Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Happy New Year


Our Bible studies went great on Sunday. We have been a little concerned. When we first arrived in New Horizon the Catholic church was not open very often and we could not find anyone who could tell us anything about Jesus Christ. Jimmy spoke to one of the men in the village who said he was Catholic. He said that he didn’t really believe any of that stuff, but that it was just tradition. Many people in New Horizon do not even believe God exists. We really see a need in the village and that is why we felt God leading us to it. Well, when the Catholic church found out that adults were starting to come to our Bible studies and that the attendance to our kids Bible study was growing they started having weekly services. We had scheduled our Bible studies starting at 4:00 on Sunday afternoons so as to not cause any strife.

We heard recently that the mothers in the village had gotten together to discuss why more kids were coming to our Bible study than were going to the Catholic church. The mothers said that they don’t tell their kids what to do, and they can go where they want. They said that the kids want to go hear our Bible stories, and they don’t want to go to the Catholic church.

Sunday we found out that because of our Bible Studies, the Catholic church has decided to move their services to Saturdays. They are blaming us for their low attendance (something that existed way before us) and so are changing in hope that people will come now. The Boggs told us that similar things happened to them. The Catholic church was not interested in a certain area, but when they started a work there that was beginning to grow, they decided to get more involved in the community.
The kids were laughing because I asked who has sinned and the kids replied “everybody.” One of the teenage guys that was listening through the window yelled, “not me!” He was a little too well know to make that claim!
The Bible study was about reaping what you sow. Jimmy brought 10 bags of different seeds and they had to identify what fruit it was. No one got kiwi right. They said it was imported fruit!
Because of the drama that our recent team did, we were able to reach some more teenagers that we did not have a relationship with before. One of these was Carlos. He played the dad in the second scene. He is Jaime and Eliu’s older brother if some of you know who they are. Anyways, he came to our Bible Study for the first time this Sunday. Throughout our rehearsals, he had been hearing the plan of salvation. He was hanging around afterwards on Sunday night and Jimmy asked him, “Are you ready to accept Jesus yet?” He said yes! Jimmy said, “Do you know how?” and Carlos replied, “Not really.” Jimmy took him through the Romans Road and he understood each part. Afterwards he prayed on his own, “God save me. I know I’m a sinner and I need your salvation.” This is our second man to get saved here. He is 18 with a second grade education. He is also the oldest guy in his family. Please pray for him as we begin to disciple him. Pray that his family sees a change in his life and wants what Carlos now has!
Amy and Carlos

One last thing to pray about. Luis told us last night that in the next town assembly meeting, he is going to ask for us to have land in the village to build a church on. Once again, he is the town council presidents nephew, so hopefully his word will go a long ways.
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