Greetings from Mexico. In March, I got to travel to Mazatlan to help send out our first church plant to the South American Country of Venezuela! In this update, I am excited to tell you all about it!
Our church was blessed to send out my good friend (and former Calvary Rosarito assistant Pastor) Tony Carranza and his team to plant a church in Mazatlan back in 2016! In just 9 years they have planted six churches. The great news is that in March, they sent out their seventh.
Venezuela is one of the poorest countries in South American which has resulted in a flood of their citizens fleeing the country to the neighboring countries of Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. Although Venezuela is governed by an authoritarian Socialistic government, they are open to Mexicans coming to work. Thankfully, this Latin American country also practices freedom of religion. It is in this poor country that God has called us to plant our next (2ndgeneration) church plant.
I met Pastor Raul Favela and his family three years ago at the church in Mazatlan at one of their yearly church planting conferences. Raul along with his wife and adult daughter completed the church planting course with excellence, and while they were studying, God placed it on their heart to plant a church in Venezuela. At our conference in March, we got to ordain and send out Raul and his family to do this great church planting work.
The theme of this year’s conference was “The Movement of the Holy Spirit in Church Planting” and each one of the eight main sessions related to this powerful theme. The title of my sermon was “The Holy Spirit leading the Apostle Paul!” This topic I was assigned gave me a great opportunity to do a new Bible study, because although I have taught many sermons on church planting, I had never focused on this aspect of Paul’s church planting journeys!
The conference was a blessing and well attended with over 200 in attendance. But the highlight for all was definitely sending out Pastor Raul and his family to plant the church “Maranatha Caracas!” (Caracas is the capital of this country with over 3 million inhabitants.) After the conference, I got to join them for their Sending Sunday where their local church joined us to send out their mission’s team. This is our most recent 2nd generation church plant, and it is special as this is the first 2nd generation church plant that has been planted in a foreign country by one of our church plants.
The final words of Jesus to the church in Acts 1:8 were, “You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth!” It is always challenging to plant churches in other countries and continents, but this is exactly what our Lord Jesus has asked us to do. We thank the Lord for the blessed opportunity to reach not only our city and country, but the rest of the world as well!
Finally, I want to once again thank you for your partnership with our family and ministry. It is through your prayers that God meet’s our spiritual needs, and it is through your financial partnership, that God meet’s our physical needs. We love you and are praying for you!
Con mucho amor de Mexico, (with much love from Mexico)
Mike, Sarah, Grace, and Daniel
Prayer Requests!
#1- Pray that God will bless our newest 2nd generation church plant in Caracas Venezuela!
#2- Pray that God will bless our church’s Easter community outreaches and events.
Praise Reports!
#1- Praise God for the blessing of planting a new church in a capital city of South America. (Caracas Venezuela)
#2- Praise God for Grace and Daniel’s full time jobs in San Diego.
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.