We had the best Sunday as far as attendance in a while. Only three chairs were empty. Gaspar´s mother died, so his family was not there, as the funeral was in Oaxaca. Pastor Gilberto is working on the doors to the school. I talked to him about the buildings and had a good response. I am picking up half of the tile today and the other half on Monday. We have the paint to repaint the front of both buildings. The auditorium building should look a lot better. They are raising money to do more to the auditorium.Toby, the young German who was baptized and joined the church, comes to our prayer meetings on Tuesday nights, now. Pray for Flor, his wife, that she give her heart to Christ. We have now passed about 800 tracts to the Jew´s apartments.
This weekend, a lady that was saved during our fall push, but hadn't come back, asked if I could pick her up Sunday, which we did. Her grandfather is a Baptist pastor up north. It sounds like she wants to continue to attend. Please pray for her husband Victor that he may be saved as well.
For the last two Sundays we have been bringing a 10-year old boy to church named José who lives with his grandmother. His grandmother came on our first Sunday of the year, but goes to a charismatic church. José´s mother (a charismatic "pastor") died and his father has nothing to do with him. You can imagine what kind of life this woman "pastor" lived. They live on the other side of the highway that I showed you would be a good bus area.
José is excited about the church. He is very outgoing and talkative. This Sunday a couple came to the church. They said they are José´s uncle and aunt, Ignacio and Maria, and that he had invited them. they said that they really liked the church and want to continue to attend as well. If Karla, Ignacio, and Maria continue, they will be thirteen new people that have come and continued in the thirteen weeks since our two-year anniversary in November.
A man named Juan Carlos had joined our church in 2005, but at Christmas time 2005 had disappeared. I could not get a hold of him. Then suddenly a few weeks ago, he showed up at our house and told me what had happened. He is a contractor and was invited to a holiday party of a business he did work with. There he met a woman he started to see until he found out she was divorced and, even more of a surprise, that she lived right next to our house church! When he would come to church, he was tempted to go over to see her, so he just stopped attending.
He came to say he wanted to return to church, having not seen her in months. He told me that he got to know the director of one of the state prisons in the area who is a Christian. He asked if I was interested in ministering to the prisoners there and said he would like to go with me. Yesterday he let me know that the director approved of our coming and he have an appointment with him next week.
A lot of exciting things are going on here. Please pray for wisdom and power to take advantage of all the opportunities to affect people's lives for Christ
Thank you for your prayers,
Clint