Good morning everyone. It has been a little while since we given a full update on our blog.
A lot has been going on here in Puerto Rico. I am gong to give a brief update on the great things that God ha been doing.
It is Christmas time here in PR. This means everything shuts down until about early Feb and things get real slow.
Hogar En-Hacor, which is the girls home we are now working with is closed until mid Jan. (it is not open for occupancy yet) So with that being said, we will not be back there working until they re-open.
CCPR had their Christmas special this past Sunday it was amazing. It was a concert service telling the story of Jesus through song. All the kids from children's church performed a dance they have been learning over the past few weeks. Dallas and her friend Mady choreographed the dance and taught it to the kids. They did a fantastic job.Once the concert was done Pastor Efren gave a brief message and gave an invitation to receive Christ. Jacob, the young man I have been mentoring for the past few weeks was there. After the invitation Jacob accepted Christ!!!! I am so thrilled about his new life. I will continue to walk along side Jacob as the Lord teaches us both how to live more like Him. This is an exciting moment!!
Jacob is a young man,19 years old. He moved hear about a month ago with his family. His step dad is in the Coast Guard and Jacob decided to move here with them to get away from things back home that were not good for him. Upon meeting him I found out that he is eager to serve and is looking for a new life! Well he found that in Christ this week!!! Prior to Sunday I was able to share with him who Jesus is to me and what Jesus calls us to do as Christians. We got into some rather deep topics. He was eating it up. The Lord allowed me to share things with him that really made him think. Not your typical first time talking about Jesus stuff. But that is how the Lord uses me sometime. All this comes after spending some time via Skype with a pastor friend of mine back in Michigan. We have been discussing the simplicity of sharing the gospel message and how to teach them right off the bat how to make disciples. Basically if we just share who Jesus is to us, and share our story with people, people respond. It really is that simple. We make it way to hard! Then all we have to do is teach them how to share their story and who Jesus is to them with other people. This is how disciples are made Church!! We are so excited as we continue to share our story with people and teach them how to do the same.
My responsibilities at CCPR have been hard to fulfill with all of our truck issues. I have gone in and taken care of what I could when I could. I touched up some walls with paint that needed touch ups and fixed a few other things. The Lord has been wonderful in providing us a way to church every Sunday. We arrive early so the sanctuary is ready come service time and so that Pastor does not have to worry about that part. We can see a huge release from Pastor Efrens shoulders upon me taking over the building responsibilities. We are blessed right now to have the Lord lay on the hearts of some friends of ours here to let us use their second car until we have enough money to buy a new one. What selfless people and we pray the the Lord bless them for their generosity. The Lord has been so good to us over the past three weeks since our truck broke down. Not once have we been in need of a ride, the Lord provided and continues to provide every time. From people loaning us their car, to picking us up and dropping us off with no concern whatsoever. Just selflessly loving us like Jesus does. We have seen and felt the love of Jesus more in the past few weeks than we have in a long time. Jesus is just showing us glimpse of how much he loves us and we are truly overwhelmed!! I am beginning to think this whole move over here was more for our personal growth with Jesus than for anything else because God keeps teaching us more and showing us more every day.
I graduate from Liberty University this week with my Associates in Religion. I am very happy about this and praying the Lord opens up a door for me. This means a lot to me and I am excited to see what the Lord has planned.
With all this being said I want to share something with all of you. Some of you may know this some may not so I want to share it.
When I was here in July of 2014 the Lord laid something heavy on my heart. I asked Him what our ministry here was to look like. His response was, " John what did the ministry of Jesus look like?" Upon reflecting on the life of Jesus my answer was, "Well He just lived his life. His life was His ministry." God said ,"Yes, and that is what you are going to do. Your ministry is not going to be like others. It is going to be lived out in your daily life. Your life is going to be your ministry, your ministry is not going to be your life." This was hard for me to take in. After all, I was used to seeing "ministries". People are used to seeing, "ministries". Heck I wanted a ministry. I had several conversations with God about this, but it was clear. I was told that many people will not understand what you are doing. Many people will not support what you are doing. But many did not support Jesus either. Then he shared something with me that I will never forget. He said "John, they will not understand because they are not doing it. I should not have to send you and your family to do what the Church should already be doing. The problem is people need to to see a "ministry" when they are supposed to be the ministry."
This has been hard for me. Some reasons for selfish ambition. I wanted a ministry. I wanted something tangible for people to see. Well, during our first year here God is showing us that that is not what he has in mind for us at this time. Maybe someday we will have something physically tangible people can see and support. But right now the fruit is growing. God has planted seeds in us and they are growing. What we do know is that we are doing just as God asked us to. We are following the voice of the Lord and we are seeing things others cant see and things we cant really explain. Much like the man behind the curtain doing things that are unseen. We to are doing things that are unseen. The Lord has worked it out this way, and yet there is visible fruit from what the Lord is doing. Some fruit is not visible to use, but we hear about them later. Some fruit we will never see. Much like the farmer who plants an apple tree and years after he has past the apple tree bears fruit because of the seed the farmer planted. It is our job to listen the to Lord and do as he commands. If we do that , we can be sure fruit will be produced and lives will be changed. Who knows how long ago the seed was planted in Jacob for me to share my Jesus story with him and he accept Jesus. I played a very little part in that. I thank the one who planted the seed years ago so I can see the fruit today! Praise the Lord for those who plant seeds selflessly never to see the fruit that their seed produces.
We ask that you continue to pray for us as the Lord opens more doors for us to share our Jesus story with others. We ask that you pray for those we plant seeds in. I ask you to pray for us financially; that the Lord continues to provide our needs and provides a job for me in the are of ministry the Lord has prepared me for and continues to prepare me for. I ask that you pray for our family as we grow together and learn new things.
Thank you for your support and love. God bless.
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