Big Changes

Hola friends and family!  This is our first update as a couple and we are so excited to fill you in on what God is doing in our lives and our ministry.  First of all, we got married on July 2, 2011 in a beautiful beach ceremony.  It was a process to get there, but we know that the things that come easy are not usually as appreciated as the things that one has to work for.  We definitely appreciated every minute of the wedding!  After the wedding we had one of the best teams we have ever hosted here at Youth with a Mission, my home church-Rosedale Bible Church.  We went to the streets to work with the homeless and prostitutes, we did many children’s programs, and I even got to teach a few dramas and children’s clown skits to the team.  It was such an encouragement for me to have them here and it was also a blessing for Mario to get to know them and theme to get to know him.  They even threw us a surprise wedding party where we had all the fun that we did not get to have at our first wedding.   Unfortunately Mario had learned the American tradition of cake shoving and I ended up with cake everywhere.  What a good time, indeed!  We then had our “second” wedding, the civil wedding, and celebrated by going on our honeymoon with a generous gift from the RBC team.  We could see God’s provision throughout the whole process and it was amazing.

After we returned from our honeymoon we had another team come for a week.  This team brought a few dentists with them so we got to do all of our normal activities as well as have a free dental clinic and hair cutting stations.  It was a great time where we could use the physical needs of the people to open the door to minister to the spiritual needs.  We also had a staff meeting during the week where we found out that our base is going to have to be relocated due to funds.  We currently have two houses where we not only house teams that come down but there are two couples (including us) and a single staff person that live in the houses.  After much prayer as a staff we feel like we are supposed to move to a new location.  This involves many changes, especially for us that live here.  The new location will not have a place for us to live, so we need to find our own housing. 

Right now our monthly support goal is around $600.  As of now we are not making our monthly goal of support, but God has been faithful to help us through.  The apartments in the area are around $300 a month plus utilities.  That means that our needs will go up a significant amount.  We are trusting in the knowledge that His faithfulness does not change as we step into this new phase.  We have prayed as a couple and feel that God is challenging us to step out in faith and trust Him to provide.  We are excited at the idea of living on our own as a married couple as privacy is sometimes an issue living in community.  We cannot do this alone and we know that we will not be able to make it without extra help.  That is where we call on people like you to pray about helping us out.  We need at least $600 in the next few weeks to be able to pay the first and last month’s rent.  We would ask you to please pray and consider helping us make this goal.  We know that God is faithful, what we do not know is how He will provide for our needs.  Please let us know if you are willing to help us raise the $600.  It can be a one time gift or a monthly promise.  We are so thankful to be surrounded by people who are willing to support us in prayer and financially as we serve God and bring His Kingdom to Guatemala.  

 If you would like to communicate with us, please feel free to email us at susan.fidler@hotmail.com. 

If you would like to help us out, you can send your tax deductible support to:

Youth With a Mission
15850 Richardson Springs Rd
Chico CA 95973

(Please put a note specifying that the support is for Mario and Susan Martinez in Guatemala but do not write our names anywhere on the check). 

You can also help us out by sending non-tax deductible support to:

Susan Martinez

9624 Ravenwood Dr.

Bakersfield, CA

93312

(Please make any checks out to Susan Fidler)

            We are hopeful for the future and we cannot wait to see how God works through this next phase of our lives.  Thank you for being a part of our journey!

Blessings,

Mario and Susan Martinez