April Missions Update
- Borderlands Family Baptist Church
- Apr 1
- 10 min read
This update was sent to our email list on 4/1/2026
Wow!
It's so hard to believe how far we have come in just nine months time! The first time I sent one of these monthly mission updates out, we had just returned to Virginia from our El Paso Vision Trip a couple of weeks before. At that time, we still had not been assessed by Send Network, my two oldest kids hadn't graduated high school, and I was not yet ordained as a minister of the Gospel by the leadership at Westlake.
It's still hard to believe that I'm ordained now...but more on that in a bit.
The entire month of March was a whirlwind of last visits and "see you laters" that began on the first day of the month, as I taught the connections (mixed adults) sunday school class and took the pulpit to preach as a regular member at Westlake one last time. It was also the first time that I oversaw communion.
You can watch the video from the sermon on my YouTube channel (or by clicking the video in this email), but I was finally able to preach on the one topic that is my absolute favorte thing to speak about:
The Gospel.
In fact, looking at the gospel that saves sinners through the lens of the historic passover season (from Deuteronomy 16:1-8) is why I titled that message "A Prelude to the Gospel." Additionally, that was also our last "regular" Sunday at Westlake as we went and visited Hebron in Appomattox one last time before moving a week later on the 8th.
Since it's the season of the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions, "Aunt Rhonda" Luckie asked us to have our picture taken in front of the Hebron Church building to have turned into a coloring book page for the children. It was a great encouragement to all of us to know that one of our partner churches in Virginia is so intentional about teaching the kids how to get involved in missions in a real way, and connecting our mission in El Paso to a small country church in rural Appomattox County-especially in the context of the the annual SBC Annie Armstrong offering and the North American Mission Board (with which we are affiliated).
While we were in town, we were able to go and have lunch with Mom and Stacie at "the Taco Wagon," and that kicked off our last full week in Virginia-a week of incredible activity.
On Monday of that week (the 9th), I went to the Reformed Pastor's meeting in Roanoke, where I was blessed and challenged by the message of Dr. Jeff Griffith of HeartCry Ministries (the predominantly international missions organization that is based in Roanoke and headed by Paul Washer).
Dr. Griffith preached from 1 Corinthians 2:1-5, and there were two big takeaways that I took away from the message, and both encouraged me greatly.
First: "the Gospel always results in movement...either a bowed knee or a clenched fist. If people don't respond in faith in Christ or anger at the preacher, we need to examine why."
Second: "Don't fall into the trap of preaching 'about' the gospel and neglect the proclamation 'of' the gospel."
These two "one liners" really hit me hard.
A really common problem in many pulpits today (and more reformed minded pastors seem uniquely susceptible to this mistake) is speaking too much about "theological minutae" that doesn't have the power to save souls. Many preachers and teachers today (and I've been guilty of this) spend way more time delving into questions like "who is the anti-christ?" or "how do we reconcile man's responsibility for sin and God's sovereign decree?" than they do proclaiming the Gospel.
For those of you that have known me for a long time, you know that I have a reference to Romans 1:16 tattooed on my right forearm and 2 Timothy 1:10 on my left:
The gospel is everything. The Gospel doesn't just save us, it radically changes us. I can't speak for everyone else at the meeting on the 9th, but I definitely needed to hear Dr. Griffith's sermons. If I move to the desert and forget the gospel, then I will have accomplished nothing out here.
Then, on Wednesday the 11th, we went to the Hill City Aqua Zoo at River Ridge Mall to celebrate Nathaniel's 16th birthday. We all really enjoyed interacting with the animals and I think Nathan in particular really enjoyed interacting with one of his favorite animals: the capybara.
That night, we had cake and sang "happy birthday" to the16 year old young man...but the week still wasn't over.
The next night (Thursday the 12th) we went to the Likens home for one last youth night, and Justin and Diana surprised Nathaniel with even more birthday celebrations. As always, it was really enjoyable just to spend some time with the Likens's and Belknaps, especially since it was our last Westlake Youth night before moving.
To be honest, after all of those events in the first two weeks of March left us exhausted. There were so many people we wanted to see and spend time with before leaving that we had run ourselves ragged trying to make the most of the time we had that by Friday March 13, that Patricia I just wanted to rest.
So we did. On Friday and Saturday, we just kind of stayed home and relaxed, because the final hurdle to jump before moving out here was upon us:
Our sending celebration and my ordination.
I'll admit, I wasn't nervous, but I was struck by the sheer weight of the moment. When we got to church that morning, Justin clapped me on the back and asked me how I was and it was all I could do to keep from crying. All that morning, I kept hearing James 3:1 on repeat in my mind: "Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers..."
I know that I was not alone in this fact, but several tears were shed that morning. I could barely sleep that morning, and my prayer all that morning was "Lord, just keep my eyes on you," and that has been my consistent prayer ever since.
Mom and Stacie came down from Appomattox to celebrate our sending with us, and Heather's parent's joined us as well, so its safe to say that all of the extended family that was there that morning shed some tears, along with our family.
As a part of our sending, Justin and the deacons presented us with two ESV Study Bibles that have the logo Nathaniel made for our church plant engraved into the leather of the front cover, and many people from Westlake wrote us touching messages "yearbook style" in the first few pages.
They will be treasured possessions for the rest of our lives.
Additionally, Pastor Justin also announced that Westlake will be giving similar ESV bibles (I preach out of the ESV) to the first 25 people we baptize after we launch regular services sometime in the next 6-12 months.
That Sunday and the next two days were incredibly emotional, as we said our final "see you laters." On Monday, we had initially invited the Likens's and Cowhards out to dinner, but Diana suggested that we all just go to their house and order pizza.
So, that's exactly what we did. It was such a blessing to spend that time with the Likens's and Cowhards, just fellowshipping with our Sending Church family a little bit more before packing the U-Haul and heading west.
Then, the work of moving began on the 17th, as Patricia and I went to Roanoke to pick up the U-Haul truck and auto transport to prepare for the long drive out west.
Despite the fact that we had told everyone that we didn't need any help packing up (and truthfully, we didn't...we had gotten rid of so much already), folks from Westlake came and gave us a hand anyway, so I want to give a special thanks to Emily Tersy, Caleb Likens, and Ed & Patty Cowhard. After we packed the truck, it was a real blessing just to sit down for a meal at El Toreno in Moneta to have a meal with them.
Then it was time to hit the road for the loooong drive out west. The first day was pretty uneventful as we made it into Tennessee with no major issues, but days two an three could have gone a bit smoother. On Interstate 30 West in Dallas, I was driving the U-Haul in the far left lane and felt the trailer suddenly shake behind me. I looked in the mirrors and saw that we had a shredded tire on the drivers side. Luckily, U-Haul auto transports have two tires on both sides and I was hauling Ivy's 2001 Saturn (a really light car similar to a Chevy Cavalier), so the second tire was able to hold up until I could get across the highway and parked somewhere in Dallas. We only lost about an hour waiting for roadside assistance and we made it to Abilene by 9PM (Central) that evening
Because we had planned for day three to be the shortest day of driving (we knew we would be tired) and because we would be transitioning from Central to Mountain time, we didn't need to get up too early to leave the AirBnB in Abilene, but even with the delayed departure, we still got slowed down on the road as Christine got really car sick. Patricia, Heather, Nathaniel, and Chris ended up getting to the AirBnB in El Paso about an hour after us, but it worked out as my brother, Denzsel, and Dani made dinner for us and brought it over so we wouldn't have to cook or buy from a restaurant on our first night in the city.
Then, on our first morning, I went over to a Send Network event for a short while to begin networking with some of the local pastors and by the time I got home, Patricia, Heather, and the kids had completely unloaded the U-Haul, so we took most of Saturday to rest and recover from the drive.
Then, on Sunday, we went to Jezreel Iglesia for the first time. We were welcomed so warmly by the church family that will be serving as our local sponsor as we prepare to launch. Pastor Diego brought a great message from Hebrews, challenging all of us to go deeper into the gospel and becoming skillful in the word...a message I think is applicable no matter how long one has been a Christian.
Of course, if you follow me on YouTube, then you already know about our drive out because you saw the second episode of our vlog. If you haven't seen our vlogs, you can watch them on my YouTube Channel. Make sure to subscribe and ring the bell icon while you're there! I will be posting our family vlog every Wednesday, so to sure you never miss an upload of the Vlog, teaching, or preaching videos.
Our first full week as El Pasoans was a whirlwind of getting settled in, bike riding, and just getting familiar with our new home. We purchased electric bicycles for everyone so we can save on gas and be more active as a family since El Paso is about a 7 to 8 out of 10 on the "bikable city scale" that I just made up. 😉
On Wednesday, we went back to Jezreel for the Wednesday night Bible study, and we rode the bikes over. Of course, our bikes have headlights or else we wouldn't have been able to see and get home safely in the dark!
On Friday, Patricia and I wanted to start doing the work of missions, and as everyone reading this has heard me say repeatedly since we started this journey, prayer is the most important part of "the missional task," so we decided to go over to Horizon City to pray. Since El Paso is such a large area, prayer walking isn't really feasible, so we decided to "prayer ride" on the bikes.
We wanted to (and tried to) ride the bikes over, but we couldn't find a good route on the bikes, so we went back home, put the bikes in the van, and drove over. We parked in an Albertson's parking lot, took the bikes out, and went for an hour long "prayer ride" in one of the neighborhoods. We prayed over homes, schools, first responders, soldiers, and construction crews that we saw (Horizon is EXPLODING...the 17th fastest growing zip code in the country).
Interestingly, that was also our first sandstorm since moving. There was a lot of wind and we felt "sandpapered" after riding our bikes in that wind. It was a small sandstorm, but was still a wild experience. Below, you can see a picture of how we couldn't even see the Franklin Mountains, which are the southernmost range of the Rocky Mountains. They are HUGE and are incredible to see up close as you drive through the Trans Mountain highway that connects East and West El Paso, much larger and way steeper than the Blue Ridge back home.
Of course, those photos aren't from our "prayer ride," but were taken by Ivy while we were driving to the west side for "The Halo Effect," a two night hip-hop worship concert at Legacy Church...and promoted by "baby brother" Zsel. It was great to network with some brothers who are doing "street ministry," one of whom I learned on Sunday goes to church with us at Jezreel!
Sunday began Holy Week, as we celebrated Palm Sunday at Jezreel. The youth did a presentation in both the English and Spanish services that I have to admit brought me to tears in the final section...it beautifully showed the life of our Lord from his birth to death, resurrection, seated next to the Father, and finally every knee bowing at the name of Jesus.
And that's why we moved out here: to point people to worship at the feet of the King of Kings, as it is written, "at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:10-11).
And that brings us to the present day, with me writing this email from our bedroom in the AirBnB, absolutely flabbergasted that we are finally in El Paso. As I said several times to people I have relationships with, "its really easy to think moving was the finish line when really, this is the starting line."
Thank you all for coming along with us in this journey! If you want to support us, there's two ways to do it. First is to KEEP PRAYING. Without prayer, our entire work out here is for nothing. Second, we still need more financial partners, so if you want to support our work financially, please consider becoming a monthly donor by clicking the button below.
Additionally, if you have not joined our facebook group for pictures, updates, and other content, you can join it by clicking the button below.
As always, thank you for supporting us! We love you all!
Josh Davis
Lead Planter
Borderlands FBC
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