Wet Paint

I don’t know about you, but patience is an area God is still developing in me.  As you’ll read below we have been doing various projects to help our church meeting space be more useful.  I would like the paint to hurry up and dry…just like I would like to see lives immediately come to Christ and be strong, trained-up, ready-to-go leaders, but that just isn’t how things work.  We’ve been called to come and pour into people and then walk with them as they mature and develop.  If we don’t let the paint dry then we can ruin the project.  Putting a second coat over a wet coat or moving furniture against a wet wall can cause damage and headache. There is a process.  When things are done right the results are marvelous.  We are all about Kingdom building, but not everyone that hears the Good News repents and receives Christ’s gift of salvation.  We see so many diamonds in the rough – men and women, boys and girls that are coming out of hard and hurting places…God is healing them, many are learning how to be servant leaders, but the paint is still wet. 

Update

“Home” Improvements

Since moving out of our old home, the house has needed some remodeling to make it more effective for the ministry of the church.  The space we have been meeting in on Sunday mornings is a bit cramped between a family room space and the entrance hall, but at least now the two floors match thanks to some hard work from our church and a team of volunteers. 

Removing the carpets from the two rooms

Removing nails and bad wood 

Laying new wood strips where needed

Sanding

Staining 

Adding gloss and trim

Baptism at the Beach

One youth is responsible for sharing his faith with at least 10 of his family members who are now regularly involved in the church.  About 7 families came out to the beach last weekend to baptize him and celebrate together. 

A group from our church looks on and takes pictures. 

After the baptism we prayed over him together in English and Spanish.

 The children played in the water and the sand the whole afternoon (even though it was quite chilly).

Mother's Day

Here you can see Fabiola preaching in our ‘new’ sanctuary – the floors look great and make the two spaces feel more like one. Fabiola shared a powerful message of God’s love for us and encouraged the mothers.

The men and youth did an amazing job preparing and serving the food to the women.  While many were out of their comfort zone they were very dedicated to honoring the women and it served to really bond all of us together at a deeper level.  

 The women and children eating their special meal out on the porch and in our ‘new’ room. 

 

Please Pray with Us…

Transition

Again we ask that you pray for our family as we have only 3 more weeks before we are the only full-time workers/missionaries at the church. 

Norma has served along-side us for 3.5 years. Jim has been working with the youth and Lizzie has done a lot to help us minister to families with members that have special needs and they were with us for 1.5 years. 

We have a pretty good idea of what the schedule looks like for summer, but we will need a lot of grace and our church to step-up and serve along side of us. 

Pray that God would prepare hearts for this change and that not one person would be lost to this transition…. 

…In fact pray with us that there would be growth in numbers and in people walking into new areas of ministry (that the perceived ‘hole’ will actually be an opportunity for others to step into)….

…And that everyone would deepen in their intimacy and faith with God as a result of this transition. 

Family

With summer around the corner we want to spend quality time together with the kids out of school, yet know we must also balance one of our busiest ministry seasons. 

Pray for wisdom and grace and awesome times building quality memories and growing together. 

To be honest we all have wet paint – areas of our lives that still need to mature and develop – but we thank God that we have you in our lives to pray for us and pray with us so that we can continue to bring God glory and honor in that process. 

Chad, Fabiola, Rebecca and Justice

P.S. Thank you for all of you who have been faithfully supporting us financially and to all of you who took the initiative to send in support recently.  We are getting closer, but have not met our needed support level yet… so please consider joining our financial support team with a monthly or one-time gift and pray that this need would be met.