Evidence of Grace

Last night we had a good group in our service. The regular group was there along with 8 visitors. The numbers certainly are encouraging, but they point to something much greater: evidences of grace. You might assume then that the visitors were believers in Christ, but most of them were not! The evidence of grace we are seeing is in the lives of those who have believed in Christ and are bringing their lost friends. Anderson and Valéria, a family of 5 picked up his sister and family - a family of 4. Can you imagine 9 in a 2 door Ford Escort?


Kelly shows evidence of grace in another way. She has begun to contribute a lot like the Corinthian church. She brought some clothes and the believers were all able to benefit from them. So she brought more along with a waterjug the church was needing. On top of that she had a ceiling fan that was not being used and thought the church could benefit from it. You should see the joy in her face as she contributes.

Several have offered their help to clean the church weekly, including Anderson who went to another man that has been attending and asked him if he would help him clean the church this week. Two men cleaning the church - can you believe that?


Last night, a 72 year old lady came uninvited. She has been looking for a baptist church close by and really enjoyed the service. She told me after the service that she will now be attending our church saying that she was affected by the message. "I actually understood the message because it was well explained and very clear". May God be glorified.


My greatest joy last night was to see the power of the gospel. The message centered around: "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink." (Jn. 7:37) Adriano and Gislene were affected and commented on the message with me. May God awaken thirst within them and may they be saved. Lord willing there is a personal Bible study in the making there.


There were more evidences of grace - these are just a few. Glory to God.

What We Did the Last Two Saturdays

The past two Saturdays, I had the chance to attend a CEF seminar on evangelizing and teaching children with three of our church women. I'm so glad they were able to go. The younger two are relatively new in the faith, but are growing tremendously in their spiritual walk and they made a big effort to be able to attend this event.


One of the assignments of the seminar is to witness to two children and turn in a report about the experience. We all have to do this in order to get our certificate for completing the course. I think it was a great assignment because it helped these two women to see how important it is to share their faith with others, and that they can learn to articulate their faith so that a child can understand it. They both gave testimonies during the session today of their experiences and it was so fun to see their joy over giving the gospel to others.


I had given one of them some wordless book bracelets and key chains on the condition that she explain the meaning of the colors to whoever she gave them to. Today, she asked me for more because she has already given them all away. She said one of her teenage nephews who has been baptized at another church was shocked to learn that his baptism didn't save him from his sins. Pray that God will continue to use these women to be a shining light in their families and in their neighborhood.


On a side note here, we are really enjoying having a building to meet in. Even though they are currently in the States on furlough, Christen wrote a great blog, pictures included, of how God worked so many things out for us. Please check it out here.