Today, our home office notified us that we have $946 in our account for the trip to Austria this summer. That was a HUGE surprise. Thanks to whomever it is that has donated. Before today, we had only heard from one person who wanted to help us attend this important strategy meeting.
Speaking of finances, I’m praying for God to provide this weekend for Oscar and Huberto to be able to attend the leadership workshop in Villahermosa this coming week. They are supposed to be presenting, and the bus fare there and back is going to be around $200 total for both of them. If you want to help with this need, leave a comment, and I’ll get back to you about it. Thanks.
There’s a group coming in a week from Florida to minister here in Mexico City. They are bringing a karate and stunt team. The plan is that they go around with a karate and stunt exhibition to draw a crowd and then share the gospel. It’s some good stuff, but we’ve been having trouble finding some of the stuff they need.
See the mat they are standing on in the picture? Well, it turns out that they cost a lot of money to buy here in Mexico, and it is difficult to bring them with you on the plane (they don’t fit in the overhead compartment). So, we’re looking for places to rent them. We have some leads, but would appreciate prayer so we can find them here. We don’t want any broken ankles.
We had a good picture taken of us at Xochimilco a few weeks ago, so we made it into a prayer card. We had them printed today, and they’ll be in the mail to our newsletter mailing list soon. If you’re not on the list but want to be, let us know.
Today, I spoke at MCCA chapel early in the morning. Then, I went to the seminary for a little while, and later, we went to Rene and his wife’s house for lunch. Huberto went with us, and we had a good time with them. Rene has been a good friend, and he drives the bus for all of our groups. He’ll be driving for us when the group comes in March, too.
So far, here are some tentative ministry travel opportunities this year (Click the date to read a preview of the trip):
- May 5-7: Leadership Workshop in Guadalajara with the National Baptist Youth Union
- June 2-17: Classes in Cuba
- June 19-30: Seminary classes in Columbia, SC
- July 22-29: International YMI Summit in Salzburg, Austria
- August 4-6: Latin American Youth Specialties Youth Workers Convention in Guatemala
- September 15-17: Leadership Workshop in Taumalipas with the National Baptist Youth Union
- September 26-28: Latin Summit in Quito, Ecuador
This is a huge list of opportunities, all of which are extremely important. I’ll explain each one of them and their importance later. The important thing is that you begin praying for these opportunities. We really need to be present at each one of them, but we are waiting on God to tell us which ones are going to no longer be tentative.
The real issues are finances and timing. If we are able to raise enough funds to pay for all of these trips, we will work our schedules around them. That is how important they are to the ministry here in Latin America. If you want to contribute to the trips, please contact me.
I have purposely left off a few other opportunities because I see these as necessary. The others would just be beneficial, but they are not necessary. There is such a need to network and recruit here. Please pray for us as we need wisdom to manage our time given the many opportunities that there are.
Tomorrow night, young people all over the world will be praying all night for the 2.1 billion other young people in the world, most of whom have never heard about Jesus. Read the article here.
Janell has been feeling the baby for quite some time now. Everytime she says, “The baby is moving, maybe you can see my belly move,” I look. I hadn’t seen anything until yesterday afternoon. I put my hand on her belly and felt the kicking, and then I watched and saw him kick. It was awesome! I am so excited to share that with Janell and him. We are so excited for his arrival. Please keep praying for the pregnancy. Thanks!
