Hey Y’all,
Thanks SOOO much for all your prayers for the last 10 days — we had a WONDERFUL time with the group from West Acres Baptist in Augusta!! We estimate that more than 100 received Jesus as their savior during our 4 days of door-to-door evangelism and with the 4 days of Vacation Bible Schoo. It is hard to judge exactly the number, but many came to know Jesus personally and we were so honored to be a part of welcoming them into the Family!! We did have some kind of virus passing through our group but everyone seemed to survive with sweet attitudes anyway and most got sick after the most important days of evangelism and VBS. God’s timing was perfect. We are anxious to follow up in that village each year if possible and see these people growing in their relationships with Jesus Christ. God answered your prayers for me to find the right translators too. One of them, Sayda (“side-a”) was translating for the Wysong family for 4 days and suddenly the Holy Spirit prompted Tonda to ask her if she knew that she would go to heaven if she died that night. She teared up and said “no” and they prayed with her right there to accept the free gift of salvation so she would be CERTAIN. It was so exciting. Sayda is Moncho’s niece and she had tried to commit suicide just about a year ago. Alba (Moncho’s sister) also translated and she has been a Christian for several years but has not grown much in her relationship and it was a great time for her to be around encouraging Christians too. The other translators were Bety and I and another young lady, Mildred, went along 3 days. So we all had a great time and had sufficient help. I’m so thankful that these girls are anxious to help us in the future as well. That was a big concern to me before — it is hard to find enthusiastic translators!
My aunt Lareta and cousin, Bob, came during our time at the beach in Tela and they are still here helping me. We did a medical brigade today and my cousin saw 150 people at least. He said that in the States, he never sees more than 15 in a day!! We had a sweet time and we met a lot of physical needs of the people at Puente Curva (the same place we did VBS last week). We will be doing another medical brigade at Las Jermanias on Saturday (where we will be going the following week for door-to-door ministry with the group coming from Tomball Bible Church in Texas). We have been SOOO busy but God has blessed me and all of the others so much and has provided all the strength we need for each new day. In fact, I got the fever the night after the group left and that was a great time to have it since we had nothing we had to do. Then we did the medical brigade today and I didn’t get the stomach crud until that was over. I’m praying to feel great by Saturday when we do the next medical brigade. Please pray for me to get back to normal and also that my kids won’t get the virus either.
“Eddy” moved in on Wednesday. I have called him Eddy for 2 years but I realized when he put his name in his new bible that his name is ERIC and they say it like Eddick so they never even noticed that I was not pronouncing his name correctly. So anyway, we have Eric in our house now and he is soooo happy to be here. His little 5-year old brother, Mario, will probably move in with us in a few months as well. He and Fernando get along well and Eric is so anxious to help with everything. Please pray for Eric as he will be starting school tomorrow and may be behind in some areas.
Fernando, of course, was the hit of the week. Everyone loves him as soon as they meet him and he is certainly learning to love the “gringos” too! He is so much fun and so happy all the time. We celebrated his 3rd birthday while the group was here and we had a pinata and they gave him a new Ninja tricycle — he is sooo excited about his “moto”.
We had priced ceramic for completing the church floor below the house and it would be about $700. I didn’t know for sure that was what the Lord would want us to do with some of our account money so I prayed specifically that if HE wanted us to use money to tile the church, that it would come to us in an unusual way and we would know it was for that special purpose. At the end of the 10 days with West Acres, Steve handed me an envelope of what they had left over since they came under their budget. It was $700 — God made it very clear and always answers our prayers so perfectly.
Pray for the group coming this Tuesday from Tomball. We will be doing a lot of discipleship as well as VBS in the village above Destino del Reino, where many came to Christ last year. Some of the men will also be building church pews and that will be such a great help to us as well.
I guess I’ll close for tonight since this is already soooo long. I just can’t thank all of you for so many faithful prayers. That is exactly why so many are coming to Christ and things are going so well here — God hears your prayers!!
Love to each of you in His MARVELOUS grace!!
Rhonda
