June Campaign, Day 2

In order for Pastor Steve to do the orientation for the week, the team went to the second service at our Lourdes church on Sunday morning.  We took the simultaneous translation equipment with us so they could understand Pastor Steve's sermon on Revelation.

Sunday afternoon we went to a neighborhood in Zacamil.  It was threatening to rain so we didn't unload the inflatable, but the team was able to go door to door at the apartments.  

As it started sprinkling, we set up the sound equipment, chairs and refreshment in the community room of the apartment complex.  Minutes later it was raining buckets upon buckets.  Some of the team were still out in the complex getting soaked.  Little did we know that there was a giant hole in the ceiling of the community room and the buckets and buckets of rain were coming inside.  The men quickly grabbed some buckets to catch what they could and then began sweeping the water out of the door as best they could.  It was quite a challenging night, but people still got saved!

Family Festivals in Costa Rica

Yesterday's blog post was about the schools in Costa Rica wouldn't allow us to distribute tracts or Bibles, but how God was still able to use the spoken lessons, testimonies and gospel presentation to bring many students to a saving faith in Jesus.

We had six family festivals while we were in San Jose--four in private apartment complexes and two in open neighborhoods.   The festivals included the inflatable, clown, games for the kids, drama and the gospel presentation.  

We were able to share door-to-door in the open neighborhoods, but in the apartment complexes we could only knock on doors and invite the families to the festival in their park.  We couldn't be prouder of this team, 3 from Rock Harbor Church in Bakersfield, CA; 15 from First Baptist, Murrells Inlet, SC and 10 from Faith Baptist Church, Youngsville, NC. They faithfully followed the rules and sought out and shared with people who came to the park.  It was awesome to see more than 100 people make professions of faith even with restrictions.  

Please pray for the follow-up team as they contact each person who made a profession of faith and invite them to one of three receptions the church will be holding over the next two weeks.  

June campaign with Christ Chapel Bible Church

The family mission trip started today with 19 team members from CCBC in Dallas.  There are nine adults and ten kids.  They landed at 11:30 a.m. and were greeted by Guillermo and the bus.  After a quick lunch at Wendy's they settled into the hotel for a rest.  

We left the apartment about 1:30 to drive to the church in Lourdes so we could pick up the inflatable and generator.  Unfortunately, a traffic accident along the route caused the usual 15-minute drive (on Saturday) to be almost 45 minutes.  In addition, it rained like crazy.  By the time we arrived at church, the rain and let up enough to get everything loaded.  We just barely had time to swing by our apartment before we joined the team for orientation at the hotel.

We returned to the Santa Teresa neighborhood of Apopa where we tried to have a family festival during the May campaign.  Unfortunately, like last time, the rain continued to fall so we were only able to share door-to-door.  The kids in the neighborhood were excited to see us return, but disappointed again when the rain prevented us from setting up the inflatable.  They want to know when we're coming back to try again.

Tomorrow the team will attend the 11:30 service at the hotel.  Please pray for the rain to hold off for the rest of the week.

Guatemala Trip Wrap Up

One more post about the week in Guatemala.  In addition to VBS in the morning and VBS at Casa Shalom in the afternoon, we had nightly family festivals.  Because the afternoon VBS overlapped with the evening campaigns, the team was divided into two groups.

Since Stephen and I went to the orphanage on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, we weren't available to take pictures on those evenings.  About 15 team members went out each night and were faithful to share door-to-door.  Pastors Nelson and Javier were extremely excited about the decisions and contacts they made during the week.  Even though it was quite chilly at night, the crowds were large and the people were hungry to hear the gospel presentation.

Everyone participated in the Monday and Friday campaigns, so here are a few pictures of the work.

La Cima y Escuela de Ecuador

Last night we went to a neighborhood called "La Cima" which means summit or top.  We had our family festival in La Cima IV and it was very hilly.  There was a central street which ran to the park and the residences were on perpendicular streets.  The ones on the left of the central street extended one block "up," while the ones on the right extended one block "down."  Either way you went there was hill climbing involved.  Good thing the team is made up of young families!  

Thankfully, the rain held off and we were able to have a "normal" festival--inflatable, games for kids, pinata, movie, drama and gospel presentation.  The team went door-to-door when we arrived, but it seemed like not many people were home--or perhaps they were not anxious to answer their doors on a lazy Sunday afternoon.  The attendance at the park was quite good by the end of the evening and there were over 20 people who made decisions for Christ.  It was a great first night!

About 4:30 this morning a powerful storm rolled in and brought lightning, thunder and buckets of rain.  By the time we had morning devotions, the storm had moved out, leaving an overcast sky and a fog covered volcano.  After devotions we went to "Escuela de Republic de Ecuador."  Each family, along with a translator and another Salvadoran to give the lesson, formed a classroom group.  Attendance in the lower grades was quite small--one team shared with the 4-6th graders.  The other 7 teams shared in the 7th, 8th and 9th grade classrooms.  

There were 109 raised hands across all 8 of the classrooms!  Glory to God!

Three Full Days

The mornings start with devotions . . . . yesterday Pastor Julio shared several verses from 1 Kings 8, reminding us that we need to focus on "the cause" which is "that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God; there is no other."  Today, Pastor Steve shared how we can stay joyful in the face of circumstances which is exactly what Paul talked about in his letter to the Philippians when he said, "to live is Christ, but to die is gain."

We have been in the schools in the mornings and the kids have been great.  The value lesson we've been sharing is on "Respect."  It's easy to come up with examples of disrespect and the kids are more than willing to admit that sometimes they disrespect their parents, their teachers and their friends.  In our class today, there were 31 students who made professions of faith . . . it doesn't get any better than that!  

 

The weather didn't look from the beginning, so we didn't put up the inflatable (which was still wet from last night's downpour.)  The team had about 30 minutes to go door-to-door before it started raining. 

 I got some shots of the Pastor Steve, Guillermo and the rest of the team playing basketball and Stephen and Paolo playing ping pong in the park.  About 15 minutes later they were all completely soaked!

 Please pray for our day tomorrow; they weather forecast is for it to rain most of the day/evening.  We're happy for it to rain, as long as it holds off until we finish the preaching.