Family Update/Beautiful Juxtaposition

Hi - Visiting 2 of my cousins this last month was really special. It made me realize how much I've learned and grown since the last time I saw them. They both live in Germany now, and one of them is like another sister to me since we grew up together.

As I saw Valentina I couldn't stop thinking about where the Lord took me out of at the age of 19. Now we're both married and we're raising children, something that was never part of the things we talked about.

For me, everything changed when I came to know Jesus. He restored the way I view family and people, and now I get to enjoy that in my own life.

Being with my cousin made me realize that as Christians, people are always looking at us as examples, and we shouldn't forget that. It was awesome to be an encouragement for her since she is going through a big transition with her new baby and I can understand a little bit of that.

-Alejandra --------------------------- In 2021 as we were shepherding the Cúcuta church, an awesome friend was working with Samaritan's Purse in the same city. Her name is Elena.

We know the Lord brought her, and she wasn't just an encouragement for us (Sam and I) but to the whole church. She was always very kind and intentional with all our friends, which is something we highly appreciate in our work as missionaries. We also got together to drink some coffee, get our nails done and cheer each other up in the work we were each doing every once in a while. We kept in touch from the moment she left and even visited her in the States when she moved back, after working in various other countries. It was really special to be invited to her destination wedding in France, where she wanted Sam to share from the Word and also have us lead all her family and friends in worship during the ceremony.

-Alejandra ------------------------------ Friends are what makes ministry fun, and right now my mom and dad feel a strong pull in two different directions with where to serve... On the one hand we have so much that we can do with our church in Duitama where we have an awesome team of friends (and thus we could make a bigger impact)

But we also have a good group of friends in San Cristobal, Venezuela where we could get some good momentum going, if we were to start a church from scratch.

Back across the border in the Colombian city of Cucuta, it's super cool to spend time with our good friend Harry

And we also have the approval of the owner of a chain of barber shops to put on a weekly Bible study with his employees... I (Jackson) broke my Nazarite vow recently, when I got my first hair cut by the owner of the franchise

I suppose we could also go back to the United States, but according to president Donald Trump, that may mean I can only have 2 or 3 stuffed animals

-Jackson ----------------------- Hi - I took a screenshot of this map a while back, and I just can't stop looking at it:

As we were in the States a couple months ago, Alejandra and I got to spend time with friends from 3 of the 4 Latin American countries that are highlighted in red. Namely, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela:

And just a couple weeks ago, we had the privilege of going to an awesome Christian Brethren Missions conference where Alejandra and Jackson and I met a godly couple from the 4th country on this map that is highlighted in red... Angel and Orfelina are amazing Christians from Cuba who pastor and visit over 20 assemblies on the island, and it was wonderful to eat breakfast with them and hear about how God is bringing real freedom through His Son to those who have suffered under the country's government's oppression for decades... Along with them, we also had the company of our dear friend and colleague in ministry Bill Loudon who, along with his wife, also pastor and work alongside various Venezuelan immigrants... Thank you IBCM for putting on this amazing conference and letting us attend; thank you Gilberto Vanegas for coordinating it; and thank you CMML for giving our Cuban friends some nice used clothes.

In theory, we all agree that freedom is extremely important, and especially in the United States, even from its inception, it is a principle that is embedded into our very essence. Few people like visiting countries that have a low state of freedom, and it hurts us to feel that our own country may lose some of its freedom at any point. Especially in the United States, for better or for worse, many of us have been trained to say what we think and defend what we believe and stand up for injustice whenever we see it... Some would even go so far as to subconsciously consider that people like my friends from these countries above who immigrate to the US in hopes of finding more freedom, almost don't even deserve to do so, because they should stay back home and fight against the system...

Easier said than done - and when you understand just a tiny bit of the enormous sacrifice people make to depart their own country, you realize, "hey, if they're willing to go through all that just to leave - it must mean that to stay would cost even more..."

...Alejandra and I had the joy of visiting Alejandra's cousin and husband and baby in Germany recently, and since we were in Munich, we had the sobering opportunity to visit the Dachau concentration camp memorial site.

Perhaps the cruelest lie you could ever imagine that was written in capital iron letters on top of the gate at the entrance to the death camp was the grotesquely false hope "Arbeit macht frei" (lit. '"Work makes free"', or "Work shall set you free").

Obviously, the 41,500 prisoners that were tortured and killed in the camp experienced no such freedom, no matter how hard they worked, or how closely they followed orders.

What was the only thing that truly brought freedom to the thousands of Jews, Poles, Romanians, homosexuals, clergy, and communists who were treated so horrendously for, in some cases, years on end?

...The allied troops who went in there and defeated the Nazis...

In a similar way, I believe that Satan has captured millions of people with sin, and while he's at it - he tries to feed us that subtle yet terrible lie that "work will set us free" (Romans 5:12-14)... It won't. Only Jesus can, through the gift of eternal life (v. 15-20), and he has called people like us to proclaim that freedom to everyone we can (Romans 10:8-15; Matthew 28:18-20).

My grandpa Major Jack Killins was a medical doctor that helped those who were still alive at the time of the liberation of Dachau on April 29, 1945.

...As I walked through the exhibits and saw/read what took place there, I started weeping in gratitude for what my grandfather had done.

It is a beautiful juxtaposition that along with me, was the German husband of my wife's cousin, who was weeping as well.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery (Galatians 5:1). -Sam