The Quinteros: February + March Update
This update sat in my Google Drive as an empty document labeled “February Update” for the entire month of February, but now that we are nearing the end of March, I guess it is probably best to update the title to “February + March Update.” I’ve always loved the month of March, because with it comes the start of Spring. The frost begins to melt off branches and colors begin to flourish both in the natural world and in each of our souls. I’ve never met a person who sincerely and wholeheartedly thrives during the winter months. March has also always been a month of celebrating. For the first two decades of my life, it was a month to celebrate my dad and brother’s birthdays, and now we’ve added Eduardo and I’s anniversary to the month’s celebrations (we celebrated 2 years of marriage on March 13th). The past two months in South Texas have been full in every sense of the word. Activity in the ministry is picking up and we have continued to settle in + to form and deepen relationships. We’ve had a few days of homesickness, but messages, letters in the mail, and phone calls from friends and family always seem to come right on time. Thank you to each one of you who has reached out to us.
Iglesia Misionera Cristo Vive:
In both February and March, a work team from Houston came to put up sheetrock in what will soon be the home of Iglesia Misionera Cristo Vive. IMCV began as a church meeting out of Pastor Hugo + Eunice’s garage in their home. Later on, they began meeting in a tire shop, where you could hear the sound of tires being changed as worship songs were sung. Most recently, by the grace of God and the Davis family, IMCV has met and served from Haven of Hope, a camp and retreat center nestled among the fields of crops in San Juan, Texas.
When groups come through and my coworker and friend Jenn Moya shares the story of her parent’s church, she shares that in the past her parents would go to Mexico to help local pastors there build their own church homes. They would often ask, “Pastor Moya, you are here helping us build churches, when are you going to build your church?” Pastor Hugo would reply, “when it is time, you all will come and help me build as well.” Jenn shares that it has truly been incredible to see the hand of God in this building process, which was miraculously purchased and has been under construction since 2020. Most materials have been donated by churches and organizations who have been touched by the story of the Moya family’s faithfulness as they have planted a church and served along the US-Mexico Border for more than thirty years. God’s timing has also been impeccable, with the permits for the building coming through from the city just one hour before the group of sheet rockers arrived from Houston back in February.
It is truly miraculous to see this building, which began as a seed of faith, come to fruition over the course of the last three years. We know the miracles that will take place within the four walls of this space will be as powerful as the miracles it took for them to be constructed because ultimately a church is not a building, but any space where the body of Christ and the Holy Spirit dwell. And the Spirit dwells powerfully here.
Border Perspective:
We are in the midst of an eight-week (back-to-back) season of hosting groups (and Vision Trips for potential groups) from all parts of the United States. This past month we have hosted sixty participants from Virginia, Texas, Kansas, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. Groups come to learn about the long history of the United States + Mexico Border, which began as far back as the eighteenth century + to serve alongside churches and nonprofit organizations that are involved in the work of serving border communities with consistency and conviction regardless of the ebb and flow of policy. We dive into what it means to have a biblical perspective of the border, all the ways that God calls us as believers to love and serve our neighbor, and what it means to be involved in the intimately connected ministries of compassion and reconciliation to God. We are praising God as participants share that they leave the week feeling more active in their faith, many for the first time in years, and that they are eager to go back and become active in the communities from which they come. One participant, who spent a couple of months serving at refugee camps in Lesvos, shared with us it broke her heart that she felt she needed to travel halfway across the world to discover there are the same kinds of stories and levels of need right here at home. The need is everywhere, and it is an honor to be involved in this work of mobilization.
Personal Update:
Eduardo has a job! Praise God. It is not the work he hoped he would be doing, but it is provision and we are so grateful for that. Last year (2022), Eduardo spoke with the electrician’s union here in McAllen about what the licensure transfer process would look like after he finished his apprenticeship (had we stayed in Atlanta, he would have finished his apprenticeship in October of 2023). At that time, the union here in McAllen told him it would be easier to transfer him to this local union while he was still an apprentice rather than when he had his Journeyman’s license, so we moved in December of 2022 for him to begin the last year of his apprenticeship in January of 2023. However, when we arrived, he was told that due to the recession, they were not able to provide work for him to continue his program, but that he will be able to complete his final year beginning this September (5 months from now). We are hopeful that this is true, please join us in prayer for that. Eduardo has expressed his desire to work under those with more experience than him for another year if it is possible. If for some reason it is not, Eduardo already has 1,400 hours beyond what is required for him to take the exam for his Journeyman’s license in Texas, so he will still be able to receive it even if he is unable to complete his final year of school. In the meantime, Eduardo has a part-time job working ten hours a week at Lowes and is working as a maintenance associate for our apartment complex. I love the joy that this job brings him. Eduardo is a jack of all trades, and he is finally able to get the dust off of his tools and do something else that he loves, even if it is not what he hoped to be doing.
Prayer Requests:
1. Continued financial provision: When we created our original budget back in Atlanta, we created it around Eduardo’s income as a fifth-year apprentice in the union, and then built our fundraising budget to supplement that income. As of now, Eduardo is making around 60% of what he would be making if he were working as an electrician. We have had many opportunities to see God provide in ways we never have before. When what we had saved for the month of January ran out (and somehow it did not run out until mid-February), that is when a portion of our fundraised income came in. When we were not sure we would have enough to cover rent AND groceries for the month, the church had excess produce from its weekly food distribution. There was even one day when gas prices randomly dropped from $3.15 to $2.60 (and then back up to $3 the next day), so we RAN to fill our tanks. We are trusting that God will continue to provide what we need as we need it. I was telling a friend the other day that somehow I am less worried about money the less of it we have because then it is easier to see that the outcome depends on God and not on us. Please pray for God to continue to provide in miraculous ways, and for our hearts to continue to have the eyes to see them and to praise Him in gratitude.
2. Health Insurance: We are seeing the Lord provide in our finances and we are believing He will provide Health Insurance in due time as well. Eduardo currently does not have health insurance, and I am covered under my family’s health insurance policy until December 31st, 2023. Please pray that God will provide work for Eduardo sometime in the next eight months with a family health insurance policy, either through the union or through another job (he is hopeful to find work potentially servicing a school district or hospital here in the Valley).
3. Ministry in Mexico: Pastor Eunice is hopeful to begin crossing into Mexico again to serve the churches she and Pastor Hugo either planted or actively support. IMCV continues to support these churches financially when they are able, but her hope is to be able to visit and serve alongside them face-to-face in the near future. Please pray that God will provide clear pathways for her to do so, and that (hopefully soon) Eduardo can join her and those who will be joining her as a male presence.
Biblical Takeaways:
A theme that has shown up time and time again this month, both in our personal lives and in conversations with teams, is the shift that happens when we not only know about God but believe Him to be who He says that He is. A participant from Minnesota said it best, “it is not just about believing IN Him, it is about BELIEVING Him.” There is freedom that comes in our own lives when we not only trust that the character of God is true, but when we allow Him to demonstrate that character to us in an experiential way. We don’t just believe in God in hope for the eternity to come ALONE, but as we know Him our lives here and now are transformed as well. We can do this by welcoming challenges. We can do this by sitting in discomfort and pain and allowing our hearts to be molded. We can do this by waiting on God to work and to show us all things in His time, rather than turning to our “own” solutions or rationalizations. What does it look like for you this month not just to know something about God, but to believe that it is true, to let Him show you that it is true?
“Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.”
Sometimes you have to taste in order to see. All of our love. Until next month,
Caroline and Eduardo Quintero
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