In our last update, we mentioned that Faith's cousin, Cyndi Grover was going to be visiting. She is also a GFA missionary, currently on deputation to Zambia. Our church really really enjoyed her presentation during our SS hour. Jon Crocker did an excellent job, spending about 10 hours to subtitle her DVD video presentation. We watched it twice during the hour and 15 minutes that we had for Sunday School. Once before her verbal presentation and then again after the congregation was able to ask questions. That really was a first for our church here, and the people really enjoyed it and asked some very good questions as well. What would you think if you just had seen your FIRST missionary presentation? I have probably seen several hundred during my lifetime. The believers here were very challenged toward missions. One young lady even said to a family member, "I'd like to go with her."
Morgan continues to be a blessing to the Garwoods in Uruguay. We have all missed him here, but have had tremendous reports from South America about his ministry there and the great needs that they are facing. He returns to Mexico on November 6.
Friday we will be officially 1/4 of the way through the school year. Pray for Faith, Bekah, Jon and Andrea as they are all involved in some of the teaching. The Lord has been so good to give us Bekah to help in school this year as well as Jon and Andrea for not only school but also many other ministries. They have been a tremendous encouragement. We are still looking for someone to come during second semester to help in school as the Lord directs.
This coming Sunday, we will be having a baptismal service. Memo and Karina as well as Vanessa are all planning on being baptized. Pray for a Christ-honoring time of testimony and fellowship.
Please continue to pray for Martha. She is the nurse whose husband has another woman and is abusive to Martha, she works at a very low paying job, and also seeks to provide for her two children, Frida (15) and Diego (10). Another man has shown her much affection and this has affected her. This past week she was again in the hospital with no platelets at all showing in her blood. She had three straight days of transfusions. Please pray for her and ask our God to preserve her in His paths for His glory and to increase her (and also our) love for Christ.
Humberto and Sarai are officially engaged. There is so much that both have seen growing up that has not been healthy in their own families. Please pray for wisdom in talking to them and seeking to prepare them as well as possible to glorify the Lord in their engagement, wedding, and married lives. Mike is meeting with them each Thursday evening. They are planning a June wedding.
Last week a young man that we know attempted suicide two times. The Lord enabled Mike to go and speak with him about Christ and the gospel 3 different times and each time was very very encouraging. Please pray for this young man and his family. The father is also unsaved and we had some very good opportunites to present the gospel again to him as well.
This past Sunday we finished our very detailed indepth study of Hebrews--almost two years. It has been an incredible learning experience to see how great, awesome, matchless, and superior is our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ to everything and everyone else in this universe. We had several testimonies at the end of our class on Sunday morning and several people mentioned how much of a blessing it has been to study Hebrews and to really realize that when God the Father looks at us, He does not see sinners but Christ. What an amazing God!!!!!!!!! What an amazing Savior!!!!!!!! What amazing thoughts!!!!!!
Please pray that the Lord would open our understanding to see the glories and riches that we have in Jesus Christ.
Please keep Faith's mom in your prayers. She spent a couple days in the hospital last week as she was dizzy and had high blood pressure. Pray for the doctors to have wisdom to be able to find and treat the problem.
Thank you so much for your prayers and support. We'll include again Morgan's latest prayer update from Uruguay below.
In Christ,
Mike for all the Goldfii
Update from Pando, Uruguay
October 19, 2009
Three weeks have gone by since the first update on my stay here in Uruguay. The longer I am here, the more worrisome it is to see how kids, teenagers and young people are being lost because of sin in different forms. It also worries me to see how indifferent the adults are towards the younger generation, and I see that there is also a great need to continue ministering actively to the adults.
Many of these young people live with step-parents, or with a single parent: most of them live in very precarious situations, and they receive only a very limited education. For the older ones, work is very scarce. and so many of them are just on the street wasting time, stealing, doing drugs. Drugs, like everywhere else in the world, have come to be a very severe problem, and have come here to this city in force. There's a lot of violence and theft, but according to the older people and even the news media, that only began a couple of years ago.
Girls are getting pregnant from the time they're twelve years old. This place is in itself a whole world full of problems. There are some adults, but there are mostly teenagers, young people, and kids, and so that is the main field for labor, at least in this town of Pando.
The pastor and his wife have done a gigantic work drawing so many young people to the church, but as the pastor said to one of them this week: "Are you coming to church? I can't play with you guys because I'm old, but he can" - speaking about me.
The church is mostly made up of women. They face a lot of things alone, with sickness and the economy, since a lot of them are single mothers or their husbands don't work. There's a lot of sickness as well, I suppose because of ignorance in conjunction with the extreme poverty in which many of them live. A little while ago a mother lost her daughter who had just been born; a three-year old boy has leukemia; another girl, also three years old, lost part of a lung through illness; a boy was sexually abused by his own dad; a 14-year old lives with his grandmother because his mother and stepfather hate him.... Notwithstanding, many of these women and children remain faithful. But men are needed for the work to advance. I hope someone knows of an individual or a couple who can come here to this place to work, because the need is great. And so I ask that you would please pray earnestly for the work here in Uruguay, that God would save His people, sending someone or raising someone up in this place for the church to grow.
As I said, Pastor Garwood and his wife have done an enormous work here. But Pastor Garwood is up in years, and he himself told me, that like every Christian he wants to see God, but if God permits wants to stay here in this world until he can leave someone here in the church to teach good doctrine so that the church would continue to grow. It is hard for him as well, as continuing to preach is a difficult task. And so as he says, there is need for a young person to take his place and carry on the work. Last Saturday, the pastor had an accident while we were at the house: he tripped on the computer chair, fell, and banged his left ear against the closet door, so his ear split and he bled heavily. We went to the hospital right away and he had to receive stitches. Thank the Lord that everything came out OK, but it is very important that someone come to minister in this church.
Please
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