Missionary Tom Montgomery Update

Mexico Missions
Covenant Baptist Church
P. O. Box 741
Broken Arrow, OK 74013

Dear Friends, July 13, 2010

We are presently in the last week of a short trip to the USA. We are scheduled to return to Mexico on Monday, July 19th. Right now some of the main highways and bridges into Mexico are closed due to the recent tropical storm that left most of Laredo, TX, under water. We are considering our options for crossing at another location, if the situation in Laredo does not improve in the next few days. The main roads from Laredo to Monterrey are also closed, so this makes the trip to Mexico City more difficult. The security situation along the Mexico-USA border is not good. The flooding and road closures have made things more complicated.

We had a baptismal service on June 20th. There were 13 baptized (10 from the Leones mission and 3 from the Neza Church). There is another group of candidates who we hope to baptize this fall. We try to be very careful in regard to membership and public professions of faith. Most ‘churches’ in Mexico care little or nothing about a regenerate church membership and this has done great harm to the cause of Christ. The enemy always takes advantage of this as a way to discredit the Gospel. Most non-catholic groups allow those who live openly in sin to remain in their membership. This has led many to conclude that there is no difference between Catholicism and the so-called ‘Protestants’.

We had a good Institute in Guatemala. There are some new workers and pastors attending. Our regular group of men continues to make progress. There is still some ongoing opposition in Nicaragua. Pastor Omar will travel to Nicaragua on the 22-25 of July for the next session. The Guatemalan Institute will take a break this month and begin the regular sessions again in August.

We were finally able to complete the last part of the paperwork for our daughter to enroll in the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She must be present to finalize the registration process on July 20th. This is the same school where Luke is currently studying and from which Mark graduated. The admissions process for foreign students is more complicated than before. It seems that the University administration wants to keep foreigners (especially gringos) out, while the faculty prefers to have as many as possible. The UNAM is the top rated school in Latin America. The tuition is “free” as long as you can pass the entrance exam and get through all the ‘red tape’ that is required of foreigners. No students live on campus, but the branch campus where our children attend is only five minutes from our house.

Please keep our upcoming border crossing and return trip in your prayers. I will send out an email update after we arrive home.

Missionary Tom Montgomery and Family