Burgess Road Baptist Church

December 2022

Dear Friends,

Warm greetings! I pray you are well and fully enjoying the love and goodness of God.

We are here in the state of Texas spending as much time we can with our son Rod and his wife Gabby and their son, Adino, before we return to the Philippines in February. We are looking forward to the birth of their second son this coming January 2023.

Our eldest, Hannah and her four year old son, Moses, flew into Houston last October. Hannah was 8 months pregnant during their travel and we praise God for being with them. Hannah gave birth to a healthy baby girl on Nov. 7 in Galveston, TX. We praise God for the life of Hannah and her husband Ruel who surrendered to full time ministry. Ruel is still in the Philippines awaiting his visa to enter the US. Please do pray for them to be reunited soon. If you’re looking for another missionary to support please consider Ruel and Hannah Villamiel.

Our son, Timothy, and his wife, Bianca, are a blessing to the ministry. Timothy has been entrusted with our Bible Basketball Ministry (AMAGOH) and has really taken it to new heights. Young boys are filling up our church and hearing the gospel through this effort. Bianca is doing a great job in the music department of our church, children’s home and Academy.

We thank and praise God for our two youngest, Samuel and Elizabeth, who seek ways to help out. They are both very reliable caretakers of their nieces and nephews. Hannah has joyfully sung at several churches where we have presented while we are here in the US, and Samuel happily sets up our display boards. Please do remember them in your prayers and their home school studies and activities.

In the last few years we have had six different churches drop our support. Three of the churches are in CA, one in TX, and the others in FL and MO. We know that God is always in control and we praise him for the most recent church support additions, Rebecca Creek Baptist Church in San Antonio, and Trinity Baptist Church in Texas City, TX.

We praise God that he has allowed us to see young people in our various ministries get saved and we have been able to disciple and train them for the ministry. I regularly have conference calls and exchange messages with those in the Philippines and we praise God that the ministry is in capable hands while we are here in the US.

Pastor JM, our outreach pastor, was a fruit of the Bible Basketball ministry where he was saved. Soon after, he enrolled in our Bible Institute and graduated in 2017. He has taken over my responsibilities while I am here in the US. Maribel, who was a six year old street child that Annalisa met begging in the market, is now 21. She is our children’s home secretary. Abigail, who was passed from one orphanage to the next until we took her in at 6 yrs. old, is now 22. She is the children’s home kitchen manager. Leonilyn was taken in at 7 years old from living in the dumps of Manila. She is now 20 years old and is a blessing as the houseparent to the younger girls of the children’s home as well as the personal secretary of Pastor Ted Fulfer. Those are just a few of the children who grew up in SBCHome and are now serving God.

The Lord has truly blessed our efforts here in the US. We praise God for the churches that responded by financially giving towards the projects that we are trying to raise funds for. Most recently, Open Door Baptist Church, Pensacola, FL, committed to funding the buildings of our new church plant, as well as to install a new kitchen for our Project Dorcas ministry. Another church in Texas, Victory Bible Baptist Church, gave a portion towards the purchase of our return plane tickets. There are also two churches here in Texas, Bayou Drive Baptist Church and Grace Point, that so graciously put together several boxes of Christmas gifts and items to ship back to the children in the Philippines. A young couple from Wisconsin gave towards the Christmas as well. We are truly blessed!

Thank you so very much for your love, Prayers and Support! May God bless you, and may you and your family have a very Merry Christmas!

The Valbuenas

You may send your donation through PayPal:

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or you may send it to:

Rodrigo & Annalisa Valbuena
c/o Central Missionary Clearinghouse
P.O. Box 219228
Houston, Texas 77218-9228

1-800-CMC-PRAY (1-800-262-7729)
Office: 281-599-7411
Fax: 281-599-7511

December 2022

Qué está pasando

Praises

• Shared the Gospel with several
• Finished the new church lease
• Safety in travels
• Time with family

Prayer Requests

• Get permit for new church building
• Upcoming training opportunities
• Finish 2022 strong
• Find large house to rent

Ephesians 4:11-12

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.

No matter our titles or specific gifts and abilities, if we are children of God, we can participate in the work of the ministry and do what we can to edify,  or build up the body of Christ – the church. We can help or give assistance. We can encourage and put wind in the sails of others. We can pray and give and go, and we ought to do all we can.

November was crazy busy. We continued to work on the remodel of the new church lease and finished at least the auditorium part and had our first service on Sunday the 6th. Everything was good with the exception of only having one bathroom for everyone. We got our building permit on the 7th for adding a bathroom and worked hard to complete it for the following Sunday. On the 14th and 15th we got our last inspections and were able to get our certificate of occupancy and close out that remodel project. Hopefully this space will work for the church until we can get the new building completed. We got to help one of our missionaries for a couple days work on a project at his house, too.

We had the opportunity to participate in a ladies shooting range day and also taught a basic self-defense class. Training and teaching in the churches is one of our passions and a privilege to help others put tools in their toolboxes.

We traveled to Indiana to be with Sonya’s parents and siblings for Thanksgiving. It was nice to take off a couple days and just do a bunch of nothing and catch up with some of our family. On the 28th we traveled back to Buckhorn Kentucky to help Rock Bottom Baptist church with ongoing disaster relief efforts. The prophet’s chamber – the Ark as we call it – has been moved to its original location and will be set on a new foundation in the next week or so. The barn church had been cleaned out and needed all new support posts and a lot of structural framing installed prior to winter and the snow. We were able to get a bunch of that done in a few days and now the building is ready for some new metal siding and rolling doors.

To God be the glory for the great things he continues to do and the little part we get to play in that. Thanks to each of you for your prayers and the contacts through calls, texts and emails and your financial giving. All of these are very much appreciated, and we could not do what we do in the Lord’s army without it.

In Christ,
Kevin, Sonya, Bethany, and Jon McCoy
Training Center International

Email: Mccoysincostarica@yahoo.com
Kevin 850 777-0097
Sonya 850 698-1694

December 2022

Dear Family and Friends,

We hope that you had a blessed Thanksgiving.  We also hope to be the first to wish you all a Merry Christmas.  This time of year is so full of blessings, it is appropriate that we start the Holiday season with Thanksgiving.  We have so many things to be thankful for that it is hard to know where to begin.  We are thankful for each one of you who support us through your prayers, as well as those that support us financially in the ministry.  As we look back over this past year I can truly say that through your support God has abundantly supplied all our needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus.  We thank the Lord for calling us to Honduras to serve Him among such wonderful people.  We are blessed with great teammates in the ministry here, as well as a great church family to serve alongside in the advance of the Gospel.  We have seen God continue to grow His church through the outreach opportunities this year; including but not limited to the big medical outreaches and weekly children’s Bible clubs.

We also want to thank the Lord for how He has worked in our lives as we have walked this road of Blake’s type 1 Diabetes diagnosis.  We are thankful for the strength and understanding that He has helped us with, as well as the resources and people whom He has sent to come along side us.  We are thankful also for the over all good health that the Lord has given our family.

I am personally thankful for the opportunities I have had to preach and the opportunities to teach different sections of the Basic theology class that we offer for church members.  In October and November we covered the Doctrines of Christ and the Holy Spirit, and the students all did well on their final exams last Sunday Night.  My prayer is that each one will grow spiritually as a result of the class and not just have additional academic knowledge.

As we approach Christmas and the celebration of our Savior’s birth, our prayer is that Christ would be lifted up in all of the activities here and in churches around the World.  Jesus promised that if he was lifted up He would draw all men unto Himself (I know that is talking about His crucifixion, but that is what we desire to point people toward).  May the world see that the baby born in Bethlehem truly is the greatest gift that was ever given, because He was born to give His life to save us.

Prayer & Praise:

• Continued spiritual growth in the church family.
• We Praise the Lord for a busy year of ministry.
• Pray that Christ would be exalted in our Christmas activities and outreach.
• Continue to pray for wisdom as we grow in our understanding of Type 1 diabetes, and how to best help Blake.

 
Merry Christmas from Honduras,
Nate and Cori, with Mykenzie, Grant, Blake and Savanna