Greetings from Mexico! In this update I am excited to tell you about a new outreach our church has begun in the new year! One of our focuses’ of 2024 is reaching and blessing our community. The center of this plan is the opening up our new Calvary Athletic Park to our friends and neighbors in Rosarito. In this update I am excited to tell you all about it.
Growing up in the Vincent Family, Sports was always a major part of our home life. My dad Mark was always our coach, my mom Diane was always our team mom, and Mitch, Matt, and I always did our best playing whatever sport was in season. (Little league baseball, JUSA soccer, and eventually basketball) We were blessed to grow up at Rose Drive Friends Church and our Pastor CW Perry loved sports so much, we had a full gymnasium and softball field on our church campus. I have many great memories growing up having fun playing sports at church! I feel blessed and honored that our church in Mexico is continuing on in that same tradition.
Our major facilities overhaul began last year as we began preparing and transforming our south parking lot, into a new multi-use athletic facility. After 3 months of hard work and generous investment, we now have three completed athletic fields filling up that large area. We have a sand volleyball court, a large basketball court, and a small soccer field. (Indoor soccer, with a 4 foot fence surrounding it to keep the soccer ball in play)
These sports courts will have numerous uses. First off, we plan on hosting tournaments and leagues throughout the year in all three sports. The teams in these leagues will be open to believers and unbelievers, people that attend our church, and those that don’t! Please keep these upcoming tournaments and sports leagues in your prayers!
Secondly, we also have the athletic fields open before and after all of our church services. We have seen this be an especially big hit with the youth. In fact, earlier this month we had a high school mission’s team visit us from California, and after joining our youth group for their Wednesday night church service, their church put together a basketball team and played the boys from our youth group. There were over 100 people packed around the court, watching this epic USA vs. Mexico hoop classic. It was a great game, and I am proud to tell you that our church boys defeated their friends from up north!
Third and finally, we plan on opening up Calvary Athletic Park to our community two days per week! During these open times, we will have one of our church staff members caring for the fields and organizing games for those in attendance!
One of the things that excites me the most is that my son Daniel is going to be helping with our church’s sports program! With his experience in our cities basketball leagues, and his many connections throughout our city, I know that God is going to use Daniel and our other team members to be a blessing to our church family and to our community!
Another great blessing of our new sports court, is it has opened up a large cemented area to expand our children’s playground. (Where our old smaller basketball court used to be!) My dad Mark kindly donated much of his old playground he had out front of his house in Silverado (Since his grandchildren have all grown up) and we had another stateside friend donate a used playground from a park and we put it all together to make a brand new (to us) expanded play area for our children!
The children at our church are having a blast with their new expanded play area, but once again, this play area will be open to our community as well. (During those same hours that Calvary Athletic Park is open!) Sports are very popular here in Mexico, but unfortunately, there are very few parks and athletic fields open to the public! We are so thankful that God has provided this new area to be a blessing not only to our church, but to our city as well!
Finally, I want to thank you once again for the privilege and honor of serving as your missionaries here in Mexico. There are many places you can invest your finances, and we feel honored and blessed that you have chosen to partner with us in this great missions work! We love you and give thanks for you!
Con mucho amor de Mexico, (with much love from Mexico)
Mike, Sarah, Grace, and Daniel
Prayer Requests!
#1- Pray that God would bless our new Calvary Athletic Park!
#2- Pray that God will bless our church planting class as we begin the new year on February 12th!
Praise Reports!
#1- Praise God for a wonderful January Baptism with 21 new believers getting baptized!
#2- Praise God for the provision to construct our athletic fields and new playground!
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.
