Journals
Posted on March 29, 2023 Spring News from the Matos Family
Luis and Sarah Matos
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Quick highlights:

What’s next for us?

Our Spring and early Summer is getting busy! But we are excited for it because it means we are moving forward to being able to be sent to Mexico. We ask you to keep us three in your prayers as we begin visiting churches and attending trainings. Nora will be taking her first cross country flight (with her parents) to Philly in April.

So here’s the run down of our upcoming whereabouts. We will be in the Philadelphia area April 22-26 to attend a three day orientation at International Ministries head quarters in King of Prussia. We will be sharing about our ministry at Royersford Baptist Church Sunday April 23rd. So if you’re in the area you are welcome to attend!

A week and a few days after our return from the East Coast, we get on another flight for Colorado Springs. We will be there for four weeks attending a cross cultural and language acquistion training at Mission Training International. This is a training Sarah completed as a single global servant, but now will do it again alongside Luis as there is a lot of knowledge and preparation to be gained for serving cross cultually as a team/family. While we are there we plan to visit some church partners within the ABC of the Rocky Mountains Region as well as visit new churches around the Colorado Springs area. If you are in the area, let us know. We will have evenings and weekends available!

Big news!! SAVE THE DATE!! Luis’ commissioning service will be Saturday, July 8th at 2pm at Olympia First Baptist Church. Invitation and more details will follow in the next couple months! You can attend in person or watch the live stream on the church’s Facebook page. This will be a great time of celebration and worship. We hope you join us!

When will you be moving to Oaxaca, Mexico?

We will be able to buy our tickets once we complete the two trainings we mentioned, Luis is commissioned, and International Ministries has received the remaining 20% of ongoing committed support for our ministry. We pray that all of this will be completed before August so we can move sometime in August and Luis can begin his language school in September. We feel so close and we are getting excited to begin our ministry as a family! Everytime we have a meeting on Zoom with COBAMI leaders we get even more excited to be in Oaxaca serving alongside them! Would you join in helping us get the green light to purchase our tickets? If you currently give monthly, we ask you that you continue your monthly gift! If you aren’t currrently giving, we ask that you pray for our ministry and that you consider giving toward our ministry. Would you consider a gift of $60 a month, that’s just $2 a day? Any gift to International Ministries for our ministry pushes us forward to departure! Thank you for your generosity and participation with us in God’s mission.

Talita Cumi Girls Clubs

The Talita Cumi Girls Clubs started a few months ago in the State of Oaxaca. Sarah had a Zoom meeting with the program coordinators, Mimmi and Julia recenlty. It was a great time to come together in one “room” to pray for each other and to pray for each mentor and girl. They were so thrilled to share about what has been happening in the life of the clubs. There are 28 girls currently attending the clubs, which breaks down to 1 club with 10 girls and 3 clubs with 6 girls. Most clubs meet on Saturdays.

According to the program coordinators some of these girls have not been to church before so this is the only opportunity where they can learn about how much Jesus loves them. Mimmi tells Sarah that one group started off pretty rocky because the girls come from very difficult situations. By the grace of God, the mentor has already been able to see a difference after doing some group activities and moving through the curriculum has been helping these little girls become good friends. One group of girls were so excited to read Bible stories and verses that they want their own Bible to have at home. We pray that when they receive their own Bibles they will continue to grow in their relationship with Christ.

Thank you for praying and being a part of this ministry for these 28 girls and their mentors!

Family time

Now to the moment you all have been waiting for — pictures of Nora!

We have been enjoying being a family of three! Nora is now three months old and is growing fast! She challenges us and makes us laugh daily. We are over the moon in love with her and are so thankful to be her parents. We praise God that she has stayed healthy through the winter when RSV, Covid, and the Flu were running amok. It has been a blessing to be close to family in the early months of her life when we needed extra help from grandparents so we could take naps. But we thank God that we have a good little sleeper these days. Here are some pictures of Nora’s life recently.

 

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