Christmas and New Year ministry

“I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the Lord sustained me.” Psalm 3:5 Ramírez Family Serving the Lord in San Nicolas, Tequisquiapan, Queretaro, Mexico December was filled with many ministry opportunities and sharing time celebrating the birth of the Savior. We made cookies with Rosa and her daughters one day at our house. It was a fun day with Rosa’s family. Even Boaz got in on the decorating, I think he ate more m&m’s than he used to decorate with. It is a family tradition to bring plates of Christmas goodies to friends during the Holiday season. Our kids’ club kids and youth practiced and performed the annual Christmas program this December. They presented the Christmas story from the Bible at our end of the year service. We had several visitors that heard the Gospel preached. Joaquin Cortes came from Word of Life to share the Gospel. We played games to start off the evening. Dinner was shared together as we celebrated the birth of Christ. If you look closely you can see the chairs we got with the offering for the first time this night. We also have gotten some new sound equipment too! Remember that they stole our sound equipment? We were able to buy some with the offerings we received. Thank you for helping. During the last two weeks of December we took some time to be a family of three. We celebrated Christmas at home and New Year’s eve too. It was a great time of rest and relaxation. Also during this time we visited the Mendez family and their ministry in Bernal. They have a Friday evening bible study in their home with several families that attend. I was asked to share and encourage these families to be faithful in the new year. It was a fun night of games, supper and fellowship. In January we welcomed our newest little blessing. Ana Jean joined our family on January 3 at 8am. She and mommy are doing great. Big brother loves her and is always asking where she is. Both Ana and Jean mean grace, my wife says she is our double portion of grace. In Spanish Ana is Samuel’s mom’s name and the name of the woman who sees Jesus in the temple. Both women are prayer warriors, something we pray Ana becomes as she grows up. Jean is a family name on my wife’s side. We can not be more in love with this little girl. January also got all the church activities off to a great start. The kids continue to be faithful in coming to Olympicos and memorizing their verses. One little boy who comes faithfully with his siblings learned the verse for the first time this last week! Praise the Lord. My in laws come for a month to help us after Ana was born. My mother in law helped us with crafts for the Sunday school and also did a craft at women’s group. Thank you to those that helped with this craft; sent the craft, sent extra supplies and came and helped us. This group really is a blessing for the women. Rosa and her daughters have really enjoyed coming up with crafts and teaching them to the others. Sunday evening services are growing. We have faithful attendance. Praise the Lord for the new chairs. We had to add more rows a few weeks ago to accommodate everyone. Carlos Mendez and his family have been attending Sunday evenings and he is helping Jorge with preaching occasionally. I continue to preach at the church in Tequis every two to three months. February was the more recent time I preached there. My family was not able to join me in person but they watched me on TV. Boaz was confused why dada didn’t respond to when he talked to him. Please be in prayer for Boaz. The week of Valentine’s day my wife noticed that he was having pain and swelling, Boaz has a high pain tolerance. We took him to the doctor to be seen thinking it was an infection. It ended up being more than that and needing emergency surgery. They operated that same night, he spent the night at the hospital and came home the next day. Everything came out fine and he is healing well. Praise the Lord for our church family here and the doctors that took care of Boaz. The youth group girls have been inviting their friends to youth group. This Saturday we are going to have youth group at their home. We are trying a different strategy to reach their friends and show them that church doesn’t have to be boring. Please pray for this event and the salvation of these young people. This is a picture of the three youth; Nidia, Abril and Cori. Prayer requests: This THURSDAY February 29 we have a medical brigade at our church. This is a free clinic for the town. Please join us in praying for the town and that many will come to Salvation. This SATURDAY March 2, the youth group event in the home of the youth group girls. Salvation of the invited youth. Spiritual growth and number of people at church in San Nicolas. That God would bless us with a team of people to help us reach more towns. For the Green Card of Jorge, to be able to visit all of you soon! The health and salvation of my parents, Carmen and Antonio. They are having health issues and live in a different state, it is hard to be far away at times like this. Pray for us too in knowing how to best handle this situation. For our relationship with God. That Boaz and Ana will know His as Savior too. For all the plans we have this year, that God will use each event to build His Kingdom. Our financial support. Praise the Lord that more support has come in. Pray that more will join in supporting us. Thank you!! Blessings, Jorge, Alicia, Boaz and Ana jramirez@fim.org awhitmore@fim.org