Blessed to be a blessing.

 As Christmas approaches we eagerly await the day we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have been blessed to be able to provide gifts for our kids as we have in the past. Normally we get our kids 3 gifts each, one representing each gift the Three Wise Men brought Jesus. Last year we were only able to buy them each one gift as all our finances went into moving down here last December. The Lord has opened amazing opportunities to both earn income and receive support from people like you. We feel very blessed and humbled to be receiving this opportunity to bless our children. 

We have made many new friends over the past year and are excited to spend Christmas Eve with a family we are just getting to know. There are different options that the Lord has laid on our hearts for Christmas Day. We are praying about what to do. There are many men in our community that have no family and usually sit at the park literally all day long. We are trying to see how we can bless them on Christmas Day. There are also many people who have to work on Christmas Day, we are also praying about how we can bless them and thank them for sacrificing Christmas Day (By choice or not) Gods Word tells us that we have been blessed to be a blessing and we want to bless those who need a blessing. Please join us in prayer as we listen to what the Lord would have us do. 

 Prayer Requests

-Thank the Lord for his amazing love for us and his blessings in our lives. Relationally, materially, financially, spiritually and health. We always have exactly what we need when we need it. Our Lord never leaves us lacking....EVER!!!!

-We still need a vehicle. However we do have a car that friends have loaned us until we are able to purchase one.

-Our kids that they become more and more like Jesus. The daily adjustment to homeschooling and missionary life in general can be difficult at times.

-Pray for CCPR leadership

-CCPR Rincon Campus plant

-CCPRs new discipleship process coming early 2016 and new classes coming. Church intro class, Christian Basics class and Discipleship Class

-That the Lord continues to lead us into the ministry he has for us here.

-Our missionary friends on the West Coast Julio and Stacy. That their ministry continues to bear fruit.

-Pray for spiritual revival here among churches that they start to unify not because their religion is the same but because their Father is the same.

-For Spanish language retention as we are learning it. It is rather difficult and we as for Gods supernatural blessing on our language learning. This way we can communicate more clearly with those who are from the island.

- Pray for Jacob as he has recently accepted Christ and is learning about his new life in Christ. We are meeting weekly.

-Four Hearts Ministry- this is the ministry we are working with at Hogar En-Hacor. 

-Hogar En-Hacor (the girls home we are working with) that their work gets done soon so that they can gain occupancy for the girls they are currently working with.

Update and Story Re-cap

     Good morning everyone. It has been a little while since we given a full update on our blog.
A lot has been going on here in Puerto Rico. I am gong to give a brief update on the great things that God ha been doing.
     It is Christmas time here in PR. This means everything shuts down until about early Feb and things get real slow.
     Hogar En-Hacor, which is the girls home we are now working with is closed until mid Jan. (it is not open for occupancy yet) So with that being said, we will not be back there working until they re-open.
     CCPR had their Christmas special this past Sunday it was amazing. It was a concert service telling the story of Jesus through song. All the kids from children's church performed a dance they have been learning over the past few weeks. Dallas and her friend Mady choreographed the dance and taught it to the kids. They did a fantastic job.Once the concert was done Pastor Efren gave a brief message and gave an invitation to receive Christ. Jacob, the young man I have been mentoring for the past few weeks was there. After the invitation Jacob accepted Christ!!!! I am so thrilled about his new life. I will continue to walk along side Jacob as the Lord teaches us both how to live more like Him. This is an exciting moment!!
     Jacob is a young man,19 years old. He moved hear about a month ago with his family. His step dad is in the Coast Guard and Jacob decided to move here with them to get away from things back home that were not good for him. Upon meeting him I found out that he is eager to serve and is looking for a new life! Well he found that in Christ this week!!! Prior to Sunday I was able to share with him who Jesus is to me and what Jesus calls us to do as Christians. We got into some rather deep topics. He was eating it up. The Lord allowed me to share things with him that really made him think. Not your typical first time talking about Jesus stuff. But that is how the Lord uses me sometime.  All this comes after spending some time via Skype with a pastor friend of mine back in Michigan. We have been discussing the simplicity of sharing the gospel message and how to teach them right off the bat how to make disciples. Basically if we just share who Jesus is to us, and share our story with people, people respond. It really is that simple. We make it way to hard! Then all we have to do is teach them how to share their story and who Jesus is to them with other people. This is how disciples are made Church!! We are so excited as we continue to share our story with people and teach them how to do the same.
     My responsibilities at CCPR have been hard to fulfill with all of our truck issues. I have gone in and taken care of what I could when I could. I touched up some walls with paint that needed touch ups and fixed a few other things. The Lord has been wonderful in providing us a way to church every Sunday. We arrive early so the sanctuary is ready come service time and so that Pastor does not have to worry about that part. We can see a huge release from Pastor Efrens shoulders upon me taking over the building responsibilities. We are blessed right now to have the Lord lay on the hearts of some friends of ours here to let us use their second car until we have enough money to buy a new one. What selfless people and we pray the the Lord bless them for their generosity. The Lord has been so good to us over the past three weeks since our truck broke down. Not once have we been in need of a ride, the Lord provided and continues to provide every time. From people loaning us their car, to picking us up and dropping us off with no concern whatsoever. Just selflessly loving us like Jesus does. We have seen and felt the love of Jesus more in the past few weeks than we have in a long time. Jesus is just showing us glimpse of how much he loves us and we are truly overwhelmed!! I am beginning to think this whole move over here was more for our personal growth with Jesus than for anything else because God keeps teaching us more and showing us more every day.
     I graduate from Liberty University this week with my Associates in Religion. I am very happy about this and praying the Lord opens up a door for me.  This means a lot to me and I am excited to see what the Lord has planned.
   
With all this being said I want to share something with all of you. Some of you may know this some may not so I want to share it.

When I was here in July of 2014 the Lord laid something heavy on my heart. I asked Him what our ministry here was to look like. His response was, " John what did the ministry of Jesus look like?" Upon reflecting on the life of Jesus my answer was, "Well He just lived his life. His life was His ministry." God said ,"Yes, and that is what you are going to do. Your ministry is not going to be like others. It is going to be lived out in your daily life. Your life is going to be your ministry, your ministry is not going to be your life." This was hard for me to take in. After all, I was used to seeing "ministries". People are used to seeing, "ministries". Heck I wanted a ministry. I had several conversations with God about this, but it was clear. I was told that many people will not understand what you are doing. Many people will not support what you are doing. But many did not support Jesus either. Then he shared something with me that I will never forget. He said "John, they will not understand because they are not doing it. I should not have to send you and your family to do what the Church should already be doing. The problem is people need to to see a "ministry" when they are supposed to be the ministry."
     This has been hard for me. Some reasons for selfish ambition. I wanted a ministry. I wanted something tangible for people to see. Well, during our first year here God is showing us that that is not what he has in mind for us at this time. Maybe someday we will have something physically tangible people can see and support. But right now the fruit is growing. God has planted seeds in us and they are growing. What we do know is that we are doing just as God asked us to. We are following the voice of the Lord and we are seeing things others cant see and things we cant really explain. Much like the man behind the curtain doing things that are unseen. We to are doing things that are unseen. The Lord has worked it out this way, and yet there is visible fruit from what the Lord is doing. Some fruit is not visible to use, but we hear about them later. Some fruit we will never see. Much like the farmer who plants an apple tree and years after he has past the apple tree bears fruit because of the seed the farmer planted. It is our job to listen the to Lord and do as he commands. If we do that , we can be sure fruit will be produced and lives will be changed. Who knows how long ago the seed was planted in Jacob for me to share my Jesus story with him and he accept Jesus. I played a very little part in that. I thank the one who planted the seed years ago so I can see the fruit today! Praise the Lord for those who plant seeds selflessly  never to see the fruit that their seed produces.
     We ask that you continue to pray for us as the Lord opens more doors for us to share our Jesus story with others. We ask that you pray for those we plant seeds in. I ask you to pray for us financially; that the Lord continues to provide our needs and provides a job for me in the are of ministry the Lord has prepared me for and continues to prepare me for. I ask that you pray for our family as we grow together and learn new things.
Thank you for your support and love. God bless.

Humbled to be used

It has been a while since we last posted here. Usually Facebook is the best way catch frequent updates. You can follow us there at Facebook.com/matthew28ministry

There you will see some of the ministry platforms we are now involved with including a girls home for sexually abused girls. 

The following is a post that I felt to share with you from our FB page this morning. God has been doing some amazing things for us over the past few weeks with our truck issues. For those that do not know, we are currently without a car.Through this we have grown and learned a lot about who God is and how much he loves us. 

Over the past few days we have been in contact with people watching what God is doing in our lives. We have been told that our faith is amazing and that we are an inspiration to them. As much as this makes us happy that the Lord is using us to reach others, it also humbles us. Those who are watching what God is doing do not have access to our everyday life. We know that we do not deserve what the Lord is doing through us. During my time in Gods Word this morning He reminded me why and how we are able to live through faith and be joyful during everything that has been happening in the past few weeks. The words of our Lord through Paul in Romans 5 is why. By no means possible are we able to do anything on our own. We are nothing special, we just love Jesus and he loves us. We are amazed by the love we are shown on a daily basis by our Lord. The wonderful thing about this message is that anyone can choose to live this way. Jesus opens this up to all who have faith in him! So come to him today. Build a relationship with him and live through faith in Him. Blessings to you all!  

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.

New Address Update

For those of you who send us care packages, letters, cards and support 

We have posted our new address in the past but we have had some mail returned to Michigan so here is our new address again 

John and Jennifer Hoogeveen 

HC-46 Box 6119

Dorado, PR

00646

Please send all mail to this address.

Checks are still to be written to: LGLP 

-Please put all support in a security envelope and wrap in a piece of paper.-

(Our covering Church here in PR)

We have been busy with visitors for the past couple weeks. A new update is coming soon!

What a day in Rincon

Yesterday was memorable.

CCPR Dorado headed out to Rincon to get a lay of the land for our new church plant. It started out great with a walking tour of the town of Rincon. It has a warm welcoming feeling! Once we got back, someone on the group locked their keys in the truck (not me, it's impossible to do on my truck) we spent about 45 min trying to break into the car. Finally we did it! Praise God now we are on our way to the beach! Oh wait it looks like a thunder storm! Yup and it down poured! Spent about and hour or two at a local restaurant on the beach, Tamboo. Then is cleared up nicely. Spent the afternoon playing beach volly ball. Some local kids even joined our "game". Of course we had to hit the ocean too. 

This was a key trip for our church. Leaders and board members from CCPR that have not been to Rincon were able to see the environment we will be working in and get a feel for the people.

I met a local guy named Ryan. He intrigues me because he was working in the storm bringing sticks to the woods in a wheel barrow with no shirt or shoes on. He was a work horse. He runs a kite and surf shop in Rincon. Total surfer dude. 

This was about a 2 hour trip from Dorado.

Besides the fun we had, we were able to bring the light of Jesus to the area.

No one was using the vollyball court until we started playing. We were having fun and laughing then people started watching. Then they joined in. Once we left the court orders started to play as well. 

I think often times we think bringing Jesus means physically sharing the gospel. When a lot of the time it is being the gospel. 

Lets going out and be the light!