How does the gospel reflect in our family life? A marriage retreat surged as a result of marriages in trouble in our church. If the gospel saves us from sin, does that mean it can save us from our own home life where we tend to relax and let our ugly self come out? We seem to have a disconnect between the gospel and our home life and so during the five hour marriage retreat we held at our church, we tried to bridge that gap. Interaction at the
marriage retreat
In the last year we lost a couple to divorce and almost another one. Marriage counseling to one degree or another is a constant. Worldwide the pandemic saw many divorces and the church wasn’t necessarily saved from those statistics. We can be saved though cause we have the divine power of Christ working in us and empowering us with the elements (characteristics) of the gospel like love, forgiveness, grace, mercy and a possible attitude of service that can uplift our marriages.
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| Chico and Bia giving their testimony |
The retreat seemed to be a success for marriages as well as bonding time between church members. Evelyn helped out with the kids during this event and did a great job. She is increasingly involved in different ministries as well as still trying to get her friends together for discipleship. Anna Claire seems to be more and more sensitive to making disciples as well.
Sarah is halfway done with her paper and going stronger than she imagined which has encouraged her greatly. 100 pages is no easy task but since she has read a bunch of books and done a lot of study the words have flowed easier. Her mom is helping her edit and that has been neat as they have had a project to work on together. Sarah continues to have counseling opportunities both formal and informal and has seen success through following God’s Word as well as people who have decided not to follow the counsel of the Scriptures. We all make our own decisions in life and there is the narrow path that leads to life and the wider path that leads to destruction. I think watching people choose the broad path is probably the hardest element of ministry.
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| Baby dedication! |
The church in Tupanatinga is so close to being in use! So close, yet so far away it seems. It could be next week or it could be another month if people do not come to work. We are learning patience! Surely next month there will be pictures of us using the building. This last month I continued a powerful study on Processing Life Biblically with the men’s group there and it has been really good for us as a group.
In May we will be developing more in terms of team leadership as we have a module on building effective teams that will taught by the director of Servant Leaders, Cam Woolford and myself. We are also hosting an Equadorian intern for 9 days to talk to him about ministry. Also this weekend we will be talking about elder led churches and the idea of team and in a couple weeks more about church planting and how our churches can be involved. Evie with the youth group
Thanks for your love and prayers!
All for HIS glory,
David, Sarah and our kid’s ministry worker and our nine year old (April 6), who are now in a reading competition that will go through the summer Anna Claire during
crafts at her bday party
