First off, we want to thank you for your prayers for Chris and the congregation of La Iglesia Castillo Fuerte on Father's Day when Chris preached. Your prayers were greatly appreciated. It was a blessed day. Chris preached another great message on the fruit of the spirit all in Spanish. People thanked him for the message. God is so good. Your prayers are such an important part of our ministry here and we greatly appreciate them.
Last month, Chris preached about the first three attributes: love, joy, and peace; and this time, he preached about the next 3 attributes: patience, kindness, and goodness. He used scripture to teach people about the various aspects of the fruit of the spirit, describing not only what they are, but also how to live with these attributes present in our lives. He showed clearly the results of living in the spirit versus living by the flesh. Afterwards, people talked to Chris about the message, sharing their thoughts and asking questions of Chris and I. There is a desire to grow, a desire to understand God's truths.
Another praise we want to share with you is the result of your continued prayers with us, for us, and for La Iglesia Castillo Fuerte since we came here last August. The church is growing in number and spiritually. One thing that we have been delighted to see at La Iglesia Castillo Fuerte is a big emphasis on discipleship. Growth comes when people know how to live for Christ and understand what His word says about living the Christian life. Several teens and adults are being discipled and growing in their walk with Christ. Chris and I get to be a part of this ministry. He has been discipling a couple of young men and I will be starting discipleship of a couple of ladies this week. Your prayers are appreciated, as discipling in Spanish can be challenging. For me the most challenging part is understanding when someone speaks to me. Please pray that this will not be a hindrance in any way to communicating the truths of scripture. More and more youth are coming to youth group every Saturday, averaging 20 each week. In addition our pastor's son started a new young adult ministry about a month ago and while I am not sure of the number of young adults attending (I think around 8), the most encouraging thing is that those young adults, many of whom received Christ as a result of this ministry are coming to church on Sunday mornings regularly. In fact, the youth and young adults are beginning to take up many of the seats each week at Sunday morning church service. This is the next generation of leaders in the church, Riohacha and Colombia; it's encouraging to see them desiring to grow in Christ and worship together. As many of you know, God laid on Chris' heart a burden to reach the men of Riohacha for Christ and see them become spiritual leaders in their homes; and he and our pastor and pastor's son have been visiting men in the community every Wednesday afternoon. The number of men coming regularly to church services has increased from about 7 our first Sunday here(counting Chris) to approximately 16 every Sunday morning. The number of men, women, teens, and children attending church services has increased from about 30 every Sunday to between 60 and 70 most Sundays now. Before we moved here to Riohacha, Chris, Andrew (our son). and a couple from our church in Yelm, came here with a mission team from North Carolina to evangelize and help with construction of the church, specifically the top floor of the church building to add classroom space. The church was built in the backyard of our pastor's son. As we have grown we are filling up our church space on a regular basis. As we have shared before in pictures, it only has three walls, so there is overflow space and we have grown into that space!! It doesn't rain very often, but when it does it is usually a hard rain and we try to crowd everyone together under the ceiling. The church is in the very beginnings of looking for another property for the church building and setting aside money for this endeavor. God is growing La Iglesia Castillo Fuerte to be a light and have a spiritual impact in this barrio (neighborhood) and throughout Riohacha. As the church grows, please pray that the members of La Iglesia Castillo Fuerte will desire more and more to serve in the church and through the ministries of the church that they can become the beautiful church that reaches their neighbors, co-workers, friends, and family for Jesus Christ and transforms Riohacha.
Redeemed lives, Beautiful Churches, Transformed Communities
On a personal note about Chris' message on Father's Day:
Personally I feel very blessed to have a husband who takes time to study God's word thoroughly seeking His wisdom and understanding of the passages he is studying and then preaches from scripture with scripture and explains what the scriptures mean and how to apply the truths to one's life. This message on the fruit of the spirit reminded me of how blessed those of us who belong to Jesus Christ are to have the Holy Spirit to lead us and help us walk in godly ways. As Chris preached clearly explaining how we can live the life of a Christian, it made me think that this is how we as Christians need to be interacting with one another, showing how to live for Christ and walk in the spirit. I really believe that this passage is a good reminder that the church as a whole needs to do a better job of teaching Christians about the power of the holy spirit, not pushing them away when they struggle with sinful desires, but pointing them to scriptures and how to live in the Spirit; teaching Christians that though being human we will have sinful desires and lusts of the flesh, because of the Holy Spirit we do not have to gratify those desires and live in them. A Christian should never think, "I just can't help that I have these thoughts, feelings, desires...", but should know and understand the power they have through the Holy Spirit to live godly lives if we just walk by the spirit. Galatians 5:16-25. It is important for us to call what God calls sin, sin and not excuse sinful desires out of fear of offending someone, but to also make the church a safe place where a person can talk openly about their struggles with temptations and sinful desires and ask for help. And the church needs to be a place where instead of receiving condemnation for having sinful thoughts or desires, a Christian is reminded that they have the Holy Spirit in their life to help them and shown how to live by the spirit to keep from gratifying and struggling with the desires of the flesh.
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