Finishing in Reducto

Hello all!

Sorry I did not get to send out a blog yesterday, we had a jam packed day full of work.

Today ends our day working in the district of Reducto. We have seen many amazing things happen and God has worked in a wonderful and personal way.

Our devotional verse for today is 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 and was the perfect verse to end this week. Paul talks about how God uses the foolish to shame the wise and the weak to shame the strong. We have prayed and asked God to use us in any way He sees fit, and He has. He has done more than we could ever have imagined He could do through us over this past week and is still working in a mighty way that is beyond our comprehension.

God has brought many people to himself this week and we have seen even more understand the Gospel and make a decision to follow Him. The minds and hearts of the people here are open and receptive to the Gospel. God has truly gone ahead of us and opened up the hearts of numerous people here in Reducto. We have seen people young and old come to faith in Him.

In our time of sharing today, Pastor Matt told us a short story of an old squatter couple who he was able to talk to again today. They came to the Magdalena movie last night (which I will talk about later) and understood the Gospel immediately. They are excited for their new life in Christ together and are waiting for the new church to open soon. As he was walking back, he walked by a house where he had shared the Gospel with a man who was very excited about Jesus. Pastor Matt had given him one of our bridge tracks in spanish that we brought, and he saw the man explaining God's plan of salvation to his wife.

There are so many stories that are exciting and encouraging that just shows how God is moving in a mighty way here.

We are soon going to go back into the city for the last time in this neighborhood to finish up discipleship with some people.

Last night we had the opportunity to show the Magdalena film in a soccer field in Reducto. There were many people who showed up from the invitations. There were some kids there that were just playing soccer and decided to sit and watch as well. There were 2 men selling popcorn in the field and decided to move their popcorn stand over to the movie to sell there. They stayed for the whole movie and got to hear the Gospel! 3 people made a decision to accept Christ that night.

Although the the battery died half way through the movie, God provided a way to find electricity as well as open up a time for Pastor Maximo Toledo to preach while everyone was still there waiting for the movie to resume.

So far, we are picking up on Spanish pretty well, although we all had a rough start. Sophie said it was ok for me to share that she accidentally told her family (that doesn't speak english) that she likes to eat grass. She said that they had a nice long laugh about that incident. Pastor Matt's favorite phrase is still "Mucho Good-o".

We are having a wonderful time here with the people!

On a more serious note: Please please be in prayer for Doctor Miguel and his family. He hosted Janna and Tracy last year at their home as well as the large goodbye dinner. His cancer has taken a turn for the worse and he is not doing well at all. Pastor Matt, Portia, Andrew and I went to see him at his home yesterday to pray with him and the family and read scripture. He is very weak and doesn't have much longer to live, although if it is in God's will we know he can be healed. The greatest thing is that we know that most importantly his soul has been saved and his amazing testimony has reached an innumerable amount of people.
However, this is an unbelievably hard time for the family so please say a special prayer for all of them.

Other prayer requests:
1. We would all stay healthy and united as a team.
2. The people who have made decisions to follow Christ would keep growing in Him and would not be distracted by the world.
3. For the people who heard the Gospel but did not accept it - that God would grow that seed of the Gospel that has been given to them.
4. For the translators that we are working with that they would grow stronger in the Lord as well.