My
dear brothers and sisters, we truly hope that you all had a very blessed
holiday season and that you entered the New Year with health and joy from the
Lord. The past year of 2017 was such an amazingly blessed year, full with many
God given opportunities to serve, share the message of the gospel and spread
His love to others. As a ministry and congregation we were able to move forward
in some of the many projects that the Lord had for our lives. Thank you so much
for all your prayers and support in the year of 2017; your partnership was such
an amazing blessing and a key tool in the Lord’s hands to make possible all
that was done in the year. We sincerely hope that you feel it in your hearts to
continue to partner with us throughout another amazing year of service to the
Lord in His ministry of Dios Me Ve. We pray that 2018 be a blessed year for all of
us.
During
the year of 2017 there were a few devastating events in Mexico but one that
truly caused much damage was an earthquake that, three months ago, shook and
devastated various states in Mexico, leaving many families homeless and in
terrible living conditions. Many families in these states are living on the
streets, under trees, in hospitals that suffered little damage and in homeless
shelters. When the earthquake occurred there were many government and religious
institutions sending help to the families in the many devastated areas, but as
time passed that help has slowly been decreasing. We started praying and asking
God for His direction and guidance in order to be able to help in these times
of natural disaster and God answered our prayers. Dios Me Ve Ministries has
partnered up with our brothers and sisters in Christ of different ministries
and churches to bless some families of the town of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca that
lost their homes in the earthquake. The Lord is guiding us to help these families
with some small wood houses of 12”x12” that will provide the families with a
small home to start rebuilding their lives. For this blessing to happen we
needed to build all the walls, floors and roofs here in Ensenada as it requires
a lot of time and man power, so on the 8th and 9th of
December a team from Dios Me Ve headed out to Maneadero to join our brothers
and sisters in Christ of the different ministries and churches that have
partnered together, to help cut and carry wood, build the walls, floors and roof
pieces and paint. For two days we all worked together in order to get all the
pieces of the houses ready for our Mission Trip to Oaxaca on the 14th
of January. Not all the people that helped on these two days will be going to
Oaxaca but they have all put in their grain of sand to bless the families of Tehuantepec.
To continue to prepare for our Oaxaca Mission
trip in January, the director from Hands of Mercy in Mexico and I (Pastor
Hector) headed out on an exploratory trip to Oaxaca from the 12th to
the 15th of December in order to visit the Pastors of that region,
get to know the people and set everything up for our January mission trip. Lord
willing, in January my wife and I, along with a team of Dios Me Ve and a team from
each one of the ministries that has partnered together will be heading out to Oaxaca
to build. During this exploratory trip we were able to see firsthand just how
bad the situation was for the people of Oaxaca. There were many buildings,
houses and infrastructures that had collapsed, people pulling together
materials to try to fix or rebuild their homes, many roadblocks because of
damages or civilian protests asking for help.
During our trip we were also able to get to
know some of the people and their culture. Christianity isn’t well received in
many of the towns in Oaxaca so there aren’t many Christian churches but we were
able to meet some of the few pastors that reside in these towns. In order to
communicate with some of the locals we had to use an interpreter because many
of the people speak in a dialect and don’t know Spanish. This trip was such an
eye opening experience, many families live in homes made of palm tree leafs,
sleep on hammocks and work in whatever they can to earn money to provide for
their families. Thanks to God we were able to personally meet the families for
which, Lord willing, we will be building a home. Please keep us in your prayers
as we continue to prepare and plan for this blessing to the people of
Tehuantepec, Oaxaca. We will be flying out to Oaxaca on January 14th
and hopefully be back home by January 23rd. Pray that we can be a
testimony of God’s great love, mercy and provision for all the people that we
will encounter during our mission trip. Our Lord receive all the honor and
glory for all that will be done through our lives in Tehuantepec, Oaxaca.
During these holiday seasons many parents
struggle to provide for their families especially when they have children who
are expecting a holiday meal. It is easy to fall into depression and get
frustrated with the holidays because of economic problems. As a family we wanted
to be a blessing to others and help some of these struggling parents, so this
Christmas and New Years the Lord gave us the opportunity to bless some families
of the Colonia 89 with a turkey and ham for their Christmas and New Year’s dinner.
Some families didn’t have the means to prepare the turkey or ham nor did they
have where to cook it, so as a family we prepared and cooked their Christmas
and News Year’s dinner for those families that needed it. Surely 2017 couldn’t
have had a better ending; the Lord continued to share His blessings with the
people of the Colonia 89 and continued to show them His great love even as the
year came to an end.
My dear brothers and sisters, it has been such a
wonderfully blessed year of partnership with you all. Thank you so much for
your many prayers and constant support during each month of 2017. We greatly
appreciate all that you have done and all that you continue to do for the honor
and glory of God. This past year brought much change, growth and blessings for
all of us at the ministry of Dios Me Ve. Thank you so much for your many
demonstrations of love. We pray our precious Lord would bless you even more this
2018 as you keep sharing with gladness, the love of the Lord. We are eagerly
looking forward to another year of partnership and service to the Lord.
With much
love and gratitude,
Your family
in Christ of Dios Me Ve Ministries.
