Making Blood Brothers

We had wonderful services yesterday.  I was still feeling lousy, but really burdened to pray for the salvation of the lost that would come to the morning service.  So, I spent about 30 minutes that I normally spend making the final touches on the auditorium in prayer instead.

God answered the prayer!  The service went great, and during the invitation 3 people came forward to be saved.  Two of them had consistently told me they were already Christians, but I knew they weren't because they never had any type of real salvation testimony.  The third was a wicked man, a very drunk old man that I have come close to physically beating on 2 occasions (he was drunk and wanted to beat his wife for no reason and I stopped him).  He finally came to church and was gloriously saved!  There was also a great time of testifying and rejoicing with some others in the church that had already been saved.  I rejoice knowing that even though I have nothing to do with these people other than Jesus Christ, we are all covered and washed in His pure blood, making us blood brothers!

Sunday night we finally got a family to let us have a Bible study in their house.  We didn't really tell them, though.  We just showed up and they invited us to eat, and then I got out the Bible.  We studied together with much rejoicing, crying, and conviction until 11:30.  We hope to continue in this manner as long as we can.

Last Saturday was a great day too.  It was New Years Day, but I called for volunteers to come work.  We had a great group of 5 men and 5 ladies that came and worked all day, and we nearly finished all of the work that needed to be done.  Today, Monday, the 5 men came back to finish up but after working 6 long hours outside, we still weren't able to get everything finished.  Such is the work here--it never ends and if it does, something will tear up and there's a completely new task to be done.

The final count isn't in yet because I haven't had time to do the math, but it appears our monthly support may be as high as 80%!  I still feel we need to raise our goal, though, especially after this last round of disasters to the property.  We need to be able to take care of all of those emergency expenses without going broke (like we did this month).  The church is already paying it's own bills, but still not in a place to be able to pay for "big" things that it needs, like a completely new roof and roof seal.  All in good time--we are averaging 40 on Sunday and 30 on Wednesday, but for the people to be able to take on tasks like the roof (about $5000) would take about 200 people tithing and giving offerings for about a year.  So, yeah--we may need to raise our goal.

Bro. Rogelio, who got saved last February, is making great steps of faith and allowing The Lord to work in his life.  I'm very proud of him and his family--I am sure he's going to be our first pastor.  He's also facing a great deal of opposition from his super catholic family.  They have what is called a "Niño Dios" (Child God) which is supposed to be Jesus.  They put him in a manger but then they cook and do things for him, worship and pray to him, and it's all abominable blasphemy.  Well, Rogelio's family did the celebration and Rogelio didn't go, for the first time.  That night, somehow the idol fell and broke his head off, and the entire family blames Rogelio because he didn't come to worship it and give it gifts.  When he laughed at them (as I did when I heard the story) they nearly kicked him out of the family forever.  They said "So now you're acting like a Christian," and he responded "I AM a Christian."  He makes me so proud!

So we're keepin' on keepin' on.  Pray for us, for laborers and for God to keep the wolves away.  They always prey on baby sheep and I had to run one off yesterday in the midst of the victory.  Pray for the people to keep on going in their Christian walk.

I will post our latest prayer letter when I have the time.  Thanks for your time!

God's great!