This week in Hunter:
We met with Maribel in her home and talked for a long time about life and what's going on in the house. We rounded a corner in which it was safe to say that we can choose to shut the door on being a seeker in general and be a seeker soley of the Christ of the Bible. We've completed the first study book with her and will be moving on to the next which is a more profound look at themes along the lines of developing our understanding of God, the Bible, and what it means to be part of the church.
The Joves as a group had shrunk to 5 - 6, but it's a much more serious, fervant group. And we were happy to see Nancy and Laura once again after months of not seeing them. It's cool to watch this group grow in understanding and commitment. Señor Julio was sober this past Sunday, which was a change from the past 2 weeks prior. He apparently had changed and instead of drinking all week long he was only drinking on Sundays. I made a comment to Javier that if we only get to see him on Sundays and he's drunk, it's wonderful that he has changed that pattern, but we only see him during this time and it's a little disruptive - his tyraids of commentaries that losely fit with what's going on. So, I was grateful to see him present and ready to participate. Unfortunately, the father of Señor Julio is on his deathbed and we will be going to see him next Sunday. Be praying for their family and our meeting, if you will.
Things continue to go well at Zelmira's. We recently taught about baptism, which Zelmira and her father will probably participate in next month. One church told her that she had to marry first, which is very expensive for the average person here and so she never had. She intends to marry, but it's not an incredibly easy process for many. Her father used to read coca leaves to guide people; he was baptised immediately after becoming a believer and never fully understood it. He's interested in being baptised, fully acknowledging it's simbolism. Thursday at the Wawawasi, we watched a video with the ladies there. Numbers where low, because the owners of the Wawawasies had to go to a work meeting and couldn't attend; I'm grateful that they permit us to use their space either way. We realized that a group of teens will probably be the next step there because of the average age of attendance for the video. Maribel came for the first time and a neighbor came for the first time with her daughter. So I was pleased with the quality compared to quantity.
Earlier that day we were with the elderly celebrating Spring's commencement and had a coronation. Thanks to the group of missionaries headed for Paraguay for helping us with the festivities. We also made a trip to the Founder's Mansion with the elderly folks this week on our free day - good times!
I'd like to wrap up with a couple of prayer requests. Things fell through with the Youth House. It's occupied everyday of the week. We hope to use the municiple auditorium and will eventually go to the administrator for the University to talk about the property in Hunter. Also, we were out and about visiting other contacts when a regular contact was out of town and discovered that a lot of our contacts play volleyball Sunday afternoons. I joined in a game and we lost, but it was a good time. We're praying and thinking about what can come of this natural grouping of people and how we can use this time to reach out to more people. 