I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. -1 Corinthians 3:6 Now all of our COJ children have received the school supplies and have gone back to school in person! Thank you, dear sponsors, for your obedience to God’s command in giving life to the least of these. As you plant the seed in the hearts and lives of our COJ children, God will make it grow and bear much fruit. In fact, the fruits of your obedience is evident in the letters that the COJ children have written to their sponsors. Like this sponsor child, our prayer is that all of our COJ children will become leaders in their churches and communities for there is no greater blessing and reward than to witness the next generation rise up as a mighty army of God.

As King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes Chapter 3, there is a season for everything. There’s a time to plant and a time to harvest. In the beginning of 2022, we welcomed 187 new children to the COJ ministry. Praise the Lord! Our COJ ministry is continually growing, and God’s kingdom is expanding on this earth. Our prayer is that all the children will grow in God’s wisdom, love, and stature and become mighty men and women of God. At the same time, we also recognized 59 graduates from the COJ ministry. Despite the many challenges of the pandemic, by God’s favor, they completed their secondary education. Just as plants need sunlight and water to grow, your humble obedience and generous giving to the Lord has borne many fruits as evidenced by these graduates. Now, as they go out to the world, let’s gather our hearts and pray that they will submit and commit to the Lord. Thank you, sponsors, for being the channels of God’s blessing to our COJ children and graduates! Above all, we thank and praise God for his provision and protection! To God be the glory!

In 2018 we held the very first Abba Ecuador Youth Conference in the city of Guayaquil. But the door to continue the ABBA ministry there was quickly closed. There were only a few churches that desired to continually receive the youth training. Then, the COVID pandemic closed the border between Ecuador and Peru, and we were no longer able to ship the training books there. We asked the Lord why the road was closed for Abba Ecuador. Lord spoke softly and gently to us, “How much do you really love the youth of Ecuador?” We realized that our heart was not in the right place with our God and we begun praying for Ecuador with renewed heart. All of a sudden, the doors to Ecuador reopened and the training for pastors and leaders was held in February 2022. We have been invited back to train more pastors and leaders in the coming days. On the morning of the first day of training, the President of Ecuador made a public announcement that the border between Ecuador and Peru was completely reopened on that morning. Can this be coincidence? We’ve learned the greatest lesson: God’s kingdom expands only through agape love, the unconditional and sacrificial love of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our God will bring many youth of Ecuador into His kingdom! Thank you for your partnership to share this amazing love of our God to our next generation!

Back to school! After two years of virtual classes during the pandemic, kids are finally heading back to school… in person! Most are overjoyed and have long awaited for this moment. So for Christmas, through the loving donations of sponsors, we sent the COJ children and youth backpacks to carry their books and school supplies when they head back to school in March. In addition, we also sent each COJ child’s family a special Christmas food basket. A little different than previous food baskets, this time around we included panettone, a popular dessert widely enjoyed by Peruvians during the Christmas season, along with hot chocolate. Our hope and desire is that each child realizes the love of the Father through the generous gifts of their sponsors and that they have already received the greatest gift of Jesus Christ!