Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

In November we were happy to celebrate with Nathaly as she graduated from high school. Her mom was able to come to her graduation, and Nathaly has gone to live with her mother full-time and is working near their apartment.

We concluded our various ministries with Christmas parties, and the first was for the Monday night Bible study. A clown came and played games with the kids, we had a devotion and time of prayer, and enjoyed a special meal around a fire.

The breakfast ministry finished with 150 tamales for all the street vendors, shoe shiners, homeless and alcoholics in the central park of our town. I shared about difference in the reactions the wise men and King Herod had when they learned about the birth of Jesus. The wise men sought Jesus, worshipped Him and protected Him, while King Herod acted outwardly happy while secretly desiring to kill Jesus because he had no room in his heart for any other king. There was a good response and a great time of prayer afterwards.

Then we had a Christmas party with the children of the Casa Shalom orphanage last week. We had a lunch of tamales and flan, had a great game of soccer, fellowship, prayer and ice cream. Most of our girls grew up there, and we had a great group of alumni visit the orphanage with us. In fact, they paid for all the food! It was wonderful to spend time with and love on the kids.

On Christmas Eve we made tamales and then stayed up all night eating, goofing off, and shooting fireworks. On Christmas Day we went hiking in the mountains nearby to watch the sunset. (I’m sorry for all of you who have really cold weather… it’s wonderful here!) New Year’s Eve will be very similar with lots of kids arriving to stay with us, and we’ll stay up super late all over again!

When I was growing up we knew a lady who would foster care for many children. My family would go over to her house to help with lawn work and house repair projects. So we knew them well. 
When I was about a senior in high school, my parents had all of them over to our house for Thanksgiving. I distinctly remember not being happy about it because I wanted family time as my brother was back from college, and I wanted a relaxing time of eating and watching football. But I was a good Christian boy, so I didn’t complain or share my discontent, and I remember the chaos of the meal with her trying to keep all the kids seated and not fighting.
Now I am so grateful for experiences like this which taught me to love even when I don’t want to, and taught me that Christ followers are called to serve in all times.

Ministry Highlights for 2022

• Receiving Nathaly, Anelcy & Lesly into our family this year.
• Receiving visitors for the first time since the pandemic started.
• Working as a family to translate for six different evangelism groups and meeting many new like-hearted friends.
• Starting construction on the new apartment. Here’s a video of the progress: youtu.be/XsMkIdem7q8
• Visiting our home church after not being able to for so long and spending quality time with Pastor Rick and his family. A special highlight was spending an amazing time in worship led by a couple who had just lost a child to cancer, and then I had to preach and I was so humbled as I prayed, “Lord, what can I say after that?”
• Reading through the gospel of John during our Monday Night Bible study and helping the group which does not have much schooling to learn to study the Bible for themselves. It’s also been great seeing Margaret’s heart grow for her street-vender friends and watching her joy to be with them each week.

A few months ago our finances had gotten really low, and I started to really fret about how we were going to make it to the end of the year. I would love to say that I was calmly trusting the Lord, but I was mostly just stressing out. We were so blessed to have some regular donors step up and help us through that time, and this month we received some new donors who have surprised us by their generosity. We’re so grateful and humbled!

Ministry Vision for 2023

We’re going to probably be receiving at least two more girls into our family shortly. And this is an especially important year for 5 of our girls who are starting their senior year of high school in January — from Karla, who’s been with us for over 7 years, to Lesly, who’s been with us 3 months. 

My greatest desire for this year is to help them grow in their relationship with their Heavenly Father. It’s too easy as a Christian to go through the motions or learn facts about God, but to never having a relationship with Him as a father and as a friend. Just like we can be with a famous person, we can learn facts about them or maybe meet them, but that’s not a relationship! I want each of them to be secure in their position as a child of a loving God, and then to learn to walk with Him everyday for the rest of their lives.

Thank you so much for your continued support for us!
God bless,
Brent, Yuliza, Margaret & Isabella