Summer Quarter Newsletter – July 2023
Dear Friends and Family,
Happy summer! At least for those of you in Wyoming, I know that “summer” is a fairly generous term to use considering the more spring-like weather you’ve been having there! We are finally cooling off some here in Honduras and getting more rain, which I am so thankful for. I love it lush and green here! I hope the last three months since my last newsletter have been good ones for all of you! Overall, they have been for us.
I wrote my last newsletter in April and for that month, there’s not a lot to tell. Most of it was spent continuing with the necessary activities with the church and opening the cafe some, but mostly just resting after the loss of Mario’s mom, Rosa, in March. We had some sweet family time that month, which was much needed.
In May, we got a little upgrade for our church! We have had the honor as a church family to be in a sort of partnership with the ministry Teen Challenge, which has a base just down the highway a couple miles from La Venta. Our church had outgrown our porch and we were having our gatherings just in our front yard, but with the rainy season just around the corner, we were feeling anxious to find a solution. God came through for us (as He always does!) by providing a big tent (literally a circus tent, ha!) through the generosity of our friends at Teen Challenge. It’s what they originally started with 20+ years ago, so it’s a little beat up and needed quite a bit of fixing, but it was just what we needed just in time. We got that set up the first week of May right out front of our house.
The rest of May I got to spend in Wyoming visiting family and working. Vienne and I had the best time with my grandpa, parents, sisters, and all of Vienne’s cousins, as well as some other family and friends we got to see. Vienne did so great with all the travel and absolutely loved our whole time in Cody. From there, we came back to Honduras in June via Nashville to see my brother and his wife, both of whom Vienne adored immediately (they hadn’t yet met before that!). As soon as we got back, we hit the ground running with church activities, including moving the tent over to the property our pastor is renting (we had issues with space here on our property and they had a large pasture area behind their house that was flat where it would fit so much better– it just needed lots and lots of work to condition it for being ready for the church to meet there.)
Also in June, we had the biggest thing happen for our church! By God’s grace and unbelievable generosity, we were able to get a loan to purchase a property here in La Venta! We bought it the first weekend of June and are honestly just astounded by how good God has been to us. Again, we had some amazing support from our Teen Challenge friends as a bunch of them came over to help us get the property all cleaned up. We have yet to get anything going in terms of construction, but we’re hopeful to at least have something started by the end of the year.
This past Saturday, we had the privilege of celebrating our first anniversary as a church. So crazy. It truly has not been easy, but we have been so blessed and are excited to see how God continues to open doors for us. May He be glorified! Mario's aunt was also baptized that day, as well as one of the guys from Teen Challenge (who joined us in celebrating God's faithfulness for our first anniversary!).
I’ll quickly address some of the prayer requests from the last newsletter, and then give more ways we need prayer right now.
The first prayer request was about Mario’s visa, which had just been documentarily approved but we were waiting on an interview. We are still waiting. I’m really hoping to hear back within the next couple of weeks, but there is no guarantee.
Another one was for our youth group, which has grown and is still really made up of youth who do not yet have a relationship with Christ. We are loving it and so thankful that they keep coming back every week and are showing genuine interest in knowing more about the Lord. We just started watching The Chosen with them and that is helping to encourage them to start reading their Bibles. So much prayer needed there!
And the last one was about our cafe, which we will open for the first time tonight since before I left for the States. We have come up with some more specific ideas for ways we want to improve the space and work on marketing, but have yet to execute any of them. We hope to soon, but have a lot going on right now which has made it difficult to get going on anything yet. Hopefully soon!
As for current prayer requests…
As mentioned above, our youth group!
Provision in paying for this loan for the church property.
I would so love for Mario to get his visa within the next few months, because (here is a praise and a prayer request!) Baby Velasquez King will be joining us in December (!!) and I will be heading up to the States for the birth this time as well. I really want Mario to be with me. Please pray extra hard for this one!!
We have a small team from Outpost Community Church in Cody coming the beginning of next month (August) and we just always want prayer for our teams.
Thank you to everyone who covers us in prayer as well as to those of you who support us financially and allow us to dedicate our time fully to ministry here in La Venta. Every time I write these newsletters and think about the people who partner with us, I just feel so humbled and so encouraged. There really are no words to express my gratitude. Praise God from Whom all blessings flow, amen!? Love to you all,
Katie
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