Bring Them In. This month
started off with a bang for us. On the
last Sunday of May, Mario and Sara had gotten married at our house and so on
Thursday, June 2, we had an afternoon study and asked what they were waiting
for to get baptized now. They said
nothing!!! So I ran over to Salcoatitan
and borrowed their pool and after our 6:00 in home Bible study at Sister
Regina's most everybody came back over to our house and they were born into
Christ. It had been an up and down ride,
for a time they were separated and said they would not get back together, then
there were a couple of different times where they just quit coming but after
our return at the end of March they started coming again and moving toward
marriage and baptism. It sure was a
wonderful celebration. Mario and Sara were initially contacts made through the
Central group this past year. What a
blessing! We have enjoyed having Clifton with us for all of June. All of us had some health struggles
throughout the month but are all doing pretty good now. We spent most all of our leader's meetings
planning for the Central group's arrival in July and we feel we are ready but
it has been a lot of work. On Sunday,
June 5th we had another wonderful surprise, Ana said she was ready
to be baptized. We had studied with her
for many months, primarily Charlotte, and there had been lots of tears shed
along the way. It was a struggle to
complete the baptism because I had already emptied the pool from Thursday and
our water pressure was really low because of heavy rain on Saturday. We finally got it full enough to do but only
after an hour delay and lots of effort.
Still, there is nothing that can really dampen a new birth into Christ.
All of our services have been having great attendance. On Wednesday nights we are now having over 40
people with many visitors and our Thursday night in home studies are full
also. Charlotte and I have started a new
convert’s class in our home on Monday nights from 6 to 7 and that had gotten
off to a good start. A brother and two
sisters, Omar, Gisela and Emily, who first came to our English classes last
summer when the group was here have started attending all our services. We had studied with them for a long time and
then had stopped after they canceled a couple of times at the last minute and
we felt they were becoming resistant because they were very active in another
church. We haven't asked for details but
they have left the other group and said they wanted to worship with us. We have had some marathon studies about New
Testament Christianity and baptism.
Yesterday morning, July 1, Omar and Emily were baptized into
Christ. Their mother and sister said
they were comfortable with the baptisms they had already had but wanted to be
recognized as members of our congregation so we will be doing that this
Sunday. We are still hopeful that as
they are exposed to the preaching and studies they will also be baptized but
certainly are excited that they want to work with us. They are a wonderful family and have great
work ethics and attitudes about Christianity.
They have a small business that gets most of its customers during the
weekends but they said they were not going to open on Sundays until after the
services. We are so thankful that the
work here is being so blessed and growing.
Several members of Sister Ana’s family, the one with arthritis, are
attending regularly at almost every service and we believe that most of them
will be making decisions soon. As I am
writing this report, it is July 4th and all of you are
celebrating. We are celebrating also,
yesterday including children we had over 50 people in our worship service, our
largest number so far. We are now down to the last few days before the Central
group arrives and we have made all the final preparations and are eagerly
awaiting their arrival, especially with thoughts that more physical family members
are also coming in the month of July.
Also, this afternoon, we received a call from immigration that our new
one year visas had been approved and issued and were waiting to be picked
up. Yet another blessing. If you read this before our group comes
please keep us all in your prayers for success and safety during their time
here. In Him Dwaine and Charlotte
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