We had a great, Christ-honoring EBV (VBS) this week. It was glorious and fun! The first day we started off kind of slow, with only 14 kids, but we grew each day to a total 51 by Wednesday, July 20th (the last day). We had a total of 12 salvation decisions, all to the GLORY of GOD!
We had several workers too that came each day. One lady of the church even bought extra prizes for the kids, provided the snacks for one day, and brought the refreshments for the graduation on Wednesday night. Yes, it was a huge sacrifice for her financially--may The Lord richly bless her. Another lady came to just help with anything needed, including watching Charley for us while we were running around crazy. One other lady helped us with everything, including teaching a class to the younger class (we had 2, Erika taught the older class).
The graduation went well. We had a demonstration of the theme song and Bible verse, an object lesson, a few songs and I preached a summary of what I preached throughout the VBS (Romans Road of Salvation). We had great attendance and a few parents came (all claimed to be saved already, and in different churches). Go figure.
All in all, we couldn't be happier. The Lord miraculously saved 12 young people from hell, all to His GLORY. Thank God the GOSPEL still works!
Days (daze?) in the life of Chris Lanier and Family, Missionaries to Arteaga, Mexico. Contact Information, Information Packet and Prayer Letter Archive below!
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Monday, July 18, 2011
Flying Time!
So either the time is flying OR it's time to fly--but I really think that it's both. Charley is already more than a month old and we are soooo busy. We have so much going on!
Between regular church services (3 per week), soul-winning (4 per week), diaper changing (don't ask) and trying to train our children for Christ (24-7, literally) we don't have time for much of anything. We really have enjoyed our family devotions each day, reading 2 chapters in Spanish. I have been immensely enjoying my own personal devotions as well--I've been experiencing a more intense hunger for The Word of God over the last month and have been richly blessed and encouraged by it. The Lord has truly been sweet through it all and I'm proud to serve Him.
Charley was pretty bad sick last week. I prayed to know whether or not to take him to the doctor, and finally had peace 3 days later to go ahead and take him. It was a common cold that was about to turn into a throat infection. The doctor also did his 30 day check-up 2 days early, and Charley had put on 2 pounds and grew almost 2 inches since birth. Hooray for Charlie! He's feeling much better now, even if he still cries for no reason just to get attention.
Ashley is JEALOUS. She was okay and happy with the baby Charlie invasion for the first week, but then realized he wasn't going away and decided to act out, accordingly.
Church is going great. We continue to have new visitors each Sunday. Some come and go, others stay. Many don't like it that we don't have hip-hop music and don't allow dancing or tongue-speaking. A few have asked why we don't show movies instead of having preaching services. Most importantly, we have a core group of about 25 that come faithfully and are growing. I couldn't be prouder with many decisions that have been made. Each service several people either come forward to the old-fashioned altar or make decisions privately in their seats. It's sweet to see people weep before The Lord and then to see their resolve when they finish, with a solid decision made. It's so glorious to see those same people then give a testimony about what God has been doing in their life, showing them, or about the decision they just made. God's so good.
In another post, I'm going to write about our VBS this week. Other than this week, July 31st will be another special day. We're going to have a baby parade and baby dedication in the AM service. After that, we're going to have a simple dinner then the PM service to follow immediately. I've been invited to preach an Anniversary service in the big city that evening, so we're going to pack up and have a 3rd service!
July is a real busy month but then we'll have a bit more calm in August. I really hope The Lord supplies the $$ we need to make the repairs on the church building in August--at least so we can buy the materials we need.
We so desperately need to fix the roof, at least to prevent the rain from inundating the inside. Afterwards, we equally desperately need to build a baptistry. After all that we need to get rid of all the mold and fungus that we have because of the roof leaking, then paint everything. Finally, there are 2 more projects that were started in the church building before we got there that have to be finished ASAP.
When we feel like we've done justice to the house of The Lord, we need to repair and raise the outside wall surrounding the property. That will be another huge and expensive endeavor but we need to do it to protect our family and the property here that we're taking care of.
It doesn't look like we're going to have any students for the school this year. The one young man we invited declined and his parents don't have the character to make him do what's right. He's an academic failure already, hates studying and learning, and has absolutely no discipline. His family began faithfully attending a couple months ago but also show no signs of growth nor desire to grow. We had really hoped to give him a chance to turn his life around but I suppose it's better to see that him and his family don't really want that, now ahead of time.
After this month whether or not we are able to start on the construction and repair projects, we're going to be preparing for a big evangelistic outreach in late October. Then in November, we're going to have a missionary come for a week around Thanksgiving. Then for Christmas we'll have another big-outreach and maybe a play. I don't really care for Christmas since I'm not catholic, but I do enjoy showing the folks we love them and impart gifts to them (especially the Christmas Shoe Boxes of Joy from Bro. Paul Deem, Directline Ministries)
Hopefully very soon I'll be able to write about VBS and the VBS graduation this coming Wednesday evening. We can't wait!
Between regular church services (3 per week), soul-winning (4 per week), diaper changing (don't ask) and trying to train our children for Christ (24-7, literally) we don't have time for much of anything. We really have enjoyed our family devotions each day, reading 2 chapters in Spanish. I have been immensely enjoying my own personal devotions as well--I've been experiencing a more intense hunger for The Word of God over the last month and have been richly blessed and encouraged by it. The Lord has truly been sweet through it all and I'm proud to serve Him.
Charley was pretty bad sick last week. I prayed to know whether or not to take him to the doctor, and finally had peace 3 days later to go ahead and take him. It was a common cold that was about to turn into a throat infection. The doctor also did his 30 day check-up 2 days early, and Charley had put on 2 pounds and grew almost 2 inches since birth. Hooray for Charlie! He's feeling much better now, even if he still cries for no reason just to get attention.
Ashley is JEALOUS. She was okay and happy with the baby Charlie invasion for the first week, but then realized he wasn't going away and decided to act out, accordingly.
Church is going great. We continue to have new visitors each Sunday. Some come and go, others stay. Many don't like it that we don't have hip-hop music and don't allow dancing or tongue-speaking. A few have asked why we don't show movies instead of having preaching services. Most importantly, we have a core group of about 25 that come faithfully and are growing. I couldn't be prouder with many decisions that have been made. Each service several people either come forward to the old-fashioned altar or make decisions privately in their seats. It's sweet to see people weep before The Lord and then to see their resolve when they finish, with a solid decision made. It's so glorious to see those same people then give a testimony about what God has been doing in their life, showing them, or about the decision they just made. God's so good.
In another post, I'm going to write about our VBS this week. Other than this week, July 31st will be another special day. We're going to have a baby parade and baby dedication in the AM service. After that, we're going to have a simple dinner then the PM service to follow immediately. I've been invited to preach an Anniversary service in the big city that evening, so we're going to pack up and have a 3rd service!
July is a real busy month but then we'll have a bit more calm in August. I really hope The Lord supplies the $$ we need to make the repairs on the church building in August--at least so we can buy the materials we need.
We so desperately need to fix the roof, at least to prevent the rain from inundating the inside. Afterwards, we equally desperately need to build a baptistry. After all that we need to get rid of all the mold and fungus that we have because of the roof leaking, then paint everything. Finally, there are 2 more projects that were started in the church building before we got there that have to be finished ASAP.
When we feel like we've done justice to the house of The Lord, we need to repair and raise the outside wall surrounding the property. That will be another huge and expensive endeavor but we need to do it to protect our family and the property here that we're taking care of.
It doesn't look like we're going to have any students for the school this year. The one young man we invited declined and his parents don't have the character to make him do what's right. He's an academic failure already, hates studying and learning, and has absolutely no discipline. His family began faithfully attending a couple months ago but also show no signs of growth nor desire to grow. We had really hoped to give him a chance to turn his life around but I suppose it's better to see that him and his family don't really want that, now ahead of time.
After this month whether or not we are able to start on the construction and repair projects, we're going to be preparing for a big evangelistic outreach in late October. Then in November, we're going to have a missionary come for a week around Thanksgiving. Then for Christmas we'll have another big-outreach and maybe a play. I don't really care for Christmas since I'm not catholic, but I do enjoy showing the folks we love them and impart gifts to them (especially the Christmas Shoe Boxes of Joy from Bro. Paul Deem, Directline Ministries)
Hopefully very soon I'll be able to write about VBS and the VBS graduation this coming Wednesday evening. We can't wait!
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