Surgery and In-n-Out

Surgery was a success; Dr. Lee said it went as expected.  He had to fast since dinner last night so we stopped at In-n-Out on the way home.  He's now napping off the anesthesia.

He has a post-op appointment tomorrow morning, but afterwards he'll be free to resume his regular activities, minus swimming and weightlifting.  Our plans for an afternoon of playing with the grandkids.

Thanks for praying for him; please continue to pray for his recovery and the surgery on his right eye which will be next Tuesday, March 7.

Today is the day

Trusting God for a procedure without complications, a great outcome and a speedy recovery.  I'll update later this afternoon or tomorrow after his post-op appointment.  Thanks for praying for Stephen.

Time in California

Over the past several months, Stephen has been progressively having more difficulty with his vision, including double vision, blurriness and seeing halos around lights, especially at night.  He would ask me, "how many tail lights does that car have?"  My answer would be two or four, depending and he would then tell me he saw 12 to 16.  So, we decided to take advantage of the time between Judgment House and our March campaign to come to California to get his eyes examined.

The results of the exam with the opthamologist and the retinologist are that he has cataracts and they need to be removed.  He will be having surgery on his left eye next Tuesday, February 28; the date for surgery on the right eye has not been confirmed, but will probably be Tuesday, March 7.  

This will be his very first surgery (except for oral surgery for wisdom teeth removal) so, as you can imagine, he's a bit nervous about it all.  Please pray for a good result and a quick recovery.  We are scheduled to fly back to El Salvador on March 15.

Judgment House Wrap-up

Judgment House is over for 2017.  The final weekend was held at our Lourdes campus which meant that everything at our main church was taken down, loaded up and then set up at our church there.  Of course, the layout and configuration of the rooms is completely different so the set up isn't easy.  

Once again Pastors Steve and Julio were thrilled with the attendance and number of decisions across the seven days of performances (5 at the Miralvalle Campus and 2 at the Lourdes Campus.  Praise the Lord for the final results:

Attendance:  3,624

Professions of Faith:  387

Rededications:  283

Please continue to pray for the campus pastors as they start the follow-up process.  The first step is to invite those who made decisions to a breakfast or a dinner at the campus where they would be attending.  Here is a picture of the group that came for the first dinner at our Lourdes Campus.  

Judgment House, 2017

The last minute prep finished up on Wednesday afternoon and the work of "presenting" Judgment House began about 6:30 p.m.  Stephen's is playing the piano in the sanctuary where the groups await their turn to enter the presentation--he's at the very beginning.  I'm working at the very end--in counseling.  We see only those people who are ready to make a decision for Christ as a result of the presentation.  I'm on the computer, keeping track of all the names and compiling the results for Pastor Julio and Pastor Steve.

God has provided miraculous results over the past three nights (Wednesday through Friday.)  Here are some of the stats so far:

ATTENDANCE:  1,369

PROFESSIONS OF FAITH:  155

REDEDICATIONS:  124

 Praise the Lord for the lives that are being changed!

Judgment House Prep--2017

Stephen and I spent all day Monday and Tuesday at the church helping with construction and setup for Judgment House.  As last year, we spent most of our time turning the big room on the third floor into Heaven.  Here are some pictures of the process.

Getting started by blocking off the light from the windows

Covering the blue walls so everything will look white

Adding the celestial window and curtains to the room

Looking back at the entrance (in the middle of the two sets of gold curtains

Finished view looking into the room (Jesus in the back)

Another view of the back of the room (white floors and hanging branches with flowers and candles

Jesus with one one of the young girls in heaven

February isn't just for Valentines

Valentine's Day is celebrated here in El Salvador, but it's known here as the "Day of Love and Friendship."  As a result, the celebrations don't just focus on husband/wife or boyfriend/girlfriend relationships, but on all types of friendship.  To that end, the celebration is too big to fit on one single day; instead, friendship is celebrated throughout the month of February.

Our traditional to have a women's ministry "friendship breakfast" was held yesterday and more than 120 women attended.  Dr. Marta Colato shared the awesome friendship story between Jesus and Lazarus.