Wow, how much I have to tell about!
Okay, so Friday afternoon, we went to San Marcos. San Marcos is a town about 2 hours or so from Montelibano (depends on who’s driving, I guess :-). G, T and I went with J, the lady who is in charge of the work in San Marcos. The two hour drive passed quickly with the beautiful view and joking in the backseat. Tito and I:
We arrived to San Marcos mid afternoon and waited around as Josefa prepared the house for R, the traveling minister. We had a quick meal and then left for the service. Last year when we visited San Marcos, the work was very small, just a handful of people. Now the church has grown to 30+ regular attenders. However, when we met last night in a school courtyard (God held back the rain!), there was 200 people there! This is an exciting springboard to the future of the ministry.
After worship, R preached and gave a call of salvation, and more than 20 people gave their lives to Christ. Definitely a worthwhile night!
After the service, one of the core leaders in the church, who took us out for breakfast last year when we visited San Marcos, was excited to see me and invited me to go out with his family. T was going to be spending the night at their house, so T and I, along with a young couple from Montelibano, went with a family to a little restaurant.
I enjoyed this time. Although it’s not always comfortable for me to leave the people I know well, it always proves to be a great time of connection and relationship.
This morning, there was a meeting with R and all of the leaders from the church in San Marcos. A sister was baptized, and we all enjoyed a meal of fish together (almost identical to the meal of fish I had last time, although this time someone helped me finish the patacones because I knew I couldn’t eat that much for breakfast!).
After the breakfast, I rode back to Montelibano with the pastors from the church here as well as R. Once again, this was a good time for me to get to know people! We arrived back at the house around noon. I rested this afternoon and then there was service this evening.
All is going well. I appreciate all of you and look forward to updating you later on.