Sometimes, just when you get tempted to be discouraged and wonder if your accomplishing anything, God blesses in marvelous ways.God blessed greatly this Sunday on Kid's Day. We were praying for at least 150, expecting up to 180, and preparing (just in case) for 200, but had 218 in church this Sunday -- 110 adults and 108 children. One of my prayers was that God would not give us more than we can handle and apparently, He thought we could handle 218. I praise Him that we had plenty of everything for every one except chairs in the patio. We had the adult service in the patio of the house and had 90 chairs set up, but had about 100 adults in the service with 10 adults serving in the nursery, kid's class, and kitchen.
We had 151 first-time visitors including children with three adults saved. When I had people raise their hand for salvation, I only saw the hand raised in front of me, but Gaspar saw at least three other hands go up. After the invitation, I asked the woman who raised her hand and her mother by her side if they wanted to be saved and had one of our women counsel with them.
Also, after the invitation, Gaspar told me that one of the women said she wanted to be saved. A Christian woman who had visited was talking with her about salvation and told Gaspar the woman wanted to be saved. I witnessed to Andriana and we prayed together. As I looked up tears were streaming down her face. Adriana has six kids and asked if she could bring her kids to Thursday night church. There were other Christians there for the first time as well who asked about the Thursday night service. In fact, many of the visitors were Christians interested in our church.
Another blessing was that a Jewish family, whom I have witnessed to in their home, came. Please pray for the salvation of Alberto Kulm, his wife Leticia, and their two teenage daughters. Also, Wilem, the 11-year old son of the financial director of the Ivory Coast's embassy, came and raise his hand for salvation. That was an answer to several months of prayer.
Tuesday night was exciting as we went to visit Adriana to talk to her about baptism. When we got there, she showed me a Gideon New Testament she had found not long ago and showed me what she had read up to since Sunday and was already up to Matthew 21. Without me even mentioning baptism, she asked me if she could be baptized on Thursday and I told her to wait until Sunday as we have several lined up already. Please pray for her Christian growth.
Our next visit that night was a man named Roberto who had filled out a visitor's card. He and his wife Noemi live with their Christian parents, but he had never been saved. I witnessed to him and asked if he wanted to trust Christ. I assumed his wife was saved, but she said that, although she had made a "decision", she never had the change of life that I talked about. Both bowed their head and accepted Christ. Noemi also asked if she could come on Thursday and Roberto said he would come on Sunday as he works on Thursday.
What is interesting is that he had not entered into the service on Sunday but had sent his son in. He stayed outside the church with his dog, but Gaspar had asked him to fill out a visitor's card.
Today, I was looking for a contact that was not home, but decided to visit a woman and her two grown children who lived nearby and had come to our anniversary last November. Esperanza is the former co-worker of Rosario, a woman in our church, and use to be the secretary of one of the vice-presidents of Televisa, the largest television broadcast company here in Mexico. Her son, Ruben, was the only one home. He is studying television and radio communications and is involved in producing programs for satellite radio. After witnessing to him, He trusted Christ and was thankful for having of new perspective on the most important things of life.
What a thrill and how humbling to be used as an instrument in changing the life of a person and changing the eternal destiny of a soul!
Praise God for answers to months of prayer and waiting on Him to bestow His blessings!
Thank you so much for your prayers.
Sincerely,
Clint and Rhonda Rardin