My team and I have been in the village of Arroyo Palenque for the last week. It is about an hour away from the city of Palenque and most of its inhabitants are poor subsistence farmers. They live extremely simply and some of you will be happy to know that I´ve been eating organic…mainly because that´s all that they have!
Our main job while we are there is to support the pastor of the church we are working with. Our time is mainly consisting of visiting and praying for the sick of the village, preparing for church services and playing with the kids. We had 5 services this week and we were in charge of all of them! We have given many testimonies of how the Lord has worked in our lives and we have already exhausted our arsenal of songs. Praise Jesus that we have some talent on our team! We sound pretty good with Stacy´s guitar, Josh´s harmonica, my djembe and our voices.
We are learning what a lifestyle of ministry is. Simply living life with these people is the best way to show them Jesus. We have spent countless hours playing basketball with kids, playing in the river, praying for the community and buying out the local tienda (corner store). Last night we even had the privilege of witnessing the pastor´s pig give birth to 12 little pigs!! It was very exciting!
Please keep this community and specifically this church in your prayers. Marcos, the pastor of the church, has described most of the community as being asleep. They know the truth and most of them have even been exposed to the Gospel. They just need to wake up and open up their hearts and ears to the Lord! There is a large Catholic population also, so lift them up and pray that they will definitely know the grace and mercy of Jesus.
This little church is a City on a Hill, please pray that would let their light shine brightly so others will know they are Christians by their love.
