Our Family

Our Family

19 julio 2011

Winter Camp 2011

We thank God for your faithful prayers for the ministry here in Colonia! And we rejoice in the wonderful winter camp that He granted us. We spent three days at camp and enjoyed many blessings. First of all, five souls were convicted of their sins and turned to Christ for salvation. Countless other youth made decisions to trust God more fully in their everyday life, and for consecration. The theme was ¨Heroes of the Faith¨ which lent itself well to encouraging our teens to follow God just like Abraham, Moses, and the disciples, among others. The preaching centered on living separated lives in a wicked world. We praise the Lord for how He worked in our teens´ hearts and give Him the glory for all the eternal fruit He saw fit to give. Thank you to each of you who gave to and prayed for this endeavor.

22 mayo 2011

Grace of Life

Gabriel and I are extremely thankful for the two boys God has given us so far. As the verse says, we realize we are ´heirs together of the grace of life.´ Each day that passes we realize more and more the responsibility of raising our children ´in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.´ It´s not easy, but nobody ever said it was. And, we have help and guidance in His Word, for He is the one who made us and our children. We daily ask for His wisdom to steer Steven and Zach in the right direction, and to do it in the right way. Thank you for praying for us in this area as well.

16 abril 2011

Church Building Project

Another exciting thing on the horizon is our church building project! The mother church is in desperate need of more Sunday school classrooms, so we as a church are moving into action. Within the next few months, we asking the Lord to provide the $7,000 we need to divide the original chapel from only one into several classrooms. We are raising a special building fund for this purpose, for which we already have $500. Please pray for our people in this matter, that God would increase our faith in Him and the remodeling could be completed in a timely fashion!

Upcoming Easter Program

We are looking forward to this month and its related activities. With the much talked-about holy week, good Friday, and Easter Sunday coming up, we want to make the most out of this season to reach the unsaved. Many Uruguayans see the week before Easter as simply another week of vacation, and a time off school or work. We would like to challenge them to personally know the Savior who came to die and take our place on the cross. Please be in prayer for the evangelistic meeting we have planned in El Real (where our church annex is) for Saturday, April 23rd at 6 p.m. We will be inviting the whole neighborhood for a special Easter multi-media program, followed by a salvation message and invitation. We trust the Lord will be pleased to see souls saved and new contacts made through this outreach. Thank you for joining with us in prayer for this special event!

03 abril 2011

Anonymous

Our great God sure works in mysterious ways, in ways we don´t understand how or why. One example of this is when someone chooses to give anonymously to a work. As humans, we tend to want glory and praise for our financial sacrifices to someone. But sometimes, God uses anonymous givers to bless us in unknown ways. Or He prompts a prayer warrior to lift us up when we are unaware, but need it most. We are particularly thankful for an anonymous donor, who, for months has been sending us funds, apparently without wanting us to know who they are. If you are reading this, Thank you for giving. God knows each one of our needs and through your giving we have been reminded of that. We have been greatly encouraged to know there are still Christians who follow God´s command of ´Seek ye first the kingdom of God...´ and who desire to lay up ´treasures in Heaven.´ And this saint(s) is not looking for men´s applause as we so often do. Instead, he/she knows that God loves a cheerful giver and will bless that in more ways than we can count! Thank you to this anonymous donor who is blessing our lives. And thank you to all of you as prayer supporters who many times remain ´anonymous´ to us - but not to our Heavenly Father!

13 marzo 2011

update, J. LaCaze

Well we are finally back into a ´routine´ - as much as it could be called one! I have school Tues. through Friday a.m.´s, we have our regularly scheduled meetings each week during week nights, Gaby with visitation during the week, and then both of us on Saturday...all to prepare for services on Sunday! We have gotten off to a good start in school and I am thankful for that. Although we have had some extended summer-like weather, so I have still been enjoying summer activities with the boys in afternoons.
Last Sunday was a victorious one for our church congregation, as the first official church service was held in a neighboring town, Juan LaCaze. Pastor Juan Carlos and his wife Valeria, along with Pastor Andres and his wife Eugenia, have been going once a week for several months now to evangelize and make contacts in this city. Of course, now that Juan Carlos has been ordained, the goal would be to start a church there as soon as possible. Today they saw an increase in their attendance, as there were 4 people in addition to those from our church. We continue to pray for this ministry and the souls in Juan LaCaze, that the Lord would open doors there in the days and weeks to come!

I´m sorry!

It may seem hard to believe...but the previous blog entry was written in January when we first got back to Uruguay. I was unable to actually post it until today due to technical difficulties! I just want you all to know that I haven´t forgotten about my promise to keep the blog more updated! And what´s more, I´ve now designated Sunday afternoons as my blogging time. So Lord willing, this will only continue to increase the frequency of entries.

23 enero 2011

Back in Uruguay!

We are back home - in Uruguay! It is hard to believe that we´ve been back almost a week now. And it has been quite the change in climate for us all...going from the snow and cold to the hot summer! It is great to be back with our church people. And we are especially thankful to those who took our places while we were gone. Of course the work of the Lord continued on without us! Now we are looking forward to a full week, preparing for our church anniversary and baptisms this Sunday. We will also be hosting Dr. Steadman from Baptist World Mission for leadership conference meetings and the pastoral ordination of one of our young men, Juan Carlos. Please pray for us and our church this weekend as we celebrate what God has done here in Colonia, Uruguay.

Baptisms in the River

Not only was this weekend an exciting one for us as a couple, but also for our church as a whole. We celebrated our 11th anninversary with cake on Saturday. And as we usually do, we had baptisms the same weekend. 14 new converts followed the Lord in believers' baptisms (in the river here in Colonia) on Sunday as the rest of the church (and some others) looked on. Gaby was able to baptize 8 of them, several youth and a few new Christians from the Annex in El Real. We were thrilled with the privilege of being part of this important step in their Christian lives. And we are even more excited about continuing to serve the Lord here in Colonia where He has placed us.

Kids' Activity

Saturday was a beautiful day both for its weather and for its activity. Near the church annex, we invited all the neighborhood children to join us for the afternoon. We had several sunday school teachers and helpers in charge of organized games. And we can't forget the trampoline! The Perezes graciously loaned us their giant trampoline - much to the kids' jumping pleasure. After a while of play time, we had songs and a Bible class for the 40 children in attendance. Many of them were new and we pray this will be an open door into their homes and the lives of these families here in the neighborhood. We finished the activity with cake and juice for everyone, before heading home.

4TH ANNIVERSARY SUNDAY 8/17/08

Incredible! Our church annex is praising the Lord for four wonderful years of existence. On Sunday, the 17th we celebrated our anniversary as a 'church' group. After a special service and church program, we enjoyed lunch together with the other pastors and staff families. What we have seen during the past years is much growth in the number of people, but more importantly spiritually. The Lord is blessing this church work, and we are extremely thankful for it.

New Record

Praise the Lord for record attendance in the Annex last Sunday! We are thankful for 60 people that decided to assemble in the Lord's house to worship Him. There was a good group of children as well since we had "The Olympic Games," a special activity of games specifically for them. Mark Perez had planned and set up all the races and competitions, and the kids loved the games. We are thankful for the great attendance, but at the same time we realize more and more the urgent need for our own church building. Please continue to pray for God's direction in finding and buying a property for our church annex.