Here are bi-annual updates from our pastors. They were written in December.
Pastor Gregorio Hernandez is our main lead pastor and oversees all ministries at the church. In order for him to work full-time as a Pastor, which is very important to us, he needs supplemental income from supporters like you. Thank you for praying and responding, someone just committed to helping him out for a year. Please consider how you can help him continue to work full-time. Click on his name to become a monthly donor.
Here is his report:
At the start of last
year we came up with a specific theme that we would incorporate and address
over the course of 2017. The theme was “Live Free in Christ.” This really has
helped us a lot to get to know the freedom that Christ gives us, and it has
helped us to keep our identity, security, and value fixed on Christ.
Without God’s help and
the support of so many brothers and sisters in Christ, nothing would be
happening that has happened over these last six months. The theme is being applied
in practical ways such that it has stimulated many of the successes the
ministry is experiencing in both Las Pilas and Arrayanes. In the last weeks, we
have had new people attending in Las Pilas who have never attended before; for
this reason we hope to establish a central meeting space there by the end of
the year. In Arrayanes we began a meeting every Friday evening at 5:00 p.m.,
and people are attending! We will continue to nurture a culture of weekly
attendance there. We have also begun home visits in Arrayanes, and we put on a
street evangelism event in which brothers and sisters from both Arrayanes and
Cofradía participated.
We want to thank you for
your prayer and financial support because it has allowed us to continue sowing
the seeds of the Gospel. Thank you for being such an active part of our
ministry. May God bless you with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has
blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
(Ephesians 1:3)
Sincerely,
Pastor Gregorio and Maty Hernandez-Espinoza, and
family
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Pastor Luis Vazquez is our Student Ministries pastor and maintenance director for the church. He also serves as the Cofradia Dwellings Foreman for building homes for less-fortunate people. He is very busy and struggles to make ends meat each week. Thank you for responding in prayer. Someone has committed to helping hm financially for one year. Consider how you can help him by clicking on his name to become a monthly donor.
Here is his report:
Blessings to you and your family through Christ Jesus.
It is my pleasure to greet you with the highest respect and
gratitude I have for you because of the essential part you play in my life and
that of my family.
We find ourselves currently in a time of transition with our
younger children as they are becoming adolescents, and we are learning together
to follow God through this season of moments that stimulate our faith and teach
us patience. We have also grown in our marriage through all these things, but
thanks be to God we are abundantly blessed by the growth continues to produce
fruit in our lives as my wife has taken on more responsibility in the church
and our ministry. We find great joy in serving God together as a couple.
In the youth ministry in which we serve, we finished EL RETO
after another excellent series of events enjoyed by both our youth and those of
nearby churches that visit us frequently. After the event concluded,
approximately ten youth from those other churches have continued to attend our
gatherings.
We also concluded another New Life discipleship class for our
youth, and we began with the second class, which is being co-taught by my wife
and daughter. Six young people are participating in this discipleship
opportunity, and I will be working with them to identify ways in which they can
take on more responsibility in our youth ministry so as to continue training
them up in leadership.
Our church hosted the seminar Freedom in Christ. Four pastors
participated along with other leaders from their churches and other brothers
and sisters from the local church. It was a time of great blessing, as we
watched them truly own the freedom they have been given in Christ by believing
the truth of God. I and two others helped to lead the seminar, and it loved
teaching it and watching it take effect in the lives of those who attended.
We will be working more closely this year with several of our
youth as part of our leadership training. Several of them participated in the
Freedom in Christ seminar, and it has been a great help to them in
understanding their identity in Christ. They will be assigned as team captains
in our 2018 EL RETO event and will go through a training seminary for that role
over Holy Week this spring.
We built two homes for families that did not have a suitable
place to live, and one of those families did not know God at the time. They are
attending church with us now, and it is such a blessing to visit them regularly
in order to encourage them in faith.
We greet you and thank you for all the support you have poured
out on us as a family and on our ministry. Thank you for your prayers and your
timely financial support; it has been so helpful in our lives. Words are not
sufficient words to express the depth of my gratitude for your generosity.
May you be blessed with all the spiritual blessings in heaven.
Sincerely,
Pastor Luis y Mari, and family
______________________________________________________________
Pastor Horacio Garzon leads the indigenous ministry in Mojocuautla and helps facilitate ministry in Arrayanes.
Here is his report:
Dear
Brothers and Sister,
It
is with great pleasure that I write these lines to you in order, first of all,
to wish you well and good health.
We
are well, thanks be to God, and we do not tire of thanking you for your
generous financial support for my family. Thank you! And thanks be to God who
is our great motivation in this life. I give thanks to God for Kenia, who is
pursuing her studies with enthusiasm and tenacity. I too have enjoyed training
this year through the opportunity to attend two training seminars from Freedom
in Christ Ministries.
Brothers
and sisters, it gives me great pleasure and fills me with such purpose to see
what God is doing in the indigenous Cora community of Las Ajuntas. I am working
with and am greatly encouraged by two primary leaders there: Antonio and
Cirlio. Both are saved by Christ and have been baptized. I see a great need,
and it will be a great blessing when, that God raise them up as a light there.
For that reason, my wife and I have been focusing both time and resources on
investing in them, which has allowed them to see God’s love in their lives. We
pray that God will help them to continue rooted and strong in their
relationship with Christ. We hope for a precious congregation there that
worships God and grows strong under His guidance.
Thank
you, brothers and sisters, for joining your prayers with ours for these
petitions, and thank you for your financial support. May God continue to bless
you for your generosity. Receive greetings from María, Martí, and the rest of
the family. My most sincere thanks to you, and may you have a joyous Christmas
and a happy new year.
Thank
you,
Pastor
Horacio and María, and family.
______________________________________________________________
Pastor Amado Verdin is from Rosamorada and is the lead pastor of Iglesia Hermosa Casa de Oración. He also is heading up the drug rehab center which he likes to call a Restoration Center. The center is designed to house interns and help them be restored to good health physically, mentally, and spiritually. They will also be trained in a trade in order to help them be reinstalled into society once they're finished with the program. You can read about my explanation of their current financial need here and click on his name to help with his project.
His report was unavailable, but I do have some recent pictures of the place they are renting:
