Happy New Year, friends and family!
I love writing, and this time of year especially I like to take time to reflect on the past year and look forward to the next one. I’m sure most of us, if not all, can say that 2020 was not exactly what we had envisioned, and it was full of challenges. I know it didn’t work out exactly as I had planned, and there were a lot of situations that were less than ideal. But honestly, as I was thinking about everything that happened throughout the year, despite the difficulties, I can say that God remained Faithful and Good. He always does! And in the midst of hard circumstances, He was teaching me to trust in Him completely. What could be more humbling than a worldwide pandemic? It didn’t matter who anyone was, how healthy or rich or “stable” anyone was— we were all, in some way or another, affected by it. There were many times that I thought “I’m so glad that I serve a Sovereign and Omniscient God.” How freeing it is to be able to depend on Jesus in everything! And as this next year begins, I hope we all start it completely surrendered to the Lord with our hands open to give Him everything we have, and to receive anything that He chooses to give.
The month of December was a full one for us. The same rhythm of spending time in community and having worship nights and all of that in the beginning of the month, then the second half was spent working hard to start our coffee shop! (For a little background on why that is something we’ve been wanting to do, go read my post Coffee and Jesus from last January, I’ll probably write a follow up one too). We’ve been waiting for things to work out to get it started— waiting for the house with the space, or an affordable property to build on, or for God to open an unexpected door. But one day as we were sitting at Mario’s mom’s house, it seemed to just hit both of us that we needed to stop waiting and instead to practice being faithful in the little. If we kept waiting for everything to fall into place, who knows how many months or years we’d be waiting. So instead, we decided to start with what we could and to grow from there. The long-term goal is big and there’s no way we could have accomplished it all at once anyway, so it’s even more rewarding and rich to work hard and take the first small step, then each of the ones to follow in their time and in faithful obedience to the leading of the Spirit. So, we asked if we could use a little empty space there at Mario’s family’s house, worked on leveling it out, built a little tiny shelter for our work space, bought some locally made tables and chairs as well as all the other supplies, including a single-group espresso machine and a totally not commercial level crepe machine, and finished preparing the space just in time for Christmas Day (a day that here in Honduras the people like to go out, so it seemed like a good time to start). So far it’s been so much better than I’d even hoped for! God has been so generous and kind in it, and already we’re realizing that we’re definitely going to need more space, as well as more supplies, a bigger espresso machine, and more crepe machines. It’s so exciting! For what we were able to buy to set up for now, we had raised the money with the help of my family in Wyoming last February— we called it the Brew-Ha-Ha and it was just a night of me making coffee, and friends and family donating towards the future goal of a coffee shop to use for ministry. Through that event, we raised almost a exactly the amount we needed to buy everything in December. It totally made me laugh just to see the way that God provides. And we trust that He will continue to do so, and that in this process He will someday open the doors for us to have our own building for our cafe and it will be a source of light and life and joy for the whole community. Please be praying for this project (the cafe is called Taza de Gozo) and just that it will be glorifying to God and a blessing to the people of La Venta. We also had to temporarily move out of the house we’re renting because the owner came from Italy to spend January having his vacation here in Honduras, so another prayer request would be for a long-term home that would really be our own. Having the space and freedom to host people in our home is central to our ministry and it’s discouraging to not always have that space to share with others. (The house that we’re temporarily renting is not available long-term and at this point there are no options in La Venta that would be.)
Thank you all for your financial support in 2020, I’m sure it wasn’t easy to give in the middle of so much unknown with people losing jobs and life changing drastically. Mario and I are so grateful for the Lord’s faithfulness to us, and for the generosity that you have shown us. Thank you also for the prayers. We are in a battle on a spiritual level and it’s so encouraging to know that we’re not alone.
Happy 2021! I pray that, in the words of Numbers 6:24-26: “‘The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.’”
Blessings,
Katie and Mario
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