As all of you know, we were recently evacuated for a tsunami warning. We spent the evening in two evac centers. It was really neat how the Lord brought everyone from our village into one of the two areas. We were given the opportunity to meet many of the parents of the kids we minister to on a daily basis. We were able to pray with many people that were afraid and also for sickness and other misc. prayer needs. Sarah and I did this sort of ministry while another American student went and shared a salvation message with everyone that would listen. Some decisions were made for Christ this night. We were able to go home about 11 pm. The following day Samaritans Purse Christmas Shoeboxes were to be passed out in our village by us. About 150 children from our area came to receive. I was given the opportunity to share the gospel message. To my amazement all of the children raised their hands and bowed their heads to receive the gift of God and the salvation found in Jesus. This was Saturday. Each child was encouraged to get to a Bible teaching church and to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. Sunday morning we had 82 children in church, about thirty or forty more than normal. Most of them were from our village. What a blessing to be a part of the work of the Lord. Again Sunday I was given the oppprtunity to share in Lalawigan, the village that the church is in, and there were about 80 children. Not nearly the results as the day before but more realistic at least to me is that about half the children raised their hands and bowed their heads. Now that is not to limit the Lord. It is just to say that you never expect everyone to receive. All efforts are worth it if even one person actually hears the gospel message, right? That has been our last few weeks' events. Sunday school is off to a good start with Pastor Angel really liking the format and Pastor Lem fully supporting the change and extra work (giving me the outline). The idea is to get it in the format of CCVV that works so well. Pastor Ron saw my files and really liked the format. Aside from that we are all doing good. Please pray for Jacob as we are pretty sure he has staph in his leg. We are treating it with antibiotics both internally and topically but pray our efforts will be blessed by the Lord and all will be ok.
Other prayer requests:
(1)Our village. Pray that they would continue to receive the gospel and grow in that and that they would seek the Lord for their provision.
(2)The school. Pray that we as students would be compassionate, uncompromising, Holy examples of the God we serve.
(3)Our family. Pray that we would continue to grow and also be that example.
That's it for the narrative from Joe. He also included a number of photos and you can see them below:
