Seeing the growth

It has been an exciting couple weeks here in Nicaragua, specifically at the Pochocuape church!  God has been working in this church and these last couple of weeks we have gotten to see some of that in visual representation.

I love serving in this church and getting to see what God does in this place.  Something unique about our church is that we don't actually have a building yet, we have a small area which has some posts that hold up a tin roof, and as of Saturday we have two walls made out of plywood.  It was a pretty exciting thing for us to be able to enclose our space a bit in that way because this time of year is extremely windy...I have never experienced wind like this before.  People call Chicago "the windy city" but that is only because they have never been to Pochocuape.  The wind is actually painful.  It knocks small children over, and since I'm already clumsy enough it surely doesn't help my balance.  We were also able to add a wall made out of pallets for the space we have childrens sunday school in so that we might have a bit of protection from the wind over there.  Something else we have been up to is clearing/leveling a space to use for games, soccer, baseball, football, ect.

This last week we had a lot of different construction projects going on!  One more that I haven't mentioned is getting the space ready and putting the baptismal (water tank) into place.  We have a really awesome group of men who lead this church and their dedication to God never ceases to amaze me.  They spend countless hours doing all sorts of different things as we build this church, I have learned a lot from them about really and truly being sold out for serving God.  They are pretty much willing to do anything they are asked to advance God's Kingdom and Church here on earth.  This week they worked hard to get all these things ready for our weekend services so that we might see God work in new ways. 

 

On Sunday we had our very first baptisms!  Oh it was so exciting and so fun to be part of.  It was also Pastor Marcelo's first time getting to baptize.  We had four of the people who have been saved over the last year choose to get baptized and become members of our church!  I love watching people make the choice to show their faith in Christ by getting baptized and obeying what God has asked of them.  I can't wait to see how God continues to work in all their lives!  We now officially have 8 members at our church in Pochocuape!  I am so blessed to get to be part of what God is doing here!

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing."                                                                                                                                  1 Corinthians 13:1-3