Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Envision El Salvador!

Hello Everyone!

We wanted to stop by and let you know what are the latest news at our Envision Site.

The fall tour went very well, we had the chance to visit 15 churches total and share about what God is doing through our ministry here. We thank God for his care to us (Kevin and my family) through all the people that were in charge of the different events at churches and the ones we had the privilege to be hosted by at their own houses, it was awesome and we were very well taken care. Big Thanks to all of those families!

La Fuente:

We had a very good year at La Fuente. It’s always hard to keep a good percentage of the kids registered in the program through out the year, but this year we ended up with at least 85% of the kids that started to come to the program since the beginning of the year, so Praise God for that! 

A new phase is starting in 2018. As of the end of this year, the program was taking place at a public school that we partner with but we were only allowed to do the program twice a week there. Due to the results/change we’ve seen in the life of the youth we work with, God has led us to the decision of running La Fuente every day and for that to happen we needed a new place. For now we are going to use our ministry center but, we are looking for a house to rent in one of the neighborhoods where our youth live so we could be closer to them every day. We had the privilege to get to know about one of our boys expressing to one of our staff members the following statement: “Thanks to the program I’m not a gang member now”, that means a lot to us and we want to keep hearing this type of stories from these kids, not for our own glory but for God’s glory because he is the one who makes these things happen, and that’s why we believe that God wants us to invest more in these kids starting 2018. Not even needed to say that La Fuente budget is going to go up for sure, as a matter of fact because of everything that is provided for the kids at the program the budget will increase 4 times +. We only have a few fish and a few peaces of bread, but we are excited to see how God will multiply that and finally have enough to cover all the expenses of the program. If you want to be a means for God to multiply our resources, you’re more than welcome to, through giving to our Envision El Salvador Broken acc at:  https://secure.cmalliance.org/give/ . If you need instructions in how to give, please feel free to ask at escalantet@weareenvision.com

La Fuente FC:

This is the soccer ministry that the Lord allowed us to start this year and it has been so awesome to see how God backs up his children when they are obedient. We started this project literally out of scratch with only a few coaching old items and a couple of coaches that never coached soccer before in their life but God was faithful one more time and provided not only coaching equipment but training for the coaches in charge of the team. This project is definitely a testimony of faith. Through this ministry we have been able to relate more and more to the boys from La Fuente and that way be able to influence them with Christ, which at the end of the day that’s what matters the most. It’s been also nice to see how the team had grown in their “futbol” level, not only as individuals but also in the collective. This year was a great experience and we know that next year will be even better if we keep doing what God wants us to do, so we’re going with everything!

Interns house project:

Thanks to the Lord we’ll be signing the purchase contract for the interns house in January, the loan was approved by the ADF and now we are just waiting for the transfer to happen. 

With regards to the partners we have been looking for to help us rising up the funds to pay the loan back, we praise God that we have 3 of them already committed and will start to give this year. The partnership for this project in specific is for 5 years and people/churches/business/families are committing to give $1,500 per year. There are other ways to give too so, if you need more info about giving to this project don’t hesitate to ask, I can actually send you a copy of the written project.

Interns/Residents:

First of all say a big thanks to Tou Thao that went back home on December 18 for an indefinite period before coming back as a resident or possibly on a longer term, he is convinced that God is calling him to serve in this country. So, Praise God for that. Thanks Tou for everything you did for God here and for your heart towards the kids.

We have 2 more residents that are still in their fundraise process. We are looking forward to have them here with us.

There’s also short term interns that are going to be coming this year to serve, we praise God for them and their decision to come.

Tony sharing the sermon at First 

Alliance Great Falls, MT

Hang out time with our friends from New City in Lexington, KY

Co-leading worship at Missoula 

Alliance Church during Sunday service

Visiting with our friends from Alliance Bible Fellowship, NC

Kevin and Tony sharing and bringing updates to our friends 

from Gospel  Alliance Church, PA

Congregation praying for Envision El Salvador at 

Derwood Alliance Church, MD

Getting to  know down town Chicago during visit 

to First Hmong Alliance in Aurora, IL

Kevin and Tony sharing about Envision El Salvador for 

the first time at Community Heights Alliance in Newton, IA

Kevin sharing updates about our ministry at Maranatha Bible Chapel in Horse Heads, NY

Prayer requests:

• For good rest, as all our staff are taking an end of the year break from December 22 till January 2nd. Laura Rodriguez is actually now in Great Falls, MT to spend the holidays with family.
• For our future residents and interns that are still in the fundraise process. That God will provide the right partners for them to raise all the money that is needed.
• For all the teams that are already schedule for this next year.
• For God’s blessing to our future projects, that he will make them happen
• For all of our supporters, that God will always provide for all of their needs and bless them abundantly as they bless us so much through their support in different ways.

May you have a wonderful end of the year, enjoy with family and friends and remember always to focus in the actual meaning of this season our lord Jesus Christ, God bless you all!

Tony Escalante

Site Coordinator