Gustavo

Richard & Ximena Roseland are at Oso Creek after serving the last few years at Pan de Vida orphanage in Queretaro, Mexico.

As they seek their next place to be on mission with Jesus, their hearts are still pulled for a young man named Gustavo at Pan de Vida. God has recently incredibly opened some doors for them to care for and help shape Gustavo's life!

The Roselands want you to know about Gustavo and some needs they face in helping him. I want you to know about Gustavo as well. Below is a letter from Richard telling you Gustavo's story . . . . Please comment back or email me if you want more info . . .

Dear Oso Creek Family,

As many of you know, we are back in Texas, but our ministry is not just limited to the place where we are located. We have been in contact with many different orphanages in different countries looking for needs that we could meet and opportunities where we could be of great service, just waiting for the still, small voice of our Lord to say “here!” We are going to visit a few of these orphanages in December as we have felt God’s peace and direction to these places. During this time, we have been praying for a special case of one of the boys from the orphanage where we were serving in Mexico. Some of you have met Gustavo who just turned 18 and have heard the testimony of the things that God has done in his life. For those of you who don’t know, Gustavo started living on the streets at the age of 8 after he ran away from his home. His step-father beat his mother and him and on one specific occasion Gustavo tried to stop him from hitting his mother. This made his step-father extremely angry and he threatened to kill Gustavo. His mother told Gustavo to run away, because she knew that his step-father would follow through with his threats. So Gustavo began living on the streets from the age of 8 until he turned 12. At the age of 12, he was brought to the orphanage and has been living there for the past 6 years. There is so much more to his story, but we hope that one day God will allow for him to be able to share his testimony with you in person. He is an excellent student, a man of God, and he is one of the kids at the orphanage that we truly believe has what it takes to do something amazing with his life. We love Gustavo a great deal and God has placed it on our hearts to help him achieve his dreams.

About a month ago, we wrote the director of the orphanage in Mexico to ask for his permission to take Gustavo with us to Ecuador in December whenever we are going to visit 3 different orphanages there. We thought “it doesn’t hurt to ask!” For those of you who know the director of the orphanage, he is a great guy, but for some reason the idea of the kids leaving the orphanage and starting a future is not high on his list of things to do. When we received the e-mail back from the director, we were surprised to find out that he gave us permission to take Gustavo with us to Ecuador! But even more surprising, he told us that he knows that Gustavo is a great kid and asked us if we could “be in charge” of Gustavo’s future education and helping him achieve his dreams. Wow! We were extremely surprised and we know that God’s hand is clearly evident in everything.

We are very excited to be able to take Gustavo with us in December and for him to be given the chance to inspire other orphans and volunteers at the homes that we will be visiting, showing that God has great things planned for even the least of these and that God can use their past to form them into men and women of God. We wanted to share this good news with you all, because we know that there are many things to give glory and praise to God about! We also still need your prayers in this situation. Since Gustavo is an orphan, he does not have the paperwork that will be needed to get a passport. We told the director that we will help with the paperwork and a few friends who live in Mexico volunteered to help as well. Also, we agreed to find people who could help cover the expenses of the trip and that we would cover whatever expenses are left over. The director gave us the go ahead to start with this process and we first need to get his birth certificate, then his voter’s registration card, and then his passport. The process doesn’t usually take a long time, but it can be complicated and expensive.

We know that God is in control of this situation and the life of Gustavo. He has the perfect plan for his life. Please join us in prayer that if this trip is in God’s plan and timing that He will work out all of the details and legal paperwork as well as provide the funds necessary for the trip as we do not have the money to cover all of Gustavo’s expenses.

Thanks,

Richard and Ximena Roseland