Hello everyone,
We hope you've had a great summer! It's unbelievable that it's already coming to an end. The summer marked a big milestone for us as a family--TWO YEARS IN CHIHUAHUA! The years have flown by and they have been both very blessed and very difficult at the same time. We are as sure as ever that God has called us here and that He is moving in and through us. May He receive the glory through our lives!
Next week is a big week for our family as Josiah and I both start school. Josiah will be going to a new school for 2nd grade and he is excited (and a little nervous) to transition from home-school to a regular school environment. We are very excited for him and know that he is going to thrive. Priscilla is looking forward to continuing with home-school for Hannah as a pre-schooler--it will be good for them to have precious time together to bond and enjoy each other. I am starting the semester with my English classes at the university--so we'll be back into the swing of things with a busy schedule. :)
Even in the midst of summer vacation, God has continued to move with ministry at the UACH. I have been meeting with two students consistently, Eric and Marvin, to encourage and disciple them. It is a blessing and honor to spend time with these two guys who love Jesus and yearn to be used by Him. I look forward to seeing how God continues to use both of them. We have also been doing a weekly Bible study with about five university students. The studies have gone well as the students have been built-up and encouraged to reach their peers with the Gospel. Finally, we have begun contacting students throughout UACH that either a.) are leaders of prayer groups within their schools or b.) have a desire to start a prayer group within their school. (UACH as a university has two campuses in Chihuahua that are composed of 15 different schools). As of now, we have student leaders in about 5-6 of the schools with another 2-3 that want to start groups in their schools. My prayer is that we can begin to meet consistently so that these leaders may be trained and discipled in how they can more effectively reach the students in their schools. Our first meeting is set to take place tomorrow evening--please pray that they would all come and that God would unite our hearts with a passion to grow closer to Jesus and be used mightily by Him!
Another thing that God has been doing that I want to share real quick involves the Home Groups at our church. Along with hosting and leading a Home Group ourselves, I am also serving as the leader of the Home Group ministry. This means that it is my responsibility to encourage and support the current Home Group leaders as well as recruit and equip new Home Group leaders. We had a great leadership meeting a couple weeks ago and I just can't express enough how encouraged I was with it. God has blessed our church with great leaders for the four Home Groups that meet throughout Chihuahua. I could write an entire email just about how blessed and excited I am to see what God is going to continue to do with these various Home Groups--ours included. We are also praying about starting another Bible study in our house next month to be able to equip and encourage couples in our church. The hope is that God raises up a few of these couples to start groups of their own. I give you that small amount of info regarding the Home Group ministry just to give you insight into another way that God is using Priscilla and I and to hopefully spur you on to pray for these groups and their leaders.
I know this summer wrap-up email got a little long, but thank you for taking the time to read it and pray for us. Things are going great here in many ways, but there are also times of discouragement and spiritual warfare. Your prayer and support mean so much to us. Have a great rest of the week!
-Tim, Priscilla, Josiah and Hannah
Eph. 3:20-21
Praise Reports
- God provided Josiah's entire tuition for the upcoming school year!
- Priscilla celebrated her 30th birthday last weekend!
- We have seen our kids really start to settle-in here in Chihuahua and embrace it as home.
- God answered prayer in regards to my schedule and class-load at the university this semester. The schedule I have should leave me plenty of time to focus on other campus ministry and ministry at the church.
- In the last two weeks I led my first all-Spanish meeting and my first all-Spanish Bible study. I had had opportunities to minister to people in Spanish in a one-on-one environment, but these were the first group meetings I've led without any translation.
- God answered prayer in regards to the inspection and renewal of registration for our car this week.
Prayer Request
- For a great first week of classes next week!
- That Josiah would thrive with friendships and the things he learns at the new school he will be attending.
- That our student leadership discipleship study at UACH would take off.
- That God would grant me many opportunities to share about Jesus with students in my classes and in the conversation clubs and that many of them would respond to the Gospel and follow Jesus.
- That God would grant us vision and power to reach UACH with the Gospel.
- That God would give us wisdom and guidance with how to disciple Home Group leaders in the church and raise up new Home Group leaders.
- That God would continue moving in our church--spurring us on to great unity, a passion to reach Chihuahua with the Gospel and intentionality in regards to discipling and equipping those within the church.
- That we would consistently keep our eyes on Jesus as the reason and goal of all we do instead of getting caught up focusing on circumstances or our own expectations.