The Munguia Family Update

Merry Christmas to all of you! We are rejoicing in this season remembering the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God for the awesome opportunity to be part of Living Waters Bible Camp. Here is an update on our ministry and transition.

Summer

Summer was a great learning experience. I was used to seeing summer from the camper’s and summer staff’s perspectives. But now I have experienced summer camps from the Executive Director’s perspective. There is a lot of work behind the scenes, securing volunteers, managing summer staff, spiritually caring for campers and volunteers, reviewing budgets, connecting to parents, and communicating with weekly directors. Praise the Lord for all the full-time staff that have been making summer camps possible at Living Waters for the past 51 years.

Our family also enjoyed summer camps. It was a great time for the kids to build relationships with campers and dorm leaders, and to be stretched in their English skills. Jeremias (11), David (9), and Noemi (8) attended their first camp ever (Kids Camp). Here is a little video of the camp. You will be able to see the kids enjoying the activities here: ivanandlaura.com/summervideo
Lidia (5) also attended Little Squirts camp. This was her first camp experience and her first overnight experience. Her dorm leaders did a great job caring for her even over the language barrier.

Laura was also able to serve at camp as a teacher for Kids Camp. It was quite a challenge for her to teach in English, but she overcame the language barrier and was able to serve many kids this summer.

Samuel (2) enjoyed camp by getting a lot of playground time and Miriam (7m) enjoyed the love and care of many camp people wanting to hold, hug and kiss her.

One of my highlights was having the opportunity to use my musical instruments for a chapel message. I encouraged the campers to be good instruments of God even when they may be considered small in age. You can listen to the message here ivanandlaura.com/instruments.

Fall

Fall was quite eye-opening for me. I was not aware of the ministry of the Camp towards schools. Living Waters Bible Camp ministers to schools by handcrafting a camp that fits the specific needs of the schools. Some schools need their kids to grow in service, others in conflict resolution, others in leadership. Living Waters works with each school to design a program that will help the school start with the right foot in their school year. It was great to be part of this season by serving as a speaker and song leader for some of those schools; and also, Laura and the kids were also able to serve during the fall as helpers in the kitchen.

Transition Update

The 2nd phase of the transition started this past October. There are 8 batons (areas of Camp) to be transferred. I got the Compliance baton in October so now I am fully responsible for the compliance of Camp. In November, the Board baton was transferred, which means I am now responsible for producing all the documents for the Board. We are planning to transfer the Finances baton this month and the Marketing and Communication baton starting next year. The plan is to have all the batons transferred by November 2022 when I will take the Executive Director responsibility in full.

Financial Support

This year the Lord provided 57% of our yearly ministry support. We give thanks to the Lord for your collaboration in our ministry through your financial gifts. We really appreciate your partnership in the ministry.

For 2022, we are aiming to raise 100% of our ministry support. We are currently at 34% thanks to the recurring donations already in place.

If you would like to join our ministry support team for 2022, go to ivanandlaura.com/donate or call me at 608-632-0018. We would appreciate monthly donations of $25, $50, $100, and $150, or one-time yearly donations. Would you prayerfully consider a financial contribution for our family to serve in this ministry?

Housing

This past August we finally moved into the new house. We received a lot of help from the believers at camp and church for the move. The house is only 8 minutes from camp and very spacious. It has a big family room and a great deck that we are excited to use for the ministry. It even has a 4th room that we have set to be our guest room so feel free to head down to Westby and stay with us for some fellowship and Mexican food!
Our house in Mexico finally sold this past November. It was getting financially complicated to keep sending money to Mexico to pay the mortgage. But the Lord knows our needs and provided a buyer. We closed on the house this past November in Mexico. We took advantage of the trip to visit family and friends in Mexico. We spent 3 weeks in Mexico introducing our new baby to the family, reconnecting with believers at a Family camp, visiting 3 churches, and finalizing paperwork.