“… been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will;” Ephesians 1:11

Even though we are here at the beach, we listen to Pastor D every week, although not on Sundays. He referred to the above Scripture on his message last Sunday, and it really spoke to my heart because, as you gathered from my last post, I/we are disappointed by the state of the ministry here, but our job, as Pastor D said, is to learn from the situation and trust God to "work all things after the counsel of His will." 

It was decided to close the church and to start over with a Bible study at Luis and Irene's rental house. It will help them financially, and it will provide a different venue. Last night Luis called John. They talked for a long time, and we can tell that he is really excited about this. He is going to start inviting sympathizers who have never attended church, but come to the Bible studies at his house.  By the way, this is the same house where Christ for the City was located. Please pray for a renewing of the ministry in this town. Pray for Luis and Irene. They are incredibly busy with three kids who need to be shuttled back and forth to school, working full time and going to school full time. Pray that the Enemy does not attack them. They need health and perseverance. Pray for a hedge of protection around the whole family.

I was feeling down because of all the things that I mentioned last time, but the Lord reminded me that there is now a church where there was none. Below there is a picture of our first activity in the second town. You may remember this picture: I am speaking to the women under a tree. There was nowhere to hold meetings. 

This is a picture of the church now in the same town. The Lord provided a couple from Florida who saw the need and built this church out of their own resources. He is a builder by profession and brought all his builder friends to do this. It was definite a gift from God who, "after the counsel of his will" decided that the church in this area needed to be built in this town, not where we started.

This church has a good group attending. The other Sunday I counted 30 adults and 30 children, but, according to the pastor, there is better attendance in the evenings because a lot of people work on Sundays.The church is big enough for 200, since the builders had a lot of faith!  So PTL and keep going!

Holy Week is very different in this area. People use the time off for vacations at the beach; therefore, it is very busy all around here. There is a festive atmosphere that I find rather strange. We are going to avoid going near any of the towns, but tonight we are going to visit Eduardo and Arelys, a couple who are new believers, who had a baby just a few months ago and who moved back to her home town because she needs help from her mother to take care of the baby while she is at work. I will have pictures next time. We want to encourage them in their walk. They are attending another church near where they live now.

We have been busy visiting people. Also, just the two of us walked around the town the other morning praying for protection. We are going to do it a few times while we are here. We know "our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." Ephesians 6:12

Last, we had a very nice thing happen to us this week also. We always try to be friendly to the security staff because they work very long hours; therefore, when we go to the supermarket, we try to remember to buy a soda and a snack for whoever is working at the gates. The other day one of the guards brought us something special that his wife had made. The doughnut-shaped items are "roscas" made of corn flour and baked on an earthen oven. The other flat ones are "tanelas," also corn flour, but these are sweet. It is something special that they make only during Holy Week. They go great with coffee!

Prayer requests:

• For John's shoulder. It is always hurting. He may have to have surgery when we go back.
• For Sergio and Bianka's marriage. They had another "date," but did not talk about their problems! Bianka is coming over for lunch on Saturday.
• Wisdom for Pastor Alejandro and his wife, Alba.
• Health and salvation for Armando, the gardener.
• Pray for Luis and Irene and their family.
• Pray for the new venue and for open hearts in this town.
• Wisdom for us. We are so not equipped for this! Remember that I just a high school teacher and John is a box salesman.

Until next time...from the beach....