Hi Friends and family!
I can’t explain how great it feels to be able to sit down and write to you once again, it’s always encouraging when we take some time to look back and share what God has been doing during these past few months with our family.
Almost an entire year has gone by since we arrived in Picture Butte, Alberta, and if there is one thing that we can say, it is that God has been faithful! During the month of July we had the chance to work in the Vacation Bible School (VBS) that was hosted here at Cornerstone Community Church. This was a week long program where almost 200 children from our community came to learn more about God and it was such a blessing to be a part of it. Both Jorge and I were able to teach the preschoolers a short segment every morning and it was an awesome experience, sharing how God can change people’s lives with these little ones. Without a doubt, it was an excellent week and a good reminder that the activities in the Church never really stop as long as we have the desire to bring more and more people to Christ. But in midst of all the activities and meetings with people, we have also been able to take a few day trips as a family and enjoy a beautiful summer with our children, enjoying all of God’s creation around us.
We took the entire month of July and most of August off from our English classes, so that people could spend the summer relaxing with their families. We just started them up again this week and we are very excited to see God bringing in new people who desire to learn! It is also encouraging to see how the people who have been coming most of the year are growing and really starting to speak more English as their second language! It is always challenging to face living in a new country, learning a new
language and trying to adapt to a new culture, but we feel that God has led us to help these people in different areas of their lives and we are excited about the friendships that we are making as we go along. Our prayer is that God will use us to share His gospel with them and show His Love and His grace as we grow together.
With every day that goes by we are discovering more and more what God wants to do in this place, and now, in September, God willing, we will start to provide worship services in Spanish, for the Hispanic community in the area. The goal is to have a bilingual service, to be able to reach the Hispanic community, but also to encourage them on towards learning more English. We ask you to please continue to pray for us as we work towards beginning these services, that we will be able to lead these people to Christ in a way that they can all understand. The month of September will be a challenging month for us, but we trust that God did not bring us this far to just survive, but rather to conquer the land that He has given us. We have high expectations for what God will do through these services and this encourages us to take steps in faith and to trust that He will bring the right people to participate in these services with us, so that we might grow together in Christ. Along with beginning this new work in the church we will also continue to provide English classes three times a week and pray for new chances to connect and help new people, so as to be able to witness to them about the great Hope that we find in Jesus Christ.
We are very happy for Diego Henriquez, who was part of our church congregation in Yumbel, Chile, as he was married on August 1st to a beautiful lady here in Canada. It was an amazing experience for Jorge to be able to perform the ceremony and share with them the joy and challenges that lay before them as they enter into this new stage of life together! Congratulations Margie and Diego!
Whenever we have the chance to write to you, we always share what God is doing in our family and our church congregation, but we would also like to share with you some of our future plans, so that you might help us to pray. Ever since we were married (almost nine years ago), it has been our dream to be able to own our own home and it is something that we have prayed for together, and with our children. We know that the challenge of this becoming a reality for us is very great, but we trust in the Lord that over the next few months He will put the right people in our path and will lead us to being able to make this dream a reality in the not-so-distant future. After living on the mission field for many years and moving from one place to another, we know that a physical home is not the most important thing on this earth, and so we pray that if it IS in God’s will, that He will give us a home that can be used to glorify His Name, a place where we can show hospitality, love and Grace to others in our community.
As you can see we have a lot of work cut out for us, and for that reason we want to ask you to please continue to keep us in your prayers!
Pray for:
- God’s guidance in all we do.
- His provision for our family.
- A home for our family.
- The Hispanic community in southern Alberta, and that the gospel will come to their lives.
- For our English classes and Spanish services that we will be providing for the community.
Thank you for taking the time to read about our news and to support our family in prayer. We trust that God will continue to use us in this place, it has been an amazing year for us here in Picture Butte, and we give all the Honor and all the Glory to Him!
The Santanas
famsantanas.com 