In 2020, during the global pandemic, as our daughter was recovering from brain surgery (another testimony for another day), the Lord began to speak to us about buying property and building a ministry base. He said we would be preparing the table for those he would bring.
We began walking all the neighborhoods near the prison looking at property, found a place, and purchased it with money God miraculously provided. We had money left over to build, so we began the process of looking for a builder.
There are a lot of things that are hard in a foreign land with a foreign language. Finding and working with a builder can be one of them. We had several recommendations, but as we met with each one it didn't seem to fit the vision we had. We weren't building our dream home. We were building a ministry base for the Lord.
We prayed and felt to keep looking. One morning a few months later as our team was out buying metal to fix the wall on our property they came across an architect's office. They began chatting with the team there. They came out to the property, drew up plans, and we could feel from the Lord that this was who He had for us.
We began sharing what we did, our vision for the base, and how it was our desire to do things the correct way and not pay bribes, even if we had to wait much longer. This baffled the team. They would ask us a lot of questions about our lives. They would listen intently and you could tell that they were coming into contact with a Kingdom, the Kingdom of God. They were both curious and confused.
Jon, our base leader, sat with them for hours explaining his convictions and why we did things the way we did. God was beginning to move in them, but it would be several years before we really could see the impact of those conversations.
After the construction of the first half of the base we didn't hear from them for two years. We then felt it was time to reach back out to them about constructing the other half of the base. When we reconnected, they shared with us that because of our conversations, the Lord had convicted them that they needed to get married. So had gotten married. That greatly encouraged us.
For the next few months they came to our gatherings. We shared with them about the kingdom of God, about the gospel, and about Jesus. This family has everything: good jobs, money, a beautiful home and cars. However, you could see their hunger for God.
We began praying for them. The wife, who is the architect, was hungry for the Lord, but her husband had a hard time being present and focused. After the construction finished in August of 2024, we didn't hear from them for a few months. Then just a few weeks ago we felt to put them on our prayer list and start praying for them. We didn't know, but they were going through a very hard time.
Then they came by on a Friday night when we have family dinners. Something had changed dramatically. The husband began to tell us that he had an encounter with the Holy Spirit. He knew he needed more of God and to surrender control to Him. He had a hunger for God we had not seen in him before. It was like talking to a different person.
Since then, they have been coming consistently to our gatherings. They have been moved by the Lord in wanting to give back to him and they are praying about how to move forward in that; giving God everything and trusting him to lead them. They have also started to invite their whole family, sisters, brothers, and even their mother has been coming to gather with us. It's such a beautiful reminder to us that we don't know who God is leading us to.
We don't know who is ready..... but God does, and we just need to be led by him. Will you pray with us for Victor Hugo and Brenda and their precious family that God would lead and guide them as they give Him their whole lives. He is worthy of it all.