Over the course of two weeks, we trained 35 pastors in the book of Revelation. Other missionaries on our trip taught courses on Preaching and the book of Romans. During our visit, we had the opportunity to hear some amazing testimonies.

God gave us the “ministry of reconciliation” so that He could reconcile the world to himself in Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:18). He gives us this sweet opportunity to work alongside Him and other believers to strengthen, encourage, and grow the church. This summer some of our church members were able to take this opportunity in one of our first family-friendly mission trips to El Paso, Texas.

“I remember feeling this was an impossible task. But God said it wasn’t. If we will give God our hands, he will give us what we need to do his work.”

I recently had the privilege to meet Faye. Faye has been a member of Church at the Cross for 44 years and has led a Life Group for 23 years, from age 50-73 called the Grace Class

SEND Relief (part of North American Mission Board) has a significant presence on the island of Puerto Rico. CATC sent a nine-person team to be a part of the remarkable work that is happening there. Our team served alongside a NAMB supported Puerto Rican church as well as an adoption agency known as Adoptando en Puerto Rico.

In less than a month, our family has the privilege of being sent out as Church at the Cross missionaries to Utah with the hopes of planting a church in Farmington within the next few years (God willing). We will also be in partnership with Flourishing Grace Church, where I will serve the people of that area joining their staff as a minister to North Davis County. Ultimately, our hope is to see God transforming lives with the hope of the Gospel, and bringing renewal to a pre-Christian state through Jesus.

Miriam went on to share with us a little more about her husband. He had grown up in the neighborhood where they lived. Most of the people in the neighborhood were related to him in some form or fashion. Cousins, second cousins, uncles, aunts. He earned the nickname “Papo Fuerte.” Papo’s mother’s maiden name was “Fuerte.” But that is not solely how he got the nickname. Papo was a welder by trade. But basically, he could fix, or build anything he put his mind to. You name it, Papo had built it. He built the entire concrete house 30 years ago where they were living to this day. He built the water tank used to irrigate all their land. At one point Miriam told us the story of how he built a private elevator in someone’s personal home. Papo would also repair and build for everyone in the neighborhood. If anyone ever needed anything, he would not hesitate to build it for them and take care of his family. Family is everything in Puerto Rican culture, or at least on the surface it is. Fuerte means strong in Spanish, and Papo was the neighborhoods strength… was.

In July of 2019, I went to Uganda with a small team from Church at the Cross and our partner ministry, Empower One. We came to offer medical care and prayer to South Sudanese refugees who had fled across the border seeking safety and hope.

In September of last year, I had the great opportunity to go on a trip with several other CATC covenant members to Japan to explore the opportunities of ministry that exist there. Upon hearing about this opportunity, I began praying and asking God if this was somewhere I should go, and He was very clear in His answer to me about going to Japan!

In 2019, our local church partnered with Compassion International to sponsor (or fund) a church plant deep in the jungle, in a town located east of the Andes Mountains, just south of the Colombian border. At this church (or center), more than 300 children are sponsored through Compassion International.

We went to Ecuador to meet people and go places. Although we found more than that, we found friends, hope, and a united love for Jesus.

In 2023 and 2024, I was blessed with the opportunity to visit and serve the unreached people group of Japan through Church at the Cross. Japan is the 2nd largest unreached people group, with just less than 1% of the population being Christian!

When my daughter and I joined the 2024 Family Mission Trip to El Paso with our church, I had a plan. Vesper had just finished third grade, and my hope was to widen her world—to show her life beyond suburban Grapevine and teach her the joy of serving others in gospel-centered ways.

This past March, I had the opportunity to go on our church trip to Ecuador with Compassion International to meet my sponsor child, visit the Compassion center our church partners with in Jivino Verde, and see firsthand how sponsorship benefits not just the child but the entire family and community.