We had a festival for families at the Complejo Señor de los Milagros, a big park, where we passed out invitations on Friday and thought there might be a better turn out this time. We also noticed that it seems as though more people hang out on Sunday afternoons at this park where we teach Bible lessons to a handful of children. The combination of both doubled, or even tripled, the turnout to our last impact and we saw many people come forward to accept Christ. At the very least we had 100 people immediately around the shows and between 20-30 adults came forward to accept Christ. Many had never been to a church, read the Bible, or talked about Jesus.
After the event, Wendy and I went to our cell group and while there were only 7 people there, 3 were new and appeared to have a Christian background, which is always helpful when your shepherding new believers. Javier is all about inviting more people into their home and so a lot of people from the event are going to start coming. One of the more encouraging occurances at the cell group was that we had a little alone time with Laura, Jimmy's wife. They have shown promise for their interest in this new life, but are a little timid. She opened up to us and shared how much they missed learning more about God while we were away. She talked about their curiosity religiously, how they had went to a mormon church and scoped out some other places before, but that really it was a beautiful thing to begin to get to know about God and to know him personally like they never have before. She later pulled Wendy aside privately to share some prayer request. There are signs all around that God is moving in the hearts of our new friends in Hunter.
Today we visited two people from the event, they intend to join us for church on Sunday - we're going to meet them half way to take them there. Also, one of the ladies who had given us her contact information was not at her house, but her daughter was: a 24 year-old, single mother, that had her reasons to be skeptical. I played with her 3 year old daughter Camilla while Wendy spoke with her and prayed with her. She's another that has never read the Bible and accepted Christ today. She needs some consistency in her life and I pray that God guides our steps in every way that we may exemplify to her something in which she can trust.
We also started discipling Zelmira's family today: her, her husband, and parents-in-law. Zelmira's husband, Abel, and his parents accepted Christ! While Wendy was talking with them I taught her two sons and nephew about the Isrealite's situation before Moses was born. It was a very special time for me because it was the first time I was ever alone to teach without someone's help. More good news: their house just happens to be on the other side of the hill from Sandra, the 24 yr. old, single mom. Sandra, would like to join us for these meetings as well.
Rosa, the single mom mentioned earlier, also is willing to have new people join her at her house for a time of discipleship and wants to go to church with us on Sunday too. All in all, though I'm rather worn out from the past two days, I'm immensily blessed and so grateful to be doing this work for the Lord. Hunter para Cristo!
