Press On! Ministries news  -December

In answer to your prayers we safely pulled our trailer 2000 miles in October to park at TriCity Baptist Church in Chandler, AZ. We have enjoyed getting ready to help start an Hispanic Baptist church in Tucson in the new year. These preparations have included:

          Continuing daily Rosetta Stone study – fantastico!

        Attending the Spanish II class at TriCity Baptist Academy. We were encouraged that we could keep up with the class – mostlyJ.

          Meeting with Dr. Dave Shumate of the Mexican Gospel Mission (http://www.mgmi.org) for insights on planting a Hispanic church in America  - very helpful!.

          Meeting with Pastor Dave Stertzbach and the 3 Hispanic families (a retired pastor, a neurosurgeon, and a teacher) from Bethel Baptist Church who will be the core of the new church in Tucson. We will plant in an area that has mucho Hispanics but not one Hispanic church - excelente!

          Attending Iglesia Evangelica Bautista to experience primarily Hispanic yet bilingual worship services. Second generation Hispanics, teens and children, are bilingual, so we should be able to function fine in a Hispanic church. I am now learning how to play the banjo in Spanish. Don’t go there – it’s Christmas!   

In November I preached missions conferences for Pastor Bill Bethea (Westgate Baptist in Spartanburg, SC) and Pastor Nathan Hoffman (Bethel Baptist in Havana, FL). In both conferences we were blessed to spend time with the Nathan Bate family, with whom we are scheduled to help plant a church in California (http://www.californiachurchplanting.com/). Pray for these faithful pastors who keep preaching the whole counsel of God in spite of difficult times in America!

An icing-on-the-cake blessing has been the privilege of fellowshipping with the wonderful folks at TriCity, preaching in church and chapels, and seeing several souls trust Christ. Pastor Mike Sproul, who returns soon from his deployment to the Middle East, has seen at least 25 souls come to Christ over there!  

Please pray:

·      For College Park Baptist in Cary, NC, now in their first, beautiful church building. When I talked to Pastor Matt Walker last week, he and his wife were going to visit a new family that has come as a result of the phone outreach.

·      For Nathan Bate as he continues raising support on deputation.

·      For our continuing Spanish language studies.

·      For a meeting place for the new Tucson church. The search is on, and the city of Tucson is strict about zoning. Pray!

·      For a safe trailer move to Tucson after Christmas. We will park at Bethel Baptist.

Claudia and I wish you all a blessed and safe Christmas. Several supporting churches have included extra gifts for Christmas. We say muchas gracias and Dios les bendiga -- thank you and God bless you!

Press On!

Dave and Claudia Barba – www.ipresson.com

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Genesis 1:1