January, 2014 Update

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We trust you all had a wonderful Christmas as you contemplated our Lord’s birth, and that this New Year of 2014 will hold showers of blessings for you and your family!

As we look back over 2013, although it was a difficult year for us, there is much to praise the Lord for, especially His faithfulness.  We are grateful for a home in St. Thomas, a job for Roxanne, our kids’ Canadian citizenship, new friends, a good church which we have joined, new ministry opportunities unfolding, and special times with family.  And even our cat!  The Lord is good!

I, Roxanne, was challenged at the end of 2012 to read through the Bible in chronological order over 2013.  I took the challenge and was truly blessed by His Word this year, finishing up with the last chapters with the turn to 2014.  I encourage you all to take up the challenge for this year.  Robert is joining me as we take on the challenge together this year.  “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16, 17)

As we look forward to 2014, we do so with excitement, knowing that God has a plan for us here in Canada.  He is faithful and true to His promises. Be watching out for our next Grego Gazette as His plan unfolds!

“The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people.  Amen.”  (Rev. 22:21)

With love and thankfulness,

Robert, Roxanne, David, and Julianna

Sept. - Oct. 2013 Update

   Long awaited answers to prayer…

-  Roxanne has a full time job!  After only a month of searching, Roxanne was hired as a claims support specialist at Integrated Warranty Systems, a Christian family owned business in downtown London, Ontario. She enjoys the job and her coworkers very much. We are so thankful for the Lord’s provision.

-  David and Julianna are Canadian citizens! Yes, at long last, we have been informed that our children have been granted Canadian citizenship! We are just waiting for the certificate to come in the mail so that they can get their passports.  What an answer to prayer! Thank you, Lord!

   Prayer points…

-  Although Roxanne has a job now, she doesn’t make enough to cover all of our expenses. Pray for a steady flow of translation jobs for Robert (he has three currently, which will keep him busy for a month or more) and preaching or teaching opportunities to make up the difference. Our hope was that Robert could be a certified Walk Thru The Bible instructor by now, and be earning an income that way. Unfortunately, the training he was supposed to receive last month was postponed until the spring.

-  Juli has adapted very well to life in Canada. David, however, struggles a lot with the culture, school, looming winter weather, and his walk with God. Please keep him in your prayers privately.

-  Robert’s uncle Richard passed away last month at the age of 62. He will be greatly missed. Please remember his children and his only surviving sibling, Robert’s dad, in your prayers. Robert will be going at the end of this month (on a steal-deal ticket!) to spend a few days with his father in Arizona. It’s time for him to leave the country again anyway.

In these hard times, the one thing that God keeps hammering into us is the need to trust Him completely. He is sovereign. Join us in praising Him, that through the good and the bad, He is faithful and is always with us. Praise His wonderful Name!

Clinging to His hand,

Robert, Roxanne, David, and Julianna

August - September, 2013 Update

We did it!  Yet another move.  We’re getting to be pros at this! We are very happy with our new rental home in St. Thomas.  The kids have started at their new schools and are very motivated.  David had football camp before school even began and was chosen as the team’s running back, without ever having played the game!  We have to drive him to school as the one best suited for him is on the other side of town (only a 10 min. drive!)  He looks forward to sports and automotive shop the most.

Between our move and the first week of school, we had our first guests in our new house.  Robert’s sister, Fiorella, and nephew, Alexander (18) came to visit us for a few days from Oklahoma City.  We took them to see Niagara Falls, Port Stanley on Lake Erie (20 min. from St. Thomas!)  It was a short but great visit.

Roxanne is pounding the pavement in search of a job now.  Robert, meanwhile, is studying the precourse material for an intensive training at the end of the month with Walk Through The Bible. Once he becomes a certified instructor, he will be able to give weekend seminars in churches throughout Ontario and receive a portion of the proceeds from the enrollment.  We urgently need an income as we now have greater expenses with the rent and utilities fees we didn’t have before. Pray that Roxanne will find a job quickly and that Robert will be able to book at least one or two seminars each month.  If you would like to contribute a one-time gift towards the cost of his training, you can do so through LAM. We need to pay for his training (US$825) this month.

We long for a church where all four of us will find our niche, where we will be blessed and be a blessing.  Pray for the Lord to quickly lead us to a church where we will feel at home.

We are very grateful to all of you, our many friends and dear family members, for your prayers and support.  We cannot manage without you!  We anticipate great adventures in this new place.  The Lord is indeed good to us!

Robert, Roxanne, David, and Julianna

Summer 2013 Update

March - July, 2013

It’s been a while since we’ve written. Hard to write when things are so uncertain. It’s been a difficult school year for David amidst much prejudice. We have decided, in part for his sake and in part because of the lack of jobs here in Sarnia, to move just outside of London, Ontario, before school starts in September. Please pray that the kids will find good friends there and adjust well. Pray, too, that Roxanne will be able to find a full-time job quickly. 

Robert left the country for a while and returned to Costa Rica and Honduras for a month. He had the opportunity to preach half a dozen times, including at the 5^th anniversary of our shanty town church plant! He also got some much needed dental work done. Upon his return, for the first time, they stamped his passport at the Canadian border, so he had to leave again by the end of June. He went to visit friends in Ypsilanti, Michigan for ten days and is now back with us in Canada. We are still filling out forms and gathering documents to apply for his residency. Please pray that we can get it all together and submitted soon.

Meanwhile, we have had affronts concerning the kids’ citizenship paperwork. We were told by the Canadian government back in February to send the documents to their embassy in Guatemala, who in turn told us to send them to Mexico, who in turn brought us full circle back to submitting them in Canada. They ended up telling us to send them to Mexico, so that’s where the package has gone at long last. May we find grace and favor in the government’s eyes and may we soon have the kids’ citizenship in hand.

Roxanne has spent many weekends helping her stepmother move into a residence home. Her short term memory is getting worse and is a concern. We are thankful that we are here to help her in her time of need.

We can still receive support through the mission, which will help tide us over during this transition period. All churches have dropped their support, but there are a few individuals that continue. Our desire, once we move near London, Ontario by the end of the summer, is to encourage Hispanic pastors in the area and help strengthen their leadership (as we did in Honduras), besides reaching out evangelistically to the local “Latinos”, which number close to forty thousand! We are so grateful for your prayers for us. Our trust is in the Lord, for we know that He works all things together for our good.

Blessings and grace to you,

Robert, Roxanne, David, and Julianna

Jan - Feb 2013 Update

It seems we can’t escape it even if we wanted to (which we don’t!) God wants us in full time ministry, even here in Canada.  Though Roxanne has searched and sent out countless resumés, the Lord has not seen fit to give her full time employment.  She currently works four small part time jobs, which she enjoys, but between them, she doesn’t even make $500 a month.  Hardly enough for a family of four to live off of here up North.  Her jobs include caring for an elderly lady for two hours three times a week, repairing watches at SEARS, bookkeeping for New Horizons Church, and teaching two English classes at Lambton College one day a week.

One possible employer has been persistent in seeking her out and is anxious for her to join their staff.  SEND Int’l, a well known missionary agency, has asked her to come on board as Assistant to the Personnel Director.  They require someone with administrative skills who has had years of experience as a missionary on the field, and who can relate to and help their missionaries overseas.  This is a ministry position which requires raising financial support.

Robert, on the other hand, has been told by two separate people that he is the answer to their prayers for a Latino pastor, who could help reach the migrant workers and local Hispanics in Sarnia and the surrounding area.  The woman pastor of the Hispanic congregation at New Horizons Community Church is eager for Robert to come on board as pastor.  Being both a woman and a Canadian has been to her disadvantage in this ministry with a target audience of mostly Mexican men.  The leader of the Association of Ministers to Migrant Workers showed her excitement regarding Robert becoming  a chaplain who can speak the language perfectly and understands the culture abundantly. There is no salary for either of these positions.  Through his involvement in these ministries, however, he can hopefully acquire a Religious Worker Visa in order to stay in the country, if he raises his own income.

We would ask that you join us in prayer concerning our ministry involvement here in Canada.  Already Roxanne has started a Bible study with some Hispanic women and Robert has made several new contacts that we hope will lead to new Hispanics being drawn into the Body of Christ.  Also, over the last several weeks, we have been meeting regularly with the members of a short term mission team that leave this week for the Dominican Republic.  We taught them some worship songs and vocabulary in Spanish.

Would you consider becoming a part of our ministry team through your prayers and financial support?  Please drop us an email to let us know.  We certainly couldn’t do this without you!

Continuing in His service,

Robert, Roxanne, David, and Julianna

Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas from the Grego household to yours! We trust your Christmas and New Year will be blessed beyond what you can even imagine! Ours was!  

Yes, just in time for Christmas, when we needed to get out of the place where we were staying the past seven months, God blessed us in an incredible way. New Horizons Church, where we have been helping out with the Hispanic ministry, decided unanimously to let us live in a rental house they have for free! No rent, no utilities to pay for six months! The majority of the people who made such a decision don’t even know us! From one day to the next, we suddenly had a place to call home. People who had never even met us, showed up on the doorstep with bags or boxes of things for our home. Bedding, towels, dishes, lamps, tables and chairs, TVs, you name it!  Their generosity has been overwhelming. We are so thankful to the Lord for His goodness to us. This has been an awesome Christmas gift!

We want to take a moment to thank all of you who have supported us over the years. We are thankful for you, too, and for the fact that God provided for us through you. If you feel led to continue supporting us, the address remains the same as found on the right side of this blog. Robert, a missionary to Canada, will continue in the ministry, reaching out to needy Hispanics right here in Sarnia through New Horizons Church, as well as other ministry in English, and working on his seminary degree. Roxanne will be helping in the ministry, too, of course, but will need to find another full time job, as the church cannot afford to pay us a salary at this time. Roxanne has been asked to do the church’s bookkeeping, which takes only a few hours a month and provides a little income.

We are excited about the adventures that the Lord has for us in the New Year!  2012 has not been an easy year for us by a long shot, but it has been rewarding. We are thankful for His faithfulness and goodness towards us, as we made the move from Honduras to Canada. Thank you for standing in the gap for us. Please continue to pray for our adjustment to life here (especially the cold weather!), for the documentation for the kids’ citizenship and Robert’s residency, and for just the right job for Roxanne.

May the Prince of Peace grant you great peace and joy throughout the Christmas season and 2013!

Robert, Roxanne, David, and Julianna

September - October 2012 Update

The kids were fascinated by their first snowfall!  Yep, November 4th there were already snow flurries.  Fall didn’t stay very long.  We barely experienced the change of the leaves to different shades of red, yellow, and orange when the winds blew them all off.  Now the trees are bare and the cold has set in.  We keep telling the kids, “You haven’t seen anything yet!  Wait until winter actually gets here!”  We are all grateful that we have had the mild summer (in our opinion!) and the fall to gradually get accustomed to the cold.

Still no jobs on the horizon.  So we continue to covet your prayers, that God would lead us to the jobs and city where we should settle.  Meanwhile, we keep busy in the ministry.  We are involved in a small, local Hispanic congregation.  Robert has preached, led Bible studies and worship, and translated for the group of mainly migrant workers.  Roxanne participates in the women’s craft group as well, getting to know the ladies and ministering to them.  Roxanne has also taken on the challenge of “directing” the children actors for the Christmas play in our English church and Julianna is participating as the main character.

David has had quite his share of challenges in high school with adjusting to the system and feeling like he has no real friends.  Please keep him in your prayers, that he might be encouraged.  On the other hand, God has done a miracle for Julianna, who was placed in grade 7, despite the fact that she is dyslexic and didn’t do grade 6.  We were told that it would take months for her to be officially diagnosed in the government school system and we don’t have the $1,500 it would cost to have her diagnosed privately.  The Lord has granted us favor and miraculously, Juli has been placed at the top of the long list of students to be evaluated!  Hopefully, before this year is out, she will be getting the extra help she needs in school so that she can succeed.

We are forever grateful for all of you who pray and support us.  May the Lord bless you all a hundredfold!

Grace and peace,

Robert, Roxanne, David, and Julianna