Ministry Moments

I apologize for my relatively silent blog, lately, we have been so busy that to think of things to write in the spare time I have to write them has been difficult.

We are witnessing God working out His will and His way in our lives and in those of whom we are called to minister to, and with. There is much to trust God for and much more for which to praise Him.

Because of sick kids, I missed Scott's preaching on Sunday night before last. From all accounts he did an excellent job! One lady said his preaching was impeccable. I believe this was the first time for us [our kids] to hear Scott preach expositorily. Not that it's a new concept to him. It is hard to preach through the Bible when you are the guest preacher or only preaching once a month. I'm excited to hear what the Lord has laid upon his heart as he teaches us through the book of 3rd John. Scott's desire is to begin preaching once a week. Please be in prayer for him as this requires not only study of the Bible but a re-study of everything to put his message into Spanish.

The past 4 weeks of SIGMA have been exciting and disappointing. We have witnessed, once again, that there are a handful of teens that excel in memorization. We have encouraged them to continue on but also to encourage their team members to memorize. What we are seeing is those who think it's their (the memorizers) job to do all the work. Boy, don't we already see enough of the "pew sitter" attitude? So now we take on the roles of helpers for all the teens in the areas they need encouragement, be it with devotions, verses, or service in the church. The exciting part is that even though the devotions are hard hitting we are seeing many of the young people faithful in completing them. A friend recently wrote "Today I chose_____because I want to be_____." All of us need to fill in the blanks but our young people especially need to learn that they are becoming today what they will be tomorrow. Please continue to pray for the young people here as they learn to set Godly habits in their lives.

Our ladies ministry ended for the year with a Christmas party. Amparo Lopez spoke on an unusual theme for Christmas...Proverbs 31. The year means looking forward to the next. What will we chose to do, to be, this year? Will we chose to be Proverbs 31 women because we want to honor God with our lives? I was struck with the fact that Jesus' mother, Mary, had this attitude. The Lord definitely has been at work this past year in the lives of our ladies. We have seen growth. We have seen incredible testimonies through incredibly difficult trials. We have seen women stepping up to serve. We have seen a burden for souls. We have seen results of prayer. And last night we saw further evidence of God's work in that we had 40 volunteers to work in the nursery this coming year! I believe 32 of them are new volunteers. Now we will be able to have 2 separate nurseries with 2 workers in each nursery, and each worker will only need to serve once a month.

Without a doubt God is working here. There is no question that your prayers have been answered. Thank you for your faithfulness to the cause of Christ here in Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay!!!

Preaching on Devotions

Last night's youth meeting was very good. The first 5 week block ended last week so this week we played a game of cooperation and memory. The girls won!!! Barely.

Scott preached about the importance of personal devotions. In the clip above he was explaining that if we can have a victorious life when we are walking close to God. Scott really did a great job preaching! It seemed like it was the first time he really had some freedom, within the language, to really express himself well in Spanish.

The first block of Sigma went pretty well. There are definitely some things we need to adjust to be of a greater benefit to this particular group of young people. We also have a better idea of the strengths and weaknesses of individuals. So this coming week will be exciting as we plan the next block.

Let me brag a little.

If you've spent any time reading our blog you know that God is really helping us to adjust to living in Uruguay. We can't thank Him enough for His grace. I also want to thank him for my husband. I've had this thought before of thankfulness for Scott but it hasn't come in quite as clear as it did today. This man I married has an incredible work ethic and a resume filled with character and life skills.

There is a lot to do around our house and the list seems only to grow by the day, but Scott always keeps such a positive look on life. He runs out to the hardware store with the odd looking screw in fuse to buy a new one only to find out, through the language barrier even, that he has to repair the broken one. Which he does and we're back on the internet. He manages to find time to build shelves in the downstairs room to organize all our boxes. An impromptu trip to Montevideo to pick up school books being held in customs is taken in stride. When it's cheaper to make it, he does.

I'm thankful that I get to share all these new life experiences with Scott. He makes me laugh when I need it most and he helps keep my thoughts straight. Now if only he'll just write a post on this blog.