Hello Everyone!
We hope you are doing well and that your month of February was blessed. Ours’ was packed, and we’d like to share the highlights and challenges with you.
We began this month with an outreach based around the Chinese New Year. It turned out to be quite a sweet time. We shared testimonies, great food, and fellowship. The idea was born out of our month of prayer and was pretty much organized by people in the church. We were encouraged by the community effort, and even if we had no non-Christians attend, it became a moment of strengthening, especially for the growing Chinese community in our congregation!
On strengthening, we’ve had some significant moments with the ministry team. Becky is exceptionally gifted in administration, and her schooling has brought this out in some powerful ways. For one of her assignments at Western, she used our team to do some analysis that taught us a few things and identified a few of our challenges that we were aware of but didn’t have words to put to it. Having seen these areas more clearly, we can begin to work through them. This is exciting because this month, we will start addressing some of these issues to reorganize as a team and work more on our strengths rather than our weaknesses. Everything begins this Thursday evening with a meal at our apartment. Please keep us in your prayers.
Speaking of our weaknesses, our accounting and treasury have become bottlenecks. Thankfully, we discovered that one of our worship leaders holds an MBA and teaches accounting! This could be a game changer because we were much farther behind than we had realized last month. We’d talked to a recommended contact who wanted to charge us 4000€ to fix everything… With the discovery of these new gifts from a person in our congregation, we hope to catch up in the following months at a much more accessible cost. This, however, also requires much prayer; please join with us!.
One of our greatest blessings was the timely visit of an old friend, Brian Campbell. Brian is a worship leader and songwriter who maintains an active home business. He doesn’t always make it out this way, so we jumped at the occasion when he told us he’d pass by! We initially thought of organizing a workshop with our worship team. Unfortunately, we couldn’t gather everyone together in time like we’d hoped. Still, we had instruction, worship, and time praying together, which we can implement in the next few weeks and months.
Perhaps the most unexpected blessing of Brian’s visit was that it coincided with a critical vote with Calvary Chapel France, determining how future and current Calvary Chapels become and maintain membership. Though the vote did not go in the direction we’d hoped for, having a friend to pray with was timely. Ultimately, Mike and our elder Max will step down from the board to allow other members to better represent the organization’s current direction. In the meantime, we need to pray as we look to the future of our local church.
On a more positive note, we will begin planning our Easter outreach this Sunday. For the past few weeks, we’ve invited all our creatives and organizers to a meeting after church to find out who is available. Typically, Easter is one of our lowest-attended Sundays because it’s a three-day weekend. In the culture of Paris, most people leave town for the weekend because that period of the year has some of the best weather. There is a reason for Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong’s version of April in Paris. If only we could get the Parisians to stay and evangelize! Easter, like Christmas, is an amazing open door for announcing the gospel. Mike will also begin preparing “the terrain” this year by preaching through Psalms 113-118, the Egyptian Hallel (“Hallel” from the Hebrew verb that gives us “Hallelujah”), and the Psalms traditionally sung during the Passover Seder. Please pray for our church and city so that we can put together something impactful for our community.
Thank you so much for your prayers and support. We are so thankful for you and hope your month of March is blessed!
In Jesus,
Mike and Becky
Ventura Fall Family Update 2024
As usual, the past few months have been a whirlwind. Ricardo has been busy working as a project manager on many different undertakings in the church. They have made repairs to the roof, installed security cameras in all of the school and church areas, and the latest, is the much needed remodeling of the church bathrooms. In addition to these specific projects, he also manages the daily maintenance of the church/school and handles all the logistics of the volleyball ministry (which I will go into more detail later). Oftentimes I call him while he is out buying material or organizing the arrival of different construction workers or making sure the security guard gets his lunch. I admire the dedication he puts into making sure everything is done to its best, from setting up events for 500 or 50 people to spending late nights on his computer organizing the 100+ person volleyball tournament. Oh, and he is also the best husband and father.
Samantha and I have a bit of a different schedule. Sometimes she comes along with me and other times I leave her with my mother in law. I started teaching English conversation classes at the church high school, covering for someone who was moved to be full time at the Discipleship program on property. The experience has been really edifying for me. I love to work with high school and to be able to have a somewhat open curriculum making my classes fun. My goal was to make the classes interactive so that the students would apply their English knowledge and get out of their comfort zone, all the while trying to create a welcoming environment. I felt more like an older sister to them than an actual teacher. There were various times when the girls would come to me and share things going on in their lives, always seeming to deal with boys or family. I was able to encourage them to first have a relationship with Jesus, and allow that to steer them in their lives, not their circumstances.
As Jesus says, "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these thing shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." Matthew 6:33
In the book club at church, we just finished (well I am just starting) a book called Control your Emotions, by H. Norman Wright. He says that when we worry, we look with a pessimistic perspective towards the future and we imagine the worst consequences that could result from situations in our lives. That, worry, focuses primarily on the future (pg 8). No wonder why Jesus tells us to first seek Him, in other words to focus on Godly things and all these all things will come together. (Did you know that most things we worry about do not actually happen?)
If we trust that God is a good Father, and as a parent, wants to give His Children good things, then why do we worry? It would be silly for Samantha to worry whether or not she is getting her blueberries in her oatmeal tomorrow morning (unless the store runs out again!). But my point is, and what I try to encourage the young adults with, is that when we have a relationship with God (read the bible, listen to teachings, read related books, go to church and hear teachings, spend time with like minded people, serve and share what we are learning, pray), then we will find no need to worry about the things of this world (boyfriends, money, future), because eventually it will "fall into place". With that being said, and in lieu of Samantha's second birthday, I would like to share a testimony to that truth.
The pictures above are of a single missionary, unsure what exactly God had her doing living in a third world country, littered with gang violence and poverty. One thing I did know, this is where God had called me and this is where I would be. Every week was busy and filled with kids. Teaching English or teaching bible or teaching how to tie a shoe. Hanging out with the teens and telling them that having it all in the states actually is not a soul filling experience. Meeting other Salvadorian christian living in poverty in shack homes, with the basic necessities but a true joy for Jesus. It was a wild and fun ride, but I always longed to be a wife and mother. The picture you see above is a handful of what I would call "my first kids". I loved them as if they were my own.
At the end of 2019, Ricardo and I started dating, then in 2021 he proposed to be in the most romantic magical way, and in January 2022 we were married. God had provided. Of course, our desire was to start a family without knowing when (due to some health issues we were not even sure it would be possible). But on November 26, 2022, Samantha Abigail came into our lives. Her name is from the book of Samuel, where Hannah, a childless woman, prayed and prayed and one day she became pregnant and decided to name her son Samuel, saying "Because I have asked for him from the Lord" and God gave him to her. The name Samuel means "Heard by God" and of course, if you have not guessed, the feminine version is Samantha. God heard my prayer. And we got Abigail because it means "Joy of the Father" and boy has she been the joy of Ricardo.
I had the opportunity to live out the verse in Matthew 6:33, seek God, and just serve Him until the rest of the pieces of the puzzle fell together. For that we are grateful and like to share these truths with other young adults here when given the opportunity.
Additionally, I've been coaching at our after school sports academy. I was challenged with the middle school girls volleyball group and then moved on to teach soccer to the 8-10 year olds.
Once again, focusing on relationships more than anything has revealed a lot of what these kids carry in their hearts. Even though our school is christian, it does not mean these children are growing up in christian homes. A Lot of my sports training would turn into question and answer sessions and music and game time. I had to make it fun for everyone right?!
You might be thinking and what about Samantha? Well, if she was with me, she would be playing with the kids or being loved on by one of the teachers while I gave class. Thankfully, she is so adored and cared for by everyone, including the preschoolers who are just a few years older than her (but look enormous in comparison). The days Samantha goes to my mother in laws, she spends some sweet time playing with her Uncle Dani, and of course with her "abu elsy" learning all the Salvadoran Spanish from an authentic tongue.
Discipleship Program
Once again we have another Discipleship term. It really is amazing that twice a year, around 10 young adults will make the decision to leave all of their comforts with the goal of learning more about Jesus. This group has had some radical stories in the way they arrived, and have been thriving in their time separated from the world (no phones, no computers) studying the bible. One of the girls waited until the day before to tell her mom that she was coming to the program because she knew her mom was not going to approve of her decision (she did not like her going to church or even serving in the children's ministry). Through much prayer and lots of conversations with her parents, her father finally agreed (mind you, she is 18 years old and was working). She came to the term with a lot of emotional baggage that she wore very clearly on her face. It almost always seemed like she had bags under her eyes, and had a downcast look. She was soft spoken and hardly answered if you spoke to her. Now, after two months studying the bible, being challenged in her character; we have a completely different woman. She has found her identity in Christ and that she is a daughter of God who she can go to at any time for help. She no longer looks down while she walks but has a new glow upon her face. Joy has replaced the grief she held. And to top it all off, in the last phone conversation she had with her mom, her mom said that she wanted to start going to church with her and that she supports her decision to change studies and focus on Early Childhood Education instead of Civil Engineering. A passion she only discovered when she started serving at church.
Another one of the girls has also had a radical change. She comes from a broken home (at 11 she discovered her dad had another family with children) and spent the first weeks of the term doing everything to grab the attention of the staff. She was disrespectful, prideful, and always had something to complain about. It was a tough few weeks for the staff girls living with her because she was not 'easy' to love. Then it was as if one day it clicked. The pride and attention seeking faded. The stress in her face disappeared. She said that God had allowed her to be broken so that He can make her into the person He wants her to be. Now she is full of love and compassion for others. She serves with joy and a grateful heart.
Above you can see the picture of the group and also a picture from one of our women's groups. I do not get to spend as much time with the students as before (having a family does take a lot of time haha), but I am blessed when I get to sit down to eat with them or show up at their rooms and chat about what they are learning. Recently we had the middle and high school end of year retreat here at the property and the Discipleship students were in charge of the small groups (about 80 students total separated into groups of 5-6). It was amazing to see how they loved on those teenagers during their stay here and we rejoice at the 8 who gave their lives to Christ during the event.
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Volleyball
Volleyball has taken off at our church. Between the afterschool sports academy and the Saturday tournament, you will always find someone playing volleyball on church grounds. The kids all play volleyball during their recess and after school they are playing again. Ricardo has manned up the logistics of the coed volleyball tournament on Saturdays. Which means he coordinates the games for the 12 teams, using the three courts, assigning referees, receiving scores and updating the system ect. In order to play, you must go to one church service and contribute whatever you can towards the $5 reff payment per team per game. We have been amazed at how through this sport we have met an entire new community here in El Salvador. What has been even more exciting, is that many of these people now come to church, have been baptised or are serving in ministries. They prefer to play at the church instead of at their clubs or other places. We attribute this desire to the welcoming, healthy environment we strive to maintain. Although we can be competitive, we try to stress the importance of maintaining a good attitude. In our team alone, we have really seen incredible growth. The kids are teens, and they have grown in their discipline while playing and also in consistency attending church.
Last Saturday they even brought new friends. Our team has grown so that we have had to make another one! Ricardo will coach it so that we can maintain the family we have created. In the picture I posted, you can see that not everyone has the same shirt on. That's because we had only invited our team to go eat pupusas after the game, but on the way out of the church, one after another tagged along. Even a few showed up at the restaurant we were at. All the kids in the picture are under 20 years old. Half of them we drop off after eating together. We consider it a blessing to be able to be part of forming their community as young adults.
The Church
There are so many ministries and events going on at the church it's difficult to contain it all in one update. We are studying the book of Revelation and it's quite incredible to see the amount of things going on in the world that point to the coming of Jesus. It really could be soon!! This has pushed our church towards evangelism in whatever way possible. One of the ministries that has started up is the marriage ministry. Last month was a couple's dinner which we did not get to attend but this month we did attend the movie date night. The church rented out a theater at the movies and we played Fireproof, a 2008 Christian film about a couple on the verge of divorce. The husband decides he wants to fight for his marriage and with the encouragement of his father, decides to start a 40 day love challenge. Everyday, for 40 days, he does some act of kindness for his wife, without hoping for anything in return. For example: make her a cup of coffee, do the dishes, buy her a gift, prepare an elaborate dinner etc. It is both comical and heartwarming to see how the husband fights for his marriage when the wife is already done. I won't tell you the end, but we were definitely encouraged by watching the ways we can improve how we love and serve each other at home and keep the love alive!
Our upcoming events include the 35th anniversary of the church (Thanksgiving week) and of course December, where it's a month full of celebration and collecting toys for the kids at need in our children's ministry.
Pictures! Please scroll below and enjoy what I cannot put into words above.
Marriage Ministry date night at the movies!
English conversation class outside playing a game.
Above: Ricardo teaching a class to the Discipleship group and the students being presented and prayed for at the Eikon young adults service.
Above: Sam hanging out while I cover a class and Sam visiting the kindergarten classroom.
There was a women's retreat at our property and I got to lead the women into the community and talk about service.
We held a retreat for Pastors in October (left) and the Discipleship group debrief after an activity (right).
One of our current Discipleship staff members is getting married to another alumni of the program next month. We were able to celebrate her with a little Bridal Shower and here we were praying over her future marriage.
Sammie with her daddy at one of the retreats and as we leave the church after a long day of work and play.
Our family outing to the new library, sponsored by China and built in the Historic Downtown of San Salvador.
If I could summarize in a few pictures what God has us about here in El Salvador it would be those below. First and foremost, we are trying to raise our daughter to know Jesus and reflect His love in an ever so corrupt world.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one’s youth.
Psalm 127:4
Secondly, Ricardo does all of the logistical work regarding the functioning of the volleyball 100+ person tournament and now he will also be in charge of the volleyball club we are opening to the public this Thanksgiving week. There will be training three nights a week for ages 15 and up with professional coaches and with the hope of growing a healthy community where people can play a sport, grow in their character while also coming to know a loving God.
The bottom picture is me with the staff girls of the Discipleship program. I have the great opportunity to share with younger girls how God has been faithful to me, and has given me the family, home and life I have today. Ricardo gets to use his leadership skills to also influence those he manages and works alongside, encouraging them that there is more to life than just what we see.
How can you be part?!
First and foremost, PRAY and or send encouragement, we love to hear from you!
Prayer requests:
For the Discipleship group to finish strong (graduation is December 7)
For all the volleyball games and practices, that God would provide the necessities and we could continue to grow our community.
For our family to balance work, ministry, rest and play!
For the church's anniversary event, for December's Christmas activities and for my trip with Sam to Florida on Dec 8th! (Ricardo cannot travel with us yet =(
Practical ways to help our ministries:
Sponsor one Saturday's worth of volleyball games ($60 pays for all the games to be referred).
Sponsor a pupusa party for 150 people that play in our tournament (Christmas celebration) $450
Sponsor volleyballs for the club: $45 each
- Sponsor 1°, 2° and 3° place trophies and medals for next tournament: $50
Sponsor our volleyball team's Christmas party: $80
Donate a volleyball (average $35) or whistles $5.
Do you know and love volleyball? Plan a sports focused mission trip with us! (Please write me for more information)
Sponsor a student for the Discipleship program (amount varies, see link below).
ALL donations are TAX DEDUCTIBLE!
When donating, you can select specifically Alex and Ricardo Ventura, La Capilla, San Salvador and we will distribute as the needs arise or you can add it to the general fund and then specify in the notes section.
Have you thought of another way to help that is not listed above? Please send me an e-mail, we would love to hear new ideas!!
Partner with us now! Click here
Praise
Lastly, I would just like to share a few praise reports for things we have been praying for or asking for prayer.
1. My brother, Mark, is in COMPLETE REMISSION from cancer!! It's been on and off for over 5 years.
2. Many of the kids playing volleyball have started serving at church or have brought friends along to attend and play. The community is growing!
3. My dad's heart surgery last August went well and he is fully recovered.
4. There are 25 people confirmed for our church's volleyball club.
Thanks for taking the time to read and talk to you next time.
"And the LORD, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.” Deuteronomy 31:8
Newsletter January
This month is set out to be full! Thankfully, we’ve dedicated this month to prayer for Calvary Chapel Paris. We are so excited! Every day, there is a new subject that we pray for as a church; there will be meetings after Sunday’s service, and there will be an inter-church prayer group for the Northwest section of Paris. This last meeting is exciting because it will be a first, not only for our church but also for other churches in our community. This can solidify over the next few years into something like we knew on the West side. Please join us in praying.
Another more sensitive subject concerns our Calvary Chapel France organization. We are making important decisions concerning its role in the CNEF (evangelical alliance) and future Calvary Chapel church plants. Unfortunately, not everyone agrees on how to proceed, and strong convictions and a deadline to make decisions add to the stress of the moment. All this to say, we need prayer.
This month will be an important one for our administration team as well. We are trying to change banks. I know this sounds like a small thing for our US supporters, but getting a bank for a church in France has become quite an ordeal these days. It has been much more complicated than we first imagined, but our current bank has not allowed us to do all we need to keep current with the new laws. Yikes. So far, it has taken four weeks to get all the paperwork together to open the new account. But once we get everything in order, we hope to receive direct wire transfers from donors with bank accounts outside of France again. Much prayer is needed!
Thank you so much for praying for our Christmas outreach! It was truly successful in so many ways. It’s been such a whirlwind of a month that it’s hard to imagine that it was only two weeks away. People from CCP leaned in and stood up. We even had people from other churches join in at the last minute, and it was wild! We were all in black with red scarves and Santa hats, so we were all recognized as part of the same group. The choir sang well and for hours. We had so many evangelists we could cover many blocks around the choir! We had “Christmas Gifts” for every age. We wrapped up hundreds of gospels in wrapping paper; everyone had little baskets of chocolate with stuff for kids that they would offer to the parents so that the parents could accept or decline and had tracts made by our very own in-house artist! It was truly awesome!
The next day, we were at church and had a different type of outreach planned for those who would attend for the first time. But no one came… we were so sad and honestly baffled because we had been so well received the day before. Then, after church, I walked into the entry room and saw that someone had ripped our sign off the door. We have to put our sign on the outside to cover another sign. Our efforts clearly upset the enemy of our souls, but we also know that those who seek the Lord will find Him.
This month was also special because Mike turned a negative into a positive: our church empties from mid-December to mid-January every year. Everyone goes home to visit their families and goes on vacation. Paris is great for tourists at Christmas but is heavy for those who live here. After much deliberation, Mike decided that the best thing to do was to prepare our people all month to share the gospel through the birth of Christ story. The Gospel in the Nativity Series truly prepared them to go back home, be with their families, and be ready not just to see Christ in a manger but to give the greatest answers of who Christ is and why he came. The ones who always leave on vacation are the ones who miss the Christmas sermon every year and are the ones who need to hear it the most!
So, besides the regular meetings, school, hospital visits, housing people, and church schedules that we all keep, and things in our lives that are more or less than pleasant: I think these were our highlights for the last month and ways we genuinely need your prayers for the month to come. One last very urgent prayer request is for our finances. We were hit with some end-of-the-year bills, and there is NO WAY we can meet them without divine intervention. We aren’t even reaching the end of the month most months. Please keep this in your prayers. Becky is almost done with her studies, and we are praying about coming back to the Seattle area in April when she graduates to visit some of our supporters in the Seattle area.
We are exceedingly thankful to you; you have been the best support team we could imagine. We would not be here without you. We thank you for your prayers, encouragement, support, and love.
May the Lord bless you in this new year,
Mike and Becky Dente
Hello all!
in case you didn't already guess it, we have been in Italy one year now (well...almost, July 17 to be exact) and it has both flown by and felt like we've been here forever at the same time. So much has happened in this past year that Paul and I have been reflecting on and just have been amazed how much different it has been than we thought. In fact, as I sit here writing this with Violet down by my feet and Paul across the table working on care insurance, the doorbell rang and what would you know, Violets report of a birth abroad and her passport have arrived!....every bit of that sentence is something I didn't expect to be saying one year ago.
We're so thankful that the church we joined this time last year has been one that is honestly just such a joy to serve and comforting to be around. I would say we've had our ups and downs (because that's what you say when you're serving right?) but I have to be honest...it's been a lot of ups and very few downs (I honestly am having to sit here thinking hard to think of a down aside from the basic culture differences and the occasional homesickness). The Lord has been so good to us and has provided everything we need before we even knew it, He truly has gone before us everywhere He has called us. Which continues to be our prayer for the next year & and we're so excited to see where we will be then!
The last month and a half since the last update has been so wonderfully busy, and also very tiring lol. We had a team from Reno NV out here to help with VBS and pretty much everyone who came in contact with them was blessed beyond measure, including Paul, Violet and I. Together, the CC Feltre and the team put together an amazing VBS and English night, both with the more amount of people attending than times before! July is also set to be the last busy month before August which, as those of you who remember our updates from last year might know, is a very dead month because it's basically the "vacation month" for all of Italy. Which will be a nice little month of rest before we then jump into the Holidays! This month my mom is coming out for almost 2 weeks which we are beyond excited about for the fellowship and the help, and because of this there are a few weekly events that he doesn't usually attend because he's kind enough to not leave me alone with Violet for 14 hours most days! But with my moms help he will be attending a new church gathering that our church has been helping with up in the mountains and a few other things!
Anyways! I know this is a long update and if you've made it this far, we appreciate you! Below I'll go ahead and share our praise reports, prayer requests, and ways that you can support us financially:
Praise:
-Violet is officially a U.S. citizen and has her passport!
-That my mom is able to come out to help us
-VBS was a huge success in that so many kids were open to The Lord and his working, and got to hear the gospel.
-English night is bringing a lot of opportunities where people want to talk about the gospel.
Prayers:
-For the growing group of Christians up in the mountains
-A few kids from VBS come from rough homes, so we would love to keep them in our prayers and that the Lord would just grow any seeds that might have been planted during VBS week.
-We still have to get our car insurance which is a doozy financially and until we do we can't drive. So just that we can have wisdom in the best route to take.
-We would love to come home and visit at the end of summer, but again, want to use wisdom in all that we do.
-Eventually, we would love to move to a larger home/apartment so we can grow our family, host friends/family/visiting missionaries and friends from the church more often. There may be an opportunity for this in the next year or so, so just that if God see's fit that He would open that door.