MISSIONARY PROFILE
Clint
& Rhonda
Rardin
Missionary Update 07/05/2022
Dear Praying Friends,
Happy July Fourth!! We are so thankful for the independence of our country that created a nation that would truly be a city on a hill to not only shine the light of freedom for the world, but more importantly the light of the glorious gospel.
This Sunday we had a very solid attendance of 136 with a full auditorium of almost 180 adults and teens, It was not our plan when we started the mission we have on the other side of the city by the airport to have people come from there on Sunday, nor the group from the addictions program in the inner city of Tepito (we planned on them on going to the mission on Wednesday nights)), but it is great to see people from both the mission and the rescue mission sprinkled among the crowd every Sunday morning. I enjoy giving RU awards once in a while to the people of the rescue mission on Sunday mornings. It keeps that ministry in the eyes of our people.Every summer I preach a series of messages on the home, and this Sunday I taught/preached on Biblical Courting (as opposed to wordly dating); I gave a gospel message at the invitation and surprisingly, two people accepted Christ as their Savior. One was a man named Adolfo. A man around sixty, he has been attending our church for a few weeks or months. He lives near the church in the neighborhood I live in. Our assistant pastor dealt with him and said that Adolfo would like to get baptized. I will visit him this week. The other that trusted Christ was Homalin, a teenager, whose father, Vicente, one of our contracted bus drivers, was saved earlier this year and has been attending our services ever since.This last week was the last week of classes in our Bible Institute and today they take finals and turn in all their projects. This next Sunday night, we have our Bible Institute's graduation. We have only one graduate this year. Jose Davila came to our church fourteen year ago at age 11. Raised by his Christian grandmother who attends a charismatic church, Jose attended our church on his own. He helps in the mission I preach in and will be in charge of it in my absence on furlough. He will be taking turns with a couple of other preacher boys in our Institute preaching on Wednesdays there. Brother Oscar, our assistant pastor preaches in the other mission in Naucalpan that we hope will be an independent church in two years, Although we have finals today, fortunately we do not have to be here for that. Brother Oscar can give the tests and receive the projects. We are going out of town to a small colonial city that has a lot of American expatriates. They are having a fireworks display there, so we will spend the night there. Hope you have a great July Fourth, Clint Rardin
Missionary Update 05/02/2022
Dear Praying Friends,
We had a good Holocaust Memorial service. I was seated next to the
Isreali ambassador to Mexico for two hours. He was very cordial and
open with the people who came to the event. Several Jewish families
came including the faculty of a private Jewish school. Several Jews
came up to me and said they appreciated the kind words I spoke about
the Jewish people. We were giving out Hebrew/Spanish translations of
the Jewish Old Testament Bible to the Jews on their way out of the
amphitheater.
My speech was the closing speech of th event, so I basically spoke of
the great impact the Jewish Scriptures has had on the world quoting
from Deuteronomy about a wise nation and just laws that have civilized
and turned the word from paganism to the worship of the true God, and
I was able to give my personal testimony of what the Hebrew Bible has
meant to me personally since my childhood and how as a result I
forsook my wicked ways and unrighteous thoughts and turned unto Adonai
and Israel's God and how He had mercy on me and abundantly pardoned me
(Isaiah 55:7) and how I called upon the name of Adonai and he saved me
(Joel 2:32). I ended with a story of Corrie ten Boom and how the
influence of the Jewish Scriptures gave her family the compassion to
hide the Jews and that hope was given to them to endure the
concentration camps by the same Scriptures that was handed to them
down the centuries by the very people whom they risked their lives to
save. I finally told them that, out of appreciation for how the
Jewish Scriptures had impacted my life and the world, we had a gift
for them of the same Scriptures that they could receive on their way
out. (Most Jews do not have a copy of even the complete Old Testament
in their home.)
I hope and pray that the seed we sowed that day will build friendships
with several Jews that attended and will result in the salvation of
some of them.
Thank you for your prayers,
Clint Rardin
Missionary Update 03/14/2022
Dear Praying Friends,,
We had a very good weekend, Mexico City is in the green having taken
off all restrictions this Monday with the count of new omicron cases
falling like a rock, but you would never have known there were
restrictions in our church on Sunday. We had 236 in church with 181
taxing our auditorium's capacity just like in the good old pre-Covid
days. Our routes had 116 and we had 120 drive-in. Only the kids'
classes were down with just 55.
We had three baptisms: Jorge, one of our faithful students from our RU
recovery program in Tepito; Erica, a woman from one of the routes; and
Constanza, a teenager from a family that has turned after eight years.
In fact, she and her teenage brother, Jose, and her mother Edna were
received as members in the evening as well as a new woman who has been
coming for several months, Patricia. Only two families have never
returned since Covid began and one of those families didn't return
because they moved to another state. We had one death from Covid in
the last two years: one of our charter members, ninety-two year old
Sara de la Vega.
We thank God for His gracious hand upon our church the last two years.
The mission in Naucalpan has been running over 50 and we had over 20
in the mission in Carranza this last Wednesday. We had two visitors
in our RU mission in Tepito and we pray that they continue to come.
Thank you for your prayers,
Clint Rardin