[{"content":"[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=\u0026ldquo;32\u0026rdquo; gal_title=\u0026ldquo;March 2024\u0026rdquo;]\nWe have had an exciting couple of months here in Oaxaca. In January we had a team of amazing women come from Calvary Rosarito. We had a two night women\u0026rsquo;s conference that was a huge blessing for all who came. It was so fun to spend time with our friends, old and new, from Rosarito. For those of you that don\u0026rsquo;t know, we spent a year at the church planting course in Rosarito.\nIn February we had a married couples dinner to celebrate Valentine\u0026rsquo;s Day, and about 27 couples came. The youth helped serve the food and had a fun timing hanging out while the married couples listened to a message from Jon, played some games, and ate an amazing meal prepared by one of the ladies from our church.\nAt the beginning of March we celebrated FIVE YEARS of Calvary Oaxaca and all that the Lord has done. There are really no words to express how grateful we are that God called us here to Oaxaca and has given us a love for this place, and especially for the people. We have seen God\u0026rsquo;s hand in people\u0026rsquo;s lives in such amazing ways over these past 5 years including restored marriages, new faith in Jesus, baptisms, amazing friendships grow, and so much more. We have also seen His hand on our lives as He has made this our home, among many other things.\nThe men and women finished the book of Colossians a couple of weeks ago. This has been such a blessing to be studying the same book of the bible. Each week we have worship together and then I (Allison) teach the ladies and one of the men teaches the men. It\u0026rsquo;s a huge blessing that Jon has some men who can teach so he can be part of the study. I am praying for some ladies who might be able to teach too. We would love prayer for that.\nJon has been teaching 2-3 times a week in Spanish. Each week I see more and more improvement in his Spanish! I think we\u0026rsquo;ll be learning Spanish for the rest of our lives. Haha! Please pray for all 4 of us to continue to grow in this area. Jonny and Noah have lots of friends here who only speak Spanish and somehow they make it work, but they are still shy. Maybe they just don\u0026rsquo;t speak it in front of Jon and me and are speaking it when we\u0026rsquo;re not around.\nThe church keeps very busy during the week. Right now we are doing a Navigators class, prayer night, midweek study, men\u0026rsquo;s and women\u0026rsquo;s bible study, Jon has his church planting class on Friday nights, and youth group on Saturday. It\u0026rsquo;s so fun!\nWe continue to go to the casa hogar each month to spend time with our friends there. They have become more like family than anything. I have also been teaching some of them how to drive once a week or so. It\u0026rsquo;s been an adventure.\nWe also have the exciting news that we will have another granddaughter in August. Austin and McKenna are expecting their second daughter and we can\u0026rsquo;t wait. Myla is already almost a year and a half, and it\u0026rsquo;ll be so fun to see them become a family of four. Another exciting thing is that Jonny will be turning 18 in April. I can\u0026rsquo;t believe we\u0026rsquo;re going to have two adult sons, and Noah is only a year behind Jonny.\nPlease continue to keep us in prayer as we serve the Lord here in Oaxaca. We are so grateful for all of you who keep us in prayer, reach out, and support our family and the ministry here financially. If you\u0026rsquo;d like to support us, please click the link. And please sign up for our email updates. We also continue to post a lot of updates on Instagram and Facebook.\nJon, Allison, Jonny, Noah\n\u0026ldquo;Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.\u0026rdquo; Psalm 107:1\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/brechtel/brechtel/2024/03/21/calvary-oaxaca-is-5/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=\u0026ldquo;32\u0026rdquo; gal_title=\u0026ldquo;March 2024\u0026rdquo;]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe have had an exciting couple of months here in Oaxaca. In January we had a team of amazing women come from Calvary Rosarito. We had a two night women\u0026rsquo;s conference that was a huge blessing for all who came. It was so fun to spend time with our friends, old and new, from Rosarito. For those of you that don\u0026rsquo;t know, we spent a year at the church planting course in Rosarito.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Calvary Oaxaca is 5!"},{"content":"[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=\u0026ldquo;30\u0026rdquo; gal_title=\u0026ldquo;December 2023\u0026rdquo;]\nHello from Oaxaca! It\u0026rsquo;s been a long time since our last update so we\u0026rsquo;ll just fill you in on what\u0026rsquo;s been going on the past couple of months. Things are going really well down here and we love serving the Lord here in Oaxaca.\nA few months ago, Jon was invited to share at a church in the mountains, about 3 hours away from Oaxaca City. Since then, we have taken a team to do a VBS for the kids, and now some of the men from our church rotate going on Sundays, including Jon. They leave after church and make the drive up, spend time with some of the church body over a meal, teach a church service, and make the 3 hour drive back home. It\u0026rsquo;s a long day for them but they all really seem to enjoy it and have the desire to pour into the people there. This church is different than Calvary Chapel but now they have men teaching them verse by verse with sound doctrine.\nIn October we were able to be in California to celebrate our granddaughter\u0026rsquo;s 1st birthday with family. We also had opportunities to spend time with some of you while we were there. Jon shared with Calvary Chapel Saving Grace\u0026rsquo;s young adults, he had the opportunity to spontaneously share the gospel invitation at two events (Calvary SouthOC and Calvary Chapel South LA), and Jon and I got to share our missionary testimony with a mission\u0026rsquo;s class. We had hoped to see more people but we were all hit with sickness throughout the trip.\nThe men\u0026rsquo;s and women\u0026rsquo;s ministry started the book of Colossians. We continue to meet on the same night, have a time of worship together, and then break off into men\u0026rsquo;s and women\u0026rsquo;s. I teach the ladies and absolutely love it. Jon has some great guys who rotate teaching the men so that he can focus more on his Sunday sermon and online classes that he\u0026rsquo;s been taking through Moody. He continues to teach in Spanish and has improved so much. It\u0026rsquo;s amazing to see! He also has a church planting class that he teaches once a week, which is really helping build some of the men up who will hopefully one day plant churches in and around Oaxaca.\nWe are still going to the casa hogar (orphanage) once a month. This month is the 2 year anniversary since the first time we went with a team from Calvary South OC. It\u0026rsquo;s such a blessing to be able to go and spend time with the kids and staff. We have really built great friendships with all of them.\nJonny and Noah have really grown and changed. They are more outgoing (such shy guys) and have built some great friendships with some of the youth in the church. Please pray for their Spanish. They understand almost everything but are still shy about speaking. They are also playing with the worship team for one song this Sunday, while the kids from church sing. This will be their first time in front of everyone. Jonny plays drums and Noah plays the guitar.\nLast Sunday we had 4 people take the step of faith and get baptized. It was so amazing to witness and we plan on doing another baptism soon for those who weren\u0026rsquo;t able to this time.\nThank you for your continued prayers and support for our family and the ministry here in Oaxaca. You all are a part of what the Lord is doing down here and we couldn\u0026rsquo;t do it without you!\nAs we close out 2023 and are about to celebrate the birth of Christ, let us not forget HIM in all of it. Not just at Christmas time, but every day. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all. We love you and miss you. If you would like to visit us, let us know. Also, for more frequent updates you can check out our Instagram and Facebook pages or send us a text. We always love hearing from you.\n\u0026ldquo;For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.\u0026rdquo; Isaiah 9:6\nJon, Allison, Jonny, and Noah\nPS\u0026hellip;scroll through the pictures above.\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/brechtel/brechtel/2023/12/15/december-2023-oaxaca/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=\u0026ldquo;30\u0026rdquo; gal_title=\u0026ldquo;December 2023\u0026rdquo;]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHello from Oaxaca! It\u0026rsquo;s been a long time since our last update so we\u0026rsquo;ll just fill you in on what\u0026rsquo;s been going on the past couple of months. Things are going really well down here and we love serving the Lord here in Oaxaca.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA few months ago, Jon was invited to share at a church in the mountains, about 3 hours away from Oaxaca City. Since then, we have taken a team to do a VBS for the kids, and now some of the men from our church rotate going on Sundays, including Jon. They leave after church and make the drive up, spend time with some of the church body over a meal, teach a church service, and make the 3 hour drive back home. It\u0026rsquo;s a long day for them but they all really seem to enjoy it and have the desire to pour into the people there. This church is different than Calvary Chapel but now they have men teaching them verse by verse with sound doctrine.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"December 2023 Oaxaca"},{"content":"","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/brechtel/brechtel/give/","summary":"","title":"Give"},{"content":"[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=\u0026ldquo;28\u0026rdquo; gal_title=\u0026ldquo;July 2022\u0026rdquo;]\nHey all! Here\u0026rsquo;s our update for July, but really a quick look at the past few months. I have added some photos of some of the things we\u0026rsquo;ve been up to since our last update.\nLots of things have been going on. Calvary Oaxaca turned 3 at the beginning of the year. We had a great time celebrating at a local park/lake. It has been such blessing to see the people who attend the church grow in their walks with the Lord. We\u0026rsquo;ve had some of the same people since the very beginning of the church, and lots of new people too. They all have hearts to serve Jesus and have come alongside of us in amazing ways.\nIn the past months we have celebrated Dia de los Niños, Mother\u0026rsquo;s Day, Father\u0026rsquo;s Day, and other things. It\u0026rsquo;s always fun to have a reason to have a potluck and hang out together. And we had a baptism and a baby dedication! The men\u0026rsquo;s ministry just finished their study for the time and will start back up soon. The ladies finished the book of James ( amazing book of the bible) and are now doing Kay Smith\u0026rsquo;s book on Philippians.\nIn June Hurricane Agatha hit the coast of Oaxaca pretty hard. We were able to buy bags of essentials like beans, rice, flour, etc to take to two towns. Thank you to those who donated to this specifically because we were able to take a team of 9 people and hand out over 150 bags, plus tons of donated clothes. This was the first official mission trip for Calvary Oaxaca, and Allison\u0026rsquo;s first short term trip plus driving for that amount of time. (Jon and the boys were unable to go because of a commitment.) What a blessing it was to meet so many people who were so happy to just be loved on and prayed for.\nLast weekend we had the huge honor to have Pastor Dan Finfrock come to Oaxaca to teach two days of the Inductive Bible Study class that he wrote. He travels all over the world to teach this awesome class so it was a huge blessing to have him come to Oaxaca. An added bonus was that his translator was a young lady we met from our time in Rosarito, Andrea.\nThe biggest news is that Jon is now teaching in Spanish!!! We lost our translators over the past couple of months and Jon really felt that this was God\u0026rsquo;s way of stretching him to take this next step. So this is also our biggest prayer request: that the Lord would continue to help Jon in this area.\nThat\u0026rsquo;s a quick version of what we\u0026rsquo;ve been up to lately. There\u0026rsquo;s also so much more we could share. Oh, that boys both finished 9th grade and are super excited (sarcasm) to start 10th grade soon. They are doing well, playing video games with friends online. Please pray for their Spanish to improve and for them to have a strong desire to learn and speak it more.\nWe have 3 teams coming up over the next few months and our dear friend Frank who will be helping us for a few months and we can\u0026rsquo;t wait! It\u0026rsquo;s always such a blessing to show our friends from other parts of the world all that God is doing here.\nWe will be in the states later this year to welcome our first grandbaby\u0026hellip;a girl! Please keep Austin and McKenna in your prayers as they prepare to become parents. And send any and all grandma and grandpa name ideas to us. Haha!\nThank you for keeping us in your prayers\u0026hellip;we sure feel them all the time. We are so grateful for all of you who are on this journey with us in prayer and financially as we serve the Lord here in Oaxaca!\nJon, Allison, Jonny, Noah Brechtel\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/brechtel/brechtel/2022/07/22/july-2022/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=\u0026ldquo;28\u0026rdquo; gal_title=\u0026ldquo;July 2022\u0026rdquo;]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHey all! Here\u0026rsquo;s our update for July, but really a quick look at the past few months. I have added some photos of some of the things we\u0026rsquo;ve been up to since our last update.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLots of things have been going on. Calvary Oaxaca turned 3 at the beginning of the year. We had a great time celebrating at a local park/lake. It has been such blessing to see the people who attend the church grow in their walks with the Lord. We\u0026rsquo;ve had some of the same people since the very beginning of the church, and lots of new people too. They all have hearts to serve Jesus and have come alongside of us in amazing ways.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"July 2022"},{"content":"[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=\u0026ldquo;26\u0026rdquo; gal_title=\u0026ldquo;January 2022\u0026rdquo;]\nHappy New Year to you all! It\u0026rsquo;s been another crazy season for us as we continue to serve the Lord down here in Oaxaca, Mexico. We have had teams since the last update and much more.\nIn September we had a team from Calvary Red Rock in Las Vegas come down. This was the second team with this awesome church and they blessed our church and family so much. We did a two night men\u0026rsquo;s conference, did a fitness event called the Fit2Serve Roadshow, had a fun event for the youth group, and so much more. (If you have Facebook and don\u0026rsquo;t follow us personally or our church page, you should! Calvary Chapel Oaxaca is the church page and we keep things posted on social media).\nAt the beginning of October Jeff and Bonnie Johnson came down and did some training on how to do great marital counseling, and then they did a marriage conference and our church provided a meal and dessert for the couples. It was a blessing to learn from Jeff and Bonnie and for us to personally get to know them better.\nAt the end of October, Jonny and Noah had the privilege of attending one level of the Spanish school that Jon and I attended in 2017. It was quite the adventure as the boys and I lived in the little village for 6 weeks while Jon was in the city continuing with the church ministry. I was able to help in the kindergarten class at the school on the mission\u0026rsquo;s base and it was a blast. The boys learned so much in their classes. We are grateful to Calvary Red Rock for sponsoring the boys\u0026rsquo; schooling.\nIn December we had a team from Calvary San Juan, now Calvary South OC. This was also the second team from this church since we arrived 3 years ago. We had such a great time with them and they really blessed our church and us in huge ways. They painted an orphanage and we had a little Christmas party for the kids there. They also extended the stage at the church which was much needed. We had an outreach day for the kids in the community, a Christmas party for the church after service on Sunday. And we did it all while the entire city was blocked off with blockades. If you don\u0026rsquo;t know about the blockades in Oaxaca, you should look it up.\nWe decided to sell our car since we could no longer have it here in Mexico, so we drove up to the states and sold it. While there, we visited lots of our supporters and some family and friends. We returned to Oaxaca without a car, which can be difficult when trying to do certain things. And\u0026hellip;..Jon and I got our PERMANENT RESIDENCY, which is a very huge deal and we are so excited!!!\nMinistry at church is going well. Jon is planning on starting a men\u0026rsquo;s bible study and he\u0026rsquo;ll be having some of the guys take turns teaching also. He will be doing that every other Thursday, and I\u0026rsquo;ll be doing the women\u0026rsquo;s ministry on the Thursdays that he\u0026rsquo;s not meeting. We have been so blessed to have this church family here, filled with people who genuinely want to serve Jesus. People we get to call our friends!\nPRAYER REQUESTS:\nPlease pray for wisdom and provision to buy a car. We would really love to buy something that has enough space to transport people. Unfortunately we cannot use our missions funds to buy a car possibly because of tax purposes, which we understand. So we are trying to save up some money to buy something. This complicates some of the ministry we were doing at one of the rehab centers here, and being able to handle everyday church needs. Please pray for all of the ministries in the church. Unity within the ministries and communication. We have a great core group of people who serve, which is such a blessing. Please continue to pray for all of our spanish to improve more and more. We no longer have a Wednesday night translator so we need to find someone for that. Continued good health in the church and in our family. With the new cases of Covid right now, we pray that no one gets sick because the medical care here isn\u0026rsquo;t like that in the states. Please pray for a more personal prayer request\u0026hellip;that our son and daughter-in-law would be able to have a baby. They really desire to have a baby, so please pray for God\u0026rsquo;s perfect timing and peace in the waiting. We are so grateful for all of you who love and support us through prayer, texts/calls, and financially. We couldn\u0026rsquo;t continue the ministry here in Oaxaca without all of you. May the Lord bless you all in this New Year.\nJon, Allison, Jonny, and Noah\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/brechtel/brechtel/2022/01/19/january-2022/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=\u0026ldquo;26\u0026rdquo; gal_title=\u0026ldquo;January 2022\u0026rdquo;]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHappy New Year to you all! It\u0026rsquo;s been another crazy season for us as we continue to serve the Lord down here in Oaxaca, Mexico. We have had teams since the last update and much more.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn September we had a team from Calvary Red Rock in Las Vegas come down. This was the second team with this awesome church and they blessed our church and family so much. We did a two night men\u0026rsquo;s conference, did a fitness event called the Fit2Serve Roadshow, had a fun event for the youth group, and so much more. (If you have Facebook and don\u0026rsquo;t follow us personally or our church page, you should! Calvary Chapel Oaxaca is the church page and we keep things posted on social media).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"January 2022"},{"content":"[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=\u0026ldquo;24\u0026rdquo; gal_title=\u0026ldquo;August 2021\u0026rdquo;]\nHey there! We\u0026rsquo;ve had a whirlwind couple of months here in Oaxaca, and a visit to California and Rosarito.\nIn June, we celebrated Father\u0026rsquo;s Day with the church. The kids sang for the dads and we had fun fellowship and games for the dads after the service. We also had Pastor Juan Carlos and Dr. Miles from Calvary Rosarito come down and put on a 2 night evangelism conference. It was such a blessing to the people who came, and a blessing to us personally to have them come and fellowship with us.\nWe also started up the youth group in June! What a blessing this group is, and is continuing to grow into. Jonny and Noah are part of it so it\u0026rsquo;s awesome that they get to be part of a group of people around their age. Our friend from the church, Miguel, was leading the group but he and his wife had to move back to Puebla for her work as a teacher. Please keep this ministry in your prayers, that the Lord would put it on someone\u0026rsquo;s heart to take over the role as the leader and make it clear to Jon which man the Lord is calling into this position. For now, Jon will be teaching.\nIn July we took a quick trip to visit some friends who were on vacation in Puerto Escondido. This is the city that\u0026rsquo;s closest to the village we lived in for Spanish school in 2017. While we were walking down the street, a car drove by and started saying hi to us, mainly Jon. The driver stopped and got out and it was one of the guys who used to live at the rehab center that Jon visits. He told Jon that he\u0026rsquo;s been clean for a year, has a great job down there on the coast as a chef, and HE READS HIS BIBLE EVERY DAY AND GOES TO CHURCH. What a testimony of the power that investing in the lives of others can have. God is so good!!! While we were there, we also got to visit Cacalote and see our friends there. It\u0026rsquo;s always such a blessing to visit the place where the Lord placed the calling to Oaxaca on our hearts and lives.\nAlso in July, levels one and two of the Navigators class finished. These groups worked so hard and were so faithful to complete their \u0026ldquo;homework\u0026rdquo; and participate in the classes each week. After a break for a month or two, they will resume the classes again. What a blessing to see their diligence and the growth in each one of them.\nIn August we were able to fly up to Calvary Rosarito for the annual church planting conference. We were able to hear from many different church planters who shared their experience on the field and poured into those who are currently church planters and those who feel that calling on their lives. Added bonus was getting to see and hang out with so many of our friends from Rosarito and all over the world.\nAfter the conference, we spent some time in California with family and friends. We got celebrate my mom\u0026rsquo;s birthday with her and some of the family, saw Jon\u0026rsquo;s mom a couple of times, did some fun things, visited Calvary San Juan a few times, the boys went to a high school event with the youth group, and Jon even got to teach at the men\u0026rsquo;s breakfast for CCSJC. It was an amazing time and refreshing. We learn from each visit that we need to slow down while we\u0026rsquo;re there, but it\u0026rsquo;s SO hard to do that.\nWhen we flew back, our great friends the Delgados flew back with us. They serve at Rancho Poiema near Ensenada, a men\u0026rsquo;s discipleship ranch. We spent a few days showing them around Oaxaca City and exploring some of the Nacho Libre spots. It was a blessing to have them here with us and to show them the work that the Lord is doing here in Oaxaca, and to have Cesar teach with his wife Claudia translating for him. And two of their kids were able to come which made it extra fun for Jonny and Noah. Their son Manny is about their age and they all just picked up like no time had passed since they last saw each other.\nOther than that, ministry is still moving along and amazing. We continue to have our Sunday service, our weekly prayer night, and Jon recently started teaching the book of Revelation on Wednesday nights. I am still teaching the book of James with the ladies, every other Thursday. We are so amazed to see all that the Lord is doing in the ministry, and what an honor to be a tiny part of His work.\nPRAYER REQUESTS:\nPlease pray for all of the covid cases and that we can keep the church open. As of right now we are in orange, which means we can stay open with extra caution. If we go into red, we will need to go back to online services until we are no longer in red. Please pray for all of the ministries within the church. We need more children\u0026rsquo;s ministry teachers/helpers so that it\u0026rsquo;s not always falling on the shoulders of the ones who already serve. Please pray for all of the weekly teachings that take place in the church. That the Holy Spirit would speak through Jon when he\u0026rsquo;s teaching, and through me when I\u0026rsquo;m teaching the ladies. Please pray for Jonny and Noah as they just started 9th grade. That they\u0026rsquo;ll understand the school work and Jon and I will be able to also understand it (algebra\u0026hellip;eeeek) so we can help them. We really need to figure out what to do about our car situation. Our visa for the car expires in February and we need to decide if it\u0026rsquo;s better to drive it up to the states and sell it, or try to get it imported which will also require a drive to the border. We are also really praying about somehow purchasing a vehicle for ministry so we can transport teams that come and the church members when we have events outside of the church. Many don\u0026rsquo;t have cars and we can only squeeze so many into our car. Ok, I think I\u0026rsquo;ll FINALLY end this now. So much to share and we are grateful if you have read this far. We love you all and are so grateful to the Lord for your prayers, encouragement, and financial support. God bless you all for being a part of the Lord\u0026rsquo;s work in Oaxaca, Mexico.\nJon, Allison, Jonny, Noah Brechtel\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/brechtel/brechtel/2021/08/30/august-2021/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=\u0026ldquo;24\u0026rdquo; gal_title=\u0026ldquo;August 2021\u0026rdquo;]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHey there! We\u0026rsquo;ve had a whirlwind couple of months here in Oaxaca, and a visit to California and Rosarito.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn June, we celebrated Father\u0026rsquo;s Day with the church. The kids sang for the dads and we had fun fellowship and games for the dads after the service. We also had Pastor Juan Carlos and Dr. Miles from Calvary Rosarito come down and put on a 2 night evangelism conference. It was such a blessing to the people who came, and a blessing to us personally to have them come and fellowship with us.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"August 2021"},{"content":"[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=\u0026ldquo;22\u0026rdquo; gal_title=\u0026ldquo;June 2021\u0026rdquo;]\nHey everyone! Lots has been happening here in Oaxaca, so here\u0026rsquo;s a little update. Ministry has really started to pick up and the church has been growing in so many ways. We have some new families who have started to attend and who are already such a blessing to the church family. And the Navigators classes have continued to be a blessing to many, and seeing the spiritual growth has been amazing.\nIn March we visited Cacalote, where we attended Spanish school in 2017. We were able to visit the school and many of our friends there!\nWe have had some fun celebrations in the church too. Día de los niños is a very big day here in Mexico so the children\u0026rsquo;s ministry team put on a great even for the kiddos of the church and some of their friends. We also had fun celebrations for Easter and Mother\u0026rsquo;s Day. I\u0026rsquo;ve added some pictures from those days!\nJon was able to go to Rosarito and share at Calvary Rosarito for the Monday morning staff meeting, the church planting course that we went through, and teach on a Wednesday night while there. Such a blessing for him to have the honor to do that. While he was up that way he was also able to visit Calvary San Juan, and see our son and daughter in law, and other family.\nI have started the women\u0026rsquo;s bible study and we are studying the book of James together. The ladies also had a fun night of fellowship and bowling, which was a first for many of them. The Lord is really teaching me how to be diligent with studying (I am a work in progress) and I am learning so much as I study and prepare. Never in my life would I have thought I would enjoy teaching or speaking in front of people. These women have become one of the biggest blessings in my life because we all share our hearts with each other and I just love them all.\nWe have a LOT of things coming up over the next few months, with some teams coming and doing some conferences for the church and community. Jon is trying to go to the men\u0026rsquo;s rehab as much as possible also, but the man who was translating for him is no longer there. He has a couple of guys who will be going with him and teaching the men too.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s such a blessing to be able to be here in Oaxaca, and we are really enjoying ministry. Jonny and Noah are finishing up some last days of school and will be starting 9th grade in the fall. They are still taking music classes and really enjoying them.\nPRAISE REPORTS:\nWe will be starting a youth group this month. Our friend Miguel will be leading this group and he really has a heart for the youth! Jon is doing well teaching each week and just restarted the Wednesday night services. He really does well balancing studying and preparing, along with \u0026ldquo;life\u0026rdquo;. The women\u0026rsquo;s ministry has restarted and is a huge blessing. PRAYER REQUESTS:\nPlease pray for continued growth in the walks with the Lord within the church, and for unity within the church. We need to decide what to do with our car once the visa expires in February. We are praying about somehow buying a bigger vehicle for when teams come so they don\u0026rsquo;t have to spend hundreds of dollars on rentals. Please keep the youth group in your prayers. That the youth will learn and grow in their relationships with the Lord. Please pray for each ministry in the church. There are some amazing people who serve week in and week out, and who are such a blessing. Thank you for all of your prayers and support, and the encouragement you all are to our family!!! We love you all.\nJon, Allison, Jonny, and Noah\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/brechtel/brechtel/2021/06/11/june-2021/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=\u0026ldquo;22\u0026rdquo; gal_title=\u0026ldquo;June 2021\u0026rdquo;]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHey everyone! Lots has been happening here in Oaxaca, so here\u0026rsquo;s a little update. Ministry has really started to pick up and the church has been growing in so many ways. We have some new families who have started to attend and who are already such a blessing to the church family. And the Navigators classes have continued to be a blessing to many, and seeing the spiritual growth has been amazing.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"June 2021"},{"content":"[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=\u0026ldquo;20\u0026rdquo; gal_title=\u0026ldquo;Calvary Oaxaca 2 years/baptism\u0026rdquo;]\nHi all! Well, a lot has happened in the last couple of months. We went to the states for some time with family and friends. Jon flew back before the boys and I, and while he was getting back into the routine of ministry he ended up getting covid. He actually started feeling sick the day before we flew back so when he picked us up from the airport, he made sure we didn\u0026rsquo;t touch him and he immediately quarantined away from us. Praise the Lord he got a very mild case and his symptoms were very light. And the boys and I never got it. I took a blood test to see if I had it or had ever had it and it came back negative. And another praise from that is that our great friend, James, had come back with Jon and they built a room in the church that will eventually be for the younger children. James was also exposed to covid and he didn\u0026rsquo;t get it!!!\nCalvary Oaxaca turned 2 at the end of February so we had a super fun celebration at a local pool. We were able to rent out the place so that it was a private event. We all had a blast hanging out, eating, swimming, and playing games. The best part of the day was the baptisms! Nine people made the decision to take that step of faith and get baptized. What a blessing it was to see each of them do this and to hear them tell us all why they had made this decision. God is so amazing!\nWe are excited to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus as a church family on April 4! And Jon will be ordaining someone in April also. It will be his first time ordaining someone and we are excited for this step of faith as a church and for this man.\nPRAYER REQUESTS:\nPlease pray for the church body for continued growth in their walks with the Lord. We are continuing to do the Navigator\u0026rsquo;s classes and we see so much growth and transformation. Please pray for us to continue to learn Spanish, and for Jonny and Noah to really have a desire to speak Spanish. They seem to understand a lot of Spanish but they need to come out of their shells and put it to use. Please pray with us as we are looking for land to buy to build a men\u0026rsquo;s discipleship home on. This would be land outside of the city which is less expensive. We have some options but we\u0026rsquo;re trying to work out the kinks and see if it\u0026rsquo;s a possibility. We want to make sure it\u0026rsquo;s all legal without the chance of someone coming and taking the land from us. We are also praying to buy land to build a church on so we don\u0026rsquo;t have to continue renting. This land would be a lot more expensive because it would be in the city. We need prayer for wisdom on what to do with our car. We have a permit for it that expires early next year and we will either need to drive it up to the states to get a new permit or sell it and buy something down here. Ideally we would be able to buy a van so we can transport people and teams, but we are praying for direction on what to do. It\u0026rsquo;s far away but we all how time flies! PRAISE REPORTS:\nThe church has been growing in their walks with the Lord, and we\u0026rsquo;re continuing to see friendships grow. Praise the Lord that Calvary Oaxaca celebrated 2 years! God has raised up men and women in the church who are helping in different ministries, especially the Navigators classes. Thank you all for your support for the ministry here in Oaxaca! We are so grateful to all of you who keep us in prayer, support us financially, and encourage us. We couldn\u0026rsquo;t do what we\u0026rsquo;re doing without all of you!\nJon, Allison, Jonny, Noah Brechtel\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/brechtel/brechtel/2021/03/25/calvary-oaxaca-turns-2/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=\u0026ldquo;20\u0026rdquo; gal_title=\u0026ldquo;Calvary Oaxaca 2 years/baptism\u0026rdquo;]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHi all! Well, a lot has happened in the last couple of months. We went to the states for some time with family and friends. Jon flew back before the boys and I, and while he was getting back into the routine of ministry he ended up getting covid. He actually started feeling sick the day before we flew back so when he picked us up from the airport, he made sure we didn\u0026rsquo;t touch him and he immediately quarantined away from us. Praise the Lord he got a very mild case and his symptoms were very light. And the boys and I never got it. I took a blood test to see if I had it or had ever had it and it came back negative. And another praise from that is that our great friend, James, had come back with Jon and they built a room in the church that will eventually be for the younger children. James was also exposed to covid and he didn\u0026rsquo;t get it!!!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Calvary Oaxaca Turns 2!"},{"content":"[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=\u0026ldquo;18\u0026rdquo; gal_title=\u0026ldquo;December 2020\u0026rdquo;]\nHi all! I\u0026rsquo;m hoping to get this update sent out today, so it\u0026rsquo;s going to be a quick one.\nWe\u0026rsquo;ve had a lot going on down here in Oaxaca! Ministry seems to be in full-swing, for the most part. We are using precautions but it\u0026rsquo;s so nice to feel like things really are moving forward.\nThis month, I (Allison) had the honor of hosting an event for the ladies for Christmas. We had a blast playing some fun games, I shared a little bible study/devotion, we had lots of fellowship, and yummy coffee and cakes. It was our 2nd annual women\u0026rsquo;s Christmas event, which really reminds us that we are so close to completing two full years as a church family.\nJon has still been going to the men\u0026rsquo;s rehab each week, and he really loves doing it. He goes with our friend and neighbor, Joseu, so last week our families all went out there to celebrate Christmas with them. We had a fun time of eating and hanging out. The Lord provided for each of them to receive bibles, and to see the looks on their faces was indescribable. They said that they had never received a gift like that before.\nThis past Sunday we had an all-church picnic at a local park. It was a blast to all be together, outside, laughing and having fun. We played volleyball, rented bikes, ate, and just spent some much needed time together as a church family. It amazes me how much this group of people means to us as a family. They have welcomed us into their lives and their culture with open arms and hearts.\nWe will be heading up to see family soon, and celebrate Christmas with them. We hope we can see many of you while we\u0026rsquo;re there. Hopefully we can plan a time where we can all get together, but we also understand that covid is serious and it may not work out. Please pray that our time with family is a blessing, and that we stay healthy.\nWe pray you all have a blessed Christmas as we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And we also hope you all have an amazing New Year in 2021.\nGod bless!\nJon, Allison, Jonny, and Noah Brechtel\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/brechtel/brechtel/2020/12/23/december-2020/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=\u0026ldquo;18\u0026rdquo; gal_title=\u0026ldquo;December 2020\u0026rdquo;]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHi all! I\u0026rsquo;m hoping to get this update sent out today, so it\u0026rsquo;s going to be a quick one.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe\u0026rsquo;ve had a lot going on down here in Oaxaca! Ministry seems to be in full-swing, for the most part. We are using precautions but it\u0026rsquo;s so nice to feel like things really are moving forward.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis month, I (Allison) had the honor of hosting an event for the ladies for Christmas. We had a blast playing some fun games, I shared a little bible study/devotion, we had lots of fellowship, and yummy coffee and cakes. It was our 2nd annual women\u0026rsquo;s Christmas event, which really reminds us that we are so close to completing two full years as a church family.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"December 2020"},{"content":"[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=\u0026ldquo;16\u0026rdquo; gal_title=\u0026ldquo;November 2020 Update\u0026rdquo;]\nCan you believe we\u0026rsquo;re already in November of this crazy year? It\u0026rsquo;s been the longest/shortest year ever. Ministry is really picking up here in Oaxaca, along with the \u0026ldquo;normal\u0026rdquo; day to day life. Every week seems a little more like life before the pandemic.\nRight after our last update, we celebrated Mexican Independence Day with some of our church family and friends. It was SO nice to take a drive up to the mountains, to a small Christian-run camp, and have some fun and fellowship. We hiked, did a little mini zip line, played basketball, ate, and just had a much needed day of rest and time together. It had been 6 months since we had a day like that with the church body.\nWe had to re-close the church for 2 weeks because we had some COVID cases in the church body and we felt it was better to just go back to online for 2 Sundays. Praise the Lord that those who were sick had mild cases and are all healthy, and we\u0026rsquo;re back open. This past Sunday was such an encouragement because we had the most people returned to the church since March. There is still quite a bit of fear here so it may take some time before everyone returns.\nJon has been continuing to go to the men\u0026rsquo;s rehab each week and it\u0026rsquo;s been such a huge blessing to hear him talk about his time with them when he gets home. He\u0026rsquo;s got such a heart for the lost and just wants to see them fall in love with Jesus. Before he started going, this ministry was fully secular, and now they\u0026rsquo;re all reading their bibles and doing their Navigators homework every day. God is so amazing. And the men in the church are still going strong with their Navigators groups each week. People really love having this time.\nThis past Sunday was also the very first baby dedication at Calvary Oaxaca, and for Jon. Witnessing this sweet moment where her parents wanted to publicly dedicate their baby to the Lord and have her prayed over was amazing. We have experienced so many cultural firsts with this couple. We were the \u0026ldquo;godparents of the rings\u0026rdquo; for their wedding, Jon was a part of their wedding ceremony, the baby dedication, and many other things. God put this family in our lives not just to love, but for them to also patiently teach us the amazing cultural things we knew nothing about.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve restarted English class but I\u0026rsquo;m praying about starting a beginners class after the holidays. I absolutely love these classes, and they\u0026rsquo;ve really helped with my Spanish since I teach it in Spanish (besides the English part\u0026hellip;haha). Jonny got all of his braces and he\u0026rsquo;s doing great with them. Noah recently went to the dentist and had a couple of tiny cavities. Both of the boys continue in their music classes each week. Noah with guitar and Jonny with drums.\nPRAYER REQUESTS:\nThat the people would start returning to church when they feel it\u0026rsquo;s the right time for them. And that those who haven\u0026rsquo;t returned to be spending time in the Word, in prayer, and getting some sort of fellowship with other believers. That we would be purposeful in reaching out to the church body and checking in on them. SPANISH!!! That we would continue to learn and use Spanish, and the boys would have a desire to learn more. They understand but are so timid about speaking it. Continued growth in the Navigators groups at church, and at the men\u0026rsquo;s rehab. PRAISE REPORTS:\nWe are so grateful for the men who translate for Jon. We have some great guys to help him with this. The growth in the guys at the rehab, who went from knowing basically nothing about the bible and Jesus, to having personal relationships with him. That people are starting to return to church to have the fellowship we all so desperately need. Thank you for taking the time to read this and catch up on our lives. We praise the Lord for those of you who pray for and support and encourage us. You all are a part of the work that God is doing here in Oaxaca!\nJon, Allison, Jonny, Noah\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/brechtel/brechtel/2020/11/12/november-2020/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=\u0026ldquo;16\u0026rdquo; gal_title=\u0026ldquo;November 2020 Update\u0026rdquo;]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCan you believe we\u0026rsquo;re already in November of this crazy year? It\u0026rsquo;s been the longest/shortest year ever. Ministry is really picking up here in Oaxaca, along with the \u0026ldquo;normal\u0026rdquo; day to day life. Every week seems a little more like life before the pandemic.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRight after our last update, we celebrated Mexican Independence Day with some of our church family and friends. It was SO nice to take a drive up to the mountains, to a small Christian-run camp, and have some fun and fellowship. We hiked, did a little mini zip line, played basketball, ate, and just had a much needed day of rest and time together. It had been 6 months since we had a day like that with the church body.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"November 2020"},{"content":"[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=\u0026ldquo;13\u0026rdquo; gal_title=\u0026ldquo;September 2020\u0026rdquo;]\nHello all! Here\u0026rsquo;s a quick update about what\u0026rsquo;s been going these past few months.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s been a strange time for all of us with COVID-19 and pressing on in ministry, usually through social media and online. Jon has done such a great job of doing all of our services online, he\u0026rsquo;s become quite the pro! We\u0026rsquo;ve had an amazing team helping him each week.\nIn June and July we started doing food bags for the church body and some of their family and friends. Such a blessing to have people step in and help even with all of the fear that has come with the pandemic. This was really encouraging for me (Allison) because being an extrovert, not seeing people was really discouraging. So to be able to see some familiar faces, under masks, was a huge blessing.\nOn June 23, there was a major earthquake centered off of the coast of Oaxaca. We were driving in the mountains heading to the coast with another family when it happened. Having lived in California all of our lives, we were used to earthquakes. But never had we ever felt one while driving. The Lord protected us big time. There were rockslides all over the place, including one right in front of us when we stopped our cars to see what was going on. Praise the Lord that none of us were hurt, our cars weren\u0026rsquo;t damaged, and the damage was minimal for the people in the church.\nIn August we took a trip up to the states and spent some time with family, celebrating my mom\u0026rsquo;s birthday with most of my family. It was our first time being with almost my entire side of the family since the end of 2018. Jon was also invited to share at a break-out session at the Church Planting Conference at Calvary Chapel Rosarito. It was a blessing to hear other church planters share their stories and wisdom with so many. And it was awesome to see so many of our CCR friends. We also got to spend some time at Calvary San Juan and see our amazing church family there! It was an all-around blessed trip.\nWe were FINALLY able to open the church on September 6, with many regulations. Our church building has plenty of space for social distancing, and we try to follow the rules as much as possible. There is still a fear of being out, so attendance has been down, but that\u0026rsquo;s something we totally understand. Many members of the church body have to take public transportation which isn\u0026rsquo;t the safest way for them to travel during this time. But let me tell you\u0026hellip;it was so amazing to be together in the church building, worshiping the Lord, hearing the Word, and having some much needed fellowship.\nWe also started the Navigators course, with four men from the church leading two groups. The people really seem to be loving it, and it\u0026rsquo;s a blessing to have people that can lead these groups.\nJon has also been going to a men\u0026rsquo;s rehab center each week and going through the Navigators with them. He really loves going to be with the guys each week.\nAs we move forward, we aren\u0026rsquo;t sure if we\u0026rsquo;ll be able to STAY open or if we\u0026rsquo;ll have to close once again. We are back in a more restricted \u0026ldquo;color\u0026rdquo; and if we go up one more, we\u0026rsquo;ll have to shut down again.\nJonny and Noah have started 8th grade with a new online curriculum that seems to be a great fit for us. They plug away each day to get everything done, and after chores they are able to play online with friends from all over. It\u0026rsquo;s fun to hear them talking to their friends.\nPRAYER REQUESTS:\nPlease pray that we will be able to stay open and have services in the church building. We will continue to have online options, but we know the importance of being together Please pray for all of the things Jon has going on. That each one will be a blessing to those he is ministering to. Pray for the boys\u0026rsquo; school year to go well and for us to stay focused. And for me to be able to teach them and help them with love and patience. Please keep the English classes in prayer. I have recently started them again for the first time since March and I\u0026rsquo;m really praying about starting a new one for beginners. Right now it\u0026rsquo;s my intermediate class. There\u0026rsquo;s an interest in a kid\u0026rsquo;s class too. Pray for wisdom on when to start these new classes, and that they\u0026rsquo;ll be a good tool for ministry in the community. PRAISE REPORTS:\nPraise the Lord that we\u0026rsquo;ve been able to open the church building after 5 months! We just signed a new one-year lease on the church building. So grateful for the financial help we have gotten to help us monthly. Praise the Lord for new opportunities in ways to do ministry in this new season of life with COVID. Thank you to all of you who read these updates, and support us in prayer, encouragement, financially, and so much more. We love you all.\n2 Corinthians 1:3-4 \u0026ldquo;Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.\u0026rdquo;\nJon, Allison, Jonny, and Noah Brechtel\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/brechtel/brechtel/2020/09/16/september-2020-update/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=\u0026ldquo;13\u0026rdquo; gal_title=\u0026ldquo;September 2020\u0026rdquo;]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHello all! Here\u0026rsquo;s a quick update about what\u0026rsquo;s been going these past few months.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt\u0026rsquo;s been a strange time for all of us with COVID-19 and pressing on in ministry, usually through social media and online. Jon has done such a great job of doing all of our services online, he\u0026rsquo;s become quite the pro! We\u0026rsquo;ve had an amazing team helping him each week.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn June and July we started doing food bags for the church body and some of their family and friends. Such a blessing to have people step in and help even with all of the fear that has come with the pandemic. This was really encouraging for me (Allison) because being an extrovert, not seeing people was really discouraging. So to be able to see some familiar faces, under masks, was a huge blessing.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"September 2020 Update"},{"content":"[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=\u0026ldquo;11\u0026rdquo; gal_title=\u0026ldquo;May 2020\u0026rdquo;]\nHey all! Hope you all are doing well despite the pandemic going on in the world. Isn\u0026rsquo;t this a crazy, strange time? We\u0026rsquo;re doing well down here in Oaxaca. Praise the Lord, the total cases and death counts haven\u0026rsquo;t reached the numbers that other places have reached.\nQuick update on what\u0026rsquo;s been going on over the last few months. We had an amazing team from Calvary Chapel Rosarito come down before the COVID-19 stuff hit. What a blessing it was to have all of them here. They did construction in the church, adding new lighting, electrical, walls, building a sound booth and welcome center booth. We also had two holistic medicine outreaches, which were a huge blessing to all who came and got checked by Dr. Miles. We also did a mini VBS for the kiddos, and had a married couples dinner. All who came to these events were so blessed, along with us.\nAt the end of February, Calvary Oaxaca turned ONE! It\u0026rsquo;s hard to believe that we\u0026rsquo;ve been here for over a year now. In the first year of the church we have learned some tough lessons but we have also experienced such amazing blessings through it all. The Lord has surrounded us with people who love Him and have become our Oaxacan family. We had a fun little potluck at a park to celebrate the anniversary of the church.\nI (Allison) started a bi-weekly women\u0026rsquo;s bible study in February. This was a huge stretch for me since public speaking is not something I\u0026rsquo;ve ever \u0026ldquo;enjoyed\u0026rdquo;. But God is SO GOOD. I tried to be diligent in studying the Word and preparing, and the Lord took away all of my fears as I taught. Don\u0026rsquo;t get me wrong, I will never take teaching the word of God lightly, and I know that it was not me, but the Holy Spirit teaching through me. I just think it\u0026rsquo;s so awesome to see the Lord\u0026rsquo;s hand on taking me from literally crying at the thought of speaking in front of 5 people, to being able to share like that. Sadly, after just 2 meetings, we had to cancel for the quarantine. And my english classes have been on hold too\u0026hellip;super sad.\nJon has been doing so well during the quarantine. I know it\u0026rsquo;s hard on him, and all pastors, to not be able to have the people there when you teach. We are doing all of our services online for now. He is teaching through the book of Matthew on Sundays and the book of Genesis on Wednesdays. He is so great about spending time studying for each message. He has also decided to continue our Tuesday night prayer meetings online. This has been such a huge blessing for me to see, as people type in their requests and they are prayed for right then and there. This night of prayer has been such an awesome thing since the church started.\nJonny and Noah are doing well also. Since we already homeschooled, that hasn\u0026rsquo;t changed for us. They were taking taekwondo and music classes, so that looks very different for us now. They have their taekwondo classes through Zoom, which is cool that they have that availability. Jonny was taking drum lessons, so that has been put on hold since we don\u0026rsquo;t have a drum set. Noah is taking guitar and is able to have his classes online with his teacher. We are so proud of both of them. It\u0026rsquo;s been neat to finally have that \u0026ldquo;extra\u0026rdquo; feeling of this being our home with them starting these classes.\nBefore the quarantine, my mom and niece were able to visit. It was such a HUGE blessing to show them around. The highlight was having them be able to attend one Sunday church service, and see all that we\u0026rsquo;ve been telling them about. We got to show them around Oaxaca City, and just had a great time hanging out together. I\u0026rsquo;m so grateful that they were able to come. Literally right after they left, things with the coronavirus started really getting bad.\nWe love keeping in touch with you all through texts, calls, social media, and visits. We try to keep in touch but if you need prayer or a friend to talk to, please reach out to us. We still have our same numbers and would love to be able to pray for and with you.\nPRAYER REQUESTS:\nPlease pray that the quarantine will end soon and that we can go back to meeting together and having that face to face contact with the church body. We really miss everyone so much. Please pray for those who have been out of work and are struggling financially. Please pray that the church body would feel loved, and that we can be encouraging to them from afar. We are trying to keep in touch with them all, but there are a few who\u0026rsquo;s numbers we don\u0026rsquo;t have so we can\u0026rsquo;t contact them. Please pray for our continued growth in the language. Some days it\u0026rsquo;s so hard, and other days we are amazed that we\u0026rsquo;ve come so far. I always joke and say that Jon and I together are fluent, but separate we both have different strengths and weaknesses. Please keep our son Austin, my brother Craig, and our niece Rachel in prayer as they all work the front lines during this time, along with all of the front line workers. PRAISE REPORTS:\nPraise the Lord for ONE YEAR as a church here in Oaxaca. For the lessons we\u0026rsquo;ve learned, even the really hard ones, because we know that God has been teaching us through each one. That Oaxaca has become more and more our home here on earth. We are so thankful for the friendships we have made here. Thank you all for your love, support, prayers, encouragement, and all that you do for us. We are honored to call you all friends and we love you all. Like I said, please let us know how we can pray for you all.\nEcclesiastes 4:9-10 \u0026ldquo;Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For is they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up.\u0026rdquo;\nJon, Allison, Jonny, Noah\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/brechtel/brechtel/2020/05/06/calvary-oaxaca-turns-one-coronavirus-quarantine/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=\u0026ldquo;11\u0026rdquo; gal_title=\u0026ldquo;May 2020\u0026rdquo;]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHey all! Hope you all are doing well despite the pandemic going on in the world. Isn\u0026rsquo;t this a crazy, strange time? We\u0026rsquo;re doing well down here in Oaxaca. Praise the Lord, the total cases and death counts haven\u0026rsquo;t reached the numbers that other places have reached.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eQuick update on what\u0026rsquo;s been going on over the last few months. We had an amazing team from Calvary Chapel Rosarito come down before the COVID-19 stuff hit. What a blessing it was to have all of them here. They did construction in the church, adding new lighting, electrical, walls, building a sound booth and welcome center booth. We also had two holistic medicine outreaches, which were a huge blessing to all who came and got checked by Dr. Miles. We also did a mini VBS for the kiddos, and had a married couples dinner. All who came to these events were so blessed, along with us.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Calvary Oaxaca Turns One, Coronavirus Quarantine"},{"content":"[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=\u0026ldquo;9\u0026rdquo; gal_title=\u0026ldquo;June-November 2019\u0026rdquo;]\nI can\u0026rsquo;t believe our last update was so long ago. Many things have happened in this time, including the blessing of having many teams and visitors over the summer. It was so amazing for us to see all of the gifts and talents that each team and individual has been given from the Lord. It\u0026rsquo;s so true that we are all parts of the body of Christ and that we all bring different things to the table to serve Him. Things that I have absolutely no talent in, someone else thrives in that area, and vice versa. Thank you to all of the people who came and served at Calvary Oaxaca this year, and those of you who were lifting up each team in prayer as they were here. We were so blown away by every part of these past few months.\nAt the end of August we found a new church building to move into. What an amazing thing to have found a place for the Lord to grow His church. We were getting a little too crowded in our garage and it was getting hot in there. We had one neighbor kind of causing a stink about us having the church there and we didn\u0026rsquo;t want any issues with our neighbors or the law, even though we were doing everything legally. Praise the Lord for our residency visas being \u0026ldquo;religious\u0026rdquo; visas. So now we are in a huge building fairly close to our house! Praise the Lord for this location since a few of our neighbors come to the church and we\u0026rsquo;re all able to walk if/when needed. And thank you to those who have financially made this move possible!\nJonny, Noah, and I (Allison) were able to visit Baja and California in September/early October. It was a super awesome time for us to see family and friends, and just spend some time with everyone. Austin graduated from Paramedic School and we were able to be there for that. We are so proud of him for all of his hard work, and grateful that he has an awesome wife in McKenna, who supported him during it all!\nWe had our first baptism at one of the most beautiful places we\u0026rsquo;ve ever seen. Ten people made the decision to get baptized, and there were about 70 of us in total who went, including a team from CC Santa Barbara.\nJon was able to fly up to Baja and California to attend the SoCal Men\u0026rsquo;s Conference in Anaheim. He was so blessed to be able to attend it, and hearing all of the amazing stories of lives saved and transformed is incredible. He was also able to teach at the Church Planting Course at Calvary Chapel Rosarito. As I\u0026rsquo;m writing this, he is still away on his trip and I\u0026rsquo;m so excited to know that he\u0026rsquo;s being filled and fed and will come home renewed and refreshed.\nWe are now winding down the year and have been living in Oaxaca for almost 10 months now. We\u0026rsquo;ve had some ups and downs, and have learned some very hard lessons along the way. We have a greater understanding of things we may have never even thought we\u0026rsquo;d need to learn about, but the blessings and joy and just all around awesomeness of it all has been worth every moment. God has shown up in ways far beyond our needs and has taught us what it means to trust more and more in Him. He never fails us, does He? Praise the Lord for His faithfulness in the good and the bad times.\nPRAYER REQUESTS:\nThis will be our first Christmas on the mission field, far away from family and friends. Each Christmas since we\u0026rsquo;ve been missionaries, we\u0026rsquo;ve been back in California for that time. Please pray for us to make it a memorable time for Jonny and Noah, and for us to not get too sad being away. I (Allison) will be having our first women\u0026rsquo;s Christmas event in December. This will be my first time teaching since we\u0026rsquo;ve been down here and I am nervous, but also super excited. Please pray that I won\u0026rsquo;t cry, which is something that I\u0026rsquo;m notorious for, and that the night would be a blessing for all who come as we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior. Please keep Jon in prayer as he prepares and teaches each week. He is so diligent in studying the Word and preparing for the Thursday night study and Sunday morning service. We are in need of new sound equipment and instruments for worship. We\u0026rsquo;ve come across some issues with the sound and are working them out as much as we can, but please pray for a solution to this. It may be a simple fix, or something bigger that needs to happen. We also need to find a solution to the heat in the building. We are unable to put AC in because there are openings all along the top of the building, so it wouldn\u0026rsquo;t be productive. Please pray that someone with knowledge in this area would help us with figuring this all out. It can get really hot in there and we\u0026rsquo;re not even in the hot months that are heading our way. PRAISE REPORTS:\nPraise the Lord for the new church building and those who have made it possible to get in there, and all of the help we\u0026rsquo;ve had with construction and getting it cleaned up. We are so blessed by the church body of Calvary Oaxaca. The people have a heart to serve the Lord and step in and help even before the need arises. These people have become our dear friends and brothers and sisters in Christ. It\u0026rsquo;s just such a blessing to have been called by the Lord to serve with the incredible people of Oaxaca. The boys have had friends hanging out and it\u0026rsquo;s so neat to have the sound of young men filling the house with laughter and joy. Thank you for taking the time to read this and keep up with our adventures for Jesus here in Oaxaca, Mexico. We would love to hear from you and to know how we could be praying for all of you. Thank you for your prayers, support, and encouragement always.\n1 Corinthians 12:12 \u0026ldquo;For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.\u0026rdquo;\nJon, Allison, Jonny, Noah\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/brechtel/brechtel/2019/11/13/november-2019-update/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=\u0026ldquo;9\u0026rdquo; gal_title=\u0026ldquo;June-November 2019\u0026rdquo;]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI can\u0026rsquo;t believe our last update was so long ago. Many things have happened in this time, including the blessing of having many teams and visitors over the summer. It was so amazing for us to see all of the gifts and talents that each team and individual has been given from the Lord. It\u0026rsquo;s so true that we are all parts of the body of Christ and that we all bring different things to the table to serve Him. Things that I have absolutely no talent in, someone else thrives in that area, and vice versa. Thank you to all of the people who came and served at Calvary Oaxaca this year, and those of you who were lifting up each team in prayer as they were here. We were so blown away by every part of these past few months.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"November 2019 Update"},{"content":"[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=\u0026ldquo;6\u0026rdquo; gal_title=\u0026ldquo;April/May 2019\u0026rdquo;]\nHi friends! It\u0026rsquo;s been a little too long since our last email update and we apologize for that. We have been really busy but that\u0026rsquo;s no excuse for not keeping you all up to date!\nSince our last update we have had two small teams come down to plan for their future trips down to do ministry in Oaxaca. We had Gregg and Vickie Seymour from Calvary Red Rock who will be bringing a team down in a couple of months. (Thank you guys for blessing us with a few things from the states!!!) Then we had Pastor Terry, Pastor Daniel, and Dana from Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara, who will be bringing a team down in October. Both visits were filled with times of prayer and fellowship, along with scouting out lodging, sightseeing, and eating options/prices for the teams. If you\u0026rsquo;ve ever been a missionary, you know what a blessing it is to have visitors!\nWe also had the blessing of a visit from our dear family friends and fellow missionaries, Juan and Alicia. I (Allison) have known Alicia since we were babies, and Juan since they started dating back in high school. We got to spend some time showing them around and fellowshipping with them, and they blessed us with a huge care package with many contributors. Thank you!!!\nThe church plant has been such a huge blessing to us. I won\u0026rsquo;t lie and say it\u0026rsquo;s been easy. We\u0026rsquo;ve experienced many ups and downs but the Lord is sustaining us every step of the way. I can\u0026rsquo;t imagine doing this with anyone else by my side other than Jon. The church has very faithful attenders and we are so excited to have more and more of them beginning to serve each week.\nAnd can I just say this: we love the people of Oaxaca. We love that God placed this calling on our lives. The people and culture here are so precious. We have amazing neighbors and friends here, and it\u0026rsquo;s such a blessing to call this home.\nI have started English classes and it\u0026rsquo;s AMAZING!!! I teach young kiddos for about 30 minutes each Thursday, just vocabulary and basic greetings. And on Saturdays I have two classes for anyone age 12 and up (mostly adults) for 1 1/2 hours each. It\u0026rsquo;s so fun to teach them each week and they\u0026rsquo;re all very anxious to learn, and smart! I am having such a great time doing this and it\u0026rsquo;s really helping me practice my Spanish.\nPRAYER REQUESTS:\nWe are changing our Sunday service time from the evening to the morning because of the afternoon rains. Please pray that this will be a smooth transition and that the people will be able to attend church. The rain in very loud because our garage/sanctuary has an aluminum roof, and it gets wet inside. Please pray for wisdom on getting a building for the church. We would really love to have a building in our colonia so that the neighbors can still come but as of right now there isn\u0026rsquo;t anything available near us. Also please pray for the right timing for this so we don\u0026rsquo;t get anxious to do something that may not be in His will yet. Wisdom on when to start a Wednesday night study. Please pray for our Spanish to continue to get better. And for Jonny and Noah to have a strong desire to learn it. We are hoping to start getting them lessons once a week from a Christian guy who was highly recommended to us by some friends. PRAISE REPORTS:\nPraise the Lord for the faithful body of Christ who want to serve Him and be a part of this church We are all pretty well settled here and are so blessed that God knew that this house would be the best house for our family. After getting down here and having the original house fall through, we see God\u0026rsquo;s hand on all of it! Thank you for taking the time to read this. We thank God for all of your prayers, support, and encouragement each day/week/month! You all are blessings to us.\n\u0026ldquo;And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.\u0026rdquo; Matthew 16:18\nLove you all! Jon, Allison, Jonny, and Noah\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/brechtel/brechtel/2019/05/30/may-2019-update/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=\u0026ldquo;6\u0026rdquo; gal_title=\u0026ldquo;April/May 2019\u0026rdquo;]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHi friends! It\u0026rsquo;s been a little too long since our last email update and we apologize for that. We have been really busy but that\u0026rsquo;s no excuse for not keeping you all up to date!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSince our last update we have had two small teams come down to plan for their future trips down to do ministry in Oaxaca. We had Gregg and Vickie Seymour from Calvary Red Rock who will be bringing a team down in a couple of months. (Thank you guys for blessing us with a few things from the states!!!) Then we had Pastor Terry, Pastor Daniel, and Dana from Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara, who will be bringing a team down in October. Both visits were filled with times of prayer and fellowship, along with scouting out lodging, sightseeing, and eating options/prices for the teams. If you\u0026rsquo;ve ever been a missionary, you know what a blessing it is to have visitors!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"May 2019 Update"},{"content":"[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=\u0026ldquo;4\u0026rdquo; gal_title=\u0026ldquo;Calvary Oaxaca First Month\u0026rdquo;]\nHi everyone! Just wanted to share with you all everything that\u0026rsquo;s been going on down here in Oaxaca. We had our first church service at the end of February. It has been such a blessing to see the Lord\u0026rsquo;s hand on this church plant over the last month. We are so excited to be getting to know the people who are attending services each week. And there have been kiddos coming, so Allison has been able to start a small little study and play time with them while their parents study the Word.\nWe had two sets of visitors! Such a huge blessing to have the McCracken family here for a few days while they were on break from Spanish school. We went to this amazing place called Hierve El Agua. Check it out online to see how beautiful it is. Please pray for them as they continue to study at Roca Blanca Spanish School where we studied in 2017. We also had two friends from Calvary San Juan, Matt and Mark, who came to serve the Lord with their time and gifts. We had a blast laughing with them and they blessed us in many ways. One way was building a pulpit for the church. So awesome!\nHuge praise report about our visas! Jon finally got his approved and was able to fly up to Rosarito with Armando and get the car and Abby (our dog). They made the long drive down with some hard times trying to find hotels that allowed pets, but they arrived after 3 1/2 days of driving. And I got my residency visa last week! God is so good. We were told they may not approve us for the 3 year visa but they did! So now we are temporary residents for 3 more years. Next up, getting the boys\u0026rsquo; renewed.\nGod has been so faithful in every step of this transition and starting of the church plant. It\u0026rsquo;s a blessing to see familiar faces each week at the church services. We pray that the people coming will grow each week in their walk with the Lord, whether they\u0026rsquo;re new believers or have been saved for some time. God is truly bringing people to His church and it\u0026rsquo;s neat to see His hand in all of this.\nPRAYER REQUEST:\ncontinued team unity Jon and Allison (and the boys) to really work on and learn Spanish better we have an opportunity to rent another building right next to our house that would house teams and could be used for classrooms. Please pray for wisdom on whether or not this would be a good fit for the church and ministry. It would be through our current landlords who we LOVE! please pray for each person who attends services to hear the word of God and really learn from it. Pray that Jon and Armando deliver His word well. Allison is hoping to start free English classes soon. Originally she was going to do a Kid\u0026rsquo;s Club but it seems like English classes might be a better way to start. Please pray for wisdom, direction, and for Allison to be disciplined in this area. Please pray for Jonny and Noah to make new friends. The Lord has been answering this prayer and has brought some guys over, which has been such a blessing. Please pray those friendships can grow. Some are locals that only speak Spanish but they always seem to work through the language barrier. PRAISE REPORTS:\nPraise the Lord for the 3 year visas getting approved! So awesome to see the Lord moving here in this little part of Oaxaca as people come to church eager to hear the Word We have lots of teams and friends coming down over the next few months and we are excited to see how the Lord will use those times with each visit. Thank you to all of you for praying for us, supporting us, and loving us. We miss you all so much. It\u0026rsquo;s strange to think we\u0026rsquo;re really this far away now. We would love to hear from all of you whether it\u0026rsquo;s on social media, phone calls, emails. or texts. Love you all so much.\n\u0026ldquo;But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.\u0026rdquo; Hebrews 11:6 May we all diligently seek Him!\nJon, Allison, Jonny, and Noah\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/brechtel/brechtel/2019/03/25/calvary-oaxaca-las-flores/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=\u0026ldquo;4\u0026rdquo; gal_title=\u0026ldquo;Calvary Oaxaca First Month\u0026rdquo;]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHi everyone! Just wanted to share with you all everything that\u0026rsquo;s been going on down here in Oaxaca. We had our first church service at the end of February. It has been such a blessing to see the Lord\u0026rsquo;s hand on this church plant over the last month. We are so excited to be getting to know the people who are attending services each week. And there have been kiddos coming, so Allison has been able to start a small little study and play time with them while their parents study the Word.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Calvary Oaxaca Las Flores"},{"content":"[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=\u0026ldquo;2\u0026rdquo; gal_title=\u0026ldquo;January 2019\u0026rdquo;]\nThe last few months have been crazy and we are excited to say that we are here in Oaxaca City getting settled in our new home!!!\nA lot has happened since our last update. Our house was broken into in December. Unfortunately Jon\u0026rsquo;s Mexican residency visa was in the wallet, along with his driver\u0026rsquo;s license. His license has been replaced but he\u0026rsquo;s still in the process of replacing his visa. More on that in a minute\u0026hellip;\nWe had an amazing sending weekend at Calvary Chapel Rosarito where Jon was able to share the Word and our calling, plans, and prayer needs for our move to Oaxaca. We were SO blessed by the outpouring of love from our brothers and sisters there.\nWe also had an awesome going away party at Calvary San Juan which was so fun. It was a blessing to spend time talking to our friends while we ate together, laughed, and shared a bit of what\u0026rsquo;s next for us. Ended the night being prayed over by our California church family.\nSuch a huge blessing to have these two churches support this calling on our lives and send us out to share the gospel with the people of Oaxaca.\nWe also got to spend some time with Pastor Gregg and Vickie Seymour of Calvary Red Rock in Las Vegas. They are fellow church planters doing an amazing work in Las Vegas, so please keep them in your prayers.\nIn early January we headed up to Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara for their missions weekend. The highlight for me (Allison) was sharing about Oaxaca with the kiddos during each service. Jon let me take the ropes and it was hilarious having the kids telling all of their stories of bugs and critters after I shared some of our stories. Plus, try getting a room full of 5-12 year olds to pronounce Oaxaca\u0026hellip;it\u0026rsquo;s awesome!\nFast forward and here we are living in Oaxaca City. Jonny, Noah, and I flew down 10 days before Jon and Armando arrived because Jon had to be in Tijuana to take care of his visa. Originally we were going to have a house ready for us when we got here, but that didn\u0026rsquo;t work out, so the boys and I spent time trying to find a house. Things kept falling through and it got pretty discouraging, but one night Jon found one on Facebook and set up a time for me to go see the house. The peace that I was hoping to feel in other houses, I felt in this house. It\u0026rsquo;s an amazing house, perfect for the beginning of a church plant. God is so good in showing us that He has everything under control and He was preparing this house to be our home.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s amazing to have all of #teamoaxaca here now, ready to build the team up and see what the Lord has in store. We are grateful for Meg and Obed who are committed to being a part of this church plant, and for Armando who has moved down here with us and is a huge asset to our team and a great brother.\nPRAYER REQUESTS:\nplease pray for our visa renewals. They expire on February 7 and we are working on getting all of the paperwork turned in correctly before then. With Jon\u0026rsquo;s visa being stolen and me losing mine, there are added complications but we know God is in control. pray for continued team unity and growth. We plan on starting a bible study together soon along with some team training pray for opportunities for us to meet the people in our neighborhood and ways for us to minister to them and share the love of Jesus PLEASE pray for our spanish to grow and for us to use it even when we are insecure. we know that with us getting settled, the reality will start to hit us that we\u0026rsquo;re not near family and friends from \u0026ldquo;home\u0026rdquo; anymore so please pray for protection of our hearts, especially the boys. PRAISE REPORTS:\nPraise the Lord for a place to call home in our new city we already have new and old friends here and nearby which has made this transition a lot smoother for all of us Thank you for taking the time to read this. We love and miss everyone far, and are so excited for what\u0026rsquo;s to come here in this amazing city.\n\u0026ldquo;Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.\u0026rdquo; Amen Matthew 28:19-20\nJon, Allison, Jonny, Noah\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/brechtel/brechtel/2019/02/01/another-move-a-new-home-in-oaxaca-city/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=\u0026ldquo;2\u0026rdquo; gal_title=\u0026ldquo;January 2019\u0026rdquo;]\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe last few months have been crazy and we are excited to say that we are here in Oaxaca City getting settled in our new home!!!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA lot has happened since our last update. Our house was broken into in December. Unfortunately Jon\u0026rsquo;s Mexican residency visa was in the wallet, along with his driver\u0026rsquo;s license. His license has been replaced but he\u0026rsquo;s still in the process of replacing his visa. More on that in a minute\u0026hellip;\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Another Move, A New Home in Oaxaca City"},{"content":"\nLast month we took our vision trip to Oaxaca City! We had a team of 12 people on the trip, and it was such a huge blessing. We spent time each morning in the Word and sharing what the Lord had been showing each of us. It was an honor to have Pastor Mike and Mario from CC Rosarito, Tim and Nikki from SGWM, Armando, and a team from CC Santa Barbara there to share in this time together. We are so blessed to have made new, lifelong friendships with the CCSB team, and grow closer to everyone.\nOne of the days together, Pastor Mike suggested a time of spending time alone to hear from God and then coming back together to share what they had felt the Lord telling them. This was a time of sweet encouragement and fellowship and it meant a lot to us to have this team pouring into us.\nGod was moving the entire time on this trip. We had an information meeting while there and 5 people from the community came! Jon was invited to teach at Capilla Calvario Oaxaca with Armando translating, and then we were welcomed into Pastor Antonio and his wife Carmelita\u0026rsquo;s home for lunch and fellowship.\nWe also met Meg and Obed who are going to be a part of our team when we get settled down there. One of our prayer requests has been for a worship leader, and Obed is an answer to those prayers. And Meg is fluent in Spanish so she can help Allison with translating and working on her Spanish. We are looking forward to getting to know them better and serving with them.\nOn our last couple of days there, we got to reconnect with some friends from our time in Cacalote who now live in or near the city, Toby and The Blycker family. It was so nice to see these familiar places. No one quite understands our time in Cacalote like people who\u0026rsquo;ve been there. Super excited to know that we\u0026rsquo;ll be \u0026ldquo;neighbors\u0026rdquo; in a couple of months.\nSince our trip, we have seen many doors opening for us in Oaxaca, and we\u0026rsquo;re excited to see how things come together once we are living there. Jon will be flying down at the end of November for a few days to look for a house for us. We are planning on moving to Oaxaca City in mid-January! Our time in Rosarito is quickly coming to an end and it\u0026rsquo;s definitely bittersweet. We have made many dear friends here and love serving at CC Rosarito.\nPRAYER REQUESTS\nPlease pray that Jon will be able to find a house for us on his trip at the end of the month, and for safe travels. For us to make this next transition smoothly. It\u0026rsquo;s been 2 years with lots of moving, so protection of our hearts (especially the boys) Our Spanish to improve more and more Please pray for our team to have unity and to always point each other to the Lord Thank you for your continued love, prayers, support, and encouragement. It is an honor to have you all in our lives and be a part of this calling on our lives. We love you all so much!\nJon, Allison, Jonny, Noah\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/brechtel/brechtel/2018/11/09/vision-trip-to-oaxaca-city/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/11/IMG_6459.jpg\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLast month we took our vision trip to Oaxaca City!  We had a team of 12 people on the trip, and it was such a huge blessing.  We spent time each morning in the Word and sharing what the Lord had been showing each of us.  It was an honor to have Pastor Mike and Mario from CC Rosarito, Tim and Nikki from SGWM, Armando, and a team from CC Santa Barbara there to share in this time together.  We are so blessed to have made new, lifelong friendships with the CCSB team, and grow closer to everyone.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Vision Trip to Oaxaca City"},{"content":" IMG\\_6056 IMG\\_6022 IMG\\_5972 IMG\\_5829 IMG\\_5806 IMG\\_5736 IMG\\_5735 I can\u0026rsquo;t believe it\u0026rsquo;s almost fall. Our time in Rosarito is really starting to fly by, and before we know it we\u0026rsquo;ll be planting a church in Oaxaca!\nJon completed his first quarter of teaching at the Bible College at CC Rosarito. It was a great experience for him as he studied and prepared to teach each week in the book of Daniel. He has 2 weeks off and will begin teaching a new class after the break. He\u0026rsquo;s also teaching the New Believers class on Wednesday nights. It\u0026rsquo;s neat to know that he\u0026rsquo;s teaching a class that meant so much to him when he first got saved. I love how the Lord brings things full-circle like that. He also teaches the 11 and 12 year old class on Saturday nights.\nJonny and Noah have officially begun 6th grade. We are homeschooling them again this year, and this is our 7th year of homeschool minus the few months that they attended school in Cacalote. They are really enjoying their time in our neighborhood because they\u0026rsquo;ve become really close to one of the boys who lives across the street. It\u0026rsquo;s going to be hard on them when we move, so let\u0026rsquo;s start praying for that one now!!!\nI am really enjoying serving in the greeting ministry! It\u0026rsquo;s my favorite!!! I\u0026rsquo;m also teaching the 9 and 10 year old class each Saturday. It\u0026rsquo;s a challenge for me to prepare each week but I think I\u0026rsquo;m finally getting a good routine down. I have a great translator/co-teacher too.\nJon and I are back in the Church Planting Course each week. It\u0026rsquo;s been such a blessing to see how the Lord has used this course to prepare us more and more for what He\u0026rsquo;s called us to do.\nWe had a great time serving at the grand opening service for Calvary Valley Center. Please keep this church plant in your prayers as they serve the people of Valley Center.\nOur vision trip to Oaxaca is just 3 weeks away!!! We are so excited to see what the Lord reveals to us while on this trip.\nPRAYER REQUEST:\nWorship leader for church plant. Wisdom for what to do with our car when we go to Oaxaca. We don\u0026rsquo;t know if we can nationalize it because of some of the rules they have. If our vehicle isn\u0026rsquo;t nationalized then we would have to drive it out of the country every 6 months which wouldn\u0026rsquo;t really be wise financially. Our trip to Oaxaca City in October, that the Lord would show us where He wants us to plant His church Thank you for continuing to follow along as we move forward in His calling for us to serve Him in Mexico! We are so grateful for each of you who love us, pray for us, support us, call us, and everything else. We love you all!\nJon, Allison, Jonny, Noah\nPS\u0026hellip;my goal is to get more pictures of Jon and the boys this month. :)\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/brechtel/brechtel/2018/09/17/august-september-update/","summary":"\u003cdiv class=\"gallery gallery-cols-1\"\u003e\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/09/IMG%5F6056-e1537159420976.jpg\"\n         alt=\"IMG\\_6056\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            IMG\\_6056\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/09/IMG%5F6022.jpg\"\n         alt=\"IMG\\_6022\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            IMG\\_6022\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/09/IMG%5F5972.jpg\"\n         alt=\"IMG\\_5972\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            IMG\\_5972\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/09/IMG%5F5829.jpg\"\n         alt=\"IMG\\_5829\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            IMG\\_5829\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/09/IMG%5F5806.jpg\"\n         alt=\"IMG\\_5806\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            IMG\\_5806\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/09/IMG%5F5736.jpg\"\n         alt=\"IMG\\_5736\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            IMG\\_5736\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/09/IMG%5F5735-e1537159387950.jpg\"\n         alt=\"IMG\\_5735\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            IMG\\_5735\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eI can\u0026rsquo;t believe it\u0026rsquo;s almost fall.  Our time in Rosarito is really starting to fly by, and before we know it we\u0026rsquo;ll be planting a church in Oaxaca!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJon completed his first quarter of teaching at the Bible College at CC Rosarito.  It was a great experience for him as he studied and prepared to teach each week in the book of Daniel.  He has 2 weeks off and will begin teaching a new class after the break.  He\u0026rsquo;s also teaching the New Believers class on Wednesday nights.  It\u0026rsquo;s neat to know that he\u0026rsquo;s teaching a class that meant so much to him when he first got saved.  I love how the Lord brings things full-circle like that.  He also teaches the 11 and 12 year old class on Saturday nights.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"August/September Update"},{"content":" Hi everyone! We\u0026rsquo;ve had a VERY eventful month of July, with many blessings.\nJon was ordained by Pastor Mike Vincent and the pastors of Calvary Chapel Rosarito. He is now serving as an assistant pastor, alongside some amazing men. We are so blessed by this! On the same night that Jon became PBJ, aka Pastor Big Jon, he also taught on Prayer and Devotions in the main sanctuary as a part of the Pillars Series at CCR. He did a great job, and had Armando translating for him.\nOur oldest son, Austin, married his beautiful bride on July 8. What a blessing to now have the daughter we never had, and one who we love SO much. We praise the Lord for their relationship that keeps Him in the center. The wedding was as close to perfect as it could have been, and it was so fun to celebrate with so many dear friends and family.\nI (Allison) was invited to serve at the youth girl\u0026rsquo;s retreat with 13-17 year old girls. The theme of the retreat was \u0026ldquo;Born to Be Light\u0026rdquo;. I got to share my testimony with the girls, and the entire time was such a huge blessing to me. I was able to get to know some of the girls, and I look forward to spending time with them some more and being there for them when they need someone to listen to and pray for them. This was one of my favorite times of ministry, although I was nervous about even going. The Lord blessed me more than I can put into words.\nJon started teaching at the Bible College on the book of Daniel. He loves it, so please keep that in prayer as he studies each week.\nJonny and Noah are continuing to love being here in Mexico. They have been focusing on Spanish with some tutoring and Rosetta Stone. They love hanging out with their friends on the street, and their friends at church.\nWe are loving our time here in Rosarito as we continue to prepare for the move to Oaxaca. We have our Vision Trip in October that will be here sooner than we know. This trip will be a time of prayer for the city that we will call our home, and also to try to find a place that we would like to live in which will be our church in the beginning also. So far there are about 11 people that will be on this trip and we are SO EXCITED!\nThank you for following along on our adventure for Jesus in Mexico. We love hearing from all of you through messages and calls. Feel free to send us any prayer requests you may have. Here are some of ours:\nPRAYER REQUESTS:\nPlease continue to pray for a worship leader to go with us to Oaxaca We will be starting the next semester of the Church Planting course on August 13 so please pray that we will grow in the areas we are taught on Continued growth in the language for all of us. We feel like we\u0026rsquo;re finally starting to remember more and more of what we learned in Cacalote, and we\u0026rsquo;re using Spanish more. We love you all so much. Thank you for your love, prayers, and support. Remember: YOU were born to be light! Shine the light of Jesus everywhere you go.\nMatthew 5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven.\nJon, Allison, Jonny, Noah\nClick on the photos above to see the complete picture. :)\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/brechtel/brechtel/2018/08/01/an-amazing-blessed-july/","summary":"\u003cdiv class=\"gallery gallery-cols-1\"\u003e\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/07/36816485%5F10155901392037029%5F4957552858531627008%5Fo.jpg\"/\u003e \n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/07/36709386%5F10155901391867029%5F5809315671569334272%5Fo.jpg\"/\u003e \n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/07/IMG%5F2668-2.jpg\"/\u003e \n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/08/IMG%5F5348.jpg\"/\u003e \n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/08/IMG%5F5338.jpg\"/\u003e \n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/07/IMG%5F2835.jpg\"/\u003e \n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/07/IMG%5F5018-e1533080216249.jpg\"/\u003e \n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/07/36969641%5F224799714823237%5F1318446198415163392%5Fn.jpg\"/\u003e \n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHi everyone!  We\u0026rsquo;ve had a VERY eventful month of July, with many blessings.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJon was ordained by Pastor Mike Vincent and the pastors of Calvary Chapel Rosarito.  He is now serving as an assistant pastor, alongside some amazing men.  We are so blessed by this!  On the same night that Jon  became PBJ, aka Pastor Big Jon, he also taught on Prayer and Devotions in the main sanctuary as a part of the Pillars Series at CCR.  He did a great job, and had Armando translating for him.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"An Amazing, Blessed July"},{"content":" Faro Mazatlán Hike Hola! We have had a full May and beginning of June. In May we finished our first semester of the Church Planting Course at CC Rosarito, along with the finish of this session of guitar class for Allison. It has been such a blessing to be a part of this course, and have the opportunity to serve here at Calvary Chapel Rosarito. Jon has been teaching in a rotation in the Pillars Class on Sunday mornings, and he will be teaching in the sanctuary on a Wednesday night at the end of June. We will also be teaching with a translator in children\u0026rsquo;s ministry, each of us in a different class/age group. This will be a new thing for Allison because she\u0026rsquo;s never taught with a translator. Oh, and Allison is now a greeter\u0026hellip;does that shock anyone? Her dreams have come true\u0026hellip;seriously!\nWe also had the honor of serving as chaplains at the Franklin Graham Decision America event in Escondido with our sending church, Calvary Chapel San Juan Capistrano. It was an amazing night serving with them and witnessing lives turning to the Lord at the event.\nIn the beginning of June, Jon went with a team from CCR to Calvary Chapel Maranatha in Mazatlán. The team worked long hours doing construction on the building, remodeling the sanctuary. It was a blessing for him to be on this trip for many reasons. Pastor Tony, his wife and son opened their home to us when we drove back to California in October from Oaxaca. They didn\u0026rsquo;t even know us but our connection went back to Roca Blanca Spanish School, to a woman who also barely knew us, Nancy, who serves at the church in Mazatlán. Just a fun story about how awesome God is!!! It was also a blessing for Jon because he really got to know the guys he was on the trip with and bonded with them. He came home refreshed even though they had been working so hard.\nNext month we will officially be gaining a daughter when Austin and McKenna get married. We praise the Lord for their relationship and can\u0026rsquo;t wait to watch them grow as a couple in the many years to come.\nPRAYER REQUESTS:\nfor a worship leader to be raised up to go to Oaxaca with us that we would practice/use Spanish everyday and grow in the language for Jon to do well when he teaches in the sanctuary Jon\u0026rsquo;s foot to heal or for a doctor to treat it so it\u0026rsquo;s not so painful We are grateful for all of you who love us and check up on us, pray for and support us. Thank you all for being there for us! We love you!\nJon, Allison, Jonny, Noah\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/brechtel/brechtel/2018/06/12/may-update/","summary":"\u003cdiv class=\"gallery gallery-cols-1\"\u003e\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/06/IMG%5F4066-e1528768048193.jpg\"/\u003e \n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/06/IMG%5F4210.jpeg\"/\u003e \n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/06/IMG%5F4234.jpeg\"/\u003e \n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/06/IMG%5F4232.jpeg\"/\u003e \n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/06/34788669%5F1649974448443614%5F1896524972273172480%5Fo.jpg\"/\u003e \n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/06/34683775%5F1026983394136031%5F4004708892125691904%5Fn.jpg\"/\u003e \n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/06/34447602%5F1026110484223322%5F820188884947173376%5Fo.jpg\"\n         alt=\"Faro Mazatlán Hike\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            Faro Mazatlán Hike\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHola!  We have had a full May and beginning of June.  In May we finished our first semester of the Church Planting Course at CC Rosarito, along with the finish of this session of guitar class for Allison.  It has been such a blessing to be a part of this course, and have the opportunity to serve here at Calvary Chapel Rosarito.  Jon has been teaching in a rotation in the Pillars Class on Sunday mornings, and he will be teaching in the sanctuary on a Wednesday night at the end of June.  We will also be teaching with a translator in children\u0026rsquo;s ministry, each of us in a different class/age group.  This will be a new thing for Allison because she\u0026rsquo;s never taught with a translator.  Oh, and Allison is now a greeter\u0026hellip;does that shock anyone?  Her dreams have come true\u0026hellip;seriously!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"May Update"},{"content":" BENDICIONES DE ROSARITO!!!April was a month filled with really exciting things for us down here in Rosarito. I\u0026rsquo;ll try to keep it short and sweet but some of you know that\u0026rsquo;s hard for me to do sometimes, especially when I\u0026rsquo;m super excited. :)\nWe were given the opportunity to share our church planting update on a Wednesday night after service and were so blessed to have people stay and hear all that the Lord is doing and how they can be praying for us as we prepare to go further south of the border. This was the first time Jon and Armando teamed up as speaker and translator. I was so blessed to sit and listen to them flow so naturally as a team. #teamoaxaca Jon shared our hearts for the people of Oaxaca and how the Lord has really buried this love in such a way that we can\u0026rsquo;t deny this is where He\u0026rsquo;s calling us to go.\nWe completed the Pillars class with Jonny and Noah by our sides. The purpose of us taking the class was to learn how to teach it in the future when we plant the church in Oaxaca, but it was also a huge blessing to sit and learn these things on a deeper level. The Pillars class is a 6 week class for those who have been at the church and are ready to start serving! The week after we finished, Jon was asked to start teaching one of the classes in each rotation. He taught the Devotions class. This is an exciting thing for him to be doing not only to be teaching the class, but also to be teaching it with Armando as his translator. #teamoaxaca\nI have been asked to do a short teaching at a young women\u0026rsquo;s retreat in late July. What a blessing to be asked to do this but I\u0026rsquo;m also terrified. Haha! My favorite verse in the bible is Matthew 5:16 and that\u0026rsquo;s the theme of the retreat. Please keep me in prayer as I prepare to share some of my testimony and how the Lord can and will use ANYONE, no matter what their past is. I\u0026rsquo;m scared to death to speak in front of people but that\u0026rsquo;s something that the Church Planting Course has been helping me with. Still\u0026hellip;please pray!\nWe are both enjoying going to the Men\u0026rsquo;s and Women\u0026rsquo;s Spanish bible studies each week. For me it\u0026rsquo;s such a huge blessing to be loved by these women, and to love them right back!!! Mondays are our long days and by 6:30 I don\u0026rsquo;t always feel like going to the bible study but EVERY SINGLE TIME I leave there feeling so full of love, and so excited for the next week.\nJonny and Noah are doing so well down here! They are almost done with 5th grade and have done so well with all of the transitions over this past year. They are ready for summer! They have some really sweet friends from our street and from church. Every evening is filled with boys in and out of the house, riding bikes, playing Nerf wars, and coming in for snacks and video games. Thank you for praying for them to adapt well, and please keep them in your prayers.\nThere\u0026rsquo;s so much more to tell, but I\u0026rsquo;ll go ahead and end here with prayer requests.\nPRAYER REQUESTS:\nFor a worship leader to go to Oaxaca with us to plant the church. Please pray for the Lord to place it on someone\u0026rsquo;s heart to go with us, possibly even another family That we can figure what to do about our car. If we don\u0026rsquo;t have a nationalized car, we would have to drive across the border every 6 months and the closest border would be Guatemala. We are praying that we can get it nationalized but it\u0026rsquo;s sounding like it\u0026rsquo;ll be difficult. If we can\u0026rsquo;t, then we will want to sell our car and buy one in Mexico. That we would meet our financial needs each month. We are at about 1/3 of what we would need long-term. The Lord always provides and we are so thankful to everyone who supports us financially and through prayer. PRAISE REPORTS:\nWe are so grateful for all of these opportunities that the Lord is giving us while we\u0026rsquo;re down here building the team Continuing to praise the Lord for Armando\u0026rsquo;s commitment to go with us for a year, and the fact that he\u0026rsquo;s truly becoming one of our family members. Such an answer to prayer! Grateful that Jonny and Noah love it here but that they also feel that Oaxaca is where \u0026ldquo;home\u0026rdquo; is Thank you all for reading this, supporting us, PRAYING for us and with us! We love you all so much.\nJon, Allison, Jonny, Noah Brechtel\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/brechtel/brechtel/2018/05/11/blessed-time-of-growth/","summary":"\u003cdiv class=\"gallery gallery-cols-4\"\u003e\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/05/Church-Planting-update-on-stage.jpg\"/\u003e \n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/05/Church-Planting-update-praying-over-family.jpg\"/\u003e \n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/05/IMG%5F3694.jpg\"/\u003e \n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/05/IMG%5F3866.jpg\"/\u003e \n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/05/IMG%5F3939.jpg\"/\u003e \n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBENDICIONES DE ROSARITO!!!April was a month filled with really exciting things for us down here in Rosarito.  I\u0026rsquo;ll try to keep it short and sweet but some of you know that\u0026rsquo;s hard for me to do sometimes, especially when I\u0026rsquo;m super excited.  :)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe were given the opportunity to share our church planting update on a Wednesday night after service and were so blessed to have people stay and hear all that the Lord is doing and how they can be praying for us as we prepare to go further south of the border.  This was the first time Jon and Armando teamed up as speaker and translator.  I was so blessed to sit and listen to them flow so naturally as a team. #teamoaxaca  Jon shared our hearts for the people of Oaxaca and how the Lord has really buried this love in such a way that we can\u0026rsquo;t deny this is where He\u0026rsquo;s calling us to go.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Blessed Time of Growth"},{"content":" IMG\\_3405 IMG\\_3198 IMG\\_3345 IMG\\_3425 IMG\\_3436 IMG\\_3469 IMG\\_3478 We have some exciting things going on that we\u0026rsquo;d like to share with you. Just a little background to catch everyone up on what we\u0026rsquo;re doing in Rosarito. We are serving as missionary staff at Calvary Chapel Rosarito. We are also in the church planting program and things are going really well. We came here to not only learn, but more importantly to build a team to go to Oaxaca with us in late December.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s our exciting news: we have our first team member who will be going with us to serve as a translator and ministry partner. We are spending time getting to know him and already love him. Praise the Lord for Armando and his heart to serve the Lord.\nAnother exciting thing is that we have a church planting vision tour scheduled for October. We will be joined by Pastor Mike Vincent, Tim Pappas from SGWM, and Armando, and possibly some others. How exciting is all of this? The Lord is moving on this future church plant and we are enjoying watching His hand on all of the steps, past and present. We know He has great plans for the people of Oaxaca and we\u0026rsquo;re honored to be a tiny part of it.\nOther than that, things are going really well. We have had some scares with Jonny this past week with an allergic reaction. Thank you to all who have prayed and please continue to pray as he is still having some issues.\nPRAYER REQUESTS:\nCompete healing of Jonny and Jon\u0026rsquo;s stomach problems We are sharing an update with the church on April 25th. Please pray that we (Jon) would share all that the Lord is doing to prepare us for Oaxaca, and if there\u0026rsquo;s someone listening that feels a stirring to go, that they would let us know. Pray for a worship leader who might be called to go with us That we would focus on our Spanish and practicing as much as possible Financial provision PRAISE REPORTS:\nwe are continuing to get more and more settled and building relationships we have our first team member for Oaxaca we\u0026rsquo;ve had more and more opportunities to push ourselves into having conversations in Spanish and have come across so many people who are patient with us and excited to teach us when we try Thank you all for taking the time to read us and keep in touch with what\u0026rsquo;s going on in our lives. We are so grateful for all of the prayers and support from you.\nEcclesiastes 4:9-10 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up.\n#teamoaxaca\nJon, Allison, Jonny, Noah\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/brechtel/brechtel/2018/04/10/exciting-news/","summary":"\u003cdiv class=\"gallery gallery-cols-1\"\u003e\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/04/IMG%5F3405.jpg\"\n         alt=\"IMG\\_3405\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            IMG\\_3405\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/04/IMG%5F3198.jpg\"\n         alt=\"IMG\\_3198\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            IMG\\_3198\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/04/IMG%5F3345.jpg\"\n         alt=\"IMG\\_3345\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            IMG\\_3345\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/04/IMG%5F3425.jpg\"\n         alt=\"IMG\\_3425\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            IMG\\_3425\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/04/IMG%5F3436.jpg\"\n         alt=\"IMG\\_3436\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            IMG\\_3436\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/04/IMG%5F3469-e1523325755367.jpg\"\n         alt=\"IMG\\_3469\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            IMG\\_3469\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/04/IMG%5F3478-e1523325824424.jpg\"\n         alt=\"IMG\\_3478\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            IMG\\_3478\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWe have some exciting things going on that we\u0026rsquo;d like to share with you.  Just a little background to catch everyone up  on what we\u0026rsquo;re doing in Rosarito.  We are serving as missionary staff at Calvary Chapel Rosarito.  We are also in the church planting program and things are going really well.  We came here to not only learn, but more importantly to build a team to go to Oaxaca with us in late December.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Exciting News!!!"},{"content":" Hi from Mexico!!! We found a house to rent (that\u0026rsquo;s FURNISHED!) and are getting settled in down here. The neighborhood is really nice and seems super safe. It\u0026rsquo;s even guarded at the gate by actual police officers. The boys have made two new friends in the neighborhood, and they\u0026rsquo;re over right now playing video games and laser tag. We are getting into a good routine with homeschooling and normal bedtimes. Haha!\nThe Missions Night at CCSJC was a HUGE blessing! Thank you to everyone who came to hear what the Lord is doing in our lives and for all of the prayers and support. We were literally blown away by the love we felt.\nThis past weekend we were able to head to Calvary Chapel Tijuana and serve with CCSJC at the dinner for the chaplain program and local officers. Such a fun day spending time with our home church family. We even had our first visitors and overnight guests. Being away from our family and friends can be hard sometimes and having visitors is a special treat.\nWe are meeting tonight to find out which ministry/ministries we will be serving in so please keep us in prayer, that we\u0026rsquo;ll be a blessing and put our whole hearts into serving the Lord wherever He wants to use us. We are getting to know more people at the church and starting to make some awesome friendships. We are also taking a class with the boys on Sundays called the Pillars Class. We had our first class on Sunday and it was such a blessing to have Jonny and Noah (and Hanna) with us.\nWe are looking forward to what the next 10 months will hold and are so excited to build \u0026ldquo;Team Oaxaca\u0026rdquo;! And we\u0026rsquo;re really excited for the upcoming wedding of our oldest son and his amazing fiancee! It\u0026rsquo;s still a few months away but we are so excited.\nPRAYER REQUEST:\nThat we would continue to get settled in our new home and build strong relationships That we\u0026rsquo;ll stay faithful every day to this calling and the responsibilities that we have Financial provision PRAISE REPORTS:\nOur time serving with CCSJC was such a blessing The boys are making friends in the neighborhood and with church friends That we were able to rent this house that is fully furnished We got approved on the Mexico side for our visas\u0026hellip;just found out today (March 7) Thank you to all of you who keep us in prayer and support us. We are so blessed to call you all our friends and family. We pray you all are blessed by the Lord and if you ever have a prayer request, please send it our way. Love you all!\nJon, Allison, Jonny, Noah\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/brechtel/brechtel/2018/03/08/getting-settled/","summary":"\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/03/IMG%5F2934-300x225.jpg\" width=\"300\"/\u003e \n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/03/IMG%5F3048-300x225.jpg\" width=\"300\"/\u003e \n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2018/03/IMG%5F3101-300x226.jpg\" width=\"300\"/\u003e \n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHi from Mexico!!! We found a house to rent (that\u0026rsquo;s FURNISHED!) and are getting settled in down here. The neighborhood is really nice and seems super safe. It\u0026rsquo;s even guarded at the gate by actual police officers. The boys have made two new friends in the neighborhood, and they\u0026rsquo;re over right now playing video games and laser tag. We are getting into a good routine with homeschooling and normal bedtimes. Haha!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Getting Settled"},{"content":"Proverbs 16:9\u0026hellip;A man\u0026rsquo;s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.\nOver the last few weeks, more and more people we know have quoted this verse for things going on in their lives. Maybe we\u0026rsquo;ve heard this verse often but didn\u0026rsquo;t really pay attention like we have recently. That\u0026rsquo;s because the Lord was preparing us for HIS steps.\nAs it turns out, the road to Oaxaca is not a straight road for us. At the end of January we took a vision trip with SGWM to Capilla Calvario Rosarito. We met with Pastor Mike Vincent and the more time we spent with him, it became more evident that God\u0026rsquo;s hand was in this meeting. We weren\u0026rsquo;t prepared for that. Haha! CCRosarito has planted 19 churches in Mexico already and they have invited us to spend a short season with them to help us raise up a team for our church plant in Oaxaca. Raising a team is going to be a vital part of planting a church so that it won\u0026rsquo;t be just us, alone. While we are raising up a team, they have invited us to be missionary staff, where we will serve in various ministries. Some of the ministries are the dump ministry and helping at orphanages. We will also be attending their church planting class that is once a week.\nWe are excited for the Lord\u0026rsquo;s plans in our lives as we continue to prepare for our return to Oaxaca. We will be having a Missions Night Potluck and Calvary Chapel San Juan Capistrano on February 18th at 5:30. We will be sharing more about all that\u0026rsquo;s going on and answering questions anyone might have. We would love to see you all there.\nWe will be moving to Rosarito as soon as we can find a safe place to live and are able to raise enough monthly support. Please pray that this will be a smooth transition for Jonny and Noah (and us). We\u0026rsquo;ve been so blessed to be in California with family and friends for a few months.\nThank you for your continued prayers and support as we follow the Lord\u0026rsquo;s guidance and calling on our lives. We love you all and are so grateful for each of you.\nJon, Allison, Jonny, Noah Brechtel\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/brechtel/brechtel/2018/02/06/heading-back-to-mexico/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eProverbs 16:9\u0026hellip;A man\u0026rsquo;s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOver the last few weeks, more and more people we know have quoted this verse for things going on in their lives.  Maybe we\u0026rsquo;ve heard this verse often but didn\u0026rsquo;t really pay attention like we have recently.  That\u0026rsquo;s because the Lord was preparing us for HIS steps.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs it turns out, the road to Oaxaca is not a straight road for us.  At the end of January we took a vision trip with SGWM to Capilla Calvario Rosarito.  We met with Pastor Mike Vincent and the more time we spent with him, it became more evident that God\u0026rsquo;s hand was in this meeting.  We weren\u0026rsquo;t prepared for that.  Haha!  CCRosarito has planted 19 churches in Mexico already and they have invited us to spend a short season with them to help us raise up a team for our church plant in Oaxaca.  Raising a team is going to be a vital part of planting a church so that it won\u0026rsquo;t be just us, alone.  While we are raising up a team, they have invited us to be missionary staff, where we will serve in various ministries.  Some of the ministries are the dump ministry and helping at orphanages.  We will also be attending their church planting class that is once a week.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Heading Back to Mexico!"},{"content":"This is the WPForms preview page. All your form previews will be handled on this page.\nThe page is set to private, so it is not publicly accessible. Please do not delete this page :) .\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/brechtel/brechtel/wpforms-preview/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThis is the WPForms preview page. All your form previews will be handled on this page.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe page is set to private, so it is not publicly accessible. Please do not delete this page :) .\u003c/p\u003e","title":"WPForms Preview"},{"content":" IMG\\_9864 0B609FF9-CEF6-4577-8114-50CCC0BBBAE0 IMG\\_0324 IMG\\_9589 IMG\\_E9412 IMG\\_9433 IMG\\_9437 IMG\\_9866 IMG\\_9693 IMG\\_9395 IMG\\_9753 IMG\\_9549 IMG\\_9898 IMG\\_9988 Hi family and friends! We did it!!! We graduated from Roca Blanca Spanish School on October 20. What a crazy ride that was\u0026hellip;filled with ups and downs, good and bad, trials and triumphs. But what an experience for us to learn to lean more on the Lord through all of those times. Even more so, what a PRIVILEGE to be called by the Lord to serve Him. Machaela finished strong in Level 1, and Jon and I really got into a great routine as we finished Level 4.\nIn October, Jon was able to go to the Pastors and Leaders Conference at Calvary Chapel Tijuana. He had a time of being refreshed and spending time with two of our pastors, along with old and new friends who serve all over Mexico. While he was away, the Spanish school went on a one day mission trip to San Martin. Machaela, Jonny, Noah, and I were able to go and it was such a blessing to be a small part of that day, while the clinic offered free medical consultations and medicine for those in need in that town.\nDuring our final weeks in Cacalote, we were able to spend time with the friends we had made while living there. The Lord really blessed us with some amazing friendships that really grew. I love looking back to when we first arrived to when we left, and seeing the Lord\u0026rsquo;s hand on our relationships. I could go on and on about all of them so I\u0026rsquo;ll stop before I get going. :)\nNow we are in California. We drove up here the day after school got out. It took us quite a while to drive up, but it was a great trip. Our first stop was Oaxaca City where we met up with Toby and Lydia, two girls who did Level 1 and Level 2 with us who now serve in Oaxaca City. So awesome that they came and went sight seeing with us at Monte Albán. The following night we ended in Mazatlán. Another friend, Nancy, (who we met on our trip last December to check out Roca Blanca) lives and serves at Calvary Chapel Maranatha Mazatlán, and she arranged for us to stay with Pastor Tony and his wife Angela for two nights. What a huge blessing that was because it gave us a day of rest after the LONG drive to get there. A couple of days later we finally made it to southern California, our final destination for this trip.\nPRAYER REQUESTS:\nWe will be working on getting our temporary residency visas while we\u0026rsquo;re here, so please pray that that all goes well That we would practice listening and speaking Spanish Financial provision to be able to go back God would continue to prepare our hearts for full time ministry in Mexico PRAISE REPORTS:\none of our biggest struggles while in school was that our kids were having such a hard time. The Lord COMPLETELY turned things around and the last two months were filled with laughter and joy and a house filled with those sounds from Jonny and Noah and their friends. Praise the Lord for that!!! Jon and I also were able to build some amazing relationships with people and it was really tough to say \u0026ldquo;see you later\u0026rdquo;. We thank the Lord that He gave us those friendships that I know will last a lifetime. Thank you for praying for us and following our journey as we took this first step of our great adventure for JESUS! We are so excited to follow His leading into the next step.\nRomans 10:14 \u0026ldquo;How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?\u0026rdquo;\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/brechtel/brechtel/2017/11/06/terminamos-la-escuela-de-espanol-we-finished/","summary":"\u003cdiv class=\"gallery gallery-cols-1\"\u003e\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2017/11/IMG%5F9864.jpg\"\n         alt=\"IMG\\_9864\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            IMG\\_9864\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2017/11/0B609FF9-CEF6-4577-8114-50CCC0BBBAE0.jpg\"\n         alt=\"0B609FF9-CEF6-4577-8114-50CCC0BBBAE0\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            0B609FF9-CEF6-4577-8114-50CCC0BBBAE0\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2017/11/IMG%5F0324.jpg\"\n         alt=\"IMG\\_0324\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            IMG\\_0324\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2017/11/IMG%5F9589.jpg\"\n         alt=\"IMG\\_9589\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            IMG\\_9589\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2017/11/IMG%5FE9412.jpg\"\n         alt=\"IMG\\_E9412\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            IMG\\_E9412\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2017/11/IMG%5F9433.jpg\"\n         alt=\"IMG\\_9433\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            IMG\\_9433\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2017/11/IMG%5F9437.jpg\"\n         alt=\"IMG\\_9437\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            IMG\\_9437\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2017/11/IMG%5F9866-e1509846304357.jpg\"\n         alt=\"IMG\\_9866\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            IMG\\_9866\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2017/11/IMG%5F9693.jpg\"\n         alt=\"IMG\\_9693\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            IMG\\_9693\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2017/11/IMG%5F9395-e1509846603277.jpg\"\n         alt=\"IMG\\_9395\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            IMG\\_9395\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2017/11/IMG%5F9753.jpg\"\n         alt=\"IMG\\_9753\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            IMG\\_9753\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2017/11/IMG%5F9549.jpg\"\n         alt=\"IMG\\_9549\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            IMG\\_9549\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2017/11/IMG%5F9898.jpg\"\n         alt=\"IMG\\_9898\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            IMG\\_9898\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2017/11/IMG%5F9988.jpg\"\n         alt=\"IMG\\_9988\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            IMG\\_9988\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHi family and friends!  We did it!!!  We graduated from Roca Blanca Spanish School on October 20.  What a crazy ride that was\u0026hellip;filled with ups and downs, good and bad, trials and triumphs.  But what an experience for us to learn to lean more on the Lord through all of those times.  Even more so, what a PRIVILEGE to be called by the Lord to serve Him.  Machaela finished strong in Level 1, and Jon and I really got into a great routine as we finished Level 4.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Terminamos La Escuela de Español!!!  We finished!"},{"content":" IMG\\_7975 IMG\\_8086 IMG\\_8325 IMG\\_8925 IMG\\_8780 IMG\\_8856 We have now been living in Cacalote, Oaxaca, Mexico for just over 6 months. Today (September 4), Jon and I began LEVEL 4 of Spanish School. This will be our final level of school and we will be finishing October 20! Wow, time has flown by!!!\nIt\u0026rsquo;s been a while since our last update and we are really sorry about not being better about it. Our week-long trip to California in June was a huge blessing. We got to see our beautiful niece marry her amazing husband, and spend time with family and friends. Jonny and Noah came back to Mexico with renewed spirits after going through some trials down here. Praise the Lord for that! Since our return from California, Jonny and Noah finished 4th grade, and Jon and I finished Level 3.\nWe had 3 weeks off after Level 3 and it was a time of many exciting things. I was invited to the women\u0026rsquo;s bible study at the local church and have been enjoying going each Friday afternoon. I have had to really put what I\u0026rsquo;ve learned into practice in order to understand and somewhat communicate with the ladies. It\u0026rsquo;s a total bonus that I\u0026rsquo;m building friendships with a few of the women. God knows our hearts, our needs, and our desires!\nWe also had some special visitors for a few days. Our oldest son, Austin, and his girlfriend, McKenna, flew down to spend some time with us. It was such a great time of being together and showing them how and where we live, along with doing a little bit of exploring with them. (Jon even got the opportunity to witness to a homeless man with our friend Joe.) Their visit was short but it was an answer to prayer that they were able to come see us.\nAnd a week ago we got another visitor\u0026hellip;our niece Machaela. She will be living with us for the rest of our time here and attending the Spanish School. She has a calling to serve in a deaf ministry in Guatemala, so this was the perfect option for her to do Level 1 and get some great education in learning the language. She\u0026rsquo;s a neat addition to our house and we are so excited to be on this journey together for the next 7 weeks\u0026hellip;taking this step in learning the language so we can serve our Lord where He has called each of us.\nPRAYER REQUESTS:\n*Please pray for direction for our next steps following language school\u0026hellip;location, financial provisions, what it is that the Lord would have us do here in Mexico to serve Him\n*That we would do well in school, both Jon and I, the boys, and Machaela\n*That we would stay healthy for the rest of our time here. We had a lot of health things go on during the last level of school and it was tough to play catch up after sick days, but the Lord TOTALLY got us through!\nPRAISE REPORTS: * We\u0026rsquo;ve been healthy for the last few weeks\n*That we\u0026rsquo;ve been able to start using our Spanish more often during these 3 weeks of down time from school. (Pray that we continue to do so as often as possible)\n*All of us had a GREAT first day of school today! Starting on an upbeat note, covered in prayer is the best feeling!!!\nThank you for taking the time to read this! We really appreciate all of your prayers and support. Little texts, emails, or Facebook messages come just when our hearts need a little encouragement. We thank the Lord for those. God is so good! And as always, if you have any specific prayer requests that you would like for us to pray, send us an email or text.\nJoshua 1:9 \u0026ldquo;Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you WHEREVER you go.\u0026rdquo;\nJon, Allison, Jonny and Noah\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/brechtel/brechtel/2017/09/04/level-4-here-we-come/","summary":"\u003cdiv class=\"gallery gallery-cols-1\"\u003e\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2017/09/IMG%5F7975.jpg\"\n         alt=\"IMG\\_7975\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            IMG\\_7975\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2017/09/IMG%5F8086-e1504561827316.jpg\"\n         alt=\"IMG\\_8086\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            IMG\\_8086\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2017/09/IMG%5F8325-e1504561031400.jpg\"\n         alt=\"IMG\\_8325\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            IMG\\_8325\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2017/09/IMG%5F8925-e1504560669533.jpg\"\n         alt=\"IMG\\_8925\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            IMG\\_8925\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2017/09/IMG%5F8780-1-e1504560542671.jpg\"\n         alt=\"IMG\\_8780\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            IMG\\_8780\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003cfigure\u003e\n    \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/brechtel/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2017/09/IMG%5F8856.jpg\"\n         alt=\"IMG\\_8856\"/\u003e \u003cfigcaption\u003e\n            IMG\\_8856\n        \u003c/figcaption\u003e\n\u003c/figure\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWe have now been living in Cacalote, Oaxaca, Mexico for just over 6 months.  Today (September 4), Jon and I began LEVEL 4 of Spanish School.  This will be our final level of school and we will be finishing October 20!  Wow, time has flown by!!!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt\u0026rsquo;s been a while since our last update and we are really sorry about not being better about it.  Our week-long trip to California in June was a huge blessing.  We got to see our beautiful niece marry her amazing husband, and spend time with family and friends.  Jonny and Noah came back to Mexico with renewed spirits after going through some trials down here.  Praise the Lord for that!  Since our return from California, Jonny and Noah finished 4th grade, and Jon and I finished Level 3.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Level 4, Here We Come!!"},{"content":"Hey everyone! It\u0026rsquo;s been a long time since we last sent out an update. Many things have been going on but I\u0026rsquo;m going to keep this first post super short, so expect a long one next time. ;)\nWe will be visiting California June 15-23, so we\u0026rsquo;re hoping we can see some of you while we\u0026rsquo;re there, even though it\u0026rsquo;s a short trip. We will be going to our niece\u0026rsquo;s wedding on the 17th and we\u0026rsquo;re super excited to spend that time with our family.\nJon and I are finishing up Level 2 of Spanish school tomorrow. We can\u0026rsquo;t believe we\u0026rsquo;ve already been down here for almost 4 months. The boys are doing well, making some good friends at the school with the local kids.\nQuick prayer requests: pray that Jon and I would finish this level well. We have 5 tests to take tomorrow because we are leaving 2 days before the session ends. (Grateful that they are allowing us to take a couple of the test early). Pray for safe travels as we head to California. Please pray that we would be able to get the pink slip to our car and any other documentation that is needed in order for Jon to drive back down next week.\nPraise reports: through some trials we\u0026rsquo;ve had, we have drawn closer to the Lord and to each other. Praise the Lord for that because we know how easily we can lose sight of what warfare is: an attack from Satan. God is so amazing!!!\nLike I said\u0026hellip;we\u0026rsquo;ll be updating on more things that we have going on in our next blog. Until then, thank you all for lifting us up in prayer as we continue to study Spanish. We have such a desire to share the Lord with the people in Mexico and we really feel ourselves getting more comfortable and PREPARED! Your prayers help us get through! We thank God for all of you.\nGod Bless!\nJon, Allison, Jonny, Noah\n","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/brechtel/brechtel/2017/06/14/welcome-to-our-new-blog/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHey everyone!  It\u0026rsquo;s been a long time since we last sent out an update.  Many things have been going on but I\u0026rsquo;m going to keep this first post super short, so expect a long one next time.  ;)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe will be visiting California June 15-23, so we\u0026rsquo;re hoping we can see some of you while we\u0026rsquo;re there, even though it\u0026rsquo;s a short trip.  We will be going to our niece\u0026rsquo;s wedding on the 17th and we\u0026rsquo;re super excited to spend that time with our family.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Welcome to our new blog!!!"},{"content":"","permalink":"https://archive.sgwm.com/brechtel/brechtel/sample-page/","summary":"","title":"Our Story"}]