Greetings from Mexico,
In this update I wanted to tell you an amazing story (or three) about some Godly young friends of mine and the amazing calling that God has placed on their lives! This young couple is going to be our next church planters and in this update I wanted to tell you all about their stories!
Brian De La Cruz and his family joined our church when Brian was only 9 years old when they arrived from Puebla Mexico! Brian grew up at our church, and began serving at a young age! Eventually, when his family decided to move back to South Mexico for economic reasons, we asked the family if our staff could adopt and raise Brian at the church! After the parents said yes, we moved Bryan into our church’s intern apartment (at our old building) and we happily received the youngest church intern in church history at only 16 years old.
We paid for Brian’s next three years of high school, while he served at the church in the evenings. During that time, Brian was trained up in the ministry, completed the early version of our church planting school, and became one of our church’s worship leaders.
During those same years we had a new missionary family move into Rosarito from Wisconsin named the Struska’s. While they were serving full time at another ministry, this family quickly found a home at our church and they were great servants. This family of four joined us with a 10 year old daughter (Brittany) and a 7 year old son (Will). Their children became friends with our children and the other missionary kids on staff, while the parents quickly became some of our most trusted servants. They eventually joined our full time staff as well.
Eventually Brian and Brittany met in the youth group at church, and struck up a friendship that eventually blossomed into love! Shortly after that, these two faithful young believers were married and began serving the Lord together.
When the opportunity arrived to be an assistant Pastor at one of our new local church plants, Brian and Brittany stepped out in faith and served there on full time staff for a number of years. During that time, they also had two children. But it was during that time, that God began to stir Brian and Brittany’s heart for church planting.
They also heard an opportunity from our church planter in Culiacan (Hugo Limon), that someone had donated a large piece of land for a church plant in a city called Calculalpan. (Located about an hour from Mexico City in the state of Tlaxcala) Last year, Brian and Brittany went on a church planting vision tour of this city with Hugo, where God confirmed that He was calling them to church plant there!
It was at that time, that Brian and Brittany resigned from their ministries at the church plant to come back home to Calvary Rosarito to spend a year training up with us, serving on staff, and re-taking the church planting course! Just last week, I was able to sit and have lunch with them and hear about the great calling that God has placed on their lives.
Mexico City (and its surrounding areas) is the 2nd largest city in the world, and this is the first church plant we will have planted in that area! I am planning to visit this area with them in the next few months for my own church planting vision tour, and then we are planning on having their sending service at our church in December. Shortly after that, the DeLaCruz family will leave everything behind and move to begin this venture of faith.
Seeing Brian and Brittany talk excitedly about their church planting vision with their two young children in tow, reminded me of Sarah and I and our church planting move here to Mexico over 20 years ago! I believe that God has a great calling on this couple, and I can’t wait to see what God is going to do through this, our 35th church plant! Please keep them in your prayers.
Finally, I want to thank you for choosing to partner with us and support our family as your missionaries! It is through your prayers that God meet’s our spiritual needs, and through your financial partnership, that God meet’s our physical needs. We thank God for you and love you!
Con mucho amor de Mexico, (with much love from Mexico)
Mike, Sarah, Grace, and Daniel
Prayer Requests!
#1- That God would bless Brian and Brittany as they prepare to move and church plant in December.
#2- That God would help Sarah and I as we recently moved her father Ted down to live with us here in Mexico.
Praise Reports!
#1- Praise God for the 50+ students we have enrolled in this semester’s church planting classes.
#2- Praise God for a blessed visit in September to our church plant in the state of Chihuahua!
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.