As you probably know, Hannah got back from Colombia about 10 days ago. With delayed flights on the way back, everyone had a lot of sleep to catch up on – and they probably have a lot of school to catch up on too!
Anyway, Hannah told me to thank everyone who prayed for their prayers! She says specifically, “It was a great and edifying experience for the whole team. It was really cool to see God at work in the various ministries we visited and served at, and we learned a lot from them.”
Hannah is already about 3/4 through her time in Colombia! Today, tomorrow and Monday – and then Monday night they leave for Canada. They’ll be home on Tuesday.
So keep praying for Hannah and the team – especially for energy for the last bit of their trip, and that the Holy Spirit would use them in the lives of those they meet!
This past week the women from the Las Palmas church hosted another women’s breakfast! About half of the women were first time guests to any of our church events, so brand new friends. About 30 women all together.
So please pray for these women! They had a craft time, and our friend Viri gave a clear presentation of the gospel.
Pray for our service this Sunday. We were unable to meet at our normal location again – they’re having a “Fiesta Expo”. I should have told them that the biggest fiesta of all is the Church on a Sunday morning, celebrating the Resurrected Lord! 😀
But anyway, we’re continuing our marvellous series called “Words” in which we’re studying words related to salvation. There’s so much to learn about salvation! And I’ll be preaching as we continue our odyssey through the book of Daniel. Please pray that God will work in people’s hearts.
Pray also for our children’s Sunday school. They’ve been talking about the Law of Moses and the Ten Commandments, as you can see here:
This Sunday our friend Sandra will be teaching them about the Tabernacle.
Actually, some intense topics this weekend! As usual, we really need the Spirit to work through us (and often in spite of us!).
Tonight (working backwards here) we continue our Discovering Life (Descubriendo la Vida) study (we’ve been learning about the attributes of God). And next Saturday we start our next institute course – a 60 hour Old Testament Survey, which will be going every two or three weeks or so until the end of June.
So — just a few little notes about what’s been happening here! Thanks for your prayers!
Well, if they’re on schedule, the Prairie Christian Academy team has just landed in Bogotá, Colombia!
If you received our recent newsletter (and if you haven’t, you should soon, if you’re on our Support Team), you know that Hannah is part of a team of women who are on a missions trip to Colombia. They will be involved mostly in children’s ministry, especially in poorer areas.
We would appreciate your prayers for Hannah and her team mates! They’ve had a long trip, and after a rest tonight they’ll hit the ground running tomorrow (Saturday). They leave Colombia on the 17th, arriving back home on the 18th.
Interestingly enough, Bogotá is almost 400 metres higher than Ixtapaluca, at 2640! So even though it’s further south than we are, it’s actually slightly cooler at this time of year (down to 6℃ / 43℉ tonight). But that’s better than Three Hills at -9℃! So I’m sure they’ll be enjoying the climate change.
If you’d like to follow the adventures of the team, check out:
It’s kind of like a diamond, isn’t it? So many colours and sides, and yet always the same thing.
One of the youth skits
Last Sunday, for example, our theme was love (because we’re starting a series on the fruit of the Spirit). The youth did a couple of skits, teaching about the love of God as well as the love we should have for one another.
Since this is our first Sunday on the fruit of the Spirit (we’ll be doing the series the first Sunday of every month), it was my privilege to talk a bit about the theme of the epistle to the Galatians – the theme of grace alone.
I’ve also been enjoying our Sunday school series, on words related to salvation. Rod recently taught on the theme of reconciliation – another facet of the wonderful benefits of our salvation. This coming Sunday, I’m looking forward to teaching on imputation – more about the mechanics of our salvation, maybe you could say.
I’ve certainly learned a lot in this series!
We’ve been enjoying worship music on the theme, of course. And I’ve been meditating on the theme of salvation that shines through in the next passage of Daniel that I’ll be preaching on in a couple of weeks.
Time for some worship music (Sunday morning) (Notice Nathanael on the ukulele!)
We’ll also be starting a study on Saturday evening which focuses quite a bit on our salvation. It’s a wonderful theme, that continues to change our lives day by day. Is it changing yours?
It reminds me of a graphic I made up when I was preaching in Jesús MarÃa about 7.5 years ago (wait – how long??). On one side you can see repentance and faith. Our trust in Christ as Saviour is what God uses to save us – hence, faith alone. But on the other side are the many facets of our salvation – adoption, mercy, inheritance, freedom, and so on.
I’m sure that there could be many more things on that side! And we can end up being very confused about salvation if we don’t start to learn about these things.
Please pray for us, that we may clearly and accurately share this wonderful Good News!
Our church in Las Palmas (Path of Life Bible Church) has a children’s Sunday school class most weeks. That means a lot of planning and prayer and preparation (not necessarily in that order!).
Shari is in charge of the children’s ministry at the church, and she works with our friend Sandra (who does a lot of scheduling, as well as teaching), and other helpers and teachers.
Christmas program
So what to teach? Well, we believe in teaching the whole Bible – imagine! Right now we’re going through a chronological series known in English as Generations of Grace (Generaciones de Gracia). It’s a three year program that we’re cramming into – well, 4 years maybe? 😀
Then the material is supplemented with some other activities and special Bible memorization. At the moment, the children are memorizing the Ten Commandments. And of course there are sometimes special presentations for special days.
At Christmas, for example, the kids and their teachers put together a mini Christmas program about giving gifts to Christ.
The other day the teachers and helpers met at our house to pray and strategize and organize for the coming year. Please pray for these women, who put a huge amount of work into one part of our discipleship of the younger generation!
