Busy as a “B”!
(July - August 2025)
July and August were two of the Busiest months I’ve seen in a long time! Being Busy for the Lord is Both exhausting and exhilarating. After soooo many activities, I’m looking forward to two weeks of down time before we kick of the fall semester of church planting and missions school. But first, let me catch you up on all the Busyness, Blessings, and Bustle that’s been going in Culiacán and Beyond this summer… all with “B’s,” of course! Above are the Bullet points. Read on to get all the juicy details!
This summer was full of baptisms! My family was privileged to attend two baptismal services. Here in Culiacán, baptism represents a next-level commitment to the Lord and is only done by those who are truly serious about following Jesus. That makes it even more special!
On July 6, Sammy and I witnessed Calvary Culiacán West’s first official baptismal service. What an honor to see several old and young people committing their lives wholly to the Lord! We had a great time of fellowship afterwards with pizza and a pool party.
On July 20, we had baptisms in Calvary Culiacán North. Six people were baptized, including several youth and one of our pastor’s sisters!
First official baptismal service in Calvary West (left) and Pastor Francisco’s sister gets baptized in Calvary North (right)
On July 12, Calvary Aguaruto hosted Culiacán’s first-ever conference about addictions entitled, “Landmines of Addiction.” We had speakers from Calvary Chapel Rosarito, Celebrate Recovery, and other ministries, and all participants received free materials for overcoming addictions. We packed the house with over 150 people. Many of those were addicts and patients from rehab centers, including one woman from Casa Manantial. At least 3 people gave their lives to Christ, and we pray that many more will experience divine deliverance as a result of this conference. What a blessing!
Of the 150+ attendees, at least 3 gave their lives to Christ at the addictions conference (left), and I reconnected with an old friend who planted a church in Michoacán several years ago (right).
July 19 was my re-birthday – the day I was born again and gave my live to Christ 38 years ago! This year, I was able to enjoy my day in the company of all of my sisters in Christ at a women’s ministry event. Seeing my daughter participate in the worship team was an extra blessing! I also got to fellowship with some great friends and fellow missionaries, the leader of the Mexico and Beyond prayer group and his new wife. It was truly a blessed day packed with love, fellowship, and encouragement!
July 19 - Women’s Breakfast on my re-birthday. We learned how to be brave and fearless women like Esther.
In April, God called my church, Calvary Culiacán North, to step out in faith and build our own building. We named the project, Manos a la Obra. Loosely translated, that means, “Let’s get started!” That’s been our attitude from the beginning, but we’ve made major progress in the past two months due to several raffles and fund-raisers.
On July 20, we held our usual monthly fellowship luncheon, but instead of everyone bringing their own dishes, we sold food with 100% of sales going to the building project.
On August 16, we held a worship concert. The whole Calvary Culiacán family was invited to enjoy a super-charged joint worship team from various churches. Multiple worship sets were only interrupted by a brief, evangelistic message by our founding pastor, Hugo Limón, who flew in from another state to join us. The event was free, but the bake sale at the end raised a lot of money, almost as much as the luncheon!
We also raffled off a week-long vacation in Mazatlán (donated by friends with an AirBnB there) and a brand-new air conditioner (donated by a friend of mine who owns an air-conditioning business). Both earned us very large sums of money!
With those funds, we completed the exterior of the building and purchased many other materials – truly a miracle due to the financial crisis in our city. By God’s grace, we hope to be moved in before our 10th anniversary celebration in November!
Me selling fresh churros, pizza, popcorn, and other snacks with Pastor Jesús after the fundraising concert.
The last week of July, we made our second trip to Nayarit this year. An international team comprised of locals from Calvary Culiacán, the Calvary School of Missions (USA), two nurses from Los Mochis, and two local missionaries worked with the people of San Gregorio. San Gregorio is part of the Cora tribe, still counted among the unreached peoples of the world. In addition to bringing them the Gospel, we brought shoes, boots, a medical brigade with medications, and our brand-new Cora missionaries, Elías and Santana.
The results far surpassed our expectations! We treated 100 people in the clinic, made the 2-hour uphill hike to reach the families of El Zapote, and gave away 200 pairs of shoes, fitting each one carefully to ensure a perfect fit. (That was exhausting!) We connected the missionaries with ALL of the new believers from our previous visits. And of course, we preached the Word! Dozens of adults, more than 50 children, and several people visiting from other villages heard the Gospel for the first time, and many made professions of faith!
(left) Sammy gave his shoes to another boy… who immediately climbed a tree in them, just like Sammy! (center) Our missionaries, Elias and Santana (right) My friend, Pina, lead this young girl to the Lord!
I also developed a very special relationship with Rocío, a suffering 10-year-old girl. With her father in jail, her mother has been ostracized by the community and left to fend for herself. The whole family (mom and 4 children ages 7-14) hadn’t eaten anything but tortillas for over a month! We bought them some food staples and prayed with them, but they remain in my heart and prayers. Would you join me in praying for them?
Me and Rocío after a face-painting activity (left) and Sammy with the rest of her family (right)
The day after we returned from Nayarit, we boarded a plane for Rosarito and the annual church-planting conference there. Normally, that conference is a “back-to-basics” for me, but this year, I learned many new things. One statistic really stood out to me:
In the days of the early church, there was only 1 congregation to reach every 12 unreached people groups… yet they were actively reaching them! Today, there are 1,000 congregations available to reach every 1 unreached group… yet we are hardly making a dent in that number.
It felt great knowing that our 10 little congregations here in Culiacán are actively working with 2 of those unreached groups – the Cora and the Kuáre – in 8 different communities in Nayarit!
We also got to see another Calvary Chapel “first” near the end of the conference – the official send-off of a 5th-generation church plant! What a blessing! (Details in caption)
(From right to left) Pastor Trent Douglass from Calvary Chapel Saving Grace trained Pastor Mike Vincent and sent him out to plant Calvary Rosarito (1st generation) in 2002. Calvary Rosarito trained Pastor Hugo Limón and sent him out to plant Calvary Culiacán (now Calvary North – 2nd generation) in 2015. Calvary Culiacán North trained Pastor Valerio Ramirez and sent him out to plant Calvary Culiacán South (3rd generation) in 2018. Calvary South trained Pastor Antonio García and sent him out to plant Calvary Aguaruto (4th generation) in 2021, and now, Aguaruto has trained Pastor Cruz Manjarrez and is sending him out to plant Calvary Caminando por Fe (5th generation) in Santa Rocio. This photo represents 23 years of training up new pastors to go out and plant new churches that will plant more new churches. We are obeying Jesus and following in Paul’s footsteps to fulfill the Great Commission!
Overall, it was a time of great renewal and relaxation for me and my family after all of the events of July. And since a friend offered us lodging for a whole week, we took advantage of the trip to enjoy a few days on the beach and visit friends and family in Ensenada.
Sammy and I at the church planting conference in Rosarito (top left) Most workshops were standing-room-only, but well worth an hour of sitting on the floor! (top right) We had an unplanned reunion of members of the Mexico and Beyond prayer team (lower left) – it was great to meet some of them in person for the first time! And a bunch of Culichis gathered together at Pastor Hugo’s new church in Ensenada on Sunday (lower right).
A few days after our return, we hosted a Vacation Bible School – the first in 5 years! For various reasons, starting with the pandemic, that ministry had been neglected, so we were super excited to start it up again. Sammy and I handed out 200+ flyers for “A Summer with Jesus” in 2 days and helped turn our sanctuary into a vast ocean full of seaweed, bubbles, and sea creatures.
In spite of the violence in our city, we had nearly 50 children attend, including 4 unchurched visitors who came because of the flyers.
With our church decked out as an underwater playground, we hosted our first VBS in 5 years! Sammy helped with the choreography team, and we finished with a concert for the parents (above) and a pool party for the kids (below). I spent several hours filling those 6 pools with one small garden hose the night before. LOL!
After two years of severe drought, Culiacán finally received its habitual, tropical downpours this year. Farmers were thrilled, but the rest of the city was inundated with flash floods, mud slides, leaky homes, and more. We were fortunate to avoid the floods, and living on a steep hill, no water seeped into our home through floors or doors, but… our roof and windows were a different story. After several weeks of wringing out soaked towels from water running down walls and pouring in like fountains from light fixtures and windows, we finally got everything properly repaired, sealed, and weather-proofed so we can enjoy the rains again… from the safety of our DRY home.
Torrential, tropical rains practically left us with a huge indoor swimming pool, a.k.a. a very wet house. Water and mildew ate through the seals around our windows and roof drainage system leaving us with water pouring down walls and through light fixtures for over a month. Buckets and towels were our only salvation.
The end of the summer also witnessed the reopening of Casa Manantial, the women’s rehab center that was the birthplace of our rehab ministry, Transformadas. Right now, they only have 6 women, and with the continued insecurity and threats in our city, we have no way of knowing whether the women will be safe or not, or if the center will be forced to close again. Please keep them and us in your prayers as we contemplate restarting that ministry, balancing their need for the Gospel against our own safety. God willing, I’ll have good news to share with you next month!
More than 10 years ago, Saving Grace World Missions adopted me into their family. They found me on the field, abandoned by my original supporters, and invited me to partner with them. Normally, that process starts at home BEFORE being sent out, but since I was already on the field, building a donor-base and support team has been one of my greatest challenges.
Last month, our Mexico and Beyond prayer group studied the book Serving as Senders, by Neal Pirolo. (It’s a great read if you can get your hands on it! Click the title for Kindle version.) We learned about the importance of the missionary-sponsor relationship and many practical ways to bridge that gap!
As a mostly self-supported missionary, I had sorely neglected that relationship. My first step toward righting that wrong has been to get back to newsletter writing. (I’m nearly caught up!) My next step is to gather a care team – a group of people that will commit to praying for me daily and staying up to date with all that’s going on here in Culiacán and Beyond. If you would like to be part of that team, click the link below to sign-up for my new WhatsApp prayer group. You’ll get real-time ministry updates and prayer requests as well as the opportunity to help me in more practical ways. It’s a great way to bridge the gap and truly become part of what God is doing here.
https://chat.whatsapp.com/CTdXeDWGiioBirpdvl9zGX
HOW ELSE CAN YOU PARTNER WITH US?
Pray! We can’t do what we do without the support of those at home that are committed to covering us in prayer every day. Here are a few things you can pray for…
1. Pray for an end to the violence in our city. In July and August, we remained the most dangerous city in Mexico, still far surpassing the #2 city, but the number of violent incidents finally seems to be going down instead of up.
2. Pray for my children – that they would continue to grow in their relationship with the Lord and find their niche in the ministry.
3. Pray for the future of our outreach ministries, including Valle de Agua and the women’s rehab center.
4. Pray for our upcoming events and all of our preparations for them!
- First day of the EPICC (church planting school), September 8
- Mexican Independence Day Celebrations, September 14-21
- Idonea women’s breakfast, September 20
- First day of NEW online missions school, October 9
- Joint Women’s Conference, October 18
- Visiting team from Rosarito (Construction!), October 20-26
- Calvary Culiacán’s 10th anniversary celebration, November 9
Rejoice with us!
- God has miraculously kept us safe in the midst of an ongoing drug cartel war
- and provided for our finances for two more months,
- and we’re super excited about the brand new online missions school that we’ll be starting this fall!
Share our newsletters! Feel free to share my newsletters with anyone who might be interested. With the following link, anyone can access my older newsletters and/or sign up to receive future ones directly in their inbox: https://sgwm.com/jenna-pepin/#csec-newsletter-form-jenna-pepin
Join our care team! If you’d like to bridge the gap and get more involved in our day-to-day activities and prayer requests, sign up to become a part of our care team or share this link with someone else who might!
https://chat.whatsapp.com/CTdXeDWGiioBirpdvl9zGX
Become a financial partner! God has called me to leave secular work behind and become fully funded. That means raising approximately $2,000 in monthly support while serving on the field. Please pray that God will raise up monthly donors, so we can budget more accurately and participate more actively in ongoing ministries. If you feel God leading you sign up, don’t hesitate! Any amount goes a long way, and we are grateful for your partnership!
Click GIVE to send a one-time gift or become a monthly donor.
God bless you as you continue to support our ministry with your prayers and your finances.
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