From Darkness to Light: the God of the IMPOSSIBLE

Today I just want to tell you a story that many of you know and many of you do not know. In 2005 I was saved, baptized and called to the mission field. In 2007 at 22 years old, just having graduated from Auburn University, I married a man passionate about the Lord. He was in the seminary program at Lakeview and was called to preach the gospel. He spent time doing mission work in Sudan just before we got married and was open to going where ever it was that the Lord would call us. This man had been an alcoholic sober for more than two years when we married with a radical testimony. Unfortunately, with the stress of being newly married and the pressure and stress that come along with obtaining a Master's in Divinity, his alcoholism got the best of him just three months after our wedding. It was a very hard time for me. I was young, just married, and ready to serve God with my husband and this was not happening. It was a period of great sadness as I had to deal with things I had never dreamed possible. Living with an active alcoholic, who you thought would be the most Godly husband ever, that is hard. He quit the seminary program and his life and lifestyle began to get darker and darker. I was working at the church and had an amazing support system of understanding, godly people who would meet with me and pray with me on a regular basis. It was still a time of great suffering, however, as I would do everything in my power to love him and lead him back to Jesus always to no avail. There would be times he would sober up for whatever reason and repent and cry and make promises, and of course I welcomed him back into my arms with great joy and praise to God for bringing him back, hoping that this time it was for good. And a few weeks later, he would be right back into the darkness with a big smile on his face enjoying many of the evil pleasures this world offers. There were more violent times where I was forced to leave the house and go to my friends or my parents. There were times where he would empty our bank account and told me I was to come to him when I needed to pay our bills or buy our groceries. There were times where his worldly "buddies" would call me asking me to come get him off their couch or out of their yards. There were times when he called me from jail begging me to come and get him. And he got his 4th or 5th (I can't remember) DUI which rendered him without any means of transportation for many years and the courts ordered him to be at meetings twice a week or he would violate his probation and go back to jail. And how would he get there? Of course I would have to drive him. After about a year and half of living in this madness I felt the need to separate from him and with the permission of the Lord and my church, I moved into an apartment to make sure I was in no way enabling his behavior and to show him that I was serious about his need to change. To my great disappointment, this did not change things much. As a matter of fact, he began inviting women from the bars over to spend the night in our home and so began the beginning of the end. Until that point, I was going to fight and stick it out, even if it meant we were apart. Until that point there were no thoughts of ending our marriage, at least not on my part. He was always telling me he was going to get a divorce, but I would hear nothing of it and definitely not encourage it. After the first girl I found out about, I was hurt and angry, but I also forgave him and told him I was not going anywhere. After the second, I was angry, yet I still forgave him. But as I was praying fervently about what I should do and how I could survive this, he called me one evening and told me he had made up his mind and was moving to south Alabama. He was taking our trailer and moving. At this point I was working full time at the bank and had my family near by. I knew following my unfaithful, alcoholic husband to south Alabama was out of the question and he made it clear I was not welcome to come with him. And that is when the Lord gave me permission to leave him. He told me not to worry about what the world would think, that I had not let Him down, that He would be my banner and He would speak for me. And that is what He did. And after two and a half years of turmoil, it was over. 

I tell you all that to ask you to see the impossibility in my situation. To imagine how it must have felt knowing that I was 100% called to the mission field and yet unable to go because I was first and foremost called to my husband. To have all the desire to go to the field, to reach the ones who were dying without Christ, yet there was no light at the end of the tunnel. To have been stuck in a time of great suffering at the hands of another person and completely unable to "go". That was one of the hardest things. I had every intention in the world of following Jesus to the mission field with my husband when I got married. The promise was there. My heart was there. And yet I was chained to the ground by lies, alcoholism, adultery, and many other unimaginable things. I thought it would never happen. And then the Lord set me free, with many tears and great pain, he set me free. And the light came back.

It was time to heal and figure out where the Lord wanted me. I continued my job at the bank, swept away the ashes, and began to rebuild my life. I knew by the end of 2010 he wanted me in Guatemala to start a children's home. In the beginning of 2011, as I was in the process of selling my belongings, I met Geoffrey. At first I knew it was no use as this time I was GOING TO GO where the Lord wanted me and not get myself trapped in another horrible situation. Months went by and the Lord began to move in Geoffrey's heart and he knew if he wanted to keep me, he'd have to act fast. I told him from the beginning that if he could not see himself giving up everything and moving to Guatemala then there was no use in us having a relationship. I would not marry another man until I was already living where the Lord wanted me. And so it was. Geoffrey helped me move to Guatemala and a few days before he was headed back to the States, he proposed. Crazy. SO happy and so in love, I said, "yes". I couldn't believe it. I thought my chances at marriage were over. But then there was Geoffrey and quite the opposite of my first husband. And I stayed in Guatemala alone beginning the mission all the while making plans to marry him come the end of the year. Dec. 1 we were married and he moved down here with me on Dec. 29. We have been here ever since.

Back up. God wanted me in Guatemala but the IMB was not sending missionaries to Guatemala. God wanted me to start a children's home, but my mission pastor told me that was "passe missions". But yet I was sure of my calling. If I couldn't go under the mission board, I would start my own mission and go. And this is what I did. I named it Mision Vida Nueva. As for support, "Do NOT raise support", the Lord told me clearly. I will support you. Without raising any support, I sold my belongings, quit my job, and left. The mission I had started had $2002 in the account. One friend from long before heard of what I was doing and out of no where he felt prompted by God to send me $2000. And another friend at the bank put $2 in my account. With no financial supporters at all, I said bye to my family and my church and left. I came to Coban, Guatemala where I knew of no one and nothing.
The very next day support began flooding in. From Florida, Arkansas, South Carolina. All these donations from people I had never heard of. Jesus had touched someone's heart to raise support for me. Astonished, I began looking for somewhere to live temporarily while I would look for land that the mission could buy to start the children's home. Keeping true to our commitment to letting the Lord handle the finances, 6 months later, we found the land and it cost $19,200. And we had $20,000 in the mission's account.

And this is what our 4 years in Guatemala have looked like, all the glory to Him who is able:

The bus ride to Coban, the very first time. 

Getting engaged!

Our awesome apartment in Coban. 

Many many miles were walked searching for land for the children's home.

And then we found it. 

And bought it. 

And we built the garage with a room on top for us to live in. 

And the three (!) of us moved in.

And we spent the next year suffering through pregnancy and waiting on the Lord to provide the funds to build the steel structure of what would be Casa Gloria. 

And a beautiful baby girl was born. 

And He absolutely provided!

We poured the footing.

And the slab.

Built the walls.

Raised the block.

Installed the windows and doors.

Sheetrocked for months. 

Installed lights and painted. 

Installed flooring.

Installed cabinets. 

Began a ginormous wall that the gov't requires. 

And now, buying furniture. 

Furniture! Yes, we are already putting furniture in the children's home. That is how close we are getting to being finished. Oh, how long we have been waiting and working....and now, finally, the end of the construction is in sight. Will we have enough funds to furnish 7000 square feet for 18 children, a doctor, a nurse, a psychologist, social workers, directors, etc etc? I can say with faith that WE WILL. And it is not because we are awesome speakers, writing letters, or any of that. To the contrary, I am a horrible speaker. But it is because the Holy Spirit is at work and because He tells us in His Word that, "He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it." When before the possibility of missions was an impossibility, and now it is my every day reality. And if you think that all we do here is build, you are crazy. Building is about 20% of our lives here, we just don't have as many pictures of the other 80%. We are working to build relationships, share Jesus, meet needs in the communities, love the sick and walk alongside the hurting. We are working with the government to register and accredit our home and we have a passion to grow as a ministry and be able to serve in other areas. We will share the love of the Lord with these children, each and every one, no doubt, but we also desire to take the Word of God and the love of Jesus to others too. And so the Lord has sent us another ministry that has been around for some time, created by Guatemalans with a heart to serve and honor the Lord and in working with these amazing people we have decided to merge our ministries. We are no longer just two. They will come under the umbrella of Mision Vida Nueva and we will have Casa Gloria for the orphaned, abandoned, abused children and we will have Living to Serve for all the community outreach programs. This is an answer to four years of prayers. It is hard being just two. Now we are many and the best thing is that we are working with local believers who have a calling to serve! Now that we are many, the opportunities are endless. We have been mentioning some of the ideas we have for future ministry and they include working with child mothers, working with the elderly who have been abandoned or neglected, working emergency health cases and having a recovery house, a shelter for battered women....among so many other ideas. Yes, we seek to improve the physical health of all these people, but even more we seek to improve their spiritual health, and EVEN MORE THAN THAT we seek to glorify the Lord by bringing people to a place of worship and acknowledgement of who He really is: the God of second chances and the God of the IMPOSSIBLE.

MVN's newest team: AVIS aka Living to Serve!

Now Mision Vida Nueva can receive donations specifically for Community ministry. Anyone who wishes to contribute to this branch of our ministry can make donations to Mision Vida Nueva and earmark them or add a note that says "AVIS", "Living to Serve", "Community outreach" etc so we know they go towards this ministry. Any donations received not earmarked as such will be used for Casa Gloria, the children's home. We are very excited for this new opportunity and know that the Lord will provide as He sees fit.


Thank you for your prayers as we begin hiring professionals and nannies to serve the children who will be coming to live with us in just a few more months. Thank you for your continued contributions and generosity as you are helping us build a sanctuary for babies and children with no where else to go. Thank you, thank you, thank you as you are faithful to the Lord and are an inspiration and encouragement to us. We love you all and you cause us to praise God even more!

Jenna 

www.misionvidanueva.info

www.livingtoserve.org