We read in the gospel of Luke and chapter 18 the Lord Jesus admonishing the disciples to "let the little children come to me for of such is the Kingdom of God." On the invitations that we passed out in the community, making known to the people of our first "official" service, we included this verse. And so of course it was great to see the little children come out and hear the gospel. (it appears that their parents took that verse seriously) What a privilege to tell them about the wonderful news that God the Father has sent His Son Jesus to pay the price for our sins. Our little room was almost filled to capacity with little ones. (Good thing that they are little!) Please pray along with us that the Lord would draw them to Himself and that they would keep coming and hear the gospel again and again.
The building in which we are meeting is quite interesting. There is no electricity. There is no water. No bathroom. Nor an outhouse for that matter. But it is a place where we can openly invite people to hear the gospel. And that is what we consider the most important thing of all. We are currently praying for a piece of land on which to build a ministry center. Please help us pray for the Lord's will to be done. Seeing this dream become a reality would be a real testimony to the grace of the Lord.
Whereas we had a really good number of children in our first "Sunday School hour", the number of adults was significantly less. However we were encouraged by those who came out and look forward to following up with them and would ask that you especially be praying for a couple of people: Juan, Jasmina, Anita, and Omar. Pray for their eyes to be opened to the truth of the gospel.
We are already looking forward to next Sunday's services. Over lunch we discussed some of the things that seemed to have went well and some things that potentially we will do differently. We want to make sure that we conduct ourselves as a solid New Testament style church: orderly and passionately praising the Savior and His our Heavenly Father.
Before I sign off I will include some more prayer requests. Please pray for a woman named Maria and her numerous children and grandchildren. They are some real needy people. Spiritually, emotionally, and financially. May they encounter what they need in the Lord and may we as His people have compassion and discernment in how we minister unto them. Please pray for the relationships that we are cultivating with the people down here. It has been cool to get to know them more and for them to see that we are committed to them and to seeing a gospel church established here in Curaco. Please pray for some ideas that we are considering on how to have more contact with the people here; may the Lord illuminate our minds. Also please pray for the group from North Casnovia Baptist in Bailey (our sending church) that will be coming down to minister with us in the next couple of weeks. May the Lord be greatly glorified both in and through their lives.
So again we say thank you for your friendship and for your interest in the gospel ministry here in Curaco de Velez. We greatly appreciate your prayers and we are encouraged as we see God answering them for His glory. May you and may we keep it clear that God's glory is the reason that we do what we do. (1st Cor 10:31; Col 3:16-17; Ps 115:1)
Grace to you all,
Daniel (for Ruth and the kids)
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Saturday, March 18, 2006
Quick update
Greetings to you all. Here is a quick update from your friends down here in southern Chile. It has been about two weeks since I last wrote. Not due to the fact that I haven't had anything to say, just been busy with other things. No excuse for not having added to this sooner, so for those who actually read this in order to be more informed about the ministry down here: sorry!
Now, when I titled this blog "Quick update" I wasn't joking. I am actually going to sign off after a couple of more lines. We have our "launch service" tomorrow morning and I want to go get some ZZZZZ's. I will write tomorrow in the late afternoon/early evening with a more thorough report on what's been going on. Until then, (and after for that matter) may the Lord's grace be evident in your life and ministry.
Daniel
Now, when I titled this blog "Quick update" I wasn't joking. I am actually going to sign off after a couple of more lines. We have our "launch service" tomorrow morning and I want to go get some ZZZZZ's. I will write tomorrow in the late afternoon/early evening with a more thorough report on what's been going on. Until then, (and after for that matter) may the Lord's grace be evident in your life and ministry.
Daniel
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Prayer Team: Activate
I remember back to when I was a kid. A long time ago for those of you who are younger than me and not so long ago for those who are a bit older. One of my favorite cartoons to watch was called the "Superfriends". There was of course Superman, Wonderwoman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, Flash, and many more. But some of the more interesting to me were the ones called the "Wonder Twins". (They had this monkey along named "Gleek" but I was never too impressed by him) These two, a brother and sister, had the abilities to transform into different forms. If I remember correctly the sister had the ability to transform to any kind of solid substance i.e. animal, bridge, garbage truck, etc. And the brother was able to occupy any form and shape of liquid i.e. ice, lava, snow, etc. Needless to say it was pretty cool some of the things that they pulled off. Obviously a bit farfetched, but hey it was a cartoon. What else should one expect. But anyway, when they wanted to do some of these cool things it was necessary for them to somehow touch hands with one another and say "Wonder Twins' Powers: Activate." If they didn't touch their hands together and if they didn't say those words, nothing would happen. So, why do I bring all of this up today? Well, just to illustrate that we need each other and the help that each one can give to accomplish the tasks that lie before us.
The task at hand is prayer. We have been facing some interesting challenges the last couple of days. We are noticing that there is some real opposition to the spread of the gospel here in Curaco de Velez. We know that ultimately behind this opposition is our enemy at work, using human pawns to complete with his dastardly plans. As the Scripture says, we are not unaware of his attacks. So what we are asking from you all is that you would hold your hands out with ours and call out to the Lord on behalf of the people of Curaco de Velez. This way we can activate the power that is available from the Lord if we His people will only ask Him for it. (Matt 7:7-11; Eph 6:18-20) And of course we do this that He might be greatly glorified through the demonstration of His glorious grace. (Eph 1:6)
One of the greatest challenges that we have been facing is the hardness of the people's hearts to the gospel. Maybe this is also seen where you are living but I imagine that what we see here is a bit different. The people are very hardened in their religion and do not want to hear about the gospel. But to the point that they have not been willing to rent us a building in which to worship due to the fact that we are evangelicals. Just yesterday we were told that renting a facility to us would bring problems upon the owner and problems for us. Of course we are willing to be persecuted for the Lord's sake (John 15:18-25; 17:14; 1st Peter 4:12-19) , but understandably so the unbeliever is not. So, we are still looking for a place to hold services. Today Ruth spoke with someone about the possibility of renting out another place in the town. She was told that the request would be passed onto someone else and that we would have an answer on Thursday. Please pray for these people who are making these decisions. May the Lord move them to make the decisions that seem best to Him. (Prov 21:1) We have come to realize that there are some real strongholds up in this town. Please also pray that the Lord would tear those down and that this town would become a true "city of refuge". A place where people could find peace and forgiveness for their sins. A town in which the gospel would be clearly preached, openly and in an area accessible to all. May God be glorified in Curaco de Velez!
So, Prayer Team, please activate on behalf of the people of Curaco. And also upon our behalf. As mentioned earlier in Eph 6:18-20, please pray that we would share the gospel as we should and of course that the Holy Spirit would work through the preaching of the Word and convict people of sin and that these people would be regenerated and become worshipers of the One True God through His Son Jesus Christ.
May the grace of the Lord be extremely evident in your lives as you seek to be found faithful to the One who has called you into His service.
For the King and His Kingdom,
Daniel and Ruth
The task at hand is prayer. We have been facing some interesting challenges the last couple of days. We are noticing that there is some real opposition to the spread of the gospel here in Curaco de Velez. We know that ultimately behind this opposition is our enemy at work, using human pawns to complete with his dastardly plans. As the Scripture says, we are not unaware of his attacks. So what we are asking from you all is that you would hold your hands out with ours and call out to the Lord on behalf of the people of Curaco de Velez. This way we can activate the power that is available from the Lord if we His people will only ask Him for it. (Matt 7:7-11; Eph 6:18-20) And of course we do this that He might be greatly glorified through the demonstration of His glorious grace. (Eph 1:6)
One of the greatest challenges that we have been facing is the hardness of the people's hearts to the gospel. Maybe this is also seen where you are living but I imagine that what we see here is a bit different. The people are very hardened in their religion and do not want to hear about the gospel. But to the point that they have not been willing to rent us a building in which to worship due to the fact that we are evangelicals. Just yesterday we were told that renting a facility to us would bring problems upon the owner and problems for us. Of course we are willing to be persecuted for the Lord's sake (John 15:18-25; 17:14; 1st Peter 4:12-19) , but understandably so the unbeliever is not. So, we are still looking for a place to hold services. Today Ruth spoke with someone about the possibility of renting out another place in the town. She was told that the request would be passed onto someone else and that we would have an answer on Thursday. Please pray for these people who are making these decisions. May the Lord move them to make the decisions that seem best to Him. (Prov 21:1) We have come to realize that there are some real strongholds up in this town. Please also pray that the Lord would tear those down and that this town would become a true "city of refuge". A place where people could find peace and forgiveness for their sins. A town in which the gospel would be clearly preached, openly and in an area accessible to all. May God be glorified in Curaco de Velez!
So, Prayer Team, please activate on behalf of the people of Curaco. And also upon our behalf. As mentioned earlier in Eph 6:18-20, please pray that we would share the gospel as we should and of course that the Holy Spirit would work through the preaching of the Word and convict people of sin and that these people would be regenerated and become worshipers of the One True God through His Son Jesus Christ.
May the grace of the Lord be extremely evident in your lives as you seek to be found faithful to the One who has called you into His service.
For the King and His Kingdom,
Daniel and Ruth
Sunday, March 05, 2006
A little update from Curaco
Wow. It has been a long time since I sat down to blog. Maybe that is because I felt that I didn't have anything worth blogging or maybe it is because I have felt overwhelmed with all that has been going on as of late. I think it is more of the latter. Busy, busy has been our theme. Not that that is bad; just sometimes things get pushed onto the back burner. This has been one of those times.
We have been busy getting into touch with and staying in touch with the people of Curaco. It has been a real help living here in the "big town". Of course there are some disadvantages of living in town compared to living in the country. It's louder. It's more crowded. There isn't much privacy. But the benefits greatly outweigh the drawbacks. Come on. Our idea of coming was to have contact with the people. To get to know the people. To live with and among the people. (John 1:14; 1st Cor 9:19-23) What a privilege we have to serve the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. That's what our goal is. We want to be a beacon of light. (Matt 5:16) We want the people to see Christ living in and through us. We want the townfolk to know that our God is great!
There has been some new goings on here in our home. We started a couple of weeks ago with Bible studies in the home. We meet on Sunday mornings from 11 am onward and have services for adults and for the little ones. Our meeting area is currently our home. It is a little problematic since we are not specifically allowed to use the home for a church. However we are able to use the home for Bible studies. So, without much advertisement (there is no sign out front) we meet in order to worship the Lord through prayer, song, and the study of His Word. Please pray with us as we seek a place where we can designate to our friends and neighbors as the place (i.e. the church building, the temple, etc.) where we meet together for worship. And then of course pray that they would show up, hear the Word, and worship the Lord in Spirit and in truth as they are saved by grace through faith.
This summer (we're saying adios to nice weather, and you're saying hola to it) we have had the privilege to receive many people into our home. This has been a real blessing to us. Some of our guests have been Christians, but the majority have not been. Some of our non-Christian guests have shown some real interest in the things of the Lord whereas some of them have shown no interest or even disdain for the things of the Lord. But what we seek to do is be faithful to the Lord in sharing with those that He has graciously placed in our path and pray for them, trusting that the result lies in the hands of the Lord.
So, I realize that this letter has been quite general. Not too many detailed details. But let me give you a quick couple of examples of what we have seen the Lord doing. The other day I was coming back from Achao, a town that is about 6 miles from where we live here in Curaco. As I was leaving town I saw some young people with backpacks hitch-hiking. I stopped to pick them up and we started to talk. Where are you from, what are you doing, and the like. They told me how the people in Achao hadn't treated them very well and that they (the young people) had not been very impressed with the hospitality in Achao. So, as we are going to Curaco I am sharing with the youth about the Lord and we get to town and I invite them over to have a bite to eat. They enthusiastically say "yes" because they hadn't eaten in quite a while. We get to the house and it's obvious that the youth are a little bit uncomfortable. We ask them why and they say "You people don't even know us and you are treating us like family." And we tell them that we seek to live as our Master lived and as He teaches us to follow His example. They got some good grub (Ruth made it, so it's gotta be good) and we started to talk more about the things of the Lord. The youth (16,17, and 18 respectively) had lots of questions which I (Daniel) tried my best to answer based upon my understanding of the Scriptures. Christopher, Vanessa, and Yoselin were very interested in the conversation and we pray that the Lord would continue to draw them to Himself according to His holy will. The next day I, Elizabeth, and Daniel were able to help them out with a ride to a good hitch-hiking spot. They quickly got a ride and made it to their homes that same day. Vanessa called and expressed that her parents were very thankful that their daughter had had the "good fortune" of finding nice people to help her on the way. And you know what, that's what we want to be known for. We want to help people on the way (Matt 7:13-14) and to tell them about eternal life offered through Jesus Christ (John 3:16-17; 14:6; 17:3) We do not know if those young people will or have made a decision to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, but we do know that they have heard the message and that they have seen it lived out before them. May we be found faithful to serve the Lord as we should.
Another quick example. The kids and I had helped out some hitch-hikers along the way and were returning with a couple more towards the metropolis of Curaco. When along the way I see the silhouette of a man along the side of the road. The guy is laid out and has his head almost in the road. I stopped the truck and got out and went to this guy. He was blind drunk and passed out along the side of the road. Worse yet is the fact that he had his three year old son with him. The boy was sitting in the grass holding his dad's jug of wine. I got the guy and his son into the truck and fortunately the kid was able to tell us where he lived because his dad was totally plastered. We find the home and get the guy out and walking towards his house (he wouldn't let me take him directly to the door) It turns out that some days prior I had helped out this guy's wife. She had a mountain of groceries that she was trying to carry up to her house. I offered to give her a ride. When we got to her the entrance to her home I offered to drive up the hill in order to leave her at the door. She said that this wouldn't be good because her husband is very jealous. I thought that was a sad commentary on the guy, and thought to pray for her and the situation there in the home. Then the Lord gives me the opportunity to help the guy out. I tell you the truth, the guys head could have gotten split open like a watermelon. Please pray for this family and others like it who are suffering from the consequences of living in the darkness instead of in the light. (2nd Cor 4:3-4)
So, there you have a "little" update. There is so much more that I could write about. So many more prayer requests that could be made. But ultimately I will ask you to pray that the Lord would continue to glorify Himself in and through our lives. May we be found faithful to worship the One who has called us out of darkness and into His glorious light. (1st Peter 2:9) Thanks again for all of your prayers and concern for us and for the people of Curaco de Velez. May the grace of the Lord be evident in your lives.
For the King and His Kingdom,
Daniel
We have been busy getting into touch with and staying in touch with the people of Curaco. It has been a real help living here in the "big town". Of course there are some disadvantages of living in town compared to living in the country. It's louder. It's more crowded. There isn't much privacy. But the benefits greatly outweigh the drawbacks. Come on. Our idea of coming was to have contact with the people. To get to know the people. To live with and among the people. (John 1:14; 1st Cor 9:19-23) What a privilege we have to serve the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. That's what our goal is. We want to be a beacon of light. (Matt 5:16) We want the people to see Christ living in and through us. We want the townfolk to know that our God is great!
There has been some new goings on here in our home. We started a couple of weeks ago with Bible studies in the home. We meet on Sunday mornings from 11 am onward and have services for adults and for the little ones. Our meeting area is currently our home. It is a little problematic since we are not specifically allowed to use the home for a church. However we are able to use the home for Bible studies. So, without much advertisement (there is no sign out front) we meet in order to worship the Lord through prayer, song, and the study of His Word. Please pray with us as we seek a place where we can designate to our friends and neighbors as the place (i.e. the church building, the temple, etc.) where we meet together for worship. And then of course pray that they would show up, hear the Word, and worship the Lord in Spirit and in truth as they are saved by grace through faith.
This summer (we're saying adios to nice weather, and you're saying hola to it) we have had the privilege to receive many people into our home. This has been a real blessing to us. Some of our guests have been Christians, but the majority have not been. Some of our non-Christian guests have shown some real interest in the things of the Lord whereas some of them have shown no interest or even disdain for the things of the Lord. But what we seek to do is be faithful to the Lord in sharing with those that He has graciously placed in our path and pray for them, trusting that the result lies in the hands of the Lord.
So, I realize that this letter has been quite general. Not too many detailed details. But let me give you a quick couple of examples of what we have seen the Lord doing. The other day I was coming back from Achao, a town that is about 6 miles from where we live here in Curaco. As I was leaving town I saw some young people with backpacks hitch-hiking. I stopped to pick them up and we started to talk. Where are you from, what are you doing, and the like. They told me how the people in Achao hadn't treated them very well and that they (the young people) had not been very impressed with the hospitality in Achao. So, as we are going to Curaco I am sharing with the youth about the Lord and we get to town and I invite them over to have a bite to eat. They enthusiastically say "yes" because they hadn't eaten in quite a while. We get to the house and it's obvious that the youth are a little bit uncomfortable. We ask them why and they say "You people don't even know us and you are treating us like family." And we tell them that we seek to live as our Master lived and as He teaches us to follow His example. They got some good grub (Ruth made it, so it's gotta be good) and we started to talk more about the things of the Lord. The youth (16,17, and 18 respectively) had lots of questions which I (Daniel) tried my best to answer based upon my understanding of the Scriptures. Christopher, Vanessa, and Yoselin were very interested in the conversation and we pray that the Lord would continue to draw them to Himself according to His holy will. The next day I, Elizabeth, and Daniel were able to help them out with a ride to a good hitch-hiking spot. They quickly got a ride and made it to their homes that same day. Vanessa called and expressed that her parents were very thankful that their daughter had had the "good fortune" of finding nice people to help her on the way. And you know what, that's what we want to be known for. We want to help people on the way (Matt 7:13-14) and to tell them about eternal life offered through Jesus Christ (John 3:16-17; 14:6; 17:3) We do not know if those young people will or have made a decision to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, but we do know that they have heard the message and that they have seen it lived out before them. May we be found faithful to serve the Lord as we should.
Another quick example. The kids and I had helped out some hitch-hikers along the way and were returning with a couple more towards the metropolis of Curaco. When along the way I see the silhouette of a man along the side of the road. The guy is laid out and has his head almost in the road. I stopped the truck and got out and went to this guy. He was blind drunk and passed out along the side of the road. Worse yet is the fact that he had his three year old son with him. The boy was sitting in the grass holding his dad's jug of wine. I got the guy and his son into the truck and fortunately the kid was able to tell us where he lived because his dad was totally plastered. We find the home and get the guy out and walking towards his house (he wouldn't let me take him directly to the door) It turns out that some days prior I had helped out this guy's wife. She had a mountain of groceries that she was trying to carry up to her house. I offered to give her a ride. When we got to her the entrance to her home I offered to drive up the hill in order to leave her at the door. She said that this wouldn't be good because her husband is very jealous. I thought that was a sad commentary on the guy, and thought to pray for her and the situation there in the home. Then the Lord gives me the opportunity to help the guy out. I tell you the truth, the guys head could have gotten split open like a watermelon. Please pray for this family and others like it who are suffering from the consequences of living in the darkness instead of in the light. (2nd Cor 4:3-4)
So, there you have a "little" update. There is so much more that I could write about. So many more prayer requests that could be made. But ultimately I will ask you to pray that the Lord would continue to glorify Himself in and through our lives. May we be found faithful to worship the One who has called us out of darkness and into His glorious light. (1st Peter 2:9) Thanks again for all of your prayers and concern for us and for the people of Curaco de Velez. May the grace of the Lord be evident in your lives.
For the King and His Kingdom,
Daniel
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