Greetings from Mexico,
We hope that you and yours had a blessed Christmas and a fantastic New Year! Our family was busy with ministry here in Mexico over the holidays, but we were thankful to receive a Christmas visit from my parents Mark and Diane!
As the clock once more turns forward to the New Year of 2018, I am once again reminded of the importance of having vision from the Lord! New Years is that famous time of vision for everyone, and that is why we all have tried to keep our New Years Resolutions. I often joke that the only two New Year resolutions that I can keep are #1- to eat more, and #2- to exercise less. But vision is important!
The Bible describes the importance of vision in Proverbs 29:18 by saying, “without vision the people perish!” As our family and ministry leaders here have been praying for vision, we are excited for what the future holds, and we wanted to share some of our family and ministry vision with you for 2018.
First off, we are so thankful for our family! Our vision for the next year is to continue working on maintaining a strong marriage and keeping our children on track to love God and stay involved in the church. As they edge towards completing high school, we are blessed that Grace and Daniel continue to excel in their homeschool studies, and have many fun and Godly friendships through their friends at the church. We also are planning on taking a family missions trip together to visit one of our church plants in 2018, so please keep that in your prayers!
On the church side of things our vision is to continue focusing on our new believers and our new believers program that we began last year! One of the strengths of our local church is the many professions of faith that we have been blessed to see over the years! (We witnessed nearly 500 first time professions of faith in 2017) But the difficulty is always plugging these believers in and discipling them. To help us do this, we are going to continue to focus on our 4 week New Believers class that teaches these young believers the basics of the Christian faith!
In 2018 we also plan on continuing on with the church planting vision that God has given us! As the New Year rolls around we are preparing to send out a team (led by one of our assistant pastors and an intern) to plant a new church in Monterrey Mexico. (The 3rd largest city in Mexico, south of Texas) God has also given us the vision to begin a church in the Rosarito dump where many people live. Please pray that our weekly Bible study/feeding program there in the dump can transition into a church in 2018!
God has given us this vision to focus on church planting, and we feel very excited as many of our church plants have developed this same vision to raise up and send out church planters. In this next year, 2 of our church plants have plans to send out their own church plants. This is truly the next step in church planting and where the spiritual fruit and harvest of souls can truly multiply through these future third generation church plants. And don’t forget, as our partners in the ministry, all of the spiritual harvest and fruit from these church plants also belongs to you in your heavenly account. So THANK YOU!
Once again, we are so honored and blessed that you have chosen to support us and partner with us as your missionaries over the years. It is through your financial support that God provides for our physical needs, and through your prayers that God provides for our spiritual needs. We love you!
Con mucho amor de Mexico, (with much love from Mexico)
Mike, Sarah, Grace, and Daniel
Prayer Requests!
#1- That God would strengthen our marriage and children as we continue to focus on those priorities in our vision for 2018!
#2- That we would do the best job possible of plugging in and discipling those that make first time professions of faith at the church.
#3- That God would bless our 19th church plant being sent out in January 2018 to Monterrey 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.
