Hello dear friends,
As you may know, Chepe and I have always felt that in God’s timing, we would be leaving El Salvador and moving to—or in my case, moving back to—the United States. Well, that time is quickly approaching. We’re moving to the States!
Chepe’s Residency Visa
Way back in February 2020, we met with an immigration lawyer about the process for Chepe to receive permanent residency in the US, commonly referred to as a green card. We expected the process to take about a year, followed by another 3-6 months of finishing up things here. Well, we all know about the subsequent pandemic that changed the world and created major delays in immigration processing.
After months of silence, we received many unexpected and speedy advancements in our visa case over the past two months, and—glory to God—Chepe’s visa was approved a couple weeks ago!
While trusting in God’s timing, we have gone through many moments of struggle in the waiting and asking the Lord for encouragement. We wanted to take advantage of the “extra” time we’ve had here and to continue serving fervently, and we are bursting with gratitude for all that we’ve experienced in ministry in the past two years.
Now, we are focusing on logistics and transition plans to move to Ohio in April!!! We will deeply miss our family and friends here in El Salvador, but we are excited to find out all that God is preparing for us in this new chapter.
El Salvador Ministry Transition
We are excited to share that our friend Pedro Solano will be taking over many of our current responsibilities with Iglesia Gran Comisión San Salvador and the CDIs in the Volcano and Soyapango. Pedro has grown up in this church and has served as a volunteer for Sunday services and mission teams for several years. Alongside Pastor Nelson, we have already been training him and are so excited to watch him grow and thrive in this new role!
Chepe will continue as a church employee until the end of March. I will continue with my responsibilities at the CDIs until the end of March, and we will both focus on logistics and saying “good goodbyes” to our people here in the last days before the move. I will continue on with Reliant for a period of time after the move to complete their transition process and meet with supporters to express our gratitude for all of your faithful generosity. Your continued giving during this time remains an essential part of what we are doing. In coming updates, I’ll provide more information about giving and my official end of employment, as I’m still working out the details with Reliant.
Moving Plans
As I mentioned, we’ll be making the big move in April. We’ll be in the Columbus area for the immediate future and hoping to establish ourselves there or possibly Toledo. We’re not sure what that will look like due to so many things—employment, long-term housing, etc.—but we’re so excited to find out. If you’re in the Columbus (or Toledo) area, we’d love to meet and catch up with you when we’ve gotten settled in! We’ll have more details to share with you in the next update, which I’ll send out before we move.
Prayer Requests
For divine guidance:
as we work with Pedro, Nelson and the rest of the team here to carry out a smooth transition for our current roles in ministry
For lots of quality time:
with our family and friends in between all of the things we need to accomplish before we move; I’m going to be soaking up all the time I can with our beloved CDI children!
For God’s provision:
and for Him to lay the groundwork for upcoming shifts in every part of our daily lives
For Chepe:
as he says goodbye to his home culture
For an upcoming visit from Rock City Church:
that God would keep the team safe, healthy and for His work to shine (March 5-10)
As always, we cannot thank you enough for your continued support and prayers. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us!
alihoward.co 