Raul & Jessenia Espinoza

Dear Wallenstein family,

Merry belated Christmas from the Espinozas! What a joyful time it was to celebrate our Savior’s birth and what that means for humanity!

This year Christmas was extra special for us for a number of reasons. Jessenia’s brother came to visit for a couple of weeks along with his girlfriend and then Jessenia’s parents came for a visit that extends into January. Seeing Tiago finally get to interact with his Canadian family in person after more than a year of not seeing them has made our hearts so happy.

 We are very thankful to Wallenstein for the opportunity to do the grocery hamper project with our youth! They were very participative and genuinely wanted to help those around them. When first asked about families that they knew with needs, most of our youth said they didn’t know any, but each week, as we continued to talk about it, more and more of them found they or their parents did know of struggling families. We hope this exercise will keep their eyes open to the needs of those around them. We pray too that gospel seeds will have been planted in the hearts of the families who received hampers and devotional books.

Christmas day held a beautiful surprise for us.  We have been doing a Bible study with Raul’s family for the past few months and have been praying for the salvation of his brother-in-law and step-dad. Both are VERY interested in spiritual things and our studies with them are so interactive they can last for over an hour and a half. On Christmas day, Raul’s family decided they wanted to do the Bible study in the afternoon because we were all going to be together anyway. We studied the fall of man and how God made clothes for Adam and Eve and that connection to the gospel message. Something must have clicked for Marcos- Raul’s step-dad, because afterwards he prayed to receive Christ!

Once again, we thank you for being part of our work here in Ecuador. Without your support and prayers we wouldn’t be here and get to see first-hand the wonderful ways God is moving here. We are grateful for being able to work here and have such a great support system back home.

Joyful and thankful in Him,

Raul and Jessenia

Travels with Cory

Youth Christmas outing

Bible study with Raul’s family

Gord Martin - Kenya update

Good morning, you’ve got to see this! Take a look!!

Many, many animals have been dying of thirst due to the drought.

Ishmael said, “I was touched earlier this week by  a young boy who had such a love for his goats, that on losing the mother goat to the drought,  he decided to help the baby goat with milk from a shop.”

But today, water is flowing….

Have a look at these happy animals! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tUGa29gWDQJHCf4Uy1l4RfejML7eXL5o/view?usp=sharing

And these happy people! https://drive.google.com/file/d/13zirxQHT46-Orn1AqKWIc1Gaol-XghxG/view?usp=sharing

A big thank you to our partners, Impact Hope, who raised the funds for this VMK project!

Gord Martin

Vision Ministries Canada

145 Lincoln Road, Waterloo, ON

519-501-5933 cell

www.vision-ministries.org

Robert & Susan Martin - Kingston

‘Oh Come Let Us Adore Him’

Christmas greetings dear friends and family,

We are ever so grateful to our Lord Jesus Christ for His incarnation. He came as a Babe in Bethlehem, lived amongst us to show the world what he wanted it to be, seeking and saving the lost. He healed the sick, the blind and crippled. He was crucified by the people He came to redeem. He rose from the dead ascending to His Father promising He would come back again.

He came so far, so humbly, so close that anyone could reach out to Him by faith and receive the gift of eternal life. He gave us this life so we could live for His glory. The exchange of our sin for His righteousness is the wonder of wonders we will treasure for all eternity. This is worth celebrating and is the good news and power of the gospel we want to share to see hearts changed for the glory of God.

Covid restrictions have closed access to institutions for both chaplains and volunteers since mid December adding to the bleakness of Christmas in prison. We are thankful for letters and especially phone calls to keep in touch. We pray they will know the real meaning of Christmas understanding how they are a part of this story; and that whatever the deep issues of the heart they are dealing with that they will be able to find clarity, resolution, peace, freedom and hope all soaked in the joy of knowing the Christ child Jesus as their Saviour.

Our Heavenly Father has shown Himself faithful to us again over the past year and you are very much a part of that. Your prayers and financial support are greatly appreciated and we thank you for your care of us in this regard.

We wish you a very Merry Christmas! As you gather with loved ones may your celebrations be filled with the beauty and peace of His presence.

Christmas Blessings,

Robert and Susan

Praise the LORD! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice, and let us give honour to Him.
Revelation 19:6-7

Our mailing address is:
Prison Minstry, Kingston
PO Box 20051
Kingston, ON K7P 2T6

---

Russ & Meredith Martin

Martin Family Update

We can stay! Taken after getting our work pass renewed for another two years.

Dear WBC Friends,

As we wrap up 2021, here are a few updates from our family.

Canada Trip Cancelled
Last Saturday we held a family meeting and made a hard decision to cancel our Christmas trip to Canada less than 48 hours before we were due to fly. Each family member shared their perspective on the benefits and risks. Together we reasoned that, in light of the Omicron situation in North America and increasing restrictions, we would enjoy Christmas in Singapore. We long to see many of you, but we'll have to wait another six months.

Logistically, there are presents to give and receive on the wrong side of the ocean, newly purchased winter gear that will go unworn and flight credits to track.

Despite the disruption, we're thankful to live in relative safety and comfort. Ironically for our kids, Singapore is home so they are happy to stay and play with friends. As adults we mourn the loss of time for our kids with grandparents, lack of exposure to our 'home' culture and the disconnection of cousins growing up far apart.

#HACK2021 Report and Video
Our ministry highlight of the year was leading the #HACK2021 event with participants from 46 countries. You can flip through the really nice visual report our team designed or watch a 3-minute video. This is only possible because of your faithful prayer and financial support. Please know the impact you enable is both deep and wide and felt all around the globe. People are discovering Jesus because of what you are investing in.

Year-End Giving
God faithfully provided 100% of our 2021 financial needs through you, our generous partners. We are grateful, humble and amazed as it's been a fruitful, but expensive year. Thank you!

Looking ahead to 2022, our reserves are low and with costs increasing for our growing family, we need to shore up ~$9,000 to be at full support during the coming year. Please consider this as you pray through end of year giving opportunities.

WBC Friends, we couldn't have navigated 2021 without you. Thank you for your friendship and your partnership in leading the next generation of digital missions.

Photos below:
A. Reindeers with homemade masks spotted on the train.
B. Third week of advent.
C. Meredith delivers a commissioned painting.

Gord Martin - Vision Ministries Kenya

Good evening to all of you,

I was talking with Ishmael this afternoon. They’ve had a challenging month. Their son John, age 23 was involved in a pretty serious motorcycle accident, Molline (his wife) was diagnosed and hospitalized with Covid-19 last week, now home and doing better and then, the transmission of their vehicle  “acted up”. Nevertheless, they are pressing on. We had a very good talk today.

The five conferences begun in October were all finished by the end of November. They worked hard! Ishmael and his team traveled to five regions after we left, all of them quite far apart on roads that are not easy to travel.

A big thank you to all of you who prayed and gave to support the ministry in October. Of course one of the big stories was the story of the water project. Here are two short videos describing what happened there. This one is 1 minute long https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNJeZuDYMpc And this one is about 4.5 minutes long https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8b4pfBTo80 Impact Hope is on the verge of providing the necessary pump and solar panels.

We anticipate that VMK will continue their priority of Leadership Training but will engage in addressing more “social projects” as well. After the five regional conferences were over Ishmael and his team hadn't had enough. They decided to make a trip to the north of the country to visit a remote, nomadic tribe. See the attachment. This was a real eye opener to them. Ishmael said that he didn't realize there were people in his country still living under those conditions. He was deeply moved by what he saw and experienced there.

Just wanted to let you know what's been happening,

Gord Martin
Vision Ministries Canada

145 Lincoln Road, Waterloo, ON

519-501-5933 cell

www.vision-ministries.org