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Dear Ricardo and Beth,
It’s that time of year. The time when we remember a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And we know that His life was given as the greatest gift we could ever dream of unwrapping.
It is the time when we wrap up gifts, in memory of that first gift, to give to our loved ones. The excitement grows as we anticipate time spent together (for example, Juliana & Jonathan come home on Friday!!!) and watching them unwrap what we just wrapped up.
It is also that time of the year when we are wrapping up the year itself. We reflect on God’s goodness and report on the accomplishments and unmet challenges. And excitement grows as we anticipate unwrapping the new year. Our team has finalized their strategic plans…and we look forward to seeing God’s goodness unwrapped in 2024. But first, we invite you to look with us at the gift that was 2023.
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What's in the Box?
Please don’t shake it too hard because it is full of a diverse group of people…like the over 2,300 people who accepted the gift Jesus came to give them and the 7,838 people being discipled in FM Houses of Peace this year. In addition to the 2,710 common people who learned how to share their faith story with their friends and family through the Disciples making Disciples course, a further 971 people took Ministerial Formation courses, and 90 more people were involved in continuing education including bachelor’s certificates and master’s degree cohorts through Asbury Seminary, diploma courses through the Biblical Seminary of Colombia and workshops through other organizations. Also contained within are 22 US missionaries, 9 international missionaries and a large team of leaders throughout the region!
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The gift of 2023 includes a great Strategic Planning Retreat held in February that enabled the Latin American Leadership Team to not only see where we’ve come from but plan for where God is leading us in the future. It also includes 25 initiatives for holistic transformation within the community (such as a medical clinic, a rehab center, clean water wells, micro-enterprise projects and more), 3 much needed and much appreciated leaders’ sabbaticals, and over 1,500 children in 16 different countries participating the Raíces (Roots) Curriculum.
We thank God for the ways He is at work in and through every member of the team!
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The Wrapping Paper that Holds It All Together
One of the great things about serving this great team of people is that we are all working together toward one goal…to participate with God in His restoration of Latin America.
We have refined the actual wording of our mission statement this year but we still do three things…
We develop healthy leaders who multiply disciples, groups and churches and who empower holistic transformation.
Everyone has a different role to play in accomplishing that mission but first and foremost we strive to increase our dependency on the Holy Spirit. His effort is the only indispensable one in the whole movement. That knowledge keeps us humble and unified.
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The Bow that Makes It Beautiful
Personally, 2023 has been a unique year. In July, we took the kids with us to General Conference in Florida and then settled them into their respective homes in Kentucky. The empty nest enabled us to travel together more frequently. Pre-empty nest, we traveled together 30% of the time. Post-empty nest, we’ve traveled together 70% of the time…including our first time-ever trip to Africa for the Area Director Meetings. We’ve even had the privilege of working with both female bishops of the FMC.
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Perhaps the highlight was our trip back to Chile in November. Not only were we encouraged to see the growth of the church and the sweet Spirit guiding the annual meeting but we enjoyed getting to know our new Bishop, Kaye Kolde. To top it all off, we spent two days in Santiago visiting Casa Grande and a lot of our friends and family. (Seen here with former church members, Eduardo & Pablina.)
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To Wrap it All Up
Your fingerprints are all over this excellent year! We are grateful for your commitment to pray for us, to financially support us, and to just be interested in our lives and ministry! We feel tightly wrapped in your love.
Unfortunately, we are $26,000 short of meeting our personal ministry budget in 2023. This enables us to continue leading this movement. It isn't too late to help us finish well! Your tax deductible gift given on or before December 31 will help offset the deficit. Or, if you would consider a new pledge for 2024, we can start the new year well. Just use the button to our website to either make a donation or a become a partner.
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We are so thankful to God our Father, the giver of all good gifts! He wraps them up in so many different and exciting ways. Again, thank you for being a part of our lives and ministry. May God pour out His blessings on you this Christmas season!
Merry Christmas,
Ricardo & Beth Gómez
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Temporary changes are in store for us. On January 3, we will relocate to Kentucky for one semester so that we can be with the kids a little bit more as Jonathan finishes up high school. However, in the first two months of the year we will be participating in the Annual Meetings of Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay, 360 and Costa Rica. We will also be leading the Latin American Leaders Summit back in Colombia. We would appreciate your prayers for good health, safe travel and most of all, complete dependence on the Holy Spirit! | | | | | | |
