Week of Passion

The first Thursday thru Sunday in April here in South America is called Semana Santa or Holy Week. This is the week that everyone here trys to make up for all the bad things they have done throughout the year. They attend mass up to twelve times in one day and on good Friday they don’t eat any meat. Along with this they have processions where they parade statues of Mary, Joseph and Jesus through the streets. Sometime they carry crosses and even crucify themseves to try and pay for their sins. We had services each night during this time teaching about the life of Jesus. From His birth to His ressurrection we taught that forgiveness and life can only be found in the one that conquered sin and the grave. It was wonderful to see many for the first time realize that Jesus not only died but rose again from the dead and that He offers forgiveness from sin.

 

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Reaching Families

 

We have written many times about the need here and all over the world to strengthen families. We are currently working to reach out to these families in different ways. From our English classes that we are now having for the second time to a ladies meeting that was started by our wives this past Saturday. Our main activity has been a couple’s meeting that we have every Friday night. These meetings are a way to invite people that normally would not come to a regular church service. During the meeting we have a few games for couples that get them to interact with each other and many times to initiate physical contact, and at the same time have fun. One of the games that we had recently was with the couples blind folded; the wives had to feed their husbands a pre-selected plate of food some of which was sweet while the other was sour. The looks on their faces said it all. We started out with just a few couples but this past Friday we had 19 that participated in the meeting. Please pray for several of the families that are coming because they are not Christians and are having major problems in their marriages. One couple in particular that is sister of a family in our church has spoken with us several times about how much the meetings are helping them and their marriage. Our prayer is that they, along with many others will come to know Christ as their Savior, and that each will be strengthened by the many principles that the Word of God teaches about how to have strong and successful families.

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Children’s Day

We praise the Lord for the many children that have been attending our church from the very begining. Here in Bolivia the 12th of April is Children’s Day. It is a day with activities throughout the city, parades, and free access to parks for all the children. On the Wednesday before this day we planned to have something special for the kids of the church and invited many in the neighborhood. We started with a special message and songs and then had a Christian Clown that had the kids crying with laughter while presenting the gospel. There were several new families visiting and we had over 70 in attendance. Pray for us as we begin several new outreaches in our children’s ministry. We are going to be starting a kid’s club and in the future routes in different areas of our neighborhood. We know that if we can reach these children that it will be an open door to reach their families.

 
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