Greetings from Mexico,
Paul wrote to his young assistant Timothy in 2nd Timothy 2:2 , “ And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” Paul was reminding Timothy that different generations of men and women, should be trained up to disciple and instruct new generations of men and women in a spiritual chain! A long time dream of mine that relates to this process is being fulfilled for the first time this year in 2018, and I wanted to share about it with you in this family update!
When we started our church planting program over 10 years ago, my dream was that those that we sent out would have a heart to also eventually send out their own church planters. Now I know this takes time (We didn’t send out our first planter until 7 years) but this year, 3 of our church plants have plans to plant their own churches!
I got to visit two of these new church plants last month as I took a church planting trip to visit the Mexican state of Sinaloa! (The home and headquarters of the captured notorious drug lord “El Chapo”) We presently have 3 church plants in the state of Sinaloa.
My first stop was to visit my good friend Pastor Hugo Limon and his church plant located in the capital city of Culiacan. Hugo was sent out back in 2015, and he gave me the privilege to preach and we saw 9 professions of faith during their two Sunday services. A special highlight was ordaining 2 of Hugo’s assistant pastors. One of those assistants is planning on being SENT OUT later this year, to plant a church about 30 minutes away there in Culiacan.
Our next destination was a three hour drive away to the beachside city of Mazatlan to visit our church planters Tony and Angela Carranza and their church Maranatha. We had a wonderful time hosting a “basics of the faith” conference at their church, but our focus was traveling to a town called Escuinapa (population 100,000 about an hour away from Mazatlan) to visit Tony’s recent church plant!
Just three months ago, Tony sent out his assistant pastor (Martin Moreno) and family to plant a church in their hometown of Escuinapa. The church is presently meeting in Martin’s home and once again our ministry team taught a “basics of the faith” conference. Of the 18 adults in attendance, we got to baptize 5 of them during their churches very first baptism.
Meanwhile, back at Rosarito I had some friends from our church plant in La Mision (Liberty Ranch, 1 hour south of us, planted back in 2016!) come and visit and speak at our church.
We had one of their assistant pastors share about their plans to plant a church later this summer in the famous Big Wave surfing town of Todos Santos located in South Baja!
By God’s grace our ministry in Rosarito is supporting all three of these next level church plants that are scheduled to begin in 2018! In the language of church planting, these new church plants are not our daughter churches (those we sent out directly) but our GRANDAUGHTER CHURCHES being sent out by our church plants. I feel like a proud old grandpa seeing our church planters grab the vision to plant their own churches!
Seeing this come to pass has been a long time dream of mine, and I am so thankful to the Lord that He has allowed me to see this begin to happen before my own eyes. Ultimately, these church plants and the souls harvested there are your spiritual fruit! I feel very privileged and honored to partner with you in this great work! Thank you for your love, prayers, and financial support!
Con mucho amor de Mexico, (with much love from Mexico)
Mike, Sarah, Grace, and Daniel
Prayer Requests!
#1- That all three of these church plants would be planted and supported in 2018!
#2- That God would provide for the financial needs of our family and church here in Rosarito!
Praise Reports!
#1- Praise the Lord for our first granddaughter church plant in Escuinapa and for the 5 new believers baptized there in March!
#2- Thank you Lord for the privilege and honor of serving Him here with you in the mission field of Mexico!
For our personal support, checks should be made out to Saving Grace World Missions with “Vincent support” in the memo section. For special projects, checks should also be made out to Saving Grace World Missions or SGWM, with the project name in the comments section. Use the enclosed envelope or mail directly to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886-1873
For your convenience, you may consider giving through electronic funds transfer or direct deposit. Simply go to our mission’s website, or insert this web address into your web browser, www.sgwm.com/wp2010/ministries/calvary-chapel-rosarito/ Next, click on the “become a financial partner” button and fill out the information. If you want your gift to go to support our family, please write “Vincent” in the “purpose of gift” section.