It has been a while since our last post on the blog.
SO much changed since the last post back in January.
At that time, we had made it through one of the hardest changes we have ever had to face.
Since then, God has done a huge work in our hearts & in our lives.
We have taken time to process all of the feelings & find our new rhythm.
And we feel like it's finally time to share with you some of the ways we have seen God move in the last several months of this new journey!
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We can't believe how the Lord has orchestrated things for us in Puerto Rico.
If someone would have told us a year ago as we finished our first trimester of language school that we would be living in PR, we would have laughed and called them crazy.
BUT GOD.
To say that things have fallen into place just doesn't do this transition justice.
We have had things happen that NO one can explain.
Connections that have been made for us that no person can take credit for making.
We want to give you a peek into our life here in PR so that you can join us in praising the Lord for what He has done!
Here's an update on our home, our church, our family, our friends & our future!
Our Home
Many of you know that we had a home fall in place for us before we arrived in PR. Here's the story!
At the end of January, we spoke at Latta Baptist Church in Latta, SC. We were sharing our hearts at their Wednesday night service. When we scheduled the date with the Pastor in the Fall, we made plans to share an update on Honduras & the ministry there. By the time January rolled around, everything was turned upside down!
With the way things unfolded for us & our new assignment, we felt defeated and discouraged going into the service. We had never been to PR & still were not sure if this was God's direction for us. It felt premature to share about pioneering before our vision trip but we decided we would be transparent, share about the last year of ministry & language school, share about the struggle to accept when God's plan didn't match ours, and let the Lord do the rest of the work.
We showed up to speak and were so thankful we didn't back down. Familiar faces, hugs & encouragement helped to ease our nerves and make us feel at home. Pastor Rob shared with us that a group called Campers On Mission would be attending their service that night. They were in the area working on a sister church and heard we were in town sharing about YFC so they decided to attend church service that night at Latta Baptist.
We shared our hearts and stood at the end of service to chat with church members. A couple from Campers on Mission approached our table and asked us what part of PR we were planning on living. We told them we had not decided yet but had freedom to begin in any area. John & Joyce shared with us that Joyce's sister had a home in Puerto Rico that she was not living in or using. They asked if they could pass our information on to Glenda to see what may come of the connection.
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| So thankful to see Brad & Anna Wise! |
We left that night encouraged and excited to see what may happen next!
A few days later, Glenda contacted us with information about her home. It was in the exact town that we had been looking for rental homes in & had enough space for us to begin hosting our groups that were interested in coming to serve. She graciously offered the home to us as a way for us to get on the ground & begin ministry as soon as possible! We were in awe and praising God for this miracle.
On our vision trip in February, we were able to see the house and town we would soon call home. It was one of MANY confirmations on that vision trip that the Lord had gone before us & made a way!
At the end of March, Glenda & Sam (the owners of the home) along with John & Joyce all came and stayed two weeks with us in Puerto Rico. They blessed our family so much with help as we worked on cleaning, painting, building bunk beds for teams, and getting adjusted to life in our new town. It was a time of encouragement and fellowship that we look back on & smile! God has such a beautiful way of bringing people into our lives when we least expect it. What a blessing!
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| Time together in Isabela |
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| Bunk bed project |
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| Dinner together |
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| Watering the flowers with Ms. Glenda |
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| Hard to say see you soon ... but thankful for this time together! |
Our Church
When we came to PR in February for our vision trip, we unexpectedly met a man named Noel. Noel is a family friend of the owner of a property here in PR that we had found and wanted to check out as a possible site for YFC ministry. Since the owner lives in the States, he arranged for Noel to meet us & answer any questions we had about the area.
We told Noel that we were moving to PR to begin ministry & he began telling us about his church and the ministries they have there. Turns out, they have been going to the mountains every other week since Hurricane Maria to deliver supplies & share the Gospel with those hurting. We were so encouraged to hear about a church already on mission and serving one another!
When we arrived to PR in March, we visited this church on our first Sunday. We instantly felt a connection to the Pastor and the rest of the congregation. There are no words to describe what the last 2 months have been like for us with our church family here. They have taken us in & loved us like they have known us for years. We have been serving every other week with the church in the mountain regions that are still without power & water. It has been such a gift to get to know the people from our church & spend time learning from the Pastor.
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| Front of the church |
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| Outdoor sanctuary |
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| Sunset from Church Balcony |
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| Daniel sharing with the church about YFC and our family |
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| Josie and her new friends at church |
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| Easter Sunday |
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| Church service |
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| Visiting during a mountain outreach |
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| Handing out groceries & hygiene products |
Our Family
This transition has been our easiest by far. We have seen our joy restored & felt the goodness of the Lord resting on our family. After a hard year of transitions in 2017, it has been a gift to have this move to PR have less of a shock and impact on our hearts individually and as a whole.
Most of our time has been spent getting the house in order, running errands to get life set up here in PR, and helping the church with various things. We have made a nightly ritual of having shadow puppets shows which always ends in us cracking up together. So thankful for these memories!
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Daniel has been busy getting the house in order to host groups, getting materials and tools necessary for the projects we have this summer, and working on a ministry plan with our church for the groups coming to serve.
I have been working on getting the house in order to make it feel like a home, (which includes adjusting to cooking here without an oven!) & settling into our new norm in our town in PR.
We both feel like we are thriving here with the amount of love and encouragement we have been receiving both from our ministry partners back home and the locals we have grown to love so quickly. It is a blessing to be in a healthy place to begin this journey together!
Josie has been soaking up every second of PR life. She has made new friends at church, loves walking to the plaza in town, and spends her days with her eyes wide open taking in all of the new surroundings.
She truly has a heart that was created for this. We stand amazed at how The Lord has given her peace & joy in the midst of so much uncertainty in her 5 years of life with us. She teaches us a lot about taking one day at a time & making the most of each day!
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| Mommy & Josie on the balcony at church |
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| Daddy & his girl on Easter Sunday |
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| Cleaning on the front porch |
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| PR looks good on this girl :) |
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| Playing in the plaza |
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| Beauty on the beach :) |
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| Visit to Pigeon Park |
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| Helping handout groceries at the outreach |
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| Accepted into Carib Christian School for Kindergarten! |
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| Her new favorite - washing dishes after dinner! |
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| Doing her part with clean up! |
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| Loves her new Bible! |
We have been blessed to meet so many amazing people in our short time on the island. God continues to place people in our path that have a heart for the Gospel & have welcomed us with open arms. The list is too long for us to share all of the connections we have made ... but here are a few of our closest friends we have made in the last two months!
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Noel & Edna have become our PR parents. They have helped us get settled in, given us advice on places to make purchases, helped give us heads up about things in the area, & welcomed us into their family like we have always been a part.
Josie tells everyone here that Noel is her best friend ... it is the cutest thing to see them acting silly together. He takes time to teach her words in Spanish & show her new things. She has grown to love to play with their grandchildren & we praise The Lord that He has given us this family in PR!
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| Celebrating Noel's birthday with his family! |
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| Noel spoiling Josie with ice cream |
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| Noel is a Vietnam vet .. so he & Daniel had an instant heart connection. The love between these two is something of the Lord! |
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| Working together in Ciales & Orocovis delivering supplies --------------------------------------------- |
We don't get to see them regularly now that they have returned to Chicago but we enjoy having FaceTime convos & staying in touch with them! Oscar & Johanna have left their marks in our hearts & we know the Lord is going to bring them back to PR to serve with us SOON!
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| Outreach in Ciales |
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Pastor Jorge has been an answer to so many of our prayers. He has pastored the church we have been attending in Quebradillas for 28 years. The testimony of how he came to Christ & how the church began is nothing short of a miracle. We have gained so much wisdom from Pastor Jorge in our short time here. He has stopped everything to pray with us, encourage us, and make us feel at home at Iglesia Cristiana Bautista. We praise The Lord for this man!
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| Pastor Jorge, Josie & Noel |
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Turned out, the same realtor that had sent us some rental home listings was helping her purchase a home in Puerto Rico. The realtor just happened to mention to Belinda that she had been in contact with a couple who was coming to start a ministry on the island. Belinda took interest, asked more questions, and got our contact information from the realtor.
We chatted with Belinda, shared our story about how our assignment had recently changed, and told her about our plan to pioneer YFC ministry on the island. She said that she had given to a chapter of YFC in Florida for years but would like to begin financially supporting the ministry in Puerto Rico. She asked us to let her know when we moved so that she could begin partnering with us financially.
We spoke to her again the week of Easter & she dropped off a generous donation towards YFC Puerto Rico at the Denver office. We were in awe of the way that The Lord orchestrated for a complete stranger to become a dear ministry partner ... someone we had never even met before that He set in motion!
To top it all off, Belinda traveled to PR to visit her son at the end of April. She was able to join us on the outreach along with her son, Matt. We were thrilled to meet them and so thankful that they could come and see the ministry first hand! We look forward to continuing a friendship with Belinda & Matt as we continue to partner together to bring hope to PR!
On that same trip to Orocovis for an outreach, we had the pleasure of meeting Elias. Elias lives in New Jersey but has ties and family here in PR. He has been working since September to raise awareness for the need here & raise support to make the biweekly outreach possible. Every two weeks, in order to reach 100 families with groceries, water, and hygiene products, it takes around $2500. Elias has worked hard to partner with Pastor Jorge on this mission. We are blessed to know him & excited to see what God has planned for future partnership!
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| Belinda, Matt, & Elias serving with our church group in Orocovis |
Mike & Judy were planning to travel via cruise boat from San Juan, PR to Rome in order to spend two months doing ministry in the Ukraine. They found out that our assignment was changed and made arrangements to come stay with us in Isabela before taking off for their missions adventure!
We are so thankful they carved time out of their schedule to stay with us. They were such an encouragement & blessing to our family. They were with us the first weekend in May. During the time they were here, they were able to spend time in our home, meet our Pastor & visit our church!
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| Group picture from our church balcony |
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| Saying "see you soon" from the port in San Juan |
The future for us here in PR is full of so many opportunities & the potential for an amazing ministry.
We have seen the Lord soften hearts & draw people to Himself unlike anywhere else we have ever served.
Over the last two months as we have helped with the outreach, we have had over 100 people respond and make decisions for Christ. There is a revival happening on this island & we are blessed to be just a small part of what God is doing.
We are excited to begin hosting mission teams this summer starting at the end of May. We will be very busy but we are excited to see what The Lord has in store. We know for sure that we will be working on rebuilding a home for a family in Ciales that lost everything to Hurricane Maria.
If you would like to be a partner in this house project, please contact us on FB messenger or at 843-804-0110. We are praying for the Lord to provide the money and supplies needed to complete this house with our mission teams. What a blessing it will be for this family!
In August, after hosting several teams, we will begin adjusting to our new routine and daily life here in PR. Josie will be starting Kindergarten at Carib Christian School which is about 25 minutes from our house. Once she is in school full-time, we plan to begin a partnership with her school & have a weekly time of encouragement for their middle & high school students. We will also have more time to begin reaching out to local schools & an attempt to begin ministry with teens.
Along with reaching out to schools & helping our church with mid-week ministries, we will continue working on the Youth For Christ pioneering process here in PR. There is so much work that goes into pioneering a ministry the right way. We are yielding to the timeline that The Lord has for us & trusting Him to direct our path.
We are embracing all that He has done to make a way & waiting expectantly for what is to come.
We know that He has equipped us for every good work He has prepared for us to do.
We just have to wake up every day and continue to choose to say "YES, Lord!"
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We feel honored to share this peek into our life here & can't wait to continue to share what happens as we abandon all & abide in Him!
