Thursday, January 18, 2018

PASTORS' PERSPECTIVES 17.2

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
______________________________________________________________

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:






No comments:

Post a Comment