It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. -Lamentations 3:22-23
The end of a year and the beginning of a new one is always a time of reflection for us. There have been a lot of unexpected happenings in our life in the past year. God moves in mysterious ways. In seasons of hardships and difficulties, we often look back and see it was a time of spiritual growth and preparation. Though we may not understand why some things came to pass, we are confident God is still active in moving all of us forward to His great purpose.
2020-2021 had been a very different and often challenging couple of years, as may have been the case for you as well. We spent most of last year in our childhood home areas in Washington state, USA. To recap, we had visited family and friends in Washington in July 2020, only planning on staying for a couple of months. Due to border closures, we could not return to Mexico in September 2020 as planned. We trusted the Lord and His guidance and attempted to return a few months later after the winter holidays. In the spring of 2021, Jesse’s grandfather passed away, and his great-grandmother also passed ten days later. We decided to prolong our visit further to support our family. During that time, Jesse’s sister, Tiffany, struggled in her battle with cancer. She became hospitalized, unable to do much on her own, and in constant pain. She needed consistent care and assistance with physical therapy. With the hospital being short-staffed, they allowed one family member at a time to help tend to her needs. Close family members switched off during the day when they were off work. Jesse spent many days and nights for months helping her also — sitting with her, supporting her, and having many beautiful spiritual conversations about the Bible and God. We are so thankful that she trusted Christ as her Savior when she was very young.
We needed to attend to some urgent matters in Mexico, and with the borders open, we decided to drive back to our home in Santiago Ixcuintla in mid-October 2021. From the time we left, Tiffany passed away three weeks later in November and after a six-year battle with cancer. In her words, she graduated to Heaven. We decided quickly to drive the 52 hours back up to Washington to attend her funeral and be with our family once again during that difficult time. She was a light to all who knew and loved her, and her testimony for the Lord touched many lives.
During our short time in Mexico in October, we came across a warehouse with a small apartment near our house for rent. We were able to do a walk-through with the owner, and after a few days of prayer and consideration, we decided to rent it. It’s called “La Roca,” which means “The Rock” in Spanish — a fitting reminder that God is our Rock. We feel He has provided the opportunity to rent this space to move forward with hosting students and officially starting His Workmanship Academy. We still plan to build out at our property but this space will serve our students well for the time being. There is still a bit of preparation to do, and Lord willing, we will begin to host students in August or September of this year, 2022.
Almost two years ago, we paid for power at a property we purchased for the school. Due to government offices shut down, it had been postponed and delayed, and Jesse called down almost every month to find out if there was any progress. The local power company finally ran the wire in November 2021. Now we’re just waiting for the transformer to be installed in a few weeks, Lord willing.
After two years of waiting, Jesse’s Mexican citizenship paperwork was finally ready to be picked up a week ago. We can finally transfer the property fully in his name for our discipleship & vocational training program. It will take a couple of months to transfer the property name because we have to meet with a land association group that only meets once a month.
The believers are doing well in Santiago. We have regularly kept in contact with them through phone calls and Zoom meetings. Now that we are back in Mexico, we have met with many of them in person. It has been encouraging to see the growth in the believers in Santiago in our time away. We believe it’s been helpful for them to learn to work together and rely on the Lord.
Please continue to pray for the work of the Lord here in Mexico. We pray the gospel will touch many more lives for salvation and that the local believers will be encouraged and strengthened in their walk with the Lord. Please also pray for our upcoming plans, in the will of the Lord, for His Workmanship Academy, our future students, and the ministry and gospel efforts we plan to do together in our community here and surrounding areas.
We are happy to be back in Mexico and moving forward in the will of the Lord to fulfill His purposes in us. We are thankful the Lord has preserved us in all our travels and ups and downs, especially in recent years. Though the last couple of years were not anything like we could have imagined, we praise God for continuing to guide us and direct in His will. We can look back and see His hand in many things and rest in knowing He is in control and is faithful.
Here are a few more pictures of “La Roca”, the beginnings of His Workmanship Academy.
