The last several weeks have been very busy for us.Thanksgiving Day we had dinner with 40 people from Crossroads Christian Fellowship, our English-speaking ministry.The church provided the turkey and stuffing, and everyone else brought a dish to share.Thanksgiving evening, the Annual Convention for the Baja Sur Baptist Churches began.It is always held Thanksgiving weekend!The guest speaker this year was Jaime García Merino, Director of Missions for the Mexican National Baptist Convention.He shared that Mexican Baptists have 40 missionaries working with indigenous peoples, there are 17 regional missionaries, and there are 2 Mexican couples working in international missions, one in Russia and the other in Brazil.He also told us that 400 people are daily coming to Christ in Latin America!

On November 30th our IM Area Director Raul Ruiz came to visit.This was his first visit to La Paz.He spent 3 days facilitating workshops on Leadership with the pastors and lay leaders in La Paz.Then he traveled to San Jose and led another workshop with the 2 convention churches there.While David was taking Raul to his various engagements, Joyce was leading Bible Studies and planning Advent Worship Services for Crossroads.

December 7th David and Raul, a welder from the Emmanuel Baptist Church, traveled to San Jose where they worked on a mission of the Baptist Church Getsemani.The project was to weld beams for the mission's roof and then to lay out insulation across the beams. They left on Tuesday and came back Friday evening.3/4s of the project was completed.The mission will gather members to finish the rest.

On December 13, Joyce and the women of Crossroads organized a Women's Christmas Tea.Forty women from the community attended.We sang carols in English and Spanish, shared Christmas customs in Mexico, read the Birth of Jesus narrative from the Gospel of Luke, and ate way too many cookies!

On December 20th our family will be driving to the states where we will spend Christmas with David's relatives in Phoenix, and then travel on to a Missionary Retreat with our colleagues that work in Northern Baja.The retreat will occur over New Year's.After that, we'll head back to La Paz.Please keep our travels in your prayers!

Thank you for your support and love over the past several months.We have been so excited and encouraged by the response to the World Mission Offering this year.We look forward to the vision God has for ABC Global Mission Work in 2005.

Your Ambassadors for Christ in Mexico,

David, Joyce, Ian and Aaron Reed