In case you didn’t know, WE HAD A BABY BOY!!! Our son was born on September 22nd! He is doing great and so is Roxanne. Our daughter loves her baby brother, even though sometimes she feels like he gets more attention than her from mom, but overall she is doing very well with the change.
Roxanne and I are on a sabbatical right now. Back during our time in America, we felt God is calling us to a season of rest in him. He specifically led Roxanne to John 15, and brought us back to the fundamental truth that abiding in him comes before bearing fruits — our personal relationship with him comes before ministry. We came to realize that we have been trying to juggle several big things at the same time (newly married, new parents, being in full-time ministry, trying to start a business, being pregnant for baby No. 2), and we were not spending regular unhurried personal time with Jesus. We felt an urgent need to stop what we were doing and come to Jesus.
The focus of our sabbatical is to rest in Jesus, to abide in Him, to build a healthy family foundation in Him as well as to develop a good family routine. So far, we are successful at having a regular routine for our daughter. Since our son was born, the rest of our schedules were turned around some, but we are getting back on track as he is getting bigger and starts to sleep for longer times. Roxanne and I also get to have time to just know each other more. It has been fun, rich and challenging at times, but we are so glad we get to have it for our marriage! In terms of our personal relationships with God, I really love my unhurried time with Jesus (of course, with my new son’s arrival it changes things a little bit). Honestly, sometimes we found resting and trusting challenging things to do, but by God’s grace, we are getting better at them.
Our sabbatical will end January 15th. During this time, we are still in touch with to the team and what is happening in the local church here, and we pray regularly for them. Ministry is going great in our city. This year we have an international team of workers: 5 Mexicans (1 still on his way here) and 1 Malaysian first-year workers, 2 Mexican long-term workers on their way here, 6 American long-term workers, and 1 Asian worker who is my dear wife. God is building our team inwardly in faith, love, and unity; and outwardly, 5 people have gotten saved since this semester started, and the number of people involved in our discipleship groups has doubled. We are so encouraged to see how God moves in our city!
We have also been trying to grow our company so that it can be a stable platform for us to be here and be a blessing to the movement God is starting here. By providing a way for local believers who want to be full-time pastors or campus ministers to have a job and an income while devoting most of their time to ministry. This hasn’t been going well and we are praying and asking God how we should redirect the company so that it can still be a platform for us and for local ministers. Please pray for us that God would direct us in running this company and it would be an effective platform for us and the local ministers we are raising up.