-a recent prayer letter from Leonard & Susie Smith, Mexico

Camps are an important ministry for our churches. I want to tell you about two camps that I preached and taught at since our last communication with you. At the family camp with Pastor Perez and the True Vine Baptist Church, I was honored to teach each morning through the Book of Philippians, and also to preach in one of the evening services. Four souls came to Christ. What a great victory!

The other camp was with the youth of the Emanuel Bible Baptist Church in Culiacan. We rented some cabins up in the mountains, about three to four hours from the city. One vehicle was overheating. The other had a tire blow out. We did arrive safely and had a great week. We had a Bible verse memorization competition at the camp. The boy who won is new to the church. His name is Juanito. He received Christ at vacation Bible school. He is a new Christian, and he is excited about the Lord in his life. No one else in his family attends church. A few weeks after camp, Juanito was baptized, and he has not missed any services. Another amazing victory!

As a direct result of youth ministry, we have two teams of our young people go out on Saturdays to two different neighborhoods where they have a Bible class for children. We are getting the Gospel into new homes and we are happy that many of these kids in the Saturday classes are riding the van to church on Sundays.

We had special services out at a nearby lake, where I was honored to preach. We rejoiced in seeing five souls come to Christ. Also, I was honored to baptize nine precious believers. An amazing day of victory.

Our vacation Bible schools were a great success. In our Emanuel church we had between 90 to 100 kids every day and another 40 teachers and helpers among the youth and adult. We saw about 25 of the older kids make professions of faith in the Lord. Another amazing victory.

Anniversary services are very well attended, with lots of special music, good preaching and of course, an amazing meal afterwards. However, seldom do people respond to an evangelistic invitation, I suppose the dynamics of it all might be distracting. Well, this year it was different at the Emanuel church. After my message, I gave an invitation and three precious souls were saved! Another amazing victory!

I am always happy to tell you about the victories, however, occasionally we have to share the difficult parts. Village ministries took place this summer and we rejoice in whatever progress we have had in a very difficult and dangerous drug cartel territory. The sad situation that I must ask you to pray with us about is that there is a war between two factions of the cartel. It has been going on fiercely for the last six weeks. I will spare you the details, but just to say that shootouts, kidnappings, carjacking, and murders are happening daily. Google can tell you all about it. We are being prudent and wise, and limiting our exposure the best we can.

Thank you for your prayers and for your support, and your patience. We love serving the Lord. May the Lord bless you.