Sunday, January 25, 2009

Fields that are ripe

I think I have mentioned that we have recently had much more contact with our neighbours. This past week I was approached twice (on the same day) by teenage girls on our street who want help with their English. Please pray that I will be able to help with more than their English. One of the girls has already mentioned an interest in coming to our church.

In a few weeks we will be celebrating Tabitha and Oscar's birthdays with neighbours and others. Then in March we are planning a St. Patrick's Day party (at our neighbours' request!). We are hoping to take the opportunity to share our faith more formally at the second and would really appreciate prayers for prepared and open hearts. People are watching and we hope that what they see attracts them to Christ.

This week is filling up with appointments. Please pray for a meeting I will have on Tuesday with a teenage girl from La Loma. We have been building a relationship with her but she is going through a difficult spell. Pray that she will find it easy to open up, that I will have good understanding of what she is saying (it is difficult to understand people when they are crying and yet awkward to ask them to repeat what they are saying in those circumstances!) and that the Holy Spirit will guide me as to what to say.

We also have a meeting with the new leader of the La Loma Mex-i-Kids on Tuesday to talk about direction and planning for the future.

On Wednesday I will be meeting with the leader of the kids program at MOPS (MOPPETS) which is exciting as it is the last piece of the jigsaw in the planning of that ministry. We still have plenty to finalize befire we start but I am overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of the girls and by their testimonies to how it is already impacting their lives.

We would also ask for prayer for a guy in church called Carlos. He came to both of us separately today to ask for help. Over this past year he has been drifting from God until a couple of weeks ago he told his wife he wanted nothing to do with church any more. That very day he fell down two flights of stairs outside his appartment and was lying unconscious at the bottom for quite a while. When he came around he couldn't open his eyes and with no one to help he thought he was going to die there. He called out to God for help. Now he is serious about getting back on track but has no idea where to start. Andrew hopes to meet him on Wednesday and then we want to spend some time with the family on Saturday. Carlos and his wife are incredible people with many talents. We warmed to them the first time we met them but have been concerned about their lack in consistency at church. Please pray that this little family (they have a little boy and a girl on the way) will be firmly established and that Carlos will be the spiritual leader and example he needs to be.

Andrew has been helping out with the youth group on Saturdays and we will meet on Thursday with the youth leader and his wife (who is on the MOPS leadership group). This is another incredibly talented couple and it will be fun to hang out as well as plan together with them.

So there is still a little bit of space this week... then on Sunday we are both involved in a very special service at La Loma. The church is celebrating its 10th anniversary! Some of you may have supported the ministry that long. We were at a leadership meeting on Saturday and there is a real sense of excitement and optimism for the future. The church is growing weekly it seems and it is exciting for us to be a part of a dynamic and growing ministry. Please pray that through everything we say and do this week God would be glorified. It is busy and we will be tired but we want to keep our priorities of our own devotional life, our family and our minstries in the right order.

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