Our First Day!

Hello everyone,

Today was our first day in the neighborhoods. After getting settled into our host family homes last night, we got to catch up on some much needed rest and set out early in the morning to the neighborhood we were going to work in. We worked in a district just out of San Lorenzo called Reducto, a low income and poorer neighborhood than ones we have gone to in the past. In the morning, we were sent out in groups to first pray for the people on the streets and in the houses that we would be able to share the Gospel with later after lunch.

After breaking for an amazing lunch and a team meeting, we went out into the streets again to share the Gospel. As always, there were some who were receptive, some who didn't really understand what we were saying, and some who were not interested and just wanted to talk about other things.

One of the biggest challenges we come in contact with is the works-based salvation. A lot of people do believe that if they live a good life and don't commit any "big" sins, they will go to heaven for that reason alone. We have to focus a lot of time on our inherant sin we possess and the large seperation it creates between us and God. It is so exciting when people understand this and almost breath a sigh of relief when we tell them that there is a way, an amazing way, to have a proper relationship with God and that is through faith in Jesus Christ. A couple people in our team came across some people who we believe truly put their faith in Jesus for the first time tonight. It is just so exciting to see this!!

Today, Daniel was able to witness to a man named Diego who grew up with a father who was a Baptist Pastor. He said he grew up in a Christian home but never put anything into practice. They found out after talking for a while that they both have a son about the same age. Diego was saying that he never took Christianity to heart, but now that he has a son, he is more conscious of what to teach him which opened up a great door for Daniel to really share the Gospel on a personal level. They talked for a good hour and a half. He is interested in knowing who Jesus is.

HIs is not the only story like this, there were so many times we had with people that could only be from the Lord.

We are especially in every neighborhood looking for the man or woman of peace, as Jesus speaks of in Luke 10:6. These are people who are open and known in their neighborhood that may be open to having a Bible study in their house for their neighbors so as to have discipleship in every town.

Our Devotional verse for the day is John 3:30 if you want to look it up and meditate on it as we have today :)

Today was very productive and God is already doing so much. Hopefully I can send out more tomorrow with some pictures from today.

Lots of love to you all! More tomorrow hopefully.

- Victoria