As one month quickly turns into the next month and one year into the next, we find ourselves once again at the doorsteps of another CEC school term, after a one-year hiatus, looking forward to a group of 12 disciples, looking forward for Monday to arrive.
Since my last update, we finished off the year with two major events - one being hosting Millar College of the Bible (Pambrun, SK campus), where ten students spent a week and a half here at CEC in a cross-cultural missions module. A number of hours were spent in the classroom with various teachers looking at the challenges and realities of what cross-cultural missions look like. We also spent time off-site at some local churches and ministries, getting a small taste of what it looks like to be and interact in a cross-cultural setting, hearing from those on the ground, and experiencing some of the challenges that one faces in a new culture and a different language than one's own.
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| The Millar group of students on one of their off-site ministry experiences. |
From there, in mid-November, we hosted our yearly fall conference where one of our regular adjunct teachers, Beto Ramirez, came in and shared about keeping ourselves grounded in Christ through His Word amidst a society that is increasingly turning away from Biblical principals and a Biblical worldview. About 25 people from the area, including some of our alumni, spent a couple of days with us.
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| CEC Conference - Nov/25 |
These events capped off a unique year, where we didn't have our regular course in January, but one full of great opportunities such as these, and many others both on and offsite. Perhaps what has stuck out the most is how we were able to see firsthand not only the need but also the hunger for God's Word, not just with our on-site programming, but especially as we had more time to invest offsite. As December rolled around, we were pleasantly surprised to see a number of applications roll in for this year's program, two of which came from one of the churches we first made contact with this last September, when Guillermo and myself took our trip down south. That church in particular expressed a deep interest in us returning to their area to spend more time teaching in the future.
By the time Christmas rolled around, we already had eight students registered, probably the earliest we have ever had such a large number of students. Now as we get the final preparations under way, we have our 12 disciples packing their bags and planning to arrive this coming Sunday. They come from a number of different states: Sonora, Baja California, Nayarit, and Zacatecas, from places we've been working with for a long time now, and some, as I have already mentioned, from new contacts that have been recently made. It is encouraging to see the ministry of CEC grow in its reach simply because it affirms the vision for ministry that God has placed on our hearts to do. As we've learned from 2025, our plans may not play out as we hope they would, but we can still rest in God's leading in our lives and in this ministry as we step into this new year, and this new season.
So, we ask for your prayers for these coming 15 weeks, our final day being May 1st. 12 students, 15 weeks, many opportunities (and challenges!) await us.
- Pray for our team as we navigate everything from the details to the bigger situations we will face in the coming days.
- Pray for myself as I get back into teaching some of these materials that have been sitting on the shelf for a couple of years.
- Pray also for each one of the students, that they would be receptive to God's working in their lives over these next months.
