Growing Together through Prayer
Over these past couple months, through some different challenges as a family, the Lord has strengthened us in His grace. We have learned a lot about the faithfulness of our God, and we praise Him for His goodness to us. We have grown in our times of prayer as a family—and especially with my wife—as we seek our God together. My wife and I pray often for the salvation of our children, and we are trusting that God will continue to extend His grace to their lives. Our prayer for our whole family is that we will have a greater and greater thirst for Him.
We are also growing in our times of prayer together as a church. There has been a noticeably greater desire in the church to seek the Lord through prayer. With the other pastors in the church I have been studying through the Psalms, and we are also using those Psalms as a guide and model for our prayers together as a congregation. Our prayer meetings have been a sweet time and have been very well attended; I have seen how God has strengthened His children with confidence to draw near to Him in the midst of their different challenges. We have learned that greater communion with our God will cause our lives to look more like His and will strengthen our witness to the gospel in our daily lives. As pastors, our desire for the church is that we all will have a greater passion to deepen our communion with God, and we are giving a lot of emphasis toward that in our teaching.
Glorifying God in Preaching
I had an opportunity this month to travel to a nearby town and preach to a large group of pastors from more than forty churches along with their church members. Our church had been praying for this event leading up to it. More than anything, I wanted each pastor and church member there to see the greatness of God through the preaching of the word and that everyone would be led to worship Him. I preached on the theme of the gospel in the family and in interpersonal relationships.
My heart was greatly comforted and encouraged after the first sermon. There was an obvious response of humility and repentance among those who heard. The following day, many of those who were there for the first sermon invited others, and there were even more people present to hear the preaching of God’s word. After the sermons that day many pastors came to me to express that the Lord had shown them where they were failing to love their family and others as Christ loves us, and they went to their wives and children to ask for forgiveness. I was only supposed to preach two days, but they asked me to stay one more day to continue preaching, which I did. I praise God for this wonderful moment in which He was glorified. I don’t deserve it, but I’m thankful for the opportunities God gives me to serve Him; it is only of His grace. Please pray for all of the pastors and families that heard the gospel and the instruction from God’s word.
Encouraging Other Pastors
The Lord often allows me to visit and encourage pastors and their wives in Piura. Not only the pastors, but also their wives face many challenges because of the nature of life and ministry here. This month my wife and I visited a married couple in the mountains—the husband is the pastor of the baptist church there—who has been going through a lot of trials. They cannot have children and the wife has had severe and painful health issues over the past couple years. We had a time of prayer together and then spent a long time counseling them; they were very discouraged. We walked them through different Scriptures and talked about the faithfulness of the Lord and how He helps us in our times of need. As we talked together about the faithfulness of our God, the Lord enabled us to encourage and guide our brother and sister. We are in constant communication with them and we plan to visit them again soon.
Preaching to Parents
Another opportunity we have had to preach the gospel is through the Compassion program that is based in our church. Throughout the year, we have a number of evangelistic meetings in the church where we invite the parents of the children. This is one of the great opportunities we have to preach the gospel to hundreds of unbelievers. In the last meeting we had, through the Compassion program the Lord provided a lot of Bibles that we were able to give out to the families. Before we gave the Bibles out, we preached the gospel to all the parents. Many of them seem to have an interest in learning more and they have asked for more Bibles.
A Young Man’s Desire for the Ministry
The Lord is working in the lives of the young people in our church. A group of 15 young men have expressed in interest in the ministry. We have begun meeting with them weekly to discuss aspects of the ministry and of preaching. One young man in particular has become certain that the Lord has called him to the ministry. He asked to have a conversation with me, and in that conversation, after a time of prayer together, he told me that he has a strong desire to serve the Lord in pastoral ministry. He told me that he wants to focus a lot more effort toward learning and being trained for the work. After we had spoken for a long time about his desire, we decided together that he would begin accompanying me when I go to visit and minister to other churches in the mountains. He is eager for opportunities to serve and he’ll be teaching soon at an event for the men in our church in a couple weeks. Regarding teaching at that event, he told me, “Pastor, I know it isn’t easy, but it would be a privilege and a great blessing to serve the Lord.”
Please pray for this young man. He is currently studying International Business and he isn’t sure how his parents are going to react when they find out about his decision to devote his life to the pastoral ministry. However, he is firm in his desire and wants to continue pursuing it.
