PRAISE THE LORD:
We have once again (this is now the third time) we have sold our house in Manitoba, but it all is dependent on the buyers finances and the sale of their farm! We have been praying for the people that He wants there, that would love our home as we did and be gracious neighbours not just for our son and his family but for the neighbours around there too!
Before Christmas, we had people donate financially to us, which we will continue to use to help in our Spanish lessons! One of our donors sent this message to us after posting a THANK YOU to them:
"Just read your Facebook post and it made me cry! We talked about designating our gift for language study but wanted you to use it how God was leading you! Learning the language is invaluable and we feel so humbled that we could be a part in helping you do just that!"
It is always amazing how the Holy Spirit works!
These amazing gifts mean that our financial load has been lighted immensely - if we are able to finish Spanish by the end of June, we have over 1/2 of it paid for!
Thank you Jesus!
We also want to share with you our Christmas celebrations and what we will be going into this next year of 2023!
Our base closed down for the Christmas holidays on Dec. 19 and we had invited the few staff (5-7 people) and a married couple who are mission builders, to have a supper of poutine at our house that evening. Well word got around and before we knew it we are up to 20 people for supper… or so we thought! We actually ended up having 27-30 people for supper that evening! Luckily, I (Samantha) had a small inkling of food needed for the younger generation and bought 4, 2kg bags of French fries (plus we had an extra one plus 2 or 3 smaller ones at home!). We had brought some envelopes of powdered poutine gravy from Canada to make and we had already had a poutine night earlier in the season…
Long story short: we ate ALL bags of fries and 5 pouches of poutine sauce mix!
Fast forward to Christmas Day and a 16.6lb turkey! I cooked a full on Christmas supper (sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, homemade coleslaw, buns), expecting about 15 people…20 showed up! Haha there is never an end of people lined up real to eat here!
Christmas was busy with cooking and eating but well worth it to see the smiles and have our home full of love! Missing our family back home was hard, but the friends that came helped to make it a bit easier to handle!
We are arranging a coffee and portzelky day on January 1st (today) to pray into the new year and new beginnings of so many people on base. We have enjoyed so many moments with so many on base this last year, we are excited to see where the Lord is going to take them (and us ) in 2023!
Which brings us to our news:
Samantha and I (Dennis) will be starting full-time Spanish lessons here in Mazatlan. The Lord spoke and confirmed with us that He wants us to stop and learn Spanish. If we take the time now and learn Spanish He will add years to our ministry later. He has brought us a Spanish teacher right here in Mazatlan who has worked in teaching Spanish and English for many years with universities, high school, primary school, and the military. Being here at home in Mazatlan, allows us to continue with the morning ministry that we are doing; which will help keep us connected to the base and give us the opportunity to continue with Thursday ministry with the base to practice our Spanish. We also have 2 wonderful young ladies who live with us, and who speak Spanish, so once we begin lessons we will be woking to keep our home time immersed in Español as well.
As we are growing in our Spanish, we will also be praying for the ministry that will expand after we are better versed in it. We have been reaching out to our contacts that we already have in some of the villages that we have visited and to new contacts we made during the ACT 2022 conference we attended in December in Guadalajara. We are connecting with them to see how we can be praying for them and their communities, and ask that they pray for how we can partner together in someway to share the gospel of reconciliation that will allow the abundant life Jesus came to bring to flourish in your community.
Our Thursday ministry:
This coming year our participation in Thursday ministry is going to look quit different. Because we are stepping back to learn Spanish we are no longer leading the ministry into the village of El Recreo. We are still connected with the village through an online bible study that Samantha is leading with 2 of the women from the village. Other than that we are unsure how this ministry will continue, several logistical challenges need to be addressed by our base leaders as well as finding someone with a heart to lead this ministry for it to continue. Although we are will not be going to the village on a regular basis we are praying that we will be able to go to the village at least once a month to stay better connected. For this to happen we will have find a vehicle to borrow or rent for this purpose. We know the Lord loves the people of El Recreo and is working in amazing ways there so we ask you to join us and continue to pray for them.
We have enjoyed so many wonderful moments in the last year with so many people here in YWAM, n Mazatlan and the villages that we can say we have been truly blessed! We have had a year of challenges and some sadness but we have seen where YHWH has been faithful in just as many instances! We can't wait to see what doors will be opened in 2023 and we are exicted to share them with you!
If you want to hear more about our year and our coming plans please message us and we will make time to share with you!!
If you have anything we can specifically pray for you, please DO NOT hesitate to message us! We want to cover you and your family in prayer!
Blessings to you all! in 2023!
Dennis & Samantha
