Next Steps, Gods continuing work.

     Good Morning! It has been a while since we last posted. Jennifer's mother is here visiting so we have been busy showing her around the island.  The weather here is getting HOTTER! It has been 90 for the past few days. We literally take two or three showers a day.

     This past weekend we had our monthly food handout. We made 60 meals and handed out 50 before our transportation broke down. It is amazing how fast 50 meals go! So far every time we have made food we did not think we would have enough to make all 50 meals. Every time we have had more than enough! It is like the Lord multiplied what we had! (didn't this happen before?)  This month not only did we buy and make the food, two women from Armando and Jeanette's church also made food! We had food coming from everywhere! It was amazing to see how God not only provide for us but for all those we came into contact with that afternoon as well. Jennifer's mom was with us too, we were excited to have her here to see in part what God is doing here.

     A couple weeks back Jennifer and I sat down with Pastor Efren to talk about the future Rincon Campus plant and what our involvement may/or may not be. After hearing what he had to say and him sharing his vision that God has given him and the leadership of Center Church PR he laid out some things for Jennifer and I to pray about. In a nut shell, the leadership of The Center Church PR would like us more involved with the functioning and church planting that The Lord is leading them to. After much consideration and prayer we have made a commitment to be involved with the Rincon campus plant. We sat down with Pastor Efren Sunday morning and we will be hitting the ground running. Over the next few months we will be spending a lot of time with Pastor Efren and his family. With this comes recon work on the West Coast, which is where Rincon is located. Lord willing this week I will be meeting with Monty, the leader of Christian Surfers of Rincon to begin building relationships with people of influence in the Rincon area. There also is a high probability that we will be spending the month of June in Cabo Rojo, which is about 20 min from Rincon. Our friends, Julio and Stacy are headed back to the states to raise more support as they too are here for missionary work. They have offered to have us house sit while they are away. This will give us a good chance to meet more people in the area and begin the relationship building process.

     As I have informed you all already, my job here ends May 30. We have been praying for what we should do for support. We have been led to start an Island Guide business/ministry. We are just launching so there is no income as of yet. However, we know God will provide, He always has and always will. We have been keeping posts going on Instagram, Twitter and a Facebook page and have been getting a lot of response. You can find us at: on Twitter @Footprints_pr , on Instagram footprints_pr and on facebook www.facebook.com/footprintspr
     All costs are by donation only. We are already connected with a fishing/snorkeling tour ministry that we will be taking people to. As we travel the island and discover more amazing places God has created we will be finding new places to bring people all while taking the stress out of trying to figure out how to get there. We are also still seeking support from those of you back home who support the work God has us doing down here. As we get more and more involved with the church in Rincon, which is 1.5 hours from our house, we will be traveling there more often. We will also be commuting to and from our church in Dorado which is about 45 min from home. Of course, we still have our monthly bills to cover as well. So far the money from support back home combined with the money I make from work has covered all our needs. As my job comes to a close and God launches our business there may be a short lull in income. We ask that you please pray about supporting us and the work God is doing here in Puerto Rico. If you feel led to send support there are ways to do so below.

     School is going great for the kids. They are learning a ton of new stuff and seem very eager to learn, which is an answer to prayer. Jennifer is doing a great job teaching the kids even though it can be challenging at times. The kids say she is a much better mother than a teacher. She agrees! It can be challenging to be a teacher and a mother. Right now it's the best choice for us. We have found a great school supply store that has pretty much anything we could possibly need for school! School for me is going great as well. I am coming to the end of this semester and have A's in both classes. God sure has my hand here! No stopping, I go right into my next semester in two weeks. Lord willing I will graduate in December.

     The kids are growing fast! We look at pics of them taken just last year and the change is amazing. Dallas will be 13 years old this Friday!!! Two teens in the house!!! Pray for us :) Bridger tries to act like one so.... He says he is growing his hair out until we leave. I think he may rethink that as the heat continues to rise. HAHA.

     Our truck is running better than ever. I have done a lot of work to it to get it running good but it was worth it. We really enjoy the truck God provided for us. I'm not sure if we like the truck or the looks we often get while driving it more. LOL

     God has been good and he has heard your prayers for us and His work here. We thank you all for you support no matter what that support may be. Our lives are forever changed because you have been obedient to the support God is leading you to. We could never do this without your love and your prayers. As we continue to be obedient to Gods call on our life, the more and more you all will be involved in Gods work in expanding His kingdom here in Puerto Rico and the world. We love you all and pray for you often. God is good!

Your Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
John, Jennifer, Blake, Dallas and Bridger Hoogeveen

Ways To Send Support

For a tax deductible donation Please send check written out to Seven Hills Church- Memo line Hoogeveen Missions to:

Seven Hills Church

c/o Hoogeveen Missions

661 East 24th Street Suite 100

Holland, MI 49423

(Seven Hills deposits into account by the 7th of each month)

For a non-tax deductible donation online go to:

www.donationto.com/Matthew-28-Missions

(There is a small fee attached to this method. You can choose to pay the fee or have it taken out of your donation to us)

   

Moving Forward...

Sorry it has been so long since our last post. We have been super busy with visitors. God has blessed us so much in the past week with visitors and new relationships.
Our week started two Saturdays ago. Pastor George from In His Presence Worship Center in West Georgia and Danny a good friend from back home flew in to spend some time with us.
It was great to spend time with a good friend and build a stronger relationship with Pastor George.
As God is leading our lives down here in Puerto Rico amazing things have been happening. Sunday I was ordained for pastoral ministry through In His Presence Worship Center. Never did I think I would become an ordained minister. Nor did anyone I grew up with. My dad actually ran into an old friend of mine from high school. He asked my dad how Jennifer and I are doing and what we are up to. So my dad told him. This was his response according to my dad, "What! John? Wow God really does do miracles!" Yup he sure does! We are so thankful for Gods grace. We so don't deserve this.

But the cooler stuff started that morning with a phone call at 8am from the principal of the school I work at. Being I do not work Sundays I was a little worried as to why she was calling me. The conversation went as follows.
Arleen: Hi John, I got a phone call from a guy here on vacation from Michigan. Some how he heard about you and that you work here. He is looking for an English speaking church. I told him about your church. It is full English right?

Me: Yes it is.

Arleen: Great well I told him you would call him.

So, I called him up. I found out he is from Jackson Michigan and his family is here on vacation and was looking for a place to worship in English. I told him a little about us and our church and they met us there that morning. I thought it was really neat how God used us to connect this family from Michigan with a church. But little did I know this was just the start of what God was going to do through this family.
After church we talked with Andrew and his wife. They wanted to go to the Indian caves, which is near our house. We had already planned on bringing Danny and Pastor George there at some point any way so Jennifer said, "Why dont we go together?" To my surprise they were all about that!
So we planned on meeting Tuesday morning. We meet up with them and they followed us to the caves. There was an instant connection with the entire family. Our kids and their kids acted like they had know each other for years, as did Andrew and his wife April and Jennifer and myself.  We ended up spending the entire day with them, after the caves we went to  beach and snorkeled then went back to our house for dinner. They hung out until almost 10pm! After spending some time with them they said that they were so grateful that we wasted our whole day guiding them around. I said, "Wasted! Shoot this is what we do. This is what God sent us here for." They were grateful for what God did through us and us grateful for what God did through them. God revealed some really amazing things about what we are here for and how we can live life every day, do what we enjoy and be the hands and feet of Jesus to literally anyone.
Throughout the week we did plenty of things with George and Danny. Anything from the beach to swimming across a river to go to a secluded waterfall in the forest. God really allowed relationships to grow. But through this whole experience our missions has been more and more revealed.
Once George left we went to spend the weekend in Cabo Rojo with our good friends and missionaries Julio and Stacy. They took us along with Danny out on the boat to go fishing and snorkeling. Again through this weekend God started building relationships and revealing more and more of what our mission looks like.
Then Easter Sunday came! It was a wonderful day! As we celebrated the Resurrection of Jesus we enjoyed more company from Michigan. This time we knew this family. They were from Ridge Point which is the church that we were part of back in Michigan. Again we spent the entire day with them. They came over after church for Easter lunch, hot dogs and rice. Then they wanted to go snorkeling so we took them to the second best place to go that we know of. (the best is and hour and a half away). Again God made a connection that was amazing. Through all this God just kept on revealing to us more and more of what we are here for. Not to my surprise, it is nothing that we thought it would be. Sometimes being the hands and feet of Jesus is nothing more that having a strong relationship with him and pouring that out into others. I love it!
So with all that being said I want to share with you a small piece of what we feel God is leading us to.
Now I have no idea how we are going to do this but I do know that God does so we are just going to leave the results up to him.
My job at the school ends May 30. That means no more money. So we have been praying for God to show us what he wants us to do for money, ie. more support from back home, another job and so on.
Throughout this past week we feel God has revealed to us what that is. God sent us here to live our lives as our ministry, now that is different than having ministry being our life. I'll let you pray on that one.
God said to us, hey why do you have to do anything different than your doing? Just include me in it. Be the hands and feet of Jesus to those I give you in the things you already do anyway. But more than just that be intentional about serving others and loving them like Jesus.
S what this looks like for us is this. As of right now we are just in the starting phase of what this looks like. But we want to share with you where we are at so far.
As most of you know, Puerto Rico gets a lot of visitors here on vacation. For those of you who have been someplace new it can be hard to find your way around and very time consuming. For those of you who have been to a place where they do not speak English it can be even more difficult. So we thought, through the guidance of The Holy Spirit, why not be the one who helps eliminate the stress? We can build relationships, be the hands and feet of Jesus, all while guiding people around the island. We would do our part of guiding and let God do his part of making a connection. Furthermore we feel God leading us to do this all by donation. Our job is to do what God called us too and God will provide the resources for our needs. So, as of right now we are planning on launching, "Footprints" an island guidance experience where you come for an adventure and leave with an impression.
We are very excited about this and are praying for God to open up the doors. Although this is part of our ministry here on the island, we feel this is not an evangelistic ministry per-say. This is an opportunity for people to see the hands and feet of Jesus in action and when God opens the door to share Jesus, we will.
On another note, this coming Sunday is our first class that we are teaching on Christian Basics. We are excited to see what God is going to do through this class. Life Groups start tonight at church and Jennifer is leading the kids Life Group! That is right up here ally. Thursday we are talking with Pastor Efren about what or possible roll in the Rincon (West Coast) Church Campus plant looks like. The Center ChurchPR is getting ready to launch a Campus there this winter.
As God continues to soften our hearts, give us wisdom and guide our mission we are forever grateful for all of you who support us back home. It would be way more difficult if we did not get your prayers and financial support. We truly thank God for each and every one of you.

Here are some pictures of what God has been doing and relationships we have been building.

Prayer Requests:
Prayer for wisdom and humbleness as we teach the class God has entrusted us with
Prayer for homeschooling to become more organized and work gets done
Prayer for me as I finish up school ( I graduate this December)
Prayer for what God is leading us too next and that he provides all our needs to glorify Him.
Prayer for our church here TheCenterChurchPR and its leaders
Prayer for all the churches here on the island
Prayer for discernment with what to say and when to say it.
Pray for Jennifer as she leads the kids small group on Wed. night.
Pray for all Christians here on the island and unity through Christ so we can work together as one body.
I could go one but this is what we need right now. God bless you all.