Newsletter - Brewer Road

2009-06-08T14:23:00.000-07:00

Brewer Road Iglesia de Cristo

Winston Salem, North Carolina

"My food,” said Jesus "is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work. Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” John 4:34-35.

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Four more people were added to the Lord's Church during the month of May!

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Their names are: Maria, Gregorio, Areli and Leodith.

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The Church and the Economy

The situation with the economy is starting to hit our congregation. Two brothers from my discipleship group have lost their jobs. Both men and their families have been very active and have been serving the congregation for several years. One of them has three kids and the other two. Besides the problems with the economy, our members have to deal with another big source of stress: They can’t renew their driver’s licenses once they expire.

I wanted to share with you something that Luis, one of the brothers that just lost his job, told me. We were at our Friday evening discipleship group and he asked for prayers. After he told us his problem, he said: “But I’m not worried, we are ready to leave or to stay and we feel in peace about it.”

Something that also makes me feel in peace is that we have established a congregation in their hometown where they can continue serving the Lord. And of course, our mission work down there will really benefit from receiving any of our families if they end up back in Mexico. It’s almost like going back to the early days of Christianity when the disciples were forced to leave Jerusalem because of the persecutions (Acts 8:1-8). However, the Lord used that difficult situation for the benefit of the Kingdom.

I just pray that the present challenges we are facing not only in the US but also around the globe will bring people to understand that we cannot put our trust and happiness in a bank account or financial stability, BUT RATHER in the only ONE that never fails…THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY!

Regular Activities:

Small Groups:

To continue our spiritual growth, we have four different small groups that meet in homes.
*Discipleship Group (Nieto’s house) Friday nights
*Family Strengthening Group (Prato’s house) Saturday nights
*Home Bible Studies (Simon Ventura and José Peláez homes) Sunday afternoons

Ladies Bible Class:
Saturday mornings at the church building

Young Ladies Mentoring Group:
Wednesday nights at the church building

Kids Tutoring Program:
Saturday mornings

English as a Second Language (for adults)
Tuesdays and Thursdays

Soccer Practice and Games:
Sunday afternoons

Special Activities:

We are getting all the details ready to start our Summer Tutoring Camp. This is going to be our third year offering this wonderful opportunity to our own kids and also to those from the community. This year the High Hopes Tutoring Camp will last 8 weeks! This means that the kids will be busy during most of their summer break. Of course, besides studying and learning, the kids will enjoy daily fitness activities and devotionals, science activities, and weekly field trips.

We are expecting about 100 kids to be enrolled this year.

As always, please keep us in your prayers!

The Brewer Road Team.

Newsletter April 2009

2009-04-22T12:08:00.000-07:00

Brewer Road Iglesia de Cristo

"So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow." 1 Cor 3:7

19 Baptisms in 6 Weeks!

Our Father in heaven continues to bless us with many people willing to follow Jesus. Our brother, Idelfonso Cruz, was the instrument God used to bring seven of his relatives to the waters of baptism within two weeks! He started with his son Irvin on Wednesday March 18th. Then his four nieces, Siclalis, Patsy, Maria, and Cristina came to the Lord after several weeks of Bible study Idelfonso held at his house on Sunday afternoons. Then, his cousin Lucia, who has been visiting the church for a couple of years, decided to get baptized (her husband is already a member of the church). Finally, his sister, Micaela, decided to get baptized the same day I was baptizing Idelfonso’s mother and brother down in Mexico. We were actually able to watch Micaela's baptism live via the internet from Mexico! Gustavo had the idea of connecting with us through live chat using the web.

Mission Trip to Mexico (March 28th to April 4th)

Our trip to Guerrero, Mexico was another successful and uplifting event! Our visit brought a lot of encouragement to the one-year-old congregation. Last year I was a little worried that some of the people we baptized would not stay faithful since most of them only heard a couple of Bible studies before getting baptized. The Good News of the Gospel was the center of our preaching and teaching since we were only there for a few days. However, the power of the Word of God came through and all the brethren we baptized are still faithful!
The Lord blessed us with the opportunity to baptize seven other people for the forgiveness of their sins. Two days after we came back from Mexico, three more people obeyed the Gospel. Now the congregation has twenty-two members in only one year!

The names of our new brothers and sisters that were baptized in Mexico are: Salvador, Celia, Chica, Prospera, Brigida, Miriam, Maria, Ashley, Ofelia, and Leonardo.

Impressive Attendance at the Last Bible Study of our Mission Trip

We started with about 25 people and ended up having almost 70! People kept coming so I kept preaching until midnight... just kidding! It sounds kind of funny, but down there you have to adapt to the circumstances.

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These are pictures of the worship service.

We had close to seventy people worshiping in the small house where the church meets. Several of the kids had to meet in the preachers’ bedroom because there was not enough room for everybody in the living room/kitchen area.

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More Growth at Brewer Road

The past two Sundays, we have seen two more individuals come to Christ to receive forgiveness.

They are Manuel, the son of our brother Manuel and Araceli (Baptized on Sunday April 19th), and Javier Marin (baptized on Sunday April 12th). Simon Ventura led him in personal Bible studies.

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As you can read, we keep on growing not only in numbers but also spiritually as more men are taking an active role in bringing people to Christ!

Our average Sunday attendance is over 200 now.
Our new record attendance on a regular Sunday: 213 people!

Keep us in your prayers and thank you for your unconditional service to the Lord.

The Brewer Road Team.

2009-03-03T14:05:00.001-08:00

Iglesia de Cristo at Brewer Road

Winston Salem, NC

FEBRUARY 2009

Church Growth

One thing that is really exciting for a missionary or a minister to report is church growth. For us, at Brewer Road, growth goes beyond statistics. Although numbers are important (there is a book in the Bible called NUMBERS), spiritual growth and leadership development is as important, or perhaps even more important, than numbers. One comes after the other. Spiritual growth needs to come first then the numbers will follow.
The number one factor in our congregational growth is our attitude toward the lost. We believe that the Gospel is the central message of the Church and the community around us is the mission field. Our members are able to understand the importance of sharing their faith not only from the pulpit but also through the examples of many of our members and leaders.
Another very important aspect that has directly impacted our capacity to serve our congregation is the unconditional support we have had from the South Fork congregation, not only by means of economical support but also by providing teachers for our Sunday school and our tutoring programs. They also have been diligent in providing pastoral care and guidance to us.
We also want to recognize the Roseville church of Christ (Detroit, MI), Ron and Paula Shade (my parents in law), and the Jericho church of Christ (Mocksville, NC) for their support to our ministry from the very beginning.

Our new record on a regular Sunday attendance is 204 souls!

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New brothers and sisters in Christ:

We are happy to announce that four new people were added to the body of Christ during the past month. Rafael and Raudel studied the Bible with our brother David Trevino. Giovanni and Cynthia are children of church members. They are both third generation Christians!

Giovanni and Rafael were baptized on February 1st.

Rafael was the result of the work of two different brothers.

Raudel was baptized on february 11th.

Cynthia was baptized on Sunday February 15th.

Children’s Ministry Workshop

On January 17th, Sarah guided the ladies of our congregation through a 2-hour workshop on how to improve our children’s ministry. We are blessed to have volunteer teachers from South Fork teach our grade-school aged children. However, the Brewer Road ladies are in charge of the 4 classes which hold our tiniest treasures: Babies, 1’s and 2’s, 3’s and 4’s, and 5’s and K. We had a wonderful turnout for the workshop and more than 20 ladies wholeheartedly agreed to take an active role in the Christian education of these 35 eager souls! They discussed a new system of scheduling teachers, methods of preparing age-appropriate class material, and how to keep track of what has been taught. Most importantly, we reflected on the necessity of daily Bible study and prayer to ready our own hearts and minds prior to teaching the little ones. Our ladies are capable and willing of presenting a creative curriculum that will have an eternal impact!

Small Groups Ministry

The small groups are successfully meeting every week. Right now we have three groups meeting at the Prato’s, Ventura’s, and Nieto’s. Each group is dealing with a specific purpose. Gustavo’s group is a family oriented group that has the purpose of enriching and strengthening marital and family relationships. Simon’s group provides his participants stronger doctrinal knowledge and practical tips and information to live a meaningful Christian life. Goyo’s group is providing knowledge and resources to his group attendees to become stronger leaders by having a closer relationship with God and considering and discovering each individual's gifts and talents.

Strengthening Families Program

Gustavo and I continue to work as facilitators for the Strengthening Family Program. As we told you before, we really believe these classes are effective in helping parents and teenagers to connect in deeper and more meaningful ways. We are working with English and Spanish speaking families.

Wednesday Night Bible Hour

Sarah and I are leading our interactive Bible hour on Wednesday nights. We have a group of about 25 kids. We also want to recognize the big help that Eric Prato and Giovanni Vasquez are providing by leading songs and being excellent helpers.

Winterfest 2009

Our youth had the blessing of participating in the annual Winterfest youth rally, in Gatlinburg, TN. Besides having the opportunity to fellowship with the South Fork youth group and another 13,000 teens from all over, our kids had a spiritual feast and a wonderful time of worship through the wonderful a cappella singing.

Mission Work update:

As you know we are supporting a fulltime minister in the town of Cuaji, in Guerrero, Mexico. We established a congregation in that area in April 2008. Our brother David Barragan has been very busy giving personal Bible studies to individuals and families. There haven't been any baptisms in the past several months, but David is hopeful that soon some of them will make that decision. We are planning to go back to visit our brothers and sisters and check on the work and progress that is being made.

We are very grateful for Gary and Denise Scruggs for their partnership with us in this mission effort!

As always, keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

In Christ,

Goyo and Gustavo

2009-01-06T06:24:00.000-08:00

NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 2008
Iglesia de Cristo at Brewer Road
Winston-Salem, NC

2009… A YEAR OF CHANGE

In the same way the word “politician” brings to the modern mind a bad connotation, the word “change” brings feelings of fear, concern and even division within our brotherhood.
However, change in and of itself is not a bad word or a sacrilege; it is actually the difference between spiritual life and death. I’m not talking about doctrinal change, trust me, you don’t have to worry about that. I’m talking about spiritual change, what Paul calls in Romans 12:2 “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…”
We at Brewer Road believe in change. Our specific purpose is to be more like Christ.
One of the goals we have set in our hearts is to become a multicultural and welcoming church, a congregation that reflects the makeup of our city and community.
We don’t like the way culture describes and classifies people. How did Christianity turn from a counter-cultural faith to one that looks like the rest of the world? We don’t like racism. We don’t like segregation. We don’t like ethnocentrism. Neither does Christ. As servants and leaders, we want to continue our own personal transformation. From a congregational point of view, we are looking into better ways of meeting the needs of our members and the community around us. We also encourage our brethren to be transformed, to improve their lives, to have goals, to dream, to change!
As preachers of the Gospel, we help people see the need to change, to transform their lives, to change their eternal future!
In the next 12 months, we hope you will see change in our congregation---for the better and never for the worse!

In Christ, the old has gone, the new has come. 1 Corinthians 5:17

We wrapped up the year 2008 bringing people to a new life in Christ and we started the New Year with the same commitment.
Our new brother in Christ, Gabriel, was baptized for the forgiveness of his sins at the end of last year (above). Pedro Aguilera was baptized on November 30th, 2008.

Carlos Farfan decided to come to Christ last Saturday, January 3rd.

Christmas and New Year’s Eve Celebration

Sarah, Gigi and I had the blessing of spending Christmas in Chicago. Sarah’s grandparents and extended family from both sides live in the area. We came back just in time to get together in our home with a few families from our congregation to welcome in the New Year!

New Year's Eve

Gospel Meeting

Back in November we had a three night Gospel Meeting. We had a pretty good number of visitors among the people that gathered during those days. Many were encouraged and were able to understand a little bit better the importance of being prepared to face death. Roberto Miranda and Rafael Valderrama were our guest speakers.

Ministry Changes

As you know, small children, pre-teens and adolescents sum up almost half our congregation. As this young population grows and changes, what the congregation offers needs to adapt to their particular needs.

· Wednesday Night Bible Hour
Sarah and I will be leading a Wednesday night Bible hour for our kids. The plan is to have a big group of kids learning Biblical content and moral principals in a more interactive and fun way!

· Youth Group
I have also met with David Keen to start a more regular fellowship between the South Fork youth group and one at Brewer Road. We discussed a few topics of interest for both groups of teens. Lisette and Dylan Prato have been playing a key role in encouraging our kids to participate in the youth activities at South Fork. This year 7 of our kids will be participating in a nation wide youth event called “Winter Fest” in the mountains of North Carolina.

· Bible Study Group
We are going to start a study group in our home. We will be focusing our discussion on the book: “Twelve Ordinary Men.”

Regular Activities:

-Saturday night couples meeting: Prato’s home
-Saturday Morning Ladies’ Bible Study
-Tutoring program
-English as a Second Language (Tuesdays and Wednesdays)
-Men’s correspondence Bible School

Thank you for being a part of this Ministry… GOD IS BEING GLORIFIED AND HE IS THE ONE BRINGING CHANGE TO MANY LIVES!!!

2008-11-02T14:05:00.000-08:00

Newsletter October-November 2008

Greetings from Brewer Road Iglesia de Cristo!

Baptisms

In the past few weeks we have witnessed the baptisms of three young ladies that have grown up in the church. Their names are Adileny Hernandez, Jennifer Ventura and Damaris Cruz. We want to congratulate their parents and every Sunday school teacher that have played a role in educating these young ladies to become faithful Christians.

Gospel Meeting

We are getting ready for our Fall Gospel Meeting! It will be taking place on November 6th through the 9th. Our speaker will be our brother Roberto Miranda from Houston, TX.
Our goal is to make at least 200 personal invitations to our neighbors, friends and family members.

Strengthening Families Program

Last Thursday, October 23rd, was the last session and graduation day. The participants are students and families of a low academic performance middle school in our community. Gustavo and I worked as facilitators and counselors to the kids and parents enrolled in the seven week program sponsored by Forsyth County Family Services. We believe that the subjects and discussions we covered during the seven sessions are extremely important in bringing parents and kids to a better understanding of each other. We were also able to create the habits of family meetings and quality communication.

Chaplaincy Ministry at Forsyth Medical Center

As I told you in my last report, I’m serving as a volunteer Chaplain at a local hospital. They have an average of 30 Hispanic in-patients. Since I’m working 4 hours a week, I can barely visit with half of them. I have been able to share Bible lessons with a few of them but I have not been able to establish any ongoing Bible studies after they are discharged. I’m grateful to be a part of a program in which many are getting encouraged as they face difficult times.

English as a Second Language

We are offering an ESL class to our members and many of our church visitors every Tuesday and Thursday. This is the biggest class we have had. There are more than 20 students who are divided in two classes.

Ladies Group Update

The ladies are still meeting every Saturday morning for their Bible Study. Sarah is teaching and coordinating this class. One of the things accomplished in this class is that several of our sisters have had the opportunity to lead devotionals. This has empowered them to become active in the class and also is helping them to improve and develop their Bible knowledge and teaching skills. Sarah just started a series called: The Christian Home. The main focus of the lessons is to introduce the ladies to ideas, tips, new family habits and traditions that can bring more joy, unity, spirituality, communication and interaction at home.

Saturday Night Couples Meeting

Gustavo and Sheryl are hosting a weekly couples Bible study at their house. The purpose of this meeting is to create deeper and closer relationships amongst the people participating. Also, Gustavo is trying to create an environment where couples can freely talk about their personal battles and challenges, as well as getting some type of encouragement and support.

Sunday attendance: November 2nd, 2008.

199 people (120 adults; 79 kids).

As always, thank you for your prayers and support!

Goyo and Gustavo.

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2008-09-12T15:00:00.000-07:00

Newsletter July-August 2008

Iglesia de Cristo en Brewer Rd

Wiston-Salem, North Carolina.

Baptisms

On August 3rd we had the privilege of seeing Mateo and his wife, Yeimy, receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior in the waters of baptism. They studied with our best evangelist: Simon Ventura!
The pictures below are of two other people that were baptized by Gustavo. They are Araceli and Salvador.

Our Mission Work in Guerrero, Mexico

The work in Cuaji and the surrounding towns is going well. Last Sunday, they had another baptism. Our brother David Barragan is doing a good job of getting connected to the people. He already has 18 Bible studies during the week. One of those is with a family of seven adults who are all members of a Pentecostal church. He is studying with 25 people in total. David and his wife rented a house that is big enough for the church to start meeting there. They said that they are adjusting well to the town and the very hot weather. Please keep David and all the contacts in your prayers.

Christian Counseling Ministry

Gustavo is currently providing counseling services to 13 individuals (5 families) through the church counseling services.

Partnership with Family Services

Gustavo is also providing counseling services to students of a very poor academic performance middle school here in town. Right now he is seeing four kids.

Gustavo and I are also teaching a family based counseling course called the “Strengthening Families Program.” The main focus of the program is to create an open and comfortable channel of communication between parents and kids. We are also making opportunities for parents and children to get to know each other on a deeper and more meaningful level. The participating kids and their parents are not members of the church.

Young Girls Mentoring Group

I’m proud to let you know about our young girls mentoring group, especially because it started as an initiative of one of our own young women. Lisette Prato started her mentoring class several months ago. They are meeting every Wednesday night. Lisette began the program by discussing the importance of purity with the girls. Right now she is teaching them principles on how to be real Christian young ladies in a very worldly and challenging culture. Even though she is very busy because of her heavy academic load and high personal goals, she always puts God and His Kingdom first!!!

Chaplain Volunteer Work

This week I applied to work as a volunteer chaplain at a local hospital, Forsyth Medical Center. Since we are going to be focusing on evangelism during the last quarter of this year, I decided that I needed to put myself in a place were I can meet new people. There are high probabilities that individuals who are going through difficult times will be more interested in having a closer relationship with God. I’ll start by working as a volunteer one morning a week to see how it goes. Next Wednesday I’ll have an interview with the head of the department.

YMCA Tutoring Program... A Great Success!

This year, our four week summer program was another great success. And as you can imagine, after a month of intense activity, five hours a day, we ended up very tired!

Our program is becoming a great help for the parents and kids that participated. We provided a healthy and secure environment for the kids. They not only improved their reading and math skills, but this program also gives them a needed boost of confidence for the 2008-2009 school year. Last year, we had 34 children enrolled. This year, we nearly doubled that number with 64 in total from several local elementary schools. We were featured in a monthly magazine about school aged kids that comes with the Winston Salem Journal, our local newspaper.

We are going to be visiting some of the kids that participated in the summer program in the next few days. We will be bringing some left over school supplies that were donated to the church through a friend of Gustavo's. We will be inviting the kids to some of the fun activities we are planning to host as an outreach.

As always, we want to thank you for your prayers and support!

In Christ,

Goyo Nieto and Gustavo Prato

2008-07-14T17:34:00.000-07:00

Iglesia de Cristo

Winston Salem, NC

Newsletter: May-June 2008

The past couple of months have been extremely busy for us. In only two and a half months and I have been to Mexico (twice), Venezuela, Guatemala and Lipscomb University in Nashville, TN. As a family, we are very happy to be instruments of God to further His Kingdom on this world!

Mission work in Mexico:

I’m very excited to announce that we have finally found a preacher willing to go to the little town of Cuaji, in the State of Guerrero, Mexico, to be our very own missionary! His name is David Barragan. On Monday July the 14th, he will be arriving in Cuaji to spend a whole week down there to get familiar with the area and the new Christians that we baptized last April. Our brother Simon Ventura (one of our members) flew to Mexico with his wife on Saturday July 12, to meet David. They will be visiting people, giving Bible studies to the members and the community, looking for a house for the preacher and his wife, etc. It is very encouraging for the Brewer Road members to be the supporters of the mission work that is being accomplished among their own family members and countrymen. This is a huge step in the spiritual growth of our congregation!!

Seminar for Leaders (Men and Women) of the Church in Guatemala:

It surprised me to realize that when we to talk of leaders, we immediately think of men. Although it is true that in the Scriptures men have a defined role as leaders at the church and in their homes, we can't deny that a leader is an individual, male or female, whose life and example influence the lives of those around them. A mother, for instance, has a very important influence on the lives of her children, so she should be considered a leader. The same applies to a Sunday school teacher, a ladies group facilitator, a basketball coach, a school teacher, etc. Christian men and women should be a positive influence where ever they are or whatever they do.

Sarah and I were invited by Health Talents International, a church of Christ medical mission in Guatemala to give seminars to the men and women of the churches in that country. We really enjoyed our time down there. We had the opportunity to reunite with Carlos Baltodano, a beloved friend from Harding University and the director of the clinic down there. Our Guatemalan brethren were a joy to have as students. They were eager to learn and actively participated in all the activities and discussions. I taught the letters of John and Sarah presented lessons on 1 Peter.

We want to thank our brother Rick Harper for all his attention while we were down there and we congratulate him for the wonderful job his doing as the director of Health Talents International.

Lipscomb University Summer Lectureships:

I had the honor of being invited to participate as one of the two keynote speakers at the Spanish program for the Summer Celebration Lectureships at David Lipscomb University. I did not only have the opportunity to teach, but also to hear wonderful messages from some of the most talented and well prepared preachers of our brotherhood. We also enjoyed spending time with our fellow Christians from Hispanic churches of the states of Tennessee, Alabama, and Florida. The president of the University took time from his tight schedule to share with the Hispanic brethren gathered at the University for this special occasion. We had a wonderful time with Sarah's sister and her family, and also with our good friends Leoncio Dominguez, Carlos Preciado and their wonderful families.

Camp High Hopes: Summer Tutoring Program.

Summer has arrived, and 64 kids are enrolled in our summer tutoring program. This is the second year we have offered this opportunity to our own children and those from the schools in our community. This is made possible with our partnership with the YMCA of Northwest North Carolina. As we did last year, we are concentrating our efforts on helping the kids to improve their reading, writing and math skills. This will enable them to be better prepared for the upcoming school year and will provide a great deal of security, social interaction and some fun time! Gustavo is presenting classes on parenting every Monday evening during the four weeks of the program. These classes are mandatory for the parents! He is also giving the kids a little devotional every day before their tutoring sessions. I’m transporting children in the church van from their homes to the school for lunch, from the school the church building for tutoring, and then back to their homes. Sarah is serving as the kindergarten teacher this year. We also want to thank Maria Aristizabal and the YMCA for all the effort they make to provide opportunities for spiritual and academic growth to the less privileged children in our community.

Bible School Training Program:

This week ten of our men started a distance learning Bible School Program through the Baxter Institute in Honduras. Every week they will be studying the lessons at home and every Sunday morning we will be getting together to discuss the answers and get ready for the tests.The names of our men are: Idelfonso, Luis, Nicolás, Jaime, Valfre, Antonio, Jose Luis, Epi, Manuel and Salvador. Please pray for these Bible students. None of these men have ever preached a sermon, and our goal is that in the next couple of years, this pulpit is going to be filled in with several of these men.

We finally want to thank every one of you for your support and prayers for this ministry!

In Christ,

The Brewer Road Team!

Enjoy a little video from the wonderful singing at Lipscomb University Lectureships.

2008-04-18T08:10:00.000-07:00

Iglesia de Cristo en Brewer Road
Winston-Salem, NC

Report:

March-April 2008

It has been a couple of months since I wrote a newsletter. But…I have a great reason for the delay…we have been extremely busy doing the Lord’s work not only in Winston Salem, but also in Mexico!

Mission Trip to Mexico

The first thing I want to share with all of you is our successful mission trip to Mexico. As you may know, most of our members come from a few small towns that are in the same region of the state of Guerrero in Mexico. The names of the towns are Cuaji, San Nicolas, and Rancho Alegre, among others. We had a team of three missionaries: Jose Pelaez, Simon Ventura and I.

Although we were away for 8 days, we only had 6 full days to work with. They were very intensive days. We were studying and visiting with people from the time we woke up in the morning until late at night. We had group Bible studies every single day. Before leaving for Mexico, we compiled a list of 35 people that we were supposed to make contact with. We prayed for them by name, asking God to soften their hearts. In reality, we ended up studying with more than 60 people during those wonderful days!

As you may imagine, the temperatures were very high, and they don’t have any air conditioning in their homes or cars. However, the humidity was very low, and it was a little bit cooler at night. We were thankful to the Lord for that little bit of relief, to make the heat easier to deal with.
Many beautiful things happened during those days. The Word of God was powerful enough to make three elderly ladies that had not spoken to each other for nine years to reconcile! There was an additional instance of reconciliation that first Sunday morning: a brother and sister that hadn’t spoken to each other for two years hugged each other and came to peace.

Ines and Maria Estela forgiving each other!

The two sibblings hugging each other after hearing the message of the Word of God.

On Monday, the oldest of the three ladies (97 years old) decided to be baptized. Her name is Ines Garcia. We had to walk about three city blocks on the hot river bed to get into the water.

The other two ladies in that group were baptized for the remission of their sins later in the week. They are Antonia Pelaez, the mother of Jose Pelaez, and Maria Ventura, the aunt of our brother Simon Ventura. All these things were happening in the biggest town we visited (Cuaji).

Tuesday was another busy day. We went to the next town, Rancho Alegre. There, we gathered at the house of our sister Leticia’s mom. There was a nice group of about 15 people. A friend of the family was paying close attention to the preaching of the gospel, and after only one sermon, decided to get baptized.

We stayed in the home of Simon’s half-brother, Fernando. His mother, an active Catholic, organizes study groups in private homes to discuss Catholic literature. While we were in Cuaji, she attended all the meetings that we held in Fernando’s home. Her name is Bonfilia. Later, we found out that she was, in turn, teaching the lessons she learned at our Bible studies to her own study groups!

Bonfilia is in the middle with the yellow dress and the green bag.

It would take a lot of time and space to retell everything that happened that week. This is just a glimpse into the power of the Message we have in the Gospel. Many lives were touched, many contacts were made, and a lot of people are waiting for us to establish the Lord’s Church. There was a family of five that are Pentecostal, and three of them were ready to get baptized. But in the end, they decided not to do it, because there is not a church of Christ congregation down there, and they were scared of being kicked out of their current religious group. Remember, we only had the two Bible studies with them!

This is the Pentecostal Family
This is a new challenge for the Brewer Road congregation. We have had many big challenges in the past, and with the help of the Lord, we have overcome. Our next step is to find a person willing to go and continue this wonderful work. We calculate that with $500 a month, a married couple or a single person can have everything they would need in that economy. At this moment, we don’t know where this money is going to come from, but it will get here. It’s only a matter of time!

The three missionaries: Goyo, Simon and Jose

Local Evangelism

Last Wednesday night, April 16th, I had the privilege of baptizing Maria Vasquez. Last month, I also baptized her husband, our brother Victor Vasquez. The only ones left are Victor and Maria’s grandkids, to have a three generation Christian family in our congregation!

We also want to rejoice with the Prato family for the baptism of their youngest son, Eric.

Guest Speaker

We also had the blessing of having among us a special guest last weekend. His name is Henry Flores. He is a Cuban native, raised in the city of Miami, Florida. He has one of the most powerful life testimonies I ever heard. He is a living example of the Power of the Word of God and the mercies that the Lord can pour into the life of a sinner.

Henry is now taking this message of hope and forgiveness to everyone he encounters. We took him to a local middle school, where I help with an after school program. We received a lot of complements from the principal, the teachers and the staff, and they are already planning on inviting him back next year.

Our brother also delivered a moving speech to the South Fork and Brewer Road kids, as well as taught the Men’s class and the Sunday morning message. We want to thank him and his wife, Marie, for their love for the Lord and His Church.

We also want to thank our brother Robert Miranda, for bringing them here, and for the wonderful job he did Saturday night, teaching a lesson for the couples of the Friendly Avenue Hispanic group and the Brewer Road church.

Thank your for your prayers and support to our ministry.

In Christ,

Goyo and Gustavo <><

2008-02-07T06:47:00.000-08:00

Brewer Road Iglesia de Cristo

Report:

January 2008

First Baptism in 2008

On Saturday February 2nd, Victor Rios was baptized for the remission of his sins. Victor and his wife Vanessa came to the church through our counseling services. Both studied the Bible and were baptized by Jose Pelaez.

Marriage and Family Enrichment Series

For 2008, we have scheduled a Family/Marriage Enrichment class every month and a half. Last week, we had the first one: “Boundaries and Parental Authority.” It was a very good and relevant class for the audience. We are living in a society and a sub-culture where teenagers are pretty much on their own. They make their own decisions without parental guidance and with a high percentage of peer pressure. Gustavo had the idea of having the parents act out situations where their kids will come to them to ask them for permission to do things that their friends are doing or to pressure them to agree with things that many times the parents don’t even understand because of cultural and language barriers.

Dinner to Welcome New Christians Baptized in 2007

We started the New Year by encouraging our new brothers and sisters in their walk with Christ!

2008 Mission Work in Mexico

At Brewer Road, we have been extremely blessed through the generosity of congregations such as South Fork, the Roseville congregation in the Detroit area, the Jericho Road congregation in Mocksville, and some individuals that see us as an important mission effort for the Hispanic community in North Carolina. Thanks to the kindness and love for the lost that these individuals and congregations have, we are operating with two full time ministers. This financial support has allowed us to be a growing congregation for the past four and a half years.

One of the main characteristics of our congregation is the understanding and commitment to share the Good News of the Gospel to everyone around us, not only through teaching and preaching, but also as a way of life. It is not a surprise, as a result of studying the book of Jeremiah that we came to the conclusion that we needed to build the walls of the Church among our own people. That had been the first time we mentioned the importance of somehow reaching our members’ families back in Mexico…and every single one of them got extremely excited about doing it.

Of course, we understood that money could be an obstacle. But one of our members’ first ideas was: “Let’s have a special offering for this purpose”. This is what I call SPIRITUAL GROWTH---Being able to appreciate what God and others have done for you and being willing to pass it on!!!

We want to ask for your prayers as we prepare to go the state of Guerrero in Mexico to share the Good News of Salvation. Our trip is scheduled for March 29th to April 6th. I’ll be traveling with Simon Ventura and Jose Pelaez on this trip.

Thank you for your prayers and support!

In Christ,

Goyo & Gustavo

2007-12-07T19:32:00.000-08:00

Report: October - November 2007

Another sister in Christ!

Last Friday, November 30th, we had the blessing of witnessing the new birth of Vanessa Rios. This baptism has been a team work type of effort. Vanessa and her husband went through our family and marriage counseling service for several months. A few months ago, they began to attend our services regularly. Then, our brother, Jose Pelaez, invited them to his home a few times. From that point on, they began having personal Bible studies, and the rest is history.

Annual Ladies Meeting of the Hispanic churches in North Carolina.

On November the 11th, the ladies of our congregation organized and hosted the annual regional meeting. We had a guest speaker from the Hialeah Iglesia de Cristo, in Miami, Fl. Her name is Jessica Rosas. She is the wife of one of the ministers at the Hialeah congregation. Jessica has been involved in Latin America mission work all of her life and has a deep understanding of the culture and challenges of the Latino community in the United States. She did an excellent job presenting a clear and important message to our ladies. We had an attendance of about seventy ladies from several congregations in the region. We also want to extend our gratitude to the South Fork congregation for allowing us to use their fellowship center for the event.

Community Outreach: (sowing seeds for the future)

Sarah is now tutoring LEP (ESL) students three hours a day at an elementary school located close to our church building. She is helping kindergarten age kids to learn English. As you may now, the Latino children in our area don’t normally speak English until they start going to school. That means our kids are already behind, even before they start school! Sarah is helping them through the transition from a Spanish speaking environment to an English speaking school and community.

I’m still working as a tutor/counselor for the YMCA after school program in one of the elementary school in town. This particular school has the lowest performances rates in the whole county.

Saturday Afternoon Recreational Reading Program:

One of our main purposes as a congregation is not only to provide the knowledge of the Gospel and Christianity, but also to empower our kids with the necessary tools to succeed in life! Besides our Saturday morning tutoring program directed and organized by South Fork members; Gustavo and his family started a Saturday afternoon reading class. This reading time will encourage our kids to develop love and interest for books. This is another example of our determination and efforts to help our children to stay in school in order to be successful adults.
Gustavo also presented a parent's orientation class to reinforce the importance of giving their children the opportunity to reach their full potential as members of our community and citizens of a country of dreams and opportunities.

New Record attendance :

We have reached another record for our regular Sunday worship service. Our new big number is 190 souls. Our large attendance is coming from having a lot of visitors each Sunday.

Soccer Tournament Championship!!!

Our church soccer team won the 1st soccer tournament amongst local Hispanic churches. Two of our players (Jeffrey and Chepe) won the prize as the individuals with the highest goals scored!

Church’s web site:

I also wanted to inform you that the website for our church is up and running. Even though the site is in Spanish, you can still go there to see pictures of our most recent events, check out the calendar of events, check out the links of our sponsoring congregations and maybe practice some of your Spanish skills, too! I'm open for suggestions.

The website address is: http://www.iglesiadecristows.org/

Thank your for your prayers and support.

The Brewer Road Team!

2007-10-17T05:07:00.000-07:00

Report:
September-October 2007

Brewer Road
Iglesia de Cristo.
Winston Salem, NC

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New Record attendance

During the month of September and the beginning of October we have reached the highest attendance in the history of the Brewer Road congregation. Last Sunday, October the 14th; we had an attendance of 181 souls. That’s our new record on a regular Sunday. We had 110 adults and 71 children! The average attendance of the last four weeks was 171 people.

Three new Christians

I also had the privilege of baptizing 3 new Christians: Sonia, Nicolas and Veronica.
Nicolas is a Mexican national, and has been living in the States for many years. He used to be a member of an evangelical church back in Mexico. Nicolas has been faithfully attending our church services for several months, and on September 23rd, he was baptized for the forgiveness of his sins.

Sonia is from Venezuela; she has been in the United States for about 6 years. I met her at a community health clinic where I used to volunteer as an interpreter. I gave her my business card, and sometime later, she decided to stop by the church building and talk a little about her faith. After that, she started to come on Sundays, then on Wednesdays. And finally, after almost a year, on September 30th, she decided to get baptized for the remissions of her sins.

Last Sunday, Veronica Alfaro decided to get baptized. Veronica and her mom attended the Church of Christ in El Salvador. She was baptized there, when she was very young. After she moved to the States, they stopped going to church. She moved from New Jersey to Winston-Salem about a year ago. Here, they started looking for the Church of Christ, and they found us. They have been coming to our worship services for several months. Two weeks ago, she told us that she needed to be baptized again, because she realized that when she was immersed the first time, she really didn’t understand what she was doing. Sarah and I studied with her a little more, and finally she decided to rededicate her life to Christ. Her husband is not a Christian yet, but he really likes to come to church every Sunday.

Seminar on Church Leadership:

On the first weekend of October, we hosted a leadership seminar based on the book on Nehemiah. Robert Miranda, an international speaker and long time missionary, was the guess speaker. It was an in-depth-six hour seminar. We had 3 different sessions, one on Friday evening, one on Saturday afternoon and another on Saturday night. On Sunday, we had a special class for the men of my discipleship group. Robert has been coming to Winston Salem for the past there years, helping us build a strong servant minded leadership.

Seventh Wedding Anniversary!

Sarah and I are celebrating our seventh wedding anniversay. We are thankful to our Lord for keeping us together and for using our lives and marriage to serve His people.

Counseling Services at Brewer Rd. (By Gustavo Prato)

Counseling is picking up again. The amount of clients that I have varied and at the present time is increasing. I have 17 regular clients whom I see during the week. There are some new people that called me to make appointments while I was in Searcy but I haven’t seen yet.
Some positive things that are happening with our counseling service is that I have seen people who new about our counseling service through some friends who are not members at Brewer Rd Church. That means that people in the community are spreading the word of the services that we are offering at Church. Of course, the members here are the primary source of publicity that we have. The brothers and sisters from our Congregation bring their family members and friends to get some counseling when they think it would be useful for them.
Counseling has been an evangelistic tool as well. We have several clients that started coming because of therapy but now are regular visitors on Sundays and Wednesdays when the Church meets.
Please pray for this ministry so while we help people with their personal problems they’ll find the comfort, peace, and salvation that only God can provide.

Lectureships at Harding

I was invited to give a series of classes based on the Psalms. The topic was “Near to the heart of God” They have been offering classes in Spanish for Latin American students and the Hispanic population in general for about 6 or 7 years, I have been invited to speak in the Lectureships 3 times.
The themes that I covered were: Near to the heart of God: His mercy, His desire, and His love. It was a pleasure to teach a small crowd that averaged 30 people in attendance.
Another treat that I enjoyed greatly was to see friends, colleagues, and former students of mine at Harding. Being with old friends is a joy that I believe can be experienced only in the Body of Christ with the bond and affection that only God can offer.
The other Spanish lecturer was Dr. Dan Coker, a former missionary to Latin America with more than 50 years of experience of work in the Kingdom. It was a pleasure to get to know Dan better and to learn from the classes that he offered. The other classes that I attended were also encouraging and rooted in the Word.

Thank you very much for your prayers and support to our ministry.

In Christ,

Goyo and Gustavo.

2007-08-23T07:28:00.000-07:00

Report July- August 2007

Iglesia de Cristo en Brewer Road

Winston-Salem, North Carolina

" Peace to the brothers, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love." Ephesians 6:23-24

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The summer months have been extremely busy and exciting for us at Brewer Road.
The weekend we came back from the Gospel meeting in Venezuela, I had the blessing of baptizing a couple that had been attending the church for a few months. They had been members of an evangelical group in a neighboring town (High Point) for several years. They finally realized the many discrepancies between what the Bible says and what they were learning and practicing. We studied the Bible, focusing on and discussing central doctrinal teachings they were unaware of or misled by. They realized immediately the need to change and to receive acceptance of the message of the Gospel of Christ. Their names are Manuel and Aracelis. They have two children; one is 8 and the other is 19 years old. They are all attending church services faithfully.

The following Monday, July 2nd, we launched our summer tutoring camp: “Camp High Hopes”. This wonderful experience was made possible through our partnership with the YMCA of Western North Carolina. The kids had the opportunity to review and learn in the subjects of Science, Math, and English. We had teachers and tutors from the school system and a medical student at Wake Forest University who served as our science teacher. She is a member of the church.

The YMCA requires that the children take an examination before and after the program. We are very happy to report that the majority of the kids improved their scores in a very exponential way. Math was the subject where the kids showed the most impressive improvement.

Gustavo and I served in different capacities. Gustavo taught a parenting class every Tuesday evening for the parents of the children enrolled in the program. This was a requirement for the kids to be able to attend the program. We had a 95% attendance rate at every session. We also shared the coordination of the extra curricular activities. Gustavo rode the YMCA bus every morning to pick up the kids at their homes and to take them to a nearby elementary school for lunch. I was in charge of driving the church van to pick up the kids that live farther away and take them back home after the program was over each afternoon. Every Thursday the kids had a field trip and they also enjoyed an end-of-the-program party on the last day. The summer program was held at our church building from Tuesday to Friday, the whole month of July to the first week of August. This took 4 to 5 hours daily. At the end, the students received certificates and most of all; they had a wonderful summer experience where the core values of Christian character were taught by way of teaching and example.

The same day the program ended, Sarah and I went to Raleigh to pick up two ladies that came from Northwest Church of Christ in Houston, TX. Cynthia Cedeno and Sylvia Santana came to our congregation to teach a ladies seminar on “How to Teach Our Children to Love God.” They presented the ladies different opportunities parents can use at home to teach the message of the Scriptures in a “real” and practical way. Our ladies were very much edified and encouraged by the living example of these two godly Christian wives and moms.
After all of this, we took a three day family trip to the beach!!!!

We also sold our house and bought a new home. We will be sending our new address and home number pretty soon via e-mail. WE FEEL TIRED! But it is a GOOD kind of tiredness!

This coming weekend I’m planning to travel to Dallas, TX, to teach a five day seminar on preparing and delivering sermons and Bible classes.

Finally, we want to thank you for your prayers, love and support!

In Christ,

The Nieto Family <><