My heart cried out for this whole family to truly know the Lord and become attached to a good church. But time was running out for me since I leave next Tuesday, March 5 for Argentina again. So after talking with Juan many times, I decided to invite them to dinner at a restaurant. But before I could get the words out of my mouth he invited me to meet with his family at a restaurant in Turlock! I called Pastor Javier Alfaro whose Spanish speaking church is in Delhi near where this family lives and he agreed to come to the restaurant to meet them. It was an encounter made in heaven. We discovered that the pastor's son who leads the worship in their church knows Juan's daughter, Karina, from school and had previously invited her to church, but as yet she had not gone. You have heard me say it before: "God was there and He never makes mistakes."
Rejoice with me! Tonight at the restaurant table this lovely family opened their hearts to Jesus and prayed with me asking the Lord Jesus to come into their lives!
Listen! Can you hear them? The angels in heaven are celebrating tonight! There are new names written down in the Book of Life and these my brothers and sisters have begun their journey toward eternity with Jesus. They will need encouragement and much prayer for their faith to be strengthened. The enemy of our souls will always try to derail us from the path. They have not been to church yet, but they have met their new pastor. Now I will have to step out of the picture and count on Jesus and God's people to "Feed His lambs".
I have fallen in love with this beautiful family and believe that what God has begun, He will bring to fruition. To the Philippians the Apostle Paul writes: I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Phil 1:3-6
