Culto Unido
We had a wonderful evening with almost 50 in attendance for the Christmas service/dinner. We had some time to reflect on all the “logros” or achievements of the past year which were many. One thing stood out: we have more than tripled this past year and we didn’t even invite the folks from our missions! I had their commitment forms from last year but there were only about 12!
“Los Logros”
- Each church has a core group of leaders that carry on with or with out my presence.
- This past year our church leaders and membership worked with all the volunteer projects, basically without help from our exisiting church members. What this represents is a maturity of commitment and development of giftedness. We appreciate and love our exisiting church members for they are our friends and encouragers, yet it is healthy for our new church members to assume responsibilty and develop their own ministries.
- Three of our folks are studying in the seminary- nearly half-way through the 2 year program.
- Each church has their own building for the ministry of the church. In Villa de Yaque the house is on loan, but we don’t have to pay rent! The other two have their own facilities.
- In Los Santos, we were able to build the front wall with hopes to finish the sides this coming year.
- The Hole now has its own house to use for the church instead of the community center and they also have a new basketball court for community use!
- The Hole has hosted two basketball tournaments, giving us an opportunity to share the Good News with a large group of young men.
- Hector is now confident to pray in public! This was a huge struggle for him but last night he had the opening prayer before a large gathering!
- Our leaders have opened up two new mission sites in Guayacanal and Navarette with the help of our mission volunteers.
- Each church is equipped to begin Sunday School in the next few weeks. A group of leaders from each church participated in various workshops with Morena to prepare themselves.
- We participated in two of the three Project Phillip workshops with the Bible League which helped our members begin to lead others to study the Bible.
So you can see we have a lot to be thankful for! And yet we have a long way to go! One area that discourages me is the slow pace of numerical growth in our churches. I was encouraged last night when I realized we have actually grown more than I realized but our church membership still is a tiny fraction of the population. This coming year I want to focus on equipping our membership to share their faith effectively and leading others to saving faith. We will give renewed focus to the Phillip Project as well as work on leadership training.
You might be able to think of other “logros”- please share them! We thank you for your prayers and your help in our ministry!
