Coming up for air

February 20, 2012

Beloved family & friends of the Wester’s,

A few months ago, I was given an opportunity to dive in to the unknown, and I’ve only just come up for air. Let me explain:

For the past few years as I’ve had the privilege of serving as the Director of YUGO’s Ensenada Outreach Center, I have worked towards developing a strong team of fellow leaders who could thrive in my absence. I hope I’ve done this in a manner that follows the example Jesus gave us with his disciples.

This past summer it was especially evident to me that my job was completed to the extent that I sensed a freedom to pray for a new opportunity.

Ana and I dearly love the community of friends we are sharing life & ministry with in Ensenada, and we selfishly hoped & prayed for an opportunity that would afford us the opportunity to continue living in Ensenada.

God answered our prayer but it came with a condition, and a cost.

The condition: that I have the faith to once again dive headfirst into an unknown situation.

This past November I formally relinquished the role & responsibility as the Director of YUGO’s Ensenada Outreach Center to two people I love and respect; Mardy Barnes & Rhonda Elgersma. It was a joyful occasion to hand over the mantle of leadership I had carried for five years. To God be the Glory!

In doing so, I accepted a new mantle of leadership, thus the Condition & Cost. I was asked by YUGO Ministries to accept a newly defined role of Mexico Field Director and the task of creating a Mexico Field Office for YUGO Ministries.

As YUGO Ministries Mexico Field Director I am now responsible for all the YUGO Ministry Centers and Missionaries serving on the field in Mexico. Whereas I’ve formerly dove into a pool or lake, I feel like I have now dove into an ocean.

YUGO Ministries has a great track record of faithfully carrying out the Great Commission throughout its 45+ year history. However the past few years have been difficult and left the organization in a vulnerable state. I will need your prayers & support more than ever as I am stretched and tested beyond what I believed possible.

The cost: as a family we would be willing to give up a comfortable routine that we have become accustomed to.

This hasn’t been an easy transition by any measure. Before I rarely had to travel away from home without Ana and the girls. I had a daily commute of less than 100 steps, and was able to eat lunch with my family daily.

Now I regularly spend three days a week on the road, visiting other Ministry Centers or the YUGO US office, and I rarely can eat lunch with my family during the week.

There is a tremendous Blessing though. As I mentioned, we dearly love the community we are a part of and we are able to continue living in Ensenada! Furthermore, we are living in Mexico because of a calling we have received & responded to. It is a Blessing to be serving within a community & organization that God is bearing abundant fruit through!

Another blessing, that is difficult to quantify, is the joy of being part of an international team that all of you make up, as our faithful friends, prayer partners, financial supporters, counselors, elders & fellow servants. What a Blessing & Treasure to work with you in the field, for the most relevant harvest of our lives.

We continue to have a tremendous burden for the forgotten people of Latin America, and while we humbly acknowledge that the work we are a part of is on a small scale in a global sense; the opportunity to have a greater impact on Mexico and the World through this new role is a challenge we are willing to faithfully invest in.

We are grateful for your participation in forming a team with us in this ministry. Although it grieves me to confess that I often swim for a spell without coming up for air. When I do this it robs you of the blessing of sharing in the Kingdom work that you are a part of in Mexico.

As I have committed to dive in deeper with YUGO Ministries, I also recommit to honoring the investment you are continuing to make with us as we collaborate in ministry together.

We pray for a deepening intimacy for you & ourselves in the Lord and a mutual surrendering of ourselves so that His will may be done through us this season. And that more lives in Mexico and the World will be transformed through Jesus Christ.

Amen

Scott (for) Ana, Naomi & Nicole Wester

Latest Update on our life & work in Mexico

2011 has been a full year for our family on a number of fronts. We have primarily sensed a fullness of the Lord’s presence in our personal lives, marriage, family & ministry. And although we have many areas that need continual refining, this has been a season of delighting in God being at the center of everything and seeing the marvelous ways He works. The following are but a few of those examples:

Bakersfield:

You may remember that for the past two years I have helped to host a monthly Ensenada Leadership Breakfast that I initiated with a local pastor. This past October as we celebrated our 2nd Anniversary breakfast our keynote speaker was California Assemblywoman Shannon Groves from Bakersfield. We were also blessed to have the Mayor of Ensenada in attendance and Shannon was able to pray for him & his leadership. The Mayor commented on the fact that Ensenada is the fourth safest city in Mexico and that he believes it is because there is a great covering of the Lord as a result of the prayers of many.

In continuing the Bakersfield connection, almost eight years ago a dear personal friend of many years (Doug Carter of Bakersfield, Ca) started praying for a connection & relationship to grow between his church The Bridge Bible Church and the Body of Christ in Ensenada Mexico. As his church continued to grow in their involvement in Mexico, we continued praying together for a deepening relationship between Bakersfield & Ensenada.

I am overjoyed to report that this past Veteran’s weekend 11.11.11. The Bridge Bible Church from Bakersfield California sent nearly 800 people to serve 32 local pastors in 24 different communities of Ensenada in the largest single outreach we have ever coordinated! God is opening the floodgate! In the midst of adversity we are seeing The Church take action! JESUS is Alive!

A New Role & Responsibility:

After many years of hard work & sacrifice in Ensenada it has been wonderful to see all the fruit God is producing through His Body, as so many have come from afar and partnered with the ongoing work the local Church is laboring in. And while our personal commitment to this work in Ensenada remains, there has also been a growing sense that the time has come to expand our focus further out into Mexico.

Recently the YUGO Board of Directors met and decided to appoint me (Scott) as the YUGO Mexico Field Director, with the responsibility of serving all the YUGO Missionaries & Ministry Centers located in Mexico. As a result I have handed over the position of Director of YUGO’s Ensenada Outreach Center to Mardy Barnes & Rhonda Elgersma, who have worked with me at the EOC for the past five seasons.

Ana & I are excited for the new opportunities and challenges this new position will bring, as we recall our time as newlyweds in 2006 and our prayers for reaching out further into Mexico to love the forgotten.

YUGO currently has Outreach opportunities in Rosarito, Mexicali & Acuna in addition to Ensenada as well as a the Grace Children’s & Babies homes in Rosarito. Currently there are also Church Planting missionaries throughout Baja California and as far south as Oaxaca Mexico. I look forward to serving the entire YUGO Family and broadening our reach further south!

Ensenada, our Home Base:

As I will certainly be required to spend more time traveling, we are grateful for the opportunity to continue being based in Ensenada with the community of friends & family we dearly love. This will allow us more opportunities to continue seeing many of you who come annually to Ensenada as well:)

We ask for your continued prayers for our family, our financial support (as this new role doesn’t change the fact that we need to raise 100% of our living & personal ministry expenses) and our entire YUGO Ministry Family. We cherish you, your friendship & prayers as we depend on the Lord for everything in our lives. It is our great privilege to be serving as Christ’s Ambassadors to Mexico in partnership with you!

We love you & pray God’s Blessing over you, your family and community, Scott for Ana, Naomi (4) & Nicole (1)

Dedicating our girls & A Few recent photos by Marvin Garay

Today we had a Dedication service for Naomi & Nicole attended by many friends & family. My brother-in-law Pup Nelson officiated the service. It was very special for me that Pup participated in the service, as he invited me to Mexico in the first place 10 summers ago. He baptized me & co-officiated our wedding, so it was very fitting to have him & my sister Anastasia here along with most of Ana's family.

We feel so blessed and privileged to be Naomi & Nicole's parents, and in a week like this one, when Pup's team has been building a home for a similar family with two young children though both have many physical needs, we are reminded of how fortunate we are to have two healthy girls.

There are so many unknown reasons why one family would have two healthy children and another family would have two precious children with multiple special needs.

Both of us families surely love our kids equally. And as we continue in our journey as parents I hope we will always remember to cherish each moment we have with our princesses.

I love you Naomi & Nicole. You are my treasure:)

Halfway through the year, continually amazed with Godʼs ways!

We had an amazing spring and while there were slightly fewer teams than normal, the weeks

were exceptional with powerful results. God is able to do amazing things & transform so many

lives even when there are fewer workers in the field.

As a family we have marveled & delighted in the gift of our daughter Nicole and how her

adding to our family has so thoroughly changed our family dynamics. In many ways we are

still finding our stride, yet its amazing how different our family is now. We canʼt imagine how it

was just six months ago. Sheʼs growing so fast and weʼre loving every moment with her.

In a similar way, God continues to grow & expand our EOC community. We have a new staff

family joining us June 2nd (the Alpertʼs) from Montgomery Alabama. Surely their talents & gifts

will add to the already diverse fabric of our multi cultural community. We are so excited to

welcome them on staff. Furthermore we are in the process of interviewing two additional

families from the US & Canada who are considering joining full-time. All three of these families

have young children, continuing to transform the demographics of the EOC Team.

As the team grows, as we see ministry fruit in abundance, we consider our next steps. What

do we need to do, that weʼre not already doing? Where can we go that weʼre not already

reaching? Who can we love that we donʼt already know? How can we grow deeper in Jesus

and with one another?

As we prepare to commence our 10th summer in Mexico we sense a deep peace coupled with

excited anticipation for what lay ahead.

We are so grateful for your prayers & participation in our lives & ministry. Together we form

One Body as the hands & feet of Jesus. We love you,

The Westerʼs

Nicole, Naomi, Ana & Scott

Greetings from the Wester's

We consider ourselves truly blessed and privileged to be spending another Spring in Ensenada Mexico, collaborating with an incredible community of friends from the US, Canada & Mexico in the transformative work of going out and loving our neighbors.

We are reminded of the daily reality for many of our neighbors here in Mexico & around the world who have lost hope & faith and feel unloved. They are truly the forgotten of this world.

We hope & pray your Spring is fruitful as you enjoy being with loved ones this Easter. May we continue to spur one another on to give Jesus the life he paid for with his own.

The Wester's

Thank you to our good friend Danny Meza, who recently took these family photos. Pictured: Scott & Ana, Naomi (3 1/2 yr) & Nicole (4 mo)

Seeing the Big Picture

A recent conversation revealed to me that as I have been sharing passionately about the direction the ministry is growing in and how the local Church is growing in its involvement, one could perceive that the future goal of the ministry is for less participation of teams from the US or Canada.

Is that our goal? Is that the big picture?

This past year I shared a number of times how we are witnessing God produce fruit through the faithful planting & watering of seeds in Ensenada, through the fifteen years YUGO’s Ensenada Outreach Center has existed.

I also elaborated on one of YUGO’s principle goals of equipping the local Church, and how we are seeing a momentum growing as the local Church becomes more engaged in the mission of the Great Commission in Ensenada.

As one member of many who have come together at EOC to form one body and become one community, I have delighted in seeing the percentage of this body reflect a larger local presence. And together we are pressing towards a level of local participation where it won’t be the exception to have a Mexican team participating in the Outreach Ministry.

As we get a glimpse of what may come, we also consider what that represents in the big picture or macro-view of what God is doing and producing here.

We are not hopeful for a day when there will be enough Mexicans participating that the teams from other countries will stop coming. We are hopeful that as people continue to come from all over the Americas (and the World) that this will become a sustainable ministry that isn’t dependent on any one country for its sustainability. Mexico has so much to offer this ministry, and so much to gain through the joy of participating. But the larger body of Christ IS made up of people of all races, genders, nationalities and denominations.

We don’t see that as more Mexican & Latin American teams participate that there won’t be the room for others, it’s just that the dependance on others will lessen. I was recently reminded of the transformation that takes place in the lives of those that come to serve. Its not an experience at the expense of the recipients, however, it is a reality that those coming to serve leave with a sense of equally benefiting. It is the beautiful reality of the transformation that takes place in all of us who come together to be with Jesus, as he builds his Church in Mexico.

There are many forms of poverty, blindness & captivity and Jesus came to set all of us free from these. How great that we can all come together equally in Him, to become his hands & feet in Mexico and around the world...so that He receives the Glory!

That’s our big picture vision going forward. Will you join with us?