February Update

 As the time of the year where love is emphasized is upon us we we want to thank God for the unconditional love he bestows upon us. He is such a great God.

This past month we made some nice memories. We got to go to Hobe Sound camp meeting, this is where we went to college and we could sit in some services and visit with people whom he met years ago. It was a time of relaxation and also encouragement as well as encouraging others. We met up with some friends that we haven't seen in years and really enjoyed it. We also got to be part of the dedication ceremony of the coffee shoppe that is opening on campus of the college and they will be selling Natasha's parents coffee.

My parents got to come down for the weekend of camp meeting so we celebrated my dad's retirement, what a special time for him.

This past weekend our church hosted a marriage and family conference. It was so encouraging for both of us to hear how to strengthen our marriage. It is challenging when life is so hectic and busy, you are raising kids and life just doesn't slow down. We felt challenged to make sure there is always time for our relationship, we want to be an example for others and need to keep our marriage strong.

Next month we are going to Colombia. We plan to spend some time in Leticia to do some ministry then also spend some time with Jonatan's parents, Isabella needs some abuelito(a) time. Please keep us in your prayers that this will be a fruitful and effective time. We are going with a family we are friends with and assisting them, also we would like to see what options there are for us as living arrangements when we move there.

This summer we want to spend as much time as we can evangelizing and spreading our vision of what God has for the Amazon to as many churches as possible. We would love to see every one of you! If you wouldn't mind we would love to come to your church. If you would be interested please let us hear from you! We are putting our interinery together now :)

Sending hugs and well wishes,
The Nieto family

Planning for the new year

Hello family and friends in Christ,
We are so excited for a new year. Happy New Year! I was thinking of a good verse to start the year and this one touched me:
" Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever." Psalms 136:26
This Psalms is so encouraging knowing that God's love endures forever.  The chapter speaks about amazing things like God doing great wonders, governing the day and night, frees us from our enemies, gives food to every creature. How can we not thank him. He is an amazing God! Even when times are bad we still need to remember to thank the God in heaven because his love endures forever.

This year we are excited of what is to come. We have many plans driven by God and with his help he will fulfill them in us. 

March we are planning a trip to Colombia/The Amazon. The tickets to Colombia and coming home are paid for, given by some wonderful friends. We are praying for God to supply the other needs we have. We need to buy tickets to/from Leticia and some money for food and housing. Part of the time in the amazon we will do ministry and the rest of the time we will be scouting for a place to live and getting to know more people in the area as well as organize thing for out move. If you feel lead to help with this trip, please let us know.

Sometimes it is scary knowing that God has called us to this work and we don't know the details, we don't have anything to offer- except our lives. We just need to remember in his word it says that he is our provider, Jehovah Jireh, and not to fear. We are learning to live with little and know that God honors that, we are willing to go where ever he wants, when he wants.

Merry Christmas!

What a year it has been, and for us Nieto's it has been one of the best yet. God is so bountiful and giving us his best blessings and we are so thankful.



The week before Thanksgiving we had an amazing time with Proyecto Global at the dinner fundraiser. It was an amazing turn out and we were so thankful. The church came and supported what is going on in the Amazon and had a great meal, Paella, a typical meal from Spain

This past month we got to enjoy spending Thanksgiving with Natasha's family. The whole family was there and that has not happened since our wedding in 2013. We definitely got a family picture! Jonatan went deer hunting, which he enjoys doing while at home, and Natasha got to enjoy other people taking care of Isabella for a while and just have time to herself.

As Natasha was traveling back home to Florida, by airplane, God put a special person on her return flight. It sure was hard to travel alone with a baby and she sure learned to not plan that again. On the flight home a couple from the home church in West Virginia was on her flight. They were sure a blessing to help her with her bags and to her surprise her friend was going to a Christian conference that coming weekend in Orlando. She informed her that her daughter was supposed to have come and she actually had an additional ticket and asked if Natasha wanted to have the ticket. What a blessing! Thanks for an awesome day, Tamara!

This season passes so quickly we have to literally stop, pause and thank God for His goodness. Days pass so quickly it seems and we want to thank God for all his provisions. Many people around the world do not have the comfort, protection, abundance and love like we have in this country. God came to heal people from their sins, he died in our place so we can live an abundant life. Are you living abundantly today? Enjoy life because it's the only one you have, take time and thank God for his goodness to you!

We hope you have a very Merry Christmas! Love, the Nieto family.

Fall excitement, new residence

This past month so many great blessings have been happening in our lives. We have been continuing along with Proyecto Global and God has been providing in awesome ways. 

In October, Jonatan had the opportunity to travel to Lynchburg, Virginia with another one of Proyecto Global partners, Nicolas Posada as well as Dexter who lives there. They had a good time visiting churches and making more contacts for the ministry. We appreciate all the support and prayers, that gives us so much more encouragement when we know people are praying for us.

It was also a blessing to see a great mentor, Don Fanning and his wife Janice, they always give words of wisdom and we thank God for their lives.
  

This past month we had a silent auction in West Palm Beach, Florida. It was amazing how a college student named Katy felt on her heart to hold this event at her college for us. We met her in the Amazon this summer, she was a team member from a missions trip.

Our awesome Proyecto Global- Silent Auction Team

We were so excited and thankful for her willingness to help. We had a great team of people who volunteered time to help us with this. It did not have as great of a turn out as hoped but God still touched peoples hearts as well as our own on how God's timing is perfect and he controls all things.

There was a girl at the auction from Liberty University, the college that Jonatan went to, and she now lives in Miami. She heard about the event and decided to come. She was touched about our willingness to be so bold for Christ and feels on her heart to support the ministry with the students she teaches.
That was such and encouragement for us and to see her there was a blessing.

Another great blessing for our family is our new residence. ITEC had a wonderful couple moving away that was in charge of their guesthouse ministry. So, they thought Jonatan and I would be a good couple to fill that spot. We never knew that out of us all Isabella loves the move the most! She loves being able to explore and have room to play. We had our first hosting already and a couple conversational dinners. We ask that you will be in prayer with us that we will be used for God's glory as well as make some good connections through this :) Let us know if you are ever in the area!

Love you all and take care 

Jonatan, Natasha and Isabella. 

The Joy of the Lord is our Strength- Nehemiah 8:10! Amen.

Final Summer Update.

Hello to all our family and friends. We are happy to stay in touch with you about what is going on with our lives. Isabellita has been growing too fast and is full of much energy all the time. It seems our days fly by and this shows us more how important it is to take time everyday to stop and thank God for what he is doing in our lives.

This past month we have been quite busy organizing events and activities for Proyecto Global. We have gone to a couple churches to share the organization and are excited of what God is doing! We love to see how God opens doors and touches peoples heart to join the mission, it is so rewarding to know how faithful God is. We are so thankful, thankful for you!

If you could be in prayer for our organization we have a big event coming up and need all the prayer support and help as possible. Located in West Palm Beach, Florida, we are doing a live and silent auction event. All the donations and money raised are going to fund the land/housing project we have in plan for the future. https://www.gofundme.com/proyectoamazonas

If you know anyone who has an organization/ business or something they would like to donate, anything and everything is appreciated. We have some people who personally donated handmade items they made and we have some big items up for auction like a private flight around the city as well. We hope and pray that God will open peoples hearts and the many people will show up. We need as many peoples help as possible to make this a reality. 

If you would like to be part of this please let us know, you do not have to be local to help!

https://www.facebook.com/events/193041017796464/

I am going to leave you with a few pictures of this past month of the things we have been part of and the going-ons of our life.

Take care and God Bless you!

 

Jonatan speaking at our home church in Ocala, Fl.

Recent family picture.

Back with the Itec family - De regreso a la familia Itec

We recently have gotten home to the states and it feels funny to call this place home. Where is home? Jonatan and I counted the beds we had stayed in this summer and we counted 18, and there is more housed we visited besides that. We have exciting news as to were home will be next year! Stay tuned at the end of this post we will tell you more!

So, the last couple weeks of our stay in the Amazon region we helped Agua y Vida with the assistance of a church from Virginia construct a clinic in a village close to Leticia. We stayed there to assist in whatever needed to be done with the teams and locals. This is where Isabella learned to successfully walk and also "baile", to wiggle her tushy :) Isabella also celebrated her one year birthday there, this place will have a special memory in our lives forever.



After we left Leticia we took some time to visit other places of Colombia. We visited Jonatan's parents which from Leticia is two plane rides, or a plane and a 6 hour bus ride. During this stay we got to let Isabella have time to be spoiled by her grandparents. We went to their farm and got to enjoy relaxing in the Andes Mountains and picking coffee beans.

The last days in Bogota we took a three hour trip to a place called Villa de Leyva and had a time of relaxation. I really needed this and Jonatan did too. We were so thankful to enjoy three days doing nothing and just enjoying walking around and seeing a beautiful city. The center of this city has cobblestone streets, it is breathtaking.





It is good to be "home" for some time. Jonatan returned to ITEC this week and is continuing his training with aviation mechanics. He also will try to built up some more hours of flight time. We are always encouraged to come back here and feel like a family with this organization.

The big news we have is that during our trip to Leticia we found some land. A group of guys, Dexter, Nicolas and Jonatan all are coming together to buy this land as a base for the future ministry. They want to work together in missions and aviation in this area. We have a gofundme account and have more information over the project at this link:
https://www.gofundme.com/ProyectoAmazonas
If you know of a church, organization or someone who we could share with we would be grateful.
By next summer we plan to have this land and start with the construction process!

May God richly bless you all and we would love to see you!

Natasha´s Notebook. An experience to remember

An experience to remember...

We recently got back from a week and a half  long trip to the interior of the amazon jungle. We were quite remote along the Putomayo River visiting 5 different villages.

...Let me explain. We took a flight from Leticia to a city called Tarapaca. It is only a 45 minute flight but by boat it can take 5 days. Then from this location we went by boat to another location, by fast boat it can take 6 hours but by normal boat it can take 12 hours.... imagine, we went in a boat without a roof for a ride of our lives!

In this village it was flooded with water, everywhere we wanted to go we had to take a canoe. Also what welcomed us were the mosquitos and horrible no see-ums. We got eaten alive! This village we enjoyed sharing with the people. This location was one of the hardest for Isabella and I, but we enjoyed it and God was teaching me about patience and joy.






The second village we went to was also covered in water, but it was quite small so they put planks around the village and you get to practice your balancing skills walking across them (who knows how deep that water is below you). A sweet girl in the village was helping cook for us came to ask some questions about modesty and it was nice to be able to explain a bit about that. I also wanted to take the pastors daughter home with us. She asked me a couple times if she could come to our ¨pueblo¨ I told her maybe when we live it Leticia she could come for some time if she was aloud.

The third village was more remote in the fact that is it not right along the main river route so they have less access to many things. But, we had an amazing time there sharing with the church and encouraging the pastor and his wife. In this village we came in contact with a sweet girl that has been having medical problems, she has had pain for over two months and could not keep food down. The people here are poor and were afraid to take her to a far away for medical attention. We encouraged her and her family to go to the hospital and we helped pay for the trip. Over the past couple of weeks she has been getting worse, please pray for her, the name is Nataly.

The pastors in the fourth village we went to were were older in age. The pastor´s wife was sharing with me how she had 9 children! All of them have left this village and it seems like they were lonely and needed encouragement. We also got to minister to the local Peruvian Marines which was an amazing experince, the barracks were closed for public engagement but the commander opened doors for us to come and share lunch with them and then we had a drama about how God is knocking at your hearts door. It was a great time.

The last location, Tarapaca, was nice to come back to the city for a while. We got to take a rest from sleeping in rough conditions and sleep in a more comfortable hotel room. The pastor here is a key person in communicating with the other pastors and has always been a great help to Jonatan and his dad.

I have been challenged so much by the people, they are always smiling and happy, no matter the circumstances... We need to practice this as well in the United States. God has also been showing me the need of helping with childrens ministry. Out of all the churches none of them have an established childrens ministry and I would say half of all the congregations are children! Can you imagine if these children came to know Christ at a young age! I would like to find some good materials for them, find key leaders in the church and train them. We have much work to do for the next visit!

Please continue praying for us. We covet them and have been feeling them!