This month all the TEAM Baja missionaries get together to celebrate Thanksgiving with a feast, fellowship, and an extended prayer time. There is always a lot to be thankful for, so I’ll note some more of those points here.
I continue to be thankful for our ladies’ group. Our study on dealing with trauma is coming to an end. This week we will reflect on what we have learned and/or implemented from the study. I’m sure that will be a very encouraging time! We’re also thankful for the Lord’s answers to our prayers. A few recent answers are that the lady you don’t see (because she was connected by phone) is now employed, another’s husband and another’s daughter also found work, several family members have been healed from sicknesses (including COVID19) and other ladies that we’ve been praying for have come to faith in Christ. It’s a joy to uphold one another in prayer.
In February, TEAM sent a team to film and interview our missionaries here in the Baja peninsula and they have been preparing promotional materials. This week the video related to the El Faro ladies’ ministry went live. You can watch it by clicking on the image. At the end are links to the videos they’ve prepared on the ranch ministry and the sports ministry [I’ve discovered that they rotate those links. If they’re not those ministries, they are other TEAM ministries around the world.] Next week a couple of articles should be released that add further details to the testimony shared in the video.
When the pandemic struck and a quarantine was announced, I thought I’d have time to work on some projects that require large blocks of time to concentrate over several days. The need to make the Sunday service videos eclipsed that and filled a lot of my week, so I haven’t been able to get to those projects. After almost nine months, I’m looking forward to taking some vacation time in December (where I’ll tackle some of the personal projects as well as take some time away in the form of day trips), but I’ve been released from the other responsibilities in order to focus on those ministry projects in the rest of December and January. Please pray that I will have focused concentration to be able to pull materials from different sources and languages together in clear presentations and for creativity preparing the visuals to best communicate the message.
I’m also grateful to all those who have been praying for healing for my shoulder from tendinitis. At my last appointment, the doctor was impressed with my improvement and thinks that with another month of faithfully doing the recommended exercises, I should have a complete recovery. I’m halfway through that month and now the progress is very slow, so please do continue to pray for complete healing. Part of the recovery included swimming, and during that time I enjoyed filming underwater life. I finally made a video of one of the fish in different stages of its life cycle (click on image). I will always be amazed by God’s incredible creation – another motive for thanksgiving.
TEAM international recently held its annual meeting. Being on-line, I was able to attend and was greatly encouraged by the reports of God working in ministries around the world and of His supply financially – all amid the global pandemic. I’m grateful to serve with TEAM and in the El Faro church. Please pray for a meeting this week with reps of TEAM Mexico and El Faro – for clear communication, for deepening interpersonal and organizational relationships, and for vision for the best ways to work for the expansion of the kingdom of Christ through El Faro. Please also pray for another meeting to clarify my job description that should happen in the near future.
I am thankful for the years of service in Venezuela and Peru and for the friendships from both countries (and Mexico!). Both countries are going through difficult times and need our prayers, but I ask that you pray especially for believers in Venezuela – for the Lord to meet all their needs, for protection from the attacks on their faith, and for their testimonies to shine as bright lights in the darkness. Please also continue to pray for Belkis in her immigration process and for her health as she has been dealing with stomach issues and recently was informed that the couple she is living with have tested positive for COVID.
I am also very thankful for you!!! I am thankful for all who pray for me and the ministry here and also for all those who give towards my financial support. May God bless and prosper each one of you. As Paul stated in Philippians 4:18-20, “And now I have it all—and keep getting more! The gifts you sent … were more than enough, like a sweet-smelling sacrifice roasting on the altar, filling the air with fragrance, pleasing God no end. You can be sure that God will take care of everything you need, his generosity exceeding even yours in the glory that pours from Jesus. Our God and Father abounds in glory that just pours out into eternity. Yes.” (The Message)
With a heart that continues to overflow with thanksgiving,
Brenda
