The Work Part 2

The Salvador women’s conference went well. There were about 170 women present. Valerie, Jennifer and Mary Virginia taught on the spiritual disciplines of prayer, meditation, fasting and Bible study. Today we had 48 at worship and 19 in our new Sunday school class. We had a breakfast this morning together at church to kick off our new class on the Beatitudes. Russ Quirey’s parents are in town and they each got to play a part in church work today: making orange juice, having a part in children’s time, and leading a translated closing prayer. For those of you who have been praying about our church’s rent situation, we have negotiated to stay in our building for at least 6 more months and within that time our rent will be discounted to pay us back our deposit. Our small group is having a game night at the building next week to try and invite more of their friends to be a part of our Bible study. Christmas activities start this coming Sunday. The English class Christmas party at church is this week. The church’s annual Christmas picnic is next Sunday and our youth party is two weeks from Friday. It is hard to believe that we will start our furlough trip three weeks from today. We have much to do to get ready to leave for a month. We are excited to see our families and some of our friends during the holiday season. It will also be good to go home to get things in order again with things like our teeth and our taxes. May God be glorified in all we do even in the little things like running errands and paying early bills!

This is a picture at our team retreat. Aubry’s first time swimming.

The Work

Thank you to all who have written cards, e-mails and given gifts to us and baby Aubry. It has been an adjustment having a new addition to our family, but Aubry is such a blessing we hardly even notice how busy we are. It is hard to say now what we ever did without her and she only just turned 3 months this week! We appreciate all the love and support that you have sent our way.

There has been a lot going on in our church these past few months. This past Sunday we had 55 in attendance with 2 families who were first time visitors. We are beginning a sermon series on worship. Our English classes at the church are well attended and many of the students have begun participating in some of the church activities. Matt enjoys teaching and some of his advanced students are helping out in the beginner’s class now (which is a big help). We are adding a new small group in our church which brings us to four small group meetings per week (6 if you count the youth and young married meetings). The young professionals’ small group that meets in our home has been very encouraging lately. The youth still have weekly Friday night Bible studies where the teens are also planning their monthly evangelistic event at the church building to invite their friends to come. This past month it was a costume party. We had 32 kids and 8 adults present. We are having our regular kids help with the follow-up work from the events to invite these new kids to Bible studies and their families to church. The next event will be a movie night. Matt is studying the Bible regularly with a group of teenagers every Saturday. Mary has an ongoing Bible study with 2 college students eager to learn more about Jesus. Mary will be speaking at a ladies’ conference this week. There are usually about 200 in attendance at this conference and Mary’s a little nervous about her Portuguese. Please, pray about all of these things plus our building situation as our rent contract is up soon.

The team is doing well. We just had a team retreat two weeks ago and it was time well spent. The Sass family is on furlough. The Porter’s and Quirey’s are both expecting their babies to come within the month of March. It was good to see many of you when we came for Spencer’s wedding; but if we didn’t see you because it was such a short whirlwind trip, we will be seeing you soon on our furlough in January. We are thankful for you! Happy Thanksgiving everyone! And Happy Anniversary Riverchase Family!