For the past few months our church continues to receive blessings from the Lord. We enjoyed celebrating Easter with the new church. Unbelieving relatives, neighbors and friends from work and school were invited to the solemn service. The joy of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior was shared with everyone who came. By the grace of God another heart was awakened! After the service a young woman came to me and asked me to pray with her for her repentance. In the evening I met with her at home, for a more settled environment, to find out more about her life and to continue pointing her to Christ.
Also a group for married women was started in the past two months. They get together twice a month to study The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace, using a study guide with it. This group helps the sisters to build close relationships with one another in order to cultivate and preserve the image of a righteous, godly wife. They also pray and study the Scripture using the study guide and have fellowship in this group.
We have also started regularly meeting with the men of the church for discipleship. In this group we study the Gospel, so that the brothers can apply it in their everyday lives and be able to explain it to their children, neighbors and acquaintances. Every time we get together we spend 20 minutes focusing on that, then we discuss the latest Sunday service message and try to see how we can also apply those truths in everyday life. Discussing the most recent sermon helps us get helpful feedback and see the people’s ability to receive the truths of God’s Word. Out of the 10 brothers in this group some will become small group leaders (depending on their gifts) where they are going to work on practical transformation of the members to the image of Christ.
One of our goals for this year is to help the families practice the spiritual discipline of strengthening the mind and keeping it away from the world. We have a great desire to grow in this discipline and the families see the necessity in it. We are striving to do this by committing ourselves to reading certain portions of Scripture as well as certain good books on the knowledge of God and knowing God.
Prayer requests:
- Please pray for me and my family to be pure and faithful vessels in the hands of God, to not have any dismay or discouragement.
- For wisdom in making difficult decisions, especially regarding counseling members.
- For the brothers to grow in devotion and responsibility to serving God in the church.
