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Dear Praying Friends,
Thank you so very much for your part in this ministry. We appreciate
more than you can ever know your interest, your prayers, and faithful
support. Our hearts have been full to overflowing with joy and
gratitude for what God has done in our ministry.
The steps that we have taken have been both joyous and difficult.
STEP 1 - The questioning and the ordination of Miguel Angel Camacho went
exceptionally well. It was a rich spiritual time as we experienced
God's blessings on the whole process. On Saturday, March 1, the
ordination board met, composed of Pastor Victor LaBelle, Pastor Donald
Holmes, Pastor Crisóforo Ramirez, the Board of Deacons from our church and
Pastor Mario L. Philippi. The intensive questioning lasted for more than three
hours. All of the pastors commented that they had never seen a
candidate for ordination so well prepared. 
Sunday morning, March 2, we started the morning service early in order to
get everything into the program for the ordination. Most of the
brethren had never before seen an ordination. It was great to see more than
350 in church! We could not
have a dinner at the church because we are in the process of making major
changes in our present classroom building; however, immediately after the
ordination, 112 of us went to the Sirloin Stockade buffet restaurant
where we enjoyed a good meal and a wonderful time of fellowship.
STEP 2 – Yesterday, March 16, we had a business meeting after the morning
service for the purpose of presenting my resignation as pastor of the
church, effective as of May 18, 2003. Even
though I had read a “Letter of Intent” in January 2002, it was still
difficult for them to face our leaving. The Board then read a letter
recommending that Pastor Miguel Angel Camacho be called as pastor of the
church. We praise the Lord that the church was unanimous in calling him as
pastor. Pastor Miguel Camacho
was led to the Lord by one of our members and soon started attending
faithfully all the services in our church. He immediately began
studying in our Bible Institute and since that time has been growing by
leaps and bounds. For 12 years
Miguel’s greatest desire has been to serve the Lord, applying all he has
learned to the ministry. 
STEP 3 – At the same business meeting, Luis
Canul was called to be the Assistant Pastor, replacing Pastor Miguel.
Twenty-one years ago I led Luis Canul to the
Lord. A few years later I led his wife, Dolores, to the Lord.
He and his wife have been attending our Bible Institute since it began 14
years ago. Luis has been a faithful deacon for many years. For the past
three years he and his wife have been in charge of a mission work in the
nearby town of Tala. He presently owns his own business and
desires to serve the Lord with all his heart here in the ministry on a
part-time basis, without salary. We praise the Lord for their three fine
young people who love the Lord and share the same burden for the
ministry as their parents. Their oldest son, Jonathan, feels called to be a pastor.
He is presently finishing college and at the same time faithfully
attending our Bible Institute.
STEP 4 - The church voted to honor me as their
Pastor Emeritus. We began
having Bible studies in various homes twenty-three years ago. After I led
Salvador Santana to the Lord in one of our Bible studies, little by little
we started holding Sunday services in our home. Now we are blessed with a
large church building and an average attendance of 300.
Pastor Miguel has requested that we stay in Guadalajara until the
last week of August in order to help with the Daily Vacation Bible School
and with Family Bible Camp in August. I
will also be able to help him with this important transition.
They have already invited us to return for a Bible conference next
year!
STEP 5 - Even though I will be turning 70 this
year, we are looking forward to starting a new ministry after we return to
the United States in August. This
year we are completing 48 years in the ministry, and we desire with all our
heart to continue to serve the Lord as long as we are possibly able.
We will be sharing more of our plans in our next letter.
Thank you so very much for your prayers for
Dotty while she was in Florida for treatment of wet-type macular
degeneration. She was not aware
that her right eye was compensating for the fact that she had lost the
central vision in her left eye. She
had no pain but just noticed that her vision was blurred.
In February she made an emergency trip to St. Petersburg, Florida,
where she received photodynamic therapy (PDT) in her left eye.
It is not a cure; however, Visudyne PDT hopefully will decrease the
chances of progressive visual loss. She
is to return again on May 20 to possibly have another treatment.
It usually takes repeated treatments to stop wet-type macular
degeneration. We will
appreciate your continued prayers. As you may remember, I found out last
summer that I have dry-type macular degeneration.
We are taking special vitamins, eating lots of green vegetables
(especially spinach), and watching our blood pressure and cholesterol as we
have been advised.
Thank
you so very much for your prayers for the new pastor of our church.
Thank you for praying for us and for the ministry here in
Guadalajara. It is a blessing
to have you as an important part of this ministry. There are several
requests mentioned below that we will appreciate your keeping before the
Lord. If you have visited our website, www.becoming-a-christian.org,
it would be interesting to receive your comments. If you ever miss one of
our Prayer and News Letter, it will always be on our website.
Thank you again for your faithful prayers and
support for us and for this ministry.
With
grateful hearts for His wonderful blessings,
Myron
and Dotty Philippi
PRAYER REQUESTS:
1.
Praise the Lord for His direction step by step
as we turn this work over to national leadership. Please pray for
Pastor Miguel Angel Camacho and Clemen during this time of transition.
Pray that our people will fully turn to Pastor Miguel for advice and
guidance. We
praise
the Lord for answered prayer in February, making it possible
for Miguel and Clemen to adopt a precious, healthy baby boy, Adrián! They
told us that we cannot leave now, because we are the grandparents.
2.
Please pray for Brother Luis Canul as he serves
as Assistant Pastor, and for his wife, Dolores, and their three children.
3.
Please pray for Dotty and me as we seek the
Lord’s will for our future ministry. Please pray for wisdom in
treating our problem with macular degeneration.
4.
Please continue to pray that the needed permits
will soon be granted for the construction of our Sunday school addition.
Meanwhile, we are in the process of enlarging our old Sunday school building
and putting on a new roof.
5.
Thank you for your continued prayers for Juan
Magaña. His cancer is in remission! He still cannot work because of
his physical condition.
6.
Pray that the reprinting of the new Spanish
edition of Becoming a Christian will go well. Because of the
large demand, we are printing 20,000 copies this time!