Hola muchachos, Dios les bendiga! Our day started with Dallas Means and Christopher Blewett leading off with morning devotions - prayer, and Scripture reading. We sang Felis Cupleannos (Happy Birthday...not sure on the spelling) to Sean Lewis, who turned 17 today. We will repeat this tomorrow when Christopher Blewett will turn 18:)
Today we were in Canoabito (pronounced Can-wa-bito) which is a rural area, about an hour to the East of San Felipe. Much to my chagrin, I had to drive again today as we were short a driver. Jerry has a nice Ford car with air conditioning - it's a stick which is always fun (I learned on one), but I don't enjoy driving here with all the potholes, crazy motorists, and livestock near the roadways. After my talk with Mark this afternoon I am certain I won't have to drive anymore:)
I spent most of today with Mark as we made our way around to at least one home with 4 of our 5 teams. We wanted to see how things were going with the various translators that were working with our people. It gave us a chance to talk about how things have gone and to talk about team dynamics and future ministry opportunities as well. I have really enjoyed spending some time with Mark and learning from his experience. I was also privileged to watch him lead three people to Christ. Mark is a gifted and confident evangelist - a side of him I was aware of from our conversations about his experiences in Panama, from attending 401 and hearing how he shares Christ, and from our visits at work. It was a blessing to see him in action.
When we stopped for lunch we were introduced to a 42 year old man named Carlos. He has been unemployed for 2 months and normally works as a contractor. One of our groups had already visited with him and I was told he prayed to receive Jesus with them. When Mark and I began to speak with him though, it was apparent that he believed in God but that he was not a Christian. He talked of his struggle to surrender his life to Christ and related that he was afraid to follow Jesus because he didn't want to do a bad job of it. We visited for 10 minutes, answered and asked many questions and then gave him some space to think about what we'd discussed. We told him we would follow up at lunch.
Sadly, we were told our lunch would be over an hour late in arriving and this was difficult to take as I was very tired, hot, and hungry by noon. It gave me pause to consider how the people in this rural community must feel when they don't have the option to eat a decent meal. Not all of these folks were destitute, but they were exceedingly poor for sure. We decided that rather than wait for the food to arrive we would go out for another hour of evangelism. This paid off hugely! Mark and I joined the team of Amy and Chandler Daniels, and Gabe Alvarez and we visited Rosalena, the owner of a popular bar in the community. Actually, the bar is in her home and located directly across the street from the mission church.
Gabe shared his testimony with Rosalena. It was a blessing to hear his story of growing up in the American church and how he went through his own period of "coming into his own." He did a great job sharing and it set up the dialogue over sin and the need for a Savior very well. Rosalena is a friend of one of the Venezuelan missionaries to this area who was also with us and served as our translator. Her name is Lucy (pronounced Luce-eye) and she holds a special affection for Rosalena. I know that Lucy has shared with her for months, perhaps several years, and sincerely desires for her to know Christ. Mark began to ask spiritual questions of Rosalena and that is when I saw God begin to really work on her heart. Rosalena broke down momentarily when she spoke of the spiritual condition of her 11 year old granddaughter. Mark pressed on and within 7 minutes Rosalena was ready to commit to a change in her life. She prayed to receive Jesus as her Savior and Lord and then went and brought her granddaughter back for us to share with her. How cool to see her new faith put to immediate action over her concern for this little girl! Long story short, 11 year old granddaughter prayed to receive Christ as well:)
Off to lunch! An impromptu game of Pato, Pato, Ganzo (Duck, Duck, Goose) broke out with our students and the neighborhood children having a blast. They played in the mission house which was devoid of chairs - essentially a large open room with a concrete floor, roughly 30'x50'. Then our food arrived:) Carlos sought Mark out and we knew he had seriously been considering the information in the two tracts we had given him. He sat alone on the floor in the corner for the longest time, visibly considering what this new life in Christ would mean for him. Then he asked for a pen. He filled out his personal information on the back and handed them to Mark as an indication that he was ready to ask Jesus to be his Savior. SO COOL!! Mark led him in the prayer to receive Christ and I could see a difference in his countenance afterward. We welcomed him to the body of Christ and fed him lunch. It was great.
Back to town...which meant more driving for me...ugh! Safely home, I took a shower and the opportunity for a nap. 45 minutes later we were up, dressed in our church attire and headed to hear the San Felipe Children's Orchestra at the cultural arts center. The center is a beautiful building with two open walls at the rear of the performance hall. The ceiling is covered in white fabric, beautifully hung from the walls and ceiling to give the impression that you are in a very large tent. There are at least 60 chairs for the members of the orchestra. The conductor is a believer in Jesus and it's clear he cares about his young musicians. When his baton drops to start the first piece, the music is awe inspiring! These children are VERY talented! They played 5 or 6 selections for us, one of which was the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah. He introduced this piece by introducing us. Seriously! He said that there was a 15 person missionary team from the USA attending tonight's performance and told everyone in attendance (some 300 people) that we were sharing the Gospel. He asked us to stand and the audience greeted us warmly with applause.
After the performance we headed to Jerry's aunts home for dinner. His entire extended family have treated us very well this entire stay. They have fed us at least one meal each day (by us I mean the entire group at one home), they are housing some of us, and they are very gracious. This kind of hospitality is so rare in my world and I think it has our students attention as well.
After a nice evening of culture and fellowship we headed for home. Tomorrow we will share the Gospel in the area around Pastor Felix's church. His church is one of the ones I preached at last Sunday morning. [You might remember that I spoke of how beautiful the music worship was there - I have yet to hear any bad or off key singing. I don't think Venezuelan's are allowed to be tone deaf :p] Then, in the afternoon, we will head to the ALBA games (mini-Olympics) and I will be preaching tomorrow night at Pastor Thomas' church. I am very much looking forward to being with his congregation again tomorrow!
We are Blessed to be here with these people! Thanks for helping to send us here:D
Love to everyone at home,
-kirk for the gang
Today we were in Canoabito (pronounced Can-wa-bito) which is a rural area, about an hour to the East of San Felipe. Much to my chagrin, I had to drive again today as we were short a driver. Jerry has a nice Ford car with air conditioning - it's a stick which is always fun (I learned on one), but I don't enjoy driving here with all the potholes, crazy motorists, and livestock near the roadways. After my talk with Mark this afternoon I am certain I won't have to drive anymore:)
I spent most of today with Mark as we made our way around to at least one home with 4 of our 5 teams. We wanted to see how things were going with the various translators that were working with our people. It gave us a chance to talk about how things have gone and to talk about team dynamics and future ministry opportunities as well. I have really enjoyed spending some time with Mark and learning from his experience. I was also privileged to watch him lead three people to Christ. Mark is a gifted and confident evangelist - a side of him I was aware of from our conversations about his experiences in Panama, from attending 401 and hearing how he shares Christ, and from our visits at work. It was a blessing to see him in action.
When we stopped for lunch we were introduced to a 42 year old man named Carlos. He has been unemployed for 2 months and normally works as a contractor. One of our groups had already visited with him and I was told he prayed to receive Jesus with them. When Mark and I began to speak with him though, it was apparent that he believed in God but that he was not a Christian. He talked of his struggle to surrender his life to Christ and related that he was afraid to follow Jesus because he didn't want to do a bad job of it. We visited for 10 minutes, answered and asked many questions and then gave him some space to think about what we'd discussed. We told him we would follow up at lunch.
Sadly, we were told our lunch would be over an hour late in arriving and this was difficult to take as I was very tired, hot, and hungry by noon. It gave me pause to consider how the people in this rural community must feel when they don't have the option to eat a decent meal. Not all of these folks were destitute, but they were exceedingly poor for sure. We decided that rather than wait for the food to arrive we would go out for another hour of evangelism. This paid off hugely! Mark and I joined the team of Amy and Chandler Daniels, and Gabe Alvarez and we visited Rosalena, the owner of a popular bar in the community. Actually, the bar is in her home and located directly across the street from the mission church.
Gabe shared his testimony with Rosalena. It was a blessing to hear his story of growing up in the American church and how he went through his own period of "coming into his own." He did a great job sharing and it set up the dialogue over sin and the need for a Savior very well. Rosalena is a friend of one of the Venezuelan missionaries to this area who was also with us and served as our translator. Her name is Lucy (pronounced Luce-eye) and she holds a special affection for Rosalena. I know that Lucy has shared with her for months, perhaps several years, and sincerely desires for her to know Christ. Mark began to ask spiritual questions of Rosalena and that is when I saw God begin to really work on her heart. Rosalena broke down momentarily when she spoke of the spiritual condition of her 11 year old granddaughter. Mark pressed on and within 7 minutes Rosalena was ready to commit to a change in her life. She prayed to receive Jesus as her Savior and Lord and then went and brought her granddaughter back for us to share with her. How cool to see her new faith put to immediate action over her concern for this little girl! Long story short, 11 year old granddaughter prayed to receive Christ as well:)
Off to lunch! An impromptu game of Pato, Pato, Ganzo (Duck, Duck, Goose) broke out with our students and the neighborhood children having a blast. They played in the mission house which was devoid of chairs - essentially a large open room with a concrete floor, roughly 30'x50'. Then our food arrived:) Carlos sought Mark out and we knew he had seriously been considering the information in the two tracts we had given him. He sat alone on the floor in the corner for the longest time, visibly considering what this new life in Christ would mean for him. Then he asked for a pen. He filled out his personal information on the back and handed them to Mark as an indication that he was ready to ask Jesus to be his Savior. SO COOL!! Mark led him in the prayer to receive Christ and I could see a difference in his countenance afterward. We welcomed him to the body of Christ and fed him lunch. It was great.
Back to town...which meant more driving for me...ugh! Safely home, I took a shower and the opportunity for a nap. 45 minutes later we were up, dressed in our church attire and headed to hear the San Felipe Children's Orchestra at the cultural arts center. The center is a beautiful building with two open walls at the rear of the performance hall. The ceiling is covered in white fabric, beautifully hung from the walls and ceiling to give the impression that you are in a very large tent. There are at least 60 chairs for the members of the orchestra. The conductor is a believer in Jesus and it's clear he cares about his young musicians. When his baton drops to start the first piece, the music is awe inspiring! These children are VERY talented! They played 5 or 6 selections for us, one of which was the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah. He introduced this piece by introducing us. Seriously! He said that there was a 15 person missionary team from the USA attending tonight's performance and told everyone in attendance (some 300 people) that we were sharing the Gospel. He asked us to stand and the audience greeted us warmly with applause.
After the performance we headed to Jerry's aunts home for dinner. His entire extended family have treated us very well this entire stay. They have fed us at least one meal each day (by us I mean the entire group at one home), they are housing some of us, and they are very gracious. This kind of hospitality is so rare in my world and I think it has our students attention as well.
After a nice evening of culture and fellowship we headed for home. Tomorrow we will share the Gospel in the area around Pastor Felix's church. His church is one of the ones I preached at last Sunday morning. [You might remember that I spoke of how beautiful the music worship was there - I have yet to hear any bad or off key singing. I don't think Venezuelan's are allowed to be tone deaf :p] Then, in the afternoon, we will head to the ALBA games (mini-Olympics) and I will be preaching tomorrow night at Pastor Thomas' church. I am very much looking forward to being with his congregation again tomorrow!
We are Blessed to be here with these people! Thanks for helping to send us here:D
Love to everyone at home,
-kirk for the gang
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