Grays in Mexico

Current Prayer Requests:

• Pray for the "50/50" vision, that the Lord of the Harvest would send workers to his harvest field in Mexico and El Salvador (50 new pastors and 50 existing pastors to complete their training).
• Pray for the Bible School students starting the spring semester in Puebla, Mexico, and in the extensions around Mexico.  Bob is teaching Theology II and Gospels this spring semester 2012.
• Pray for Bob as he travels a lot in Mexico this semester.  In February he will be in Mexico State and Oaxaca.  In March he'll be in San Luis Potosi.
• Pray also for our kids at Puebla Christian School this year.  Susie is teaching full-time there and has Aaron and Sarah in her class (5th and 6th grades).

A Record 20 Men and Women Ordained in Mexico in January, 2012

(pictured left to right: Julian Carmona, Abel Garcia, Bob Gray)

On January 15 I had the wonderful privilege of ordaining Abel Garcia, one of my students (pictured above), who finished his full-time studies here at the Puebla Bible School in January.  Then he was elected District Superintendent of the Southeast District of Mexico at their district conference! 

Two other former students (Pablo and Rebecca) were also ordained at this district conference, one of whom now teaches at the Oaxaca extension of the Bible School.  This is what leadership training is all about!

The Central District of Mexico (state of San Luis Potosi) also ordained a record 17 men and women in their district conference in January, which means there were 20 ordained altogether this year in Mexico.  ALL of them at one time or another have been our students either here in Puebla or at the Bible School extension in the Central District!

IBWWW.ORG  Online Bible School Updates.

Great news!  The course is done and uploaded to the site!!!  This has been over a year-long project that Bob has worked on in his "spare time".  This new course in Wesleyan Theological distintives will soon be available online!  This is the course Bob has been developing with a complete textbook in Spanish and lessons online. 

Bob met with Jim Eckhardt, Jose Quintero and Carlos Jaramillo in Medellin, Colombia this March 22-26, 2010 in order to further upgrade the online school.  One of the goals was to set up Bob's final version of his textbook and course in Wesleyan Theology.  

Bob has been working on site development and uploading new courses, as well as learning how to use the site as a teacher and as a distance learning option for Mexico. They also uploaded articles to the IBWWW's community web site, where teachers, students, and anyone interested in Theological Education can "meet" together to share resources and discussions about latest developments.  (Follow the links from IBWWW.org to the Community site, also available in English.)

Bob continues to work on writing more mini-text books (or manuals) in Spanish for use in the online school and all over Latin America.  Next will be a two volumn course in Systematic Theology. 

Students from all over Latin America and beyond (the site is bilingual) are able to go online and take courses in ministerial training towards ordination requirements.  The format is similar to correspondence, but is much more interactive and rapid. 

This new education option will help greatly in our 50/50 vision to raise up 100 newly ordained pastors by the year 2012 in Mexico.  The online Bible School will become a "virtual extension" of the Mexico Bible School (and others) to help train pastors and potential students who cannot come and study in our resident campus program.

Thank you for praying and giving to the work in Mexico and El Salvador!

Dec. 8-13 Bob leads a Pastors/Leaders retreat in El Salvador.

Jan. 19 Graduation at Puebla Bible School.

Jan. 26-30 International Conference of The Wesleyan Church in Panama.

Feb. 7  First day of Spring semester in Puebla.

Feb. 18 Bob officiates wedding in Mexico State.

Feb. 20-26 Bible School recruiting trip to Oaxaca state.

Mar. 8-10 National Board meeting in Cd Valles, San Luis Potosi.

Mar. 16-18  Susie goes to Women's Retreat.

June 25 Target date for return to U.S. for Home Ministries.