Day 7

What a wonderful day! Thanks so much for every prayer. You are an awesome prayer team and Carol and I could not be doing what we are without your support.



Although it was another short night, it was invigorating to wake up knowing that there were blessings we would receive today. God did it again! Not only did the Pastor's wives come to the event - but so did children's leaders from or 5 or 6 different churches. One church sent a group of older teens that had a heart for evangelism and working with kids. There were around70-80 in attendance, men, women, teens and a couple of adorable little ones!



God provided another great gal to interpret for me. T.C. Hall (that's her with me and Carol). She is a missionary as well as her parents. She was born in Mexico - lived in Texas for a few years, and has been in El Salvador for 11 years. What a treasure she was!

I presented OAC again - not just the presentation of painting the story but about listening for the call on their life to do something bold and out of the box to reach others for Christ. What a thrill it was to see so many people taking notes. There was one young man that couldn't hide his excitement. He was so expressive and whispering to his friends as the painting unveiled the message. I also told them about our home church. Cornerstone had 15 people accompany our missionary from OAC to downtown Indy. After the story is completed, the team that went with him engaged people in the crowd in conversation and shared their personal testimonies of salvation, etc. I challenged the people to think about forming teams to use this evangelistic outreach. At the end, I asked how many felt they too could do this, at least 15-20 raised their hands. I asked how many WOULD do it. About 10 held hands high! At the end of my presentation they had a break for refreshments. The young man I saw that was so excited came up to me. He could speak English (much better than I can speak Spanish!) His name is Ernesto. He began telling me his plans and how seeing this was an answer to prayer for him. He also shared he had a friend in their youth group that was quite an artist and they will take this idea even further utilizing their talents.

I shared the website (http://www.oacusa.org/) and they made copies of the cheat sheet I used that showed the set up of the "before" painting and the finished painting. I think everyone got a copy of that. They are equipped to do this as the Lord leads.

Another super blessing was meeting Myrna, a pastor's wife that atteneded the seminar I shared last year. She too speaks English pretty well. She told me that she has used the gospel color projects we shared last year with every child in her church. She said she made many gospel bead bracelets. She couldn't find all of the 5 colors she needed - so she painted beads to be able to complete them. Now THAT is a heart to share the gospel! Myrna was also very excited to use the OAC presentations soon and already had several ideas on things she wanted to do with it. YAY-JESUS!!!

The conference went on with a second speaker, Myra. She shared how to diagram a Bible story. It was really good. After she shared the process - we broke into small groups and diagramed the story of the first miracle that Christ performed. It was fun and will be very helpful for our ministry to kids and to do personal Bible study. Very cool.

Bety made us lasagna. Very delicious! Between Bety spoiling us - and Carol cooking 2 meals - and the kindness of many of our hosts in the churches we've had some great cooking! Next week will be different - more fast foods. (I have missed that...)

My legs and ankles have swollen pretty badly today-becoming quite uncomfortable. This happened last year too. A bit of sleep deprivation combined with the heat, standing on my feet for longer periods than I am use to, and not drinking enough all came together at once. SO after lunch - I was banished to my bed and my foot propped up and I took a 4 hour nap! I am increasing my water for today too. This usually lasts for 2 or 3 days --- and that's what happened last year too. No need to be alarmed. Just a little inconvenience.Carol has been used so much. When I asked her to come and help me on this trip, she had NO IDEA what all she was going to be doing!!! She has even been a great nurse.

While I was napping, she, Leila and Bety went shopping. It was good for them to spend some time together doing normal things like grocery shopping. Carol learned that the food and other items we enjoy in America are available here, but are so expensive because of the shipping and customs fees. (There's no place like home...)

Prayer Requests: Tomorrow (Saturday) is the grand finale. Carol and I will present a seminar on Children's ministry to a church about 2 hours from here. Pray for safe travel and for the people to have hearts ready to receive some new ideas to help them to reach children for Christ and to grow their church ministries. Pray for Carol and I as we prepare the materials to present. Again we will use the OAC presentation. Pray for our interpreter, Veronica. She has been so wonderful and has helped us in several meetings. Pray for her husband, Emer. He has diabetes and had a recent surgery on his neck and it is slow to heal. He is on their praise and worship team and also accompanied us to the volcano the other day. He and Veronica are such sweet servants of the Lord. THANKS PRAYER TEAM!!!!