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.

Giving Devotions to a Home School Co-op

We were invited to share the devotions at the Middleton's home school co-op group. We had a great time teaching on "Mission Impossible." Jim shared about everyone having a mission, from the body of Christ as a whole, to the church, to the individual person. We talked about Jesus sending out the disciples with the power of the Holy Spirit. We asked how many of them had little brothers or sisters and of course many of them did. We shared with them that they could be witnesses to their brothers and sisters in sharing the gospel to them. Everything went wonderful and we had so much fun.


After that, we were invited to share in a Spanish class where Jim lead in the game - "Simon dice..." or "Simon Says." The kids had a great time. After that, we were able to share about where we are going and the kids all had really great questions. It was a great experience.


Erin went to both of her friend's classes and had a great time. The first class was a basketball class that Amy taught and then she sat in on a science class called Creation Science with Jonathan Park.


Tomorrow we will be traveling to San Jose where we will be meeting up with friends that we knew when we lived there. We will also be spending time with Adrian, Jim's boss of almost 29 years. We look forward to the time there.

Dinner with Friends

Marie, Gail and Katherine

What a wonderful time we had the other night when I was able to get together with some old friends. Of course I mean that in the nicest way. Although we are all getting older, we are not old yet. We went to Spaghetti Factory and by the time we were ready to leave, there was no one left in the section we were sitting in. We thought that maybe the restaurant was empty but there were still plenty of people in the other areas of the restaurant.

Marie, Katherine and I met at Skyline Foursquare where Katherine's husband, Kevin, was the pastor. What a blessing to have friends that after many years, can pick up where they left off. Although we have all changed and life is different now, I cherish these friendships very much. Thanks Marie and Katherine for being such great friends.