STM Update

Last week we had Cy-Fair Christian Church here to work specifically with our youth and they did a great job! There were 16 youth and 6 adults. In the mornings, they worked on the new church building FINISHING the sanctuary floor/basketball court.

On Sunday evening there were "get-to-know-you" games and we split them up into four different groups; americans and mexicans mixed. That was there group for the whole week so the next night, Monday, we did team building games which included a popular life-size Sudoku game drawn out on the speed soccer court in Arrayanes. Each team had to work together to finish the puzzle and their finish time would determine what time they would start their "Race" the next day. It was popular because many of the students were frustrated because they couldn't figure out the puzzle or couldn't figure out how to work as a team. The two teams that finished quickly worked together as a team. It was definately a challenge becuase it's more of an individual game, but they figured out how to work together. This was a huge growing experience for the americans. It was all new to the mexicans.

The next night, they had a race; much like the Amazing Race. Their goal was to make tortillas together as a team. Each team was divided into four groups at one point and they had to communicate amongst themselves to figure out what the half-spanish/half-english notes said. It was a lot of fun to watch and many of them said they really enjoyed it. This point was to continue to work as a team, brake the language barriers of communication and have first hand experience at what a body looks like as it functions. As they divided themselves up into four groups, they had to decide amongst themselves who would get water, who would get the firewood, who would get the gridle, and who would get the flour. Once each group finished their task, they were to take their item to the pastor's house where they were to make tortillas together. It was interesting. It was funny. It was a very good learning experience.

We as a body need to work together in unity. When the body of Christ is not unified, it's deformed, it's not working properly. This was very evident throughout the week and both americans and mexicans said they learned that it's important to be unified and work together as a team. All the teams finished by eating the tortillas they had made in a relay race.

Wednesday was a free hang-out day where the girls made some picture frames and the guys had a mini-speed soccer tournament. Then the final night, the big night, Thursday night was "Oscar Night." We handed out awards to the students who shined this last year. It was definatley hard to choose who would get what, but as a staff we came up with who we though was most deserving in Hospitality, Most-Improved Band Member, Spirit, Braveheart, and Servant.

The Most-Improved Band Member went to two students because of their improvement in the band. They have grown a lot in the past year.

Jose Luis

Jose Angel

The Spirit Award went Claudia for having a smile on her face all the time. She never complains and is always committed to what's going on.

The Braveheart Award went to Sandra becuase she has taken the biggest steps in her Christian walk this past year. Mostly, these past couple of months she has been willing to do whatever for God and is allowing Him to mold her.

The Servant Award went to Martin becuase of his great leadership. Last year at this time he was in Oaxaca at a Bible School and he came back CHANGED. He has shown so much growth in his leadership ability and it seems that whatever Martin sets out to do, he succeeds. He has definately become an extraordinary preacher as well.

The Cy-Fair youth have impacted our youth in a big way. The relationships they have developed are relationships that I know the students will never forget and they cannot wait until they come back again next year.

Short-Term Missions

We have a short-term missions team here from Texas right now. They always do such a good job a focusing on a specific age group and making relationships with them. They are working with the youth this week and their pastor and myself are working side-by-side for a successful week. Last night we had a number of ice-breaker games and then we split up into small groups. Each group (4) has an interpreter. It was a good time and tonight we have more team-building games for the four groups. I forgot our camera again, so no pictures of last night (unless I can get some from another staff person). Thank you for your prayers for this week, it's always interesting to see the relationships built durning times like this and the lives that are impacted, Mexicans and Americans.

High School

I went to a town meeting last week at the Junior High that was to be about a new High School they want to put here in Cofradia. High School here in Mexico is a prep school and it's our equivilant to grades 10-12. They will start this August with 10th grade, then the next year they will continue on to graduate as the "first generation." No buildings, they will use the Junior High until the government supplies enough for a building. However, they are talking about a dormitory for the students that would come from different towns to stay in. There are 9 towns close to Cofradia here that would be included as the Cofradia High School.

This is really exciting to me because many students here don't have the opportunity to continue their education because of their lack of resources. With the High School here in town, they will be saving lots of money in travel expenses. Inscription for the whole year will cost a wopping $14!! Books will cost $40. That's way less than half of what they're paying in other towns. This is a huge blessing for the town.

VIDA Abundante (Abundant LIFE)

Last night’s meeting with the youth was a lot of fun. They arrived at 5:30 and are really getting into playing catch with an American Football. I wasn’t playing with them this week because of a sore back, but they developed their own fun game of “keep-away.” It was neat to see all the girls getting involved too. At around 6pm, we had everyone come in and we started the evening’s message. We’re looking at the book, Chazown. It has to do with having vision in your life, or purpose. We focused on the beginning of the first chapter as a review because they’ve heard some of it already. It starts out talking about when we are in our last chapter of life, what will we be doing on our death bed? What will we be thinking about? Will we have no regrets? Some regrets? Or will we be full of regrets? We focused on the verse of Matthew 9:36 where Jesus had a compassion on the people because they were lost and “like sheep without a shepherd.” When we don’t have vision, or a sense of purpose, in our life, we are just like lost sheep without a shepherd. We just “exist” and get from one day to the next. Some of us may not even realize we’re lost.

We finished the evening with a video from Alex Campos. It’s a testimony of a young boy attending a military camp who makes some really good friends. One day while listening to a Veteran of War talk about the opportunity of having a Heavenly Father, he’s reminded of his own father who was very mean, disinterested in his life, and in a fight, killed his mom in front of him. So, he hated his father, “the last thing I want is another father!” Just about everyone received the invitation of having Jesus enter their lives except him. After they graduated, his friends went one direction and he another and felt abandoned once again. He hit rock bottom, looking for freedom and happiness. One day he received a note in the mail calling him to the front lines of the war. As he went met up with the soldiers, there were his two friends that he had made, it was a really special time for him. They shared with him about Jesus, but he never wanted anything to do with him. One day, out on the battle field, one of his friends stepped in front of him guarding his back from enemy fire and took a bullet in the chest, saving his life. He then realized what they always had talked about—the love of Jesus. Just like his friend taking the bullet in his place, Jesus died in our place. He then accepted Christ as his personal savior and was transformed. In the end, he went back to his invalid father and forgave him.

It was an amazing 18 minutes. Silence in the room. And I know that many of these students could relate to the guy in the video and his relationship with his father. We had a very good discussion in the end and had a time of separate guy’s prayer and girl's prayer. It was a great evening!

FEBRUARY NEWSLETTER

FEBRUARY 2007

The Silbermans
Home: 9403 Tracyton Blvd.. NW *Bremerton, WA 98311 * USA * 360-692-2054
Field: APDO #19 * Tuxpan, NAY 63201 * MEXICO * 011-52-319-232-5172
Support: Steven & Efigenia Silberman * Alternative Missions * PO Box 5835 * Goodyear, AZ 85338 * USA

¡SALUDOS!
Greetings everyone! We pray that this letter finds you in good health and passionate about Jesus! Geña and I were just talking and it seems like just yesterday that we wrote you last. However, it was in November that we sent out our last newsletter, we are long overdue to tell you what God is doing here.

FAMILY NEWS
We are all doing generally well. We’ve had a few colds come through, but we’ve been able to manage. Our trip to Arizona to renew immigration papers was a lot of fun for all of us because my parents drove down from Seattle to Tucson to spend a couple weeks with us. My niece, Trisha also flew in for a week and we had an early family Christmas. Rebecka and Emma really enjoyed themselves with their grandparents and cousin. Then, during the actual day of Christmas we had another treat as our friends Roger and Hazel Reeh came to spend a couple days with us. What a blessing!

MINISTRY
In December, five teams with five guys on each team played against each other for five days. Our first organized sports tournament was a great success in bringing the two towns of Cofradía and Arrayanes together. Each team had members from both towns and many of them made new friends and others strengthened old acquaintances, it was a lot of fun to watch and be a part of.

The Speed-Soccer Tournament started on Tuesday, the day after Christmas and each team played two games a day. Saturday was the Championship game, we had barbecued hot dogs and went inside the church for the service. One of the students has started a Rap Music band called “Fishers of Youth.” They started the service with a couple of songs and they did pretty good. We then had a time of worship and we talked about being part of the “winning team”--God’s team. Many students came forward for prayer, either to receive Christ into their hearts for the first time, to renew their commitments to Him, or for a refreshing of the Spirit of God in their life. In the end we handed out the awards; certificates for the three best goalies and the three best scorers, we gave a brand new soccer ball to the one who scored the most, and we gave out trophies to each member of the winning team. Everyone really enjoyed themselves and not only were the students able to have fun and make new friends, but there were young people involved who had never been to church before that the leaders got to meet. This has created an open door for further witnessing! Great stuff!

In January, I was flown up to Houston, Texas to be the “special guest” at an indoor youth retreat called Disciple-Now or D-NOW. It was a great experience and I learned a lot. One of the purposes for going was to see if we could do something similar in Cofradía. It may not be exactly the same because of the culture, but it would be nice to implement the ideas developing a greater sense of community within the group.


In February, the same pastors I went to visit in Houston came down to speak at our second annual Student Leadership conference. It was a great time of getting the students to open up and think about their faith. The theme was “Authority.” What is it? What does it look like? It was interesting to see the students’ opinions of authority being a bad thing, but when you realize that we live under God’s authority, that means he loves us, he protects us, and he is always taking care of us. Many were able to see the difference and have a new viewpoint of Authority.

VIDA Abundante (Abundant Life) This Friday night youth meeting has been going very well. It meets in our home and we try to make it a place where everyone is comfortable to be able to share what’s on their heart. We worship, give testimonies, study the Bible, do activities, and have a time of prayer in the end.

Noche de VIDA (LIFE Night) This is our once a month youth event. This event is becoming more of a facilitating role for me rather than leading everything. It’s exciting to see the growth of the youth in their leadership of worship and preaching. We are also getting the adult sponsors more involved in the planning. This is a lot of fun for me because I get to see other people having an opportunity to do what I love doing and it’s great to see their growth.

PLEASE CONTINUE TO PRAY.

May the Lord bless you all,

Steve, Geña, Rebecka and Emma Silberman
Missionaries to Mexico
Alternative Missions

SUPPORT ADDRESS
Thank you for continuing to be part of our team and supporting our ministry. If you haven’t yet joined our team of supporters, please consider joining.

· Send to:
Alternative MissionsPO Box 5835Goodyear, AZ 85338
· Checks made out to ALTERNATIVE MISSIONS
· Send a note on a separate piece of paper indicating that it is for Cofradía Staff Members: Steve and Efigenia Silberman.
· You can also donate online. There is a link to the right of this page that says, "Donate to the Silbermans online."
· Thanks again for being part of our team!

EMAIL
steve@alternativemissions.com
JOURNAL
http://thesilbermans.blogspot.com/
WEBSITE
http://www.alternativemissions.com/

†MANNA†
“It’s truth that sets you free, not the knowledge of error.”
Neil Anderson

Written: February 21, 2007

Student Leadership Conference

The Student Leadership Conference was GREAT! We started on Thursday night with an introduction meeting over really good tamales. We had 21 youth and 9 adults in our house! A lot more came than we were expecting, but it was a really good time. Pastors Brad and Dave talked about “Authority.” They did a great job of getting the students involved and bringing to light the way the world views authority and contrasting it with God’s authority. They asked the question “Why?” Why do we have authority? And the bottom line is LOVE! We have rules and guidelines we set for our children to live under because we love them. The same way with God, he has given us some guidelines to live by to keep us on the right path.

The next night they elaborated a little more on the whole idea of God’s authority and what that looks like to us, for us and through us. Saturday morning they had a time with the leaders of the church, and in the evening we had a worship experience Monk style. Something called Lectio Divina. This is a reading of the scriptures over and over, meditating on the words or phrases that jump out at you, asking God questions about those words and listening for His input in our life. It was a really neat time that some of the students were able to capture and learn from. The verse that was used was Zephaniah 3:17.

What a great time of speaking into the lives of students and it has given us more open doors to follow up and help the students in their walk with God.

Next Weekend...

We look forward to this weekend having Brad Pembleton and Dave Chavez from Houston to lead us in a Student Leadership Conference. This is the second year we’ve done it and it’s been a great motivator for the youth. The meetings will be Thursday and Friday nights, most of the day Saturday and Brad will preach on Sunday. Please pray for openness and attentiveness with the youth. I’m concerned that many of them don’t really have a “relationship” with Christ. They say they’re Christians, and have accepted Christ into their hearts, but I think back to the last two weeks of our youth home group studies where we’ve talked about the cost of following Christ in Luke 9:57-62 and how they've listened and/or responded (or the lack thereof). Someone once said salvation is free, discipleship is costly. Pray that the youth would cross the line into being a disciple of Christ instead of being saved “by the skin of their teeth” (if that’s possible??). Thank you Lord for your GRACE and MERCY! It's refreshing to know that God looks at our hearts.

Weekend in Review

We’ve had a few late nights this week. Starting with Thursday Night/Friday morning, we gathered about 10 of the youth to serenade one of the youth girls just after mid-night. The next evening after the youth home group, we went to her birthday party and we got to bed a little earlier, but still late. Then on Saturday there were over 20 of us who went to La Fuente in Tepic to a concert. It was really neat at the end when a couple of our youth went forward; one especially whose name is Beto. I went to pray with him and he said it was the first time he has taken a step towards Christ. He has had some identity problems due to being wounded emotionally and I was proud of him for going forward to pray. We got home around 12:30am. I was pretty tired for the Sunday services; Sunday is always a long day for me doing two worship services. Needless to say, I crashed on Sunday night and finally, unwillingly got up this morning around 7:30.

Noche de VIDA (LIFE Night)

I haven't posted about our Saturday night meeting because I was waiting for some pictures. Here's the report...

Our once-a-month youth event was a lot of fun on Saturday night. We had over 40 students who were there and stayed. Amber put together a video of the Soccer Tournament we had during Christmas time (they always love to see themselves on the big screen); The youth band led worship and did a great job, they even did some new songs that are really hard to do! I was really proud of them. We also had a game called “¿Quién Quiere Quinientos?” or “Who wants five hundred?” Pesos that is. It’s a run-off of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” We had questions about the Bible and ONE participant. As they answered questions, the peso value doubled. We started with one peso and the poor guy that played only got to question #3 and lost everything. He normally doesn’t go to church, but everyone who wanted to play put their name in a hat and Rebecka pulled the name out to see who would play. We gave him a prize for participating though. One of the Americans who is on a construction team here right now brought down a bunch of prizes so we gave those away as well. It was a lot of fun and we’ll probably continue to do that game in the future. The money they win will go to a savings account called LIFE Investment where the youth can individually save up for retreats, camps, and other youth functions. We had another one of our youth, Martin, preach for us. It was the first time we’ve had one of our own youth preach at a LIFE Night. He did a really good job and the youth seemed to pay attention to his message of ”Making Decisions.” During our prayer time, many students came forward with petitions like; “I want Christ to live in me” or “I would like it if God took away my desire to drink (alcohol)”. We even had some students praying for one-another. It was a great evening.

To finish off the night, Ruben and Martin’s Rap band called Fishers of Youth did a couple of songs. It’s hard to understand what they’re saying, but it’s very encouraging to see them stepping out and reaching youth for Jesus. Half of the band is made up of students who have just been going to church for a short time…since our game THE CHALLENGE, the Soccer Tournament, and Martin’s return from Bible school in Oaxaca. Great things are happening and the youth did a great job on Saturday.

VIDA Abundante (Abundant LIFE)

Our Friday night youth home group meeting went pretty well. We had around 12 students and we’re gearing up to a Student Leadership conference in a couple of weeks with the youth pastors from Houston. I’ve been focusing on purpose, leadership, and dedication to serving Christ. The study was from Luke 9:57-62 on Friday when Jesus had a conversation with three different men about following him. Three important things that Jesus mentioned were; Counting the Cost of following Christ (v.58), making Christ the First Priority in life (v.60), and Not Looking Back (v.62). We had a good time talking about what good leaders know how to do…FOLLOW. In this case, FOLLOW CHRIST. We had fun with the game “Follow the Leader” too.

FORD

We’ve finally got our little Ford pick-up legalized, licensed and we had a little body work done on it. It had some rust on the floorboard (you could see the ground through it), so a friend of ours welded in some sheet metal and we also had the seat re-upholstered. Everything turned out great and we’re excited about having a “Cofradía” truck. We have been using it a lot to run personal errands and ministry events when the base vehicles are not available. It’s perfect!

Re-uphulstered seat and newly welded floorboard

Nayarit license plate...yeah!!

Today's pics

Rebecka's serious look

Huh?

Houston, Texas

I am in Houston, Texas right now with a couple of very good friends from Cy-Fair Christian Church. Cy-Fair has gone down to Cofradia taking youth teams, men's teams, and just a couple of weeks ago they sent a women's team. Student Pastors Brad and Dave have organized an indoor youth retreat called D-NOW (Disciple-Now) and invited me up for the weekend to be the "special guest."

This is the first time I've been to Texas and I really like it here. The people I've met are really friendly. The church is a wonderful church, so if you're ever in the Houston area, I HIGHLY recommend visiting!

There were 85 students involved in D-Now this weekend, split up into 10 different small groups where they talked about sharing your faith as you live your life. Each group stayed at a host home where they spent the whole weekend until Sunday morning service. Brad and Dave and I went around visiting the small groups in their homes on Friday night and Saturday morning as they were working through the material they had with their speakers and sponsors. Saturday night everyone went to a concert at the church with The Afters. That evening they returned to their host homes and had communion. Sunday morning we had youth church where I led worship and shared a little about Cofradia and how the students are doing down there.

It's been a lot of fun! I fly back to Mexico tomorrow morning and I should be in Cofradia by tomorrow night.

Testimonies (Marcelina, Martin, Ruben)

In church on Sunday, we have a time when people come forward to give a testimony. There is a couple from the village of Santa Fe, Luis and Mari, who started to go to the village of San Diego about a month ago to visit and preach the Gospel. For a long time, I went there every week to do Bible studies and visit the bretheren there. On Christmas day when our friends Roger and Hazel Reeh were with us, we went to visit Marcelina.
Marcelina is in her 70s, she doesn't exaclty know how old she is. She is part Cora Indian and her family doesn't visit her that often. She lives in a stick house with no bathroom, she can't walk because of arthritic pain in her knees, she can't see because of a bad case of cateracs, and it hurts her to move her arms around. One thing she does have going for her is that she loves Jesus. When we went to do Bible studies, near the end we would do them in her house because she couldn't go anywhere. Before doing them in her house, we would go to visit her and read the Bible to her. Her favorite book is Phillippians.

Luis and Mari went to visit her last week and she had a testimony of what God has done for her lately....

"I started to pray that God would send the Christian brothers here again to visit me. Two weeks later Esteban (Steve) came to visit me with some of his friends, and now you're here (speaking to Luis). When Esteban was here, they prayed for me and you know what? I can stand up and it doesn't hurt my legs! I can lay down and move my arms all around and it doesn't hurt! I can sit at my bed, look out the door and see who's walking by and recognize who it is!"

God is good. He cares for our every need and he cares for the little old ladies who are hurting in remote areas of the world! Thank you for your prayers!

Two more testimonies are from a couple of students in Arrayanes. I asked them to write out a testimony of how God is using them to share their faith with others...

Ruben's Testimony...

"In my life, I have experienced problems just like any other teenager, but with the Lord’s help, I have been able to continue in my Christian walk.

In the journey of my life, I have experienced wonderful things. I started playing in a worship band, but as I was playing I noticed that worship music didn’t attract the youth of the world. So then, when my brother Martin came back from Bible school in Oaxaca, he talked to me about putting together a Rap music band. We talked to the missionaries about it and they said to go ahead with it.

I’m really excited about this. We started with using the church’s instruments, but we felt like we needed more youth to be involved. So we asked God to provide youth that wouldn’t be embarrassed to play in front of people and little by little, the youth started to show up. Some are just beginning to learn about the Lord and others have known God’s Word for a while.

Before starting everything, we thought of a name for our band and we decided on “Fishers of Youth.” We decided on that name because it's about youth and they can know what a good life is with the Lord.

This is what we’re doing for humanity because Christ loves us and he is Real. We continue to praise God in the good times and the hard times. The guys in our band and their instruments are: Martin-bass; Ruben-voice; Jesus-drums; Gregorio-keyboard; Fredi-voice; and Lorenzo-voice.

By the way, we need instruments for our band.

Ruben Dario Garzon Solis"

Martin's Testimony...

"Hello, my name is Martin; I am about to tell you what God is doing in my life.

First of all, God has made me a man of faith. Also, God has been working in my life as I go to Mojocuautla (an Indian Village) where we are teaching Bible stories. Through these Bible stories, the people are learning about the ministry of Christ here on earth.

Another way in which God is working in my life is to continue with the vision that He gave me. God has a special plan for my life. We’re also forming a Rap band with 6 of our friends. Through this Rap band, some youth are making decisions to follow Christ. Other things we do to reach out to them are climbing mountains--that aren’t too high, going fishing, we go camping down at the river, and we go hunting. Everything I do, I do it with God’s purpose and through these activities, the youth who have recently given their life to Christ can have better fellowship with one another. So then, I will give you a testimony of what happened to six of us when we went hunting.

We went to the woods, while we were there, we waited for nightfall. Before we did anything, we prayed for God’s protection and provision over our lives. We didn’t have any firearms, the only thing we used were dogs. Suddenly, we found an armadillo and the dogs were able to find where he went into his hole. So there we were, digging and digging. The ground was really hard so we decided on a plan—to have one of us put his hand in the hole where the armadillo was. That is what we did, because we couldn’t get the armadillo out. So, one of us put his hand in the hole until he felt the armadillo. He was able to grab the armadillo’s head, but he also felt something farther inside the whole and said, “there must be four armadillos down here!” Someone else said, “well, all we need is two more because there’s six of us!” But the animal we thought was the armadillo inside the hole started to make a sound as if he were mad, we know the sound of an armadillo…buf, buf, buf. Some said it was the armadillo and that he was mad, one of us said, “that doesn’t sound like an armadillo, it sounds like a snake!”

We continued confident there was no problems and we put our hands in to get the armadillo and suddenly, just as one of us thought, a snake came out of the hole! We were all startled! We were able to kill the snake that spooked us and it measured about 6 foot in length and about 3 inches in diameter! God was watching over us!

This is all the testimony that I wanted to share with you about what God is doing in my life.

Thank you and may God bless you.

Your friend,
J. Martin Garzón Solís"

Latest pics

Just though I'd put up a few pictures so you don't forget what our kids look like:)


Lately, Emma has been tilting her head and smiling. I don't know if this means anything, but it sure is cute! Just a few minutes ago we were playing "I see you, I don't see you" behind a cereal box.

Luis (Rebecka's cousin) came over to play for a little while. Rebecka just took a shower and still has her towel hanging over her head. It's something she likes to do and pretend it's princess hair.

And no, we didn't forget to put a tree up this year. My Aunt Margie gave us her old Christmas tree and it couldn't be better suited for our house. It's tall and skinny. Our ceiling is high so that works well, and the corner it's in is a busy corner, so the skinniness is great! Thanks, Margie!

Hello

I haven't had much time nor much to say lately. It's been nice to see that some of the guys from the soccer tournament are still coming to church. Please continue to pray for some of the youth who have been around a while. A few have been making bad choices lately.

The family is doing well. Emma still has a little bit of a cold, but is still doing very well. Rebecka started her first day back to school today after the Christmas break. She's really excited about that!

Youth Speed Soccer Tournament

Well, the soccer tournament is over and with all the activities of this past weekend; I haven’t had a chance to give you an update.

5 Teams with 5 guys on each team played against each other for 5 days. Our first organized sports tournament was a great success in bringing the two towns of Cofradía and Arrayanes together and opening doors for ministry. Each team had members from both towns and many of them made new friends and strengthened old acquaintances. It was a lot of fun to watch and be a part of.

We started on Tuesday, the day after Christmas and each team played two games a day. Out of the 5 teams, three played on Saturday for the Championship. There was one semi-final game (#2 vs. #3) and the winner played the #1 team in the Championship game. It was exciting! The semi-final game was decided by one goal, while the Championship game went into overtime and was decided by the first goal to be made. The #1 team stayed on top as they were in the whole tournament and won the Championship game.

After the Championship game, we had barbecued hot dogs and went inside the church for the service. One of the students has started a Rap Music band called “Fishers of Men.” They started the service with a couple of songs and they did pretty good. We then had a time of worship and we talked about being part of the “winning team”--God’s team. Many students came forward for prayer, either to receive Christ into their hearts for the first time, to renew their commitments to Him, or for a refreshing of the Spirit of God in their life. In the end we handed out the awards; certificates for the three best goalies and the three best scorers, we gave a brand new soccer ball to the one who scored the most, and we gave out trophies to each member of the winning team. Everyone really enjoyed themselves and not only were the students able to have fun and make new friends, but there were young people involved that the leaders got to meet who had never been to church before. This has created an open door for further witnessing! Great stuff!

Semi-Final Game (Los Cuau[green] vs. Arsenal[white])

Championship Game (Warriors[black] vs. Arsenal [White])

Ricardo Hernandez scored 26 goals and was awarded a new soccer ball

Los Guerreros (the Warriors) are the Champions! (Martin, Jesus, Fredy, Jose, Salvador[not pictured])

Soccer Tournament

Here are some photos of the tournament yesterday...

Soccer Tournament

The Youth Speed Soccer Tournament was kicked off yesterday. We have 5 teams of 5 guys. The winning team will get trophies for each guy. It was an exciting time and the guys are really into this. We'll continue the tournament today, tomorrow, and Friday. We'll finish everything off with a Championship game on Saturday afternoon and then a youth service afterward with Worship, the Word, slide show, and awards. It will be lots of fun!

Christmas

Yesterday they fixed the power by the afternoon and we woke up again this morning to the same thing. The power is low, but we still have a little.


On Sunday, Christmas Eve, Roger and Hazel arrived in the afternoon just in time to go to church with us. We had an evening service with all the churches and a lot of testimonies, songs, dramas, and a great sermon by Pastor Gollo. We had been working with the youth for about a month and a halft on a drama that they did pretty good with.



Later on that evening we went to Gena's brother's house, Hugo and Norma, to a party/pinata/dinner they were having. The food was REALLY good; a cooked potato with cheese and carne asada on it accompanied with guacamole and Mexican Salsa. Then there were tomales...really good tomales.



In the morning is when Rebecka and Luis got their bicycles. They were and still are really excited.

Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Our Christmas was very relaxing and we really enjoyed ourselves. We had some friends come to visit us who are staying in Mazatlan right now, Roger and Hazel Reeh, and we had a very, very nice visit. Rebecka and her cousin Luis both got bicycles and were really excited. They are already getting the hang of it really well. Luis couldn't believe it was for him, he said, "Is this really mine?" Later he told me that a bike is what he really wanted. "We would go to the store and they wouldn't buy me one, and they wouldn't buy me one, and they wouldn't buy me one, this is what I wanted." It was really cute. I'll try to have some pictures soon. We don't have much electricity right now, the town is having a "brown-out." God bless everyone!

Emma Update

Thank you for your prayers. Emma is doing a lot better. We aren't 100% sure it's a stomach infection, but she's getting better. Please continue to pray for her. Thank you.

Emma Rose

Please pray for Emma. She has a fever again. We got home from the morning service today and her temperature was 103.5. Apparently, she has an infection in her stomach.

Back in Cofradia

We arrived back in Cofradia on Wednesday afternoon. Our time in Arizona was very nice, we got to spend some time with my parents and we had an early Christmas for the girls. It's always nice to see Mom and Dad. Even our niece Trisha came down for a week to spend with us. Thank you for your prayers for a safe trip. Our email wasn't working well so I came back to A LOT of emails to sift through. I'll be working on that, plus yesterday we kinda got organized in the house, Gena put up all the lights and the tree and did a great job. I also had a worship practice to lead for Sunday. It's nice to be back.

NOVEMBER NEWSLETTER

Here is our latest update...


¡SALUDOS!
Greetings everyone! We pray that this letter finds you in good health and passionate about Jesus! We’re excited about the weather change here; it’s been nice and cool for a week now. No more hot and humid days and nights for a while.

FAMILY NEWS

From November 28 to December 11 we will be in Tucson, Arizona to renew visas and spend those two weeks with my parents who drove down from Washington to spend that time with us. We have all battled colds in the past couple of weeks; Rebecka is pretty much over it, and Emma is still coughing, but getting better. One of Emma’s new things is clapping while Rebecka sings. It’s very cute! Rebecka was also involved in her first parade. On November 20 (Mexican Revolution Day), she got to march around town along with her kindergarden classmates.

MINISTRY
It has been a very exciting time here in the past few months, especially with the youth. Since July, we have seen a number of students grow stronger in the Lord and new students respond to God’s call. Here are a few of the activities that we’ve had…

El RETO (The CHALLENGE).


This, by far, has been the biggest event we’ve had for the youth. It is hard to put into words the experience we had. Originally, we started this game last year because some of the youth were growing “tired” of bible study after bible study. Some even quit going to church and never really made it a priority. Last year was a fun, successful time of bringing back in the “tired” ones. This year, we did it again because of the fun we had last year and we added a few more things so it would be a great learning experience for everyone. Our primary goal was outreach; we wanted to reach out to more youth in the area, include the new students coming into Jr. High, and involve the fringe youth. We were so pleased on how this year turned out. We had 14 adults helping out with details, leading games, and serving the youth. The team leaders (students) had more exposure as leaders and more freedom to lead their teams. This was our secondary purpose…to give the student leaders experience in leading groups. It was great! They ALL did a great job and we gave them certificates of appreciation at the end. It was also great to see some of the students who weren’t designated leaders step up and be great encouragers and strengthen their teammates when times when discouragement set in. This brought together the students; they made friends and they learned how to work together. Each week we gave a devotional from Philippians and encouraged them to apply the devotionals to the challenges of that week. The team leaders had time to spend with their team talking about the devotions and encouraging their team. It was a great success and the students are already looking forward to next year. I posted a more detailed report on this event in October. You can read more or watch the video online.


VIDA Abundante (Abundant Life)
At the same time we started a Friday night Youth Meeting in our home. This is a time that we study God’s Word and are able to have a time of Worship. Many of the new students who participated in EL RETO have started to come to this meeting and it has been a wonderful fellowship time.

CRUZ AGUA (A Waterpark in La Cruz, Sinaloa)
One weekend in November we took 16 students and 3 leaders in our 15 passenger ministry van 5 hours north to a Youth Conference at a waterpark with another chruch. This was an amazing time for the students who were taught about “Living Under God’s Authority.” You can read a report about it online.

I could go on and on about what God is doing. This is a very exciting time and we are blessed to have partners like you who have joined us to be part of His work.

Please continue to pray.

SUPPORT ADDRESS
Thank you for continuing to be part of our team and supporting our ministry. If you haven’t yet joined our team of supporters, please consider joining.

· Send to:
Alternative Missions
PO Box 5835
Goodyear, AZ 85338
· Checks made out to ALTERNATIVE MISSIONS
· Send a note on a separate piece of paper indicating that it is for Cofradía Staff Members: Steve and Efigenia Silberman.
· Or, another option is sending online at:
https://www.egivingsystems.org/support/42705/
This page is found at http://www.alternativemissions.com/ under the “Donate Online” tag as you place the mouse over the “staff” heading.
· Thanks again for being part of our team!

†MANNA†
I’ve just finished reading a book in spanish called, "Seamos Personas de Influencia" by John Maxwell and Jim Dornan. I think the title in English is, "How to be an Influencial Person". In the book, I came across a quote by author and conference speaker, Richard Exley. This is what he has to say about friendship.

(translated)..."A true friend is someone who listens and understands when you express your deepest feelings. He supports you when you struggle; He corrects you, gently and with love, when you're wrong; and he forgives you when you fail. A true friend impels you to personal growth, he stretches you so you can reach your full potential. And what's most surprising is that he celebrates your successes with you as if they were his own."

May the Lord bless you all,

Steve, Geña, Rebecka and Emma Silberman
Missionaries to Mexico
Alternative Missions

Update

Thank you so much for your prayers. Emma is doing a lot better. It's Saturday night and we're half-way done with the weekend. Friday night went well; the Bible study was short because of my voice, but I think it was understandable. We talked about "Finishing the Race". We had 17 students crammed into our living room and had fun in the end with a rendition of Pictionary with everyone. Tonight's Youth Event went well also. There is a HUGE party on the other side of town with very loud music, a dance, bull-riding, and who knows what else. Only a few students showed up, but it was a very good meeting. Missionary Dave Elias preached on the story of Martha and Mary when Jesus went to visit them. In the end, everyone was prayed for. It's been nice to have a few new faces in these past couple of meetings. We're going to have an organized soccer tournament after Christmas and the guys have been practicing quite a bit out in Arrayanes; we have a speed soccer court on the church property out there. A number of new guys have been starting to come to the youth meetings as a result of the soccer tournament and it hasn't even started yet.

Pictionary at Abundant LIFE Youth Home Group

Dave preaching at the LIFE Night Youth Event

Thanks again for praying.

Emma's Progress

Thank you for your continued prayers. Emma continues with her little battle. She had a mild fever last night, but was able to sleep most of the night. Today she has had times of being alert and looking like she's getting a lot better, yet she's also had time like just about an hour ago that she looks miserable inside. We believe that it's nothing real serious, just a cold and cough that has hit her pretty hard.

Rebecka is still doing a lot better. She's pretty much over whatever she had last week.

As for myself, I've had a sore throat for a couple of days and we're coming up on a very busy weekend. I lead a Bible study tonight, tomorrow morning we have worship practice, in the afternoon we have drama practice, in the evening we have a youth event that I'll be leading worship at, but not preaching (thank you Jesus!). Then, on Sunday I'll be leading worship in both services. So, I should be pretty warn out for our trip on Monday morning. Please keep my health in prayer as well as Gena. She hasn't had any signs of being sick, pray that it stays that way.

Thank you once again for your prayers.

Update on Emma

Emma is doing much better. Last night she continued to have a high fever until 2am. Finally, it went down and she was able to rest. There were scary moments that she looked kinda delerious and didn't have any strength at all. Her crying was faint, yet she was still taking in water and had a really wet diaper in the morning. When she woke up she was alert and sitting up, even clapping to Rebecka's singing. At the moment, she is sound asleep and does not have a fever. Thank you for your prayers, please continue to pray for full recovery.

Please Pray for Emma

Emma Rose isn't doing well. Last week Rebecka had a cold and a bad cough. We were able to get some medicine for her and now she's a lot better. Now Emma has it, but worse. She has had a fever off and on all day. Gena took her to the doctor this morning while I was in a staff meeting and the doctor gave her some meds. This afternoon she had a fever of over 102 degrees. After bathing her, she's doing a little better. But please pray for her that she will recover quickly. We'll be travelling next week to the border to renew visas and travelling while you're sick isn't the funnest. Thank you!

I'll keep you posted on her progress.

November 20

November 20 is the Day of the Revolution here in Mexico. No one goes to work, no one goes to school, it's a holiday. This is the first time I've actually been interested in the morning parade. Rebecka was in it. She and her classmates marched around the town with their little trinkets. Half of the mothers were with the kindergardeners, so we didn't get a real good picture of Rebecka. But it was fun to watch her. Here are a few pics...

Ministry in Cofradia

Recently an article about the ministry in Cofradia was posted on the Alternative Missions website. It gives you some general insight of the overall ministry, a youth ministry report, a report about the indigenous work in Mojocuautla, a report of how the church in Arrayanes is doing, and an update on our new staff. Take a look...
http://www.alternativemissions.com/News/From%20the%20Field.ashx?212_na=225&p=79

The Weekend in La Cruz

We left Friday as soon as the students were let out of school and arrived in La Cruz at CRUZ AGUA (water park) in time to set up tents and get ready for the evening service. On Saturday the youth were able to play in the pool and they had a time of organized games. It was a really good time. Amber Crafton, a missionary who has just joined our staff, went with us and wrote this about the weekend...

"Friday night the speaker taught on authority and submission and the importance of submitting ourselves to the authority of anointed leaders that are over us and making sure that we are living under the covering that the Lord has provided for us both in Himself but also in the leaders he has put over us. Saturday night he spoke about the hunger that we as humans have and the importance of making sure that we satisfy our hunger in the Lord rather than in the world because to satisfy our hunger with what the world offers is to throw the inheritance that the Lord offers us in Him right into the trash, and to live a life that never finds satisfaction! The weekend ended with a time of prayer both for the pastors that were present but also for the youth that they would choose the inheritance the Lord has for them and choose to submit themselves to the authority over them so as to walk in all the promises that God has for them."

It was a great time!!

Off to La Cruz, Sinaloa

I'm off to La Cruz this morning with the youth group. We'll be taking the ministry van that many of you gave donations for and we'll have 15 or 16 youth going with 3 adults...it will be loaded and we'll pull a little utility trailer for luggage. Many times the students from La Cruz have come for youth events here in Cofradia and now they have invited us. They are renting a water park for us to take over and we'll be sleeping in tents at the water park tonight. It should be a lot of fun and the youth are excited. The theme of the preaching time will be "Submission to Authority." It should be really good. We'll be back late Saturday night. Thanks for keeping us in your prayers.

Day of the Dead

Yesterday, November 2, was the Day of the Dead here in Mexico. Much like Memorial Day in the states, people go and take flowers to their loved one's grave. Some people go even further with the tradition of praying for their loved ones and taking food to them. When I was in High School, we learned that some people believed that the dead returned that night to come and eat what they had given. I'm not sure if that's really what the people here believe, but I'm sure some birds had a good meal.

We went with Hugo (brother-in-law) and his wife Norma to the grave of my father-in-law to clean it and put some flowers on it. When we got there, it was already cleaned probably by other relatives. Leonardo Diaz died of prostate cancer in May of 1999, 1 1/2 years before Gena and I got married. I remember him as being a neat guy. Before I came to Cofradia more than ten years ago, he helped a lot with the construction of the mission base where we currently hold our Sunday services.

Friendship

I'm reading a book in spanish called, "Seamos Personas de Influencia" by John Maxwell and Jim Dornan. I think the title in English is, "How to be an Influencial Person". Last night I was reading and came across a quote that I would like to share. It's by author and conference speaker, Richard Exley. This is what he has to say about friendship (translated)...

"A true friend is someone who listens and understands when you express your deepest feelings. He supports you when you struggle; He corrects you, gently and with love, when you're wrong; and he forgives you when you fail. A true friend impels you to personal growth, he stretches you so you can reach your full potential. And what's most surprising is that he celebrates your successes with you as if they were his own."

Soccer Game in Ruiz

We went to Ruiz (a town about 1/2 hour away) today accompanied by a handful of the youth to watch one of the Cofradia students, Jose Angel "Chupa", play soccer for his High School. It was fun to hang out with the students. Chupa's team won, 1-0. We stayed to watch the girls play as well and they too won, 1-0.

Chupa is the player on the left in green.

$2.88 A Gallon

Just a little intersting fact that some may be interested in.

Yesterday, we went to Tepic to do some shopping and on our way home we put gas in the truck. N$7.89 pesos a liter for the "good" stuff comes out to $2.88 a gallon. For you mathmaticians, the dollar is at 10.75 pesos (in some places). Each month on the first of the month, the price goes up .01 or .02 centavos per liter...depending on what the economy is doing.

FYI

Latest Newsletter

To check out our latest newsletter, you can click here.
http://www.alternativemissions.com/Staff/Silberman.ashx?p=86&234_na=214

Megaphone Need

With all the youth events and activities we have been doing lately. One thing I've noticed we really need is a megaphone. If anyone has one or knows someone who does and would like to either donate it or sell it to us, we would really appreciate it...so would my voice:). Please let me know by sending a comment below with your name and I'll get ahold of you. Thanks.

Cofradia Youth Pastor Prospect

I wanted to let everyone know that this young man, Julio, is genuine and I'm really excited for what God is doing in his life. He needs some financial help...here's what I've written about him.

Dear Friends,

I am writing to you about one of our youth who is studying in High School at this present time. His name is Julio Hernández. His Dad, Gollo, is the Pastor here in Cofradía and he has three other brothers; two of which are studying as well. My purpose for writing is to encourage others to help Julio financially with his schooling. I believe 100% in this young man. I have written numerous times about him in Newsletters, Ministry updates, our webblog, and I have mentioned him when we have spoken at churches. He is GOLD.

His desire for the future is to finish High School, go to a Bible Institute, and come back here to Cofradía to be the Youth Pastor. I cannot express the excitement I feel for his desires. He is turning into a great, fun leader and will make an awesome Youth Pastor. I have been praying for an intern to work along side of me and he is quickly becoming that person; I wasn’t really expecting the intern to come out of Cofradía.

Julio will be studying in High School for three years and he will need $1,500 for each year, which would be $150 a month. Geña and I believe so much in this young man that we have committed to $50 a month. Would you be interested in helping with a one-time gift or monthly gifts? It would be completely tax-deductible. You can send gifts to Alternative Missions and we would be able to withdraw the money here from the account.

We appreciate your help and I know that Julio and his parents, Pastor Gollo and Mati, do as well. Please let me know if you would like to help. Below are directions for gifts.

Thank you,

Steve and Geña Silberman
Missionaries to Cofradía, Mexico
Alternative Missions
steve@alternativemissions.com
http://thesilbermans.blogspot.com/
www.alternativemissions.com

· Please send your gifts to: Alternative Missions/PO Box 5835/Goodyear, AZ 85338
· Checks made out to ALTERNATIVE MISSIONS
· Send a note on a separate piece of paper indicating that it is for Cofradía Student Scholarship: Julio
· Or, another option is sending online at:
https://www.egivingsystems.org/support/42705/
This page is found at www.alternativemissions.com under the “Donate Online” tag as you place the mouse over the “staff” heading.

THANK YOU!!

Vida Abundante (Abundant Life)

Last night we had our youth group meeting "Vida Abundante" in our house. There were around 16 youth and we had a great time. We are talking about our Life's Purpose on Friday nights and last night we focused on Seeking God. We looked at King Asa's life in 2 Chronicles 14-16. He was a good King that did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. When he sought God he had success, but when he didn't seek God first, there was war. It's a good lesson for us to seek God first in all we do and he will be with us guiding our way. There will be peace.

Rebecka and Emma

Rebecka-6 months; Emma-6 months

6 Months!!!

Emma is six months old today and doing very well.

EL RETO (The Challenge) Video

I mentioned in the last post that you could check out the video by clicking "here." I forgot to make a link, so here it is...
www.cofradiamexico.com/Reto.wmv
Be advised that it may take a while if you have dial-up. Hope you enjoy.

THE FINAL CHALLENGE Report

We have not had a connection to the internet since Thursday. My intentions were to post this then, but something is wrong with our modem, it looks like we'll need a new one.

I don't have time right now to upload pictures, I'll try to do some later.
Here is what I was going to post...

It is hard to put into words the experience we just had with the youth. Originally, I started this game last year because some of the youth were growing “tired” of bible study after bible study. Some even quit going to church and never really made it a priority. Last year was a fun successful time of bringing back in the tired ones. This year, we did it again because of the fun we had last year and I added a few more things so it would be a great learning experience for everyone. Our primary goal was outreach; we wanted to reach out to more youth in the area, include the new students coming into Jr. High, and involve the fringe youth. I was so pleased on how this year turned out. We had 14 adults helping out with details and serving the youth. The team leaders (students) had more exposure as leaders and more freedom to lead their teams. This was our secondary purpose…to give the student leaders experience in leading groups. It was great! They ALL did a great job and we gave them certificates of appreciation at the end. It was also great to see some of the students who weren’t designated leaders step up and be great encouragers and strengthen their teammates when times were rough. This brought together the students; they made friends and they learned how to work together. Each week we gave a devotional from Philippians and encouraged them to apply the devotionals to the challenges of that week. The team leaders had time to spend with their team talking about the devotions and encouraging their team.

One of the neatest things that we saw was the development of leadership in the student leaders. They all stepped up to the plate. One of them, Julio, came out of his shell. He was a quiet shy guy until now. His desire is to become a youth pastor and let me tell you that after watching him during THE CHALLENGE, he definitely has what it takes. He lead his team and they followed him, he was goofy and everyone liked it, he corrected them and they listened, and he was a ham in the skit his team put together about Adam and Eve. What an amazing young man!

Another leader, Chuy (Julio’s older brother), is a natural leader. People follow him and he has a calm, mature way about working with people. One thing that stood out was that he came in late to take over for a different leader who wasn’t able to continue. The team was in last place the whole month (by a long ways, too) and when Chuy arrived, he kept the team alive and he was committed to them. He gave up watching one of the biggest soccer games of the year to be at the final meeting . That to most of us may not seem like a hard thing to do, but to him it was an “Abraham sacrificing Isaac” experience. Some of us may even be able to relate this to giving up watching the Super Bowl. He is a soccer fanatic, this was BIG! He showed a tremendous amount of maturity and commitment to his team and the program as a whole. WOW!


Another leader, Martin, has just come back from one year of Bible College and is a changed person. He was one of the most encouraging students playing the game. His team started a little weak, but by the end because of his leadership, his team won the game. He also brought in about 5 young guys from Arrayanes where it has been really hard to reach out to the youth. They all finished pretty excited and we took them to the beach yesterday for their prize. My prayer is that this will encourage those young guys to keep coming and be exposed more and more to the gospel to finally make a decision to serve Christ some day.

Finally, Lupita was the only female student leader we had. She did a phenomenal job taking on “the challenge” of being a leader. When I offered the position before we started the game to anyone who would come and talk to me about leading a team, she was there right away wanting to do it. I could see it in her face that she was ready! Her team was on top most of the time, but in the end they came up just short of winning the whole thing. She did a great job!

The events of the final evening consisted of a time of Praise songs, a short message about how God is the Potter and we are the clay and that He molds us through the “challenges” we face every day. Then each team presented a skit with the theme of their team name. While we were counting up all the points, Jay showed a video of THE CHALLENGE he put together special for that night. You can watch the video by clicking here. For the FINAL CHALLENGE we put together a Who Wants to be a Millionaire style game. They were to answer questions that started out easy, then got harder and harder about the Sunday sermons, different challenges they had, and a few other things that they learned in the past month. This gave the last place team an opportunity to catch up and actually win it. In the end, it had no bearing on who won; all the teams stayed in their same place and were unable to answer enough questions to pass another team.

It was a lot of work and we invested a lot of time and money into this outreach. It was a HUGE success. Thank you all for praying for and supporting this event. This has become a great tradition and they already can’t wait until we do it again…even some of the staff.

Catching Up

The past couple of days I've been catching up on some office work that I've kept to a minimal during the CHALLENGE game. We finished last Saturday and it was a huge success and a lot of fun. I'll try to have an update about it posted today or tomorrow.


Something else that we're really excited about here is that there is a Sam's Club in Tepic now. Tepic is the capital of Nayarit and just over an hour south of here. We've had a Wal Mart for a couple of years, and now we have a Sam's Club. This will be very helpful for when we have teams come because we normally shop from the Sam's Club in Mazatlan (3 hours north). This is great!