March 2024

Hi Friends!

Sorry it's been a minute since I've touched base! January went *flying* by, and then before I knew it we were in March already?? Anyway, they always said that's what happens as you get older. 

Adonay and I took a few days in January to go on a short honeymoon. We did a roadtrip, going from a few days at the beach, up to Chalatenango (the highest region of the country), and then over to San Miguel for a few days to spend time with his uncle, Giovanni, and his family. Times like those when we're able to slow down and reset are so necessary!

CDI

We began the new school year the 3rd week of January, jumping back into classes with 20 new faces. Classes have been much fuller this year, as we're averaging 35 kids each day. This week were introducing 5 new kids as well, hoping to reach our goal of 80 kids in total! (we are still hosting the kids in 2 groups). Our desire is to start hosting all 80 kids every day either next month or the month after, yet our biggest challenge is staff. In order to physically fit the kids in the space we have we'll need to divide them up into 4 classrooms, and at the moment with have 3 teachers. I know that in His timing the Lord will provide the volunteer we need in order to start hosting all the kids. 

I've been changing up which group I give class to, but the majority of the time I'm with the oldest group. One thing that we've been doing that I really enjoy is reading the Bible starting at the beginning. Instead of using kids bibles as I have in the past, we've been reading the normal Bible together and then talking about it as a class. This week we are reading about Abram and God's promise to him. 

The last few years one of our partner churches, Rock City Church, has come on mission teams the month of March during which they give a new pair or shoes to each child in the CDI. This year they were unable to make it, yet in an incredible act of generosity they made a donation in order to each child their new shoes! We love seeing the joy on their faces as they get a new pair of kicks to show off. 

Conexión Youth Group 

Christmas Outreach Dinner

Our outreach dinner with the youth group was a blast, and everyone knocked their costumes out of the park! Last year we started a tradition of choosing a theme and dressing up for the dinner, and the theme for our dinner this time was the world of Shrek. Ado went as Merlin the wizard and I went as the wolf (our costumes were thrifted and weren't winning any prizes, but hey, it was fun 🤪). We were joined by several guests and even some youth group members whom we hadn't seen in a while. It was a wonderful time of fellowship!

Infinito

The past few years our youth group has been going to San Salvador on a youth retreat, combining with the San Salvador and Soyapango churches. Each year families from the San Salvador church host us in their homes and we spend the days together learning from the Word and worshipping. This year our theme was sharing the Gospel. As a Great Commission church, our mission and vision is to share the Gospel, and we realized that there are many young members of our church who had done that before. We took time to talk about how to break the ice and easy steps to remember in order to share the Gospel understandably and memorably. We made little bags of cookies and candies to hand out, then went to the historic center of San Salvador to share! We split up into groups to talk to people and I went with 3 nervous young newcomers. I started out our group sharing the gospel with a few different people, and we had the incredible blessing of leading 4 people to Christ! Afterwords they took the reins and worked as a team to break the ice and share the incredible news of God's love. Altogether it was an incredible experience and a powerful reminder of the importance not only to understand God's love and pursue him personally, but also to know how to explain his Gift to us so that many may know and be saved. 

March 27-29 we will be going to GCLA's annual spring conference in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. This year only a few people from our church will be going, including us. We'll be staying with a local family from the church in San Pedro Sula and enjoying a time of fellowship, learning and worship with all GCLA churches across North and Central America. 

Praise for a "new" car!

The last 6-8 months were wrought with car problems that didn't seem to have an end. The AC seemed to work for about 3 months and then would go out again. Every time we went into get it checked out they would tell us the same thing, that we needed a new compressor. Right around the time when we truly didn't know how to proceed the Lord provided a contact for a mechanic nearby who specializes in car AC systems. We went to get it checked out and were able to get it fixed up enough to sell. After a few more long months of getting no offers to buy the car we lowered the price and we're able to sell it. 

The next stage was equally as difficult. Finding a used car in El Salvador is tricky because the majority of used cars are salvaged, imported and fixed up to sell. This means they usually bring a host of problems with them. There are places to find used "agency" cars (cars that have never been totaled), but they're usually $5-7k more expensive than the value of a salvaged car. So we began our search and found several that we were interested in, but one after another all failed the mechanic's revision. After 3 failed revisions we were pretty discouraged and decided to take one last car in before opting for plan B (which would have been going to the customs and buying a salvaged car to fix up ourselves). Praise God the last car came back with only minor fixes and maintenance needed. From selling the car to buying the "new" one, the process took about 3 weeks, and we are so thankful to my in-laws for lending us their car in the meantime!

Our hope and prayer for this car is that it will serve us well for at least 5 years. We plan to have it until we're in need of a bigger car, in which case we would love to be able to purchase an "agency" SUV.

Financial Support

Raising support is definitely a long process, especially when you add ministry on top of it! I am still about $575 from my financial support goal. Thank you much to those who have joined my team and for those who continue to pray!
Who do you know that would be interested in hearing about the ministry here in La Libertad?

Pray with Me

• Financial support provision
• Spring conference in Honduras and safe travel during the trip (its about 12-14 hours by car).
• Praise for God's provision of a car!

Thank you so much for your continued prayers and support. May the Lord fill your hearts with his joy and peace this Easter as we celebrate the greatest gift we could ever receive... eternity with Him!

Love,
 Alyssa

Psalm 119:89-90
Your word, Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens. Your faithfulness continues through all generations; you established the earth, and it endures.