News from the Border

Hi - If anyone wants to hear my thoughts regarding the capture of Nicolas Maduro and the ensuing tension between Colombian president Gustavo Petro and Donald Trump - you'll have to travel to Sweden and watch the news there.

For everyone else - you're welcome to pray for the ABCD churches my wife and I started in Colombia (the two Aposento Alto churches, the Refuge Church in Bogota, the Refuge Church in Cucuta, and the Refuge Church in Duitama)... Also - will you please pray for Iglesia Levantemonos y Edifiquemos as well as for missionaries working with indigenous communities in Colombia?

In the picture above, just this last Sunday leaders from LyE, Parkway, Duitama, and Cucuta met together to kick off the year and pray for what's ahead. We also heard a report from Venezuelan pastors and close friends Nino and Virginia about the status of the Venezuelan church, and we prayed for them as well as for all the other churches mentioned above

After showing some of my friends from out of town a little of Bogota

I met up with Duitama and Cucuta leaders at my parents house where my awesome Venezuelan friends then spent the night

On Monday I jetted over to Cucuta to encourage my friends there and see what's happening at the border, as we also shared the gospel

Today I'm getting my passport renewed, and Alejandra is back in the States with little Jacks, as she also tries to define a few things related to her American visa

It was great to have all the extended Killins' together this Christmas, along with honorary family members Carolina and Orlando Bueno

As executive director of Christian Missions in Many Lands John Peaseland has emphasized in his most recent Prayer Handbook - please pray for missionaries like the Buenos (and especially their daughter Ana Sofia), who have (and are) working hard to take the gospel to the Arab world... You won't be able to find the Buenos in the handbook, and you won't be able to find Alejandra and I either - but then again - who's looking?

...As I was at the border of Colombia with Venezuela yesterday - everything seemed fairly normal, albeit a little more tense, and with a lot more news reporters than usual...

The thing that caught my attention the most however, was a hearse that was picking up a corpse which was being transported from one country to the other

As this world gets crazier and crazier every second - the main thing that us Christians should be intentional about is sharing the good news of Jesus to spiritually dead people who are being shuffled around from one place to another... Alejandra and I happen to be doing that in Colombia (and at times in Venezuela and the States), and so any way that you would like to support and/or pray for us in the midst of this calling we would really appreciate it.

Christian Missions in Many Lands is a good missions organization, and thankfully they have been very gracious to my family and I in channeling tax deductible donations from friends and churches in the States to us here in Colombia... If you would like to support my family and I as we share the gospel and plant churches and serve Venezuelans and Colombians (as well as anyone else that God puts in our path) just click on this link to see how to do that: https://www.cmml.us/waystogive. Also, at this link you can send us a gift electronically by clicking on the blue support button, as you also read our missionary profile: https://www.cmml.us/m/702

Make it a good 2026, and don't be afraid to live loud as ambassadors of our King. Just remember who's our King.

Come quickly Lord Jesus, Sam Missionary Profile: P.S. Recently I've been thinking a little about how as Chrisitans we're all kind of like Nicolas Maduro who has been taken captive, and is now being led around in triumphal procession (2 Cor. 2:14).

Coffee, C̶o̶c̶a̶i̶n̶e̶, and the Gospel of Christ

Hi - I think we can all agree that drugs are really bad and that the world needs more coffee.

Where exactly tea falls into the equation I don't know, but my mom used to have this image framed at our house which was pretty clever:

I never used to drink much coffee, but now I do big time, thanks primarily to these guys, who have been a positive influence in my life:

But far more important than campaigning for the aroma and taste of Colombian coffee - Alejandra's and my friends and I are mostly interested in spreading around the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing (2 Corinthians 2:15).

To one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life (v. 16a).

Just like churches, there are different blends of coffee. Some blends are more exotic and some are more plain. Some selections are more organic while others are more processed. There is only one gospel, and there are those who plant that gospel and the Word of God on different terrains, and then there are those who water it... Either way, God is the one who causes the growth (1 Corinthians 3:6).

And who is competent for such a task? (2 Cor. 16b) Obviously no one, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant — not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (2 Cor. 3:5b-6).

Now, about trafficking drugs - that definitely kills. It kills the users, and recently the news has shown that it also kills the peddlers.*

But, unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God (2 Cor. 2:17)... At the table in the picture below, I even got to hear from a very courageous Christian woman who is seriously and arduously fighting against human trafficking in SouthEast Asia.

And as for coffee - in the picture below, recently I got to work with and learn from some solid Christian guys who are promoting the cultivation of this amazing crop as an alternative to cocaine within one of the most violent regions of Colombia.

Lord willing, maybe a couple of the Refuge churches that Alejandra and I started can host a couple coffee shops some day that support this initiative.

1 Corinthians 16:24, -Sam Missionary Profile: *Though I don't support the killing of people without due process, and it's likely that the attacks on these sea vessels has more to do with intimidating Nicolas Maduro than anything else.

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