As we head into this new year of 2018, we have been spending a lot of time thinking about where God has brought us since moving to Chihuahua about a year and a half ago. It is probably long overdue to record a more comprehensive update of what God has done with us thus far and where He seems to be leading us moving forward.
Before leaving the U.S. in July of 2016, we launched this website and included a written record of the calling the Lord had on our lives and the vision He was giving us. You can reference that HERE if you didn’t get to read it before. We also shot a video as a family (which you can find HERE) explaining more about what we believed the Lord was calling us to.
Where We’ve Been
Although the last 18 months haven’t played out exactly how we thought they would, we can still clearly see God’s faithfulness, guidance and providence in all of it. We reflect on those updates and chuckle a little at our naivety. We knew we were called to plant a church and thought it would be something the Lord would do rather quickly. We still believe that the Lord has called us to plant a church at some point, but He has made it clear to us that now is not the time for that. As we have experienced time and time again, His ways are so much higher than ours (Is. 55:9).
For our first four months or so here in Chihuahua, we focused primarily on our family’s transition to a new country and culture—especially with the kids. We wanted to transition as well as possible. We began to get involved at a church here called Capilla Calvario but purposely took it easy in regards to ministry. At the end of the year, I began taking intensive Spanish classes at a school called Interaction. Since she grew up with parents from Mexico, Priscilla already spoke very good Spanish. For me on the other hand, my college Spanish classes and Rosetta Stone experience didn’t leave me nearly as prepared as I thought I was. I knew I would need to work hard to be able communicate with people clearly in Spanish—something very important to me since I see no higher calling than communicating God’s Word to others. I spent around five months devoted to a nearly full-time schedule studying Spanish. I loved it and hated it at the same time. I love the Spanish language but learning to be completely fluent in a language is hard!
During my Spanish studies, God really began to stir my heart for the university near our home—Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua (UACH). I came to find out that the school had over 25,000 students but had no Christian ministry happening on any of the campuses. I began praying for God to move powerfully at UACH and to show me how to get involved with the campus in some way. Not long after, a young man in our church named Mario asked if I could meet him for coffee. In our meeting he asked if I would be willing to disciple him—to which I gave a hearty, “Definitely!” I also found out that he is a student at the Medical School within UACH. Over the next few months, we spent a lot of time praying at UACH and even began bringing coffee and donuts once a week in order to bless the students and start conversations with them. God blessed it and we had some really great conversations about Jesus. In fact, I still meet with one of the students from that semester and have been able to share a lot of God’s Word with him. As my Spanish classes were coming to a close, it was an anxious time for me. We didn’t have any peace about starting a church-plant but we also didn’t know what God had in store either. As God often does, He waited until the last second to give us clear direction on the next step. Through a series of events that I can only chalk up to God’s amazing providence, I was offered a position at the university as an English professor. I officially got the job on the last day of my Spanish classes. For Priscilla and I, God made it clear that He was calling me to focus primarily on reaching UACH with the Gospel.
The Fall Semester of 2017 was a crazy one for me. I had no experience or training in teaching English, so I spent countless hours of study and preparation—and lots of prayer in borderline panic/desperation. J I had to depend greatly on Jesus, which was exactly where He wanted me. I had over 100 students spanning all four levels of English classes. Ministry-wise, God did some really cool things. I was able to talk about Jesus with some of my students outside of the classroom. On the last day of classes, I invited all of my students to our church and was able to share more in-depth about Christianity with a couple of the classes. I also started an English Conversation Club and continued doing the coffee and donut ministry with Mario at the Medical School. In both of those arenas, I was able to share about Jesus on multiple occasions.
Where God Is Leading
This winter break, one of my biggest goals was to choose and connect with a campus ministry in order to establish a solid ministry on the campus. I decided to reach out to CRU (the college ministry branch of Campus Crusade for Christ). It is an awesome and theologically solid ministry that is well established and has a ministry philosophy that really resonates with my heart. Plus, CRU already has a ministry presence in Mexico, which is actually not very common among campus ministries. After speaking with their leadership, I was connected with a student in Chihuahua named Erick that is connected to CRU and started a CRU meeting on one of the UACH campuses last semester. He and I have begun speaking, praying and planning for what ministry on UACH will look like this next semester between the two main campuses in our city. We believe that God’s plan involves intentional evangelism and discipleship through English Conversation clubs, meetings and Bible studies. God is moving at UACH. I believe we are in the beginning stages of a powerful movement of God that will result in the salvation of many students. If God starts a revival at UACH, it will impact the entire city of Chihuahua and I believe even the entire country of Mexico. God is truly able to do much more than we could ever ask or think and we’re praying that He gets the glory for all of it (Eph. 3:20-21). Please join us in praying for a mighty move of God on the UACH campus and in the city of Chihuahua. Thanks for joining us in this journey. We’re excited to see what He does!
“Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified…” -2 Thessalonians 3:1