Itineration in Pennsylvania - Mission Challenge 2007
Dios Es Amor Mission, Planicie, Tijuana - Pastor Oficiante
Enrique Romero Sabbatical continues
Soldwisch personal news
Pastor Luis Manuel Luis went to the Lord December 11, 2007

Dear Friends in Mission,

For once I can begin without saying "It’s been a while since I’ve written – I’m still alive and active in ministry here at the border, but . . ."  Of course the only way I can do it is by pre-dating this writing.

Pastor Luis Manuel Lugo went to the Lord December 11, 2007
     I share with you the sad news that our brother and colleague Rev. Luis Manuel Lugo, first called pastor of the Dios Habla Hoy Presbyterian Church of El Lago, Tijuana (1997 to present), went to the Lord early Tuesday morning, December 11.  Luis became a Christian and then a pastor in one of the Pentecostal  churches of his home state Veracruz, and then went to seminary at the Presbyterian Theological Seminary of Mexico City, a class mate of Pueblos Hermanos Co-coordinator Rev. Enrique Romero.  He was called by the Joint Commission on International Mission to be the first Mexican co-coordinator of Frontera de Cristo (1984-90 or so) where he worked with Rev. Gary and Beth Waller to start that ministry and was founding pastor of the Lirio de la Valle Presbyterian Church of Agua Prieta .  After five years in Agua Prieta he was called by the Joint Commission to pastor the new church development in Chihuahua, Chih (early 1990’s), building up the congregation and starting the construction of its sanctuary.  In1997 the congregation of the Dios Habla Hoy Presbyterian Church, started by the Pueblos Hermanos team and chartered under Pastor Romero in 1991, called him as its first called pastor. He served in various positions in the Northwest Border Presbytery of Mexico, from President and Treasurer to chair of the Committee on Ministry (Departamento de Relaciones Humanas).   He had suffered poor health the past two years with a long and intense bout of pneumonia and then complications to different organs caused by the medications to fight off the pneumonia.  He had an operation December 1st for an intestinal blockage.
          
    We pray for his wife Ana, daughters and grand children as well as the Presbytery, churches, sisters and brothers and colleagues in whose lives he was such an important influence. 

Itineration in Pennsylvania - Mission Challenge 2007.  I spent the entire month of October visiting Presbyterian churches in four presbyteries of central Pennsylvania, one of more than 40 PCUSA missionaries who visited more than 3/4 of the presbyteries of the denomination that month to lift up our world missions ministries and begin to reconnect our missionaries to local churches and presbyteries. It was a wonderful month of meeting committed Presbyterians in all kinds of church conditions, experiencing warm hospitality and making new friendships, sharing the work of missionaries around the world through a beautifully done ten minute DVD and telling some of the stories of our work on the border. 

It began with a couple days of orientation in Louisville and ended there with a day of evaluation, quite a treat for connecting with old friends and makings new ones - wow our PCUSA missionaries are doing some exciting and important work all around the world!  (We had opportunity to share some of our stories and concerns together.)  First I flew to Allentown, PA, to spend a week within Carlisle Presbytery, then a hundred some miles to the west to Harrisburg and Camp Hill with Lehigh Presbytery (Executive Presbyter Mark Englund-Krieger, whose younger son gave up his room for me.  Mark wanted to see how many churches it would be possible to visit in one week - at least 15, plus overnight at the Synod meeting two hours west and north.  Lackawanna Presbytery a couple hours north with offices in Scranton is more rural and I moved from town to town, and then on to Williamsport where the Norrthumberland Presbytery put me up in a hotel for the week as I visited ten of their churches, running into Rev. Ollie Wagner of Montoursville PC, who had brought a mission team to Tijuana years ago.

Pennsylvania is very green! Although in October is brilliantly orange, yellow and red - trees everywhere. There are some wonderful, thoughtful, committed and loving people in our Presbyterian churches, who care about the welfare of all of God's children all over the world, and who are doing creative things to witness to and live out that concern.

Dios Es Amor Mission, Planicie, Tijuana - Pastor Oficiante: The Northwest Border Presbytery dealt with a minor crisis and made me the Officiating Pastor (sort of like moderator of session to a church without a pastor) of the Dios Es Amor Mission which we had helped plant with our Salud y Vida Community Health Program and mission teams.  My partner Pueblos Hermanos Co-coordinator Enrique Romero had been pastor there for two years and the new pastor assigned by the Presbytery didn't work out.  I've been working with the mission's Steering Committee and Pastor Dr. Samuel Woo, retired from 30 years as pastor of the United Korean Presbyterian Church of Los Angeles, who has been supporting the ministry there (along with Pueblos Hermanos) and is finishing the Mission and Community Center there. Gumersindo Lopez, chair of the Steering Committee is presently taking courses through our Presbytery's Extension Seminary and a high school senior, Osmar Damian, is seriously considering going to seminary.  I'm preaching three Sundays a week as well as moderating the Steering Committee meetings, making plans, and doing a little pastoral counseling.

Enrique Romero continues Sabbatical.  Enrique has been studying English and reading up a lot on evangelism through cell groups.  He traveled to Mexico City  and Guadalajara to visit family and get a first hand look at new church developments using the cell groups for both community building as well as reaching out to new people.  He returns to his work with Pueblos Hermanos in April.

Soldwisch Personal News: When my wife Susan heard of the plan for me to spend the moth of October in Pennsylvania, she quickly made plans to visit the Philippines then, returning in late November with our daughter Shana Maria and two year old grand daughter Layla Grace.  What a joy!  Shana's husband Ky arrived in December, lots of family gatherings, then they went to Chicago for Christmas with the Lutheran side of their family, returning for New Years with us.  Our son Jonathan and daughter-in-law Gwen joined in, as well as hosting us when we took Shana and clan to LA for their flight back to the Philippines.