Friends, our partners in life & ministry,
As you celebrate Christmas and the New Year, we wanted to take a moment to share our heartfelt thanks & appreciation for your friendship. Speaking for my wife Ana & daughter Naomi, I can assure you that we have never been more mindful of the power of a few friends coming together to form one body.
You are our friends, you are our body. Without you, your prayers, your friendship, your encouragement & your support; we could not be in Mexico serving as we are. You make this possible.
Without each of you as our friends, we would not really know what it is to be in the Kingdom of God, nor would we know the blessing that comes in giving our lives to others & sharing in the great community of the believers.
Through your friendship we are able to continue the work of loving the forgotten people of this world. A journey that for us can only continue as we are part of a team. Your team.
Let me confess that I often set out to do the work in front of me, a work that you are a part of, forgetting to fulfill my responsibility of keeping you up to date on the progress. In doing so I rob you of sharing in the knowledge of the blessing we are as a team. I ask your forgiveness in falling short in this area, and I thank you for your grace & love that you continue to bestow upon us with the favor of your friendship.
Now for an update on our ministry:
Ana has continued to grow deeper into the work with families. She has an amazing gift being able to really be with people, truly listening to their story, genuinely caring for them.
She is actively part of a three-person team that visits all families selected to receive a House of Hope (we will build 80+ in 2010), as well as visiting with families impacted through relief ministry.
Additionally Ana has continued to grow deeper in personal friendships with a few core women. For the past six months she has faithfully walked with (physically & spiritually) one of these friends every morning for an hour.
Naomi continues her great adventure of growing up in a diverse community of family & friends. She seems to enjoy becoming aquatinted with so many new people who come to visit her house (the EOC) each week. We are hopeful that she may be blessed with a little sister or brother in the year to come.
I continue to be most grateful for a few local friends in Ensenada, who are willing to walk with me as brothers in Christ. This in addition to the great staff we are a part of at the EOC, is one of the great rewards of serving where God has called us. Three friends in particular have offered to assist me with a covering of accountability & protection, as I continue to spend more time traveling. The idea, is that whenever I need to travel without the company of my wife, one of my friends will travel with me. We are so grateful for a few committed friends willing to make personal sacrifices in order to walk with us.
While we continue to branch out into new geographic areas of the Americas, we sense Ensenada continuing to be our hometown for the foreseeable future. Just four years ago Ana & I weren't sure where we were going to plant our roots. Even as we accepted the offer to serve in a leadership role at the EOC, we weren’t sure if it was for a season of time, or something longer. And while our heart’s continue to grow in the capacity to love a greater diversity of people around the world, we sink our roots deeper into our home base community of Ensenada. We believe God has a strategic plan in basing our ministry from here. This is where our treasured friendships have grown over the past few years, and we hope to continue to take our friends with us, as we branch out from Ensenada in the years to come.
In the coming year we will continue to partner with teams from the US, Canada & Mexico, as we step out of our comfort zones and into a world of opportunity to impact families, communities & nations with the person of Jesus.
I continue to serve as the director of YUGO’s Ensenada Outreach Center; developing the leadership team, communicating the message, casting the vision & setting the tone within the EOC.
Recently we have been hosting a monthly Leadership Breakfast which includes leaders from various areas of society. In January we have been asked to host the breakfast at Ensenada’s City Hall (so the Mayor & other elected officials may attend). The purpose of the breakfast is to bring local leaders together in the spirit of Jesus, to build friendships with Him & with one another.
A seed planted years ago is starting to sprout. With a few friends we have been talking & dreaming about coffee as a ministry in Mexico. This fall we rebranded our EOC Store to become the C3 Cafe. The vision is to Connect Communities through Coffee, hence C3. Early next year I will travel to Oaxaca with a few friends to explore a few of the coffee growing regions of southern Mexico. Our hope is to find an untouched community we can build a relationship with, purchase “green” coffee, locally roast the coffee, and retail the coffee; with all the proceeds being invested in outreach opportunity in the coffee growing community. Hopefully this will not only provide a new area of opportunity for our friends from the US & Canada, but also for our friends in Ensenada.
We are so grateful for you joining yourselves with us in prayer & partnership in this life journey of ours. Please know, even if we do not see one another regularly, you provide us with an immeasurable amount of encouragement & support, which helps us keep the faith & persevere through all seasons.
We remain, your thankful friends & partners in ministry, in Mexico.
With full & grateful hearts,
Ana, Naomi & Scott Wester
