THANKFULNESS

Sorry there are no pictures with this post, but I wanted to get it out to you all quick because there are prayer requests at the end and I would love to have you all praying for the upcoming events. When I get some photos, I'll do better at uploading requests to the right side of the blog. Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is just 2 days away and we are getting ready to celebrate with our missionary family 2 hours away. We covet this time together and the needed break from ministry that it provides. God has truly blessed us and we are so thankful for the friendships within our team. We are thankful that our children have best friends among the kids and aunts and uncles among the adults.

We are also so thankful and encouraged by the body of believers here in San Francisco. Their spiritual growth over the last few years has been incredible. God took a handful of illiterate, fearful, non-influential people and empowered them to change their town. We have seen a fledgling church of inconsistent members grow and grow and grow to a consistent size of 50 and with new people almost every week. They no longer rely on the missionary to bring God’s word for the week, but each one is responsible to bring a verse and life application. They mutually encourage, edify, ask questions, and reflect together on various passages and Bible stories.

We’ve been waiting on God’s timing to name elders and we believe that the time is now. We couldn’t be more thankful for the two men who have risen to the top as leaders. It is encouraging to see their faithfulness, their passion for studying God’s word, their gift of sharing the good news, and their humble spirits. The best thing is that not only do Jeff and I see those qualities in them, but the other believers do too. Pedro and Higinio have been nominated by the believers to serve as elders and received the majority of the votes.

We are thankful for the three weekly Bible studies that have started back up. Jeff has been teaching the past month about the role and qualifications of elders and deacons. All our teaching is geared toward oral learners so we teach using stories, pictures or hand motions. It can be challenging at times for us, but it is very rewarding to see the believers retelling stories and applying them to their lives.

We are thankful that God has put upon our hearts various ideas to implement in the near future. This is where we need your help...PLEASE PRAY for these events:

December ? – Baptism class taught by Jeff, Pedro and Higinio. There are several who have expressed an interest but are waiting for.....well, that’s what we hope to uncover during the class. A couple teens want to be baptized but their parents (who don’t attend our church) don’t agree with that decision. Pray for wisdom in dealing with these situations.

December 12 – A BIG church service followed by lunch, baptisms and the installation of elders. Pray for these men as they seek to lead the church in humility.

January 4 – Amy beings teaching English classes two days a week that she’s offered to the community. Pray that the classes will go beyond academics and relationships will be formed.

January 8 - Installation of deacons. Pray for the elders as they select Godly men to serve under them.

January ? - Evangelism class will be offered to the believers. We’ve offered this before and the believers seemed to really enjoy it. We go over topics such as how to give your testimony and how to answer specific questions about your faith. Pray that the believers will be bold in speaking about what the Lord has done for them.

Mobile clinic – Last term we did a mobile clinic monthly. We aren’t sure how the Lord wants us to use the mobile clinic this term. Pray as we continue to seek God’s best.

Church based leadership training- We are in the very early stages of planning for the first of many 3-4 day seminars scheduled throughout the year to teach rural Paraguayan men from all over this region a collection of 28 hand-picked Bible stories geared toward this folk-Catholic people group. The leaders are excited about these plans and the training they themselves and many others will receive. It will be a survey course of God’s plan of salvation from the beginning to the end of Scripture. Our prayer is that this whole region, even the small towns we’ve never been to and have never heard of, will be impacted through this type of training.

Currently the youth group is not meeting even though we have several faithful youth attending church meetings. Youth is not an area where Jeff feels especially equipped nor does he have the desire to oversee youth meetings. However, Jeff has just begun teaching the piano to one of our youth and I pray that it becomes a good inroad.

In January I will begin again meeting with girls every Saturday. This is something I did last term and I really enjoyed it. Pray for these precious teens that so desperately need to hear that God’s loves them more than any male companion can offer!

Jeff and I would love to start a marriage class and we have a couple couples in mind. However, convincing them that they would benefit from a class is a different story! One such couple is our house help and her boyfriend. She is a Christian and he is not. He wants to be with her (they have a child together) but has no desire for marriage. Pray that Jeff’s and my relationship will continue to be an example of a Godly marriage and that others will want that too.