Delightful Surprises

(Tonight I wrote the following to a dear pastor friend whose wife passed away with cancer shortly before Frances.  His dad taught me lessons on the Hawaiian guitar when I was 16 years old. And I bought his dad's guitar from him years ago.) 

Don’t ever feel like you have never accomplished much in the service of the King!  You have touched many lives with the love and care of Jesus… and that is never in vain.  If I was to dwell on all the sheep that have gone astray… turning away from their Lord after I had been instrumental in bringing them… I am sure I would become discouraged.  But the great majority are still faithfully on the journey.  And even in those cases where weaker ones have strayed away, I am praying that somehow they will come back to Jesus before it is too late.  One day you are going to be "delightfully surprised" by what the Lord has done with you and your dear wife's efforts.

A week ago Thursday I held a service in the city of Concordia.  I had never met Pastor Lanislao Casco before, but he told me that years ago he had been called to the ministry in a service when I preached in a distant city and even told me what I preached that day!  He also explained that his oldest daughter, 22, asked him if I played the Hawaiian guitar, because she remembers as a child that she gave her heart to Jesus in a service where a man played the Hawaiian guitar.  "Delightful surprises!"

(Please know that you can enlarge the pictures if you wish by clicking on them.)

The Cascos (shown above) are a precious and dedicated family that took a tiny handful in a discouraged church that had suffered a serious blow and must have had at least 150 present on a Thursday night!  (pictured on right)

By the way, I am still playing your dad’s old 8 string lap steel.  I don’t play it well, but nobody has ever seen one except mine… so I am the “king”… ha.  I am still selling that CD that I recorded with my son, Tim's, background many years ago.  I also sell DVDs of Felipe and between the two of them they usually cover my diesel fuel costs… about $5 (US dollars) to the gallon.  Gasoline is higher still. 

Last night I drove across the beautiful new bridge over the Parana River, and 100 miles round trip on narrow roads crowded with literally scores of slow, loaded trucks, one behind another... to be in a house church meeting.  A young pastor couple is meeting with the owners of a humble house on a dirt street in an attempt to start a church.  They only started two months ago... and need all the encouragment they can get.

There were 11 of us in all, six men and four women and the pastor’s little son.  We have no Assembly of God church in Victoria, this city of 40,000.   I was impressed with the sharp, good looking, young men. 

Many churches start with only women it seems.  I gave them the works… played my Hawaiian guitar (which they marveled over), sang some songs with my accordion, and had my skunk, Perfume, and Felipe do their thing.  We worshipped, preached and prayed together and talked of many things.  It was a great informal time in the Lord. 

Pastors Rolando (with the Jesus shirt) and Vanesa Olveido need our prayers as they
attempt to start this new Assemblies of God church.

Ralph