Joshua and Amanda Allred
Missionaries to Merida, Mexico
March-April 2023
We have so much to share. I’ll just jump right into it! In March, the South Mérida, San José Tzal, and Ciudad Caucel Baptist Churches celebrated their Mission Emphasis Month. Each church is growing and excited. The San José Tzal Baptist Church has been hosting evangelistic events where they have been giving out toys and clothes donated by the other churches. They have had a big response with many people showing up and several responding to the Gospel.
In March, we hosted a missionary guest from Cuba. Our church was able to take him on for support and was greatly impacted by his testimony. We and other church members have visited other mission fields in the past, but this year we are planning our first official church-sponsored mission trip to Cuba to visit this missionary family. They have told us that they can only accommodate up to five people, so we will be sending a small group of five. A Cuban man in our church will be leading the trip. Our children’s pastor and his wife will be going along with our nursery director and his young son (who is in 2nd grade). They will be going in August. Please pray for the planning and preparation as well as the trip itself. Pray that we can be a blessing to the missionary family and also pray that this will inspire our church to be even more involved in missions than ever before!
Plans are moving along to open our Christian school in August. We want to thank each of you who gave an extra contribution towards the start-up costs last month. It is a blessing to have ministry partners who go above and beyond! Please pray as plans are being finalized, calendars are being set, children are being enrolled, etc.
This week was the final week of the school year for the seminary students at church and for our little homeschool students at home. Gabriel finished elementary school and Malachi has graduated from the “nursery.” Starting next week, the kids will be taking focused Spanish classes over the summer. Then, all five kids will be starting school again in the Fall. The older three will be enrolled in the Spanish school at church to focus on their Spanish. Amanda will be teaching English classes at the school for an hour in the mornings, homeschooling the little ones before lunch, and homeschooling the older kids in the evenings so they don’t fall behind on their English work. Please pray for her and our little brood of students as they all work hard on their Spanish and English education this year!
We have finished another year of seminary classes and have already started preparing for next year. I will be meeting with the pastors next week to set class schedules for the upcoming year. We will have many returning students and at least eleven new students who have already confirmed their plans to enroll.
In the meantime, we won’t have any time to get bored over the summer. We have VBS and Youth Camp coming up. We are also working on permits for the new church building. Please continue to keep that in your prayers along with the leadership team of five contractors and lawyers from our church who are heading up the project.
I didn’t know if I could fit all that into one letter or not, but we made it! Thank you for your part in the ministry here. Please continue to keep us in your prayers. May the Lord richly bless you and use you for His glory!