In His Time

The past week has been busy for us and I apologize for not adding an update to this blog site sooner than today. I can´t thank all of you enough who are following the blog and keeping track of what the Lord is doing here in Matucana. Again I want to thank all of you for your comments and especially your prayers for me, Martin, and Brittne as we continue to do follow His will. We are filling up our week with house church meetings, ministries, and discipling meetings, as well as spending time meeting new folks and inviting them to any of the above!

The good news is that our church meetings, where we story the Bible and use discussion to create understanding, and discipling meetings, where we help believers grow in faith and evangelism, are going well. Brittne and I are both meeting regularly with a few believers one-on-one or in small groups.. and poor Martin has to be at them all to translate, although Brittne´s spanish is really getting good. My spanish is not so good.. "bad" would be a better word.(Rosetta Stone here I come!).

In our storying sessions, however, we are experiencing a frustrating lack of attendance.. rain or no rain. We canvassed the town and outlying areas inviting folks to either of two meetings we had yesterday - all giving us enthusiastic responses - and nearly noone showed up! But God works in His time and in great ways. Just as Andrea commented on the last blog, sometimes no-shows are a blessing. One of the meetings yesterday (at Zoila´s house in Hauriqiña) had only two ladies present (Zoila and Jessica), both non-believers, but we are able to story and share the gospel with them in a more personal way since it was just the two of them. Jessica told us that she is feeling a peace in her heart and we think she and Zoila are close to a decision to accept Christ. We scheduled a special meeting with them this Wednesday, so pray for their decisions.

The next meeting of no-shows was at the Almonacids where only that family showed up, so that turned into more of a training session for them. We need lots of prayer to get more folks to attend these meetings so they too can hear the Word in stories and the gospel message. While numbers are not the goal, we do need for more folks to hear the Word, it´s our obligation to share the gospel - God will do the rest in His time and according to His plan. Pray for our wisdom in finding ways to reach more locals with the Truth, and our patience and understanding that He will lead us to them and them to us.

Our English classes are still going well.. many more in the kid´s class than the older class, but we are continuing to story from the Bible and teach vocabulary, songs, etc. The kids here are really great and they enjoy us being here.. as we walk through town we´ll almost always hear of them call our name from down the street just to say hey! They gave Brittne and I a gift (wrapped and everything!) during the last English class - very special!

We are continuing to spend time with Salvador, the bakery owner, and he is sharing more time with us. A few days ago he took us to his fields up in the mountains near Matucana.. his family´s land there is basically the whole side of a mountain! The picture I have added to this blog is of me and Salvador (that´s Matucana way down in the background). Yesterday we were to hike to Antankallo, an area waterfall attraction way up in the mountains, but the weather was threatening, so we decided to go around town and invite more folks to the meetings. Salvador led the way! He helped us meet a number of folks in Huaripachi and a new area to us called Puerto Nuevo. We will be discipling there this afternoon and setting up for storying sometime next week. Salvador is known by just about everyone in the area and he helped to communicate our mission to the folks we met along the way.

There is so much more to tell you about our activities here, but no time now. I need to prep for this afternoon´s discipling session. The topic is prayer.. especially personal prayer time. Most of you know how important personal prayer time has been in my own life this past year, so I´m excited to share this priviledge with other believers. In your own prayer time, please prayer for the following:

1. Elisabeth and Jose Almonacid, their daughter Keyla, daughter-in-law Janadit, and their son, Jose (Jr.) who we met last Sunday and discovered that he is strong in the faith. Unfortunately he works in Lima and is only home for brief periods.
2. The new believers as they are discipled, Ketti, Luiza, Julie, and Isabel.
3. A good Christian man named Augosto and his family, son Gabriel and daughter Hephzibeth, that we met at the hostel. He´ll be working in the area for about a year and is getting involved in our meetings.
4. Hostel managers, Maribel and Emilio.. Maribel has shown great interest in our storying and discussions.. we think the Lord is working in her life toward a decision.
5. Zoila and her husband Luiz.. she was mentioned in the blog above, along with Jessica.
6. The people in the Huariquiña area (where we are making very little progress) and those in Puerto Nuevo, a new promising area.
7. Edgar, Karen, Tracy, and Jared - A really special family that Brittne is feeling a special attachment with and they are very receptive to all of us.

In Christ-

Greg