It’s been a while since we’ve updated the vision section of our website. To get an idea of where we’ve been, it might be helpful for you to review our pre-move updates HERE and HERE as well as our vision update after the launch of Roca Norte HERE. Also, if you’re interested in pictures/information about the church, you can check out the Facebook page HERE.
What’s Happened?
It will be six years this summer since we first arrived in Chihuahua. It hasn’t always been easy, but we have seen God’s faithfulness each step of the way. We’ve grown as a family, both in depth and in number. Priscilla and I have grown in our marriage. We’ve seen our oldest two kids (Josiah and Hannah) grow up and mature. We’ve added to our family with the birth of Abby. We’ve moved a few times. We’ve met lots of people. We’ve served God at Capilla Calvario Chihuahua and at the university campus of UACH. We’ve launched the church (Roca Norte). We’ve gotten through a pandemic and all the difficulties that entailed with the lockdowns and struggles with the church and kids’ schools. We didn’t know how God would do things. He has definitely chosen a more difficult path that we would not have chosen for ourselves. But we can give testament to the words of Paul in 2 Thessalonians 3:3, “But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one.”
What’s Happening Now?
As those that have walked with us know, this past year coming out of the pandemic has been our most challenging by far. Like never before, we have felt the stings of loneliness away from family, discouragement in the ministry and frustrations living in a foreign country. We know that God is using all of these things for our good. He is always faithful to do that (Rom. 8:28, 2 Cor. 4:7-18 & Gen. 50:20). He has used these difficult times to loosen our ties to everything else so that we may cling more deeply to Him. That is a painful process, but oh so worth it. We are now better at holding his blessings, including our calling as missionaries, with hands and hearts that are open to anything God wants to do. We don’t know what exactly He has in store. We’ve learned that although His ways are always good, they are truly much higher than anything we could ever come up with ourselves (Is. 55:8-9).
What’s Next?
We continue forward, praying that He use us to play our part in leading a church that brings Him glory. A church that faithfully teaches His Word and shines the Gospel of grace in the midst of dead, works-based religion. A church that multiplies by raising up leaders that are sent out to lead other churches. A church that shines the light of Jesus by reaching Chihuahuenses with the Gospel and making them disciples. The cry of our heart has been and continues to be Ephesians 3:20-21, “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”