Goldfuss update (July 14)

Dear Praying Friends,

Thank you for your prayers before the throne of grace on our behalf.

1. Of the visitors that we had for our special meetings, only Susana and their two children have come again. Please pray as we seek to follow up Don Rene and his wife Elvira also, the Catholic couple who seemed to really enjoy the preaching.

2. Please continue to pray for the church.

• Yesterday we were missing about 20 regular attenders. Even though it is vacation time, we do not need to have a vacation from the Lord's house.
• Please continue to pray for Janet as she is struggling with obeying Christ and dating an unsaved man.Jesus and Analilia have been attending now for about six months. Jesus is the man with rheumatoid arthritis and the one waiting for both hips and both knees to be replaced. Since they are unsaved, there have been some problems with some of the different people in the church. Several weeks ago, she asked if she could buy a cake for her two daughters' birthdays and have it after church this next Sunday. In God's providence, they were not present yesterday and I shared their request with the church. I mentioned that I know that some have had problems with them, but since they aren't saved, we should expect that. So we are planning not just the cake for them next Sunday after church, but the whole church is going to bring dinner and we are going to surprise them with that. Please pray that this gesture would show our love for them and that in the Lord's way He would allow us to reach them with Christ's love and salvation from sin.
• Lately we have noticed some underlying problems between faithful people in the church. We have been doing a series on Biblical and Sinful anger and yesterday was how to deal with Biblical anger from Matthew 18. We basically dealt with the first principle of going to people personally and reasons why we don't and what it takes for us to do it. It was encouraging to have several people say afterward, "That sounded like you were preaching right at me." :-) I wasn't, but praise the Lord that people are applying His Word to their lives. Please pray that they will take care of these issues personally, that those who are confronted would submit to God's Word and that there would be harmony and peace in the church among brothers and sisters in Christ.

3. We have a real need for more space. There are about 20 children from ages 0-12 in the children's class. We would like to divide into two or three classes but have only the small nursery room and the main room for the adults. We have investigated about renting another side of the building for two more classes, but the owner wants an exorbitant amount of money and we haven' been able to come to an agreement. Please pray that the Lord would open that door or that He would be clear in guiding us to a place that has more room and a decent price. It seems that he has just rented the other side to his daughter who is going to be giving belly dancing classes, but we aren't sure if that is set in stone or not. Lovely.

4. We had the wonderful opportunity to SURPRISE America with a baby shower. She was just thrilled, and her mother Blanca could not say enough about how thankful and happy she was for all of support that the 20 ladies showed on Saturday. (After 12 years here, we are still amazed by things. Blanca said that many times a baby shower is used to put down the person or for everyone to enjoy many laughs at the expense and humiliation of the mother-to-be! She went on and on about how Christ-centered everything was. Her comments were a great encouragement.)

5. We have missed Mikey, Cristi and Carissa terribly this past week. They have gone to Ohio for camp. The girls had a GREAT first week at camp and Mikey goes today. Please pray for their safety and for them to reflect well on our Lord while they are there, and in their lives always. Pray for the Word of God to have a great impact on them also. It's nice for them to be able to get to hear someone else preach besides Dad.

Also, we knew that they helped in the home and with the ministry, but we did not realize the magnitude of their help in both areas. Getting ready on Sunday mornings is much easier with 6 children than with 3 because they help one sibling get ready---and help with dishes. Everyone has commented to us that they cannot believe the difference in church without them. They help tremendously with the younger children. We praise the Lord for our children. They truly are a blessing from the Lord. We have used some of the extra time to do things with the little 3 children that we did with the big 3 children but that are too expensive (and dangerous being in the big city) to do with all 6. It has been fun but as Matthew put it, "Everything is just really boring without Mikey, Cristi, and Carissa---even the fun stuff." :)

Thank you for your prayers and encouragement,

In Christ,
Mike