This blog is a small update tied to a prayer request for Chris. Tomorrow morning he will be preaching a sermon on the fruit of the spirit at our church. I love hearing and reading what God lays on my husband's heart to share and how he shares it with wisdom, knowledge, love, grace, and mercy. We are very blessed to have a friend here in our church who is an English teacher and has been helping us with our Spanish. She speaks English very well, as well as her native language of Spanish. She faithfully serves our Savior and the body of Christ at La Iglesia Castillo Fuerte by helping Chris with translation of his sermons when he preaches. She is such a blessing. Please pray for Chris and Patricia and also for everyone who will be at the church tomorrow as they hear the word. Please pray for Christians and non-Christians alike who will hear the word that their hearts will be open and ready for God to speak to them. Please pray that all will be spoken clearly and that the message will be clearly understood and well received. And please pray for salvation for anyone who has not placed their faith in Jesus Christ.
So much has happened in the past 8 months since we came to Riohacha. We are sorry that we have not a very good job of keeping up with this blog and updating you all. It seems like things have happened so fast since we came to Riohacha last August. It will be hard to put it all in one blog but I am hoping that very soon we can write a series of blogs detailing all that God has done and is doing in the life of our family, in the city of Riohacha, and in and through La Iglesia Castillo Fuerte.
Thank you all for your continued prayers. May God bless you each abundantly.
Cristi
I also wrote this update as a new blog, but in case you missed it, I decided to post it as a comment here as well. Thank you all so much for your prayers for Chris. God heard and answered our prayers and the Holy Spirit worked in and through Chris to share the word of God in Spanish.
ReplyDeleteHe has preached a couple of times before at our church in English and our friend has translated for him. This time he preached the whole sermon himself in Spanish after spending all evening Saturday working with our friend helping translate the sermon for him and practicing it for correct pronunciation. God gave him the ability to have clarity of speech with good pronunciation and presentation of his sermon and it was well received. And while he read a good portion of it, he engaged well with the people by looking up from his reading at various points, making eye contact, smiling, laughing, and encouraging participation by having people read scripture. The people seemed engaged while listening and participated well with reading the scriptures. People told him that God has answered prayers because Chris spoke such good Spanish and that they understood everything perfectly. One of our friends said he is a Colombo now.
God is good!
I also wrote this update as a new blog, but in case you missed it, I decided to post it as a comment here as well. Thank you all so much for your prayers for Chris. God heard and answered our prayers and the Holy Spirit worked in and through Chris to share the word of God in Spanish.
ReplyDeleteHe has preached a couple of times before at our church in English and our friend has translated for him. This time he preached the whole sermon himself in Spanish after spending all evening Saturday working with our friend helping translate the sermon for him and practicing it for correct pronunciation. God gave him the ability to have clarity of speech with good pronunciation and presentation of his sermon and it was well received. And while he read a good portion of it, he engaged well with the people by looking up from his reading at various points, making eye contact, smiling, laughing, and encouraging participation by having people read scripture. The people seemed engaged while listening and participated well with reading the scriptures. People told him that God has answered prayers because Chris spoke such good Spanish and that they understood everything perfectly. One of our friends said he is a Colombo now.
God is good!