April 19, 2009

Jose Luis has agreed to lead the cell group in Real Centenario. Jeff is now training a leader iin each of the three cell groups of the church.  

April 4-7, 2009

13 people from the Cristo Vive church attended the Baptist college student conference in Morelia, Mexico. The students and parents were greatly blessed and challenged by what they learned at the conference.

March 29, 2009

First meeting of our bi-monthly high school and college student ministry at our house. 8 youth were in attendance.

March 15-21, 2009

A BSU volunteer team from Miss State University came to minister in Colima during their spring break. We visited English classes at the local state university during the day, and the students gave devotional talks and played games at their hotel at night.

We had a good attendance of 30-40 people during several nights of ministry.

Jan. 25, 2009

We have a new name for our Baptist church!  The name is “Cristo Vive!” or “Jesus lives!” What joy and hope we have because Jesus is alive!

Today we had the largest attendance yet at our celebration service that meets in our home. There were 22 adults in the worship service and 7 kids in Sunday school.

Jan, 22, 2009

Jeff began offering guitar classes this week before the start of the home group meetings. Anyone who takes classes has the responsibility to eventually play during the worship time in the home group.  

The church used the offerings to purchase two guitars for use in training people to lead worship in the home groups.

Dec. 6, 2008

The new church celebrated the Lord’s Supper together for the first time today.  It was a wonderful time emphasizing the unity of believers in Christ. We plan to celebrate the Lord’s Supper in the home groups next month.

Nov. 23, 2008

The 3 home groups met together today for the first joint church service. The home groups will continue to meet during the week and ministry will be focused in the home groups.

Nov. 16, 2008

On Nov. 16, 2008, Susana, Maria, Fernando, Eric, and Emanuel were baptized by Jeff & Marcos in a river outside of Colima.

3 home groups now meet during the week to study the Bible and worship the Lord. Next Sunday we plan to bring together the three home groups for a weekly training time & church service.

Titus started crawling in October. Now he can stand up without assistance. Soon, he should be walking. He continues to wear his foot brace 12 hours per day, and his foot seems to be developing fine.

Nov. 4 we celebrated Titus's first birthday.

August 23, 2008

Aug 11-19 a volunteer team from Tulsa, Oklahoma came to minister in Colima. They helped us in home visitation, gospel distribution, and nightly evangelistic and teaching events. Three professions of faith in Christ were made that week.

August 5, 2008

More than 10 people have been coming to the marriage seminars we have recently started in our home on Tuesday nights. There is great need for stronger Christian families in this city. Colima and Mexico City have the highest percentage of divorced and single parent families in Mexico.

March 8, 2008

A college age volunteer group from Central Baptist Church in College Station, Texas began their outreach efforts among university students in Colima for the week. They will be engaging Mexican students in English classes, conversation, games, and activities, in an effort to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.

February 11, 2008

Titus had his tendon surgery and last cast put on, and was fitted for his orthopedic shoes.  Soon after the Swanson family returned to Mexico.

January 25, 2008

Titus received his first cast in his treatment for clubfoot in the U.S.

January 21, 2008

3 young adults accepted Christ as their personal Savior at the home group that meets in San Sebastian.

November 12, 2007

The baby has arrived!  Titus Stanford Swanson was born on November 4, 2007 in Colima, Mexico.  If you would to see pictures of Titus, please go to our family page.

 Psalm 127:3 (NIV) “Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him.”

October 26, 2007

Deliegha is going through various aches and pains in her final month of pregnancy.  The check-ups with the doctor have gone well,  and we have made preparations  for the baby's arrival.

October 23, 2007

We have started the weekly training sessions with people from our home groups on Monday nights and had 3 meetings so far on How to Interpret the Bible.   The idea is to give  the group members further training  and also fellowship together with people from the other groups.  Because of distance, some of the groups are not represented.  Attendance has been 3 or 4 people weekly. Pray for us as we plan for further topics to discuss once the current series ends in November.

October 18, 2007

Jeff and some other missionaries taught 50-60 Mexican pastors, seminary students, and church members on some principles of missions and evangelism in a neighboring state. Pray for the gospel to be preached all through Mexico. It was a long bus ride on curvy mountain roads, and Jeff was glad to return home and get his feet back on solid ground!

October 10, 2007

Last Saturday, we began a monthly meeting with the student leaders to plan creatively in how to reach non-believing students for Christ.  The leaders had many good ideas for fellowship and outreach activities to go along with the weekly Bible Study time.  As far as we know, there is no other evangelical group reaching college students in Colima.  Pray that the Lord would bless the outreach efforts and that many students and young professionals would become disciples of the Lord Jesus.

Pastor Hector is now home from the hospital, though confined to his bed. Each week we see improvement in what will likely be a long recovery period from his stroke.

September 26, 2007

We had a fellow missionary come to Colima this past weekend and give a short marriage conference.  The idea was to invite non-believers in the community.  He spoke at a small Baptist church as well as at a conference room we used in the town center.  about 17 or 18 people attended.  At least one couple were not believers in Christ. Pray for their salvation and for any plans for follow up conferences with the local pastor.

September 12, 2007

Dispite a heavy downpour of rain, we met with the home group of Pepe & Adriana for the first time on Saturday night.  We had 4 adults present, 3 youth, and 2 kids.  Jeff shared the gospel with one adult, Lupe.  Pray for her salvation, as she is not ready yet to make a commitment to Christ. This is now Home Group #3 and will meet on Saturday nights.

September 2, 2007

One man in each of the two home groups has agreed to be trained by Jeff to lead the groups.  Each one will be leading the Bible teaching time this week.

Jeff and Pepe M visited a family who used to meet in a home group with a previous missionary.  They are excited about starting up the home group again.  This week they will be meeting for the first time.

Plans are being made to have a marriage conference open to the community.  We are hoping to make new contacts to help outreach efforts by a local church.

August 13, 2007

We celebrated the Lord’s Supper this week in the two home groups we meet with in Colima and Comala.  This was the second time to celebrate the Lord’s supper with these new believers.

May 26, 2007

I posted new pictures and a family update! Enjoy.

May 6, 2007

3 new believers were baptized by Jeff in a river near Colima.

April 17, 2007

Update, Deliegha is pregnant. She is about 2 months along now and is due around Thanksgiving!  She can’t wait to get over the 1st 3 months in hopes that the nausea will go away.

We were not able to do the baptism last Sunday due to illnesses. So were praying that everyone will be better soon.

April 4, 2007

Jeff took 7 university students on a retreat at a camp in Bernal, Queretero.  It was a time of good spiritual growth for the students and our friendships were strengthened.  We also endured hardship together, as on the way home in Queretero, our van was broken into and the suitcases were stolen.  Jeff lost a backpack with books and a cd player and the students lost everything in their suitcases, about $400 each. It will be hard for the students to replace these belongings.  Although their loss was great their attitudes were good. Jeff still needs to replace the broken window (it has plexi glass now) and two door locks.

March, 2007

God recently used the preparation of the Lord's Supper as an opportunity to share the Good News with Marcos, whose daughter attends one of two church starts that we are involved with. During an interview with Marcos, Jeff and Pepe determined that he was not a believer in Christ.  They explained to marcos that in order to partake of the Lord’s Supper, he had to be a follower of Christ!  They then presented the gospel message to Marcos and he prayed to receive Christ.  There has been a real change in his life.  He was also able to attend the Lord’s Supper that evening.  Jeff and Pepe are meeting regularly with Marcos to disciple him.

14 adults, attended the Lord's Supper service held in our house. The Holy Spirit moved to convict several of the members of one of the church starts of sin and to bring some problems to our attention. This lead to several ongoing counseling sessions with several members of the group.  Pray for this group to resolve these issues and to know God's grace and forgiveness.

 

 

 

 

 

    Welcome to our website!  

We are Jeff & Deliegha Swanson,

church planters with the

International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.  

We have three children, and we serve in

Colima, Mexico.  

 

We invite you to stay around and visit the rest of our website.

 

God is so good and we exist to praise and glorify the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit in all we do.

 

“Pray for us

that the message of the Lord

may spread rapidly

and be honored.”

2 Thessalonians 3:1