Greetings from Mexico,
This month I had one of my busiest travel months ever, as I was blessed to visit 6 of our church plants. One of the great blessings of being involved in church planting, is we get to follow in the footsteps of the great Apostle Paul. After Paul planted churches, he went back and revisited them to encourage them. We hear this heart of Paul in acts 15:36, “Then after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us now go back and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they are doing.”
In this update, I want to take you along with me on these trips so we can celebrate together the great things God has done. The month of May began as I flew down to La Paz (South Baja) with a team of four pastors from our church. CCLa Paz is one of our older church plants at nearly ten years old. We were blessed to encourage their church and to host a conference on church planting. But one of the main reasons we were visiting them is that they are preparing to plant two new churches themselves this year. (Churches planted by our churches are called 2nd generation church plants) It was a blessing to meet and encourage these courageous future church planters as they prepare to step out in faith.
Straight across the Baja peninsula is a cute little town called Todos Santos. 5 years ago, one of our church plants (CCRancho Libertad, mentioned below) planted this church along with a men’s discipleship home (rehab) in this sleepy little village. I was honored and blessed to teach at their Sunday service, and they had about 80 in attendance at their bilingual church. To see our 2nd generation church plants flourishing swelled up my heart with thankfulness.
In the middle of the month, I was able to travel up to Yucca Valley to teach at a conference titled “Raising up the Next generation!’ Many don’t know that directly after college I moved out to Yucca Valley where I got my first teaching and coaching job at Yucca Valley High School. During my three years living out in the desert, my home church was CC Joshua Springs, the church I was able to share at on this trip! Thank you Lord for allowing me to return to the desert to encourage the believers there.
At the end of the month, a team of six of us traveled to the Sonora Desert to visit two of our church plants. The state of Sonora is south of Arizona, and 10 years ago we planted a church there in a little town called Kilometer 57! We were blessed to visit and enourage the saints there, provide a delicious meal, and remind them of God’s love for them.
We continued our travels driving an hour north to San Luis Rio Colorado (a border town to Arizona) to visit our 4 year old church plant in that town of half a million inhabitants! The Pastor told us that our presence there was like cold water flowing in a parched desert! We hosted a church planting conference there and encouraged them in this worthy missions endeavor. Thankfully, all four of the churches that we visited agreed to start up their own church planting classes in order to help them raise up leaders and future church planters!
My month ended by teaching at one of our local church plants, CC Libery Ranch located in La Mision. (30 minutes south of us) This thriving church isn’t only reaching their community, but they have planted two churches of their own as well. Presently their ministry is building a shelter for battered women, so please keep that worthy project in your prayers!
Finally, this month I was featured on a podcast where I was able to lay out our ministry’s vision for reaching the world through church planting. If you would like to give it a listen, you can find it on Spotify, and search for the “Cultivate Church planting network”.
Once again I want to thank you for your partnership over these past 21 years on the mission field of Mexico. We feel honored and blessed that you have chosen to partner with us as your missionaries through your prayers and finances. We love you!
Con mucho amor de Mexico, (with much love from Mexico)
Mike, Sarah, Grace, and Daniel
Prayer Requests!
#1- That God would bless our new church plant to Lima Peru! (Church Plant #36)
#2- That God would provide a job for our daughter Grace, as she has moved to the states to finish up her college.
Praise Reports!
#1- Praise God for our 36th church plant to Lima Peru with Pastor Lorenzo Ruiz!
#2- Praise God for our 2 new 2nd generation church plants that will be sent out through CCLa Paz this year!
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.
