were staff, friends and volunteers with the Ministry. Truthfully, this has been one of the conferences in recent years that has given us the most encouragement. This year the Conference theme was "Follow Me" based on the passages where Jesus invited his disciples to leave everything and follow him. Our desire was to see students growing in their desire to be with Jesus and follow him wherever He calls them.

One of our most emotional moments was when 13 students were baptized on the last day of the Conference. It was a special time and all that were there could see how God was working  greatly in the college students from Mexico. A story worthy of sharing is the story of the siblings Pablo and Ingrid. Pablo received Christ last year when he came to our Conference. When he went back to his city, he  was involved in a discipleship group at his University with Cru.  Throughout the year he was praying for his sister, Ingrid, that she would come to the Conference this year. The morning of last day of the Conference, Ingrid received Christ and that day that we had baptisms they both were baptized. Pablo was super happy to see his sister put their faith in Jesus and be baptized alongside of him. We were also happy to witness this take place. It is these kinds of stories that encourage us to continue to invest our lives in reaching college students for Christ. We also thank you because with you we are a team that goes together to transform Mexico and the world with the message of the Gospel. Here is a picture of them. As a family it was a challenge as Leah and Ian were sick during this time at the  conference, both with the flu. But by the grace of God, everything went very well. Prayer requests: That students put into practice everything God taught them during the Conference. That Cru staff give a good follow-up in our universities from what happened in the  Conference. Please pray for Leah’s health since she has not felt very well lately. .

Luis, Liz,Leah, and Ian Pomares "Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm.  Let nothing move you.  Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." 1 Cor. 15:58   "Soli Deo Gloria" Blog: http://luisandelizabethpomares.blogspot.com/ Make a donation to our ministry: online: https://give.cru.org/give/View/2805380 Check: Make your check payable to 'Cru' and attach a post-it note with "Luis  & Elizabeth Pomares" account # 2805380, please do not write anything in the for / memo line. The check should be mailed to CRU, PO Box 628222 Orlando, FL 32862-8222.