Kids Club Christmas Outreach

Yesterday we had our annual Christmas Outreach for the children we minister to on a weekly basis.  We also had a few new families come out and join the festivities.  It was a BLAST with bounce houses and candy and hotdogs and a photo booth and a Christmas Drama and the Gospel and toys and beans and rice and Santa and the list goes on!!!!  We gave out almost 150 gifts and served over 200 people lunch.  This means that over 200 people heard the Gospel message as we shared it yesterday!!  Praise the Lord!  We pray that these seeds planted will be watered and continue to grow in the coming year.  We had such an amazing group of volunteers who loved these people with Christ's love and it was a wonderful time had by all!  To see these kids faces, knowing that for some of them this will be the only gift they receive, was such a blessing to us all!   Praise God for His faithfulness yesterday and every day!!!

Wrapping Party Fun!!

We had an awesome team of "wrappers" come out and wrap the Christmas gifts for our annual Christmas Outreach this year!  They did an awesome job and had a lot of fun doing it!  They wrapped over 150 presents and filled candy bags for the children this weekend.  We are so excited about this weekend's fiesta!!!!

Christmas Fun with My Mom

My Mom came to visit us for a week and we have had a wonderful time!!  She attended the Women's Bible Study with me where she shared a bit and brought Christmas ornaments to make and decorations for decorating Christmas cookies.  The ladies were super excited as none of them have ever decorated Christmas cookies before!  It was so much fun sharing one of our family traditions with them and it was a special time to have my Mom here with me as part of this special night!!

A Week of Celebrating Women!!

What a fun week we have had as Christmas is here and the end of the year is coming quickly!  We celebrated with our INVU Ladies' Bible Study on Tuesday night as they finished the third Bible Study Book in the "New Life in Christ" series!  This is a HUGE accomplishment for some of them as it is very easy to start something, but to stick with it and complete it is much more difficult.  These precious women have studied God's Word for almost a year and a half now on a weekly basis and we can see the fruit that has come from it.  A few of the husbands are now attending church with their women.  One woman who is not married is going through the steps to marry the father of her children to make it right in the eyes of the Lord.  One lady is now TEACHING Sunday School at our sister church, Iglesia Radical.  One lady is in counseling on a regular basis dealing with major damage from her past.  She is reaching a point of freedom for the first time in 30 years!  One lady is faithfully staying off the streets--has moved from prostituting herself on a daily basis to working for a church in town as a cleaning lady--and boy is she a prayer warrior.  We have been able to forgive those from the past, work through problems among friends in the group, etc.  We still have a long way to go, but we sure celebrate each tiny step forward in their growth in Christ!!  Praise God for His faithfulness!  Here are a few pictures of our night together.  They LOVE getting a certificate, and many of them display them proudly in their homes for all to see!

Lisa and Dale, my teammates who help with the study..LOVE them!!

Helen and Gerarda, her mom

Johana, Zeneyda and Isabel

Camen and me

Jessica, Jamileth and Maria

Yahaira and Beatriz

Celebrating Yahaira's birthday

We have also had a special opportunity to start an Outreach Bible Study for women in Esterillos, a town south of us.  One of our church members really has a heart to reach her community and asked me to come down and help her get this going.  We met yesterday for the first time and had a wonderful time with the ladies!  I taught a Christmas message, we played "get to know you" games and we made Christmas ornaments.  It was a sweet time and we will be continuing this once a month for now.  The children of these ladies are the ones who are a part of the once a month Kids Club we have started in this area as well.  God is on the move down here!!!  

Finishing up our teaching

Making ornaments

Marielos helping her mother, Graciela

Sweet hands at work

Finished product...too cute!