Vincent Family March 2017 Missions Update

Greetings from Mexico,

In this update, I wanted to share two special stories with you! One good, one bad, both dealing with water! Let’s start with the bad news first. In February our city was hit with a flash flood! Located not to far south of California, when that mega storm hit on Friday February 17th, the eye of that storm came ashore directly over our city of Rosarito!

Within 3 hours we had such a torrential downpour that the entire city was flooded. Roads were closed, a state of emergency was declared, and a few people tragically lost their lives through drowning! Unfortunately, our church facility is located at a low point near a city drain that is designed to empty out the water from the 10,000 residents that live on the hills above our church!

 

As the torrents of water gushed down the hill, our little city drain could not handle the water deluge, and a lake began to gather in our parking lot next to the church! The water level continued to rise for the next two hours until it suddenly overflowed into our church facility! It was a tragically amazing site, as we had no chance to respond. The entire church was under 12 inches or more of water within 5 minutes.

Our sanctuary, children’s ministry rooms, bathrooms, and kitchen all flooded!

 

We had nothing to do but wait and pray for the rain to subside! The next morning, the rains had stopped and we surveyed the devastation! We put out a call for help and over 60 congregants showed up with brooms, mops and shovels in hand!

My first thought was that we were going to be forced to cancel church for the weekend. But so many worked so hard that by the time our Saturday evening service was scheduled to begin, the church was usable! This was an absolute miracle attributed to the grace of God and the hard work of his people! After calculating all of our losses, the permanent damage was minimal!

We had a second event this month that was so beautiful, so touching, that it left most of our church body in tears! I want to tell you the story of a 9 year old boy named Lucio! Lucio, was led to Christ by a missionary from our church and she brings him to church (without any friends or family) every Sunday. After accepting Jesus, Lucio asked his missionary friend if he could be baptized at one of our church’s monthly baptisms!

Because Lucio didn’t have any family present, as he prepared to get baptized I asked any children that were willing to be his friend, to come up and lay hands on him as we prayed for him before he was baptized! About 30 children under 10 ran up and laid hands on him and prayed for him with us! It was amazing to see these children run forward to lay hands on their new friend as he took this public step of faith!

 

Jesus said in Matthew 19:14, “let the little children come to me and do not forbid them, for as such is the Kingdom of heaven!” It is such an honor to see children that profess faith desire by their own will to take the next step of baptism!

 

We want to thank you once again for partnering with our family and ministry! It is through your prayers that God meet’s our spiritual needs, and through your financial giving that God meets our physical needs! We are honored and blessed to partner with you and serve as your missionaries!

 

Con mucho amor de Mexico, (with much love from Mexico)

Mike, Sarah, Grace, and Daniel

Prayer Requests:

#1- Pray for that God will keep the rains away! (We almost flooded again on Monday)

#2- Pray that God will continue to provide for the financial needs of our family personally!

#3- Pray that God will help us purchase our building, as our 5 year lease runs out at the end of the summer!