God is Growing His Church in Mexico
Dawn and I are grateful that we are connected to a larger mission that works in many cities in Mexico and beyond. You might remember that we began our ministry with Mission to the World (MTW) in Mexico City back in 1990. That was also the year that our oldest son, David Jr. was born. As we pray and work towards the growth of the church, and for changed lives it’s exciting to be able to visit and encourage our missionaries and to see all the Lord is doing through them. One of the cities we recently visited was Guadalajara.
Precious Servants & Friends
Guadalajara is a beautiful city with many needs for the gospel. MTW missionaries have been working in this great city for more than 20 years. It gave Dawn and me great joy to spend some time with Matt and Esta Jesch, who arrived in Guadalajara about three years ago. They are wonderful servants of the Lord, who we’ve grown to love as we’ve gotten to know them. They actually flew out to support us when our daughter, Hannah died.
Matt and Esta have many gifts and they have amazing hearts to work alongside our churches to reach out and come alongside people in need. This includes job training and mercy ministries. We love being with them, they are some of our favorite people.
Church Growth in Acapulco & Guadalajara
One of MTW’s missionaries who has had the most success not only in Mexico, but in all of Latin America is Kenton Wood. Kenton’s parents were missionaries when he was a child. They served in the Acapulco area. Unfortunately, when Kenton was still young both of his parents were tragically killed in an airplane accident. Even with this tremendous tragedy, and challenge Kenton’s love for Mexico and the people of Mexico has not waned.
He planted a church in Acapulco in the 80’s. Then in the mid-90’s he moved to Guadalajara to begin his church planting work with his wife, Karen. The church, Rey de Reyes has grown to 900, and they have started four other churches in Guadalajara and other cities in Mexico.
Kenton has experienced some challenges in his life, but he’s been resilient and continued to serve faithfully. Not only did he lose his parents when he was young, but his wife, Karen passed away about 5 years ago. She had cancer. The Lord has sustained Kenton and his family through all these trials.
Dawn and I were so encouraged to share a meal with Kenton and his lovely wife, Adriana who now serves alongside him in the church, Rey de Reyes. God is so good, and takes care of His children. First we visited the church, and saw all the various ministries and how the Lord is using them. It brought us joy to see the vision and creativity for reaching the lost with the good news of Christ.
I give thanks for all that the Lord is doing in Guadalajara. Pray for the church to grow and that even more churches will be started, even more lives will be transformed by the gospel. We pray that we can replicate more churches and healthy churches throughout Mexico and beyond!
In His Loving Grip, Dave
DiasoLifeOnTheBorder.org
