Now this hasn't been just a huge Gospel presentation to a large number of people where you see many put their faith in God. This has been very different. There has been a group of about 20 or so people who have divided into 3 groups each day and gone into different homes where the people were expecting the visit and have shown an interest in things of God. It seems as if the people in these homes have just been waiting for us to come and share. We have seen MANY; ( I will get the exact number soon) more than 10 put their faith in God for the first time in their lives. (And that is just these past 2 days!) This means that some of them have been trying to figure out exactly how to follow God and they just didn't know the correct way. We explained to them that if you put your faith in Him, accept that you are a sinner, repent of your sins, and believe, you will be saved. ( John 8:12, John 10:9 John 14:6, John 3:16). We have tried to make it so hard. He made it so easy.
I think that has been why so many haven't understood before, because they were trying to make it a lot harder than it is. They were trying to work their way into heaven. (Titus 3:5, Ephesians 2:9)They were going to church, giving money, helping people, which are all good things, but they just did them because they thought it would help them not go to hell. They were doing all they could to be good enough. But the Bible says we will never be good enough. (Ecclesiastes 7:20, Roman 3:23) We are sinners. But... the Bible also says that Jesus came to save us. (Romans 6:23, John 3:36) We have been working hard to explain the difference in religion and relationship. God doesn't care about religion, all he wants is a relationship with you, and them! Anyway, it has been a beautiful few days seeing God at work in the lives of many people! Enjoy these pictures and please pray for us as we will continue with these visits over the next 2 days.
This was last week when Annie celebrated her birthday a week late with her best friend here. Their birthdays are just 2 days apart.
This is movie night at our house. It was 9:45 and as you can see, most of the family didn't last halfway through Miracle on 34th Street! Jerod and I enjoyed it though!
These are some of the people who are sharing this week. We met at my house one day for lunch.
This is Estella. She is my precious house helper. She is so poor and just found out that she is 3 months pregnant. She isn't happy about it, but she is trusting God to help her take care of this baby He has blessed her with.
Estella's daughter, Rosa and her little niece.
Two little kids who love having their pictures taken!
I could have eaten them up!
This is Miguel. He gave his life to Christ today. He said he was tired of drinking and getting drunk. He wanted God to help him change his life. Right after he prayed a precious prayer and asked God for help, I looked outside and saw his daughter and her cousin pulling beer bottles out of his truck. I told him I thought his daughter knew what he was going to do, because she was throwing away all of his bottles. He loved it and laughed at the idea of his daughter getting rid of all of his beer bottles.
Here is the picture I took of the Miguel's daughter and nephew cleaning house! (Or rather car!)
Another Bible study.
We had a great study on the demon possessed man. (Mark 5:1-20) We talked about how awesome is the power of God that He took many demons out of a man and made him whole again in just an instant. We explained that once you trust God with your entire life, that is what He does. He cleans you up, just like He did with the demon possessed man. One woman asked about different sins. "What if you killed a person, would He still forgive you then?" We explained that to God there are no levels of sin. Just sin. She started crying and said she wanted to trust her life to Christ but didn't think He could ever love her b/c she had killed a person. We talked a long time about this. She confessed that years ago she aborted her baby and has never been able to forgive herself for doing that. We told her that once she gives her life to Christ, she becomes a new creation. She is forgiven of ALL of her sins. (1 John 1:9) She was overwhelmed and said she wanted more than anything to follow Christ with her whole heart. She found out today she is pregnant. Not only did He bless her with forgiveness for aborting her baby, he gave her another one, all in the same day! He is SO good!
This is Carlos. He is a good friend to Alex and Jerod. Tonight Jerod shared with Carlos how he too could give his heart to Christ. (Matthew 19:14) Carlos was so excited about making this decision! He cried and prayed and thanked God the wonderful gift of salvation! So precious to see His children understanding how simple it is to put their faith in Him! What an AWESOME few days! Can't wait to see what else He does this week! Love to you all! Missy
