More travels

Enjoying the forests of the Grand Canyon

We plan to stay in the Minnesota area for this month visiting churches.  We are staying in Grand Rapids, Minnesota with Dan's parents.  We will be helping out with the family Motel off and on and getting in lots of snow activities.

February will take us to Indiana, Colorado and a short visit to Mexico for some ministry reasons.

Thanks for your prayers and encouragement in these crazy travel days as "hamsters" (home assignment missionaries).

Watching God Work

During our layover in Denver we had the joy of seeing Emmanuel who was born during our ministry in Iglesia Vida Abundante.  He was home for Christmas break from College with the excitement of plans to finish up College and head to the mission field in the Middle East.  This time we didn't mind feeling old.  We are so proud of him and his desire to serve the Lord full time in this way.  

Pray with us that more Latinos would be touched to serve the Lord full time in areas where we cannot go.  

15,000 and counting

15,000 miles and counting!  We left Minnesota the 3rd week of October to travel to Denver for visits with churches and friends.  Dan and Adrian enjoyed an Elk hunting walk up and down the mountains of Telluride, Colorado then on to California, Arizona, New Mexico and back to Colorado for a rest.  

We picked up Diana and Karina in Colorado and headed to Dallas and down to McAllen, Texas for Christmas. Was nice to thaw out for a bit in the Texas sun with MeLinda's parents before dashing back up to Minnesota for the Nelson Christmas and more church visits by January 4th.  Nothing like having done the coast to coast and border to border thing.  

We are now in Minnesota till the end of January. Thanks for your prayers, keep them coming we still have another 6 months of travels.

Mid 90's and going strong!

While in Denver we had the privilege to stay with Eliseo and Carol Hernandez.  Don Eliseo was a pastor and evangelist at the age of 19 in El Salvador, Central America.  MeLinda's parents had many opportunities to minister with them in Central America.  

When we moved to Denver in 1990, God directed us to Templo Tu Iglesia where we found Don Eliseo and Carol.  We enjoyed the ministry we had there in the the early 90's before starting Iglesia Vida Abundante.  Don Eliseo was a great encouragement and mentor in those years.

He continues to preach and minister at Templo Tu Iglesia in Denver.  What a joy to see a servant of God being blessed and blessing others in his 90's.  May we find ourselves to be so faithful.

Intercultural 3 in one

It was Sunday morning and it went like this:

9am - 
 Dan had the privilege of speaking in English at New Life Fellowship.  They were the host church for Iglesia Vida Abundante after we out grew Southwest Baptist church back in 1995.  It was fun to reconnect with a congregation which has the vision to reach out and be a beacon of hope for their ever changing community.

11am -  
Dan had the opportunity to speak in Spanish at Iglesia Vida Abundante.  What a joy to see people who came to know the Lord back in 1995 now leading the church spiritually.  How great is our God is all we can say.  We felt old yet exhilarated  to see what God has been doing over the years.  Beto Bambaren, worship leader back in our day, is now the Pastor and doing great!

2pm - 
Dan had the joy of speaking in English with someone translating into Vietnamese at Vietnamese New Life Fellowship.  Dan was Pastor Han's coach back in 1997 when they began their work out of the same building as New Life Fellowship and Iglesia Vida Abundante.

The fun of all this is that these three church and a para-church ministry have joined to become All Nations Ministry all owning and working in the same building.  What a great picture of the body of Christ.

Family

Rocky Mountain Visit

We are on our first of several visits out west, and are looking forward to being back "home".  After spending 15 years in Denver church planting among Hispanics, we do have a piece of our heart in Denver.  We drove into town with excitement and butterflies in our stomachs.

We enjoyed a great Sunday of worship with 5 Hispanic churches in the Park last Sunday.  Dan was thrilled to preach again in Spanish.  We enjoyed watching 5 people baptized.  One was just a little tyke when we left.  God gave us a refreshing day for our hearts.

Ministry, Family

The time has come...

We are officially HAMsters, Home Assignment Missionaries.

We have begun our year of time visiting churches, supporters, friends and family.  Most of them we have not seen for 6 years.  We are excited and ready for a different pace of life.  We will be traveling from one coast to the other.  Pray for endurance for the boys as they will travel with us and the girls as they study in College.  Car school will be the name of the game.