Merry Christmas Everyone!
I hope this letter finds you all well and that you are able to spend this Christmas and New Year’s with those closest to your heart. This year has been a full one for me in many ways. I want to share some of the highlights with you.
Ministry with the girls in our dorm at Casa Aleluya (Casa, for short) has been an incredible blessing, as well as challenging in many ways. The girls continue to grow closer to my heart as my little sisters (19 young ladies total, ages 16-22,) and over the past year they have been opening up their hearts more and more, learning more deeply how to give and receive love. We have enjoyed many late night hang out times in my living room, watching movies, sometimes snacking, and sometimes just talking—something that they and I are both good at! I’ve had the privilege of answering their questions from the goofy to the serious heart matters. To give you an idea, here are a few I’ve faced: “How do you know if a guy is a good guy or not?” , “How did you come to know Jesus?” , “Should I continue in my academic study plan, or should I look into vocational training?” , “Will you teach me to play guitar?” , “How do we prepare this lesson for children’s church?” , “How do you cook…(insert tasty food here)?” I can tell you from experience, each answer is only by the grace of God. It’s so awesome to look back and see the steps through which He led me in order to prepare and equip me in just the right way for this role, but it’s also exciting to see that He still has so much more in store.
A few of the girls from our dorm, along with several other teenage kids from Casa have been volunteering to help out with our children’s church program for the 3-6 year-olds. They have grown in their leadership skills to the point where they are now heading up the program in many ways, with my leadership role stepping more into the background. In addition to leading the Sunday program, they also give their time to attend a couple of planning meetings each week, and I am seeing them take increasing ownership in the program as a whole. This is very exciting, as our heart among the staff at Casa is that the teen leaders would grow in ownership and responsibility to the point where they are fully leading and developing the program, with the adults eventually bowing out completely. This would be an awesome area of fruition of the Casa Aleluya Vision Statement, which reflects our heart to equip the children as disciples of Christ, that they may one day take over the reins of Casa and go out into all Guatemala (and all the world) as lights and witnesses of Christ, carrying out the Great Commission by leading and raising up the next generation of His disciples.
I was also blessed this year with some wonderful visitors who came down to Guatemala from the US, some individually and a few as a team in May. It is always so refreshing to see familiar faces and have around you those who know you so well and know where you’re from. Thank you to all who came and to all who made it possible for these visitors to make the trip.
After spending last Christmas with the girls (an incredibly sweet time,) I am able to spend this Christmas with my family. As I write, mid-trip, I have already had the pleasure of meeting and catching up with many friends, new and old, as well as many members of my family. I also had the privilege, with my parents, of seeing my little brother graduate from Texas Tech University—Congrats H.B.!
In addition to all of this, God has blessed me with a church home in Guatemala City, Union Church of Guatemala, where I’ve been able to have a community outside of Casa (helps me stay balanced!) and both be fed and give back. I was also able to buy a car in August, thanks to the generosity of many of you, and this has been a great help in providing transportation to and from church on Sunday nights. In all of this, I am feeling Guatemala more and more as my home now, and thankful for it!
And finally, the most exciting and sweetest blessing of them all…René. I met this wonderful man back in January, when he answered the phone that Sunday afternoon and gave me directions to our church. We hit it off right away, and since then we have been enjoying and growing together in the natural ease of friendship the Lord has given us, as well as growing and stretching in some areas that have not come as naturally. We’ve been enjoying more and more the blessing of working together as a team, as he has come to help out some at Casa, I’ve been able to help out a little with the youth at Union Church (where he is the youth director,) and we’ve had the privilege of helping with music once a month at our Sunday evening worship service. So with all this in mind, and feeling it was time to take the next step, on Thanksgiving, we got engaged!!! We are both so excited and can’t wait to start this new phase of our life together. After careful consideration, we’ve decided that I will be joining him in his mission, Missionary Ventures (MV), with whom he is serving as the recruiting director, building relationships with Guatemalan pastors and their churches, and helping to equip and encourage them as they begin sending people from their own congregations to go out on short-term missions (initially.) René works with the youth at church in addition to his work with MV. We are working with MV to explore other opportunities to serve with the mission as a couple after we get married. Sadly, this does mean I will be leaving Casa once René and I are married. It is a transition I feel the Lord confirming, as we see His hand working out the details and leading us to walk by faith, yet I will be very sad to leave these girls who have found such a special place in my heart. Please pray with us as we prepare for this transition and all that entails, and specifically pray for the girls and someone to come into Casa or rise up from within to take over leadership in our dorm.
Friends, thank you so incredibly much for your love, support, friendship, prayers, giving (in SO many ways!), and faithfulness over the past year. You are all an incredible blessing to me, to the girls, and now to René as well. Please continue to hold us in your hearts, as we hold you all in ours. May our Lord bless you beyond belief and open all your senses so you miss not a morsel of His grandiose blessings and kindness poured out on you. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and May His abundant life be fully yours!
I remain in His hands and yours,
Ginny Vine
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