Women's Ministry Trip, Part 5 (life-changing)

Although our morning session wasn't scheduled until 8:00 a.m. I was up early (before my roommates) and stepped out the door of the room before 7:00 a.m.  Here was my reward from a faithful God:

Wow! To think I would have missed it if I'd slept in just another fifteen minutes.  

I joined the group for the morning session and we started with three songs of praise, "Sovereign, Bless the Lord (10,000 Reasons) and Great is Thy Faithfulness.  Wendy Lyons gave a short testimony and then we were released to three hours of individual prayer.  After the previous night I wasn't worried about the time, but rather anxious to talk and listen to what more God had to say to me.  I decided to spend time exploring the camp; my first stop was at the zipline structure, where I was able to sit quietly.  I opened my Bible to Isaiah 61:1 and began to read the chapter.  Among the verses God spoke to me these words:  

• Fear--I can release my fears because "the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings"
• Trust--I can rest in my creator and Father because I "am the clay and he is the potter."
• Guide--I don't have to find my own way because "the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light"
• Future--I don't have to worry about what will come because "men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him."
• Redeemed--I can believe his promises because I shall be called "thy holy people, the redeemed of the Lord.

Later I found the waterfall prayer garden that was on the map and although there were others praying at that spot, I was able to sit, reflect and listen.

I finished my time thanking God for the opportunity to be in the beautiful place, for reminding me who I was and, more importantly, who I needed to be, for convicting me and calling me into a deeper relationship.  

The retreat ended with a fifteen-minute group testimony time--women simply speaking out a words of praise and thanks to our great God.  I can truly say that the retreat was life-changing for me!  It lived up to it's purpose--a place to experience God.

Today's Good News

Although I have much more to say with regard to Day 2 of the prayer retreat, I want to share the good news of today.

As of 11:30 a.m. this morning we received our "definite residency" cards.  These cards are good for one year, but the renewal process only requires us to stop by the immigration offices and pay the fee for renewal.  So we are celebrating no more support letters from the church, no more translation of documents, no more paperwork for the church here in San Salvador, no more fingerprinting and, hopefully, no more waiting for months to finish the annual process.  At the end of this year we even have the option of paying for two or four years of residency. 

We are so excited to have received this status--God is good! 

Women's Ministry Trip, Part 4 (life-changing)

I must admit that I had reservations when I saw that we would be going to the Women's Prayer Retreat, and when I saw the schedule I nearly panicked.  The schedule included four+ hours of individual prayer time!  My goodness, what in the world was I going to do with 4 hours and 15 minutes of individual prayer.  Just being honest, that statement revealed the state of my heart and prayer life.  Nevertheless, off I went with the VidaNueva women and about ninety women from Christ Chapel.  

The retreat was held at Riverbend Retreat Center, a ministry of the Tarrant Baptist Association.  The retreat center encompasses 170 acres of land, including 140 acres of secluded woodland of which 5,000 feet fronts the Brazos River.  As soon as I arrived I felt transported back in time to Windermere, the Baptist retreat and camp center where I worked three summers. 

 

We had some time to check out the beautiful facilities and take some pictures.

 

 

After check-in and dinner, we had our first group session--it was a very simple, yet sincere time of worship.  There was no big worship band, just one woman, a guitar and 90+ voices singing "Sovereign," "Restless" and "How Great Thou Art."  The short devotional encouraged us to have confidence in prayer knowing that He answers prayers in three ways:  yes, wait, something better.  At the end of the time, we were dismissed to go wherever we wanted to pray--the two rules:  pray individually and pray quietly so as not disturb others.  

There were some prayer related handouts on the table, and we were encouraged to pick them up if we wanted some "starters."  I left the group session with my Bible, my new journal, and a couple of the handouts, went to the room to get a jacket and then started by walking along the road between the meeting rooms and the cabins.  At that point I had no idea what I was going to say to God.  So, I just started by thanking Him for the opportunity to be there and then asking if He would help me listen to Him.  Little by little I became more comfortable with the silence and, for the first time in a long time, it was just me and my Father.  After about 30 minutes I found a rocking chair on one of the porches and began to capture some of my thoughts.  At the end of the time I was in tears and under conviction and these are the thoughts that came to me:

     A Holy God deserves more than my half-hearted effort,
     A Loving Father deserves more than my partial obedience,
     A Resurrected Savior deserves more than my ungrateful heart,
     A Sovereign Lord deserves more than a reluctant servant,
     An All-powerful King deserves more than empty words of praise.

I can hardly describe how I felt at that moment; it was devastating to admit that those words described who I was.  However, God didn't leave me in my sadness, but gave me hope that I could change:

     A Holy God deserves my all-consuming passion and my most excellent effort,
     A Loving Father deserves my faithful and complete submission to his commands,
     A Resurrected Savior deserves my total, sold-out surrender,
     A Sovereign Lord deserves my uncompromised commitment,
     An All-powerful King deserves my living sacrifice that testifies to His honor and glory.

     I deserve his judgment, but He gives mercy.
     I deserve the consequences of my sin, but He gives grace.
     I deserve death, but He gives eternal life.
     I deserve nothing, but He gives everything. 
 
When our time was up, the group met together again to hear a short testimony.  The eight of us ended the night singing worship songs in Spanish in one of our cabins, and I went to bed anxious to spend three hours more in prayer the next morning.

God is so good, so patient with us and knows exactly what we need! 

 

Women's Ministry Trip, Part 3

We spent all morning Friday meeting with Shelly Davis, women's ministry leader at Christ Chapel.  The session was on the importance of having a vision, mission and core values for our ministry and, more importantly, how to go about it.  Our church, Vida Nueva, has all three of thelse, but we do not specifically have these for our women's ministry.  We definitely put this on the to-do list for when we get back to El Salvador--well, after the women's retreat which is the first weekend of November. 

After lunch we also met with Wendy Lyon who shared how to make a person, spiritual timeline.  This activity/exercise forces you to think about your spiritual life through the years since you first made the decision to follow Jesus.  As you draw it, you will see that the line might not have been straight, that you might detoured off the path but that God has been faithful the entire time.   You have an opportunity to honestly reflect on your relationship with the Lord.  If done with a small group, the women are invited to share (but aren't required to) their timeline with others.  It is a great way for others to see that they are not alone and that everyone has had ups and downs in their Christian walk.

We left the church about 4:00 p.m. to drive to the site of the Women's Prayer Retreat--more on that in my next blog post.

Women's Ministry Trip, Part 2

Thursday morning we joined hundreds of women at "Women in the Word," the women's Bible study ministry at Christ Chapel Bible Church.  The fall session entitled "Keepin' it Real," is a study of Paul's letters to Timothy.  

The order of the program is:

1) The designated teacher (this rotates among a group of 4-5 women) meets with the small group leaders thirty minutes before the study starts.  (At the beginning of the fall session, each woman received a notebook with a page of study questions for each weekly session.  Everyone is to do the work at home and bring the answered questions with them to the study.)  The teacher and the group leaders discuss the "answers" to the questions and clarify any issues or questions.  This time assures that all of the group leaders will be like-minded as they discuss the questions with the members of their small group.

2) The morning study officially started at 9:45 a.m. with time to pick up a few snacks (healthy and not healthy) to take back to the tables where the small group met with their leaders.  There were 59 small group leaders with an average of 8 women each--over 500 women!  There were tables all over the church!  Here are a few pictures:

Each group had 45 minutes to go over the answers to the questions and have time to share prayer requests.

3) At 10:45 a.m, everyone met together in the sanctuary for a time of praise and worship before the Bible study lecture begin.  The lecture was presented by the teacher who wrote the study.  Each woman was given a page of notes and a page of scripture verses that the teacher would use.  The study ended at 11:45 a.m. 

Our group was able to participate/view all three parts of the study and we were blown away by the organization, scope and depth of the Bible study. 

Thursday afternoon we had three leadership training sessions with different staff members, including "Building a Healthy Team," "Habits for Our Spiritual Health" and "Keys to Understanding the Proverbs 31 Woman."  Each session awesome and the speakers allowed plenty of time for ask to ask questions.

Thursday night we were treated to dinner with some of the women's ministry staff at Reata, a restaurant that specialized in Western food and décor.  After the delicious dinner we walked around in Sundance Square and had plenty of time for "photo opps."

 

When we returned home after the evening, we all felt so very blessed by the women of the church and felt a real sense of obligation to apply what we learned.

Women's Ministry Trip to Fort Worth

All eight of us flew to Fort Worth on Tuesday, September 27.  I flew from California and the rest of the ladies flew from San Salvador.  We were warmly welcomed by the women's ministry leaders of Christ Chapel Baptist Church and treated to dinner in Sally's beautiful home. 

Ena, Patty, Isabel and Roxana stayed in two different homes; Deborah, Isabel, Mirla and I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express.  Either way, we were blessed! 

On Wednesday morning we met at the church for the first of a many meetings.  In the first, Bill Hampton, Pastor of Missions, talked to us about how the relationship between our two church began.  He also gave us a tour of the facilities at the church--my goodness, we were amazed!  Before lunch we piled in the van with Kathy Harrelson, who is in charge of the women's ministry to working women, and headed to downtown Fort Worth.  The church has a space called "Common Ground" where they host a free lunch for working women once a week and offer Bible studies after work.  We were blessed to hear two remarkable testimonies and share lunch with almost 50 women. 

We returned to the church and had a session with Deb Hagan, who is one of the writers of their women's Bible studies.  She gave us information regarding the process the use to write their own Bible studies for the women of the church.  There are over 900 women who participate in one of the two Bible studies each week (morning or evening sessions.) 

We had a great dinner with the women's ministry board at the home of Lynn Kitchens, wife of the senior pastor, Ted Kitchens.  We were introduced to King Ranch Casserole--a Texas staple!

All of the women were such a blessing and so willing to share with us.  We returned to our host homes/hotel with our heads spinning, but determined to figure out a way to apply the lessons we learned in the ministry in San Salvador.

Time with Family.

I'm really quite far behind and so I'm going to a rapid, mostly pictures catch-up of what's happened since my last post in mid-September.  We were able to spend 12 days with our kids and grandkids in September.  It's unbelievable how much they have grown.  We read books, took walks, read more books, watched swim lessons, watched piano lessons, played games, went to the aquarium and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of our time together. 

Dinner with Friends

We flew to California on Tuesday, September 13, and Daniel picked us up at SFO about 4:00 p.m.  We had a quick dinner with the family before Daniel left for Bible Study Fellowship.  Afterward we had some time to play with the grandkids.

Wednesday morning after breakfast we drove 3.5 hours to spend some time with William, Gilma and Amy Flores.  We started by having lunch with William and Gilma at In-n-Out!  

After lunch we followed them to Porterville and checked into our hotel.  Once Amy was out of school, they picked us up and we went to Gilma's sister's restaurant for a Salvadoran snack--first time we've eaten "real" Salvadoran pupusas in the states and they were really tasty.

William and Stephen went to church early to set up for the Wednesday evening service.  Gilma, Amy and I joined them just before the service started.  It was a special praise/worship service with Stephen singing (in Spanish), William singing some of his original songs and then Stephen playing along with William for some congregational songs.  It was like a little slice of Iglesia Bautista Vida Nueva!  We ended the night with ice cream.

Thursday morning we had breakfast at Black Bear Diner.  They had biscuits (the size of hamburger buns) and gravy which was a pleasant surprise for Stephen.  After lunch we began our 4+ hour drive to Santa Cruz to spend the day/night with our son, Jon.

Koinonia--Alma y Verdad

Yesterday was the final Koinonia (all four of our sites meet together) for 2016.  The first Koinonia was a kick-off for the 25-anniversary of the church.  The second Koinonia was the enormous anniversary celebration and this featured a concert by the Orquesta Sinfonica Cristiana (Christian Symphonic Orchestra) of El Salvador.  The 80-person orchestra and 20 person chorus presented a program of ten songs, including Majesty, You are the Air I Breath, Agnus Dei, Amazing Grace, Oceans and Revelation Song.

The theme for the concert was "Alma y Verdad" (Truth for the Soul) and after all the beautiful praise music, Pastor Steve preached the message of salvation.   The greatest blessing was the number of people who made professions of faith at the end of the service.  Praise the Lord for a church that finds ways to reach the lost and is faithful to preach the gospel.

Women's Ministry Opportunity

The women's ministry of Christ's Chapel Bible Church in Fort Worth, TX, has invited eight of the women's ministry leaders from Iglesia Bautista Vida Nueva to participate in leadership training at their church.  I have the privilege of being one of the eight and am very excited about this opportunity.  

The eight of us met last week for a pre-trip planning session, which included discussing cultural differences, making arrangements for airport drop-off and pickup, planning for the hostess gifts we will take and more.  Groups of two will be staying in four different homes.  

We will all fly into Fort Worth on Tuesday, September 27, and then return to El Salvador on Sunday, October 2.  

Well, that was quick

Liseth Campos from Immigration arrived at our apartment about 9:30 this morning.  She came in, picked up the paperwork we had collected, took a couple of pictures and that was it.  Not sure what we were expecting, but thought it would be more involved.

When she left she was going to the church to pick up the final piece of documentation and conduct an interview with one of the pastors.  

I asked if there was anything else we needed to do and she said we just need to wait until they call us to say our cards are ready OR if they don't call within a month, we can call to check on the status.  

Thanks for praying us through this process!