Bridging the Gap

Some updated photos of my Leones boys from my travels back :)

"I can put you to work full-time in America, too," These words were some of the last ones I wrote in my closing blog when I returned to the states almost exactly two and a half years ago. As I was squeezed into a small seat on the plane back to America, questioning how I could serve God as fully while in nursing school, as I had as a full-time international missionary, these words were impressed in my mind. Looking back, I had absolutely no idea the full extent to which these words were meant!

They've gotten so much taller!

A few short months after returning to the United States, Treson (a fellow returned student missionary from Bolivia) and I decided that we wanted to help support Familia Feliz from afar. While on campus, we had seen the need for people to help with fundraising, volunteer recruiting and training, and public relations. "Why not start a nonprofit to do just that?" we said. I quickly started researching how to start a business, which filled many of my days for the next few months. In December, 2023, we finished our application to the state and IRS after many late nights of writing. Soon after, on January 3, 2024, our application was approved, and we officially began running our business! We were incredibly blessed by generous donors who helped us pay those fees at the beginning, and the three of us immediately, with many tears, laughs, and late nights, poured our free time into making our project grow.

And remember baby Jose from the very beginning of my mission blogs? He's growing up so fast!

Over the next year and a half, we, along with an incredible board of directors and volunteer team, helped recruit, train, and send 22 missionaries to Familia Feliz, 2 short-term mission teams, tens of thousands of dollars in monthly donations, re-did their branding, and advertised online and at Adventist conventions. I was consistently reminded of how little I knew, how much I was learning, and how much God was leading.

Treson and I with three new volunteers in Bolivia, 2023. Both guys, Collin and Sean, became board members!

It was never an easy mission, but we loved it. After much prayer and discussion with our board of directors in February, 2024, we felt God calling us to expand the ministry to other locations. We started realizing that this was a good two-year project. We could contract with small ministries across the world to help them build a website, social media base, student mission location with ties to universities, and to connect them to state-side volunteers who were willing to help with the public relations side of a mission long-term. This would make it possible for a ministry's leaders to continue focusing on service in the mission field while we helped build a support system that would allow them to expand. This setup would not only serve as a mission internationally, but it would serve as a mission in the states by bridging the gap between those who couldn't work abroad and organizations they could help from their homes. And then was born our expanded organization under a new name: Puente de Misión, or Mission Bridge!

Katie-Jane and I had the privilege of sharing about our new ministry on Hope Channel

Treson and I preparing to run our first booth for Puente de Misión

We started taking applications for support from missions in August, and received one from the Queen Elizabeth Adventist Children's Home (QUEACH) in Zimbabwe. As we prepared to accept the application in October, we knew that a site visit would be necessary. I spoke with several members of our team and quickly realized this would need to be a solo trip, as everyone had commitments for several months to come. Traveling to an entirely new continent by myself ? It sounded very scary. But I could see God's leading so clearly. I searched for plane tickets, and found a really good price at a time when the hospital I work for graciously agreed to let me go.

Before I knew it, I was gliding over the Atlantic ocean, squeezed into a small seat. My mind brought me back to that flight 2 1/2 years ago. I had wondered how I could continue to serve God as I had in Bolivia. But wow! What an intense 2 1/2 years it had been! I finished my bachelors degree in nursing, became a full-time emergency room nurse, and perhaps the most demanding of all, started a nonprofit and began serving as president. I smiled as I recalled God‘s words “ I can put you to work full-time in America too.”

Off to new adventures :)