God's Timing for Guasave

Ryan Van Deusen
Mar 2
4 min read

Hey friends!

Our weather here is back up to the low 90s during the day! We are praying for guidance on ways to help beat the heat in our apartment as our a/c units are old and landlord expects us to cover half the bill if we ask to put in any new ones. Not to mention that the building is thick concrete and already reaches 86 degrees at night (without a/c).

-Police Outreach-

We were able to go last month for another outreach at 7am. There were definitely a lot more police men and women this time around. At first they all stood in larger groups as Ryan used the microphone to start sharing of why we came. By the time he was done talking and handed me the mic to pray for them, they had all gathered in formation (at least 70). What a privilege it was to pray for their spiritual eyes to be opened and have that assurance of eternal life, to their physical protection, to the healing of their marriages and wounds of the past. Besides coffee and donuts, we brought a dozen bibles. They all got picked up and even asked for more! Would you join us in this venture? Praying, specifically donating or sending bibles for them? There definitely still feels like a gap in truly connecting with them, so if any of you know of police officers (retired or on call) with a heart for the police here, we would love to set up an event for you to connect with them! May God pour out His Spirit and bring laborers into this field of harvest.

-Baptism-

A couple Sundays ago, we had our first baptism. One of our congregants had been struggling greatly with his past and felt the need to once more enter the waters of baptism and let the past be the past. It is sweet to see him come to church with a renewed hope, especially for his family who has yet to come with him. This picture is one of true restoration. God has set this man free from his past, and from the guilt of his sin! A man who grew up in what you might imagine would be the life of a young person in Sinaloa who gets tangled into the mess of a state often governed by criminals. Now, however, Martin is free!!

-Women's Outreach-

I am trying to connect with the right person from the Secretary of Health Dept to see if we can set up a simple event for Women's Day. As an American, we never celebrated it. But someone gave us a significant amount of new women's blouses/clothing the last time we were in California, and instead of "just giving them away" I want to see if we can offer to give them away with a chance to share the gospel and the hope we have within. The health building is right next to the children's school, so we pass by it daily when we drop them off and pick them up and already have employees from there coming to our bible studies. The people here are friendly and big on greeting, so I am hoping for favor! I don't even know how we'll arrange the clothes to be given away (they're great quality and perfect for this hot/humid climate) as we want the set up to be done well. (Also thinking of bringing bibles if we can get them here in time). Please pray!

-Our safety-

Several of you have reached out asking if we are okay with the current news of what is going on in Mexico. Thank you for checking in on us. We are grateful that Guasave is known to be peaceful and calm. From what we have heard, the cartel in Guasave has become one of the strongest in Sinaloa as these fights within the factions have continued. The current events have brought about the elimination of the leader of the Jalisco Cartel which is the state south of Sinaloa. Previously, it was the leader of the Sinaloa cartel based in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa. Now that those two are essentially "out of the way" in their minds, there is a search going on for "the other Chapo". He is Chapo Yisidro who known to be the leader of the cartel of Guasave who has gained a lot of power in the recent conflicts.

Paul instructs us in 1 Timothy 2 to pray for the governing authorities so that we can lead peaceful and godly lives. It makes it much easier to preach the gospel when there's no war going on around us!! Since the present chaos was caused by the elimination of a cartel leader, I do ask you to pray for the events around the attempts to capture Chapo Yisidro. His capture would mostly immediately impact what we are doing in some way. Especially, our work among the police officers. We continue to pray for God's protection and His guidance. Only He knows how to bring about a harvest from what looks too chaotic or corrupted to redeem. We appreciate your prayers!

Thank you for your interest and care. For those financially supporting us, we really appreciate you! May God continue to strengthen that faith you have that pleases Him and help you run the race with endurance! We love you!

-Ryan and Esther Van Deusen

Available on Amazon: -Faith Like A Child-

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