God works all together for good…to conform us into the image of Jesus Christ. (Romans 8:28-29)

Family and Friends,

It has been a loooonnnggg time. A lot of things have happened, a lot has changed. I don’t even really know where to start this update. My time has been limited, and that is not an excuse for not taking the time to do this. So anyways here is what has been happening in our lives.

Notice I said “our.” On January 21, 2010, the love of my life, Berenice Navarro Cervantes said yes to my proposal of a life lived together for the glory of God. We visited her family, in Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico, in February for two weeks, and to begin wedding plans. We came back to CVE for a couple weeks, and Bere left again for Morelia until the wedding in April. I followed a couple weeks later. We were united in marriage on April 25, 2010. We spent our honeymoon in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. It was beautiful and relaxing. On May 3 we trekked back to CVE by ferry, taxi and bus, until finally arriving at our little ole house in Magdalena.

We lived in town, babysat kids while the counselors took days off, vacations, etc. I supervised the maintenance of the vehicles and helped out with construction, and Bere was helping out with summer school and when the school year came around, she helped out there as well. This was our routine for the first 7 months of our marriage.

On Thanksgiving day 2010, Bere’s birthday, our 7 month anniversary, we moved to the “Green House” to baby sit 5 kids for a couple that was visiting their family. We planned on being there for about 2 weeks. Well, it turns out that ended up being the beginning of our new adventure. We knew going into it, the couple leaving was unsure about their commitment to stay here. So when they decided it was time for them to move, we were somewhat prepared. God gently and rapidly laid it on our hearts that these kids needed stability. We were finding out that we were that stability that He was seeking to put in their lives. So after much praying and seeking God’s direction, we decided to move in with the 5 Arcoverde kids.

This is our family just before we took off on our Christmas adventure. Starting in the center backhe oldest is Alexia (12), and circling around to the front right is Ramses (10), followed by Nere (9), José (7), and Gloria (2).

Christmas Adventure

Before we had planned to take care of the kids we had bought plane tickets to go visit Bere’s family in Morelia. Someone here at CVE suggested to us, when we found out the other couple would be leaving, that we should take the kids on a road trip for Christmas. So we transferred our tickets to someone else, and packed up one of the big vans, and headed out due south. It was about 2 days driving 12 hours a day, and I was the lucky one behind the wheel. God blessed the trip so richly. The kids behaved pretty well, especially in the van. It probably helped that they were drugged up on Dramamine. It turns out they aren’t used to long road trips. We had vomiting within the first 2 hours. Dramamine kept the vomiting down and the kids calm and usually asleep.

We had a great Christmas with Bere’s family. The kids enjoyed all the posadas, which is a celebration Mexico has a couple of days before Christmas for Joseph and Mary search for an inn. The celebration ends with a piñata, and lots of candy. We returned to Magdalena with a bushel of candy. The whole trip was an excellent opportunity to grow together in our relationship with the kids, and to give the kids a look at Bere’s family and customs for Christmas.

We returned to Magdalena between Christmas and New Year, and when we arrived, my brother, Clayton was waiting for us with a dog, a minivan, and a lot of my stuff from back home. It was good to see him again, and to spend time working on the house with him.

On May 25, CVE received a new baby, and we soon found out she was the little sister to the kids we had in our house. God put it on our hearts to unite her with her family. So for the next week and a half or so we prayed that God would lead our hearts into this, giving us the desire and joy for caring for all 6 brothers and sisters. And on June 3, Luisa Fernanda arrived at our doors, and since then we have been pushed to our knees looking for strength and wisdom as we seek to pastor these 6 kids to know their heavenly father.

We hope to sometime be able to visit Illinois, God willing. We applied in last June for a visitor’s visa and we were denied. We hope to apply again this summer. Pray that God would provide this opportunity for us. We know it is completely in His hands, and all He has to do is say the word and it’s done. So that means there is something to learn through all this, because everything works together for good, and to conform us into the image Christ. It has been hard on Bere and I and on my family, that we have not been able to come back there to visit you all.

Prayer Requests:

-Wisdom, patience, grace, and strength in caring for these 6 precious souls. That God would place in their hearts a love for Jesus which results in worship and obedience to Him. 

-Protection from satan and his servants here at CVE. That God would send an army of angels to encompass us and protect us from their works and effects.

-Above all, that our King Jesus would be glorified by His work here and throughout the world. We serve a mighty, powerful King who loves us despite our rebellion and sin, so much so, He gave His life to purchase us, to adopt us into the family of God our Father.