Every year, my mother plans, organizes, pays for and prepares for a Christmas Banquet, held at an elegant banquet hall, especially for the high society ladies in our town. Over the 38 years she has lived here, she has met the wives of very prominent men, and the Lord has given her a special burden for these ladies. Though she has witnessed to them and invited them to church, few of them have responded.
About 12 years ago, Mom decided to do a Christmas Banquet in November and invite these high society women to attend. These ladies did respond to this invitation. Every year since then, she has prepared this Banquet and it has grown. Every year, she invites and honors the present town Mayor's wife, as well as any former Mayors' wives she may know or hear of. Mom has given a Bible to each of these ladies. This year we have invited the Governor's wife, as well as the wives of the mayors in surrounding towns and villages.
Our Banquet this year will be on November 19, at 4:00 p.m. My brother, David, will be the special speaker. I ask that you please pray for this big event. Please mark this date on your calendar, and be praying for us!
God has given Mom a special burden for these high-society ladies; and He has also given her a special gift at being able to reach out to these ladies. Please pray that God would give her the strength and continued vision to continue to reach these ladies with the Gospel.
At this banquet, we will be celebrating Mom's 50th year in Mexico. When she was 16 years old, in November, 1960, she arrived with her parents and three younger brothers in Monterrey, Mexico. She helped her father in the ministry there until she married my Dad, and then served as his wife for 34 years, until God called him Home. Mom has remained faithful in her ministry to ladies and children in the church here in Chiapas.
To God be the glory for what He has done in her life.
The Ashcraft Family in 1960
I want to take this opportunity to say that I am so thankful for the mother God gave to me. She has been a testimony and an example to me of faithfulness. I count it a privilege to be able to help her plan and prepare for these banquets. I learn from her every day...her determination even in times of discouragement and other things the devil throws her way.
My beautiful mother, at a ladies' meeting in May, 2010
Below is a list of the ladies who have been (or will be) invited to attend this year's banquet. Would you take time every day to pray for these ladies?
Idalia García de Díaz (present Mayor's Wife)
Gabriela Pastrana Barrios de Hernández
Ana Marcela Zazueta Hernández de Morales
Marisol Sandoval de Lobato
Emilia Setzer Marselle de Ochoa
Magdalena Ramos de Ruiz
Mercedes Cerdio de Gutiérrez
Isabel Consuelo Ochoa de Sarmiento
Marta Mandujano de Ramos
Beatriz Mandujano de Aguilar
María Virginia Castellanos Martínez
Leticia del Cármen López Rodríguez
Victoria María Olvera Rojas
Brenda Susana Moreno Valdez
Verónica Gómez Montero
María Isabel Aguilera de Sabines (Governor's Wife)
Patricia del Cármen Sánchez López
Cecilia Flores
Delia Nery Pavón Hernández
Guadalupe Ruiz Narvaez
--Only eternity will tell how the Lord worked through these annual banquets. Please pray that the Lord will bring each of these ladies to the banquet and that the Holy Spirit will work through the Word that will be preached that night.--
