The Brechtels Serving in Mexico

Apr 10th Exciting News!!!

We have some exciting things going on that we’d like to share with you.  Just a little background to catch everyone up  on what we’re doing in Rosarito.  We are serving as missionary staff at Calvary Chapel Rosarito.  We are also in the church planting program and things are going really well.  We came here to not only learn, but more importantly to build a team to go to Oaxaca with us in late December.

Here’s our exciting news:  we have our first team member who will be going with us to serve as a translator and ministry partner.  We are spending time getting to know him and already love him.  Praise the Lord for Armando and his heart to serve the Lord.

Another exciting thing is that we have a church planting vision tour scheduled for October.  We will be joined by Pastor Mike Vincent, Tim Pappas from SGWM, and Armando, and possibly some others.  How exciting is all of this?  The Lord is moving on this future church plant and we are enjoying watching His hand on all of the steps, past and present.  We know He has great plans for the people of Oaxaca and we’re honored to be a tiny part of it.

Other than that, things are going really well.  We have had some scares with Jonny this past week with an allergic reaction. Thank you to all who have prayed and please continue to pray as he is still having some issues.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

• Compete healing of Jonny and Jon’s stomach problems
• We are sharing an update with the church on April 25th.  Please pray that we (Jon) would share all that the Lord is doing to prepare us for Oaxaca, and if there’s someone listening that feels a stirring to go, that they would let us know.
• Pray for a worship leader who might be called to go with us
• That we would focus on our Spanish and practicing as much as possible
• Financial provision

PRAISE REPORTS:

• we are continuing to get more and more settled and building relationships
• we have our first team member for Oaxaca
• we’ve had more and more opportunities to push ourselves into having conversations in Spanish and have come across so many people who are patient with us and excited to teach us when we try

Thank you all for taking the time to read us and keep in touch with what’s going on in our lives.  We are so grateful for all of the prayers and support from you.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor.  For if they fall, one will lift up his companion.  But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up.

#teamoaxaca

Jon, Allison, Jonny, Noah

Mar 8th Getting Settled

We were so blessed by the missions night at Calvary Chapel San Juan and the outpouring of love and support.

Our new street! Home for the next 10 months

Our first visitors!

Hi from Mexico!!! We found a house to rent (that’s FURNISHED!) and are getting settled in down here. The neighborhood is really nice and seems super safe. It’s even guarded at the gate by actual police officers. The boys have made two new friends in the neighborhood, and they’re over right now playing video games and laser tag. We are getting into a good routine with homeschooling and normal bedtimes. Haha!

The Missions Night at CCSJC was a HUGE blessing! Thank you to everyone who came to hear what the Lord is doing in our lives and for all of the prayers and support. We were literally blown away by the love we felt.

This past weekend we were able to head to Calvary Chapel Tijuana and serve with CCSJC at the dinner for the chaplain program and local officers. Such a fun day spending time with our home church family. We even had our first visitors and overnight guests. Being away from our family and friends can be hard sometimes and having visitors is a special treat.

We are meeting tonight to find out which ministry/ministries we will be serving in so please keep us in prayer, that we’ll be a blessing and put our whole hearts into serving the Lord wherever He wants to use us. We are getting to know more people at the church and starting to make some awesome friendships. We are also taking a class with the boys on Sundays called the Pillars Class. We had our first class on Sunday and it was such a blessing to have Jonny and Noah (and Hanna) with us.

We are looking forward to what the next 10 months will hold and are so excited to build “Team Oaxaca”! And we’re really excited for the upcoming wedding of our oldest son and his amazing fiancee! It’s still a few months away but we are so excited.

PRAYER REQUEST:

• That we would continue to get settled in our new home and build strong relationships
• That we’ll stay faithful every day to this calling and the responsibilities that we have
• Financial provision

PRAISE REPORTS:

• Our time serving with CCSJC was such a blessing
• The boys are making friends in the neighborhood and with church friends
• That we were able to rent this house that is fully furnished
• We got approved on the Mexico side for our visas…just found out today (March 7)

Thank you to all of you who keep us in prayer and support us. We are so blessed to call you all our friends and family. We pray you all are blessed by the Lord and if you ever have a prayer request, please send it our way.  Love you all!

Jon, Allison, Jonny, Noah

Feb 6th Heading Back to Mexico!

Proverbs 16:9…A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.

Over the last few weeks, more and more people we know have quoted this verse for things going on in their lives.  Maybe we’ve heard this verse often but didn’t really pay attention like we have recently.  That’s because the Lord was preparing us for HIS steps.

As it turns out, the road to Oaxaca is not a straight road for us.  At the end of January we took a vision trip with SGWM to Capilla Calvario Rosarito.  We met with Pastor Mike Vincent and the more time we spent with him, it became more evident that God’s hand was in this meeting.  We weren’t prepared for that.  Haha!  CCRosarito has planted 19 churches in Mexico already and they have invited us to spend a short season with them to help us raise up a team for our church plant in Oaxaca.  Raising a team is going to be a vital part of planting a church so that it won’t be just us, alone.  While we are raising up a team, they have invited us to be missionary staff, where we will serve in various ministries.  Some of the ministries are the dump ministry and helping at orphanages.  We will also be attending their church planting class that is once a week.

We are excited for the Lord’s plans in our lives as we continue to prepare for our return to Oaxaca.  We will be having a Missions Night Potluck and Calvary Chapel San Juan Capistrano on February 18th at 5:30.  We will be sharing more about all that’s going on and answering questions anyone might have.  We would love to see you all there.

We will be moving to Rosarito as soon as we can find a safe place to live and are able to raise enough monthly support.  Please pray that this will be a smooth transition for Jonny and Noah (and us).  We’ve been so blessed to be in California with family and friends for a few months.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support as we follow the Lord’s guidance and calling on our lives.  We love you all and are so grateful for each of you.

Jon, Allison, Jonny, Noah Brechtel

Nov 6th Terminamos La Escuela de Español!!! We finished!

Hi family and friends!  We did it!!!  We graduated from Roca Blanca Spanish School on October 20.  What a crazy ride that was…filled with ups and downs, good and bad, trials and triumphs.  But what an experience for us to learn to lean more on the Lord through all of those times.  Even more so, what a PRIVILEGE to be called by the Lord to serve Him.  Machaela finished strong in Level 1, and Jon and I really got into a great routine as we finished Level 4.

In October, Jon was able to go to the Pastors and Leaders Conference at Calvary Chapel Tijuana.  He had a time of being refreshed and spending time with two of our pastors, along with old and new friends who serve all over Mexico.  While he was away, the Spanish school went on a one day mission trip to San Martin.  Machaela, Jonny, Noah, and I were able to go and it was such a blessing to be a small part of that day, while the clinic offered free medical consultations and medicine for those in need in that town.

During our final weeks in Cacalote, we were able to spend time with the friends we had made while living there.  The Lord really blessed us with some amazing friendships that really grew.  I love looking back to when we first arrived to when we left, and seeing the Lord’s hand on our relationships.  I could go on and on about all of them so I’ll stop before I get going.  🙂

Now we are in California.  We drove up here the day after school got out.  It took us quite a while to drive up, but it was a great trip.  Our first stop was Oaxaca City where we met up with Toby and Lydia, two girls who did Level 1 and Level 2 with us who now serve in Oaxaca City.  So awesome that they came and went sight seeing with us at Monte Albán.  The following night we ended in Mazatlán.  Another friend, Nancy, (who we met on our trip last December to check out Roca Blanca) lives and serves at Calvary Chapel Maranatha Mazatlán, and she arranged for us to stay with Pastor Tony and his wife Angela for two nights.  What a huge blessing that was because it gave us a day of rest after the LONG drive to get there.  A couple of days later we finally made it to southern California, our final destination for this trip.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

• We will be working on getting our temporary residency visas while we’re here, so please pray that that all goes well
• That we would practice listening and speaking Spanish
• Financial provision to be able to go back
• God would continue to prepare our hearts for full time ministry in Mexico

PRAISE REPORTS:

• one of our biggest struggles while in school was that our kids were having such a hard time.  The Lord COMPLETELY turned things around and the last two months were filled with laughter and joy and a house filled with those sounds from Jonny and Noah and their friends.  Praise the Lord for that!!!
• Jon and I also were able to build some amazing relationships with people and it was really tough to say “see you later”.  We thank the Lord that He gave us those friendships that I know will last a lifetime.

Thank you for praying for us and following our journey as we took this first step of our great adventure for JESUS!  We are so excited to follow His leading into the next step.

Romans 10:14 “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed?  And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?  And how shall they hear without a preacher?”

Sep 4th Level 4, Here We Come!!

We have now been living in Cacalote, Oaxaca, Mexico for just over 6 months.  Today (September 4), Jon and I began LEVEL 4 of Spanish School.  This will be our final level of school and we will be finishing October 20!  Wow, time has flown by!!!

It’s been a while since our last update and we are really sorry about not being better about it.  Our week-long trip to California in June was a huge blessing.  We got to see our beautiful niece marry her amazing husband, and spend time with family and friends.  Jonny and Noah came back to Mexico with renewed spirits after going through some trials down here.  Praise the Lord for that!  Since our return from California, Jonny and Noah finished 4th grade, and Jon and I finished Level 3.

We had 3 weeks off after Level 3 and it was a time of many exciting things.  I was invited to the women’s bible study at the local church and have been enjoying going each Friday afternoon.  I have had to really put what I’ve learned into practice in order to understand and somewhat communicate with the ladies. It’s a total bonus that I’m building friendships with a few of the women.  God knows our hearts, our needs, and our desires!

We also had some special visitors for a few days.  Our oldest son, Austin, and his girlfriend, McKenna, flew down to spend some time with us.  It was such a great time of being together and showing them how and where we live, along with doing a little bit of exploring with them.  (Jon even got the opportunity to witness to a homeless man with our friend Joe.) Their visit was short but it was an answer to prayer that they were able to come see us.

And a week ago we got another visitor…our niece Machaela.  She will be living with us for the rest of our time here and attending the Spanish School.  She has a calling to serve in a deaf ministry in Guatemala, so this was the perfect option for her to do Level 1 and get some great education in learning the language.  She’s a neat addition to our house and we are so excited to be on this journey together for the next 7 weeks…taking this step in learning the language so we can serve our Lord where He has called each of us.

PRAYER REQUESTS: 

*Please pray for direction for our next steps following language school…location, financial provisions, what it is that the Lord would have us do here in Mexico to serve Him

*That we would do well in school, both Jon and I, the boys, and Machaela

*That we would stay healthy for the rest of our time here.  We had a lot of health things go on during the last level of school and it was tough to play catch up after sick days, but the Lord TOTALLY got us through!

PRAISE REPORTS:

*We’ve been healthy for the last few weeks

*That we’ve been able to start using our Spanish more often during these 3 weeks of down time from school.  (Pray that we continue to do so as often as possible)

*All of us had a GREAT first day of school today!  Starting on an upbeat note, covered in prayer is the best feeling!!!

Thank you for taking the time to read this!  We really appreciate all of your prayers and support.  Little texts, emails, or Facebook messages come just when our hearts need a little encouragement.  We thank the Lord for those.  God is so good!  And as always, if you have any specific prayer requests that you would like for us to pray, send us an email or text.

Joshua 1:9 “Have I not commanded you?  Be strong and of good courage;  do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you WHEREVER you go.”

Jon, Allison, Jonny and Noah

Jun 14th Welcome to our new blog!!!

Hey everyone!  It’s been a long time since we last sent out an update.  Many things have been going on but I’m going to keep this first post super short, so expect a long one next time.  😉

We will be visiting California June 15-23, so we’re hoping we can see some of you while we’re there, even though it’s a short trip.  We will be going to our niece’s wedding on the 17th and we’re super excited to spend that time with our family.

Jon and I are finishing up Level 2 of Spanish school tomorrow.  We can’t believe we’ve already been down here for almost 4 months.  The boys are doing well, making some good friends at the school with the local kids.

Quick prayer requests:  pray that Jon and I would finish this level well.  We have 5 tests to take tomorrow because we are leaving 2 days before the session ends.  (Grateful that they are allowing us to take a couple of the test early).  Pray for safe travels as we head to California.  Please pray that we would be able to get the pink slip to our car and any other documentation that is needed in order for Jon to drive back down next week.

Praise reports:  through some trials we’ve had, we have drawn closer to the Lord and to each other.  Praise the Lord for that because we know how easily we can lose sight of what warfare is: an attack from Satan.  God is so amazing!!!

Like I said…we’ll be updating on more things that we have going on in our next blog.  Until then, thank you all for lifting us up in prayer as we continue to study Spanish.  We have such a desire to share the Lord with the people in Mexico and we really feel ourselves getting more comfortable and PREPARED!  Your prayers help us get through!  We thank God for all of you.

God Bless!

Jon, Allison, Jonny, Noah