Good evening. Today was a good day. Blake and Dallas danced in church this morning. They were asked to be part of a Puerto Rican dance by the church school. They did a great job. The kids are getting to know their new friends well. A group of about 12 went ice skating at an ice skating arena yesterday. It sounds like they all had a great time. Jennifer, Bridger and myself stayed home and just hung out together, that was nice.
We are getting to know some of our neighbors. I met two more today. Jennifer and I are reading The Art of Neighboring which is really challenging us to get out and meet our neighbors. It looks like we may even throw a block party! Thank you Brian Kampstra from Ridge Point Community Church in Holland for giving us this amazing tool!!
We went to a new beach the other day. It is almost like a little lagoon. Its about 4 to 5 feet deep with a huge reef. We went snorkeling their and the fish were amazing! While sitting on the beach God led us to meet the people sitting by us. Bridger played with their little boy and I talked with them for a little. Come to find out, they are here on vacation from New York. Rodgers parents are from Puerto Rico and that is who they are visiting. Rodger had to leave but after hearing what we had moved here for he asked me to pray for them because we all need prayer, then he left. This left me intrigued. So, after pondering on this and talking to God about it, I went over to his wife Erma and asked if there was anything specific they needed prayer for. There wasn't really. But the fact that Rodger said that left me wondering, there has to be more to their story. So I asked Erma if there was a church that they went to in New York. She said no. She is Catholic and prays where ever she is. (That's what she said) Erma also said, "When we met Rodger was a born again Christian. What ever that is. I don't really understand. What is that do you know?" So, God opened up the door for me to share the story of Jesus and Nicodemus from John 3. She didn't really seem to get it. However, I was able to pray with here right there on the beach/ Both her and her older daughter seemed overly thankful for the prayer. After talking a little more I found out that Rodger actually used to preach in the church! Please keep them in your prayers. Pray that Rodger reconnects with Jesus and follows the path God has for him and his family. Pray for the ability for him to lead his wife to Christ.
So this is funny. Last night we went over to Armando and Jeanette's house. They have a really cute place on an acre in the mountains! Its pretty sweet! We even had a bonfire and smores!!! It felt a little like Hamilton. Anyway, we thought they lived about 15 min away from our house. We kinda needed gas but had about 1/4 tank. Thinking he lived fairly close I just figured we would get gas on the way home. Turns out they live like 30-40min away in the mountains. We got to their house on E! Praise Jesus that Armando had just recently filled up his gas can fro the lawn tractor. So there we are putting gas into our truck in their drive way from a lawn mower gas can. It was a sight to be seen, you kinda had to be their. But thank God we had enough gas to get all the way home! I am so thankful for God giving great friends in Armando and Jeanette. He even let me take home their weed trimmer so we can cut our lawn. We don't have a lawn mower yet and we have not cut our grass in a month. It needs it.
I talked with Pastor Greg from Seven Hills Church in Holland, MI yesterday. That was really nice. God is really doing some amazing things over at that church. Knowing the pastors and the struggles the church has gone trough in the past year, I would have to say that their persistence in their obedience to God is where all this fruit is coming from. God is good! This church is a perfect example of waiting, obedience, more waiting, more obedience, more waiting and blessing! We have to know that everything is on Gods timing not ours. Seven Hills Church knows this! I am so proud of those guys and girls over their!
On a more serious note. Both Jennifer and I are really struggling with where God wants us to go for a home church. We have only been to Ingesia Neuvo Testimento in Maniti. Don't get me wrong we love that church and all of the people there. We have friends their and the kids have friends their. We are overly thankful for the interpretation that they do for us. However, we both really miss worship and we need to be fed!. It is hard to worship when we cannot understand the songs. You know the deep, bring you to tears worship that a good Jesus Culture or Hillsong song will bring you to, and although the interpretation is great, its just not the same. Maybe God wants us to go their but also watch some stuff online. We are praying for wisdom and guidance on this. We have yet to visit the Center Church in Dorado, it is 45 min away. There is no close English church. We are not sure what God wants us to do. Please pray for this.
God has been blessing us with all of our needs. We had $1250 come in this month. Granted it is all gone because of bills, but God seems to give us exactly what we need when we need it and we are so very grateful for that!. We have not once been in need where God has not provided that need. God is a God of promises. he provides all our needs. Just follow Jesus and do all you do for the glory of God and he has you covered. Those are not my words, those are Gods words, straight from the Bible.
The kids start school tomorrow. Jennifer will be home schooling them. Right now I am not in school, however when I start back up in March we will need at least one more laptop. I take online courses and the kids schooling is all online. We know God will provide that as well.
We are starting to plan the food hand out that we will be doing. Please pray for food donations and money to buy the to-go material we will need. Its pretty cool really. At first we were going to hold an event at a local park. However, after reading The Art of Neighboring and praying about it I felt that was not what God wanted. We need to go to the people not expect them to come to us. So I told Amando this when he was here for small group Tuesday night. As I was talking he had this smile on his face the whole time. I got done and he said, Jeanette and I just talked about this and that is exactly what we feel God wants too! We just did not know how to tell you because we did not know what you would think. It is so cool how God works!!! So instead of having an event where people need to come to us, we are going to them. We will be making to-go lunches with a full Puerto Rican meal and delivering them to as many people asking for money on the street corners as we can. We hope to pray for some along the way and even make some lasting relationships too.
Well than is all for tonight. We pray you are all doing well! Hope to see some of you down here soon.
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