Day 2 Update - 6/16/03

hola

God answered some of your prayers and convicted me to post more pictures. Sorry for the low amount of pics last night...

OK about today...

WOW...

There is not much more to say than that.

Ok I will give you the details, but first let me say that I will be bringing some of our people home against their wishes. They are wanting to stay longer. It really was an amazing day.

You must understand the culture here to understand the significance of today. The church leaders are BIG on follow up and discipleship. Every new Christian gets pursued. Becoming a Christian here is also a big deal, counter cultural...kind of like the book of Acts. This is the closest image I have seen to the early church.

With that in mind...here are some of the things that I know have happened today and reports are still coming in. Their is excitement in the air. It is refreshing. Today at Berzo (the place I was at yesterday) there were 122 people saved! That was not a typo...is that not awesome? That is one site of four! 122! Eternity was radically changed today. At la union, we had over 50 receive Christ. I am not sure about the other two sites, but I do know many came to faith.

Let me paint a few pictures of things that happened...

I was at La Union tonight. Eric Tillis shared the gospel and the ensemble sang. Afterwards my translator and I were honored to lead five guys to Christ. See pic’s. I went to a group of our students to celebrate and I began to hear so many stories of the same. Many of our students are leading teenagers and adults to Christ.

At what was formerly referred to as the Canning site ... now El Jaguel... some very exciting things happened. It is a new church plant we are assisting with. On Sunday there were 20 or so people in the rented building. Monday night, there were 80 plus...many were new Christians from the witnessing that took place today. The church has literally taken off. They are going to rent another facility. Entire families have come to know Christ.

The park ministry has been very successful. The drama team performed for a group of 75 soccer players after they whipped some of our guys in soccer. The gospel was presented and several people had questions. It was beautiful. The band at another park drew a crowd of over 200 as several students and translators submerged the crowd with the gospel through one on one conversations.

The construction team is making great progress. They are putting a ceiling and fixing the roof of Pastor Dario’s house...la union pastor. When Rebecca, his daughter, walked into her renovated room...she was thrilled to have a window that slid open. It was a touching moment to our hardworking construction guys.

I wish you could hear all the stories i am hearing. At la union tonight, I witnessed a beautiful moment. Our students gathered in a circle with students from Argentina. They worshipped together taking turns leading familiar songs. It was a picture of heaven. Our students are engaging so many cultures. Some of our translators are from Portugal, Bolivia, Peru, France, Mexico, Costa Rica, etc. It is broadening our perspective. It is giving us a global vision of god's kingdom. I have goose bumps describing it all. The joy is indescribable in our students and leaders right now.

One of the songs that our students are singing goes "our hearts desire is to see the nations worship you" ... it now is more than a song on a screen. It is now becoming a reality. I know I will never be the same.

Please continue to pray for many to be brought to Christ and for effective follow up to begin to happen.

Pray for the new church in el jaguel.

Pray for our teams to see the transfer from this trip to everyday life.

Also pray that god will call some of our students into fulltime missions. The need here is unreal.

Thanks for reading and praying...its working. I hope to update tomorrow.

eric