Baptismal Service at Church

     Today we had a baptismal service at church. At Nations, they do a baptismal service once a year. Because you can't go to the river here to baptize someone, we need to use a swimming pool. One of the other missionaries and I were joking that if you baptized people in the rivers here, you would baptize them and then you might hear the words, "Today you will be with me in paradise." Needless to say, the rivers here are not safe to be in.

     It was a wonderful service and 56 people were baptized. Some of the people being baptized were kids from the Esperanza Viva. My heart was thrilled when I saw that Fernando and Ivet were being baptized. They came into the home last year and I have witnessed such growth in them. It is beautiful to see the lives of the children at Esperanza Viva flourish in their walk with the Lord.

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Jerry speaking before the baptism. 

This is the line of people waiting to be baptized.  It brought tears to my eyes.

This is a video of Fernando being baptized.

Here is Ivet waiting, she was crying also.

This is one of Erin's friends from Sunday School.

Worshipping.

Ivet coming out of the water.

Ivet and Fernando after being baptized.

More worship.

After church there was a grand time of fellowship.  What an awesome way to spend the day with the body of Christ.

Encouragement

     What a wonderful weekend this was.  We had a conference at our church here called Es Tiempo de Entregarse (Time to Surrender).  It was a weekend of worship, speakers, prayer tents and encouragement.  One blessing we had was four men from our church in Oregon came to minister at the conference so we were able to see some familiar faces from our home church and receive some personal encouragement.  In the past, we have always enjoyed times with Ron, Todd, Wally and Mike.  They have prayed over each team we have brought down to Esperanza Viva in the past so it was such a neat time to have them here with us.

Not many of our pictures from inside the church came out but here is one of Todd praying for someone.

Outside in the tents during the ministry times.

Ron

Wally

Mike

     After church, the guys came to our house for a time of fellowship and good food.  I had made some homemade chili and guacamole with chips.   We also bought some of the local bread to go with it.  Later we had some traditional sweet breads and coffee.  The fellowship was wonderful and there were many gut wrenching laughs had during our visit.  What a refreashing time. 

Visiting at our house in the afternoon on Sunday. 

Ron is catching up on Facebook.

Erin is becoming friends with Ron on Facebook while sitting in the same room.

     Here is a video of the last worship time for the conference.  The youth that wanted to totally surrender to the Lord were called forward for prayer, which was almost all of the youth.  It was an intense and awesome time to see so many youth go forward.  There was also prayer for all the parents for wisdom and direction in raising and training these young people as arrows being shot forth for the Lord.  After the prayer time, there was the final worship.  It was so fun to see Ron take part in the dancing.  We had to get some video of it.  It's a little long, but this is how many worship services go with the youth here.  It is awesome to see.

Kids City Family Production

Every month our kids church has what they call the Kids City Family Production (KCFP)where a new virtue is presented. This month, the virtue is Determination. The definition of Determination is "Deciding it's worth it to finish what you started."
This month, the KCFP was done in the main service for the whole church. The kids lead worship and when they did the theme song, Erin played like she couldn't do a back walkover but she tried and tried. Another child tried and tried to do a Rubik's cube (I never could do those things). At the end of the song, she does four back walkovers across the stage and the other child has the completed Rubik's cube that he put back to it's original form. The kids did such a great job.
We also had the grand opening of Kid City at our church tonight. Kid City is our children's area from K-5th grade. Our children's center has been transformed into a city with a fire station (including a real fire hydrant and the pole the firemen come down), movie theater, bakery, bike shop, etc. Now these obviously are not real shops but they sure look like it. The ceiling is painted blue with clouds and the floor looks like a street with the yellow lines and every thing.
There are three basic truths we want all of the kids who graduate from this area to know.

1. Wisdom - I need to make the wise choice.
2. Faith - I trust God no matter what.
3. Friendships - I should treat others the way I want to be treated.
   
   This is part of the fire station.
   The bath rooms are part of the fire station also.
   This is City Hall and the entrance to the movie theater.
   More shops.
   
   
   
   For more information about Family Times click here.

By the way...this was all completed debt free.