Evangelism
The weather has been literally all over the place! We have had days of cold and snow (very unusual to have as much snow as we had) and then the temps have been up in the high 60s as well! For now, it seems that things are starting to even out with 50s and 60s and we are thankful for that!
The (slightly) warmer weather has made evening evangelism more productive in terms of people taking tracts and actually standing around to talk for a bit. We have been able to get a lot more tracts out on the streets over the last month than we were in the prior month so that is a blessing!
Yesterday was a big day here, basically known as the Thursday of the Smoked Grilled Meat. It is a holiday for them leading up to the Easter preparations and the whole city has a smell of grilled meat lingering over it – really quite amazing! This is one of my favorite days of evangelism in the city during February as people come out in droves and are normally quite accepting of the tracts. This year was no different so please pray for all of the tracts that went out to these crowds yesterday.
A couple of weeks ago, I arrived at church one morning to see a funeral procession taking place for a lady a couple of doors down from church. I do not know where she ended up but was glad that she has had many, many opportunities to read of the Gospel as we have covered this area multiple times. I went through the neighborhood again after this to once again to give out the Gospel as these people were reminded again about death.
Speaking of the church area, there is an older man who lives nearby who used to give us nasty looks every time he saw us at church. I have spoken with him a bit over time and he has seen and talked to our children and God has slowly melted his hard heart. Now, every time he passes church and we are in there for service, he smiles and waves and has even taken a gospel tract home with him. Please pray for this man that he would one day visit.
Just as things had slowed down a bit with those coming from a camp, we have a new batch of guys that started coming! There are 4 new men that started coming and they have been listening more intently in the services. We will be starting studies with them next week so please pray as I get to know each of them and see where they are with their spiritual condition. It is sometimes a delicate process, especially since our church is known there and there have been some that have come, feigning interest only to try and take advantage or cause trouble. Please pray for us as we try and minister to them. They have heard the Gospel message clearly several times now and now we will try to answer the questions that they have (which can be many!).
The 4 people from abroad that have been coming regularly continue to attend and be active. It is a blessing to see their growth and to be able to get closer with them. Please pray for each of these Christian brothers and sister that God would help them in their situation here. There have been some recent answers to prayer for their provision and papers so we are very thankful for that.
Church
We have been blessed to have a visiting professor (from Honduras) here for a few months. She is a daughter of a pastor and is here teaching at a local college for a time. She even brought one of her students this past Sunday so that was a blessing! She has been a great help and encouragement to the people in church so we praise the Lord for her!
We have also had some more visitors as of late which has been a blessing. Many of them are Christians just visiting the city but it is always great to have them here and it gives them a glimpse of the work here that they might pray for it.
This past Sunday, we were missing a couple of regular attenders because they closed the other entrance area to the city to remove a WW II bomb that was discovered there! It was unexploded and weighed over 550lbs! It was found mistakenly when a gas station when digging to add new tanks. The digging equipment missed the bomb by only 4mm! Anyway, they had to evacuate over 60,000 people while they diffused it and then removed it. Thankfully, the whole process went well and no one was harmed!
Our family is doing great! Our youngest son, who was born here, will be turning 2 in just a couple of months. Hard to believe how fast time flies!
Thank you so very much for your continued support and prayer of the ministry and our family. We are truly humbled by it and very thankful for you being with us in our efforts to reach the people here for the Lord.
God bless!
Charlie, Rachel, and family