Dear Friends,

The Lord has sure been good to us these past two months. God gave us another grandbaby in July. Jon, Annie and the kids come down from the mountains every other week and stay with us for a couple of nights. We get to see Markie and Christy’s children almost every day. Nick is my coffee drinking buddy. Mike and Jillian live next door and are due to give us another grandson in October. That will make two of our children and five of our grandchildren that have been born right here in Navojoa, Sonora, Mexico. Most Missionaries leave their families but the Lord has allowed much of our family to be right here with us. Justin and Alicia are on staff at Shadow Mountain Baptist Church in Morgan Hill, CA. Alicia is due to have a little girl in December. Grandma is already making plans to be there.

Our Sunday School attendance these last two months of Summer has averaged 184. We have had to quit running buses on Wednesdays because of the expense. It has been a little discouraging to see our attendance drop sometimes to half of what it had been. But it has been exciting to see the faithfulness and sacrifice of our people. We have two girls that catch a bus from their village over to another village where they meet up with three other teens and walk the final 2 miles to Church. Others ride bicycles or catch rides. We average between 65 and 70 on Wednesdays. We have Soul-winning on Thursday evening. Afterwards there are always folks excited because they were able to lead people to Christ. On Friday evening and Saturday morning we follow up with bus visitation. With a Bible Institute class and the Mission Work in Alamos our students are busy 7 days (6 nights) a week. With the construction of the new dorm we are busy and often tired, but happy. God is good! Please pray with us that we would be able to finish the construction of our boy’s dorm!

Dear Friends,

Saturday we celebrated the 24th anniversary at the “Savior’s Baptist Church” in the small farming village of Saucobe. This was our first work. In the Service we realized that for 24 years, a week has not gone by that God’s Word was not preached and also that there are 11 families from Saucobe who are faithful members in 4 other churches in Southern Sonora. The village has become smaller over the years with a population of about 60. Brother Ismael has been the Pastor there for 22 years.

I have become the Pastor of Maranatha Baptist Church in a small village in the desert 16 miles up the highway. We did not even know that this Church existed. A number of years ago they became independent from an association in order to have more freedom to govern themselves. When they found out about our church they began to come in each Sunday Morning to worship with us. I go out to them Sunday afternoons and on Thursdays. They are a blessing to me. There are 25 that attend. I believe God will raise one of the men up to be the pastor.

My son Mike is having good success with his Mission work up in the mountain town of Alamos. Through the death of one of the faithful children he has seen folks saved and folks become more committed. Mike and the boys in the Bible Institute go up each Tuesday for a service and many other times during the week. They are averaging about 50 there.

Our Children’s home is full with 18 (we had 2 leave yesterday). There are 4 more that are waiting to come in. We are beginning to build a new boys dorm with used metal that was donated to us and that we have been hauling down from Arizona. It is a step of faith but we believe that God is leading. PLEASE PRAY FOR US!

Thank You So Much!!!
Nelson & Cathy Dorr

Dear Friends,

Last week our Church had it’s first Revival. It lasted just two days but the Lord worked in an amazing way. We had 37 of our people that joined in prayer and fasting for fifteen days prior to the meetings. One of our young ladies in the Bible Institute fasted 34 meals. We had over 200 in attendance both nights. The second night the sermon lasted over 2 hours but the people never lost attention. I think that Brother Galvan our Evangelist could have preached for another hour. Before the invitation began folks were coming to the altar to make decisions . It was hard to see sin and immorality that surfaced but it was a blessing to see tears and repentance. One of the results was that I had to expel one of our Institute students. We have worked it out for him to go and serve under the supervision of a Pastor in Guaymas. Please pray for Alejandro. He was saved out of an extremely rough life and is only 17. He is a tremendous worker.

Please pray for Brother Ignacio. He was involved in an auto accident and has been locked up 4 months. The second time that I visited him I told him that he had a unique opportunity to witness to the prisoners and left him with a stack of Gospel Tracts. He took his job seriously and as a result we have been able to start a weekly prison ministry. As I write this letter our men are at the prison preaching. Please pray for Ignacio, his children and his newly saved wife Laura.

Would you pray with us for another church van? We have an old 15 passenger van that is running on prayers. Every time that we air up the tires and put oil in it, which is almost every day, I doubt that it will make the next trip.

Thank You So Much!!!

Dear Friends,

We woke up to frozen pipes and ice. Nobody can remember it ever being this cold before. Devotions with the Institute students this morning were more like calisthenics as we sang children’s choruses with the motions and tried to warm up. None of our buildings are heated but we all had a good time.

A number of months ago a young Mexican man working illegally in Denver was deported back to Mexico. Once more Marcial left his home in southern Mexico heading north to cross the border to work. Riding the freight trains he got off near us to look for a meal. We fed him and one of our students helped him to trust the Lord as his Savior. God has burdened Marcial to return back to his family, find a good Church and live for the Lord. Please pray with us for Marcial as he begins a new life. We will miss him, he is a hard worker and has a good spirit.

In spite of different challenges and disappointments we have had good a spirit and good attendances in our Church services. Our ladies are planning the meal for our Valentines Banquet. This month is missions month. Pray for our people’s burden to increase to send the gospel to other places.

We feed between 35 and 40 children, young people and workers at any given time, sometimes more. We eat very simply and are praying about the possibility of trying to obtain a couple of milk cows to give the children a better diet. Please pray that we will make good decisions.

I wrote this letter this morning but just have to add a blessing. Alejandra, a 13 year old girl that has been in the orphanage a short time prayed the sinners prayer tonight as her partner in soul-winning led a man to the Lord in his home. She is a sweet girl and we have been praying for her salvation.

THANK YOU!!!
Nelson & Cathy Dorr

Dear Friends,

I am writing this letter from New Mexico where I am enjoying the blessing of preaching Pastor Jimmy Walters’ Mission’s Conference in Shiprock. Monday night, after teaching my Bible Institute class on the Book of Daniel, I caught the bus from Navojoa up to the border city of Nogales, then drove the length of Arizona to get up to the Conference. So many memories came back to me as I traveled. The last Church that my Father started is in the border city of Nogales. Bro. Michael Weiss is the Pastor now and will be coming down to teach in our Institute for a few days next month. Just one half hour north of Nogales is the small ranching town of Amado. Forty seven years ago, when I was just 5 my father started a Mission work in the Amado school house. I still have memories of ranchers and farm workers and their children gathering together on Sundays to hear the preaching of God’s Word. As I drove north I passed the cotton fields that I worked in when I was in high school. My father was starting Bible Baptist Church in Marana, which is now Sun and Shield Baptist, our sending Church. Up in the mountains of central Arizona I came to the mining town of Winkleman where my Father started the First Baptist Church. I was in grade school then and was a part of the 2% minority of white people there. I thought that fist fights were a normal, every day part of life for boys and men. That was a rough town. The trip brought back many precious memories! I think about my son Micah. He is taking the young men in the training program up into the mountains of Mexico where he is establishing a new work. I think he is following in the footsteps of his Grandpa.

We celebrated our 5th anniversary as a Church this month. We had a big day with 376 in attendance, folks trusted the Lord and 3 followed the Lord in Baptism.

THANK YOU!!!
Nelson & Cathy Dorr

Dear Friends,

A lot has been happening around here lately. We started our regular schedule in the Bible Institute this week. We have a little over 20 students with half full-time and the other half attending part-time. We have a good, serious group this year and are excited about what the Lord has planned for us. We are changing the emphasis in our training program and will put less focus on the Institute and will emphasize more our students as a ministry team. There will not be less classes, in fact we have added an extra day of classes, but the students will spend more time together in ministry such as preaching and soul-winning. Mike has taken over the leadership of this program, has organized all of the classes and is currently taking the young men out each week to witness and preach in the mountain city of Alamos, about an hour east of us. With all of their ministries in our local Church and the physical work that they do, the students stay very busy.

We received 5 more children into the Children’s Home yesterday, a brother and sisters between 6 and 12 years old. At supper tonight I watched them eat, and eat and eat and eat. After a week or so they will begin to realize that there will be plenty more tomorrow and will gain confidence and security. With the workers there are now 16 in the Children’s Home. They are a joy to our hearts. With the boys in the Boy’s Home, the institute students and the workers we feed between 30 and 40 people each meal and we eat a lot of beans and corn tortillas, and we like them a lot!!!

The Lord has been very good to us and we are grateful for all that He is doing. Thank you for your burden for our people and for this ministry!

Nelson & Cathy Dorr

Dear Friends,

We thank you so much for your help and prayers. The Lord moved in a very special way in our services yesterday. In the morning our attendance was down a little, which is typical for July. We had 159 in Sunday School with 97 adults and teens, and 62 children. We had 2 ladies trust the Lord for salvation in the morning and a 15 year old boy pray for salvation in the evening service. We baptized 2 and 2 others made the decision to follow the Lord in baptism in the near future. It was a great victory and blessing to see 4 of our teens repent with tears in their eyes for sin and worldliness that had crept into their lives. We have fought some real battles against Satan lately. This is an extremely carnal and passionate culture and our people daily are faced with many temptations. We praise God for His faithfulness.

There are some special blessings that we are enjoying. This might not sound like a big deal, but we are putting up our first Mission’s Bulletin Board. That is exciting for our young Church. We support 4 Missionaries and our people are committed to be faithful with their tithes and offerings. We are starting for the first time a young adult Sunday School Class ages 20 to 29. Micah will teach it and we expect to enroll about 14. We sponsored our first Youth Camp. Markie and Christy took the teens to the ocean last week and organized a tremendous camp. Jon and Annie brought their teens down from the mountains and Jon was our camp preacher. The group came back tired, sunburned, happy and made some great decisions for the Lord.

We are gearing up for our VBS and a Sunday School competition in August.

Please keep praying! We love you!

Nelson & Cathy Dorr

Dear Friends,

Thursday morning I made a trip up to the mountain city of Alamos. "DIF" (Social Services) had called to ask if we could take a 16 year old Guarijio Indian boy into our boy's home. Fernando is from a small tribe that lives way up in the Sierra Madre mountains. After you arrive at the last village on a very rough dirt road you have to walk another 3 hours to get to his settlement. Growing up, his father had beat him and when he was finally old enough to fight back his dad wanted him gone. I brought Fernando back with me and he just fits right in. He especially loves to work with our horses. Sunday night after Prayer Meeting, Gerardo, a 15 year old Mayo Indian boy in our boy's home, came to me with a big smile and Fernando in tow. "Pastor, Fernando has just prayed to invite Jesus into his heart." In devotions this morning I noticed that Fernando did not want to stop reading his new Bible. Could it be that God brought this boy to us to train in the Bible Institute and then to go back up as a Missionary to his people? That is my prayer! Would you pray for Fernando and the other boys in the dormitory, that God would prepare and use them in a special way in His service?

Jon and Annie rushed down out of the mountains early yesterday to get our very sick 4 month old granddaughter Kimberly to a Doctor. The Doctor rushed them to a specialist in a city to the north of us. He operated on her for an inverted intestine. We praise God that the operation was a success. Please Pray!

You are a blessing to us!

Dear Friends,

We are enjoying the spring weather here in Mexico. We had 249 in Sunday School on Sunday without any promotions. We have seen souls saved each Friday in our soul winning time and each Sunday of this month. Our people are really gaining a vision for reaching the lost. We started Faith Promise Giving in November. A couple of days ago I checked our giving records fully expecting to find that folks may be slacking off on their promises. I was surprised to find that our missions giving has actually gone up. Some of our men took their first missions trip to help a Mexican missionary, who is working with the Indians, stucco the inside of his church. We are planning another trip to help build his baptistery. Almost all of our people are young Christians that have been saved for less than four years. Thank you for all of your prayers and support to make this possible.

We are reaching out into towns and villages that are within ten miles of our church. We are bringing in on out busses people from eleven villages, one town and the city of Navojoa. But we are looking forward to the time when we can reach out further into other towns and villages and send our young men out each week to conduct preaching services with the purpose of starting works in these outlying areas. My son Mike feels led to head up this ministry when he and his wife Jillian finish their deputation. Please pray that the Lord would give them good success so that when they get back they can hit the ground running. There is a tremenous need!!!

Thank you for all of your help!

Dear Friends,

Just like you, Satan is able to discourage us through his unending attacks. How we have ached in the past few months over victories that he has seemingly won.

Last night as I was walking back home the Lord touched my heart and began to show me some of the great blessings that He has given to us lately. Grandbaby number three was born last week. Our two youngest children and our three grandchildren were all born here in Navojoa, Sonora. Most missionaries leave their family but the Lord has sent much of ours with us. Three of our children, their spouses and their children are here in Mexico with us.

Last night we celebrated Christmas with the kids from the orphanage and the boy’s home. A fifth grade class sent down gifts for the children. Gerardo, a fifteen year old Indian boy, began to open his gifts. A package of yellow pencils, two notebooks, a package of Kleenex, silly putty, a toothbrush, socks, a bar of soap, etc. I was amazed how excited and grateful he was over each gift. It dawned on me that Gerardo had never received a Christmas present in his life. After he had opened his presents he would pick them up again and examine each one of them. Israel left earlier today to bicycle to the other side of Navojoa to take some of his gifts to his little brother and sister so they would have a Christmas too. We feel so privileged to have a part in these kid’s lives and to know that now they have the greatest gift of all.

Wednesday night we celebrated Christmas in our Church. Sometimes special services can be a little hectic. What a wonderful time we had. The people were so attentive and we had sweet fellowship together. Three adults and a teenager prayed for salvation. After the service we all had a piece of cake and the children broke a pinata. We had a great time with 259 in attendance, mostly teens and adults.

We are so grateful to you and to the Lord, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Dear Friends,

We have started up our Bible Institute this semester with 20 students. They are a blessing to us and have a good spirit. They work hard and are excited about winning souls. On Saturday we had a tropical storm hit. I ran into town to do some errands and about 9:30 in the morning was headed back in the driving rain. We have two young men who visit their bus route way over across town on their bicycles. As I was getting close to home I was amazed to see them headed out. They spent 5 hours pedaling and pushing their bikes in rain and mud. The next day they had a great attendance and the folks bragged about their bus captain who showed up at their door soaking wet to encourage them.

We came to this valley 23 years ago. At that time we won the foreman out on a farm to the Lord, he was faithful for a couple of years to our little village Church then backslid in a terrible way and we lost track of Miguel. Two of our men gave blood to help an elderly woman. The woman turned out to be Miguel’s mother. God touched Miguel’s heart. Miguel repented and has driven down from his village up near the mountains every Sunday with his boys for the last two months. Also 23 years ago we would go each week to an Indian village and preach out on the street. A mother would come faithfully with her 8 year old boy. A short time later the mother passed away. The little boy, Juan, became an orphan. One of our main men (we call him Coronado) turned out to be that little boy. We thank God for His goodness and His faithfulness and we thank you for your burden for these people.

Dear Friends,

The heat and humidity have been very extreme, but the Lord has turned our trial into a blessing. We have had two different groups come down in July. How it humbles us to see these folks come and work long and hard in this intense heat. Our home church, Sun and Shield Baptist, came down and installed a water line to our campus kitchen, sealed our cement roofs and made hymn books for us. Pastor Heffernan and a group from Midland Baptist came and raised the final wall to enclose our church, poured a foundation for Pastor Ismael, painted and many other things. All of these dear Brothers and Sisters were a special blessing and refreshment to our hearts.

This year we did our own teen camp for our most faithful youth who serve in the church. We took 22 kids way up into the Sierra Madre Mountains, from the heat of the valley at sea level to the cool air at 7000 ft. It was the first time that many of them had seen pine trees. We had to build a fire inside the cabin in the evening to stay warm. The youth were so excited. It was a wonderful time when through the devotions and teaching God worked in their hearts in a very special way. One evening Cathy and I stayed behind to relax by the fire. Rosario, one of the teen girls, also stayed behind. As we visited she began to tell us how in the beginning she would see our Church bus pass by her house and she would be filled with anger. She just wanted to stop the bus and yell at us. God worked in her life and to make the story short, Rosario is now the captain of that same bus route and is a teacher in Children's Church!

Because of our bus competition our Sunday School averaged 243 in July with 5 baptized and a good number that have trusted Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

May God richly bless you!

Dear Friends,

Our daughter Alicia married Justin Farmer June 13 in Morgan Hill, CA. All of us went up for the wedding and that left our church here in Mexico very shorthanded. We decided not to run the buses and vans and called it "Faithful Sunday." We encouraged people to walk, hitchhike, ride the public buses etc. Of course this left most of our Sunday School children without a way to come. Most of our people do not live near the church and I expected that we would have maybe 35 that would be able to get to Sunday School. What a blessing to call down and find out that we had 83 in attendance, almost all teens and adults.

Usually our attendance dips a little this time of the year. But in spite of that we have been seeing the Lord bless. Sunday we had two young married couples follow the Lord in Believer's Baptism. It is a rare thing for us to see both the husband and wife get saved and grow together.

Please keep us in your prayers. This is a busy time of the year for us. We will have two VBS's, our own youth camp, a graduation in our Primary School with two graduates, our annual bus route competition, two groups from the States and two building projects, all this month. Please pray that in all of this we will be able to reach new people with the Gospel.

Please pray for little Juan Carlos, an eight year old boy that was just left with us an hour ago. He had no place in this world. Thank you for helping us so that we can take him in. I just looked out my window and he is on a bicycle contentedly riding across the property with the wind in his face.

Thank you!!

Dear Friends,

Summer is upon us. Every night we can see the thunder clouds and lightning over the Sierra Madre Mountains which means that the monsoon rains will son be here. It will be a blessing to settle the dust. Last week we finished our spring semester in the Bible Institute and graduated three. Our primary and middle schools will go through the end of June because of the time-out for the swine flu. We have shifted into our summer schedule which allows us to focus on some of the details that we have been neglecting during the school year.

It is always exciting to see how the Lord works. Missionary L.H. Ashcraft used to tell me, "Plan your direction and enjoy the adventure of the unexpected turns that God puts in your path." We never planned or intended to start a boy's home. Our plan for the orphanage has been to take in younger children. It would not be wise to take in older boys and have them near the children, or so we reasoned. Nevertheless, one by one the Lord began to bring us boys. The youngest are 12 and the oldest is 17. There are now seven of them. More would like to come.

What a great blessing they have become to us. We are getting them before they get into drugs. They are becoming soul winners and are excited to serve the Lord. All of them have surrendered to preach. They have a place here and an identity. They are still boys and get into mischief, but they have good attitudes, work very hard, expect very little and we love them. I have them in the boy's dorm and when the Institute is in session there is not enough room. Please pray with us that we might be able to build.

I want to give a special thanks to some West Texas Pastors and their Churches: John Lyons, Jack Berg, JJ Leach and Richard Martin, who last month, "delivered us out of the mouth of the lion."

Thank you!!!

Dear Friends,

These last two months have been a time for us to experience God’s mercy and grace in a very constant way. Mike drove our family and Liz, one of our American students, up to the States the 17th of Dec. They headed out after an evening service. At 2:30 in the morning I got a call from Mike telling me that they had an accident. As they were passing a semi they came up on a donkey in their lane. The suburban dropped off the edge of the pavement, lost control and turned on to its side. Cathy flew from the front seat to the back where Liz had been sitting. Liz went out the back window and ended up on the ground. By God’s grace nobody was badly hurt. How the suburban didn’t flip all the way over is a mystery to me. Christy had just strapped our grandson Nick into his car seat. You may have noticed that your last Prayer Letter was in rough shape. It also went through the accident. We praise God for His protection.

All of a sudden God has opened the door for us to begin a Christian School. It is different here in Mexico. The teachers and the school have to be approved by the local Education Office. God sent us Jennifer, a young lady who has helped start 10 schools in the state capital of Hermosillo. With her help our teachers and school have been approved. We have 9 elementary and middle school students from the orphanage and boys dorm who, Lord willing, will start classes next week.

We have had many extra demands on our time and money in the past couple of months. During the week we feed up to 40 children, institute students and workers. God has been faithful to always supply exactly what we need. It has been amazing to see His goodness. Because of the economy we have lost some support, but through all of this we have been able to continue building Bernardino and Fernanda’s little home. If we tried to make it work with a budget, we should not even be able to pay all the bills, much less build. Bernardino is a hard worker and has many responsibilities in the Church and Institute. Fernanda is coming from Guaymas and will help lift some of Cathy’s workload. They will be married the 28th.

We are having a great semester in the Institute with 27 students. Seventeen are full-time. We have averaged 144 in Sunday School so far this year and baptized 4 last month.

We Praise God for you and want to thank you for your sacrifice to help our people!

Dear Friends,

We ran out of coffee! I walked over to the dining hall a few minutes ago, a little before 7:00 am, to borrow some. The fog from all the irrigation around us is lifting and the wood smoke from the neighbors around us cooking breakfast is mixing with the mist. It is a cold morning for us, 48 degrees. The students are gathering in the dining hall for morning devotions where it is about the same temperature as outside (only 3 walls). They, as always, are in good spirits, joking and laughing. Most of them are new Christians. Christy is in the kitchen frying scrambled eggs and hot dogs, on of the favorite breakfasts. Liz, an American student, just ran down to the village store for fresh tortillas. We are all a little extra excited because tomorrow is the last day of classes. The students have 5 finals today and we will have the Christmas party tonight at 8:00. Some of the boys did not have the $4.00 to buy a gift to exchange so I loaned it to them. They will work it off tomorrow. This is good for me because I have a mountain of fill dirt that needs to be shoveled into the tiny new house that we are building (by faith) for Bernardino and his new bride-to-be Fernanda who will be married the end of February. Some of the church ladies were here yesterday all day to make tamales for our Christmas Service the 24th. We were caught off guard two weeks ago when we celebrated our 3rd anniversary as a Church. We prepared for 200and had 338 in Sunday School. We were able to add water to the pozole and nobody knew the difference but this time we plan to be prepared. We are grateful to Pastor Lyons from Odessa, Texas for coming and preaching. He was a GREAT blessing! Well, Micah just drove in to start his class "The History of Israel". I had better close this letter and get around.

We love you and thank you and wish you a very merry Christmas!