The Virgin Mary...

Last night as we were getting ready to go to small group Tanya comes over and tells us that she is ready to go but her mother Hilda and sister Samantha are occupied and so she doesn't know what to do...she feels a little shy to come by herself. We convinced her to ride with us and then she could call her family and give them the directions so that if and when they were able to, they could come as well. We went over to our pastor Walter & Chepina's house and began to eat supper...and within about 30 minutes of being there, in come Hilda and Samantha...we were so pumped. First of all, that despite not ideal circumstances, Tanya still was willing to come along with us. And then later, when Hilda and Samantha were able to come, they actually choose to drive across the city to join us...at 8:30 p.m. on a rainy and cool evening...PTL.
It also turned out that the other two couples from our group were not able to attend so I think this actually gave the ladies more confidence in asking questions...which they did a lot. We talked about the Catholic faith, the differences between our faiths, baptism, the Virgin Mary and so on...it was very positive. Sandy and I told each other later that we were both praying a lot during the evening and saw the Lord continue to work in their hearts...and hats off to Walter & Chepina for doing a great job of answering questions while not being condemning. We definitely feel that we need to be deferring to them as much as possible throughout this month with this developing relationship as we will not be around for the long haul.
They all said they wanted to come to church tomorrow so hopefully we will be able to see that happen. Also, a couple of nights ago, Sandy and I went over to Tanya's house and I mentioned that I definitely wanted to encourage her husband Antonio to come to our small group as well. She said that, given his personality of being a loner, that would be unlikely, but she certainly felt that he would be open to having us come to their home to visit some more. We are praying for opportunities for this to happen in the next few weeks.

This morning the boys are at Awana and Sandy is doing a little bit of laundry. Olivia is doing some painting and I am supposed to be doing more prep for the coming weeks. Tomorrow we are going to our service in the morning and then heading out to El Picacho for a 3:00 service where I will be sharing the message. Pray for safety and joy in encouraging those brethren out there and for the above requests as well.

Blessings,
Gerald