Faithful workers

Work on the mission field is often slow and tedious. There are often setbacks in the work. When the work does go well, we give thanks to the Lord for this great blessing. "All that we have accomplished YOU have done for us" (Is. 26:12).

The work that Pastor Juan is doing in Pueblo Nuevo is very admirable. His congregation had previously been affiliated with a Pentecostal group. When he learned the true doctrine and teachings of the Bible through the witnessing of one of our seminary students, his desire was to share this teaching with his congregation. As can be expected, many of his members questioned this "new" teaching and many left his congregation.

Those who have remained are a small group. They receive much persecution from other surrounding churches and former members. Some Sundays, people who live close to the chapel will play loud music making it hard to concentrate on the message.

How have the members responded? They have been faithful. Pastor Juan diligently continues with his Bible studies and evangelism visits. The nucleus of members continue witnessing to their family and friends. Pastor Juan faithfully prepares sermons that are excellent and wonderful messages filled with clear law and gospel preaching.

We keep Pastor Juan and his congregation constantly in our prayers. They are thankful that the Lord sent the gospel to them and that they have been turned from their false beliefs by the work of the Holy Spirit. We ask God to bless their faithful efforts according to His will.

Heaven's Nursery

These past three weeks we have been rejoicing over the many baptisms that the Lord is sending to the Cordero de Dios congregation. This week has been no exception. The Lord, in His grace and mercy, granted another infant baptism again this week.

Esther was born on Thursday evening. After nine months, her parents and family welcomed her into their family with great joy. There are two older boys in the family, so as the first girl, her arrival was eagerly awaited.

She came home on Friday. But after being home for less than 24 hours, it became evident that all was not right. On Saturday the parents decided to take her back to the clinic. After an examination by the doctor, he decided that the seriousness of the case merited a transfer to a larger hospital with an intensive care unit specifically for infants. On the ambulance ride to the hospital, the mother, seeing the suffering of her infant baptized her newborn baby girl. After they arrived at the hospital, the doctors were unable to do anything for Esther. She died on Sunday evening.

After hearing about baptism for three weeks in Pastor Alex's sermons, these promises came to life today. Esther not only received baptism, she has already received all the benefits of that baptism. How much comfort theses promises offered to the parents. Baptism also now saves us! In the midst of their grief, the promises become more precious and shine a light in the midst of such pain. This little one is already in the Savior's arms. The Lord in His great love and mercy granted her life, just long enough to be able to be saved. What mercy, what great love. He made a way for Esther to be saved. Our rejoicing knows no end. Praise be to our God, who does all things well. Through the blessings of baptism He has welcomed another soul into the joys of His heavenly mansions.

1,2,3...

There have been three Sundays in January, and on all three Sundays the Lord has blessed the congregation of Cordero de Dios with baptisms of new members. In 2010 there were a total of nine baptisms in the year. In 2011, we have had six baptisms just in the month of January.



Today, again, three children were brought by their parents to receive the sacrament of baptism. Three times Pastor Alex repeated the words, "I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost". Three souls received the forgiveness of their sins and were received as children of God. Three hearts were given the gift of faith in Jesus as their Savior.



These three children join the growing number of infant members at Cordero de Dios. Here is a photo of some of our "newest" members. Parents are bringing their children to hear the Word and the Lord is building up a future generation of believers. Today these infants heard "My Faith Looks Up To Thee" as part of their first worship service as believers. "Let the little children come to Me". And when they come, He blesses them with forgiveness, faith and eternal life.

Zeal

Imagine that you work from 8AM to 6PM from Monday through Saturday. On Monday and Friday nights you attend Bible study at church. On Wednesday night you go to choir practice. On Sunday morning you attend worship service. What would you do on Sunday afternoons?


Recently, I was invited to accompany a friend, who is a member of the Moca congregation, on her Sunday outing who actually has this as her weekly schedule. We did not go out for coffee. We didn't see a movie. We didn't go to visit her family. Instead, she took me to a different area of the city I had not previously seen. The roads were not paved and most of the homes were made of wood with tin roofs. We visited two homes where I was able to participate in three different classes, two with adults and one with a group of teenage girls.


After working all week, this young lady dedicates Sunday afternoon to carrying the good news of the gospel to families who have not heard the message of free forgiveness. It was a wonderful thing to witness and a tremendous motivation to continue working for the Lord.


After a long week working as a secretary, her only free afternoon is spent teaching others about their Savior. The Holy Spirit has motivated her to share the gospel with others so He can create faith in their hearts. Thank you Lord for such zeal. May He work the same in me!

Baptisms, January 2011

What thoughts went through your mind when you held your firstborn for the first time? While your heart brimmed over with joy and contentment at seeing your child for the first time, what were you thinking? Didn't you promise yourself that you would do everything in your power to protect this new life from any harm? Wouldn't you face any enemy, stand in front of a speeding train, tear out your heart to protect your child?

While you were promising yourself to dedicate all your efforts to protect this new life, were you also promising yourself that you would baptize your child as soon as possible, that you would have daily family devotions to feed that faith and that you would faithfully bring this child to church to strengthen that faith?

With questions such as these, Pastor Alex encouraged his congregation to keep their focus on the spiritual welfare of their children. The physical things have their importance in the life and development of the child but the spiritual blessings carry an eternal promise. His message was directed especially to the parents of the two families who brought their children to be baptized today: Laura, 9 days old and Alexander, 3 yrs.

Praise and thanks be to God who continues to work faith in the hearts of those who hear His Word. Today, according to His promise, a child of 9 days and another 3 years of age, received the gift of forgiveness and faith. We rejoice with the angels.

Promises

Do you promise to remain faithful to the teachings of the Scriptures? I do.
Do you promise to support to work of the church with your time, talents and treasures? I do.

With promises such as these two new members were received into fellowship in the Moca congregation. It was a wonderful way to start the new year and there was much rejoicing among the other members of the congregation.

As we were rejoicing over the work of the Holy Spirit in creating and sustaining faith in these new members, someone tapped me on the shoulder and pulled me aside to tell me that their spouse had been unfaithful.

Do you promise to love and cherish..? I do
Do you promise to remain faithful and to forsake all others? I do.

Promises, when given produce much joy for the person who receives the pledge. But when promises are broken many hearts are crushed and lives thrown into disarray and sadness. How easy it is for us to move closer and closer to the "gray" areas of sin, so that when the prowling Satan attacks all he has to do is "pounce" and those promises easily become broken marriages and delinquent members. Satan doesn't have to run us down because we are already so comfortable dancing around in the gray areas.

There is someone who keeps all his promises. Someone who runs after us, seeks us out, calls us - our Savior. When we are unfaithful, he remains faithful. He keeps all His promises. And when we are unfaithful - He forgives.

Promises, promises. May He give us the strength to remain faithful to the promises we have given. May we always rejoice in Him - the only one who always remains faithful. With Jesus, a promise given is a promise kept.

Dec. 31, 2010

A large crowd of over 100 people gathered at the Moca church on New Year's Eve for a worship celebration of all the blessings the congregation has received in the past year. Among the many blessings listed by Pastor Alex were moving into the new building, the numerous baptisms and confirmations, the increase in attendance, greater participation by the members in evangelism. These were a few of the many bounties God has showered on us in this past year.


The evening continued with a drama presented by the children and the Sunday School teacher. A brief re-enactment of the Christmas story (with just a few giggles) was very well done and immensely appreciated by the audience. The Sunday School teacher had also taught the children a song with movements that they presented at the end of the drama.


All of the adults were involved in the following activity which was a sort of Bible trivia. Someone from the audience was picked and asked to answer a Bible based question and then this person would choose the next person to play the game. Everyone was very enthused and enjoyed the game very much.

The evening finished with the traditional holiday meal of rice, lechon (roasted pork), potato salad and yuca. The thirty pounds of rice was barely enough to feed the entire crowd!

At midnight, everyone wished each other the Lord's richest blessings for the coming year.
Que Dios le bendiga y le prospere.

Christmas 2010, Santiago

Roast pork, seasoned chicken, rice, pasteles, salad, Christmas bread...just a few of the delicious foods that fill your plate at a typical Dominican Christmas meal. Many families prepare their own meat or you can buy it on any street corner during the Christmas-New Year holiday season.

Telara bread is also only prepared and sold at Christmas time. This is a traditional bread that accompanies the holiday meal and is available only at this time of the year. On Christmas eve, it also is sold on every street corner.


After the main meal, candies, raisins and apples are enjoyed along with holiday punch.


The main Christmas celebration is usually held on Christmas Eve beginning with the traditional meal that is usually eaten with family members. Family members spend the evening together and gifts are exchanged and opened. At midnight fireworks are set off to announce the arrival of Christmas day.

Recycling

Well, our Christmas tree went to the dogs - literally. The watchdogs that guard the church during the night decided to "play" with the Christmas tree. They tipped the tree over and chewed on the branches and broke most of the ornaments. There was not much left of what had been a beautiful Christmas decoration. So our beautiful tree was recycled and now we have several decorative wreaths, hung high up on the walls!

Recycling is a very common thing in third world countries. Nothing is ever thrown out. Everything is fixed again and again until it cannot be fixed anymore and then it is taken apart and used as parts for repairing other items!

One very common item that is recycled is the oil drum. You see them everywhere. Most people use them for garbage cans. But some creative people have used them for dog houses. And we see them used as grills that hold quite a large quantity of meat for barbecuing.

We also see many people that push carts around town looking for things that can be reused or sold. Rule number one is - never throw anything away! If you do, expect someone to pick it out of the trash and find some use for it. This man pushes his cart around our neighborhood. Usually he is looking through the trash for empty bottles which he can trade in for a peso a piece. This is his income to take care of his family.

It is really interesting to see how things that could be trash become useful items. Chewed up trees become beautiful wreaths, oil drums become grills, used bottles become a family's income. And here also, God has deigned to recycle souls - from sinner to saints. His Word is changing hearts by washing away sin and guilt and giving forgiveness and hope. People who feel "chewed up" by their sins and rejected and "thrown out" by others hear the good news of forgiveness in Jesus and that because of His perfect life and innocent death, God has a use for them - to serve Him and to speak of His love to others.

So, even though we had to recycle our tree, our hope is still strong. This past Sunday over 80 recycled souls attended worship service to hear that their sins separate them from God, but that because of Jesus, in His great love and mercy He will still find a useful purpose for them in this life. Trees becomes wreaths, oil drums become grills, bottles become pesos, sinners become saints.

Remain Calm

"Place the oxygen mask over your nose and mouth. Breathe normally. Remain calm".

Anyone who has ever flown hears these words over and over again before the plane leaves the ground. But they are not the words you want to hear when the plane has reached cruising altitude. On a recent flight, our plane had reached 25,000 feet and we were expecting the flight to go well when the pilot announced that the plane was losing pressure. The pilot started a steep decline and the oxygen masks fell out of the ceiling. As everyone worked at putting on the masks, the plane kept going down until we leveled out at 10,ooo feet. After about 15 minutes we were allowed to take off the oxygen masks.

At that time, the man sitting next to me was visibly shaking. The first words he said were, "What if we had all died?" During the remaining portion of the flight I was able to tell him about the Savior. Jesus lived the perfect life we have not been able to live. He gives us that perfection which we have not earned and do not deserve. What happens to all the sins that we have already committed? Jesus paid for all of them with his innocent death on the cross. His perfect life and innocent death are all we need to enter heaven. And He gives them to us freely.

A frightening situation became the open door to talk to someone about the peace God gives us through faith in his Son Jesus. Now we do not need to fear death because we know what comes after this life ends. We can be calm, Jesus is there.