Greetings from Mexico,
In this missions update, I am excited to talk to you about some staff changes that we have made at church since the new year! Last year, of the five church plants we sent out, 3 of the pastors were our assistant pastors. When we sent out Pastor Fernando to Las Vegas, we realized we were in dire need of some new Assistant Pastors.
After 4 months of praying, we were excited to ordain 5 new associate Pastors to our Pastoral staff. Each one of these Godly men meets the Biblical requirements of being an elder found in 1st Timothy and Titus. They also have a deep love for God’s people and a long term commitment to our local church. In this update, I wanted to introduce you to our 5 new associate Pastors.
Ted Thayer (right) joined our staff as a missionary from Santa Barbara over 5 years ago. Ted joined us after serving on the wonderful staff of Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara, and he brought many gifts with him. Ted is a gifted worship leader, an amazing electric guitar player, and a fantastic Bible teacher. Ted has led our weekly English men’s Bible study for the past 3 years, and we are excited to have him serving as our Associate Pastor over English Ministries!
Mario De Los Santos and his wife Wendy came to faith in our church, were baptized, and over time, proved themselves as gifted servant leaders. Mario has recently taken over leadership of our New Believers class and ministry and is doing a fantastic job. This past month, we were blessed to baptize 22 people, and every one of these friends was part of our new believers class. We are excited to have Pastor Mario leading our New Believers ministry.
Jorge Blancas came to our church many years ago as a drug-addicted and hopeless man! Eventually, George became an intern and worked his way up to a staff position. Over that time, George also married a young lady from the church and had a couple of daughters. Last month we were honored and blessed to ordain my good friend George as our new Associate Pastor over facilities and security!
I often call my friend Francisco Ahumada the nicest man in the church. If you have visited our church, no doubt you have been greeted by him as he leads our friendly welcome ministry! Last year, we were blessed as Francisco married our director of Celebrate Recovery Cheryl! It was an honor to ordain this Godly man as our new associate pastor over the welcome ministry and celebrate recovery!
Mario Medrano has been a missionary attending our church for over 10 years now. After graduating from our church planting program, Mario was sent out to plant a church in La Paz. After 4 years of faithful ministry there, Mario moved back to Rosarito to help me head up our church planting program. Mario is my travel buddy as we travel around Mexico together visiting and ministering to our church plants! It was a great honor to ordain Mario as our new Associate Pastor of Church Planting!
It blesses me to share the stories of these five men with you, because each one is a partner with you in our ministry here in Mexico! Thanks again 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 God would bless our five new associate Pastors who have joined our church staff!
#2- That God would continue to provide for the needs of our family and church in Rosarito!
Praise Reports!
#1- Praise God for our newest church plant in February, CCOtay Mesa in East Tijuana!
#2- Praise God that we were able to travel to Mazatlan to host a church planting conference, and join them as they planted a new church! (Calvary Mazatlan East)
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 click on this link to directly support our family as your missionaries. https://www.egsnetwork.com/gift2/?giftid=DFA990CC09D942B
Or, you can go to our mission’s website, click on the “become a financial partner” button and fill out the information. Please remember to type in “Vincent” in the “purpose of gift” section.