Update After The Wedding!

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Dear church family at Wallenstein,

For the very first time I am writing you as Mrs. Jessenia Espinoza! I want to thank everyone who was praying for the wedding. It was beautiful and had the added blessing of lots of family and friends who came from Canada. We felt surrounded by love and support. I am so thankful to God for giving me the wedding of my dreams, even though I was so far from home.

Now Raul and I are settling in to normal life. Youth has begun again after “summer” break and the youth leaders have decided to try something new. Youth group is technically for adolescent youth and so the older youth are feeling out of place and many have stopped coming. This year we want to include the older youth in organizing the games and (we want to) have a separate Bible study for them. This has been our desire for a few years now and we are finally trying to put it into action. Pray that this would be an encouragement to the older youth and that they would learn valuable leadership skills.

School has been in session again since late April, and things in the sponsorship office are running smoothly. There is extra help right now as we have an American girl who is here for a year and a Canadian university student who is here for 2 months.

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Please pray for Raul and I as we organize life together. There are many needs in our community, and we have many dreams of things we want to do. We need wisdom as to priorities and time management and God’s guidance as to what He would like us to get involved in.

As always, thank you so much for your prayers and support. We would not be here
without you behind us.

Jessenia and Raul

Lego And The Middle East

With shoes, shirts, pants and 5 huge boxes of Lego compressed into his suitcase, Russ left for the Middle East. 40 leaders from 14 countries, representing some of the most persecuted and least reached places on the planet, gathered last week to spend a hands-on time shaping a digital strategy to bring Jesus to “the last, the lost and the least.” Russ would guide the time.

As the workshop started, Russ told each group to build a “village experience” with Lego. It was illustrative that each village has its own characteristics and yet most villages have similar layouts. The tools our team uses are like building blocks, that can be configured in many different ways to accomplish similar goals, but we have to do it as a global team.

Victor, a leader in central asia, from a Muslim majority country, explained how his website about exploring Christianity recently became so popular that the government told people not to visit the site. It only increased traffic.

Kong, an entrepreneur from east asia attended. His company, engages on specialized Asian social networks. Russ and Kong discussed how to create content that would entice digitally savvy youth, who are taught there is no God, to explore that there might be more to life.

As the time ended, a leader from Russia exclaimed, “The tools you’ve given us are going to multiply our efforts.” Russia has recently cracked down on evangelicals sharing their faith, but this newly forming team is determined to make Jesus discoverable online.

WBC Friends, because of your partnership, we were able to play a part in equipping these global leaders to lead the next generation of digital missions. Thank you for praying for Russ on the road and Meredith at home, the week went well on all fronts.

CREATE Missions Update

It's already the third week of our CREATE mission trip here in Guelph, ON. Week one was orientation, and last week we jumped right into our tasks. Mandy, who is working with our design team is teaching herself to use our design software by designing a flyer for our December P2C Plus conference. Paul is working with our social media and writing teams. He's been working on a blog about mission trips. Together as a team (pictured above), our evangelism goal for the summer is to test ways to engage with students online and connect them with a local campus ministry. We're seeing what works and what doesn't. Last week we had a few responses to an article we promoted on anxiety. One young man opened up to us about his struggles with anxiety. Pray that this man would know Jesus and would know how to get help with his anxiety. Pray also that our interns Mandy and Paul would grow in their skills and their relationship with God this summer.

Last month I asked you to pray for me as I attended my final Arrow Leadership class. On the last day we were asked to pick a word for our leadership partner to pray over us. I choose the word "new." As I wrap up Arrow I want to leave behind the insecurities and barriers that have been holding me back and I want to step into a new season of thriving in life and ministry.

On a personal note, a highlight for me was that we got to invite a key supporter to join us for the last couple of days of our class. I asked my brother, Russ, and he joined me. We had so many good chats processing life and leadership together. We also had a fun afternoon exploring Chicago. Thank you for standing with me in this ministry. Your prayers and financial support mean so much.

Danish Missions Update

Thank you so much for your prayer and support as we are here in Copenhagen for a mission trip with 30 other Power to Change staff and students. As a team, we've been enjoying doing ministry, studying the Bible and praying together, cooking and eating together and exploring Copenhagen! This past week we climbed up "The Round Tower" in the city centre to enjoy some spectacular views of the city!  Here is a picture of our team at the top. 

We've experienced so much in such a short amount of time and have seen God at work in and through our team in some cool ways! We've spent the past couple of weeks on campuses across the city talking with students about Danish culture and faith - and to be completely honest, it's been HARD at times! Yet, we've recognized a spiritual openness from Danish students.

The overwhelming majority of Danes seem to hold the perspective that Christianity is a nice tradition, but don't see how God matters in their everyday life. For a little context: The population of Denmark is about 5.5 million. About 4 million Danes belong to the Lutheran State Church and yet, Pastors estimate that less than 1% actually attend regularly and have a genuine belief in God.

As hard as it's been to minister in this post-Christian context at times, it's also been so encouraging to see our Canadian students take steps of faith and grow in their faith. Today John a Ryerson student on Trevor's campus team noted, "On this trip I've done things that I never thought I would or could have done before. But God has empowered me to do them". Examples of this are that John has shared his faith with PhD students and a professor that we encountered. 

We've also had the honour to partner with the local Power to Change ministry here (AgapeLife) and the student leaders that are involved. It has been mutually encouraging as they get to hang out with young Christians on fire for God and we get to see how Christians can stay strong in a culture that is so apathetic to Christ.  

Prayer Items

• Pray for the Danish students we are meeting to continue to have opportunities to discuss faith, have Christians in their lives and hear the Gospel
• Pray for the Canadian students to continue to learn what a life as a disciple of Christ looks like and what God may be teaching them through this trip.
• Pray that the local Danish Christians would be encouraged and continue to reach their country with the Gospel.

For you who are wondering, Amelia did well on the plane ride, she didn't sleep much but it helped her  get over jet lag quickly (probably before Trevor and I did).  She has also connected well with a couple of students that Trevor and I are discipling. The students really enjoy the life that Amelia brings to the team. These are huge answers to prayer!  

We have found some fun places to play, as Copenhagen is a very kid friendly city. There is even a little courtyard behind our house that Amelia likes running around in.

Anniversaries & Answers

Anniversaries

The last few months we've been able to celebrate a number of anniversaries. 2018 marks 125 years of ministry for SIM. In March we were in South Africa for SIM's Global Assembly.  It was great to be challenged by inspiring teaching, reconnect with old friends and make new ones! We can't possibly share all that happened but below is a picture that was taken on the final night when the Soweto Gospel Choir gave us a performance!

Speaking of Anniversaries... April 13 marked 18 years in Ghana for us and May 6th is our 23rd wedding anniversary!

Answers to Prayer!

We have been praying for people to come to reach the Fulani in Ghana who live and die without hearing the good news of the Gospel. Our prayer has been answered in a wonderful way! On May 1 we welcomed Dawit, Eshetu & Abigiya as well as Mesfin, Asefash, Barnabas and Naomi, from Ethiopia. Please pray that they can settle well and that we can get their residence permits without delays or any other problems. Pray too that God will provide more team members to join them.

Visits to the Team!

In late January and early February we had the privilege of visiting our team in the northern part of the country. It was long overdue and it was great to be able to see each of our colleagues in their ministry location and spend time with them and pray for them. It was also good to connect with friends from our days in the north. After our 'tour', Andrea returned to Accra and Phil repeated the trip by taking two of our Council members to visit our team. It is an honour to have those that advise us and give us counsel about ministry in Ghana, come to each ministry location.

Transitions!

As we mentioned in our last letter, Phil has transitioned out of the leadership of SIM Ghana. Our friend and long time colleague, Penny Bakewell is the new SIM Ghana Director. Please pray for her as she takes up this role, and for Andrea and Phil as they help her with this transition. Andrea continues as Personnel Coordinator and Phil is devoting his time to his international role - helping SIM leadership teams around the world sharpen their ministry focus. 

Praise Items

• For the confirmation of Penny Bakewell as the new SIM Ghana Director. 
• For helping Kieran and Liam through another semester of classes.
• For Cara as she finishes the last few weeks of her school year. 
• For a great time celebrating SIM's 125th anniversary at Global Assembly.
• For bringing the Mesfin and Dawit families to work with the Fulani.
• For providing dorm parents for Cara for next year.
• For technology that allows us to work from outside Ghana for brief periods to allow us to be together as a family.

Prayer Items

• For Penny as she transitions to this new role and for Phil & Andrea to support her without interfering.
• For wisdom for Phil as he transitions to a full-time international role that is still developing and evolving.
• For the speedy re-registration of SIM Ghana.
• For Kieran as he has another semester of classes prior to heading to Sri Lanka for Sept to Apr.
• That Liam would be able to get lots of shifts at his job to help save for university fees.
• For Cara as she is in the process of trying to determine what she will study after high school.
• For safe travel and good family times as we spend time in the UK and Canada from late June to mid August.