And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them:
Jeremiah 32:39
Raquel and I chose this verse as the theme for our marriage while we were still engaged. In context, God is promising that though the current outlook in Jerusalem is bleak—after all, the city is besieged by the world’s superpower—the nation will unite in submission to God and enjoy His blessing for eternity. Perhaps that was a dangerous verse to claim! Our marriage began with a series of early miscarriages, followed by the news that we had almost no chance of having children. Yet after 4 years, by God’s grace, Leire was born, and today we have 3 precious children, with our 4th (a boy) due in November. Our God loves us so much more than we deserve!
Thank God for the strength to lead our growing church and family. As the church ministry ramps up in depth and complexity, we learn to lean more on God’s strength and less on our own understanding. I’ve thought often about how strange it feels for me to advise people with lives tangled and scarred by decades of ungodly choices. Thankfully, the Bible not only identifies problems but also provides hope. It’s humbling to see people with more life experience than I possess show deference to Biblical counsel.
There’s a couple in church who started coming in July last year. They were both divorced, and both of them have adult children from previous marriages. When we met them, their marriage was in a critical state. But over the past year we’ve seen them grow spiritually. They are very happy to serve in church and are helping a lot with cleaning and maintenance. For the past 3 months, I’ve been doing discipleship classes with the husband, who’s an avid student. He has struggled with a smoking addiction for a long time, but with the Lord’s help, he’s now gone a month without touching a cigarette.
We’ve reached an exciting new chapter in church. We’re now holding youth group meetings every other Saturday! We have a core group of four 12/13-year-old boys in the congregation, and they’re happy to meet for a time of Bible study, singing, and games. They’ve even brought several unsaved friends to the meetings! Pray that the current excellent spirit will continue, and that the Lord would work in the lives of these kids. Incidentally, every one of them comes from a single-parent or broken home, so they desperately need love and mentoring. We’ve started out by studying the Fruit of the Spirit in the Bible lessons.
We are praying about making a trip to the USA next year, sometime in the spring or fall. We want to visit our supporting churches, some of which we’ve never even met! We would also love to raise our monthly support by visiting new churches. Our expenses are significantly above our budgeted income every month, but thanks to unbudgeted donations from friends and churches, we get by without having to work extra part-time jobs. We’re trusting the Lord to help us with upcoming expenses.
To our supporting churches, if you would like us to come and present a ministry report, we would love to do so next year with the whole family!
If you’d like to receive more regular updates and prayer requests, please join my ministry update group on WhatsApp, where I communicate (a bit more) regularly. Thank you as always for your prayers for us and for the ministry!
Thank you for your prayers! God bless,
David
Psalm 34:3
