Ladies Retreat
In my last prayer letter update, I requested prayer for our upcoming ladies retreat in September. We had a great retreat with one hundred ladies (18 years and older) attending just from our church and the new church that has been started. One hundred gals exactly! I was a little insecure, this being the first time I would speak to such a large group of women sharing my “stuff,” since my journey partner and best friend had gone to heaven. The theme was on “Faith.” Well, God had some of HIS “stuff” He wanted to share with me. In my time of preparation for the sessions I was to teach, God led me again into a new brokenness with Him and a renewed sense of His presence in me and with me. God sustained and blessed! Colombian moms are big on making soup. Yes! I know. Never been my favorite either. But I needed an example of “faith with substance” that would help connect the dots and God gave it to me in the middle of the presentation. These women know the difference between broth and soup with substance. Now they know substance must be what their faith is made of. God did that!
Baptisms
In August we had another Sunday of baptisms. I love to see what God is doing in the lives of believers through baptism. We celebrated with sixteen believers taking a step of obedience by a public declaration of who they belong to now. YES! There is Antonio in the group. He is the little guy who accepted Jesus in his heart a while back when he came to me wanting to know more about baptism. He learned what getting the cart before the horse was. There are five middle schoolers in the group who grew up in our kids ministry. My heart was so blessed! Serving God is never a waste of time, energy, or finances. Thank you for continuing to be a part of the building of God’s kingdom here in Colombia and around the world.
