Greetings from Mexico,
I think that all of us have had way more than our share of BAD NEWS recently, so in this missions update, I wanted to share some GOOD NEWS with you! At the end of April, we were able to send out our newest church plant, and I want to tell you all about it!
I first met my friend Martin Ramirez and his wife and children about 3 years ago when they began attending our church after suffering through a difficult experience at a former church. After sitting for a season, they began faithfully serving with excellence in our children’s ministry!
Eventually a couple of Martin’s friends also joined up with our church and they all began to serve together. I learned later that all of them lived in an adjoining community called La Gloria. La Gloria is a small town of about 20,000 people located between Rosarito and Tijuana, and is about a 20 minute drive to our church.
As I got to know Martin, he shared with me his life-long desire to serve in the ministry but he had never had the opportunity to be trained up. I asked him to pray about joining up with our 2 year church planting program. Martin excelled in this course, and eventually, two of his friends joined up in the class, and they did well too!
Over a year ago, I asked Martin to start a home fellowship bible study in his home in La Gloria, which is one of our first steps to church plant. When I visited their church plant, I was pleasantly surprised to see 30 teens and adults packed into a small home listening to Martin’s Bible study! In fact, the room was so stuffed, that I had to sit on the floor.
As I watched Martin teach, God placed it on my heart that it was time that they move out and rent a local storefront. Their first step of faith, was a very small rental that could hold 25 seats. After outgrowing that small room, they took another step of faith and rented a larger one double that size. In the final meeting before the corona virus hit, they had 60 adults attend their Sunday afternoon meeting!
Just last Wednesday (April 29) , I had the opportunity to ordain Martin as the new Senior Pastor of this church plant, Calvary Chapel La Gloria! Even though the service was online (due to the quarantine) we were able to celebrate and rejoice in the great work that God has done and we are asking our Almighty God to do even greater things! As I watched Martin preach from our church pulpit, God reminded me that the attacks of the enemy and even pandemics cannot and will not stop the work of God!
I was also reminded that all of our ministry is a team effort including this church plant! We could never have planted this church (or the 23 before it) without the faithful prayers and financial support of you, our precious ministry partners! As Paul the Apostle wrote about his ministry in 1st Corinthians 3:6 “I planted, Apollos watered, AND GOD gave the increase” I want to thank you once again for your prayers and financial giving, we are honored and blessed to serve the Lord as your missionaries here in Mexico!
Con mucho amor de Mexico, (with much love from Mexico)
Mike, Sarah, Grace, and Daniel
Prayer Requests!
#1- That God would keep our family, church, city, nation, and world safe in this corona virus, and deliver us!
#2- That God would bless our new church plant, Calvary Chapel La Gloria!
Praise Reports!
#1- Praise God for the great response to our improving online services! We have had thousands of views, and many first time professions of faith!
#2- Praise God that God’s people are continuing to give financially so we can keep our church staff employed, and continue to support our church planters!
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.