July & August, 2024
Dear Fellow Laborer in The Lord,
As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the Lord is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him. Ps. 18:30
As I sit down to write this letter to you, I am reminded of this verse. I have seen where the Lord has brought my family and me through. As I always try to emphasize when presenting our testimony and ministry to churches, if I had planned a million times what the Lord has done to get us here, I would not have gotten it right once. I am grateful for this because it taught me to depend on God through faith, not just the evidence before me, like Joshua and the Gibeonites. The Lord has provided for our family with ninety- six percent of our support! He has been so amazing to us! The Lord has blessed us by allowing us to do everything right and lawfully regarding my wife's immigration paperwork. I stated several times as, I presented to churches that we have done the paperwork correctly, which is the long way. We started my wife’s immigration paperwork in 2014 after our wedding. She was denied three times the visa to come to the States on a visitor’s visa because she knew English well. This was over a year and a half time. After this happened, we started the longer process of bringing her here through marriage, which is way more expensive and more intense and time-consuming. After two and a half years of paperwork, my wife and oldest daughter, Naya, could come to the States to live while my wife worked on her residency paperwork (only the permission to live and work here in the States). This paperwork has covered her for the past few years after going through temporary permanent residency and permanent residency. The Lord has shown his hand throughout this entire process. As we have been getting reared up to go to Mexico in September, we have taken extra caution to ensure all our paperwork from wills, insurance, and legal documents are in order. We knew my wife qualified for American citizenship for a few years now, but we have been on deputation. When talking to our Pastor about our departure and before heading to our exit interview at BIMI, our Pastor, seeing this information, believes it is wise for us to get my wife's citizenship. This would add to the level of protection for her, as would any other US citizen if something were to happen in the world. According to her residency paperwork, she could not be outside the States for more than one hundred and eighty days. If she did so, her residency paperwork would be void. This has added to our situation, and our Pastor has advised us to get the citizenship done before our departure. We have already filed and have started the process. Mariana has already gone for her biometric appointment. This process will take a few months till she has her test and oath ceremony.
Update on our ministry:
We went to BIMI on August 28th and had a successful exit interview. We have all our documentation in this area in order and ready. I have included a picture of our missionary IDs, which were given to us below. The Lord has opened various doors for us. We have been able to get our housing situation in order. The Lord has opened the opportunity to buy a piece of land outside of Monterrey, where we will build a house for a fraction of the cost of buying. We already have the land under contract and will give the down payment on the land on September 25th. The Lord has allowed us to get equity from our house in the States to buy the land and build a portion of the house. The Lord has given through his people for us to get a home, which has been an enormous blessing. As we work on paperwork, our family can still move items and take some more survey trips to Mexico. We ask for your prayers for wisdom as we move forward.
During our time here, we are able to stay busy visiting churches near home and serving at our local church and ministries. We were able to help start a Spanish service at a sister church near our house. Lord willing, we will help that ministry grow more.
Our youngest daughter, Alya, was privileged to have her seventh birthday in July! She wanted everyone to know that she said, “Thank you” for the cards and birthday wishes sent her way!
In the past few months, we have been able to help in our fair booth outreach and were able to share the gospel with serval people. We know that the fruit of this ministry will be seen in eternity. We are very grateful for your prayers and financial support. We pray for you all and are privileged to have you as partners in the work of the Lord. We want to stay faithful until Our Lord and Savior returns for us. We know His ways are always best, even though we believe things should be different, so we walk by faith, not sight!
Your Partner in the Lord,
Gavino Hernandez
Isa. 6:8
