We have been so busy and having so much fun, I havn't had time to blog. We did make it home in one piece and it's sooo good to be here. So many things have changed after being gone for two years, I hardly recognize some of my old stomping grounds. I'm afraid Hannah and Joseph are not adjusting to the cold very well. They both are coming down with colds. Hopefully they'll get better soon.

Keep us in your prayers. Over the next four months we will be doing a lot of traveling, holding deputation services. We need God's help.

Sorry I didn't get this pics on sooner, I just got too busy. We did get the roof up before we left. I was privileged to hold the first service in it the Saturday before heading home. It really looks nice. We will eventually close in the walls as they raise the money but at least we have a roof to keep us out of the rain.

One day while we were working a nearby field caught fire. Brush fires like these are very common. Often people start them just to clear their lands. Thankfully this fire didn't do any damage.

Back around February we made some changes in our Sunday school class. The 2:00 afternoon class was no longer useful like it had been when we started out. Now that we have families attending the morning services, the children were not able to attend the sunday school class. So now during my morning sermon, Hannah has the sunday school class in our living room. She was a little nervous when she first started but the Lord has really helped her and she is doing a great job. It has been such a blessing to our families and has been a huge help to me.

We just finished our revival!! It was terrific. We rented two vans and brought our people from "Las Uvas" to join us each night. It was the first time for them to be with their mother church. There were about 25 of them that came each night. Our little church was packed to the gills and filled with God's presence. Our H.I.M. pastor from Nicaragua, Julio Villareyna preached and Nemecio, a man from his church sang. God used these guys in a tremendous way. Our church people were refreshed and strengthened spiritually and there were two converts from "Las Uvas". We just give the Lord all the praise for what He has done. We are truly blessed!

This past week was one of the most exciting weeks of my life!! We started revival Wednesday night through Sunday night. Thursday we worked on the church in "Las Uvas". We were also celebrating our 1 year anniversary as a church and Saturday I baptized seven new believers!!! It doesn't get much better than that! Here we are with our group of seven. They have been studying a basic doctrine class for six months. This was a very very special time. We found a beautiful spot along a small stream that even had huge waterfalls. The day was perfect and we had the river to ourselves. We could feel God's presence as they each gave their testimonies to God's saving grace and as we sang a few choruses. I just love baptisms. There is just something about them. There were close to 50 people that attended. We bused our people from "Las Uvas" so they could be part of the celebration too. Afterwards we ate rice, beans, chismol, and beef kabobs celebrating the bapstims and our church's anniversary!! What a very special day!! I'll never forget it.

I have been so impressed with how these guys have been working on the church. Our people are so excited to finally have a church of their own. It has also been a lot of fun working along side these guys watching and learning. None of them can read. But even though they aren't educated they are very intelligent and hard working. They are very practical. Tomorrow we are planning on putting up the rafters and sometime this week put the roof on, I can't wait!!

This piece of land doesn't look like much right now it just looks like rocks and desert. However, this place has a bright future. It's right in the middle of an area that is being devoloped. Lots of new houses are going up and big plans are in the making. Right now we are the only church in this area. Today we set the posts for our church building. It was sooo exciting!! The people attending this church are very poor. There may be one adult who knows how to read and write. But these guys know how to work! They are donating all their time and work for this church. They worked hard all day long. We had to pick holes for the posts out of the rock. These guys are experts when it comes to rock and cement. But, it was hilarious to watch them use my electric saw. It was a foreign object to them. They only have hand saws. Several of them took turns cutting the beams and the whole time they would yell instructions to each other as to how they should cut the wood. haha.
We finished setting all the posts, and on Thursday we are going to set the rafters and start working on the roof. Pray for this new ministry and for this project!

Today was an extremely exciting day. We purchased our first batch of materials to begin building a shelter for our church people in "Las Uvas". Since November when we began holding services, we havn't had a permanent shelter. Most services have been held in the open air. Our church people here in Tiloarque have held two garage sales and also helped with a chop sewey sale to raise money for this project. Out of those sales they raised enough money to buy all the wood for the framing of the building. We are planning to build a pool building. A simple wood frame with a tin roof that we will eventually close in. Just two weeks ago we got the deed to the property where we will be building. The land, with a $25,000 value, was donated to us in order to build a church. Tomorrow we are going to set the first post! We can only imagine what God is going to do with this new work in the future!!

The exciting thing is, this effort has been completely supported by our church people. We havn't had to raise any money from the states. God is teaching our new believers their responsability in church planting.

This week we start revival Wednesday thru Sunday with our H.I.M. pastor from Nicaragua, Julio Villareyna. We are looking forward to some great services. Saturday we will be baptizing six candidates and also celebrating our 1 year anniversary as a church. How exciting! It's hard to believe the church has been going for a year now and continues to grow. Keep these special services in your prayers throughout this week.

The other day Sandra stopped by and gave hannah a brand new bed spread and curtains to match! Her and her ladies that work for her made it. It is so nice. Hannah was shocked!

Friday night was a lot of fun. We invited Sandra and her two boys along with Yoland and her son for pizza and games. We played a game similar to Balderdash and then I translated while we played Imaginiff... they really liked Imaginiff.