Dear friends and prayer partners -

Greetings and blessings to you in the name of the Lord. We hope and pray that you all have a blessed time this Christmas, and that He is at the center of all your celebrations.

Don't forget to put Jesus on your present list this year! He should be the first one there. What can you do for Him this holiday season? Can you be a special blessing to a ministry, to your church, to your pastor, to a missionary, to some poor people in your community? Remember, what you do for them, you do for the Lord.

-- IN THIS ISSUE --

• New Cities

• Prayer Movement

• Ministry to Pastors

• New Book

• Web Site

-- NEW CITIES --

We've had an incredible amount of new ministry open up here recently. God has opened the city of Rio Bravo, Mexico to us, and we've been very well received there. Of the last 17 days, there have only been two where we weren't ministering in that city. We've been ministering basically in this city every weekend for the last two months.

For the last week, we've been ministering on intercessory prayer in a Methodist church in Rio Bravo. They've been very open, and want to see their city transformed by the power of God. This church may very likely become the nucleus of prayer movement for the city of Rio Bravo.

Just before that, we did marriage conference in an Assembly of God church within the same city. They were so pleased with the changes that happened within the marriages of their church that they want us to come back in January to catch the couples who didn't make it to the first conference.

Another church we've been ministering at in the same city is having five hour services every Sunday. The Holy Spirit is moving powerfully, healing people, setting them free, and changing lives. We've greatly enjoyed ministering there. The church has only been in existence for about 8 months, but is growing every week.

This isn't the only church where we're experiencing prolonged services. In a church in Matamoros, Mexico - about an hour away, we've having five hour services as well. God has allowed us to minister in both of these churches about once a month.

-- PRAYER MOVEMENT --

Speaking of prayer, we've been able to expand the prayer movement since I last wrote. For the last five months, we've had monthly intercessory prayer meetings in McAllen. The attendance hasn't been great, but we're getting things started.

The prayer movement in Reynosa, Mexico is increasing as well. As of the first of the year, we'll be having the combined intercessory prayer meetings every month, instead of every three months. That's something we've been trying to accomplish for quite a while, but most of the pastors didn't want to commit to that many prayer meetings.

-- MINISTRY TO PASTORS --

More and more pastors are coming to us to seek wisdom and counsel. We've been meeting fairly regularly with a pastoral couple who are seeking a covering and haven't been able to find it elsewhere. They're wanting someone who can give them counsel and advice for the problems in their church.

Other missionaries have also been coming to us seeking spiritual covering and mentoring. Many of the missionaries here on the border don't know anything about the Mexican culture. Therefore, they aren't as effective as they could be. So, not only are we working with pastors, but we are also starting to work with other missionaries as well.

God has given us a vision to network the various missionaries here in the Rio Grande Valley. There is a missionary fellowship at the campground where we live, but not many come to it. So many of the missionaries are going off on their own directions, never working with their fellow missionaries. While each has his own task to do, we believe that we could be more effective if we supported one another. The idea is to have the missionaries know what ministries others are doing, so that when there is a need, they know who can help meet it.

-- NEW BOOK--

We are, of course, continuing to write all the time. The study that we pass out to the Mexican pastors has been blessing them greatly, and they are constantly making comments to that effect.

We've put together a collection of these teachings together in a book entitled "Wisdom for Christian Leaders." Or if you want it in Spanish, "Sabiduria Por el Liderazgo Cristiano." This book - 195 pages is available from us for $14.00 plus $1.12 shipping.

-- WEB SITE --

I hope to have a massive update on the web site soon. We've had a little problem with that, but soon will have the help of a friend to get online. All the teachings we've written over the last six months are sitting here in my computer, waiting to go online.

Since we had just shy of 13,000 people on our web site in September, I want to have some new things for them to come back and read.

Blessings to you and yours this Christmas season,

Rich & Deborah Murphy