Greetings from Mexico,
This month our church got to send out another church plant, and this one was not only very special, but it really hit home for me and our church family!
I met my good friend Fernando Serrano, over 10 years ago when he and his family joined our church here in Rosarito! After seeing Fernando serve and seeing his spiritual gifting’s, I offered Fernando a full time position on our church staff as an assistant Pastor.
Over the past 10 years, Fernando has served our church family in a wide variety of ministries that I would like to share with you. First off, Fernando started up our young adults group we call “Agamos”, (ages 18 to 30) that averages nearly 100 young adults at their weekly meetings. Next, Fernando transformed our once struggling Spanish men’s study, “hombres de fe” (men of faith) and transformed it into a large thriving weekly hub for men to grow spiritually. Fernando, also has been the director of our ever important church counseling program.
Besides all that, Fernando served as one of my key right hand men, and one of my main translators for our church’s bilingual services. About 6 months ago, Fernando approached me and told me that he believed that God was calling him and his family to plant a bilingual church in Las Vegas Nevada. You can imagine my shock and surprise as I didn’t see this coming. But as I prayed and considered the pain it would cost our local church body to lose him, God reminded me of the early church located in the city of Antioch.
Acts Chapter 13 tells us that two men named Saul (later Paul the Apostle) and Barnabas were leaders in the local church located in the city of Antioch. We can be sure that the gifted Apostle was the favorite Bible teacher of that congregation, yet God was calling Paul and Barnabas to leave their friends and family and church to travel around the Roman Empire to preach the Gospel and plant churches. I can imagine the difficulty that church faced in this decision, yet they were willing to allow their best to depart, and they sent Paul and Barnabas out on their first missionary journey!
This past weekend, we had our sending services dedicated to hear from and send out our dear friends Fernando, his wife Liliana, and their children. There were many tears as we said our goodbyes and sent them out. Yet my firm believe in God’s heart to church plant has filled my heart with joy for the privilege and honor of sending out this family to complete the work that God has called them to do.
In October, I was blessed to travel with Fernando to Las Vegas on our church planting vision tour. We spent a lot of our time in North Las Vegas (the area of this future church plant, over 50% Hispanic) to seek the Lord. God spoke to us clearly through His word, and through prayer, and through His Spirit. We are believing that God is going to do great things through this bilingual church.
Fernando is not only one of my best friends, but we were often roomates as we got to travel around Mexico to visit our church planters. Our wives are also great friends, and our kids (who are the same age) are too! To be honest, it hurts to send out your best servants, but because we believe that this is God’s plan, we are happy to do it. Would you please keep Las Vegas Bilingual Church in your prayers, and if you have friends or family living in Vegas, please pass on the word about this new church coming soon to transform sin city!
Finally, I want to thank you once again for partnering with us here in the ministry! It is through your prayers that God meets our spiritual needs, and through your financial giving that God provides for our physical needs. We are honored and blessed to serve the Lord as your missionaries here in the ripe fields of Mexico!
Con mucho amor de Mexico, (with much love from Mexico)
Mike, Sarah, Grace, and Daniel
Prayer Requests!
#1- That God would continue to bless the preparation of our newest church plant, Las Vegas Bilingual Church and the Serrano family!
#2- That God would continue to provide for the needs of our family and church in Rosarito!
Praise Reports!
#1- Praise God last month for a blessed church planting vision tour to Las Vegas!
#2- Praise God for the 20 new believers we got to baptize in our October Baptisms!
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.