Over the past several months, stories have continued to emerge from our mid January visit to Juarez, Mexico. Sarah and I were able to go together to the city where my family and I have returned so many times throughout my life to minister with International Family Missions. We spent the weekend of our arrival in the home of Pastor Armando Ruesga and his family - laborers for Jesus that Sarah met six years ago while visiting a seminary in Guatemala. Armando and Maribel graciously received us into their home, gave us their own bed, introduced us to their family, involved us in the activities of their church, fed us (according to them) the finest burritos in Juarez, and talked with us extensively about their ministry and their passion for the poor and destitute of the city. As the following week began, Sarah and I joined a team of families who came from Colorado with I.F.M., to visit neighborhoods, a feeding center, and a girls rehabilitation home. One day we found ourselves in an impoverished "colonia" (neighborhood), serving a meal and teaching women and children about Christ...

A blast of bitterly cold wind quickened our pace up the dusty road. It gusted through abandoned, half-completed block structures, and caused the cardboard and tin walls of the little houses, that stood unshielded at the base of the mountain, to tremble. Ahead of us was the one-room, yellow church, beckoning us to enter in from of the cold. A gathering of rough but cheery faces greeted us inside the door, one hundred children and mamás who had walked from their homes in the colonia, and each stood patiently waiting to receive a hot dog, a jalapeño and a cup of warm water...

I sat down next to a timid thirteen year old boy. Jose Luis had a somber face and searching eyes and he rarely spoke. With him was his younger brother Ricardo, his baby sister, and their mother. I learned that Jose Luis and Ricardo had in the past been taken by Mexican social services and placed in an orphanage due to abuse in their home. They had now been returned to their family, but their situation had not improved. Their mother had no love for them and the man that now lived with her often came home at night and beat them. To avoid their difficulties at home, the boys frequently stayed out on the streets into the early hours of the morning - vulnerable to gang violence and sexual offenders.

As I learned about the life of these young boys, my heart went out to them. We had fed them and had given them a blanket for covering in the freezing cold, but those gestures seemed insignificant in view of the hopelessness of their situation. As I took out a Spanish Bible and opened to the book of Psalms, Jose Luis' eyes lit up with eager interest. We read together, "O Lord my God, in You I have taken refuge; save me from all those who pursue me, and deliver me ... My shield is with God, Who saves the upright in heart..." Despite the brothers' young ages, I knew that they understood the significance of the words that we read, perhaps in a deeper way than I was able to. They lived in constant flight and fear from real enemies and they desperately needed to know God's protection, deliverance and love. The only thing of enduring value that we could give them was this knowledge. Though our time with them was limited, Jesus said, "I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you ... so that we confidently say ... The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?" (Hebrews 13:5-6). Beyond any physical want, their greatest need was to know their Creator and to trust Him as their loving, ever-present Savior. I have reflected many times on my experience with these two boys and wish to encourage you by saying that in the same way, the people that you and I interact with every day have equally as great a need for Christ's love as Jose Luis and Ricardo, and perhaps suffer from similar weights of fear, difficult home situations, conflicts in relationships, hurt, loneliness and rejection. May we not be silent about the hope that we have in Christ Jesus; rather let us always be "ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you ... with gentleness and respect" (1 Peter 3:15).

What we're up to
Time speeds up when you get married! I sat down to write this month's letter and looked back at our last posting; six months have gone by! We are continually amazed at the depth and color that God has brought into our lives through each other. As our love and understanding of each other continues to grow, we are delighted and humbled by the experience of seeing one another and the world through the other's eyes.

Sarah and I are enjoying the most beautiful spring we have ever seen! Our little street is covered in brilliant flowering bushes soaking in the bright warm sun that shines through the light green of new growth on trees overhead. We love to go on walks together through the picturesque University of Montevallo that is just a block from our home, and to play tennis or soccer on a sunny afternoon. Sarah has been putting her new sewing machine to work by making a scarlet colored cover for our couch, and she has been happily surprising me by trying out all the recipes she received when we married. I am enjoying settling into my computer programming job with my amiable coworkers at a construction-reporting company whose stated purpose is to support serve God by supporting missionaries with their profits!

As we communicated in our last letter, when Sarah and I got married we stepped back from our involvement with Multiplying Teams International and our plans for heading to Puerto Rico so that we could evaluate together our direction as a new family. We have been attending a small Spanish-speaking church pastored by a Venezuelan man and his family, who were brought to Alabama four years ago through the prayers and coordination of Sarah's parents. Within the congregation are families from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Panama. Pastor Jose Luis Leon and his wife Magvis have been overwhelmed by the amount of work involved in the ministry to the Hispanic community here – leading several Bible studies, preparing sermons, serving as chaplain at a local hospital, driving hundreds of miles each week between homes, discipling individuals, and receiving a daily in-pour of visitors into their home. As we stepped back from our preparations for Puerto Rico and saw the needs within our church, we approached the Leon family about serving this church by helping with their responsibilities. In early December we started a "small group" in our home where several Hispanic families who live in our area come weekly to study the Bible together, pray for one another, and share "pan con café" (a Hispanic tradition of bread and coffee). All but one of these families are new believers, but we are encouraged by their growing hunger for God's Word, and their enthusiasm in learning to communicate the gospel to their neighbors. I have also been given the opportunity to preach regularly in our church. Please pray for me to continue to improve in my ability to teach! Sarah and I have been visiting door to door in trailer communities near our home, and I have been surprised by the hospitality of the Latino people! Recently when we approached a trailer and knocked at the door, a man immediately welcomed us in, offered us something to drink, and began conversation before even hearing our names. This man's name is Guillermo and he and his wife, Yadira, are from Nicaragua. Guillermo told us that he had given up his heavy drinking habits three months earlier and he had, the week that we visited them, been saying to his wife, "it is time we seek God and His truth because I know only God can change my life." We want to develop relationships with many other people like this family, and be able to tell them about the Son of God who, according to His Father's will, came down out of heaven to give life to the world. Our longing and striving is for the Hispanic Christians in our church to gain the desire and preparation needed to continue the work of taking the gospel to their own people – here in Alabama, and to those who are in their own countries - and eventually to peoples of other nations that have no knowledge of God.

Having had time to reevaluate, Sarah and I both feel strongly that at this time we should continue working here where God has clearly directed us; and therefore we have decided that we are no longer planning to go to Puerto Rico. We want to thank each of you with sincere gratitude who have prayed for us and supported us in our service to the MTI team. We are very excited for the people on that team, one of whom is Sarah's older brother, Ryan, and we look forward to seeing God use them there in the training and mobilization of missionaries. Our passion for reaching peoples without knowledge of Jesus has not diminished, and we view the focus of our efforts here in making disciples as preparation for going in the future.

Please pray for us to have strength to "run with endurance the race that is set before us" by persevering in service to God and in prayer, and by growing in humble love.


Love in Christ,
Danny & Sarah