Missions Update: Chamorros in Ecuador

Hello Church!

We're so thrilled to be bringing you another update from one of our Sierra Bible Church missionaries. The Chamorro Family have been a long-standing missionary partner with us in Ecuador. Here's their latest update and how we can be praying for their ministry:

Cordial greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, hoping that each one of you is enjoying the communion of our precious Holy Spirit.

I tell you that thank God my wife and I are fine. In the church working, advising, discipling. A girl attempted suicide, my wife is with her in counseling and prayer.

January 26 we celebrated our anniversary in the company of our sister churches.

Thank you very much for your financial and spiritual support to our ministry.
Sincerely,
Rigo and Mary Chamorro

About a month ago now, Lead Pastor, Nate Levering began his Sunday teaching by stopping to pray for a recent epidemic that has hit our county. That is that a staggering amount of our young girls have attempted suicide and are severely struggling with issues related to value, worth and performance. After receiving the Chamorro's update and seeing that they, too, are witnessing the despair of young girls, something in me just broke. Having three daughters myself, it is a constant prayer that the Lord will provide for them. It's easy to hope for earthly provisions, knowing that at they will launch and have to stand on their own two feet, but seeking the Lord's provision over them is so much more. It's in the here and now- being a part of the ugly, in what they hear and how they feel, what influences them and how they respond to their struggles, because we know there are many. It is a constant effort to hope that these children, mine and every child, know their worth- that their very soul and everything that makes them who they are, is of utmost value.

Maybe this truth is something we all need to remember- your life has incredible value.

Pastor Nate and I were talking yesterday about how it is ONLY GOD. Only God can do what He's done and continues to do in our world and our own hearts. Only God can do what He continues to do in our church family and it is a pure gift to be a part of it.

For LifeGroup this week, we're encouraging our groups to discuss these two verses in light of what God has done:

Isaiah 25:1
Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago.

And Romans 12:1-3
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.

What has God done in your life that causes you to worship Him? What has been only God? Only God pulled me from the brokenness of my childhood, from the destructive patterns I allowed in my early adulthood and healed my heart so that I would have hope and joy reverberating through me. Only He could do that, my friends.

As we continue to walk out this faith, studying Exodus and seeing God's perfect deliverance, our prayers are for the broken in our community. May each and every person know who they are in Christ, stand strong in Him and be freed from the chains that have bound them. May God move in the hearts of many today, from our missionaries and their communities all over the world, to our very own county and in your homes. Amen.