Dear Friends and Family,
Receive affectionate greetings in this beautiful thanksgiving month where we can publicly thank God for so many blessings in our lives. Please let us share with you some of the exciting events that my husband and I were able to be involved in throughout this fall. We invite you to praise the Lord together with us through this ministry update of us mobilizing more people to be part of what and how our Lord Jesus wants to continue to engage Friends in missions around the world.
AMANA
After three years, on October 6-9, the pastors and leaders of Hispanic Friends Churches reunited in person for the first time at the Hispanic Friends Conference in Chicago, IL! Edwin and I are very happy that we have been made part of the organization of this great and beautiful event. AMANA stands for Ministerial Alliance of Friends of North America. This conference was a great blessing for all of us who were able to attend. Meeting again with other Hispanic pastors and Friends leaders was uplifting for everyone. The attendance was about 120 people and there was representation from various states of the country from the west to the east and from Mexico.
We are grateful that we were given the opportunity to have a specific time to share with all of them the goal of EFM and about VM32. Most of those who were present were not very aware of these two huge visions of God, and it was very encouraging to all who heard the details. Praise God!
Something outstanding and exciting for me at the conference, was being able to meet three young people who approached us to let us know about their strong feeling to explore the possibility of being future missionaries! Talking with these three young Hispanics filled my heart with great hope and I see how God is already calling and raising up more missionaries among Latinos. Glory to God!!
We praise the Lord that during this conference we were able to experience Psalm 133, “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! … For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore”.
Lastly, we want to thank God for our brothers and sisters of the Friends Church in Chicago. Despite not being a large congregation, they made great efforts to host this conference and offered hospitality with great quality and love. May God bless you greatly!
Business as Missions- Small Business Development Training
We are thankful that God allowed an important opportunity to have been able to hold a four-day intensive of Small Business Development training in Aguascalientes, Mexico for pastors and new church planters from Friends of Central Mexico Yearly Meeting. We thank God for the hearts of EFM leaders to want to continue supporting the Friends of Mexico in their church planting efforts. We are thankful that God has allowed a partnership with Global Disciples to make this training possible with Friends in Mexico. The trainees, about 25 people, came from several cities in Mexico. We were inspired by their commitment and engagement in this intensive four-day training. Certainly, this training changed the mentality of the trainees regarding church planting and how a business can be a very good tool from God to reach many more for Christ and to have a financial income to support their families.
We had a very exciting time at the closing celebration service as we prayed for the new church planters who are preparing to go out into the field to let more people know about Christ through starting new Friends works.
We would like to thank our good friends and leaders Trent Jacks from the Mid-America Yearly Meeting and Jeff Davis from Friends Southwest, who left their families and jobs for a whole week to support us in this training and have made a very strong and special impact in the kingdom of God.
EFC-MAYM Friends Women 2022 Retreat: “He Tells Me I am His Own”
What did I know that God would show me again that he loves me so much! After having a busy summer of many ministry trips around North America, he had such a special time prepared for me by reminding me that “I am his own”. The invitation to be part of the Mid- America Friends Women’s Retreat was very unexpected! Participating in this women’s retreat was not on my calendar, but it was on God’s, because, as I mentioned, he loves me so much! I am so grateful and blessed for the opportunity to have had this experience and be able to meet with women whom I admire and love. It was very motivating for my life, to feel once again the affection from the Friends Women of WFC-MAYM who for so many years have blessed me with their love, prayers, and support. Many thanks to the beautiful women, full of grace and love, from Chandler Friends Church for having adopted me that weekend and making me feel a part of their group; it made my experience even more pleasant and blessed.
International Friends Church Multiplication Conference 2022
The online International Friends Multiplication Conference took place in November, and we are grateful for the opportunity to participate a bit in promoting this event among Hispanic Friends. Although we did not get the maximum response in participation that we expected from the Spanish-speaking and Latin American churches this time, it was of great value and edification for those of us who were able to participate and obtain information and tools to continue our function as a church of Jesus Christ to spread the gospel by multiplying him in many others.
We are grateful for the efforts of leaders who worked so hard to put it all together and bring together the important speakers and teachers to share. We appreciate and acknowledge their tremendous work and pray that all the workshops and teachings that we now have available can be shared and many more pastors, leaders, missionaries, and church planters can use these to be more effective in multiplication.
Prayer Requests:
- That God may continue to guide us, and may his Spirit cover us with his grace and wisdom to effectively carry out our mobilization ministry, and may many more may be trained and sent.
- That God would open more doors for us at Yearly Meetings, churches, and with people individually to be able to raise more prayer and financial support as we go out on deputation early next year.
Thank you very much for your time in reading this letter and have a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration. To God always be all the honor and glory!
With Thanksgiving Serving Him,
Maria Giron
EFM Missions Mobilizer