(a recent prayer letter received from Elmo & Kat Compton, Mexico)

When we came back to the United States in January 2020, we never expected our lives to change as drastically as they did. After eight years on the mission field, we came back to present our ministry in over 70 churches. We had a lofty goal of raising the money to purchase property for Mosaico Church in Lima, but God had other plans.

At the beginning of covid, we were in a missions conference in San Diego, CA. When we realized that covid was not “just two more weeks,” a church in Albuquerque, NM offered their missions house while we waited for Peru to reopen. While we were there, we served the people of Berean Baptist, but we were anxious to return to the mission field. In May of 2021, we found that Peru had cancelled our Peruvian residencies and that we would only be able to enter the country as tourists. It had taken our family six years and thousands of dollars to get our resident visas which made this a huge blow. We continued to pray for God’s leading and direction. We were called by a supporting pastor asking us to come to check out ministry opportunities in Tijuana, Mexico. We drove from Albuquerque to Tijuana and went on a faith drive. When we first prayed about where to plant our church in Peru, we would ride public buses and get off in random places praying for God’s leading and direction. We did the same thing in Tijuana. We felt the Lord changing our path during this survey trip and leading us to Tijuana. After much prayer and counsel, we decided to move our family to San Diego while waiting for Hadlee Grace’s birth and our adoption’s finalization. We began crossing the border several days a week exploring, praying, and dreaming.

God led us to Iglesia Bautista Centro Shalom, a church with a vibrant past that had fallen into some hard times due to the moral failings of the pastoral staff. While Kat stayed in San Diego with Cinco and Hadlee, Elmo preached and led the youth group at Centro Shalom. In March of 2022, the people of Centro Shalom asked if Elmo would be the lead pastor and help them heal from the trauma they had experienced.

The same week they called Elmo to be pastor, Hadlee’s birth certificate finally came in, and we were able to make our first trip to Tijuana as a family of four. Her passport is the next step! God made it very clear that Tijuana was the next step for our family. With the approval of our sending pastor and church, Elmo accepted the lead pastor position, and we began changing fields from Peru to Mexico. Centro Shalom has incredible potential and we will approach this project as a new church plant. There are also two separate pieces of land that were purchased for planting churches. We will be updating you on that soon! The rebuilding process will be challenging, but God’s Ekklesia is always worth the investment.

In May of 2022, the Baptist Bible Fellowship International officially approved our field change. While out hearts hurt that we will not be returning to Peru to live, we are excited to see what God has in store for our family here in Tijuana! God’s call is not geographical! We know there is a lot of information in this update, so please do not hesitate to reach out to us if you have any questions and need some holes filled in. We are available via email, Facebook, or phone call.