New Ministry Opportunities...
Tuesday and Wednesday I met with the folks out in Navarette. It is a small city about 30 minutes out of Santiago. We have been working in a "suburb" called Ponton (I usually call it Navarette but it is actually a little ways out of that city). Now it looks like we will also be working in a new community called El 7 which is literally, Seven. There is a family there who are Christians although because of some unfortunate experiences with an evangelical church, have not been a part of a church and are eager to help us plant a church in their community. They have two sons, 18 and 20. The 18 year old is a God-seeker. Apparently there is a group of 20 or so teens that are meeting in the Catholic church but from what I can understand, they have no one to guide them. I am going to try to meet with them Sunday and get a better feel for what is happening there- I try to be respectful of other church ministries and not work in competition with them. Morena (the woman/mother) doesn't see a problem here but I am going into the situation with a caution and lots of prayer. It helps that last week I met the president of the Catholic church. He shared that basically their church is dead and he was open to our coming. Please join me in praying for this new ministry. There are about 90 families and countless Haitians live all around the fields behind the little community.
In Ponton, the community we have been working in this past year, I met with a small group of adults on Tuesday. I have been pessimistic about this ministry developing into a church for various reasons, but they surprised me Tuesday with their commitment and desire. Moreno (the husband) seems to have taken to heart the Bible studies we have been doing and his experience at the Men's Prayer retreat (national convention) made a big impact. We need to transition into him being the leader out there. Pray with me that over the next several months we can work with him and his wife, Minerva, as well as the other two couples who were with us, developing them into a nucleus of leadership that will give birth to a new church.
We are also beginning ministry with a community called "La Canela" which I think would be translated Cinnamon. We are working with a man, Franklin, who seems to be a God-fearer but to date he has not been interested in organized religion. He is studying the Gospel of Matthew this week. We hope to share with him tomorrow as well as present an evangelistic movie to his group of young people. He is very active in the sports clubs of his town and has a lot of young people he is leading- he wants us to work with those young folks! What a blessing. Pray for him and others as we begin to plant seeds. Yesterday Felix (The Hole) got excited about this opportunity because he has several friends that live out there. Pray for these natural ties to result in a new church that will be salt and light.
