August 2020 Update

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God,

1 Corinthians 2:12

It’s wonderful that we can know the things God has freely given us! It’s also wonderful that we can teach people these truths and understanding truth changes lives! Despite lately all of us all being held up in our homes and being stuck behind masks, God is working in amazing ways and unveiling his glorious truths in Jesus Christ to people all over the world.

We’ve been so blessed since arriving to Windsor. The Grace and Truth church we attend is a place we have found good, clear teaching is also very missions minded. We have truly been loved on and encouraged. The school (Maranatha Christian Academy) where Rachel attended last year (and now Josh as well) will be teaching on site despite difficulties so that is great. We are so thankful to the Lord that He brought us to this place. God surely knows what He’s doing!

JG’s visit…short (very) but sweet!

Jg’s visit was just long enough to get a couple of pictures (above is in front of our church in Windsor) in and then he was back on the road since he had to get back to work. It was great to see him though and catch up for a bit.

Our new home – “The Company House”

While the Scriptures tell us we’ve already been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places with Christ, God in His mercy has consistently shown his faithful provision to us through the years in amazing, visible, palpable ways! The story of how God worked to provide us a home this past month is something we love to share with others so please just let us know if you’d like to know more (it’s too long to share properly here). We’ve decided the house being so special has to have a name and so “The Company House” seemed very fitting since it was a dear brother from our assembly who purchased the house for us with his company and has made it so the installments are accessible for us! The name is also appropriate since we love having company over. Our desire is that this material blessing God has bestowed on us might be a blessing to many more. Soon we hope to be having our church college and career group over!

Ministry

There’s never been a better time than now to be online. Our ministry is fortunate to be adaptable for online connection and training has gone forward despite not physically being able to be with people. It’s not quite the same but also effective. As Nelly takes on the ministry challenges of home with Rachel and Josh and the care of her mother (abuelita), I am able to continue ministry ‘as usual’.

Pastor Andres

A while back you may remember me sharing about meeting pastor Andres in Madrid. We first connected over the internet and so while I was there for a quick visit we met up for a few hours to discuss possible discipleship opportunities. He was very open to the idea and even though we had made plans of doing a workshop there in July and was canceled for obvious reasons, we’ve been able to connect with several people from the church there via Zoom. So far, by God’s grace, we’ve been able to go through Romans (1-8 & 9-16) and are now doing the book of Galatians every Tuesday and Thursday. Along with these Spaniards there are some connected from Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela and of course, Bolivia. We seem to have a steady group of about 25. We pray each individual person will continue in the training in the preparation of the Gospel and teach others also.

Sucre Youth

For quite some time I have been teaching a small group of young people in Sucre, Bolivia via Zoom each Monday and Tuesday. Currently we are going through the book of Daniel. We have great hopes for these 4 young people (Alvaro, Celestina, Carina and Johnny) for the near future. They have already begun teaching others themselves! Johnny for instance, is teaching the DM2 Gospel of John to his youth group.

Tarija/Argentina group

One of the unique ministry opportunities and challenges I have had in the past months has been to teach a series on the covenants. This required me to gather and prepare the material since DM2 does not have anything specific on this topic. What a great learning experience it has been for me to have to go through the whole process of creating the material from Scripture and preparing student manuals plus the power points to present it. This material is being reviewed right now and may become curriculum for DM2 to use. In any case, I have finished teaching the covenants and have been asked to continue teaching the book of Acts every Friday evening which will probably take about one year and a half.

Thanks once again to you all for standing with us as we take tiny steps forward by faith in God’s calling for us! We appreciate you all so much!

We also love hearing from you all so don’t hesitate to contact us and fill us in with what is going on in your lives.

Grace!

John, Nelly, JG, Rachel and Josh (and abuelita)