Name:
Clint Rardin
Age: 54
Spouse:
Rhonda Rardin
Age: 57
Mission Field: Mexico
Years of Service: 28
Home Church: Fairhaven Baptist Church
Chersterton, Indiana
Missions Agency:
,
Our Missionary for 28 years
Dear Praying Friends, We are going to have a wedding on July 22. Oscar, the young man who will do most of the preaching in our absence, will be marrying Nancy, our elementary school teacher. They got engaged last Monday. Oscar is doing a great job as bus captain and has a great testimony at his job as a drywaller. The couple that was saved the Sunday before last were found over a month ago when Oscar was knocking doors on his route. Marcelo and Estela want to continue attending the church and I hope to baptize them soon. Oscar's boss, a saved architect, is so impressed with Oscar that he's offered to help with promotions and groceries for people on the route several times. Our soul winning group on Saturdays is growing. We started out with about four at the beginning of the year and now are up to about a dozen. This doesn't count the ones that visit on the bus routes. The soul winning group is divided; eight are knocking doors on my small van route and four are knocking doors of multi-million dollar homes in the most exclusive part of Mexico City. Mostly we find have maids, gardeners, and security answer those doors; but once in a while we get to talk to the owners. Guadalupe, who was saved in the first area mentioned a few weeks ago, still attends with us almost every Sunday. We were down in attendance this Sunday as people were out of town for a three-day weekend, but the routes still had 80 and the kid's classes had over 50. We still had over 110 adults. It was mostly drive-in that were gone. We took advantage of the three-day weekend to take the teens to climb a volcano 50 miles away on Monday. Seven of the teens that went made it to our goal - the refuge where people stay overnight to climb to the top the next day; but you need equipment to go beyond that point. Still, we made it to 13,800 feet. Thank you for your prayers, Clint Rardin
Dear Praying Friends, The attendance here has been very good; this Sunday we were down among the children with only 53 in spite of a decent day on the routes with 80; but we had 148 adults, the second biggest adult attendance this year. We had metal chairs set up in the back and around the sides of the platform. We hope to buy about fourteen more regular seats and make another row for the auditorium. We are still sad about Danny's passing away and we still miss him. According to his dad, Artemio, his last words were exhorting the doctor to believe in Christ and repent of his sins. What a testimony! This weekend, I was about to preach a message on adultery, but I read John 3 in my devotions, and I was impressed to preach a message on the need to be born again. We have an unsaved couple that had been coming on the route and also a female college student, Allinson, who has been coming with her mother, a retired military nurse who was saved this last fall. The man, Marcelo, and his wife, Estela, raised their hands for salvation and were dealt with. They come from Oscar's route, and he talked to them after they returned home. Estela gave a testimony about how her chronic sickness had her down, but now she has peace in her heart and her burden has been lifted. We received two people into membership this Sunday night. One was Adrian, whose parents were received into membership a few years ago, but were not saved at the time. Lately he has been coming to all the services even when his parents do not, although they moved over an hour away. We is there for Saturday night prayer meetings and soulwinning in the morning. Another received into membership is Honorio, a soldier whose wife joined the church in February, while he was out on an operation against the drug traffic. Pray for Domingo, another soldier who was saved off our route with his wife a couple of years ago. Formerly a counter-intelligence agent in the army, he now is in the regular infantry, but is on a dangerous operation in the north against the drug traffic where he says they are killing 10 -15 of the bad guys every day. It's literally a drug war here in Mexico. This summer, Oscar, one of our Bible Institute students who will be preaching in our absence this fall, is marrying Nancy, our elementary school teacher who grew up on the bus route in the old church. She now is 29 years old and a graduate of our Bible Institute. She will make an excellent wife for Oscar. She's one of the strongest Christians I know in Mexico. Thank you for your prayers, Clint Rardin
Dear Praying Friends, I have some very sad news. Daniel Juarez, one of our preacher boys who studied in the Bible Institute, passed away on Thursday at 23 years old. He went into the hospital yesterday with symptoms of pneumonia. Danny was one of the most spiritual and sincere Christians I have known. Because of his constant battles with his kidneys (he was on dialysis 10 hours a day), he had stared death in the face many times and he knew his time could be short. Because, of this he tried to live life to the fullest and give himself as much to God as he could. Though weak in body, he was strong in spirit and preached with an uncommon sincerity and fervor. He was always witnessing to the lost or exhorting the teens or other other brothers in Christ. Jackson and Daniel were very close and were always talking about spiritual things We are missing him and morning his loss this week. Please pray for his family. His father is a bus captain in our church and has brought many military families to church and to Christ. We held our first funeral service in the church auditorium. Usually, the funerals are held in a funeral home or somebody's home. I knew Danny would want it in the church as he loved being here and was always one of the last to leave. He couldn't get enough of it. The church auditorium was packed and we had to set up many chairs. He had impacted so many lives. In my sermon, I called him the Samuel Morris of Liberty Baptist Church. His aunt, Silvia, came to me after the service to asked to be saved and I was able to lead her to the Lord. Danny's mom had witnessed to her several times. In a second service around midnight at what we would call a wake, I preached a salvation message and a cousin raised her hand for salvation. I witnessed to her after the message. She is a medical student and was very close to Daniel. She told me that he witnessed to her all the time, but even that night she still wasn't ready to be saved. We had a good church attendance last Sunday: Exactly 200, with almost 140 adults. The buses were down, but we had a good drive-in crowd. A lady who has been coming about a month brought her husband, Hugo, a military doctor who is unsaved. After church, Angy, the military doctor in our church, went over to greet him since they both work together in the same hospital. A boy named Rafael was baptized. We was saved in jr. church the week before. His father is an officer in the military as well. The family has been coming since the beginning of January. Thank you for your prayers, Clint Rardin
We had a very good Sunday this last Sunday with 205 in attendance and almost 90 on the routes. We had over 140 adults. A man in our church named Jaime had been dealt with by God about going soul-winning for months, but always there was an obstacle keeping from coming, mostly of his own creation; but the last three weeks he has been coming. This Saturday, he saw his second soul saved and the woman, Guadalupe, came on Sunday. She is now burdened that her grown daughter be saved. On Sunday night, we had our quarterly business meeting and five adults joined the church. Eduardo and his wife are relatives of Ana Maria Contereras who was saved, baptized, and joined the church last year. We got her sister and her husband and two teenage daughters to come and now they are members. Also Antonia, a military wife, was received as a member. Her kids just came into our school this semester. Her husband wants to join the church as well, but is on an operation in another state right now. We continue to have better attendances in our evening services as people are getting serious about growing in grace this year. We just started our second semester in the Bible Institute. We continue Life of Christ and Homeletics. We are also teaching Music & Song leading and Missions preparing our students for our absence this fall. Thank you for your prayers, Clint Rardin
Dear Praying Friends, This Sunday showed that many of the new families of the fall are continuing to attend. We had 218 in church rivaling our campaign attendances (38 over last year's average). What was amazing is that we had an average children's attendance of 63, but an adult attendance of 155 that really packed out the auditorium. We had to set metal chairs around the sides of the platform. We are buying 14 new hymnals and are contemplating buying new seats if the attendance keeps up. What was great to see as well was our Sunday night attendance. Normally on a good night we have 60. We had 93! Our emphasis this year is spiritual growth or Grow in Grace - II Peter 3:18. I have preached the last three Sundays on this subject and will preach on the enemies of spiritual growth this Sunday. This Sunday we also begin in Sunday School a series of studies that will last well past our leaving for furlough on being transformed in the image of Christ which was been the subtitle to this year's emphasis. Please pray for Christian growth in our people this year, especially in the month's prior to our absence. This Sunday, David , a young teenager that has been attending our church off the bus route for almost two year, was saved. Last week his older brother, Paris, was saved. Both have shown natural enthusiasm the last few months for the things of God, memorizing Scripture and dressing in suits in church, but now they will have a spiritual strength that we hope will produce a truly Biblical fervent spirit. Saul is a soldier in our church who has his two boys in our Christian school. His mother died yesterday; but two days prior, he was able to lead her to the Lord. Please pray for him and his boys, Nahum and Baruch. Thank you for your prayers, Clint
Dear Praying Friends, I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving weekend. We had a good Sunday maintaining an attendance of more than 200. We had 69 kids, which is a lot for us. Lucia and Sofia, two retired Army nurses (one who was saved in the campaign) were baptized, as well as Luis, the nineteen-year old son of one of the nurses. Also Alfonso, the brother-in-law of Gabriel, one of our soldiers, was baptized. Gabriel lead him to the Lord earlier in the year. Since we were having baptisms, I taught in Sunday School about baptism. Afterward, Alfonso's teen-age daughter, Marina, asked to be baptized (she was already saved) as well as Irma, a lady that was reached through our VBS this summer. They as well as a young woman and her mother, Jessica and Guadalupe, who made decisions for Christ this campaign, all plan be baptized next week. Thank you for your prayers, Clint
Dear Praying Friends, Thank you for praying for our Anniversary Sunday. We even had more in attendance than last week with 280. Our routes brought in 170. We had 129 children! What I was really excited about was how our people worked to get the lost out to church. We saw five women trust Christ as their Savior. All came from the routes. Some were neighbors of our people whom they had invited. In the evening we had our business meeting and a woman named Rosa; a man named Jaime; and Joselyn, wife of Juan, who was saved and became a member last year, also became a member. Please prayer for the 8 adults that were saved in services this campaign that we may see them baptized, grow, and added to the church. For His Cause, Clint Rardin
Dear Praying Friends, We were pleasantly surprised with a great attendance on Sunday with 261. We had 162 teens and adults in church, so you can imagine how packed our auditorium must have been. We have only had so many adults on three of our Kid's Days (our biggest days of the year.) We had a few first time visitors, but most were an accumulation of a lot of new folks who have been coming the last couple of months and I guess decided to all come at once, We have so many new people coming lately that I still haven't been able to visit and get to know many of them. It was good to see Nicol, whose husband was saved and baptized along with herself last spring campaign, bring out her landlord to church. The routes did really well with 137. We didn't have anyone come forward, but we had a some raise their hand for salvation. We had five children saved in junior church. Three of them are children of parents who were saved in the last couple of years. I visited on Saturday a lady that was saved in our services three weeks ago. Lucia was brought by Sofia, her friend, a month ago. Sofia had been saved in Tennessee just a few months ago and has been attending with us about six weeks. Both Sofia and Lucia are recently retired army nurses: Sofia, a lieutenant colonel and Lucia, a captain. Both plan to be baptized with Sofia's college-aged son, Antonio, this month. Angy, the major and army doctor, who married an army engineer, another major, last December; had her baby yesterday, Just last Saturday, she was visiting kids on our bus route. She and Nancy, our school teacher, saw a mother of one of the bus kids saved during bus visitation. Please pray for our 12th anniversary this Sunday. Thank you for your prayers, Clint Rardin