Dear Friends and Family of CMY,
I hope and pray that 2019 finds you excited and ready to see what God has ready for you. Maybe to serve others in learning about His son, Jesus or assisting others that are already evangelizing and spreading the Gospel news.
I am very excited to continue preparing studies and messages covering the idea of Discipleship and mentoring others to walk and live like our Savior Jesus Christ. I finished last year with several sermons covering the Biblical teaching of Disciplining as Jesus did and how God desires all His people to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ.
In 2018 I knew that we struggled with mission support and donations. I felt slightly depressed about having to send updates that requested assistance too often. I attended several workshops at ICOM in November and spent time also through out the year discussing the matter of missions support. I find that today support still comes through 3 main venues:
I. Corporate support- This type of support has never been one that we have had success with because being an evangelistic mission we do not fall within the parameters of their giving. These funds are usually given to causes that are more in a social setting. Fresh water, Health, sex trade rescue..ect. We do receive funds at times for hurricane relief and natural disasters but that money is for a designated purpose and not general funding.
II. Church support- This has always been an area that we have been able to reach out and share together with supporting congregations. We have tried to limit the number of supporting churches to under 20 so that we can stay very close to each supporting church. The problem or truth of the matter is that many congregations are finding themselves in financial need themselves and have made cuts in mission budgets or they support so many missions that they now desire to reduce the number of supported missions so that they might have a closer relationship with their missions. WE AGREE and DESIRE THIS ALSO. We find that churches and individuals that have come to visit the ministry here are the ones that then go back and tell others what they have seen and heard.
III. Individual support- This has been a mainstay and has helped CMY so many times in our moments of greatest need. To increase both Church and Individual support I need more face to face time. Emails have become out dated over time. To be able to speak with churches or people I need others to open doors so that I am able to present what the Vision of CMY is and how we can continue in the coming years.
Our desire is that CMY will continue to:
1. Help Evangelists to start new church plants. Giving more and more people in the Yucatan access to sound biblical teaching that allows them to live and walk as God has called us all to do.
2. Assist the existing churches and leaders with caring for the body of Christ in all the different locations in the Yucatan. Helping in times of need and expansion but more importantly facilitating them to gain access to the many resources that God's people have to offer.
3. Assist in the growing need for youth and young adult needs. Be it through Camp ministries, coffee house outreach, youth groups or cell groups targeting young adults.
4. Continue to offer a location for short term mission groups that desire a place to serve along side of Christians in another country. These groups, whether youth or older adults have served God in many ways and we will continue to offer a safe rewarding locations that helps not only in the Yucatan but back home in their churches.
5. We continue to pray for the Cuban House Churches and look for ways that we will one day have funds to return in the near future.
I am attempting to send this short update in a new format, not only to keep CMY before you but as a test run before I send out a more personal update with more information of plans and needs.
We love, because He first loved us,
Craig and Rhonda Gates
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