Wednesday

We went to visit the brand new church in our little town last night. This is the little group of seven that started with a bible study at somebody's house exactly a year ago. John even had to buy some plastic chairs at the time because there weren't enough chairs in the house. They were able to rent a house in town and pay the rent with their own offering. There were about 25-30 adults and children last night. PTL!

The tiny house's walls are half blocks and the top half wood planks. There are gaps between the planks. The roof is tin. Half of the floor is cement and the other half dirt, but somebody had obviously clean the place. It was windy and dirt would blow in. They had a CD of worship songs and they sang along at the top of their voices. The tune was typical "cumbias," but they were singing from the Bible; for example, Is. 40:31. Nobody was on key, but they made up for it with enthusiasm.

We were so thankful to the Lord for his provision for this town. Please pray for Alejandro, their leader, and the rest of the group. We did not take pictures inside because it was our first visit, but we are going back; in fact, they want us to bring our LCD projector and a Christian movie next Friday. We will take more pictures if we are allowed.

One thing we noticed was that about 90% of the congregation were new believers. They had difficulties finding Bible references. We brought a box of Bibles, and they were immediately put to use. Anybody without a Bible was given one, but I noticed that they returned them at the end of the service. Alejandro confirmed my observation that they were new believers. He said that only seven are baptized. Alejandro is attending a Bible institute to get more Bible background, and they need more chairs (PTL)! We are having a meeting with Alejandro and the leaders of the church Friday before the service.