Hola Senders!
Gracias por sus oraciones!! (Thank you for your prayers!)
Our first full day in Cochabamba was faith-filled and joyous. We worshipped with the Florida Norte church from 10 a.m. until 12 noon. Then we had lunch with the VBS Teachers from Florida Norte at the Guesthouse where we are staying. After lunch we planned our lessons for VBS with 13 of the teachers/volunteer leaders from the church. This was a wonderful way to partner in ministry together. The woman's name who has coordinated the VBS is Jenny. Her husband Richard is one of the elders at the church.
Our planning time went until 5:30 p.m. and then we returned to worship at Florida Norte at 7:30 p.m. I had the joy of preaching from the first chapter of Acts about being Jesus' witness empowered by the Holy Spirit. What a joy to share God's Word with this wonderful congregation. They send their love and hellos to all of you. Literally, they waved to us and said send this hello to your church family! It is very good to be here with them.
Diane and Kristin will write with more details tomorrow. They are sleeping now. We are all in good health and so thankful for your love and prayers. Tomorrow during the day we will have planning time for many of our upcoming meetings/VBS times and some trips to the market to continue to puchase supplies. Tomorrow night is a very important evening as we will meet with 8 of the church leaders of Florida Norte for planning, prayers and evaluation as to how we move forward with our church partnership with them. Please pray for this meeting which will begin at 7 p.m.
We are studying the book of Mark for our daily devotions time if you want to read along with us this week. Abel Zabaleta is such a wonderful host. When I preached tonight at Florida Norte, he was my translator!!! His English has improved so much. The main lesson for that: if you want to learn a foreign language, marry a person who speaks that language! That's what Abel did!!! (Abel is a Bolivian pastor who married a Canadian missionary.)
Our love and prayers are with all of you! Dios te bendiga!
mateo (matthew)
