Hi there everyone,

Greetings once again in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ!  I know it seems like it has been FOREVER since we have written a Newsletter and even an update email, life has been very busy for our family over these past few months and it seems like 2016 just flew right by us!  Our family has gone through a lot of ups and downs in this past year of working and serving in southern Alberta, but our God has remained faithful in all He has done and our desire in this newsletter is to be able to bring you all up to speed with what God is doing in our family and to let you know the areas in which we could still use your prayers.  Before we say anything else, know that we think of you and pray for you very often.  Our Lord has blessed us with so many brothers and sisters all over the world, and although it is hard, at times, to keep in touch with everyone, we are so thankful for the love and prayers and time that each of you have invested in our family.  We thank God for you, daily.  

 

So where can I even begin?  As most of you know, back in 2012, Jorge and I lost a child by miscarriage.  This was an event that left our entire family heart broken as it was a traumatic experience, along with me(Mandy) hemorrhaging after surgery and having some serious complications.  Well since then, so we are talking four years, we had prayed that one day the Lord would bless our family with another child……and in August of 2016, we were amazed and in awe of our God when we found out that we were expecting!   This baby, that the Lord has given us is our miracle baby, we also refer to her as our “rainbow” baby, a promise that the Lord had given us and that He fulfilled.  Our two boys, Josiah (now 8) and Levi (now 6) are so excited to have a little baby sister come into their lives, that’s right, it appears that God has given us a sweet little princess to love, we feel so very blessed!   My due date is April 25th, so I am now in my 8th month of pregnancy and praise the Lord that baby is growing strong and healthy and we look forward to welcoming her into our world this spring.  I know that some of you already knew of our news as we had the chance to visit Edmonton back in October for my Aunty’s wedding, there we were able to connect with some of you in Beulah and share this wonderful news with you.  To those of you who did know….thank you for praying faithfully for us in this area and thank you to all of you who will continue to lift up our precious baby to the Lord and to pray for His protecting hand over her life.  Our God is truly amazing and we give Him all the Glory and all the honor!  

 

The months of November until January were very hard months for our family as my parents both had to undergo different surgeries, both of which finished with some slight complications.  My Dad had a double by-pass done in early November, and had some complications of getting a chest infection shortly after that, and then my Mum had a knee replacement done in December and also had complications with her heart afterwards.  Then on December 25th my Dad had a stroke and spent almost two weeks in Foothills Hospital in Calgary.  These were very hard times on all of us as a family, but our God never abandons us, and to see my Dad now, he is truly a walking miracle of God’s grace.  Our Lord brought both of my parents and all of us as a family through those hard times, we cried together, prayed together, worshipped together and became stronger when we were on our knees, humbled by His mercy.  My parents are doing much better and we praise God for that!

 

As for Jorge and myself we continue to serve in our church congregation, in Cornerstone Community in Picture Butte.  God has been faithful and continues to teach us new things about Himself everyday, and we continue to see His hand and His provision in our lives through our church family.  This year Jorge has been working with our youth group, as well as occasionally preaching and filling the need wherever there may be one.  He works hard at what God has called him to do and enjoys connecting with people in our church family and also in our community.  We had to take a step back from our English classes with spanish speakers, just while everything was going on with our parents, but a wonderful lady from our church and her daughter have stepped in and have continued having the classes weekly, we are so blessed by their desire to help us serve in this ministry to our spanish speakers in Butte.  We will be starting up our other english class again very soon and look forward to getting re-connected with everyone through that ministry.  I (Mandy) continue to serve on our worship team, which is something that I absolutely love doing and the Lord has blessed me greatly through the people that surround me on this team.  Every Sunday our LORD has new things to teach us and to minister to our hearts through worship and it is a blessing to be able to serve and to grow next to these wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ.   Just think, one day we will all be worshipping Him, together, proclaiming the wonderful and powerful Name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior!

 

And that, in a nutshell, is what we have been up to in these past few months.  Our family is now looking forward to and eagerly anticipating the arrival of our sweet baby girl, who will be coming in roughly 7 or 8 weeks.  We have been so blessed by friends and brothers and sisters in Christ who have given us baby things, passed on clothes and even helped us paint and prepare for this new little blessing.   We hope to be able to keep you updated more often from now on, as we know that God has blessed us with you all as our family in Christ, and even though we are not physically with you to talk and visit, we believe that we are united through the Spirit of God and that is what makes us family.  

May God continue to bless you and your families daily as you continue to serve Him

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