December/January/February          

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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We apologize for the delay on our updates. We can’t believe it’s already 2025. 

We have been in Fort Worth for 7 months. It’s crazy to think we’ve been here for this long and by God’s grace been able to adapt so easily. Antioch church has been so kind and loving toward us, the leadership in the church have been so supportive towards God’s vision for our lives. 

 

December was a busy month, as we had different Christmas parties with our Lifegroup, ADS (Antioch Discipleship School) and also prepared to visit Sandra’s family in Florida. We celebrated Jeremy and Sandra’s birthdays and tried to get a few Christmas and birthday presents in suitcases for our trip to Florida. 

Florida was a good time to visit with family and friends for Christmas and to update them with our vision for Peru. 

Our New Year was quiet, we were here in Fort Worth and we decided to go to a late night movie and then came home to celebrate the New Year!

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Jeremy continues to work and excel at his job. The company has delegated him to also be a driver delivering to different stores within DFW/Dallas area and Oklahoma, so he drives some days and works in the warehouse other days. The days he drives to Oklahoma City and back are around 12/13 hours, which makes it a long and tiring day for him. Management also assigned him with training a new guy because of his work ethic... pretty cool! Our prayer is that the Lord would use him to be a light.

Sandra continues to help the kids with homeschooling. It continues to be challenging, we’ve realized that the curriculum that we have it's not very helpful for our kids, so we are changing our curriculum next year. Praying for wisdom in what to choose. There's so much it can feel overwhelming. 

Eliya and Ezra continue to enjoy church and their friends. Thankful for God’s faithfulness in their lives. 

Sandra and the kids continue to attend BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) as they’re studying Revelation. 

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In January we had a couple of weeks or more realizing that the fridge was slowly breaking when things in the freezer were thawing out. Come to discover when we called someone to check it that the fridge was breaking. We had to look for a new fridge and put all our food in coolers until we bought a new fridge. Crazy times trying to ask friends for coolers, buying ice and praying that all our food didn’t go bad. Thankfully everything was good and we have a new fridge. 

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In February we had our missions conference called “World Mandate” at Antioch Fort Worth. This is the same conference we attended last year. Looking back at it,  we didn’t know this conference was the beginning of a new journey. We are in awe of how God brought us to Fort Worth, as we left everything behind and surrendered to God’s plan for our lives. 

One thing we learned in this conference is that as long as we have a heart of surrender, God can do amazing things. Here we are Lord, send us, we surrender to Your will!

 

The church also asked us to give a short testimony of how the Lord spoke to us through World Mandate last year. We were able to speak to the congregation for a few minutes before service started and let them know of how God moved in our behalf through World Mandate and showed us His plan for us to continue to move towards Peru. 

 

Also our friends from Trinity Fellowship Church, Bethesda in Amarillo came to World Mandate. It was so refreshing to see our friends here in Fort Worth.  We were able to spend some time with Russ and Tracy Pennington and their family. Such a blessing to us!

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ADS

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December was busy for us, we had our ADS Christmas party and in January we had a change of table groups and table leaders in order to have more relationships with other team members. We continue to have great speakers coming to speak to us every Monday night, great worship and lots of homework. Even though Mondays are long days, we always look forward to Monday nights ADS…

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We are currently 6 months in, and getting ready for our mission trip to Baton Rouge, Louisiana with the ADS team and our whole family. . Please pray for that trip, we leave March 15th! Update later on how that trip goes…

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Homeless Ministry

 

We are currently serving on and off, as homeschool requires me to be with the kids, it has become a bit more difficult to serve in the ministry, and work for Jeremy has unable him to do it on the weekdays. But please continue to pray for our loved ones as winter is here and they will need more provision for the cold days.

In January there was a cold front over one of the weekends, and we got to accompany the FTO ministry to check on our loved ones and to provide warm hot chocolate, a hot meal, blankets, clothes (socks, shirts, jackets, beanies, gloves) and toiletries. We were so blessed to see our friends again. 

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Also Sandra and the kids are doing BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) every Wednesday. This February Wednesday was a cold, icy day, so they decided to go to Target for some hot lattes. Sandra was able to spot a lady with her daughter. She was able to recognize them from FTO (For The One) ministry. 

 

A little bit of back history about this family. One of the days Sandra and the FTO ministry went to search for our loved ones, we met this family. The grandmother, Minnie (disabled), the daughter, Margaret, and the granddaughter, Shelby. They were sitting under a tree nearby Target. When we stop to speak with them, they told us they’ve been homeless for 1 week and it was really hard for 3 women to be on the streets late at night. They also told us that they are trying to apply for housing but is taking so long. We helped them with food and toiletries. We continue to visit with them for a month, and within that month they were able to get close on the list for housing, as the grandmother is disabled they have priority. But one day they disappeared. We didn’t see them for over 5 months. We thought they probably were called for housing by the city and they were settle somewhere until recently when Sandra saw Margaret and Shelby at Target. 

 

When Sandra approached them, they were a bit cautious and reserved, but they were able to remember her from the ministry and open up. They told Sandra that they moved with the mom’s uncle, but ended up on the streets again because of a disagreement with him. The city hasn’t contacted them for housing, and now with this cold front they have spent all their Social Security disability money for a hotel for a week. After this week they will be out in the streets again. The mother is trying to find a job but no success. 

Sandra was able to get their contact information and get them some groceries and warm meals. We also are able to know where they are staying and will try to find people that can help them with more housing resources. Please continue to pray for them. Pray for provision for a job and also housing for them. 

 

 

 

From the Swans, we want to thank you all for your continual prayer, love, and support for us while we are here in Fort Worth.

 

 

Prayers:​

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• Pray for wisdom and discernment on what curriculum to pick for the kids for next year. 

• Pray for God to lead us in every decision, with every friendship and every place we go. 

• Pray for FTO homeless ministry and continual provision for them.

• Pray that God will continue to prepare and equip us to do His work here and in Peru.

• Pray for our upcoming mission trip to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The whole team of ADS and our whole family are going from March 15th till the 21st. Pray for protection as we are driving there and back. Also pray for hearts to be tender and open to hear the good news of Jesus!