MISSIONARY PROFILE
Clint
& Rhonda
Rardin
Missionary Update 05/24/2019
Dear Praying Friends, "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us." That has been the memory verse for our adult and teen Sunday school classes the last few weeks and we have seen it demonstrated in our services this campaign and especially this Sunday. Normally Friend Day has almost been an afterthought of our annual spring campaign compared to big days like Kid's Day and Mother's Day when this year we had 419 and 310 respectively, so we thought we'd do good with 260 or 270 with a total bus goal of 130 and hoping to see two or three saved in the auditorium. God poured out his blessings once again with 344! We had 237 adults crammed into our auditorium and in the hallway looking in. We had 203 on the buses. We had many visitors brought by our people. Seven adults walked the aisle to trust Christ including, Karina, a woman who one of our ladies invited in the street in Polanco, where we pass out tracts to the Jewish community and, of course, to gentiles on Tuesdays. Also, saved was Abraham, the grown son of Carlos, who started coming to Reformers with his wife from Tepito and now regularly attends our church. Natan, the Jew who I visit on Tuesdays and invited, came out as well as Ester, another Jew who our church's missionary to the Jews had led to Christ previously. Sara, a woman in our church, brought out Abraham Che Lee, a Korean businessman with whom she does business. Many of those who were saved the last few Sundays continue to attend including Manuel y Yaridalia who live in the apartments behind our church. They even brought visitors out. Joel, a teenager who was the first to be saved in our campaign and has since brought his parents, asked me after the service if he could be baptized next Sunday. Alberto and Gloria are two adults saved off one of our routes a three weeks ago and continue to attend. Alan, who visits them said that when he first visited them, they all kinds of saints and images in their home, but when he visited them this Saturday, the images and saints were gone. Sarai, a daughter of one of the couples in our church, was baptized and in the evening, four people joined the church in our quarterly business meeting including a Mexican pastor of a fundamental Baptist church who has been attending our church several months since he stepped down from the pastorate when his wife returned to Columbia. She has since repented, and he is saving up money to fly there and bring her back. Meanwhile he has quietly attended our church and has been a great example of quiet humility for our people. Two other teens who attend our church and are growing in the Lord asked if they could be received as members next week. God continues to give us new prisoners in our Reformer's program in the prison where several made salvation decisions the last two Saturdays. One prisoner has finished his challenger book and will begin on his transformer book. Thank you for your prayers, Clint Rardin
Missionary Update 05/20/2019
Dear Praying Friends, We took advantage of Mexico's Mother's Day being just two days before last Sunday to tie in another Sunday and call it Family Day. If the kids on the routes had one or both parents come, we'd take a family photo and frame it. We had 125 on the buses, 182 adults, and 254 altogether. We had three people walk the aisle: Magdalena, who hadn't attended our church in years, received assurance of salvation; Michelle, a young teenage who came with her parents on the bus for the first time; and Mónica, a young woman from the apartments near our house who saw our church and was drawn to visit us. I'd say it was God's Spirit that drew her. It has been a great blessing to see so many people come from the 86-building apartment complex just behind church. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Yadalia, a neighbor of one of our couples who live in those apartments, who was saved. I thought I had seen her husband, Miguel, an engineer, go forward in the invitation, and sure enough, a week later somebody gave me his decision card. I plan to visit them this Saturday. They are also interested in putting their kids in our Christian school. With some many new families from our neighborhood, we are truly a becoming, after years of gaining whole families from our routes, a local church again reaching our immediate community. Also from the neighborhood, a new Venezuelan family has been coming the last couple of months. Carlos works in telecommunications in fiber optics. He and his wife, Rossi, have jumped right into our church attending all the services and the RU program as well as going out with us passing out tracts in the Jewish community. The are spiritually mature and have already been a blessing. Please continue to pray for our campaign. We have Friend Day this Sunday. Thank you for your prayers, Clint Rardin
Missionary Update 05/10/2019
Clint Rardin 5/8/19 Mother’s Day Sunday Dear Praying Friends, This last Sunday, we celebrated Mother's Day as it always falls on the 10th day of May no matter the day of the week. The most we ever had on Mother's Day was 276 with 176 adults; so, I assumed we were ready for the day as far as seating. We actually had 312! with 220 adults crammed into the auditorium. The problem is it never entered my mind we'd have that many and didn't order extra chairs as I do on Kid's Day. We used all fifty of the extra metal chairs we have and still had some people standing in the back and in the hallway. What a surprise! Luckily my wife had made 100 gifts for the mothers, so all 98 of them received their gifts. Every route met or surpassed their goals. We also had a great drive-in crowd. Lately, God has given us several new families from the middle-class apartment complex and neighborhood behind our church. We had two adults make professions of faith including Yahir, a teen from one of the routes and Yaridalia, one of the new wives from the apartments I just mentioned. Please pray for the spiritual growth of Joel, a teen that was saved on Resurrection Sunday and continues to attend; Claudia, a military wife from the military base who was saved along with her teenage son, Asiel, last week and returned with her husband this week; Gloria, a woman who was saved last week along with her brother, Alberto, and who both attended again this week; as well as for Dorian, Brother Oscar's cousin who was saved last week, but had to work this week, although his father did come and visit us.. Also continue to pray for our evangelistic campaign as we have three more Sundays including Friend Day on the 19th. Pray for our new prison ministry as we see the prisoners advance in their RU workbooks and for our RU addictions recovery program on Fridays. This last Friday, two new students were brought by Carlos from Tepito, the infamous area in Mexico City's inner city known for its drug use and alcoholism. In the papers, there was a story of a baby found abandoned in a back alley in Tepito. Carlos and Lilia, who live there, believe they know whose baby it is, as a drug addict that they know who denied that she was pregnant, but clearly was; was suddenly not pregnant anymore the day after the baby was found. Continue to pray for safety for us. Our church and home are in a middle-class, relatively safe area, but the other day when some men and I returned from the prison ministry, we passed a slow-moving car as I turned into the church parking lot. As I went into the church building, one of our men heard yelling at the sidewalk in front of the school next door to our church. The car I mentioned had stopped next to a young lady walking on the sidewalk and grabbed her, pulling her into the car. People on the sidewalk tried to help until the man who grabbed her brandished a gun, then the car sped off. Clearly it was a premeditated kidnapping. These are some of the dangers missionaries face on the foreign field for which we need to remember to pray for (II Thes. 3:1,2). Thank you for your prayers, Clint Rardin
Missionary Update 05/10/2019
Dear Praying Friends, This last Sunday, we celebrated Mother's Day as it always falls on the 10th day of May no matter the day of the week. The most we ever had on Mother's Day was 276 with 176 adults; so, I assumed we were ready for the day as far as seating. We actually had 312! with 220 adults crammed into the auditorium. The problem is it never entered my mind we'd have that many and didn't order extra chairs as I do on Kid's Day. We used all fifty of the extra metal chairs we have and still had some people standing in the back and in the hallway. What a surprise! Luckily my wife had made 100 gifts for the mothers, so all 98 of them received their gifts. Every route met or surpassed their goals. We also had a great drive-in crowd. Lately, God has given us several new families from the middle-class apartment complex and neighborhood behind our church. We had two adults make professions of faith including Yahir, a teen from one of the routes and Yaridalia, one of the new wives from the apartments I just mentioned. Please pray for the spiritual growth of Joel, a teen that was saved on Resurrection Sunday and continues to attend; Claudia, a military wife from the military base who was saved along with her teenage son, Asiel, last week and returned with her husband this week; Gloria, a woman who was saved last week along with her brother, Alberto, and who both attended again this week; as well as for Dorian, Brother Oscar's cousin who was saved last week, but had to work this week, although his father did come and visit us.. Also continue to pray for our evangelistic campaign as we have three more Sundays including Friend Day on the 19th. Pray for our new prison ministry as we see the prisoners advance in their RU workbooks and for our RU addictions recovery program on Fridays. This last Friday, two new students were brought by Carlos from Tepito, the infamous area in Mexico City's inner city known for its drug use and alcoholism. In the papers, there was a story of a baby found abandoned in a back alley in Tepito. Carlos and Lilia, who live there, believe they know whose baby it is, as a drug addict that they know who denied that she was pregnant, but clearly was; was suddenly not pregnant anymore the day after the baby was found. Continue to pray for safety for us. Our church and home are in a middle-class, relatively safe area, but the other day when some men and I returned from the prison ministry, we passed a slow-moving car as I turned into the church parking lot. As I went into the church building, one of our men heard yelling at the sidewalk in front of the school next door to our church. The car I mentioned had stopped next to a young lady walking on the sidewalk and grabbed her, pulling her into the car. People on the sidewalk tried to help until the man who grabbed her brandished a gun, then the car sped off. Clearly it was a premeditated kidnapping. These are some of the dangers missionaries face on the foreign field for which we need to remember to pray for (II Thes. 3:1,2). Thank you for your prayers, Clint Rardin
Missionary Update 11/19/2018
Dear Praying Friends, I'd have to say that this fall evangelistic campaign is the most successful evangelistic campaign we've had. I attribute it to God's working in the lives of our people and their spiritual growth and maturity in the last couple of years. I expected and would have been happy if we had average between 240 to 250 in attendance; but every Sunday, it has been far greater than my expectations. This Sunday, 297 were in church for our anniversary. The children's attendance went down to 97, but the adult attendance rose to 200 as many of our people worked hard to get their friends, neighbors, and relatives. We had about 35 in our new teen class that Brother Oscar is teaching. In the adult service, we were packed with 180 in the auditorium and 20 adults and teens working in the classes. We had 22 adult first-time visitors; ten adults came forward at the invitation. Five men (two of them are our neighbors) and four women made a profession of faith and one woman received assurance of salvation. One of the men, Eduardo, a soldier, is the father of a new boy in our Christian school. What is a blessing is to see is four of the seven previous converts of the campaign in church: Sara and Norma of our van route (the route finally passed its goal with 22); Victor, a cousin of one of the women in our church; and Marcelina, a woman from one of the routes who is coming with her husband. . Raul, another convert, didn't come to church as he lives downtown and it's difficult for him to come, but I was told that he asked me to visit him; and Laura, another convert, is married to a soldier who doesn't always let her attend, but she is sending her children. Sara, one of the newly saved, has shown concern for the salvation of her relatives -- a good sign of spiritual growth. Please pray for Sunday's converts as the majority of them live in other parts of Mexico City that are not close to our church but are relative and friends of our people. Please pray as we follow up on the spiritual welfare of the 16 newly born-again adults of this campaign. Thank you for your prayers for our campaign, Clint Rardin
Missionary Update 10/12/2018
Dear Praying Friends, Things have been going great since our return seven weeks ago. This Sunday, we had 219 in church with over 150 adults packing our auditorium and we are not in our fall evangelistic campaign yet. Yareni, the teenage daughter of one of the policemen in our church, was baptized this Sunday. Her older sister, Marina, is in her first year of our Bible Institute. Since our return, I have been teaching in Sunday School about spiritual gifts focusing on the ones that are still valid for the church today. We have many in our church that are now qualified to be workers and have a willingness to work, so much so that we need to open new ministries to give them an opportunity to exercise the gift God has given them. We have 92 members in our church, and I believe God has given every one of them a gift that He wants them to use in ministry. On Sunday night at our Stewardship Banquet, we will be telling our members of new ministries that I believe God wants us to have to reach more people and meet more of the different spiritual needs that Mexico City has. Please pray that God provides economic support for these new ministries though the people of our church. We thankfully have a tract problem. We find ourselves frequently running out of tracts. The last few weeks, we have had to order from our in-country supplier thousands of tracts; and within a couple of weeks, we had to order thousands more. We are already about out and this week I called our supplier and they said that we cleaned them out. We are going to have to print our own until we can get some more from the States. I praise God for a people that love to get out tracts to the lost! Please pray as we begin our four-week fall campaign on the 21st that many souls genuinely trust Christ, are generated, and follow the Lord in baptism and spiritual growth. For His Cause, Clint Rardin
