September Summers in Guasave

Hola to all our friends and family in Christ!

We continue to wait for cooler tempatures to come as most days here are around 40 degrees celsius with the humidity factor included. There have been several thunderstorms, and besides the lower temperature and rush of water (the streets quickly start filling up to 3 inches which isn't bad but makes it quite a wet walk home from church when it's unexpected), the lightning display is truly amazing to watch! Even in the dead of night when all electricity goes out (here the electric grid doesn't hold up that well in rain or thunderstorms), with my eyelids closed, the flash of lightening would still bombard my eyes like a turned-on flashlight that is in close range pointing at your face. What a powerful Designer and Creator we serve! That we can experience that in a concrete-laden city instead of outside in nature is stunning!

-Women's Discipleship-

Our first session of our Women's Discpleship has wrapped up and Isa and I are prayerfully discussing what to do next, and when and how to start our next session. As we already offer bible studies Sunday and Wednesday nights, I am wondering if doing a discipleship and/or devotional via WhatsApp might be worth trying. The people here are often swamped with long hours and a six day work week and we want the most effective way to keep their minds and hearts engaged and growing in the knowledge of His Word and will. Here, more than 9 out of 10 people use WhatApp and they post, send audio messages, videos, and updates much like people do on FaceBook or Instagram. We appreciate your prayers as we continue to minister to the ladies at our church!

-WhatsApp Channel for Guasave/Surrounding Villages-

Besides a Whatsapp bible study for the women at church, I believe we need to start a WhatsApp channel here for Guasave as a means to reach the people around us who say they are interested in coming to church, or at least have had meaningful spiritual conversations with us, but either can't or won't step foot in one of our church services. Honestly, I'm super excited and nervous at the same time. Excited to pour my heart to them and share (I love to share the gospel and scripture with people), but nervous about getting my face and voice on video (from knowing at times I won't use the best word or verb tense in Spanish, to the spiritual warfare as I've oftened felt the spiritual oppression and it comes with a cost we need to be aware of), I truly covet prayers for this! There are many details to consider, and yet I know the Lord wants us to be of good courage as He directs our steps.

-Police Outreach-

This 13th of October we are tentatively scheduling an outreach to the police department of Guasave. We've asked our church members who want to participate to make a dessert of their preference to bring and bless the police officers as we intentionally go to meet with them, thank them for their service and pray for them, that God would protect them and open their spiritual eyes to see and understand as God would have them. I can't tell you how often I've seen the police about town here and my heart feels so convicted to reach them with the gospel. Oh how they need Jesus! Please pray for this outreach, that God would bless and glorify His name.

-Counseling/Mentoring-

With the startup of a church comes the requests for personal/marital counseling and mentorship. It is a privilege and a responsibility we don't want to take lightly. While Ryan takes on maritial counseling and meeting one on one with the men who request it, I meet with the ladies who ask for personal counseling regarding various challenges they face. Please keep this in prayer, that our advice would be truly in tune with God's Word and His Spirit, that we would be able to help them take on the mind of Christ no matter what obstacles or needs they are facing.

-Proactive Neighbors-

It is amazing how many businesses fit on one little city block here in Guasave! I suppose it shouldn't be, as we've seen various shops and retailers get quite creative with small spaces. The blessing is we've been able to be friendly with several of the ones we neighbor with, having brought them brownies, home-made donuts, and recently home-baked bread. These neighbors are friendly, caring folks, but honestly, they seem quite satisfied with their lifestyle and while they admire our venture to come do life and start a church here, they still perceive that we are offering a non-catholic religion that should be respected but not something to deeply consider. So, we are praying (and request your prayers as well) that in all the busyness of daily tasks and weekly routines, we (at least myself) would continue to make time to bake bread/treats for them, as a way to keep the connection open and show them that Christlike neighborly love. We've had 3 different neighbors back in Santa Ana (with their families) have their lives completely changed by God and while God gets all the glory, as far as how it started on our part, it was bringing homemade brownies or cookies to them and praying for them! And so, we want to keep that neighborly hospitality in practice, knowing that God just may use it to change hearts here as well.

-Centro Cultural-

The English and Guitar classes at Calvary have begun! I have heard great reviews and myself am one happy student, as I along with Virtue and Jasper take guitar lessons! Daniel is a great teacher, not just calm and thorough, but great at encouraging and making the lessons quite doable. We have students now coming from other churches. Please pray that we could all learn well and soon be of good use to the worship ministries that go on in Guasave. Also please pray that God would use the English classes as a means to help students come to know Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. And please keep Daniel and Isa in your prayers, as their schedule, especially Daniel's is quite long as they start early in the morning making donuts to sell and then at evening teach English, guitar, or lead worship and at times the children's ministry during evening services.

-Palos Verdes/Village Outreach-

The youth in Palos Verdes definitely seem to miss our weekly trip out there to serve them dinner, do a bible study, and hang out with them. Right now we've had to cut it down to once a month, from lack of available time and financial resources. We continue to pray for them, that God would continue to work in their lives, protect them from harm, and help them choose right from wrong, and good from evil. Please pray with us for these young lads, that God would raise them up and use them for His glory!

-Remote Job Searches-

Both Ryan and I have prayerfully began searching for remote work online as we face economic needs. Please know we are VERY grateful for the financial support you have given!! It's been amazing to watch how God has provided for the kingdom work we do here thus far through people like you! And because we don't like asking people (though we make sure to let our Heavenly Father know) and really, we don't want to depend soley on donations to keep what we're doing and provide for our family, we have starting applying for various remote positions in the U.S. We have no idea what God is going to do, but we know that if we are obedient to keep seeking, knocking, and asking, He will answer. We do appreciate your prayers for this, as we keep everything we have with open hands, allowing God to guide us as He deems best.

-Virtue's Health Update-

Praise God for the continued days that Virtue has been seizure free. What a relief! Her U.S. doctor told us, however, she was actually taking way less of the epilepsy medication of what is recommended for her age/weight so we've increased the dosage as she is still vulnerable to spacing out early morning when she gets ready for school. And as she has recently ran out of the medication, and shipping from the US to here is very expensive, we've just started her on the Mexican generic version of the drug. Would you please pray that is truly works out well for her? Also, for clarity and guidance on the supplementals we are giving her. As the doctors refused to verify that it isn't/was not brain parasite(s) that are the underlying root cause, I cannot simply be at peace with just treating the symptom. Brain parasites can cause much more damage than just seizures if left untreated. I am leaning on the Lord for guidance on what to give her, as the last seizure she had (still taking epilepsy medication) was when she stopped taking natural supplements that expel/kill tapeworms and other such parasites.

-Kids' School-

The kids are overall enjoying the new school year. Their brains are still doing double time on understanding everything in Spanish, and actually learning and doing the classwork/homework assignments. Cyrus is quick to lose interest if he doesn't understand, and the teacher is new and has a couple autistic kids so she's already mentioned her hands are pretty tide up with offering much personal attention to help him. But he is able to pick up and learn new things rather quickly. Trusting the Lord as he technically would still be in kindergarden in the US, but here that was not an option and really is for the best. Jasper and Jubilee are doing really well. Their willingness to make sure their teachers' are happy with their work is a comfort to me! And Virtue is still struggling to understand everything in Spanish as Sinaloan people are known for talking fast. She is praying every night that God would help her to take courage and keep asking questions to clarify what she doesn't understand and put in the extra time at home to make sure she is catching up on what she didn't quite get at school. Would you please join her in her prayer requests?

-The Cafe/Church Update-

We are thankful for the increase in sales at our cafe, especially when we found out that a significant chunk were from debit/credit card sells that had not been collected. Still, we need the Lord's guidance and continued blessing on helping this business grow and truly be useful for His work here in Guasave. We continue to have new people come both to the cafe and our church services (though it's more like one by one), but it is encouraging. For more details on these things, we have our video link here: https://youtu.be/Ysi_oprndmU?si=gxqqXyunBpDhWukK

-Mexican Independence Day-

We had a very enjoyable time celebrating Mexican Independence Day this September with our church! It was truly fun fellowship; playing games, eating, singing, giving thanks, and praying for this dear nation. Our kids also got to celebrate with their classmates. We've included some photos below.

Thank you for taking time to read this update! And for those of you who have supported us and/or continue, may God richly reward you both in this life and the one to come!

God's grace and peace be with you,

Ryan and Esther Van Deusen

Daniel 12:3

Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.