Yet another great weekend

Well, not all of it was great. Our kid's Bible club was down again. We only had 25 kids. There are so many other things diverting their attention on Saturday, but mostly soccer. Catholicism is supposedly the main religion here, but the truth is that Soccer is King. They worship at the soccer field.

Sunday was better. We had 165 people on Sunday. That was so wonderful-. We also had 3 people make professions of faith in Christ. The Lord has added many to his family lately. We are all doing our best to ground the new believers in their faith. Please pray for Vivian, Christian, Luz and Marcelo, Manuel, Miriam, Nicole and Jocelyn. There are several others in the dicipleship program, but I cannot remember all their names.

We have a Couple's dinner planned for this Saturday night. We have games, teaching about marriage and a dinner. They love it! We have several couples invited who are not yet married, but living together. We are praying that the Lord will convict them, and give them a desire to make things right. We have had several couples get married. They know us really well down at the Justice of the peace.

Please pray also for two of our young people who decided that they like each other. The problem is that they do not have the guidance that they need and are headed for trouble fast. We do our best to plead and warn, but it seems that they are not listening. It breaks my heart to see them headed for a lifetime of problems.

Ah, the life of a missionary....

I want to win this one!

One of my favorite authors on the family is Voddie Baucham. His daughter Jasmine is having a giveaway of Bro. Baucham's DVD series on "What he must be if he want to marry my daughter"
I have not had a chance to read this book, but I did read "Family Driven Faith" and I liked it very much.
And since I have two daughters, this is very relevant to me.

A story of redemption

Sometimes God redeems twice.

Denise had been coming to our church since she was about 9 years old. We loved her and her family. Denise learned to play the piano, by ear.. She is the only Chilean I know who can play hymns, gosple style. She just watched me, then she would imitate. Amazing!
Her parents always has problems, and a few years ago they sepated. This caused extreme emotional trauma, and soon none of the 4 kids were coming to church. It was sad to run into them on the street, and see the changes in them. We soon found out that Denise was playing the keyboard in rock band.

2008. Denise and her mom show up at my house. We spoke briefly. I invited them to come and talk anytime, but they never returned. Soon we found out that Denise was pregnant. Her mother kicked her out of the house, so she moved in with the baby's father and his family. One day last year, Denise showed up with her baby at church. She seemed distant and a bit defiant, but she was there. It was on-again-off-again for a while. Then she started inviting her boyfriend. He came occasionaly. Very nice, not your typical rock band drummer.
Two weeks ago, Denise came to me a told me that she was ready to make things right. But as long as she is living in sin, there is not much she can do. So we have been praying for Christian, her boyfriend, to be saved. For the past month they have come to all the services, including Wednesdays.

Well, yesterday morning, after a great sermon by a visiting preacher, Christian came forward to be saved!!!!!!! We were all so excited because not only is God saving someone, he is redeeming a bad situation. From the ashes of sin, he will raise up a Christian family. We are thrilled.

Quake victims

Neil and I were invited to a special event where a mission church was formally establishing ftheir new pastor. The night before there was a dinner fellowship for several pastors. We attended both. (first over-nighter without the baby...woohoo!)
Also attending the events were the pastors and their wives who were most affected by the earthquake. First, Juan and Monica, who lost their parsonage and church building. They are basically OK, but are overwhelmed with work. Their church is small, and Juan doesn't have help. His wife is 2 months pregnant and she has been helping to remove the rubble and help with reconstruction, not a good thing for a pregnant mommy. They need help.

The other, Gary and Loreto are better....and worse. Their kitchen has been rebuilt and their appliances replaced. But they seem jittery and unsettled. Their city was harder hit. The aftershocks still happen. Financially, they seem OK. Emotionaly, they seem to be not so good.

Would you pray with me for them? We are helping both families financially and with physical labor, but only the healing power of the Holy Spirit can soothe their souls.

Thank you

Prayer

Everybody has their own beliefs about prayer. Some say that prayer is just about agreeing with God and his will. Even Henry Blackabee believes this. He tells a story about the year he bought his son a blue bike, and then gently coaxed his son into wanting and asking for a blue bike.

This sounds good and extremely respectful of the sovereignty of God. I mean, God has everything under control and planned out. And as this sounds good, I would believe it whole-heartedly.

But then there are other Scriptures to consider. My favorite is Luke 18:1-8. This is a story about a widow who pleads with an unjust judge to help her. He does not agree with her nor does he want to help her, but finally does because she bugs him to death. Jesus told us to pray like that widow. Why would God want us to pray like that?

Another favorite is the story about the man who begs for bread from his friend for his guest late at night. The friend does not want to help, but does because of the insistance of the man. Jesus said we are to pray like that. Pray as though we were trying to change God's mind. Sounds blasphemous, doesn't it?

This post is not meant to teach anything, but rather air out my questions about prayer.. Do I just pray "Thy will be done"? or do I pray for what I want or need as though it depended on my insistance? Seems to my like Scripture says to do both.

The first ladies Bible study of the year

It went great! We started a few weeks late due to several factors. But that's OK, we aren't on a schedule or anything. We didn't know how many to expect. I made 25 lesson pages. We ended up with 34, which was amazing. It was a great night. Mom taught on Psalm 77. The lesson addressed anger and depression, something that is very common here. I missed some of it because I had to check on Vanessa who has been a bit sick for the past two days.

The interesting thing is that two of our leaders were in a bit of a problem. One of them went to the other and basically told her off. Nothing with substance, but she was hurt and offended. I counseled her to forget it. God is so good. The offender apologized to the offended yesterday morning. So all better. I like it when they can solve their problems on their own.

So today we head out to Mafil for Bible study there. We are not expecting many, most of the ladies told us that they would not be there. We may just end up visiting. It is slow going in Mafil. Thankfully, we are not paid on a per-person basis. We just do our part and God does the hard part, which is not hard for God.

Back to Work!

We did have a busy summer, but now the real work has started. Back to Ladies Bible study, Kids club, homeschooling (with a toddler, toddling), visitation, dicipleship, cooking, cleaning, laundry. Makes me want to be a hermit!



We are also getting ready for furlough starting in September. There is so much to do. I really need to get back to Flylady, as she seems to help me get some structure in my life.



Anyway....



I have been greatly blessed reading all my favorite blogs. I love to hear what the Lord is doing in all your lives and ministries. I have also been challenged. I am trying to figure our how to be tolerant without compromising my convictions. Many people in my world consider any type of tolerance to be compromise. But I don't think that is so. I have found that you can find Scripture to support apparently opposing views, so some degree of tolerance is required. I mean, what if I'm wrong? Oh the horror! Of course I don't think I'm wrong.....
I have also come to see the importance of letting the Holy Spirit do his work of correcting the views of others. I have to remember that God doesn't need my help.


On a different note, Vanessa has now learned to give kisses, after all this time. We love her kisses! But, the little flirt will kiss just about anyone, even blowing kisses to perfect strangers!