Dear Praying Friends,
Thank you so much for your prayers this past week. We always appreciate them very much.
Last Sunday I began a two part series on Isaiah's vision from Isaiah 6, basically on the holiness of God and how it affected Isaiah. We heard that last Sunday afternoon/evening, Memo, the young man who is married to Karina and has the three children, David, Adriel and Alejandra, went home and took his secret collection of pornographic DVD's and broke every one of them. I'd never talked about that to him as I never knew about it. His wife said, "Why don't you turn those in and exchange them for something good?" Memo said, "If they aren't good for us, they aren't good for anybody." What a blessing to see God work in great ways in people through His Word. That was an absolute joy and blessing.
One Wednesday, Teresa had her wallet stolen when she was on a public transit bus. She went to file a report on Thursday and met a young man who was at the same station as she was trying to file a report about his sister's little girl of 1 year 4 months who died in the night. Instead of being preoccupied with only her own difficulties, Tere helped the young man get a hearing. She came home and called me. That night she went with Morgan to their home and they shared Christ with the family.
On Friday morning, Morgan and I went to visit one of the new families who came to church last week. We had an excellent visit with them and they said that they would be at church yesterday. They were. Pray for Constantino and Juliana. After visiting their family, Morgan said that the couple who lost the little girl was going to be waiting for us. Angel (32) and Myra (18) had their little baby die in her sleep the day before. I walked into their little one room home and there was a little casket, open and with the little girl there with many candles around. Teresa was there also. What a blessing Morgan and Teresa have become in seeing needs and seeking to meet them as much as is possible. Myra's parents are separated and live in different states and had no plans to come. Angel's parents live below but the mother is almost blind and the father has to constantly care for her. So, it was Angel and Myra, one aunt, Myra's brother that Tere met at the police station, and 2 little neighbor girls along with Morgan, Tere and me. I gave about a 10 minute "funeral message" from Job and heavily emphasizing the responsibilities that we have in this life to repent and believe the gospel. Morgan and Tere accompanied the family to the burial site and I came home and we made a meal for their family for that evening. Mikey and I took it back to them and we were able to have a very good time with that couple and their aunt and brother. Angel cried when we finally had to leave and said "Thank you so much for all that you have done for us. We have nobody to help us in such a time as this." We are going to follow them up. Angel especially seemed interested in coming to church. Myra, understandably so, has great grief at this time. It's amazing how the trials that the Lord allows in our own lives in the past prepares us to help meet the needs of others in His service. Teresa also lost a 22 year old son about 6 years ago.
Yesterday in church we were missing a few people. Sylvia was back which was a great praise. She told me on Saturday night that yesterday was her birthday and that she asked her husband for only one present--"Please let me go to church, and not only go, but please take me." Her birthday wish was granted.
We were able to spend a lot of the afternoon and evening last night with Humberto, Orthencia and their daughter Carolina. They are coming from an "evangelical" cult where they have been taught that Jesus is not God. The others we know from there are charismatic/pentecostal people. However, they don't believe in Jesus' deity so it has nothing to do at all with true Biblical Christianity. The leader also has been involved in adultery and many other sins. The people who have seen the issues and tried to confront the "pastor" have been labeled as "rebellious" and "divisive" while the leader denies all of the problems and sin. Humberto and Orthencia finally left and have been coming to our church for the last 4 months. Please pray that they would have the veil lifted so that they would see Christ and trust in Him alone for salvation from their sin. You may remember in the past that we prayed for a friend, Fernando. He is Humberto's brother and has continued in this cult. We have a number of folks in our church that have come from this group and are now believers--i.e., Juana and Reme. Praise the Lord for this.
Cristi has started her therapy again this week. She has 5 days this week and then one more next week. Please pray for this to really work for her as it is very costly and it's about our last hope for the dyslexia. Thank you so much for praying for us.
We are trying to prepare a men's class (since Faith has a ladies' class now) and are going to study the qualifications of elders and deacons. We don't have any yet, but need to set the standard so that the men will know what they need to be reaching for. There is a good interest so far in trying to get that class going. Pray for planning.
Morgan and I were able to purchase last week some devotional books for families, young people and children. There was a tremendous interest in those books yesterday after church. We are going to need to go get more.
In Christ,
Mike for all the Goldfi
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