MISSIONARY PROFILE
Clint
& Rhonda
Rardin
Missionary Update 03/06/2020
Dear Praying Friends, We have had the best first two months of a year in the history of the church. For example, this Sunday we had 253 in church with 191 adults crammed into our auditorium. We only had 101 on the buses (our yearly goal is 105); but we had 152 drive in as more people from the nearby neighborhood continue to visit us. It's like we are in a campaign, except there's no campaign. We had about ten visitors in the auditorium, including another lady who came because of the Bible distribution. We have now distributed over 40,000 Bibles. We have already seen 6 adults saved in the church services this year who continue to attend. We have seen people baptized every Sunday the last five Sundays. Three weeks ago, we baptized Joseph, the son of Sandra, who Karen has been bringing the last couple of months along with Sandra's mother, Guadalupe, who we saw saved. Luna, Keren's daughter, was also baptized. Remember, Karen started coming through the Bible distribution last fall. Two weeks ago, we baptized Darlene, the Haitian diplomat who was reached though the Bible distribution and was saved lately. One of Darlene's co-workers whom she brought out from the embassy also brought out another Haitian friend this Sunday. Another who was baptized with Darlene was Brittany, the granddaughter of Yolanda, the first lady saved and baptized through the mission in Naucalpan. This week we baptized four: Jose Luis, a military doctor who has been attending the last few months with his wife, also a military doctor; Maribel, who has her kids in the Christian school and who wants to join the church; and Alejandro, an administrator at Pemex, the state-owned petroleum company, and Keren, his daughter. Alejandro and his wife, Areli, a lawyer who also works for Pemex, joined the church in the evening. Also joining the church was Adriana, the former Mexican pastor's wife who was living in Columbia and now is reunited with her husband; Lilliana, who was a little girl in the old church I pastored and whose father pastored the church that came out of that old church; and her husband, Javier, a soldier. The previous week, we received seven others as members: Keren, reached through the Bible distribution, and her two children; Franco and Guadalupe, the engineer and nurse, whom I have mentioned were being discipled by Alan and Elizabeth, and who now help on Alan's route bring people to the evening services; and Martha and her daughter, Mia, reached by Martha's co-worker, Carlos Lopez, a longtime member of our church. I can only ascribe all these blessings to your continual prayers for our church. Thank you for your prayers, Clint Rardin
Missionary Update 02/14/2020
Dear Praying Friends, We had another good Sunday with a couple who have been in our church for about three years, Valentin and Lizbet, getting baptized. Darlene, the Haitian diplomat who asked to be baptized last week, contacted me on Saturday to tell me she needed to get saved. After church, one of our ladies talked to her and she accepted Christ. Next week, she will get baptized. She also brought another visitor again - another diplomat of the Haitian embassy. Another lady was also saved on Sunday. Isabela and her husband, Francisco, have been attending the last few weeks. Two ladies who visited and were saved the Sunday before, Lorena y Patricia, returned on Thursday night and this last Sunday. Last Friday, Mari Carmen, who works full-time witnessing to Jews, brought a Jewish lady, Minke, to our RU program. We have had a lot of new students lately and we had almost 50 last Friday if you include the children that accompanied their parents. We have two new students in our Bible Institute this second semester: Paris, a teen who has been coming on our bus for years and graduated from high school last year; and Franco, an engineer who was reached with his wife, Guadalupe, a nurse, through the bus route last summer. Alan, the bus captain and his wife, Elizabeth, have been discipling the couple and Franco and Guadalupe now help bring people from the route for the evening services in their vehicle. I have an illustration I use a lot when I preaching on sowing and reaping in soulwinning about Alberto who came before Sunday School one day about 11 years ago with a suit and tie on and a Bible under his arm.. He said he couldn't stay because he attended another church, but wanted to thank me for coming to his apartment one day and witnessing to him. I honestly didn't remember him, but he said that subsequently he met the niece of two sisters in our church who brought him to her church where he was saved. He married the niece, Daniela, moved to Australia for his work, and regrettably attended a Hillsong church there. I hadn't heard from him since then. Alberto and his wife came to our church a couple of Sundays ago visiting from Australia. We took him and his wife out to eat that afternoon and he told the story how, Praise the Lord! after a spiritual journey of attending an ever increasingly doctrinally sound churches; they settled on a conservative, Independent Baptist church out of conviction and not just convenience. He is very animated and very excited about the things of God and is witnessing to his family here in Mexico trying to reach them for Christ. It was great to know I had a part in his salvation and see him now grown into a mature Christian with a great desire to serve the Lord as a layman in Australia. Thank you for your continued prayers. They are making a difference here in Mexico City. Clint Rardin
Missionary Update 02/10/2020
Dear Praying Friends. We couldn't have a better "normal" Sunday this last Sunday. We had only 105 on the buses, which is only a little over our average; but we had 249 all together, which means 145 drive-in. Among the adults, we had even more than two weeks ago with one short of 190. God keeps on sending us more visitors. Two of them were Patricia and Lorena, who both trusted Christ in the service along with Yasmin, the neighbor of ours whom I had mentioned before who works in intelligence in the Federal Police headquarters behind our house. Mario and Cecilia, an older couple who were saved a couple of weeks ago, continue to attend almost all the services including RU. Luna, the daughter of Keren, reached through the Bible distribution, was baptized this Sunday. Darlene, the Haitian diplomat, also reached through the Bible distribution, brought another lady from Haiti who works in the embassy and her daughter. After church, Darlene asked if she could be baptized as well as Lizbet, who has been coming with her husband the last few years. We'll do that this coming Sunday. Thank you for continuing to pray for us, Clint Rardin
Missionary Update 09/20/2019
Dear Praying Friends, College next fall. She speaks excellent English as she was born and raised mostly in the States. She wants to finish well her last year of high school. That brings our enrollment to 28, which ties our highest enrollment of a couple of years ago. As I said, this week we begin in earnest the Bible distribution. We have already distributed hundreds of Bibles in several neighborhoods. Last Sunday, we had our first fruits of our sowing the Seed as a woman named Regina came from an upper middle-class area where we were knocking doors and distributing Bibles last Saturday morning. Carlos Gamboa, a military engineer who was saved the Sunday morning before our trip to the States, came on Saturday to knock doors with us and came by the church yesterday to get Bibles to distribute and I gave him a street to do. It was a blessing to see Franco and Guadalupe, the couple whom I mentioned last werk that were baptized from the van route, cleaning up after our "Noche Mexicana" celebration Sunday night for the Independence of Mexico. They and Alan and Elizabeth, workers on the van route whom I have mentioned, were the last ones to leave. Thank you for your prayers, Clint Rardin
Missionary Update 05/31/2019
Dear Praying Friends, We had a good close to our campaign this Sunday. We had a promotion more geared toward the children and we had 87 children as opposed to a normal 60 but had 190 adults as opposed to an average 150. This is a good sign that we have seen real growth in attendance among adults as we have seen many new families reached through the campaign both on the routes as well as from the church's neighborhood. It is great to see many new Christians in the crowd. We had a total of 22 adults and teens profess Christ in the services this campaign as well as three receive assurance of their salvation. Our problem again is space. We have 128 seats and had about 175 in the auditorium this Sunday. We have about 50 metal chairs, but we have to put them in the aisles and in the back so there is hardly any walking room. I called about some property right around the corner from our church next to the Walmart about 50 meters from the main highway that goes through Mexico City and just behind a new high-rise apartment building, but from the highway one could see the property through the parking lot of Walmart. With a big sign it would be very visible. It has 10,000 square meters (over twice what we have now, but we can also build several floors.) Please pray that God guide us as we look for bigger property for our church. One another note, the printing has begun of the 125,000 New Testaments that we plan to put into 125,000 homes of our delegation of Miguel Hidalgo here in Mexico City within one year. This is the final realization of something I have dreamed of doing for several years now, In 2014, we put 50,000 John/Romans into 50,000 homes in four months and God blessed our efforts resulting in the growth of the church from 130 to 200 in a matter of months. God blesses when we get the Word out. We are so grateful to Faith Baptist Church of Tacoma, WA and the Bible and Literature Missionary Foundation in Shelby, Tennessee for making this happen. We will need between 5,500 and 8,500 dollars to ship them from Tacoma to the Mexican border. Our church is raising the 2,500 dollars to get it from the border to Mexico City; but we need help with the funds to get them in a tractor trailer to the border. If your church can help out, it would be greatly appreciated. Any checks can be sent to our sending church, Fairhaven Baptist Church, in Chesterton, Indiana and designated for the New Testament Fund where they will be collected until August when the New Testaments planned to be shipped. Many pastors of churches that support us receive this update, but I also know that there are many members of churches that also receive this update. Please do not give without consulting first with your pastor for his approval and that it be given through your local church as I believe that is the Biblical approach. Thank you for your prayers, Clint Rardin Libre de virus. www.avast.com