Greetings from Mexico,
Our family and hope that you had a blessed Christmas and a very Happy New Year! In this update, I want to tell you about the great things God did during this Christmas season! Starting on the family side of things, we were blessed to go up and visit my parents in Silverado while our Kentucky Cousins flew out and were in town. My little brother Matt has lived in Kentucky for nearly 20 years now with his 6 children and grandson, and it is always a treat to see them.
To celebrate Christmas, my parents came down here to Mexico and we got to celebrate Christmas together with Mitch and his family. We were blessed to invite some single friends from church over and we all had a wonderful time exchanging presents and celebrating with a traditional Mexican Christmas meal. (ie: no turkey, ham, stuffing or potatoes)
On the church side of things, we had our busiest Christmas yet. Our 50 member church staff began December by decorating the church. Our theme this year was “The Reason for the Season” and we made sure we kept Jesus at the front and center of everything we did. Our Christmas calendar was packed out with Christmas parties, celebrations, and outreach events.
Our main Christmas outreach was a musical drama for the whole family that dramatized the Christmas story in a humorous and entertaining way. The hit of this big production was the animals that lived in that manger that consisted of 7 four and five year olds dressed up as cows and sheep. As always, the main focus of this presentation was the Christmas worship and message. We had over 700 in attendance at this event and were blessed to see several first time professions of faith!
For our Christmas services, I taught a 3 part Christmas series that concluded with a sermon from Luke 2 titled ‘The Very First Christmas!” Each Christmas we make our weekend services family services where we close down our children’s ministry and have the families sit together. There are many reasons we do this, but the main reason is so that these precious little ones can hear the message of the Gospel!
In Matthew 19:14 Jesus told the disciples “Let the little children come unto me,” and that is exactly what we got to witness at our Christmas family services. One of the services really stood out to me as two of the grandparents that I know very well, had brought their grand children to church with them for Christmas. (Their children were not in attendance) When I presented the message of salvation and looked out over the crowd, I saw two little hands raised, as a 9 year old and 11 year old desired to place their faith in Jesus. I will never forget the blessing of witnessing these grandparents walking their grandkids into our decision room with tears streaming down their cheeks. There is no greater gift during Christmas than to see people receive God’s free gift of salvation.
On the outreach side of things, our church was blessed to provide 5 of our local poor church plants with a “Happy Birthday Jesus” Children’s Christmas party. Each one of these churches had a large party for their children complete with Pizza, sodas, and a birthday cake for Jesus. After enjoying the food, the children were read the Christmas story where it was explained clearly to them. At the end of the party, each child left with not only a smile, but a large shoebox packed full of fun toys and school supplies.
Our church was also able to send out a Generous Christmas bonus to each one of our 36 church planting families. To remind our church planters that they are loved during the often difficult Holiday season, was very important to me. I am so blessed by our church’s generosity, and that we can be a Sending and giving church that follows in the footsteps of Jesus who has freely given us so much!
Finally, I want to thank you for choosing to partner with us and support our family as your missionaries! It is through your financial partnership that God meet’s our physical needs, and through your prayers, that God meet’s our spiritual needs. We love sharing about the great things that God is doing here because this is your spiritual fruit. 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 my teaching at the Calvary Chapel Missions Conference in January 5th!
#2- That God would bless our church’s trip to Israel in January, and keep our 72 travelers safe.
Praise Reports!
#1- Praise God for a Blessed and fruitful Christmas!
#2- Praise God for the 37th church plant to Mexico City we were blessed to send out at the end of December.
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.
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.
