Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Cardona´s Christmas Letter 2013

“ and you will call his name, Jesus!” Matthew 1:27
With all of our hearts we send you a loving Christmas greeting full of the confidence that many people in Colombia and Canada will see the manger and call on Jesus as their Saviour and their Lord!
We have spent the last two months visiting churches in Canada. We are sorry that the time wasn’t sufficient to visit all the churches and all the people who support us, but thanks be to God that we were able to visit almost all of those in BC. We reconnected with the believers and with the churches, which has been a great blessing—now we can pray better for you. How much we appreciate having brothers and sisters and churches supporting our ministry. Thank you to everyone who received us with so much love. Our “tank” has been filled with the grace to be able to serve faithfully in the year to come.
We end this year surprised by the blessings of God.
Above all, the blessing of celebrating our first 25 years of marriage and ministry! Where has all this time gone? It seems like it was only yesterday that we began our family and our first church, El Redil. We never get tired of thanking the Lord for His great blessing to us, especially because, in His love, He has surrounded us with faithful and inspiring servants of God.
Our children, now entering adult life, are doing well. Tania is the traveler. She has discovered that she learns from, and really enjoys, traveling. This last year she has spent more than 8 months away from home working as a photographer, learning Portugese, and becoming familiar with various countries in South America. We admire her work ethic and ability to save so that she can make these dreams a reality. Daniel, about to graduate as a Sound Engineer (Acoustic), is growing a lot as a person, more responsible and serious, serving in the church and happy in his relationship with his first girlfriend, Sara. God bless our children. We live, happy for them, and thankful to God for our marriage and our family.
The new church, El Redil South, continues to grow (more than 200 now!), as do the pastores in training, Jairo and Jennifer. Thanks be to God! The El Redil churches (6 in total) are more and more committed to the work of planting churches (three projects) and to missions. In a few days we will send, for the first time, a group of 13 people into the Amazon Rainforest (Brazilian territory)  to serve among the Ticuna Indians. Along with the humanitarian work we look after (the street children in El Pacífico, the centre for pregnant teens), we continue  with our other responsibilities such as teaching in the Seminary, writing and mobilizing our churches in evangelism. This year in particular we give thanks to God for the new home of El Redil South. This is the first time an evangelical Christian church has had a permanent home in a commercial center in Medellín. This gives us new opportunities such as, for example, to continue with the “Living English” (Vive el Inglés) program through which we serve the community and create means to present the Gospel to new friends.
This Christmas please remember us in your prayers.
1.       With the departure of the Webbs, we are now the only Fellowship International missionaries in Colombia. Pray that God will give us strength and the resources so that His work will continue, so that the Colombian churches will keep planting more churches and begin to send crosscultural missionaries. Please pray that God will provide for our support. Over the last two years we have carried a deficit of 10%. May God be glorified, as He has been until now, through the provision of abundant resources for the continuing of His work in Colombia.
2.       For the English program, “Living English,” now expanded to include inviting Canadian couples who want to come for one or two months to Medellín to make friends through teaching basic English. This new initiative is based on the fact that teaching English (or helping others practice their English) has been shown to be an effective means of preparing the ground before evangelization and planting a new church. Pray too that the Lord will provide the funds to distribute bilingual New Testaments.  
3.       Pray for our great challenge of moving the El Redil churches toward missionary work. This year we have begun a bimonthly prayer bulletin and a week of missions training for all our leaders. May our Lord raise up a generation of servants called to carry the Word cross culturally.
4.       Pray for the three new church-planting projects: Poblado (Populated), Oriente (East, La Ceja) and Los Colores (The Colours).
5.       Thank you for praying for our family. Pray that God will guard us in the midst of the stresses and demands of our busy schedule. Pray that our children will grow closer and closer to Jesus every day so that they will love Him and serve Him with all their hearts.

Many thanks for being our partners in the work of God.
God bless you richly this Christmas, Diego and Claudia. 

Our first cross cultural short mission trip to Amazon Jungle, Ticuna Tribe.



Praise the Lord, we got a new building for the last church plant: El Redil del Sur, Sheepfold of South.



Friday, February 15, 2013

Celebrating God's faithfulness! First anniversary of newest church, El Redil del Sur, Sabaneta



Project 2013: You can help the Colombia church to send missionaries


Exploring missionary opportunities in Amazon





Diego and Claudia Cardona, Colombia


Prayer requests for the Colombian Field, 2013

Because “we live by faith, not by sight!”.

1.     By the grace of God, people of Colombia need to understand the gospel as it is presented in the Bible.

2.     Colombian churches need to get involved in sending missionaries and workers abroad.

3.     Four churches in Cartagena need to strengthen a church planting model for future development.

4.     The new work of Sabaneta, El Redil del Sur – 20 minutes from Medellin-, needs a permanent building that could cost 400,000 dollars.

5.     Young couples, like Sneyder and Yuliana, are starting seminary. They need God’s leading for their future ministry and the needed resources to fulfill their calling.

6.     New pastors, like Jairo and Jeniffer/ Phil and Darlina / Bill Enrique and Maria/ Gustavo and Patricia/ Jonathan and Zarina, need protection and encouragement as they start their challenged ministry in areas where we are planting new churches.

7.     Medellin, with its 3.5 million people and around 300 churches, has only one seminary to professionally train pastors and missionaries. That dear institution is struggling for finances and teachers.

8.     Ministries for children and youth are weak in Colombia, our pastors and missionaries need to learn and find new ways to reach out to them in a creative and passionate way.

9.     Writing books and articles is a ministry that has just started in our Colombian churches. God has blessed these first publications. We need encouragement, discipline, more training and resources to see this new avenue of ministry to bring more glory to our Lord through the salvation of many.

10.  There are several locations in Medellin, as well as in all the Colombian territory that are still without Christian witness. We need direction from God to select new areas for which we should start praying and where we should work. We need to select the right couples and individuals to go those places to do missionary work and church planting.

 
I'll say yes, Lord, yes
To your will and to your way
I'll say yes, Lord, yes
I will trust you and obey
When your Spirit speaks to me
With my whole heart I'll agree
And my answer will be yes, Lord, yes