Friday, April 15, 2016

April 12, 2016

This morning we headed out for our second study with Armando and Mercedes.  They live up past Celia on the same street.  They were home.  Armando showed us some forms he uses to make decorative cement post that are often used on patios or balconies here.  He also had several competed posts.  He said he sold them for $4 each.  We also got to meet both of their sons.  The first one we met said he lived just down the street from where we lived in Ataco and that he had seen us often when we lived there but we had never met so we did not remember him.  We had a good study on the inspiration of the Bible and Armando had some good questions and comments.  One was how long after the time of Jesus was the New Testament written.  After our study we walked past Celia's and she was outside so we stopped and talked a moment.  She said her daughter Teresa was still very sick and still had no diagnosis.  We had a prayer with her.  When we got back home Charlotte had a meeting with Eliza at her house to work on plans for the Sunday school classes.  They are working on a 5 year plan!  We had invited Arnoldo for lunch today because he usually comes every Wednesday and for tomorrow we had invited Socorro and her sister who is visiting from the US to have lunch with us.  After lunch Charlotte headed out to pick up Seyli and go to Sister Ana's for a study so Arnoldo and I walked over to Cesar's house and we headed back up to Mario's house to do some door knocking and try to find a man who had told Cesar he might study.  We talked to several people at their door but no one invited us in and we did not actually set up any new studies.  The man Cesar mentioned was not available.  When we finished we were near the church building so Arnoldo and I walked down there to wait for Cesar to get the car so we would not have to trek back up the hill just to ride down again.  Charlotte passed by as we were waiting on her way to take Seyli back home then she got back to that point at the same time as Cesar did so I rode home with her and Cesar took Arnoldo home.  At about 6:30 Don Santos, Sonja and Jimmy arrived.  We visited for a few minutes then I asked Charlotte to tell the history of how she was baptized twice since Don Santos had asked how many times someone could be baptized and we both had been baptized twice for different reasons.  After we divided up he and I studied about John the Baptist and how rejecting his baptism was rejecting the will of God during the time of his ministry yet there were 12 men whom Paul baptized again because they had been baptized by John but had not heard about Jesus.  During our discussion I told him I believed he was getting very close to making a decision to become a Christian.  He said he was still struggling with the fear that he might become a Christian and then commit some sin or other.  I told him that was a certainty and we talked more about how becoming a Christian was a new birth and starting over and a gradual growth process that took time and even then we would all still struggle with the weakness of our human nature.  He also asked what obligations the life of a Christian involved.  I explained that the incredible beauty of being a Christian is there are no obligations except to love God and Jesus and other people and to live our lives in appreciation for what God had done for us in Jesus.  I would deeply appreciate all of you putting him on your regular prayer list because he is seriously considering this decision and it is such a difficult one for him for several reasons.  I, Charlotte, studied with Jimmy and Sonja.  I had typed up a lesson with blanks to fill in with each verse on spiritual blessings found only in Christ and a discussion of I Cor. 15 regarding the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus as the gospel.  The interaction of the fill in the blanks was a door opener and both participated in the study.  Sonja is usually very quiet and appears uninterested so I was excited that she wanted to work with the paper.  That was great!


Armondo and concrete forms


Concrete Porch Decor

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