Our Visit Home Speaking update.

Speaking update...

We will be sharing at The Corner Bible Church on Allegan, MI. on Oct 4. We have a few min during each service , 9 am and 11 am. We also have been given the whole Sunday school hour which is in between the 9 and 11 service. We hope to see you there.

Ministry Update and Visit Home

Good Morning,

     It has been a little while since we sent out our last update. The past few months have been really busy with ministry, work and guests. Here will be a quick update on what has happened in the past few months. Some of this information may be repeated from previous emails. 

     Our work with CCPR has continued to grow.  Jennifer and I are now working on the church planting team through CCPR (The Center Church Puerto Rico). We are currently working on a church plant on the West Coast  of the island in the city of Rincon. We currently make a monthly visit there as we are starting to build relationships with some locals. In Oct. CCPR will be sponsoring a surfing festival in Rincon. We will be having a tent set up to hand out waters and information about our new CCPR Rincon campus.  I have been given the responsibility of setting up those details with the festival coordinator. This is a unique city mainly composed of surfers, skaters, BMX bikers and artists. Our church here will be unique as well. We have no intention on seeking out a building right away as the services will more than likely be on the beach or in a home.  Starting in 2016 CCPR has plans for us to start making regular trips to the West Coast.  This is a 2.5 hour drive from Dorado.  We are excited about this plant and are praying that our work is effective.   We are also in the process of laying out a discipleship program for CCPR.  We are looking at several different models such as 3DM and others.  

     We have recently moved to Dorado which is a huge blessing. We have now been here a month and have already gotten to know some neighbors. Jennifer is now a part time nanny in a local community here in Dorado.  She also cleans a few homes in the area as well. I currently am still a full time student and will graduate in December with my degree in Religion as well as working part time as a handy man at a local vacation property and working part time at CCPR with different upkeep projects and assisting Pastor Efren. I have applied for and have been accepted for my BA degree in Evangelism and Church Planting at Liberty University Online and will be starting those classes in March of 2016.

     On another note, Jennifer and I have been blessed with the opportunity to come home to share what we are doing and raise more support.  We will be in Michigan September 30-October 17.  We will be sharing at The Corner Church in Allegan,MI on Oct 4 and at Harlem Reformed Church's youth group that same evening. We are also in the works to be sharing at a church in Jackson, MI on Oct. 11, we spoke with their pastor last night via Skype. This is the church of the family we meet a few months back and who bought us our plane tickets home.  I will also be meeting with Pastor Greg from Seven Hills Church, which was our covering church when we left Michigan.  We would love to be able to meet with anyone else that is interested in hearing more about what is going on here in Puerto Rico. Please contact us so we can set a time to talk.

     Being down here, doing what God has called us to do, is nothing like what we expected or have ever experienced. Ministry here in Puerto Rico is way different than ministry in West Michigan. We came down here expecting more evangelism/outreach style ministry but God gave us a relational ministry. This has been an adjustment for us as we are learning what relational ministry really is. We are learning what Paul meant when he said "I became all people so that some might be saved."  We are used to fast paced ministry with seemingly a large amount of results. God has slowed us down in a slower paced relational ministry with seemingly fewer results. Building relationships take time and we have had to learn this.  However, God knows what he is doing because the results we do see here will be lasting results. We have had to and continue to learn the culture here which we neglected to do when we first moved to Puerto Rico. This slowed us down. But we are now seeing and understanding what ministry looks like in a culture other than our own. We cannot do things the same way we do them back home.  We must learn how to adjust to the culture here. 

     We look forward to our trip home and hope we get to see a majority of  you, if not all of you. We ask that you pray about how you can financially monthly support the ministry that God has us doing through CCPR. If you are interested in more information about our experiences and needs please contact us and we would be happy to share that information with you.