About Us
Who we are
We are passionate about missions & being involved in enabling front line Kingdom work to take place in the nations; about listening to God & going where we hear Him say to go to do what we hear Him call us to do; and about encouraging others in Kingdom work at the same time.
Click on our photos or scroll down to learn more about each of us
or click our wedding photo to learn about our journey together
Peter Francis
The first thing to address is Peter Francis’ name/s. The short story is that he remains known by his first name, Peter, by those in the UK, but in the rest of the world he has become known by his middle name, Francis. He prefers you refer to him accordingly based on where you know him from.
Background
He was born in Ashford, Kent in the South East of England, attended Godinton Primary School and the Norton Knatchbull Grammar School for Boys and Sixth Form, and was a part of Ashford Baptist Church.
Following school he spent three years volunteering with Youth For Christ around England including Leicestershire, Buckinghamshire, the Wirral, and more, which involved working alongside churches such as Holy Trinity Ashby.
He then attended University in Portsmouth, studying Psychology and getting involved with a great many areas of student life. Most notably he was involved with the work of the Christian Union and the student life at the King’s Church.
Following on from this he took part in an 11-month, 11-country mission trip called the World Race, coming to be known as Francis by all of those he worked alongside around the world and it was during this time that he met Andrea.
He went on to train as a Teacher before getting married to Andrea and transitioning to full time work as an overseas missionary. From 2014 to 2019 they were part of Youth With A Mission in both Malaysia & Guatemala, and have since been serving as local missionaries in Puerto Barrios.
Work Areas
During his time on the mission field he has been involved in both front line and support roles.
Front line work has included working with the homeless, teaching English, aiding with the delivery of children’s ministry, Bible distribution, and more. He has also helped staff a Discipleship Training School.
In particular, he has found that he has a gifting and passion for administrative tasks that allow others with more front line vision to be able to more fully focus on those works. He has been involved in accounting, website management, documentation, logistics, communications and more.
Sometimes his work can be somewhere in the middle, such as serving as a translator for a visiting team or individual, to enable them to cross the linguistic barrier and interact with the local people.
He is motivated to serve the missionaries he works with in these ways, but also in directly intentional ways by considering the care that missionaries receive. One area he enjoys serving in is in worship leading through singing and playing the guitar – in one or two languages.
Hobbies
Francis enjoys a number of things in his free time.
Whilst he has grown in leading worship over the last few years and enjoys playing the guitar & singing, he has also been slowly learning to play the drums. With some interest in languages he continues to work on his Spanish and is currently learning French as well.
He enjoys watching movies, especially Marvel movies, and has a few bits of TV he follows, particularly DC shows (is there a theme there?). If he can find the time he enjoys a little bit of video games, though nothing current – just replaying through old favourites – and can find himself down a black hole of smartphone use if left unchecked.
One of his favourite things to do though is to go out on dates or have some board game time with Andrea, or take one of the kids out for ice cream or to a play area, or to go out as a family to do something fun.
Follow or contact him here:
Andrea
Andrea’s name comes with a note too – being from Central America it is the Spanish pronunciation ‘and-RAY-uh’ rather than the western pronunciation ‘AND-ree-uh’.
Background
Andrea was born and raised in Puerto Barris on the north coast of Guatemala. Her father is a pastor and a bishop for this part of the country and her mother is a primary school teacher.
As part of her secondary schooling she trained as a primary school teacher and tried some other job opportunities before going to University to test whether she should go into a career in medicine, ultimately deciding that that wasn’t the path she was called to.
She went on to attend the Discipleship Training School run by the Youth With A Mission (YWAM) base in Guatemala city, the lecture phase of which took place there whilst their times of outreach took them out to serve in Mexico and El Salvador.
Following this time she returned to work in Puerto Barrios with a ministry called Casa Verde – led by a couple who had been staff at the YWAM base in Guatemala City, but run here as an independent organisation. During this time she met Francis.
She went on to work with YWAM in England at the Holmsted Manor base in West Sussex before they got married and returned overseas, serving in both Guatemala and Malaysia.
Work Areas
Andrea has been involved with front line ministry to varying degrees, having generally been the parent most involved with childcare.
With Casa Verde and on outreach in Puerto Barrios she has served with ministry to orphans, to the elderly, with children’s clubs, and more.
With YWAM in Malaysia she was involved with the outreach ministry to sex workers, the homeless ministry, serving in the charity shop, providing hospitality for teams & volunteers, and more.
With YWAM in Antigua Andrea served as part of the children’s ministry team, in Bible Distribution, and with caring for teams. She also helped staff the Discipleship Training School that ran during their time there.
Here in Puerto Barrios she has served with each of the different ministries that take place, and has also provided regular pastoral care to the female members of the team, as well helping as a skilled translator for visiting teams & volunteers to be able to connect with the people that the ministries here reach.
Hobbies
In her spare time Andrea has a few things she enjoys doing.
Over time she has learned some guitar (with an interest in learning keys and violin in future), she has learned how to use a DSLR camera to work on professional photos (including digital touch ups post-shoot), she has a sewing machine she has been making good use of, and more.
But one of her big passions over the last few years has been cloth nappies (diapers). Not only have we been using these for our kids but Andrea has been a brand representative for more than one nappy brand, with Liam being a bit of a model for them as well.
When relaxing or doing housework like folding clothes she enjoys watching Korean dramas, and she can occasionally convince Francis to watch a chick flick with her.
She has recently rekindled a love for the Legends of Zelda franchise, playing through Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, and enjoys Candy Crush and similar apps
Andrea enjoys going out for granizadas (shaved ice drinks) with Francis or as a family and is happy to be situated now so close to her wider family.
Follow or contact her here:
Our Journey
Francis & Andrea met due to his World Race team coming to serve for a month with Casa Verde in Puerto Barrios in 2012. There was a spark from the beginning, which they both initially ignored due to the “no-starting-relationships” agreements they were respectively under, but after some encouragement from team mates they talked and used the month to build a foundation of friendship.
After the World Race had finished they had some time together to get to know each other more deeply, ultimately deciding to pursue a relationship in spite of the potential difficulties of it being cross-cultural, bilingual and long-distance. They each came to feel that those “difficulties” contributed to strengthening their connection.
Andrea moved to work in the UK and in 2013 they got engaged and married, responding to the call they felt God had put on them to pursue full time missions as a married couple. This initially looked like returning to Guatemala where they were able to serve together and go on to complete the Discipleship Training School offered by YWAM, this time in the Antigua city base in 2014.
Having tested their call to missions they felt God say that they were to serve in Malaysia, and so took the step to join staff with the YWAM base in Penang, first returning to the UK to develop a support base and strengthen their connection to Francis’ home church which would become their primary link church.
During this transition they also learned that they were now expecting their first child and after the first few months in Malaysia returned to the UK for her to be born. They welcomed CJ (as she was known then) in early 2015 and returned to serve in YWAM Penang shortly after.
In their third year in Malaysia they started to think and pray about what was next and at that time felt that God was calling them to return to serve in missions in Guatemala. They were accepted as staff at the YWAM Antigua base and returned in time for the birth of their second child, JJ, at the end of 2017.
They served with YWAM Antigua for two years, finishing at the end of 2019. Francis was mostly involved with the base whilst Andrea was primarily focused on childcare, but they took what opportunities they could to both be involved in ministry, especially when they helped staff the DTS as a family. Near the end of this time they also suffered a pregnancy loss but continue to remember little Connor regularly.
Since Christmas 2019 they have been pleased to have returned to serve in Puerto Barrios, somewhere the Lord keeps bringing them back to. Since the birth of Liam in early 2021, Andrea has been mostly focused on looking after him and helping the older two with their homework, with Francis focused more on ministry work.
Charlie
Full name: Charlotte Joy Frizelle López (well, two surnames in Guatemala, just the first in the UK), she currently goes by Charlie, but before that was CJ.
Charlie has been a wonderful blessing to her extended family, bringing peace and, fittingly, joy, to those in Guatemala and those in the UK.
She is enjoying being at school and making friends, as well as working hard at her school work (well, we say she enjoys that, her complaints about homework might suggest otherwise!) and loves whenever the neighbour kids come looking to play with her and JJ.
She enjoys jumping on a trampoline, riding around on her bike, playing with toys, and, as much as she can get out of us, playing on the Nintendo Switch or watching anything on YouTube that is Mario or Minecraft related!
JJ
Full name: Jonathan Jeremiah Francis Frizelle López (with Francis as his middle name, just like his dad, grandad, and great-grandad), but currently known as JJ.
JJ has been another great blessing and is loved by his parents, siblings, cousins, grandparents, and everyone else who meets him.
Like his sister he has grown up to be bilingual in both English and Spanish, but he is more introverted than his older sister (including hating having his photo taken). He mostly interacts with the teacher and classroom assistants in school but will go out to play with the neighbour kids if Charlie is playing with them too.
JJ loves trying to do whatever she is doing and generally following her lead. He is also obsessed with Minecraft & Mario at the moment, but ,of course, that makes him Luigi.
Liam
Liam Matthew Frizelle Lopez is the most recent little blessing, joining the family a little ahead of schedule, but healthy and happy in April of 2021.
His siblings dote on him a lot and he sometimes has to fight them off! He is saying more and more words now, largely repeating the numbers and songs he has learned from watching his current favourite show, Numberblocks.
He is a cheeky little boy sometimes, but creative and happy to play on his own, which is a change from his siblings who were less independent at his age.
We look forward to continuing to watch him grow and develop