End of Week Report...
Well, I can breathe a little easier. The Red Sox clinche a playoff spot. They have me nervous but at least now we know we are going forward!
As long as I have been here, I am still amazed at how things work in this country- just since Wednesday, we have taken out a wall at the church in the Hole to expand our "sanctuary." From one day to the next! Tomorrow we will fill in the back area with concrete and get things fixed up nice. AND, we got our wood material ordered and delivered and the church is 3/4 enclosed out in Guayacanal- it is amazing how quickly things can get done. No building permits, inspections, etc., etc. The church in Guayacanal looks awesome! It is exciting!
I visited with the folks out in El 7 today- things are going well. We continue to have a strong faithful group who are seeking to know the Lord better. Pray for them this week- the community is celebrating "San Miguel"- a week long festival to St. Michael, complete with lots of drinking and partying!
Villa de Yaque had a Junta de Vecinos (community leadership council) meeting (Friday late afternoon) for the whole community and invited me. It was a good experience. One of the other churches' pastor was present and it was interesting to observe him and get a feel for his perspective. (I usually just hear commentary from my leaders.) I was impressed. I hope we can work together more in the future. I am never opposed to cooperating with other Christian churches in our areas but I just usually don't have a lot of time to make contact and nurture a relationship. I came away Friday afternoon realizing I probably need to make some changes in that area.
The Bible Study course was excellent in The Hole- every night for an hour and a half, and the people hung in there all week! Tonight we heard several different testimonies of things they had learned which is helping them figure things out spiritually a little better. There was a lot of excitement which is encouraging to me. One specific prayer request: one young man came every night and he clearly states he wants to walk with the Lord and follow Christ but he had to figure some things out. I think after this week, he is pretty close if not there. He struggles with an alternative life-style which displeases him. Victor talked with him last night and offered to help him get some counseling to deal with the issue. He accepted so we will get him together with a Christian counselor for at least a month (4 visits) and see where it takes us. Please pray for him- he really is seeking the Lord and has so much to offer his community and church.
I also had an engineer out to look my property over for security purposes. We have a plan in place- hopefully next week we will get started on getting the razor wire properly installed around the whole fence line. In the short term, we got the point of entry pretty well closed- it is covered in barb wire!
